#Yes I am watching the backrooms stream

[thedo0zyslider]

hear me out here, team gigs horror movie au fic

[reticent-writer]

heyyy PLEASE I NEEDD Vox x teen! Reader. Where she’s like the Vee’s assistant, or Vox’s assistant or something like that and she sees Vox as a father figure? Tyy

I like this alot

✿✼:*ﾟ:.｡..｡.:*･ﾟﾟ･**･ﾟﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*ﾟ:*:✼✿　　

the most chaotic job in all of hell, like there is never a peaceful moment in the Vees tower. Someone is always yelling, something is always being broken, and you are in the middle of it. The peacemaker.

Your soul belongs to Vox but you assist all of the Vees. Your like 17/18. You were a hacker before you died, you hacked into the governments software and was killed for it.

You did the same thing to Vox but he didn't get mad instead he offered a secure home/job for your soul. (Seeing that everyone is dead that sounds silly but you shook his hand anyway)

If Vox isn't around to calm down Val and Velvette you're the next best thing. Valentino can talk your ears off as much as he wants and Velvette can use you as a model

In hell you can travel through electronics like Vox

Most of your time is spent with Velvette and Vox, mainly Vox. Vox has you do a lot of work that he trusts no one else with like going to the overlord meetings when no one else wants to

You are genuinely nice, like the other overlords wonder why you're working with the Vees

Your room doesn't have a door, so to get to your room you have to go through electronics to a backroom type of place. It's still in the Vees tower but no one but you or Vox and get to it.

Vox made it like this so if you wanted to be unbothered no one could even knock on your door.

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚-Vox-˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆

"Y/n are you awake."

You heard Vox from inside your room. You zapped you phone knowing that Vox you feel it. Basically saying you were getting up.

It took you 15 minutes to get ready before you teleported to the monitor room to find Vox watching random sinners on his big screen.

"I'm up, sir."

He dramatically spun his chair to face you.

"I hope it's been a hellish morning so far, what's on today's schedule."

You pulled out your phone and started to read off it, "the day doesn't start until 1 which is when the early talk show starts ot lasts until 3, at 5-7 is a game show, Velvette s show starts at 7, Valentino's live streaming a BDSM thing at 8, late night talk show at 10."

You looked at the time it was 8 am.

"Well since I'm free why don't we work on your mega computer." He offered. He likes how your face lit up and without wasting a second you dragged him to one of the quietest rooms in the building. In it was a desktop with a few wires connected to it.

Your mega computer was a project you started after you sold your soul. You hope it can connect to heaven one day and who is Vox to stop you.

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚-Velvette-˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆

You were in Fox's monitor room untangling cords.

"Y/N COME HERE." Velvette yelled at you through her phone.

You sighed as you stopped what you were doing and turn went through one of the many TVs.

"Yes, Vel." You smiled, clearly Vox was rubbing off on you.

"Something is missing with this outfit, tell me what it is." She pointed you in the direction of a mannequin with a outfit in your preferred style.

"(￣ヘ￣）ᵁᴹᴹ a (whatever you want)."

She hummed and with a snap of her fingers it appeared.

"Better right?"

"Yes."

"Good it's yours, take it" she snapped again and the outfit was in your hands, "no go put it on, I wanna see it."

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me, put it on."

-It looked amazing-

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚-Valentino-˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆

"Vox said your not aloud in the studio so the least your could do is read the script." He said as he handed you a think packed.

"Jailbird gets hard time" you read loud in disgust, "do you really think I should be reading this?"

He scoffed, "oh please it's not like I can't see your browser history. A03, wattpad, Quotev, fanfiction.net the list goes on."

You stared at him in disbelief.

"What... Aww is someone embarrassed." He squished your cheeks. Your face was beat red.

"Aw, Chiquita, I don't judge. You should see the more kinky scrips."

"Oh no thanks. I think I hear Vox calling me. Bye." You reached his pocket for his phone and with a poor you were gone.

After that you made it so no one could see any of your activity.

✿✼:*ﾟ:.｡..｡.:*･ﾟﾟ･**･ﾟﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*ﾟ:*:✼✿　　

A/n: I don't like Valentino. I love his voice tho

[nanamismoonchild]

pairing: tea shop owner! Yoongi x idk! reader

characters: reader, yoongi, ex-seokjin, jungkook

genre: fluffy fluff

warnings: none, if you don’t count the general cheesiness of it all :D

Summary: It’s one of the perfect days to run errands but those are soon forgotten when Yoongi needs help making orders for Valentine’s Day!

WC: 2.3k 

A/N: this was an attempt at practice world-building since i want to do fantasy fics,  and it is for the lovely @iridescentjin​, my secret love, for the secret admirers event. i hope you like and enjoy it, i tried to incorporate somethings I’ve seen on your blog that you like.  

Waking up to the soft cuddles of teddy bears would always be your favorite thing. No matter how old you got. You had so many, but they all had a special little place in your heart. To you, waking up with the soft bears meant that it was going to be good--no, it was going to be a great day. 

As you throw the blankets away and wiggle out of bed, you smile and stretch your still tired muscles.  Having showered the night before, you only have to freshen up a little before putting on your most comfortable walking clothes. It was your off day and you planned on getting everything on your to-do list done while the universe was gracing you with a good day.  Starting with a quick stop at the boba tea cafe at the end of your street. 

The drinks there were famous in your part of the district, leaving the other districts upset that they couldn't crossover to get a drink. That’s what they said anyway, but you knew they only wanted to meet the tea shop owner, Min Yoongi. The mysterious, timid man that always seemed to make your regular drink taste different each time.  You hoped today would be the day he allowed you to watch him make a couple of drinks.

Stepping out of the apartment with a pep in your step, you join two of the other tenants at the elevator doors. One of them who you despised. 

“Y/N! I see you’ve crawled out of bed like the spider thing you are.”

“Seokjin. Your insults are worsening by the day. Perhaps your old age is getting to you.”

Kim Seokjin was your ex-boyfriend. The relationship dwindled into nothing but the two of you becoming enemies. He was too selfish and you were too stubborn to realize it was happening. So here you were--throwing petty jabs at one another to hide your pining. 

At least that’s what you called it. 

“Ah, how you wound me.” 

The elevator doors opened and the three of you stepped in. The other person made it a point to stand as far from the two of you as possible. 

“Where are you heading off to? You’re never up this early on a weekend.”

“I decided to get some errands done today and I read that it’s best to get it done early. How about you?”

“Ah, the 2nd district is having a problem with their taxi systems. The taxis are taking them into different districts. Highly illegal, and I have to fix it.”

There were twenty districts in all, and it was illegal for any of them to cross-over without proper paper works.  Population control was an all-important cause in the day and age. The 2nd district was the largest of the districts and if any of them were passing over, it would cause a commotion.  Most jobs in your district didn’t require the need to travel to the other districts, but Seokjin had been chosen to be a system repairman. He had wanted to be an actor and model. Alas, the system found that his skills would be more reliable in repairs, and it paid well above what you were making too. 

“Good luck. I heard the 2nd district has the worst hospitality.”

“With this face, the meanest person would show me grand hospitality.”

The elevator dinged as it opened the doors. Rolling your eyes at his vain statement, you step out of the elevator and breathe in the morning dew air.  It was the perfect day to walk through the district.

Blue skies, fluffy clouds, and the smell of pastries wafting in the air. Your stomach growled, making you practically run to the tea shop. 

The bell alerted Yoongi to another customer’s presence. It was the day before Valentine’s Day, and the orders were gradually becoming more than he could handle alone. Thankfully, his cousin Jungkook had managed to find a break between streaming and could help later. Yoongi only had to survive for three more hours---if he didn’t start crying before then. 

Usually, he could handle three hundred orders a day, but people from the other districts had somehow found out about his shop and were requesting deliveries. He didn’t even know how they expected him to do that! There was no way he could get a license to deliver in a mere day.  

Suppressing a groan, he made his way into the dining room. It was empty except for the few customers who were waiting for their daily boba.  And you. 

Yoongi enjoyed your company, and would normally have your drink prepared and ready.  However, today was different and he didn’t think he would be able to do it.  

“Y/N! Happy to see you.”

“Yoongi! I’m happy to see you as well. Busy?”

“Actually, yes. I have about five hundred orders to do before closing. Everyone decided to order last minute. Completely unexpected,” Yoongi sighed, the exasperation beginning to show on his face. 

Yoongi watched as you put your bag in a nearby chair and glanced at him. “How many have you done so far?”  

“Pfft, so far, I would say one hundred. Had to come at three am to get started.”

Watching as you teetered on your legs in deep thought, Yoongi began to draw himself back into the kitchen. He couldn’t waste time talking--or flirting-- with you as much as he would like.  

“What if I helped?”

Yoongi spun around almost losing his footing. You had been so quiet asking that he almost hadn’t heard you. But he did. 

“I would love that, but I have a friend coming in a couple of hours. I think I’ll be able to manage in the meantime.”

“Yoongi, it’s almost ten in the morning. You’ve only made one hundred drinks in seven hours. I’m helping you. Give me an apron and recipes and I’ll do my best.”

Yoongi muttered under his breath, something about calling him out, and went into his back room to fetch an apron for you. He knew he needed your help, but your presence could possibly distract him. He’d had a crush on you since the first time he opened. You had been new to boba and had no idea what to get and after a moment of getting to know a few of your likes and dislikes, he had made a drink he thought was perfect. It was now your usual, and he took deep pride in it. 

“Under district law, I’m going to have to pay you.”

“Sweet. Let’s get started.”

 Yoongi already had the ingredients laid out in the kitchen. All you had to do was follow the recipes he had written in his book. There were no measurements. 

Tutting, you resist fretting at the lack of teaspoons and cups in the recipe book and mime Yoongi.  It wasn’t as easy as you’d thought it would be. The brown-haired man made it a point to throw in tiny bits or large bits of the ingredients. 

By the time he had made it through three, you had only just begun to finish one drink.  Maybe this wasn’t the best idea. 

“Alright, this isn’t the most efficient thing to do. I suck at making these. Is there anything else I could do?” You turned towards the man, huffing a little from your frustration.

Yoongi did the same, mimicking your huff as well. 

“If you have a car and a license to go to the other districts, then yes. But otherwise, no.”

“You need deliveries done?”

Yoongi nodded as he finished off another drink and placed it into a drink carrier that was already filled with three other drinks. 

“I honestly don’t even know why I confirmed all of these. Well, I thought the addresses were from this district until I looked at a map,” he paused, “after I confirmed them.”

You couldn’t help the giggle that escaped. The poor man had doomed himself by accident.  

“You’re lucky I have both. I can definitely do everything that needs to be.”

He smiled at you, a full-on gummy smile that made your cheeks heat. 

“I could never thank you enough.”

“I mean,” you roll eyes nonchalantly, “You could give me free bobas from now on. Just a thought.”

“I can make that happen,” he giggled.  

 By the time, Jungkook had come in to help, you had already delivered most of the orders that Yoongi had finished. Most of them were in the second district and the traffic there was atrocious. Seokjin was already finished with the taxi system update and everyone was running to prepare last-minute Valentine’s outings.  You had seen a couple of men running out of the superstore with giant teddy bears during one delivery. 

It made you a little jealous if you were honest. You were as single as a pringle--thanks to Seokjin breaking up with you only two years ago. No one had really been interested enough to date, and none of them had been intimate enough to have more than a one-night stand. 

No one besides Yoongi, but he had never shown interest in you, and your lack of flirtation to him obviously didn’t help. Yoongi was everything you wanted. 

His physique showed that he was a strong man, probably from carrying huge baskets of strawberries to and from his kitchen.  His eyes were dark brown, and every time he would make eye contact, you would melt. And his smile--when he truly smiled and not one of the timid ones he would give other customers-- could always brighten your day. 

However, he was only a dream. The man was married to his shop and craft. 

Opening the door to the shop, you can see Jungkook, a friend of Yoongi’s, jamming to something that was playing in his headphones. He didn’t pay attention to you coming in. 

Yoongi was nowhere to be seen. You hoped he was taking a break. 

“Jungkook!” Nothing. You walked in front of him and waved in front of his face. “Jungkook!”

He practically threw off his headphones, his doe eyes bulging. “Oh. Hi! Y/N! You’re back already.”

“Yeah. A bunch of the houses was close together. I’m assuming they all recommended the tea shop to each other.”

“It is the best in all of the districts,” he bragged. 

“True. Where’s Yoongi?”

“I think he went to go and get some rest in the backroom. We’re actually almost done. I think we have about one hundred more to go.”

“Wow, seriously?”

“Yeup!”He popped the “p” at the end.  “A bunch of the orders cancelled for some reason. Shame. Or not shame, but that would’ve been really good money for Yoongi.”

“It would’ve. I wonder what happened.”

“Break-ups. Got something else. Couldn’t afford it...Who knows?” He put his headphones back on and started playing his music again, signaling the end of the conversation. 

You left Jungkook to his music and went to seek out Yoongi.  He was slumped over his laptop desk, a light snore coming from him.  You almost didn’t want to wake him. He was the most relaxed you’d seen him all day, and he couldn’t have gotten a ton of sleep since he had to wake up earlier than usual.  It was by pure chance that nearly three hundred orders had cancelled.  You knew it had been good for business, and the people who cancelled could go to hell, but you were thankful for the chance to watch Yoongi nap. As weird as it sounded. 

“Y/N?”

Jumping out of your thoughts, you see that Yoongi had woken up from his catnap and was standing up.

Your cheeks warmed and you looked away in embarrassment.  “Oh, um, hi. Uh, I just got back from the delivery, and Jungkook told me I could find you in here, but you were napping and I was going to walk out, but I kind of zoned out, and uh, yeah.” The rambling stutter came out too quickly and you were unsure if Yoongi had even understood you. 

He smiled. The gummy smile and a rosy blush was creeping into his cheeks. 

“Y/N, you’re cute.”

“Cute?”

“Yes, cute. I was actually working on something back here before I fell asleep so I’m happy you came in.”      

Peering at him in curiosity, you gasp when he takes your hand and leads you further into the room where a heart-shaped cake and your favorite tea sat on a table decorated in a red tablecloth. 

Turning to look at Yoongi, eyes wide in surprise, you see he has the biggest smile on his face, but his eyes were filled with nervousness.

“I know it’s a whole day before Valentine’s, but I’m going to be swamped tomorrow with orders from couples who want to spend their day out and about.  

“I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now--ever since you came tumbling into the tea shop. You were so pretty with your naivety of bobas. It was such an honor to me to get to know you and make a tea special for you and only you. I don’t do that for a lot of customers. And that’s the thing. You were never a customer to me, but someone I wanted to get to know further. Of course, I was a chicken and didn’t ask you out then. 

“So I’d thought I’d do it now. Especially after you helped me get rid of a ton of stress.  I had Jungkook bake the cake while you were gone. But I made the tea as usual because I want to be your usual. Will you allow me to take you on a date?“ 

Grinning at the cheesy line, you take in his words. They were corny, but they melted your heart all the same.  It was almost a marriage proposal, and, honestly, you wouldn’t have minded if he had asked.

Your answer would’ve been the same because your feelings for him were steady.  

With all the elation and exultation you could muster, you answer, “Yes.”

[allthingsfangirl101]

Much Needed Interference–Zac Efron

Request by @joyfullyswimmingface​

Zac's POV

I walked in, exhausted after a long day of filming and re-filming. All I wanted to do was grab a beer, sit down, and watch a game.

"You're home."

I turned around to see Y/N smiling at me. I walked over and pressed a soft kiss on her lips.

"Hey, babe," I smiled down at her. I gave her another kiss before pulling away and heading to the fridge.

With a beer in hand, I turned around and saw Y/N leaning against the kitchen island, her arms crossed over her chest.

"What?" I asked as I opened it.

"Zac," she pointed at the beer and sighed. "We have dinner reservations in twenty minutes. You should go shower and change."

"Dinner reservations," I scoffed. "For what?"

The second I said those words, Y/N's face dropped. She opened and closed her mouth, hesitating to say something as her eyes filled with tears.

"Babe," I sighed as I put my beer on the counter and walked over to her. She instantly stepped away from me.

"You really don't remember why we have reservations tonight?" She asked, her voice soft.

"I don't know, babe," I sighed. "It's been a long week and I just. . ."

"It's our five-year anniversary dinner," she cut me off.

I felt my stomach drop as the tears started to stream down Y/N's face. I tried to take a step towards her, but she instantly took a step back.

"You forgot," she whispered, her arms wrapped around herself and her eyes looking anywhere but at me.

"Y/N," I whispered, her name weakly leaving my lips. "I didn't mean. . ."

"You never mean to," she sighed. "But you always do."

"I always what?" I stuttered. She finally looked at me, nothing but disappointment in her eyes.

"You always put your work first."

"So?" I scoffed. Even though I knew the words I was saying were wrong and too far, I said them anyway. "This is my job, Y/N. We both knew that this would be time-consuming and we would spend days apart but. . ."

"Days, Zac. Weeks. Maybe a few months. But in this past year, I can count on one hand how many times I've seen you. And even less of how many days you actually were here before you shipped off somewhere else. More often than not, without telling me where you were going."

"Why does it matter?" I asked, throwing my hands up in frustration. "You really need to know where I am all the time?"

"Not all the time," she stuttered. "It would just be nice to know. I mean, sometimes I go months without hearing from you. Do you know how hard that is for me? How scary it is? I have no idea where you are, what you're doing, or if you doing anything dangerous. All this not knowing is starting to get to me."

"Wait," I said, the anger leaving me. "It's starting to get to you? Y/N. . . What are you saying?"

"I'm saying," Y/N sighed, her voice breaking. "I love you, Zac, but. . ." She shook her head as she took another step away from me.

"But what?"

When she looked up at me the tears were gone but something else was replacing them.

"I think you love your work more."

                       * * * * *

When Y/N left the apartment, I knew I should've gone after her but I didn't. Instead, I called my brother to see if he wanted to come over for a drink. The second he walked in, he asked the question I didn't really want to answer.

"Where's Y/N? She still at work?"

"No," I said, clearing my throat. Dylan looked at me skeptically before folding his arms across his chest.

"Zac," he said my name, disappointment dripping from his voice. "Isn't today your. . ."

"Yes," I interrupted him, angrily slamming my beer on the counter. "It's our five year anniversary. We were supposed to go to dinner, but I forgot. She got angry and left."

The look on his face made me stop talking. "I don't blame her, man," he sighed. "You say you love Y/N."

"I do," I stuttered, not sure where he was going with this.

"But you have kind of neglected her," he said slowly.

"What?" I scoffed, trying to act like it wasn't true. But deep down, I knew he was right.

"Over the last year, your career has taken off. Which is great, but because of that, Y/N has become a second thought."

"I didn't mean. . ." I stuttered.

"I know you didn't mean to push her aside," he sighed. "But you did. Y/N put up with it for a long time because you were always there for the important stuff."

"Until today," I mumbled, running my fingers through my hair. "Shit."

I looked up when I saw him holding my phone out for me.

"Call her."

I didn't hesitate to grab my phone. I walked into the other room as I clicked on her contact. I held my breath as I waited for her to pick up. The longer it took for her to answer, the lower my stomach dropped.

I tried to call her a few more times, but she let each call go to voicemail. I can't say I didn't get why she was ignoring me, but the more she didn't answer the phone, the more nervous I got.

"So?" Dylan asked when I walked back into the kitchen. His hopeful smile fell when he saw the defeated look on mine. "What happened?"

"She didn't answer."

Dylan sighed as he walked over to me. "I'm sorry. Maybe she went to a movie or something. Did you call her more than once?"

"Of course I called her more than once, Dylan," I sighed. "She doesn't want to talk to me."

"Well, you have to get her to answer or at least leave a message for her to see."

"How?" I scoffed at my overly positive brother.

"Text her, wait for her, call her until she answers. I don't know, man, but if you truly love her then you have to do something about it."

                       * * * * *

I spent the rest of the night, trying to get ahold of Y/N. I finally fell asleep around 2 a.m. after still no word from her. When I woke up the next morning, I felt worse than I did after Y/N left the apartment. I grudgingly got up and went to the kitchen to make me a cup of coffee. The apartment oddly feeling empty without her.

I went back into our room and grabbed my phone. My heart dropped when I saw that there were no messages, no missed calls, and no voicemails. Without hesitation, I instantly tried calling her again. I sat down defeated when it went straight to voicemail.

"Hey, Y/N," I said, my voice shaky. "It's umm. . . It's me, baby. Look, I understand why you aren't answering your phone. You don't have to talk to me, baby, but at least. . . Can you. . . Please just let me know you're okay. I've been losing my mind since you left the apartment and I. . ."

I took a shaky breath as the image of Y/N's heartbroken face appeared in my head–the same one that made it hard to sleep last night.

"Y/N," I said, my voice breaking. "I am so sorry, baby. I've been so focused on work that I let the most important thing in my life take second–you. I promise, if you come back home I will never make you feel like that again. Y/N, please. Come home or. . . Just let me know that you're okay."

I hesitated before adding, "I love you, Y/N. And I'm so sorry."

I hung up the phone, a single tear streaming down my cheek. I sighed when I saw the time.

I went throughout the rest of the day, nothing on my mind but Y/N. At lunch, Dylan showed up at my trailer.

"You look like shit."

"Thanks," I sighed. "I'm well aware of that."

"I'm guessing Y/N still hasn't called you back?"

"Believe me," I scoffed, "if she had, I wouldn't feel like a complete asshole. . . Well, not as much of one."

"I know where she is," he said quietly. I jumped up, my heart in my throat.

"Where?"

"After I left yesterday, I reached out to a few of Y/N's friends. It turns out that after your fight yesterday, Y/N went to Y/B/F/N's house."

"Of course," I said under my breath. "Of course she went to Y/B/F/N. Why didn't I think of that?"

I was about to leave my trailer when he stopped me. "Hold on. I called Y/B/F/N and she let me talk to Y/N." I held my breath as my brother hesitated. "She was really hurt, Zac. Apparently, she's been feeling like second-best for a few months now. She didn't say when it started, but Y/N felt like walking away from your fight was the best thing to do to avoid breaking up. She still loves you, Zac. But she doesn't deserve how you've been treating her."

"You're right," I said under my breath as I sat back down. I ran my fingers through my hair, my whole body shaking. "I have to do something. I have to fix this."

"Well then," he said, clearing his throat. "What do you want to do?"

"I will do anything to fix this."

                       * * * * *

Dylan and I came up with a plan. We reached out to Y/N's friends for help. They were gonna take Y/N out for a "Girl's Night Out". They were gonna get dressed up, get their hair and nails done, and then go to dinner. But when they get to the restaurant, I would be waiting for her.

"You do know this is kind of an intervention," Dylan laughed. "Forcing you two to talk it out in a room."

"I know," I sighed. "But there's nothing else I can do. She's been ignoring my calls and my texts for three days now. This is the only way I can get her to talk to me."

We both jumped when his phone dinged. I looked over and watched as he grabbed it and read the message.

"Y/B/F/N just texted me. They are five minutes away." He looked up at me and sent me a reassuring smile. "This is going to work, Zac. Once the two of you sit down and talk things through, everything will work itself out."

"I hope you're right," I sighed, a small chuckle leaving my lips.

"Good luck."

He sent me a wink before quickly leaving the restaurant. I nervously paced, my hands shaking as I waited for Y/N and her friends. My breath got caught in my throat when I heard their laughter.

Y/N froze when she walked into the backroom to see me standing there. She looked at her friends before looking back at me.

"Zac," she said my name under her breath. "What are you. . . What are you doing here? What's going on?"

"What's going on is we are forcing you to talk to him," Y/B/F/N said. Y/N sighed as her best friend continued. "Look, Y/N, you've been ignoring his calls since you left your apartment. We all know you still love him so talk to him. For you and for him."

With that, the girls turned on their heels and left the two of us. I held my breath as Y/N slowly turned back towards me.

"Hi," I smiled as I nervously scratched the back of my neck. She folded her arms across her chest as she looked around the room. I walked towards her, making her look at me when I was right in front of her.

I reached up and gently tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, my hand lingering on her cheek. My heart sank when she pulled away, walking past me.

"Y/N," I said, my voice getting caught in my throat. Y/N froze when I said her name. "I'm so sorry, baby. I let my career come between us. I made you feel like you weren't the most important thing in my life, but you are. You are, baby."

I walked over to her and gently turned her around. I grabbed her hands, instantly intertwining our fingers.

"I love you, Y/N. If you come home, I promise I'll never make you feel like this again. I'll never forget our anniversary or anything else important to you. I will never make you feel like my job is more important than you are to me, Y/N."

I took a shaky breath, my words getting caught in my throat. My voice was barely above a whisper as I let out one last plead. "Please, baby, come home."

Y/N had tears in her eyes as I begged her. She let go of my hands and reached up to cup my face. I felt my heart jump into my throat as she smiled. I held my breath as she let out a soft laugh.

With tears streaming down her cheeks, she stood up and pressed her lips to mine. I instantly wrapped my arms tightly around her waist as our lips moved in sync.

We pulled apart and she leaned her forehead against mine. "I'm so sorry, Y/N. I should've paid more attention to you. But if you come home with me, I promise I'll be better."

Y/N leaned back, tears streaming down her smiling face. "Please," I begged her. "I need you, Y/N. Please? Will you come home with me?"

I held my breath as I waited for her to answer. I felt my nerves relax a little when she smiled.

"Not yet," she said gently.

"Y/N," I stuttered.

She giggled, cutting me off. "Not until after we have diner."

I laughed as I pulled her back into my chest and instantly pressed my lips to hers.

"Well then," I smirked as I broke the kiss. "Let's order."

I grabbed her hand and led her over to the table I had the hostess set up for us. I pulled the chair out for Y/N, smiling as I leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to the nape of her neck. I sat down across from her, unable to wipe the smile from my face.

She looked down, nervously chewing on her bottom lip. "What's wrong?" I asked gently.

She looked up at me, guilt in her eyes. "I'm sorry for leaving the other day," she sighed. "I was just. . . I didn't. . ."

I reached across the table and grabbed her hand. "It's okay," I whispered. "I don't blame you for leaving, babe. I promise I will never put you in a situation again where you feel you need to leave. I love you, Y/N."

"I love you too, Zac."

[loquaciousquark]

Cut for talk of COVID and irresponsible failure to social distance (my own). Also, some updates on what’s been going on here for the last month or so.

part one:

Very very long story that I am truncating as much as possible. As you all know, I am an optometrist and professor. When we shut down in March, our university made a huge, painful shift to remote learning and our student clinic ceased operations altogether. Neither students nor faculty saw patients from March 15 - the the middle of May. At the end of May, faculty began seeing patients directly in an extremely reduced schedule, and at the beginning of June, we began adding in very limited numbers of students in a rolling schedule that minimized exposure to all involved.

Three weeks ago, my dear friend Jasper contacted me and said that an old friend of hers, whom I will call Carol, was in dire straits after losing her job overseas. Carol has an extremely rocky history: a terrible car accident that left her legs and feet permanently damaged which directly led to a very bad divorce, significant student loan debt (just shy of six digits I think, compounded from the accident, since she used her student loans to pay her medical bills--for anyone reading this, do not EVER EVER EVER DO THIS--student loans are never touched by bankruptcy declarations and you will owe them until you die), and something of an inability to put down roots. She is an English teacher who has taught and traveled all over the world: Prague, Bahrain, Czech Republic, Los Angeles, Rio, etc.

When I first met her about ten years ago, she had come back to Alabama from Prague because a job had fallen through. She was completely broke and living out of two suitcases and a carry-on. She lived with us for three months for free, sleeping in Jasper’s bed because we had no other room for her, and eventually got a job in Boston and moved on. She lasted--I think--about two months in Boston before quitting and taking a job in the Middle East.

On top of her student loan debt, Carol also has significant IRS debt and is in debt to several of her friends. Over the last few years, she took several ill-advised positions overseas back to back without ever consulting a lawyer on her contracts, and did not realize until recently that one of her positions classified her as an independent contractor instead of an employee, so she owed US taxes on all her income for that period of time. Her most recent job in Prague she lost in February because she filed her visa (again, without a lawyer) incorrectly, and what should have been a brief three-week stay outside of the country became a six week stay on the couch of strangers in the Czech Republic while she waited for her visa reapplication to process. However, it was denied, and then COVID hit, and she returned to Alabama with only a portion of her possessions and tons of important paperwork left behind in her Prague apartment. She then unfortunately had two emergency surgeries on her stomach for an acute, unpredictable medical issue, and while she is well healing now, it also added on another forty thousand dollars of medical debt to what she already owed.

She stayed with her mother and sister while she was recovering from the emergency surgeries, but her family is emotionally abusive and very unkind to her, and after a few weeks she left their home and went to stay with Jasper. However, Jasper is also 8 months pregnant with her fourth child, and they both knew it was a temporary thing. Jasper knows that I have a large home with several spare bedrooms, and asked if I would be willing to host Carol for a period of time while she got back on her feet. I knew what I was agreeing to when I said yes, and Carol and I settled on a period of two months. She has now been here almost three weeks.

Frankly, I do not like Carol very much. We are unbelievably different people in every way--personality, temperament, proclivity to crying in front of other people, hobbies, interests, religion, all of it. She is a very nice person, and I think she truly does mean well. But she is the most emotionally needy and energy-sapping person I have ever met, and I cannot tolerate her company in more than small chunks. It is not possible to hold a conversation with her about any subject tangentially related to her difficulties; if I try to sympathize with her loans by mentioning my own, she shuts me down by saying at least I will have the chance to ever pay them back. If I just try to listen without commentary, she’ll wrap herself up in her own stories and talk for hours without ever needing more than “mm”s and “hm”s and my undivided attention the entire time.

She will often work herself up into sobbing tears over her situation(s), and she always informs me immediately of any new development in any of her numerous trials: which are usually negative, considering the situation, and usually resulting in more tears. She has cried on me probably more than a dozen times since she moved in, and she wields “I love you” like a weapon, more to hear the validation of the response than to truly express the sentiment. She constantly asks for advice on her situation but does not listen to any of it--seems more to just want to relive each tragic detail of her life over and over again with an audience, wondering why she’s continually “screwed over in her life.” (Really, really poor financial decisions and constantly trusting her own “intuition” over getting competent legal advice before signing contracts, are I think the biggest contributors.) She has told me so many private details about her personal views, relationships with her ex-husband and mother and sister, her financial choices, and her extensive travel and job history over the last few years that I probably know her history better than my own at this point.

I think she thinks by sharing so much that she is justifying to me her need to stay with me. What is actually happening is that I am forced to help shoulder this enormous emotional load that compounds my own mental health problems I’ve been having since all this started. I have told her more than once that she does not need to justify herself to me and that my home is open to her for two months, no strings attached. I believe she is making all the steps she needs to and do not need reports on her daily activities to “pay” for her lodging or electricity or internet or whatever. This has changed the behavior a little for the better but not stopped it.

There are moments that are not bad. As I have mentioned, she does mean well and want well for most people. She likes Hamlet and loves Jasper, who is extremely important to me. But she is extremely difficult to be around in so many other ways, and the way she constantly exclaims over how we basically think alike on all things (absolutely untrue) makes me think she either will not or cannot read my reluctance to engage on any of these topics.

(An example: I was watching footage of the SpaceX launch and despite my feelings on Elon Musk, really excited about the implications for space travel. She came in, and after misunderstanding for some time that I was not watching Space Force with Steve Carell, decided that the SpaceX program was morally bankrupt, obviously borne of shady backroom government deals, and everyone involved should have used the money to solve world hunger instead. For the record, she had not heard of the shuttle launch, SpaceX, or Elon Musk at all before the seeing the footage.)

(She also until last week had not heard of Playstation, Xbox, streaming as a concept, or any game more modern than the original Mario. Trying to order a grocery delivery online was an excruciating torment for her [took her over four days to get through selecting the items, selecting allowable replacements, and actually paying] and I will not ask her to do it again. She frequently makes comments about video games being a waste of time, and when she sees children playing outside, comments on how glad she is they are not inside playing video games. She doesn’t seem to realize her comments are a direct commentary on me; I think she genuinely does not understand that those games are what I am playing most of my free time.)

Right now, everything seems to hinge on her passing some teacher recertification tests next week and the week after. She spent $150 to give herself less than a week to study from scratch for a test she described as the hardest she’d ever taken. There were several other dates later in the summer she could have chosen, and her deadline is December, but she picked the soonest option for reasons I can’t fathom. She is also in the process of trying to get a car--right now I’m driving her everywhere--and she was ready to hand over $3800 yesterday for a ten-year-old Hyundai with a check-engine light on without even thinking of getting any kind of inspection. She is far more concerned with the color and “energy” of the car than its function, and would not have even checked the headlights and blinkers if I hadn’t prompted it.

She will be here another five weeks or so. We move around each other now better than we did before, and I hope it will continue to improve. But it’s a lot like a rock grinding a groove in the streambed from the repetitive friction, and it’s not the struggle I wanted to be having right now.

part two:

As I mentioned above, Jasper is having her fourth child in a month or so. One of her friends, someone I don’t know, contacted me and said she wanted to do a drive-by “baby sprinkle,” where no one gets out of their cars. You drop off the gifts, talk to the recipient a few minutes from the car window, and move on. I told her that I work in health care and am exposed to patients, so that sounded good to me.

The shower was this morning. Carol and I got up and drove the thirty minutes to Jasper’s house. There were four other families in cars right around the corner, and the “hostess” gave us all balloons to tie on our side mirrors. She told us we would drive around the corner, drop off the gifts, and loop around. Jasper’s husband would arrange for her to be in the front yard at the right time.

Cute enough. We go around the corner with little honks and Jasper sees us and starts crying, and it’s all wonderful and emotional and a fabulous surprise and I’m genuinely excited about it. And then people start parking and getting out of their cars, and Carol and I start looking at each other. They’re full families, too--three of the other moms brought all their kids, and soon enough they’re playing with Jasper’s three boys in the front yard and coming up asking to pet Hamlet through the car window. No one was wearing masks.

And what’s worse, when they all started looking at us expectantly through the car window, we didn’t know what to do. They were handing Jasper her gifts and obviously settling in for a good long chat; the women were hugging, talking about how they are “so over this COVID stuff, please come visit soon,” and Hamlet of course recognizes his original owners in Jasper and her husband so he’s freaking out, and after a few moments, we decided to just get out of the car.

It was the first time I really felt the social pressure to participate in an event I wasn’t comfortable with. I have no issue maintaining my social distance and my mask and my handwashing at work because that is where I have the position of authority, and I have the responsibility to model it for the students and patients--but here, I was a guest at someone else’s house at someone else’s event, and I really, really felt how they might perceive me as rude. While I didn’t know the other women, my relationship with Jasper is extremely important to me, and I didn’t want to make this special event for her difficult in any way.

So we got out of the car and joined the group. I tried to keep my distance as much as possible, especially since I had Hamlet on the leash and there were a half-dozen small children around, but at least twice I looked up and there was someone right at my elbow, and we made small talk for five minutes or so before either she drifted back to the group or I moved Hamlet into the shade away from the rest.

Cars drove by and slowed down more than once to look at us. Jasper’s husband made a comment about rolling his eyes if he saw their family on Facebook that evening. The women planned play dates, all standing very close together, and Jasper opened her gifts (that part was excellent). All in all we were probably there about twenty minutes. 

I should mention that on the drive there, we passed a public park that has a very pretty waterfall right next to the road, and there were probably a dozen families out playing. There was a festival/outdoor market right outside the the park that had a sign up about social distancing, but the fifty or so people we saw shopping there were not adhering in any meaningful way. No one wore a mask.

And what annoys the bejeezus out of me is that I didn’t either. I didn’t even think about it until after we finally got back in the car to drive away. This is the first social event I’ve gone to since the first week of March, and while I wear masks for eight+ hours every day I go in to work, it didn’t occur to me even a single time to put on even my little cloth one that I keep in the car until we were driving away afterwards. I was so flummoxed by every little thing happening differently than I expected--people getting out of cars, how surprised I was by my own susceptibility to not rocking the boat, how normal everyone else made it to stand so close they could bump elbows so that Carol and I became almost excluded from the circle--that it never once crossed my mind. I know masks are more for the protection of those around you, not to keep you from catching what other people are carrying, but I could have set an example. I could have been the health professional I should have been in the moment.

I’m just so disappointed in myself. Disappointed in my own carelessness, irritated that I didn’t say anything, continually frustrated in a deep, gut-wrenching way by the whole situation that requires this in the first place. Bewildered that so many people are “back to normal” while this thing is still spreading, and in brutal honesty wishing I could be like them and just give up the fight myself. I’m not even mad at them. I WANT TO BE THEM. Why am I continually bothering to care and sanitize and mask and stay at home when no one else is? Literally no one would judge me in this state for it more than I’m already being judged (in most cases impersonally, though I felt the potential for it today in specific) for still watching the recommended guidelines.

I am really, really sick of this. I am so sick of feeling alone in this (of being alone in this, and Carol doesn’t count). Hearing other people saying “there there, you’re doing the right thing” honestly makes it even worse. I want people to stop patronizingly telling me to do things I already know are the right thing to do. I want other people as mad as I am that I can’t do the things I want to and need to do instead of being endlessly patient and noble about all the lives they’re saving by staying home. I’m top-of-my-head-blowing-off furious that so many people are shrugging and saying “well this is just the way it will be forever and alas, so it goes” and acting like those of us who did the right thing and cancelled our plans and our trips and our visits to dear friends but who are mad about having to do it are overreacting. I’m so fucking mad about it. I’ve stayed home for two months and I’ve isolated and I’ve quarantined and my hands are cracking from the constant sanitizer/washing at work and except for today I’ve done everything I’m supposed to do for this, and I don’t want to do it. And seeing people be so heroically virtuous and longsuffering on Facebook feels as alien and upsetting to me as the people who go to the beaches with a hundred of their closest friends.

That’s probably unfair in myriad ways. I’m really too angry, including at myelf, to soften it right now.

I want a vaccine and I want to be back in my classroom teaching to fifty faces instead of a screen in my living room, and I’m honestly freaking sick of waiting at home for them to figure this out. And watching everyone else move on with their lives back to the normal I would kill to have is just one more crack in the dike.

[chefdanielkarofsky]

And I Saw the Face of God || Justin & Brian

Justin had gotten the double take from the doorman at Babylon when he looked at his ID. He knew why. He looked like he was seventeen and his driver’s license said twenty-five. It assumed him to think that his real age would shock the man considering he was one hundred and ten years old. Yes, Justin was a vampire. 

But he wasn’t the monster that you’ve watched in horror movies nor was he dead or undead. He was descended from Atlantis. One of his ancestors had gotten cancer or had a horrible accident and the cure in that culture was an injection of nanos; a medical engineered cure all that would enter the blood stream and repair the damage done to the body. What scientists didn’t realize that everything the body went through, sun exposure, contaminated water, food or air, and simple aging caused body breakdown. So instead of the nanos dying off once the cancer was gone or injures were repaired, they continued to repair the body. 

Back in the day all vamps survived off of blood straight off the hoof because the nanos required extra blood and would cause severe cramps if the didn’t get it. However fifty years ago the president of the North American Vampire Society, his great-grandfather, ruled that everyone except a few vamps who had an enzyme deficiency that meant they had to live off fresh blood, would live off bagged blood unless it was an emergency. Also back then they limited how often they went out during daytime and rarely ate food because the more damage done the more they had to hunt and the more dangerous it became that they would be discovered. Justin was one of those odd few who still had to hunt because he needed more enzymes than bagged blood provided along with several of his cousins including Blake who was with him that night. 

Once inside he looked around the gay men’s club and immediately was drawn to a tall brunette standing at the bar. He walked over intending to lead him to the backroom, feed from him and replace his and everyone else’s memory with a memory of him going down on him. However when he tried to control him he couldn’t. He tried again and still got a blank. His eyes then widened. The only time a vampire couldn’t read a human was if they were their mate, their soulmate, the one person they would never be able to control or read. 

Next thing he knew he was right in front of him. “Hi! I am Justin Taylor. Um...... would you like to dance with me?”, he asked nervously. He hoped deep down that he would like him and want to be with him. 

@itsmrkinney          

[streetlampsunset]

Coffee (With The Right Amount of Sugar) How You Like It

Ao3

It took him an embarrassingly long time to notice, but David was pretty sure Patrick was a witch. In a building this old there should have been a draft, but there wasn’t anything more than a light breeze accompanying the chime of the bell. 

No matter how preoccupied he got dealing with customers, David’s coffee never grew cold after Patrick brought their drinks back from the cafe. Most importantly, his selfies were always perfectly lit behind the cash, despite the fact that the stark white should have completely washed out his complexion. It was the bulbs Patrick had wired there that made him come to the realization. 

“David?” Ronnie called. She was installing shelving in the backroom now that they had the money to splurge on a few things. David was perfectly content to continue stacking their paperwork along the wall, but Patrick had wanted a more visible filing system from day one. 

“Hum?” he asked, glancing up from his phone.

“This wiring is a safety hazard,” she said, peering into the wall. “To be honest, I’m surprised they’re even running.” David shrugged, Patrick was good at fixing things. “Can you get the other bulb there?” she asked, gesturing with the end of her level. 

David reached up to unscrew the light, a familiar current rushing through his fingertips. It felt like cocoa powder on his tongue, warm air curling over his skin, the sun catching the angle of his jaw just right. There was a steady thrum of energy keeping the bulbs running, but it wasn’t electricity. It was magic. He had thought the store felt like home from the start. He hadn’t realized Patrick was a witch too.

“Are you spying on Ted again?” David asked, leaning over Alexis’ shoulder. He had come out of the bathroom to find her sitting on her bed. Supposedly, she was doing her makeup, but she hadn’t moved for nearly three minutes. 

“Oh my god, personal space, David,” Alexis said, snapping her compact shut. The last time she had been scrying something that intently, it had been a followup to the bunny webcam incident. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m checking on the animals,” Alexis said, “Twyla found two baby kittens in the dumpster behind the cafe and they have to sit in these sad little cages all day waiting for someone to buy them.”

“Mmhm, and you just happened to check up on them when you knew Ted would be getting back from his run?” He asked, moving to his closet.

“Okay, it’s not my fault if that’s when I have time,” Alexis said, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “I have a very full schedule today.” David snorted.

He flicked through his sweaters, “Did you know Patrick has magic?”

“Um, yes, obviously, David,” Alexis said without glancing up from her phone.

“Uh, excuse you,” David said, holding up a Rick Owens for consideration, before deciding against it. “What do you mean, obviously?” 

“We talk witchy things literally all the time,” Alexis said. She waved her hand in his direction, “He uses little hedge spells to keep your clothes from getting all wrinkly and your hair from looking sad.” Alexis tilted her head and scrunched up her nose. “You can’t feel them?”

David slid on a Gavinchey piece and bent down to tie his high-tops. When he stood up, Alexis was about two inches from his face. 

“Um, now who doesn’t understand personal space?” David asked, rearing back as she slid her fingers along his hairline.

“Shush, David,” Alexis said, going almost cross eyed as she focused on a spot near his temple, “and hold still.” 

The Roses didn’t practice witchcraft so much as they lived it. Their mother’s idea of a magical education had been warning him to keep Alexis out of faerie circles while they explored the grounds, lest they bring malevolent energies into her homestead. It had been up to them to study what they found relevant to their craft. As a result, Alexis was unusually good at picking apart the intention behind a casting. She slid her thumbs across his cheekbones.

“Oh my god, David, he put a focus charm in your under eye serum,” Alexis said, grinning as she stepped back, “he is so into you.” 

“Just because he did one moderately invasive thing, does not mean that he’s into me,” David said, arranging his rings for the day. 

“Mmm, okay, you’re so wrong,” Alexis said, “ask him to come foraging with us tomorrow then.” 

David grimaced, glancing away, “about that.”

“Do not tell me you forgot again, uuugh. No, David, I am not going alone. The woods are so creepy in the morning.” She rummaged around in her bag handing him a pair of cinnamon sticks wrapped in twine, “here, I was going to use this tonight, but it seems like you need it more.” David tucked the courage charm in his pocket; that was uncharacteristically unselfish of her. 

“Patrick is good at carrying things and that way you’ll have to come.” David sighed, grabbing his bag and heading to work. “David, David!” she called from the doorway, “the woods, David, ask Patrick.” 

“Walk into traffic,” David yelled back.

David hadn’t always gotten along with other witches. Especially not methodical, practicing ones like Patrick. He could see it now that he knew where to look, the ritual in Patrick’s movements. The organization and dedication to order. He watched Patrick spritz the basil plants in the window, murmuring to them softly.

“I’m going foraging tomorrow morning,” David said, words spilling out of his mouth before he could think them through. “It’s a good time of year to harvest around here if you want to come.” 

Patrick looked up from the plants, grinning, “I’d like that.” The bell chimed over the door before they could talk more, a wave of customers pouring in. They had a pretty steady number of them until mid afternoon.

“Why am I doing this again?” Patrick asked, wiping the brush on the inside of the bottle. They were standing on opposite sides of the counter. David had complained about how difficult it was to paint his dominant hand and Patrick had offered his assistance.

“Because it requires a steady hand,” David said, taking another sip of his coffee, “and this makes me jittery.”

“Well, in that case, maybe I should stop bringing you one after lunch,” Patrick said, grinning. He moved on to David’s pointer finger, covering the nail in black polish with even strokes.

“That seems like a bit of an overreaction, when we have a simple solution to the problem right here,” David said, gesturing to his nails with the hand he was supposed to be letting dry. Patrick’s fingers darted out to wrap around his wrist, carefully lowering it back to the counter.

“If you smudge them, I’m not redoing it,” he said, glancing up to meet David’s eyes. 

“Okay, well how am I supposed to drink my coffee, then?” David asked, shrugging with both of his hands flat on the counter. It was a very strange feeling. 

Patrick rolled his eyes, picking up David’s coffee and tilting it toward him, “there, drink.”

David nodded to his sweater, “Okay, but this is Gavinchey so-”

“Just drink the coffee, David,” Patrick said, laughing, “I’m not going to spill on your sweater.” David leaned forward, taking a sip. He could taste the magic in it now. The warmth of the cocoa powder rushed through him. 

“I’ve never thanked you for this,” David said, nodding at the coffee, “keeping it warm.” Patrick grinned, ducking his head as he moved to the next nail. 

“You don’t have to thank me, David,” he said. “Honestly, it’s mostly automatic by now.” David bit his lip to keep from smiling. “You, uh, you looked so disappointed on opening night when it got cold, so I charmed it the next day, and the one after that, and I guess I never really stopped.”

“I don’t remember that,” David said. They’d had a constant stream of customers from the time they opened the doors til a few minutes after they were supposed to close. “We were so busy the day of the opening, how did you even have time to notice?” Patrick shrugged, capping the nail polish and setting it off to the side.

“I always notice you, David,” he said, glancing up to meet his eyes. Patrick was right there, eyes darting towards David’s mouth.

“Someone said I’m not supposed to move my hands,” David said, tapping his fingers against the counter. The cinnamon sticks were warm in his pocket; he could be brave, “so if you want to kiss me you’re going to have to make the first move.” 

Patrick’s hand reached out to cup his jaw. He leaned in, closing the distance between them. David was pretty sure nothing was ever going to feel more magical than this, kissing Patrick in the middle of the store they had built together.  

                                     *                     *                       *

“Turn,” David said, making a circling motion in the air. Alexis raised a brow, eyeing the charm in his hands. “Oh my god, Alexis,” He repeated the gesture with greater emphasis, “just turn around.” Alexis rolled her eyes, but did as he asked.

“I’m not going to wander off, sheesh, David,” she said as he wove a well worn ribbon through her braid. Small silver bells dangled between the strands. He secured the top with a citrine hair pin.

“Mkay, that’s what you said at Yellowstone,” he said, tying off the end. “I ended up having to call for a park ranger because you were lost in the woods for two and a half hours.”

“I was five, David,” she said, twisting in the mirror to admire the adornments. “I know better than to play with the fae now.”

“Do you?” Patrick asked, mouth quirking up as he met David’s eyes over her shoulder. 

“Ugh, yes, Patrick,” she said, moving to dig the brown bag their mother had given her out of the closet. David snagged his eyeliner from her makeup bag while she wasn’t looking. It kept ending up there, although Alexis claimed she had no idea how. Patrick followed him to the bathroom, closing the door behind them.

“Can I help you?” David asked, leaning against the sink with his arms crossed. Patrick grinned.

“Actually, I was wondering if I could help you,” he said. “I thought you might need a steady hand for that.” He nodded towards the eyeliner pencil. 

“Did you?” David asked. He held it out, gesturing at his face, “by all means.” 

Patrick reached out to cup David’s jaw, tilting his head. Patrick took a step forward, studying David’s face. His eyes were dark in the low light from the window, honey brown turned light whiskey. He laughed softly.

“Look up,” he said, lifting the pencil. Oh, right. Patrick drew it over his waterline with even strokes. “Close your eyes, David.” 

David slid them closed. He felt the edge of Patrick’s hand brush over his cheekbone and then there was gentle pressure along his lash line. Every other time he’d had someone do this they’d stabbed him with it, but Patrick’s hand glided over his other eye without incident. 

“There,” he said softly, “you can open your eyes now.” David blinked them open, Patrick was inches from his face. “David,” Patrick said, thumb sliding down his cheek. 

He wasn’t sure who moved, but one second Patrick’s gaze had drifted to his mouth and the next David could taste the mint on his tongue. Patrick’s hands found their way around his waist. David pressed closed, bringing one hand up to rest on his shoulder, the other twining through the short curls at the back of his neck. Patrick brushed a chaste kiss to his lips as he pulled away. 

“You look nice,” Patrick said, squeezing his hips lightly.

David was wearing head to toe Rick Owens . This was a sweater he chose often for foraging; the exaggerated hood made a convenient pocket to carry mushrooms or leaves back to his bag. The skirted pants were mostly for aesthetic purposes, but they were also comfortable over long distances. He had a pair of boots somewhere, probably in Alexis’ closet, that laced halfway up his shin and were particularly good for walking through the underbrush. 

More traditional witches had called it sacrilege, the way he and Alexis intermingled their crystals and herbs with designer pieces. But their mother had always believed that one's connection to magic was their own. She had taught them not to mind the opinions of others when it came to honoring their craft.

“I’m sorry I didn’t get the chance to tell you when I got here,” Patrick said, “you know, with Alexis around.” 

David flinched, stomach sinking. His hands went cold where they rest on Patrick’s shoulders. Of course Patrick wouldn’t want people to know they had kissed. He thought he contained his expression well enough, but Patrick caught it. 

“Hey, are you okay?” he asked. David had to step away, turning back to the mirror to fiddle with his hair. He had thought being the dirty little secret was behind him, but he really liked Patrick. If this was what it took to be with him, so be it.

“Mmm, fine,” David managed. He watched Patrick’s reflection out of the corner of his eye. A small, worried line formed between his brows. 

“I’m sorry if I said or did something upset you,” he started, but David cut him off.

“It’s fine, Patrick,” he sighed, pressing his fingers to the bridge of his nose to keep from crying. His eyeliner had turned out really fucking good. He kind of hated it right now. “If you don’t want people to know, that’s. It’s fine, okay?” Patrick’s mouth turned down, eyes going wide and sad.

“David, no,” he said, hand coming to rest on David’s elbow. “I just didn’t know how much you had told her and I know Alexis gets under your skin sometimes. I was trying to respect your privacy.” As David’s expression softened, Patrick grew more teasing. “We can tell the whole town if you want. I’ll go ask Stevie to get the word out right now.” He moved towards the door and David sighed with fond exasperation, looping his arms around Patrick’s neck.

“Mmm, I don’t think we need to resort to such extremes just yet,” David said. Patrick grinned, running his hands along David’s sides as he leaned in. David melted into the kiss, relief flooding him. Patrick wanted this, wanted him.

“David?” Patrick asked tentatively, grabbing the eyeliner off the sink. “Will you do mine?” David looked him over, woolen socks, denim jeans, loose cotton shirt. It was more modern than some, but still traditional, a selection of natural fibers. 

“Why would you,” David trailed off. 

“It’s part of your ritual, isn’t it, yours and Alexis’?” Patrick looked David over like he was something worthy of admiration. “I want to be a part of that, David.” 

“Oh,” David breathed, “well, look up, then.” He took the pencil and drew it across his lower lashes. Patrick’s eyes fell closed and he repeated the motion on the upper ones. 

“Thank you, David.” Patrick leaned in to kiss him once he had finished.

“Mmm, well, don’t thank me yet,” David said, “you haven’t even seen it.”

“I don’t need to.” Patrick pressed a kiss to David’s cheek. “I trust you,” he said, turning to open the door. He reached for David’s hand, interlacing their fingers as they joined Alexis to finish getting ready.

[cheeseflavouredjuul]

more than enough.

a college part bokuaka fic that no one asked for but everyone needed :) 

Akaashi hadn’t wanted to come to this dumb party, but as a stupid senior in high school, he’d promised to see Bokuto once a week minimum and he was especially busy this week and it just happened to be a Saturday and he just happened to have no valid excuse for his friend. So, when Bokuto called him saying he was out the front of his college’s dorm, Akaashi threw on the first pair of presentable pants and matching top, raked his hair back and reminded himself he didn’t actually care what Bokuto’s friends thought of him and left.

As usual, Bokuto was over the moon to see him, and if Akaashi was being honest with himself he had missed him more than usual too. So, when he clung to Akaashi a little tighter and for a while longer, it was enough to remind him why he’d made that promise all those years ago.

By the time they made it back to Bokuto’s campus the party was in full swing, drunken yelling and loud EDM music blared through the building and out onto the street. But neither of them wasted time soaking in the scene, Bokuto grabbing Akaashi by the shoulder and navigating him through the house and out the back where his friends sat.

As usual, the boys dominated in beer pong for a couple of rounds before they got kicked off for still being sober. so Bokuto’s friends turned to another method, a friendly game of Russian roulette and with some egging on they were at opposite ends of the table with a shot glass covered lazy Suzan placed between them.

“rules are simple, you spin the lazy Suzan and whichever glass lands closest to you, you have to drink.” Bokuto explained like they haven’t played the game hundreds of times. After fifteen minutes the two of them were a sputtering mess as Akaashi took the final shot, straight vodka.

Laughter erupted in the backroom and Akaashi took a bow, settling on the couch between Bokuto and an even bigger guy he’d seen on Bokuto's team, he was introduced as Daniel but as soon as they were acquainted he stood and left them as the others migrated inside for the keg chugging contest. Neither Bokuto nor Akaashi moved as Akaashi explained his newest writing gig and Bokuto rested his head on his leg as he listened intently.

As the conversation changed from work to school, to Bokuto springing the fact the Akaashi would be his plus-one for the Olympics over in Rio. Akaashi was shocked but he wasn’t surprised, they’d always talked about going together when they were younger, but as Akaashi found his love for writing and comics, he found the idea of watching him win from the sidelines much more appealing. While a small part of Bokuto mourned the thought of them playing together once again, he was still happy for Akaashi and his choices and over the moon for his success.

As Akaashi went to talk about all the fun things they could do in Rio, Daniel came back with a smaller girl by his side and interrupted.

“Ak- er, Bokuto your friend’s been asked for inside.” He says and he throws Akaashi a forgiving look for forgetting his name. Bokuto sat up and quirked a brow towards him.

“Tell them he’s with me and he doesn’t smoke that shit, and he definitely won’t take whatever they’ve got.” He laughs and Daniel shrugs his shoulders.

“Nah man, it’s a girl, I think she’s in a class with Kane.” He offers and before he knows what’s going on Akaashi’s being pulled to his feet and whisked off inside before he leaves Bokuto with a; “if I’m not back in ten I’m probably dead and you’ll need to come to find me.” He jokes and Bokuto waves him off, averting his glance to another one of his classmates.

“What does this girl want?” he asks and Daniel shrugs.

“No idea, she’s waiting for you in the bathroom. The second door on the right.” He explains and Akaashi is filled with dread, nothing good ever happens in bathrooms at party’s, he’s all too aware of that. But still, something in him wills itself up the stairs and into the bathroom. But before he closes the door he’s met with an eerily familiar face.

“Akaashi Keiji.”

“William Sato?” he asks and is met with an icy glare as the other man leans past him and shuts the door, “don’t tell me you’re the ‘girl’ who wanted to see me!” Akaashi laughs.

William wasn’t as entertained by his question as he backed Akaashi into the corner of the room, “when I saw you two chatting away like old friends I was reminded of high school, remember back then? Such good times.”

“What’s this about, William, I’m here for Bokuto not for your petty bullshit.” He explains but William is unmoving and reasonably larger than Akaashi so he had no hope of overpowering him, “we’re all adults, give it a rest.”

“No, I’m not giving anything a rest till I’ve had my way.”

“Oh yeah, and what do you want?” he asked unmoved by his attempt at being sinister.

“I wanna know, what do you think Bokuto would do if I took a couple of swings at his beloved vice-captain?” William asked as he lunged at Akaashi, stopping meet centimetres from his face, “leave some nice little bruises on his little bitch.” He spat and Akaashi decided he’d had enough and kneed him in the groin and shoved him back into the shower door.

“Who’s to say he’d care at all, huh?” Akaashi said as he shook him and pinned him still, “just because he didn’t pick you, doesn’t mean you need to act like this, I’m no one’s little bitch you salty fuck.” Akaashi’s words stabbed into William’s conscience and he snapped, tripping Akaashi as he shoved him backwards, looming over him as he thudded to the ground.

“If you’re so against my abuse, how about I deal directly with Bokuto huh, might take out a tendon or something, sure he’d understand my pain then, crap he could kiss the Olympics goodbye for sure!” William said inertly as he pulls out a pocket knife from his sleeve and flicks it open, “or you could do him a solid and take it like a man.” He sneers and Akaashi tries to get to his feet, but William kicks him back and he slams his head on the ceramic towel rail, then again and William grabs a fistful of hair and throws him back, now his shoulder slams into the towel rail and he hears it smash. Akaashi’s eyes were on William but he didn’t need to see the rail to know it was broken.

“Your psychotic!” Akaashi growls and William laughs kneeling to give Akaashi nowhere to run to, “what do you hope to achieve by these senseless acts of violence?” He asked as his hands searched for a shard of the towel rail when his hands met the cold sharp ceramic he felt for the biggest piece and took it in his hand.

William stops laughing and punches Akaashi straight in the nose, “senseless, am I joke to you?” He asks as he lifts another fist, landing another hard punch into his left eye.

Akaashi smelt pepper and fought the urge to cup a hand under his now dripping nose, “yes, you are a joke to me, how am I supposed to take you seriously.” He replied and William tried another punch but Akaashi clamped down and his hand slammed into the tile behind him. but before William could recoil, Akaashi had the shard of the ceramic towel rail neatly angled against his chin, “he picked me for a reason, and it isn’t that I’m hot and you’re not, it’s because you suck at volleyball and show no sign of minimising your ginormous ego enough to listen to anyone’s advice.” Akaashi spoke low as he grabbed the hand he wielded the knife with and pried open his hand, taking it from his grasp and shoving him away.

Like clockwork, the door swung open and Bokuto entered the scene, looking wide-eyed and confused as he tried to process what he was seeing, but before he could speak Akaashi stood, “work on your form and you might just make next season’s line up.” Akaashi said as he walked over to Bokuto who’d now noticed the blood still streaming from Akaashi’s nose and the switchblade he definitely didn’t own.

“It’s been twelve minutes and well-”

Akaashi's hand was on his right peck and Bokuto was being shoved back and pulled down the hall.

“Akaashi?” he asked as he trudged after his bleeding friend. But he didn’t stop, he didn’t answer, he just kept walking, so Bokuto waited until they were close to his room before he sped up and stopped Infront of him, pulling him back into his empty dorm room.

“Keiji, what’s going on?” He asked as he trapped him between the door, “talk to me, please?”

“Why did you pick me?” His voice was rushed and his mind was obviously somewhere else, his eyes stung with tears but Akaashi still managed to wear a demanding look, but he knew he’d never manage to fool Bokuto.

“What?”

“All those years ago, why’d you fucking pick me!” Akaashi broke as his shoulder slumped and he landed an unmotivated punch into Bokuto’s chest. Bokuto paused as he couldn’t answer, his mind was too concentrated on the darkening purple that had now settled under his left eye and Akaashi’s shaking hands. Bokuto laughed humourlessly as he backed away and sat Akaashi on his bed, leaving him to go to the freezer for frozen peas. Giving himself enough time to think of the reason. When he returned Akaashi was laying down and his eyes were closed and brow furrowed as he grumbled something Bokuto couldn't quite hear.

“I don’t know why I just.” He paused as he helped Akaashi upright and held the bag of peas against his eye, he swatted his hand away and held it himself. “This is going to sound cheesy but I remember seeing you and your mother sitting on our bench at that game you guys attended in high school, you looked so bored and uninterested, but after I hit that first jump float I looked back over to you again without even thinking and well, I haven’t stopped looking since.” Bokuto smiled down at his hands.

“That’s so dumb.” Akaashi laughed and Bokuto would’ve been taken aside by his laughter after being so honest, but Akaashi was laughing while he held a bloody tissue to his nose, so he wasn’t too concerned.

“Well after you decided you wanted to play for us, I decided that I wanted you to play for me, to play beside me, as an equal.” He explained as Akaashi put the cold bag of peas down and cupped his hand under Bokuto’s chin. “Is that why he hit you?” He asked as he lifted his head to meet Akaashi’s deep expression.

“As an equal, I was never equal, how could I ever be equal to you?” Akaashi laughed as he searched Bokuto’s face for something he wasn’t sure of, he just couldn’t look away. “Koutarou, I always looked up to you, I think after that game I put you on this pedestal and haven’t taken you off since, you know it still shocks me that you’re going to the Olympics next fall and you’re sitting here with me, so close I could-” Akaashi cut himself off as he pulled his hand away.

“Could what?”

“I remember when you walked me home the first time; you stood by the gate and waited until I was inside safe, I never understood why you waited so long, why’d you pick me?” he asked again and Bokuto’s eyes widened and he placed a hand on Akaashi’s knee and he leant closer, understanding that he wasn’t asking about volleyball anymore.

“I chose you because I didn’t have any other choice!”

“But you did, you could’ve picked anyone, the entire school threw themselves at your feet, but you picked me, why’d you write them off but not me?” Tears began to well in Akaashi’s eyes as he begged to spit out the right words, “why didn’t they make the cut.”

“They’re not you, I don’t want it if it’s not you.” He replied and Akaashi wouldn’t have been any wiser if his lungs had shrivelled up and died because at this moment he’d forgot how to breathe, “I wish you could see what I see, Keiji.” Bokuto’s words were low and heavy as Akaashi breathed out harshly.

“No.” he managed as he stood abruptly as he grabbed his shaking hands in one another, “don’t say things you don’t mean.” He sounded offended as he stood motionless with his head pointed down.

Bokuto stood in front of him as he struggled to find the right words, “I don’t know when I became this person you’ve idolised but I’ve always been just here with you.” He said as he placed a hand on Akaashi’s shoulder, “I chose you because no one else would be good enough.”

“I’m not good enough, that’s the problem.” He replied angrily as he shrugged Bokuto off him and glared at him. Bokuto was taken back by the sadness in his eyes, he’d always hated seeing Akaashi sad but this was something else.

“You are more than enough!”

“Stop lying to yourself, I could never be enough, I’d only bring you down with me.” He tried to pass Bokuto as everything got all too much for him, but Bokuto stepped across and Akaashi slammed into him. Akaashi stepped back and laughed, “do you remember that girl from yearbook club, she did the spread for your senior year, well I thought you two hit it off really well, in fact, Kuroo and I placed bets on whether or not you guys would get together, well she was really really nice, where’d she go wrong?”

“Because she wasn’t you, Akaashi. I don’t know how many times I can say this without getting through to you but; fuck the Olympics, when you stood by my side I didn’t want anything else, I just wanted to be with you, I don’t care what happens after that game, as long as your still by my side I know everything will be fine.” He said as Bokuto felt his cheeks reddening with anger.

“For fuck sake, why?” Akaashi yelled back and something in Bokuto snapped, he took four steps forward, breathed deeply and for the first time in four years he gave into his feelings as he pressed his lips to Akaashi’s and kissed him with every ounce of his being.

“Because I love you, and I have loved you ever since high school and I’ll probably love you until the day I die.” He said as he broke the kiss and looked to Akaashi in fear. “I chose you because even if I wanted to I don’t think I could pick anyone else.”

Akaashi’s eyes were set on Bokuto's yellow eyes, he’d seen them in many different lights but with the dim lights of his room, they looked so dark.

“You love me?”

“Yes Akaashi!” he laughed.

“How could you ever love me.” He muttered as the tears that built in his eyes finally fell, and before he knew it he was sobbing uncontrollably as he felt his knees give in and fall to the floor and Bokuto swallowed him in a hug. Akaashi wished he was a stronger man, strong enough to leave and save Bokuto the hassle of loving him, but as his cold hands brushed his warm forehead holding him against his chest, holding him so tightly. Akaashi wondered if Bokuto could actually love someone like him, someone so much lower than himself.

“How could I not?”

[oyesmendes]

The Coffee Roasters - Chapter 1

a/n: andddd chapter one is here!!! hope you guys like it!!!

Espresso - boiling water shot under pressure through finely grounded coffee beans; like caffeine coursing through your veins, the rush of love felt exactly the same

7AM - When the sun was just rising, the Hoang family was already full steam ahead roasting coffee beans in the back rooms and stocking the shelves with fruit cups, yogurt and granola. They were ready for their morning rush. Sophie was putting on her apron when their first customers walked through the doors - Mr and Mrs Meloche, who have been coming to the cafe for over 40 years.

“G’morning Mr and Mrs Meloche!” The 3 siblings greeted the old couple, and their coffee was served in an instant. They had their coffee black, at 7am for 365 days a year (well, make it 364, the cafe closes on lunar New Years) without fail and they’ve watched the 3 siblings grow up over the years. When the couple came in for their coffee, everything else fell in place like clockwork; their usual customers started streaming in and the Hoang family began their business. over the years, Alex has given up the front of the house for his children to manage, while he remained at the back of the house roasting the infamous coffee beans and filling the entire shop with the aroma of coffee. He has passed down this art of coffee bean roasting to his children of course, but he could never let it go no matter how many times Harvey or Austin would try to coax their father into passing on the big wooden ladle to them. The morning rush went by at lightning speed this morning, and Sophie was summoned to the back of the house immediately to prepare a special order for her father’s old friend.

While the Hoang’s morning was coming to an end, Niall’s had barely started. He was still tucked deep inside the soft beddings of the hotel with the blanket pull all the way up to his chin. The warm stream of sunlight managed to wake him up by a bit, and when he looked at the time on his phone Niall shot up straight away.

“Holy shit! It’s flippin’ late” he muttered under his breath as he attempted to swoop all his things into his travel bag. Niall was checked out of his hotel room in minutes, and making that 10 minute walk to the Coffee Roasters. Somehow he felt a little bit nervous to see Sophie again, and it filled his stomach with butterflies when he thought of her working behind the coffee machine. There was something so unique about her, and Niall had a good feeling about it all.

When he opened the doors to the cafe, his heart sank a little as he saw 2 tall men standing at the counter. Maybe they work in shifts, and today wasn’t her shift? He could ask the boys about her, but would that be weird? He wanted to see her again though, and he didn’t know if he’d get the chance to-

“Hi there! What can I get you?” Harvey’s voice brought Niall back to reality. Niall stood there, stunned for a moment before another voice chimed in.

“Hey! You’re that guy from yesterday, caffe americano? Ahhh what’s your name… don’t tell me I got it…Ni-Niall! Right?” Austin shouted excitedly. Niall had a small smile on his face as he scratched the back of his head.

“Yeah that’s me… and about yesterday… that girl who made my coffee, is she working today?” Niall asked sheepishly. He watched Austin and Harvey give each other a look, before sizing him up. God this is embarrassing.

“You must be talking about our sister” Harvey said, a smirk forming on his face. Niall’s stomach immediately plummets to the ground. She not only has one, but two very handsome brothers to protect her. What has he done? Niall shifts uncomfortably in his place, nodding his head slowly. Harvey and Austin both burst out laughing

“Chill mate! She’s out back making some pastries, I’ll go get her.” Harvey makes his way to the backroom in search for his sister.

“I’ll get you your cup of coffee, on the house.” Austin moves behind the coffee machine, whirring away at Niall’s Americano.

In the backroom, both Sophie and her mother were busy piping the enormous birthday cake for their family friend until Harvey came bursting through the doors.

“HEY HEY HEY BACKOFF!” Sophie shoved her brother far away from the cake, “and no! I am not taking your shift outside-“

“There’s a boy asking for you outside” Harvey cut her off before she could finish. He smirked, knowing very well he got everyone’s attention. Sophie placed the bag of icing down on the table, and squinted at her brother - she couldn’t believe the words coming out from his mouth. Harvey shrugged, hands up in surrender, “Di said it was the guy from yesterday… something about caffe americano” Sophie had to think for awhile before her mind brought her to the image of Niall. She felt a blush on her cheeks and her mother gave her a knowing smile.

-

“I think you like him” Angela smirked at her daughter. Being the only girl out of the 3, it was natural that Sophie was closest to her mother and she told her absolutely everything. Even the short encounter with Niall, and how his eyes illuminated a sort of dullness or sadness that she couldn’t put her finger on. “But they were so blue” she told her mother again, they were mesmerising and it sort of had an effect on her. Sophie wanted to know more about this boy, and she prayed so badly that he would come back again the next day.

“We’ll see, I’ve only spoken 2 sentences to him so he’s probably not going to remember me. And not to mention Ma, he’s Niall fricking Horan” Sophie poured a glass of peach tea for both her mother and herself.

-

“Go, I can handle this. Your father can help me with it anyway” Sophie gave a kiss on both her parents cheeks.

“Go get it, Mei!” Harvey yelled before she ran out the doors to the front, shooting him her middle fingers. Sophie saw Austin who gestured over to the table by the windows, one of your favourite spots in the cafe. Niall was facing the outside, steaming mug of coffee in front of him. She approached him slowly, not wanting to startle the man.

“Hey, heard you were asking for me?” Niall jumped at the sound of her voice and Sophie let out a chuckle. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. My brother told me you were looking for me”

“Oh-yes, I am… uh have a seat..” Niall scrambled from his place, pulling out the chair for Sophie to sit on. She settled in and stuck out her hand for him to shake (weird gesture, I know)

“I’m Sophie, Sophie Hoang” Niall shook her hand, “Niall Horan” Damn she’s gorgeous, Niall thought to himself. They sat in silence for a bit, Niall just staring at her eyes and she fiddle with a stray piece of fabric from her apron.

“Um- I’m sorry I’m a mess I didn’t think this through” he stuttered, running his hands through his hair. Sophie gave him a soft smile, she was a conversationalist, so none of this startled her at all. They started talking, and laughing, and Niall opened up to her about why he was here. Sophie didn’t judge, she listened intently and leaned forward to give him as much of her attention as she could. She made him feel safe, as if he could conquer the world with her. That’s when he remembered why he came to the cafe.

“So I was wondering, would you like to take a tour of Brighton with me? I know you live here and you need to work but its my last day and I wanted to see-“ he was a blubbering mess once again and she stopped him before it got any worse.

“I would love to give you a tour.” Niall grinned, his smile stretching from ear to ear. She placed her hand on top of his, drawing small circles on them, “I’ll go ask my parents for the day off, give me a sec”

She left him by his seat to head to the backroom, and let out a small squeal that got Angela and Alex’s attention. Her brothers soon streamed in to, wanting to know all about the hour long conversation that they had by the most perfect spot in the cafe.

“Ma, Pa can I have the day off?” Sophie paused, looking back and forth between her parents. “He asked if I could show him around Brighton and I agreed…” she trailed off, watching her father’s face carefully. But before Alex could even breathe a word, Angela had already agreed to her daughter’s request, her hand placed on Alex’s to tell him to Shut up. Sophie kissed her parents again, giving both her brother’s a high-five before she ran to get her bag.

“You didn’t even let me-“ Alex protested, but to no avail. Angela’s hand was raised up in the air a signal in the family that the conversation was over. This earned a chuckle from Sophie’s brothers,

“Come on Pa, it’ll be fine the guy looks like he wouldn’t even hurt a fly, don’t worry about Mei. She’s a big girl now” Harvey told his father. It only earned him a smack on the head and a string of curse words muttered under his father’s breath. On the other side of the door though, Sophie was beaming and excited for her “date” with one of the world’s most eligible bachelors. She tapped him on his shoulders, a smile plastered to her face ever since she’s seen him. Niall stretched his arm out to her, and she gladly wrapped her hands around his bicep, her heart bursting at the gesture. What she didn’t know was that Niall was blushing too, the butterflies in his stomach fluttering from the physical contact.

She brought him to Brighton Pier, they spent their afternoon eating food and playing games at the arcade even though they were trash at almost every game they attempted. They sat by the benches over looking the sea, sharing their stories and before they knew it the sun was setting over the horizon. Sophie was wrapped under Niall's arms, their hands intertwined and it felt like they were teenagers in love.

“This sunset, is the second most amazing thing I have seen in my life” Niall said softly.

“And what’s the most amazing thing you have seen?”

“You” Niall replied her, kissing the top of Sophie’s head. She let out a laugh, burying herself deeper into Niall’s embrace, “Cheeseball” They sat in silence for a bit, watching the sun go down. This was it, this was Sophie’s cue to ask him to stay with her tonight. She wanted him- no, Sophie needed him in her life and she knew that this was her chance.

"Stay.” There, she said it.

Niall looked down at her and he melted instantly when their eyes met. Whatever commitments he had in London tomorrow could wait, this girl was asking him to stay and he couldn't say no to her.

“Okay.” He replied. Her face lit up at his words, and he gives her a peck on her forehead. She interlocks her hand with his as she gets up swiftly, pulling Niall along with her.

"Woah, where are we going?" Niall asks as he stumbles behind her. She crashes straight into Niall's arms, giggling like a child.

"Come home with me" Sophie says excitedly. And that sets them running, they're dashing for Sophie's car, hands interlocked as they manoeuvre through the crowds. People shot them dirty looks as they ran and laughed, circling into each other's arms ever so often. after sprinting for what felt like hours, they arrived at Sophie’s car and Niall swooped her into his arms, earning a squeal from her. Their foreheads touched, chest rising and falling away from each other as they caught their breaths. It was like this for a while, before Sophie pressed her lips against Niall’s. The kiss was gentle, filled with so much love, and before Niall could go deeper into it, Sophie pulled away with a smirk forming on her face. Niall pulled her back as she tried to walk away, but Sophie shook her head.

“You’re going to have to wait till we get home.” She was teasing him, leaving him to want more. Niall smiled back at her, knowing he was going to get all that he wanted when they got to her place. He watched as she sauntered to the other side of the car, each step feeling like an eternity. While for Sophie, her heart fluttered as she realised she was falling in love with Niall so quickly. She knew she shouldn’t, after all he only broke up with his long-term girlfriend two days ago. So she hoped and she prayed, that he was feeling exactly the same.

[dvoz-alternate]

Requested by @sweetie-yoongi7

Vernon x reader

Genre: angst → fluff

Warnings: frustration, language, accidents

Word count: ~2.3K

Summary: You grew up with with Seungkwan as a kid and supported him when he decided to become an idol. Eventually, after debuting he decided it was time to introduce you to his group members. Introductions went off fairly well, other than the fact that Seungkwan’s best friend gave you the cold shoulder and walked away. 

----------

-----~ 1 year later-----

It was slow at work, only a few people lingering in the coffee shop. Deciding to people watch you leaned over the counter resting your chin in your palm. Your shift was almost over anyway so you were just killing time. Feeling the vibration of your phone you pulled it out checking who it was. 

[Kwannie] (3:42 pm) : You’re still coming over for game night, right?

You sighed seeing the text and shoved it back in your pocket. Damn it Seungkwan… In all honesty you did forget about game night, and you really weren’t feeling up to dealing with “he who must not be named” this evening. 

Walking into the backroom you pulled off your apron and hung it on the hook switching it for your coat and bag. “Have a good weekend!” you called as you clocked out.

Pulling out your phone you grimaced at the message before sending a reply.

[you] (4:03 pm) : It’s still at 6:30 right?

Pocketing your phone you started to make your way down the busy street to your apartment complex to relax for awhile. 

[Kwannie] (4:06 pm) : YES!

[you] (4:07 pm) : I’ll be there

----------

Unlocking the door to your apartment you dropped your bag on the floor and slid off your shoes. Flopping on your couch you covered your eyes with an arm, “Tonight would be so much better if I didn’t have to see that asshole…”

----------

“Hansol we talked about this already. You need to ‘play nice’ with (Y/N). I get that they aren’t your favorite person in the world, but you can literally cut the tension in the room with a knife when the two of you are together,” Seungkawn eyed his friend. He really just wanted the two of his best friends to get along. “You guys have been at each others’ throats for over a year now!” Seungkwan threw his hands up in the air which earned him an eye roll from Hansol. “It’s not my fault that she thinks she is a princess,” Hansol muttered deciding to scroll through his phone. “For one night. Just one night, please be nice,” Seungkwan said pointing a finger at Hansol’s chest. “Yeah we’ll see.”

----------

Stopping outside the dorm you looked up before letting out a breath bracing yourself for whatever that asshole will throw at you today. Walking inside you waved at the front desk before moving to the elevator. Pressing the button you waited for the lift to arrive before sliding in, as it was closing a hand slid in and stopped it. Glancing up you choked turning away from the beautiful bastard who now occupied your space. Hansol slid into the elevator giving you a quick glare before standing as far away as he possibly could. Finally regaining your breath you leaned your head on the wall next to you and let out a sigh as you closed your eyes. God this is going to be a long night. You thought not bothering to say anything to the man next to you. 

Hansol pulled out his phone to make it look like he was occupied while standing next to you. Taking a peek at you from the corner of his eye he noticed how visibly uncomfortable you looked in the small space with him. Frowning he let out a huff his mood dropping even more. “If you don’t like being around me then why are you even showing up at the dorm?” he fixed his eyes on you. Not bothering to look at him you answered, “You didn’t think I came to see you did you?” Hearing the chime of the elevator letting them know they arrived at the floor you opened your eyes. Hansol shoved his phone back into his pocket before shouldering passed you into the hall. Rubbing your sore arm you followed a few steps behind him. 

Hansol unlocked the door and walked in not bothering to hold it open for you. Making his way into the living room he sat down next to Joshua. Pushing on the door you sighed realizing it locked. “Stupid Hansol…” you muttered knocking on the door. You heard fumbling and rapid footsteps approaching the door. The door swung open and Seungkwan and Soonyoung both fell to the ground in front of you. Laughing you pulled them up. “What is going on with you two?” you laughed as they hugged you. “I wanted to greet MY best friend first,” Seungkwan gave a playful glare to Soonyoung trying to pry his arms off you. “Yeah, but we all know I’m (Y/N)’s favorite!” Soonyoung stuck his tongue out at the younger male. “Well now that you’re here we can start game night!” Seungkwan cheered pulling you by the hand. 

“Guys! (Y/N)’s here!” Seungkwan said doing a dramatic gesture to you. You laughed at his antics as you greeted the guys. Jeonghan got up from where he was sitting to give you a hug, and was followed by Joshua who clapped Hansol on the back as he got up. As Joshua gave you a hug he whispered in your ear, “I’m glad that you could join us.” He gave you a bright smile as he pulled away. Unbeknownst to you, Hansol’s frown deepened seeing the display.

Mingyu grabbed your attention from the kitchen, “(Y/N) do you want anything to drink?” “Um, it’s okay Gyu! I can grab something!” you answered as you started to make your way over. You stopped when you heard Hansol speak, “It’s a good thing the princess doesn’t expect everyone to do everything for her.” You shot him a small glare over your shoulder. “I don’t expect anyone to do anything for me,” you countered before walking away. 

Sucking in a sharp breath you put on a fake smile as you grabbed a water bottle from the fridge before turning to Mingyu, “Ready?” Receiving a nod you both rejoined the others.

“Alright let’s start with something simple, and by simple I mean a stereotypical-basic party game. Truth or Dare,” Soonyoung said pulling you to sit next to him. 

A few rounds had gone by when Chan asked Hansol ‘truth or dare’. “Dare.” “I dare you to tell one person in the room something you wouldn’t say out loud to them.” Hansol’s eyes travelled around the circle of people before landing on you. You weren’t looking at him, but at the floor pulling on the carpet fibers. Standing he moved to sit in front of you. Noticing someone now in front of you you turned to see who it was, only to have your breath catch. He was looking at you with such intensity that it made your heart flutter slightly. “(Y/N). I have always wanted to say this. I find you to be extremely beautiful. You make my heart race whenever we are in the same room together,” his smile said innocent while his eyes were sinister. Your jaw dropped trying to comprehend what you just heard, and your cheeks felt warm. Getting the reaction he wanted he couldn’t help but laugh mockingly at you. “Did you think I actually meant that?” he smirked at you. “Hansol that wasn’t cool,” Seokmin whispered from behind him. 

Now the blood that rushed to your cheeks had a new meaning; it was no longer flattery, but anger and embarrassment. Shoving Hansol away from you, you stood up. “Of course it would be a joke. Everything is a joke to you Hansol! Am I just a joke to you?” you could feel the angry, embarrassed tears starting to fill your vision. “Well you know what, fuck you Hansol.” You gave everyone a quick apologetic look before running for the front door. 

“You dumbass!” Seungcheol breathed watching wide-eyed at your retreating figure. Hansol knew he went too far with that one. Scrambling after you he saw that the door was left wide open. Just recalling the tears in your eyes started breaking his heart. God, I am a dumbass. Who the hell does that?! Hansol was kicking himself mentally as he followed you. 

----------

Running out onto the sidewalk you looked around quickly the raining blurring your vision slightly. You just wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible. You knew that tears were streaming down your face, but you could care less about that. “Wait!” you heard Hansol’s voice yell from behind you. Panicking you ran into the street trying to get away from him. Stopping in the middle of the street you turned around on him. “Leave me the fuck alone Hansol! You’ve already made it perfectly clear how you feel about me!” you screamed as you held your shaking body. 

Hansol slowly started making his way to your, “Wait, please let me explain!” He held his hands out and tried approaching you slowly. “Stay away from me!” you screamed.

The next few moments seemed to happen in slow motion as Hansol reacted too slowly. A car had come barreling down the road, seemingly out of nowhere and hit you in the process before screeching to a halt. With wide eyes and his heart thundering in his ears he ran to your body. He heard screams and wasn’t sure if it was his or the twelve other boys that just witnessed what happened. “Please, please be all right!” Hansol cried pressing his ear against your chest.

----------

“Visitors for Miss (L/N)?” a nurse came out into the waiting room only to be startled when thirteen men jumped up. The nurse eyed the large group, “You’re all here for (Y/N)?” Seungkwan pushed his way to the front, “Yes, we are here for her.” The nurse gave a small nod before leading them through the hospital corridor. 

“She just woke up from surgery so please be careful,” the nurse said before leaving them alone in the small room. 

Seungkwan pulled Hansol’s arm to stop him from going in. “Why the hell didn’t you just say you like her?” he whisper yelled. “I- I didn’t know how to tell her that I liked her. I didn’t think-” Hansol was caught off. “Of course you didn’t think! If you thought then she wouldn’t be in this mess!” Seungkwan’s voice started to raise ever so slightly. “I know and I’m sorry!” Hansol could feel the tears brimming his waterline. “Don’t tell me sorry. You should be telling (Y/N) that,” Seungkwan said shaking his head pushing Hansol towards the door. 

“Hey guys I heard the cafeteria is selling pudding,” Seungkwan lamely said. Taking the hint the other eleven stood up from where they were sitting to follow Seungkwan. 

“You’re a dumbass.” “I’m a dumbass.” “I’m glad we are on the same page Sol. Now why do you look like you’ve been crying?” you asked shifting your hospital gown. Pulling up a chair to sit next to your hospital bed, Hansol sat down before carefully picking up your hand. Confused by the display you raised an eyebrow at him. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, “I’m so sorry for everything.” Hansol squeezed your hand gently not meeting your eyes. “I was so afraid that I lost you,” Hansol lifted his eyes to meet yours. “You’re not playing with me are you?” you tried pulling your hand away only for Hansol to tighten his grip on yours. “No! No. I’m serious. I was terrified that I was going to lose you.” 

You took what he said in for a few minutes before asking, “Game night. Does that mean you actually meant those words?” You could feel your own eyes starting to water slightly. You remember feeling your heart flutter when you heard those words only to feel like a weight had been dropped on your chest right after. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know how to express the feelings I hold for you. I was jealous that you got along with the others so much better, and that I couldn’t bring that smile to your face like the others,” Hansol could feel his chest getting tight. You’re once aching chest was now flickering like a small flame. “Why didn’t you just try to tell me? We could’ve avoided all of this you know,” you gestured to you then the hospital bed, and then to you and Hansol. “I know…” Hansol hung his head. Hansol looked up again when he felt you shift on your bed. You gave him a small smile as you removed your hand from his grasp and patted the spot next to you. He awkwardly took the spot next to you flashing a shy grin. 

“So this entire time you didn’t hate me?” you asked leaning your head against his shoulder starting to feel tired. “No, I never hated you. I am an idiot who realizes he is in love with you,” he murmured relaxing against the pillow. Closing your eyes you leaned further into him enjoying the warmth Hansol gave off. “Y’know, I think I love you too Sol,” you breathed out letting sleep start to take over. Sliding his arm around your shoulders, Hansol pulled you in close to his chest before following your lead.

Twelve heads peeked into the room only mildly surprised to see you two fast asleep on the hospital bed. “Shh, lets let them be,” Seungcheol ushered them out of the room, but not before Seungkwan snuck a picture of you two. “He will thank me later… maybe,” Seungkwan whispered shutting the door.

----------

[goingsllightlymad]

Blinded By Your Light - Part 6. On Changing.

Pairing: Tommy Shelby x reader

Summary: Y/N is the definition of ordinary. Studying at a medical school as far as she can get from her rainy hometown of Birmingham, she never expected to be shipped off the Flanders when the war was at it’s peak. Much less to meet a handsome young patient with the most beautiful pair of blue eyes she had seen in her life who as fate would have it would fall into her lap.

Wordcount: 6415 (I’m busy as hell with studying so I decided to publish the chapter I was writing as two shorter parts, this is the first so calm down that the ending’s pretty shit, I am going to resolve it with the next chapter and it’s allllllll gonna be chill). 

Warnings: poorly written ANGST. You’re all gonna hate hate me for this one, looking directly at you @captivatedbycillianmurphy.

__________________________________________________________________________________

And so the months came and went through the grey streets of Small Heath like the shadow of some endless night, ebbing and flowing with the tides of time, and for the first time in your life the world did not change at all. Only the warmer days warned you that this long winter could not last forever, and all of a sudden it was over and the days were longer, bright with the flowers that came to the bakery door every morning. You gave them with the bread as you made your rounds past houses where every day the memories came creeping back, softer and sweeter and there was no pain here anymore. And in the evenings there was dancing in the upstairs rooms of the pub, you and Ada and a million dresses laid around the chairs and bed and mirror as you spun and dipped into the ecstatic dream of freedom. You were a child again, and all the world was yours once more and he was not a part of it anymore and that was just fine.

It would be a lie to say that you did not think of him, but it was only in the late nights when it was just you and your candle, looking out over the buildings at the trains as they wound away, a path you didn't take and would spend forever wondering what might have happened if you had. And when the spring fell away to summer you saw again the sunsets on the city that pulled you to the rooftop so many times before, wide-eyes wondering at the world you had not seen, ghosts of former lovers hanging onto your sleeve as you spread your arms like wings to fly away and knew you never could. Never would, because for the first time you could see no world but here outside your windows, and it suited you just fine.

And there was you and Ada, and you and Polly, and sometimes you and John, sitting and having tea in the summer sunlight, chasing round the market in your shawls and coats and painting in your mind all the colours of the apples and carrots and plums like they meant everything in the world to you. No blood, not even in those nights when you could hear the guns ringing through the darkened streets and wondered almost where Small Heath ended and your tortured mind began, the memories of a war half-left behind and somehow never left. You were safe and you were happy, and everything was going to be just fine.

Polly was opening up to you more and more as the winter melted away; by summer she was your mother, clasping your hands in hers and telling you to be wise and brave and sure of all you did, and all your stories were hers to read and note and read again whenever she saw your face and it was strangely comforting to see her everyday the same, even when she knew. She knew you, knew all you did and all you had done, and every time she looked at you there was no fear at all, and you wished for nothing more. Ada had become a friend and then a sister, she came to you at night when she could not bear to be alone with all the gunshots pounding out from their street and you both knew you'd never ask, never force her to tell what was best left unspoken, out of sight and out of mind. And there were the days when you returned to the church and there was John with your father in the little kitchen where the sun never seemed to reach all the way through the window, and you could not remember laughing as much as you did in those afternoons alone together when there was no world at all outside of your window and nothing at all between you and him.

And soon July was ending, and you were sitting in the Garrison as usual, only now the sunlight was warm and calming on your face, streaming in in glorious waterfalls of melted gold through the front windows and bathing you in soft yellow glow. The room was silent, as it often was these days as the three girls sat thoughtfully, staring into your teacups and smiling softly, lethargically. These long summer days brought hot nights, the town shimmering in balmy heat and all the world  a little crazier. There were fights in the evenings, hot blood on hot stone. Each night you hurried home a little earlier to find your away from the bubbling anger of the Garrison, where blood boiled by the bar. There was a storm brewing in the distance, dark and ominous as the clouds of cold autumn rain that hovered now in the early mornings, watchful as the eyes of God, and summer had lasted too long.

At the sound of the door flung open, all three heads jerked up, the comfortable silence shattering instantly as the room was filled with heavy footsteps, the screech of the door where the oil had dried up in the heat of days gone by. Into the room there came a crowd of men in sharp grey suits and the familiar flat-cap, brims glittering and you really meant to ask what there was about it that made you so uneasy.

"And make sure it's done by tomorrow, mind. We're not exactly rolling in spare time."

And there he was, the crowd clearing around him and all you saw was him in front of you, beautiful as the moment you had left and he was so beautiful it took your breath away. And you thought you might cry, your eyes fixed on him and your cup of tea dropped back into its saucer on the table, and then his eyes met yours and suddenly he knew.

"Go." he waved a hand and the men went, just like that, and Ada reached out to touch your arm and you held her hand tight, holding her in place because if you were left here, alone once more with him as though no time had passed at all, you weren't entirely sure what you'd do.

"Tommy," it slipped out of your mouth, a whisper so weak he might not have heard it, but he did and his eyes were so cold. His face hard as stone and crueller still than that cold winter spent without him and without even his letters, promised as they were. The way he looked at you, you thought you might never have met him at all, for in those brilliant blue eyes there was an icy hatred you had never seen before, cold as the grave and unfeeling as he stared you down, willing you to speak or willing you to leave, you knew not which. Looking on at him in the hope of a sign, something small to tell you that this was indeed the same man who had kissed you on the train station, promised you a lifetime you knew he could not give, it tore you apart to know that you did not recognise this man at all.

"(Y/N)." he spoke finally, voice flat and disinterested as if you were just another business proposal that he had no care to consider, the least wonderful thing he had seen all day. He remembered you - for a moment you had wondered if any of this had ever been real, if he simply did not know you at all, and in a way this was so much worse. He knew you, and even you could tell from his detached expression that he did not love you. "I wasn't expecting you."

"Yeah, I gathered." through the agonising sadness that was pounding in your head and in your heart and ripping you into pieces there came a rush of bitterness, anger because hadn't he said that he would write to you until he could find you again, and wasn't he here in front of you now, a little taller and a whole lot crueller than the last time you had met? You let your hand slip out of Ada's and she and Polly stood quietly and disappeared into the backrooms. It was only you and him now, along with all the universe in between.

"So where've yer been?"

"In the hospital. Some of us couldn't leave." you muttered, breaking eye contact and taking in the pub, suddenly aware that where you had been waiting for this one moment since the moment he had left, now you would rather be anywhere on earth but here with him. This was anything but the sweet reunion you had dreamed it to be in all those lonely nights in the hospital and the days when you couldn't help but see his face in every beautiful thing around, and he was anything but the sweet man you had fallen so in love with in those days when you could almost forget that love was there at all, so hateful was the world behind you.

"And now you're back. Funny how the world turns out." he sounded so much like his aunt had, that first day when she was so far from you, reading you like you could fall apart before her, your deepest secrets spilling unto her watchful eyes, and you wondered could he see himself written upon your aching soul the way you could feel it each night, eating you alive? And if you never learned from him, waited for him forever and became only the shreds of how his love had left you on that dreadful day on the platform, would he see that too? Or were you now too far away for him to find you, as you feared he was to you.

"I'm not back for you." but yes you were, and both of you knew it. Your footsteps would always lead you back to him, unknowing as you were as you followed blindly into the pits of destiny's shame. You were here for him, and if you stayed you'd do that for him too. "You'd know if you'd written."

"And why would I do that?"

And there it was, the great and terrible blow that sent you reeling, his voice so harsh it cut into you with all the force his love had never borne for you. You laughed bitterly, and when you looked at him again all you saw was the cold and broken body of a man who had once loved and now could love no more. He never wrote, he never loved, was there anything this man could do? A kinder girl than you might have pitied him, but after everything you had done in these last years you were so much more than kind. You were proud, and you were furious.

"Because there was a part of me that was so sure you loved me." your voice broke at that, and you prayed he wouldn't notice. He did, of course he did, he was Thomas Shelby and he noticed everything he could use to his own gain and suddenly you were realising that, but only after you had become yet another ploy he had slipped into his hands so easily. He had smiled at you and you used to feel special, but now you only felt like prey. You had been sure he loved you, just like you were sure that summer would come once the winter melted away, and that the sun would rise each morning and chase away the night, the simple certainties of nature, but now all you knew was that this winter was going to last a very long time, and the sun would be a long time rising. Outside the Garrison window the sun had passed behind a cloud; the room was quiet and grey, the colour gone away.

"Don't be ridiculous." he grinned like his aunt, cold and cruel and utterly malicious, but there was no softness behind his eyes like you had caught in hers, and it made you shiver despite the warmth of the days. This was not the man you knew, but this was the man you had always feared he might become, for this was the man that you had seen a million times before in the faces as they returned from the war, older now and irrevocably changed.

"More ridiculous than running away and never having the fucking nerve to write so much as one letter to explain?!" your voice was higher, louder than you had expected, thick with furious emotion that threatened to overwhelm you as you stood so close to him, throwing your hands up as you shouted. You took a moment to breathe, in then out, then turned to him slowly, words appearing in your head already steady and emotionless, the worst things you could think and you knew you had to say them now or else you'd see them every time you closed your eyes, taunting and true. "You know, I thought you were a fool, but I never took you to be a coward."

He straightened, squaring up and his jaw locking, and in that moment the last shred of the man you had loved finally fell away, and in the man it left behind you wondered how many people he had killed. He had that easy malice that made you think he'd lost count. "Watch it."

"Or what? Far as I've gathered, you don't care about me at all. Don't see why we should change that, now should we?" you were taunting him now, stepping closer to hiss it against the hot skin of his throat and you could still see the faint lines of scars you'd dressed, out of place as though they were not his past at all, stolen words from someone else's love-story and wasted in his tale of woe. Tommy Shelby was a poet, Thomas Shelby a murderer.

"You shouldn't be here." he gritted his teeth, breathing out through his nose and biting back the anger that was burning through his face and fists and every cell in his body. You were so close he could almost taste the soft, sweet perfume you had always used in those empty days in the hospital when you were the only thing keeping him from going insane, his saving grace and now you were before him and against him and you had never hated him so much before.

"Oh really? And where, pray tell, should I be? Sticking it out in an empty hospital after the war has fucking ended in the hopes that you would write so much as once?!" you tried not to cry, tried not to scream as it hit you all over again that you had stayed there, long after you could have left, could have been done with all the blood and all the torture you put up with for him. War was hell and you had walked through it gladly, past turning back, past reason, because once he'd asked you to and now he only left you there to burn. You stepped back, pushing him hard with one hand and he caught you by the wrist, holding you in place, feeling your heart beating strong and fast and knowing you were real.

"It's not fucking safe here." he muttered under his breath and you wrenched your hand away, turning around and grinning like a madman, all your anger, all the rage that had been boiling in you for all these months alone finally rushing up through your head and into your mouth, thick and sour and burning like the hot summer sun inside you.

"I was in a fucking war! Don't you fucking dare tell me what's safe and what isn't!" now you were screaming, shoving him and swearing like the rest of the house couldn't hear you, or simply didn't matter. All that was gone now, only you and him and how much you could hurt him before he would push back. You couldn't help but think of when you'd loved him endlessly, you and him and, far away, the nurses knowing nothing, and now there was only hate.  

"Oh you were in the war, were you?!" and he was angry, angrier than you had seen him, even in those days when vengeful fate was crushing his broken body in the hospital bed a million miles away. He was burning, the fire behind his eyes brighter than you had ever seen it before, and you wondered if he had ever loved so furiously, so strong it brought the gods to tears and how beautiful he might have been if he had had a heart at all. "Funny, as far as I could see you were just some middle-class university girl playing at doctors and pretending she wasn't just kidding herself she was actually important to someone!"

And then the silence, the awful waiting as you looked at him, tried not to cry as the tears welled in your eyes and he had never been so lovely as he was when you could not see him at all. In the blur of all the pain he sent your way, you could almost kid yourself he was the man you'd thought he'd been. But he was ruthless, he was cold, and you saw it in his eyes that all those medals, all the stories, had made a sense you'd never seen before. The war was won by men like him and all the awful things they did.

"Get out." you could not find the voice within you that you had had before, only the hoarse whisper that shook and broke with that sad hate that you thought would last forever.

"It's my fucking pub!" he threw up his hands. You stood still another moment, breathing deep and shaking with the rage that coursed through you, livid as the summer heat and bright as all those nights alone when you wondered if you would ever see him again. You almost wished you hadn't.

"If I ever see you again, I'll fucking kill you, Thomas Shelby." You reached for the frame of the open door, looking out into the street as you heard him laugh, insidious and dreadful as the winter creeping in, behind you in the pub. Your voice was steady, your words heavy with a truth that both of you could see, and there was not a part of you that doubted that you would, you really would. This town had got to you, and you were not like you were before. Things were so very different. You couldn't help but take one last look at him, praying that he could see what he had made of you and knowing he had eyes only for himself.

"If you think I'm coming after you then you're very much mistaken, (Y/N) (Y/L/N)." and there was that emptiness in his eyes that made you think you weren't going to see him again, and you were just fine with that.

"So dark and brooding. You know, I think I might have loved you for that. But now? Right now I just think you're pathetic. Someday you'll come home and there'll be no one there anymore.  And I think you're fucking terrified. Come after me or don't, just know I won't be waiting." the last words dropped to a choked sob, a curse upon him and upon this whole damned town, pull you together as it was always made to do. Your uncle once told you that when you loved someone, really loved them, every road would lead you back to them, and now all you wanted to do was set fire to every last brick until the whole city went up in flames. If your fate was written, so help you you would find the book and not rest until you had pulled each last word from its cruel pages.

As you stormed out of the Garrison, teeth gritted to try and stifle the tears that pricked at your eyes, you slammed into someone. Apologising and trying to make them out through teary eyes, all you could see was a smudge of blonde hair, a slim figure and a pretty green dress. You rolled your eyes and slid past her. You had spent too long in the neighbourhood to ask her what she was doing here. You thought you'd rather not know.

You didn't entirely know where your footsteps were leading you - not to the church, with its false pity and God still falser, the secrets in the crypts that whispered to you your life was empty, loveless. Nor to the bakery, with your aunt's loving arms and the hatred you would leave at the door. You didn't want to leave it; you wanted to feel it coursing in your blood, hot and true like nothing you had felt for months. It was only when your world came whirling in a rush that you knew it turned at all, and it was only when your heart was pulsing to explode that you know it beat at all. All these months, thinking you were barely alive, but now you knew. You were, and you would remain forever, very much alive and very vengeful indeed.

________________________________________________________________________________

Without knowing it entirely, your footsteps lead instead to the Cut, the abandoned warehouses where you had used to hide in years gone by, waiting excitedly for your aunt and uncle as they came home from work in the early evening, baskets of bread and sweets for you as you ran out into their arms. Sitting on the riverbank, looking down into the distorted reflection of your face upon the water, you wondered if you could close your eyes and have it all gone. You had never asked for this, you had never wanted this. Boys, men, the endless heat of this godforsaken city, a grim horizon that you had never seen looming before you, and now here you were at the ends of the world as you knew it and you had nowhere left to go. Leave the town and leave it all unfinished the way you swore you never would again, or stay and fight and know that nothing would ever be quite as good as it was in that other, sweeter, eternity.

The water-line was low, and you slipped off your shoes and stockings, dipping your legs into the river as you shook your hair out of its plait and breathed out. It was calm here, calmer than anything else in this tumultuous city where every silence carried a hundred thousand words you couldn't begin to understand. France was simple, but France was far away, and you knew there was more than just a sea between you now.

You weren't going to cry - not here, not in front of all the world you could not see, waiting in the dockyards because work never stopped in this city of dust and ashes. Instead you threw a stone at the gentle grey water, felt the cool splash against your burning skin, tried to breathe when screaming came so easy, blinked and blinked again as your vision swam in watery uncertainty, felt the emotion draining out of you and fading away into the heat all around. You weren't prepared for this, any of this.

It was childish to expect that nothing would have changed, that you would come back and everything would be the way he had promised it would be from the window of the train as it carried him away. War was nothing more than a bleak and empty promise by men who knew no better way to kid themselves that they would be just fine, and his words could do no better. But what were you meant to do when he was there and he had been so beautiful, and now all you felt was shame. You hated him for everything he said and did, hated him for leaving and for coming back and for being there at all, but most of all you hated yourself for doing what you did. You knew even then that if love were ever real in this land of hate and death, then that was and would ever be the closest you would come.

Wrapped in your fantasies of love and life left behind, you didn't notice the footsteps behind you until they had stopped beside you on the muddy riverbank, the hem of the floral dress swirling in the gentle breeze.

"Rough day." the soft voice you knew, the voice that had got you into this mess because you didn't know when to walk away. There was a time to be brave and a time to call it quits, and you had missed that point a long time ago.

"Jesus Ada, give me some warning." you murmured, more to yourself than to her as she sat beside you. You'd known she would come after you - the whole town must know by now, a million voices in the streets with your name on everyone's lips and suddenly you knew what a fool you'd been to try and keep it secret. This was the last thing that was truly yours and now they knew, now the things you'd carried with you like the last chance you might someday get out of here, spilling out into the river as you grabbed at memories of the way he'd kissed you as he'd left you, the way he'd loved you when you'd thought he really did. This was the worst thing that could happen, and this was the way you dealt with it. You didn't think you had the life within you to run away again.

"I was worried about yer." she was looking at you, but you couldn't quite brig yourself to meet her eyes. Beautiful eyes, so deep and brown, nothing like her brother's at all. She didn't look liker her brother: she looked kind. She looked like she cared, and you knew that was the most dangerous thing of all.

"The whole world is worried about me." You sighed slowly, gazing out across the river at the bird wheeling around the tired beams of the warehouses not so far away. You were tired, tired of secrets and tired of your tiny little life, so big until right now. You'd spent so long thinking you'd never be big enough to fill the aching void of all the lives that you could live, and now the walls were pressing in and suddenly you were big and bad and filled with righteous anger. You were tired of Shelby's and tired of Birmingham and tired of the world beyond the grimy walls because nothing you could ever do would shout louder than the fact that even when you ran away you had never left at all. Everything you did was kept within this damned neighbourhood, and you thought it wasn't any wonder they murdered as they did, because here was Earth and here was Hell, and Heaven was not there at all.

You chuckled bitterly, tears stinging at the back of your eyes, hot with summer rage and the aching in your hands that longed to hit him for what he had done to you and longed for the justice that would come after. The man you loved, he would kill you for sure, for these were men who ruled a world of blood and death and your sweet Tommy was their god. You curled you hand into a tight fist around the smooth rock you held, and threw it into the water just to watch it sink.

"I didn't know." Ada's quiet voice shook you, brought you to her as it always did, and you turned to face her, to see the pity as it overwhelmed her pretty face. She pitied you, the child of pain and fate, she had seen what she had seen and she pitied you most of all, and for all these dreadful things you cried at least for that. What beautiful sins had her brother done that made her so unhappy, made him so damn cold?

"Because I never told you." you shook your head at her. You never told her, you never told a soul, because this was yours and yours alone. Yours to dream and yours to cherish, the one last thing about this goddamn town that no one else could know, the most beautiful moments of your whole life because sometimes you could close your eyes and pretend that he didn't exist at all, that it was all inside your head and the world would never have to know. No one would ever have to know.

"I wish yer'd told me. I could've-" she took your hands desperately, clasping them between her own and begging you, scanning you over like she had never known you at all. You wondered if she really blamed you for never telling her about you, about her brother. She didn't, she wouldn't; she had her secrets and you had yours and the rest of the world had its own, and no one seemed to know anyone these days. Not really, not anymore.

"The damage is done. There's nothing left to say." you slipped your hands out of her hands, smiled at her sadly as she grasped at words to say. There were no words to say, you'd said them all. Your words were crashing in the main room of the Garrison, filling the air until there was not air to breathe, and here the world was empty and you thought she might just catch a glimpse of your darkest soul if she looked hard enough, if she were looking hard enough. With shaking hands you took a cigarette out of your pocket, lit it and took a deep pull and passed it to her, lighting another for yourself.

"You 'aven't said anything at all." she pressed, and you knew she wanted to know a little more, and you also knew she deserved to know a lot more, but truly you weren't ready. She deserved the truth but no one got the truth, not when lies were so much more beautiful and so much more kind. The truth was only for those who had the wealth and confidence to not care what the truth was at all, for soldiers in the trenches and for politicians in their stony towers. It was 1919 and the truth was obsolete.

"I don't think I ever will." your voice was dreamy, and your heart far away. You thought you might have dropped it somewhere in the river that last morning, poured it into your coffee and left it there in the square as his face was already fading. What need had you of a heart if he would not let you love him as you did, if he tore it out and left you bleeding every time he looked your way with those cold dead eyes you loved more than life. There were no words to describe Tommy Shelby, and no feelings with which to do him justice, and even now your petty anger paled before him. It was like shooting at the tides and trying to stop them coming back and back and back to pull you out to sea. At this you drew your legs up out of the water, pulling your knees up to your chest and wrapping your arms around yourself, a little colder than before, despite the bright heat of the morning, a little less certain. You turned away again and blew a trail of soft, sad smoke over the water, and for a long moment there was only the silence of the river and the secrets in between.

"You loved him, didn't yer." It was quiet, almost not there at all, and you caught it through the lull of the water like the whisper of some dream slipping past you as you woke, and like a dream it stopped you in your thoughts, wrapping around your throat and keeping you from saying what you wanted to say. No, of course not. A summer fling, but it had lasted so much more than just one summer. A handful of months, a short eternity, and you thought you might have loved him all your life if you had only known his name. Certainly you had loved him since the moment he had smiled at you, the moment you had seen his eyes, the moment you had left him. You had fallen in love with him a million times, and you had loved him a little more every time.

"Who can ever say. I went to war, Ada. I did what soldiers do. I do what I do to keep myself alive." He kept you sane every single day, he saved you every time you saw his face. He had saved so many, and you had let him save you too, and that was all there was to say. And suddenly you were wondering if all the others fell so sweet, all those pretty girls and angels who he'd write to every day, he promised. You wondered how many knew he never would, and if it made any difference to them. You wished more than anything that you could be the sort of girl who kissed and never told, who could turn around and walk away with all your heart inside of your chest instead of leaving little shattered pieces along the way. Memories of you and him that you thought you must have dreamed up in your lonely mind, because you knew at least he didn't love you know.

"Are you alive?" she frowned at you and you really didn't know what to say. You'd stopped being alive a long time ago, and Tommy Shelby had absolutely nothing to do with it. They used to tell you that it was all some grim lottery, that some would die and some would live and some would spend the rest of their life dying, but no one survived this bloody war, only the horses. Who lived, who died, and everyone died and such was the world and such was the war and such would it always be. There'd be another war and more people would die and you would go on breathing and you'd like it a little less every day, because that was the way you did things when you were only made to die and all the world lived on alone.

"Are you?" you quipped back and put out your cigarette on the jagged stone that jutted out over the river, a road of stone but mostly dirt, tied with blood that ran like veins down the streets, the silvery threads of Tommy Shelby's spiderweb of crime. You turned to her and saw her breathe in and out - how nice to say that she was human when all you were was this tangled mass of broken bones and no soul left at all - and rested your hand on her shoulder to take in all the pallid skin, the emptiness behind. You felt the need to feel every inch of her and know that she was not a name like that sad boy you'd tried to love, she was yours, forever and ever and always, and she wasn't going anywhere.  

"Doesn't matter about me right now, does it." she took a piece of your hair and twirled it in her fingers, leaning your forehead against hers and sighing against your skin, so close that you could taste the sweet perfume on her neck and the smoke that lingered on her tongue, like waking up beside her and knowing she was yours. "I should've told yer. Might've saved us all this trouble."

"It's not your job to keep your brothers in line, Ada." you placed your hand over hers, You were right: it wasn't her job. It was her job to find a nice boy, an honest boy with no blood on his hands, and fall in love with him and get married and get away from here, because no one else seemed to do that here. Something about her told you that she would be the first to have all this and more, and something else told you that she already had. Not for the first time you had the unmistakable feeling that there was so much in her you didn't know. "I appreciate the effort, but I made this mistake. I think I have to figure this one out myself."

"I'm here." she squeezed your hand, twining her fingers with yours and bringing your hand down to your lap. She pulled away a little to look into your eyes, send you a sympathetic gaze that meant nothing more than she would be here when all the world had burned away and nothing else was certain, because she knew that you would do the same, no matter what you did, no matter what her brother had done.

"I wouldn't have it any other way." you grinned lopsidedly at her, taking the chance to stand up and pull her up beside you, smoothing down her dress and leading you down the alleyway with a hand on the small of your back.

"At least let me bring you to the Garrison. Meet the rest of the family, make sure there 'en't any other nasty surprises, eh?" she gave you those big brown eyes that she knew made you melt, and you sighed dramatically, already knowing that you would give in.

"Fine. Just a drink, mind. Think I've 'ad enough of boys for just about the rest of my life." you rubbed your eyes wearily, half to make her laugh and the other half to make her look away from the bright tears that had not quite gone away since the moment you sat down, brushing them away quickly as if you thought she couldn't see them. She caught your hand, swinging it in hers and pressing a short kiss against the back laughingly. Check one, see you cry. You realised that it had been the first time. You realised how drastically okay it felt. 

And there she went ahead of you, and your hand was in her hand, and it was enough to make any pretty girl forget the world of Tommy Shelby, but not you. Not you. 

Taglist: 

@actorinfluence @captivatedbycillianmurphy @stressedandbandobessed7771

[softboywriting]

Falling Stars | Shawn Mendes AU

Summary: Shawn is the new doctor in your small town. You are the owner of the bookshop across the street from his clinic. The two of you hit it off immediately and thus begins a relationship that is everything you’ve ever dreamed of. [mild nsfw portion] 

Word Count: 26k

| Masterlist in bio |

The lights of Falling Stars second hand book shop flicker to life in the slowest way possible. The single bulb hanging lamps are nearly as old as the building itself so it doesn't surprise you when sometimes they take two minutes or more to come up to full brightness. The early morning sun illuminates the books in a way you will never get used to. There's something so magical about the way the light warms the old wooden shelves, glinting off golden lettered book spines. The smell of cinnamon wafts through the air and you smile at your little table display front and center of the room. It has little pumpkins and fake orange and red leaves surrounding them with cinnamon sticks tucked into decorative vases that you dressed up with ribbon and little pinecones. A few stacks of books with autumnal themed titles sit around the display pieces. It is the epitome of Autumn and you couldn't be happier.

You flip the sign on the door over to OPEN and head to the checkout counter. A large black cat jumps up on the counter and lets out a soft meow, begging for your attention. It's Alice, the shop mascot and your beloved companion. She had wandered in the back door a few years ago and never bothered to leave. You suspect she may have belonged to the old woman who rented the apartment above the hardware store next door before she passed away. She never showed interest in following you up to your apartment above the bookshop, so you left her food and water with a homemade sweater bed near the utility closet.

“Good morning Alice,” you mutter softly as she headbutts your hand. “Are you hungry?”

Alice meows loudly. Of course she was hungry. What a silly question. She'd only been alone all night, stalking mice in the backroom and misplacing her stuffed toys you made her. Alice jumps down with a loud thump and leads you to her food dish. You supply her with a single scoop and she looks up at you in disdain. How foolish of you, thinking she would get full on one measly scoop. You scoop just a tiny bit more, not even enough to cover the bottom of the scoop, and sprinkle it on top. This satisfies her and she dismisses you, sticking her face in the dish and you turn away to go about opening up shop.

A few minutes later and you've got your register set up, money in it from the safe, and a fresh apple scented candle lit beside your computer. It's time to start your day. You pull up your stool and take a seat to check emails and online orders that are ready to ship. Online is most of your business, though you have your regular customers, shoppers who come from the city to find books not available in the major bookstores anymore and of course people who stop by on their way through town.

You see an email from one of your book suppliers, Dakota Press, and it says your book delivery will be arriving late. A delivery van broke down so they're behind schedule. No big deal. You never announce your new books until you had them physically on hand just for that exact reason. You open a few more emails, customers requesting books that were marked out of stock but you can order from Dakota Press. You take note to order them, adding the customers to your special order list and opening emails from customers searching for particular books they haven’t been able to locate online or in stores.

The bell over the shop door jingles and you look up to see a tall man walk in. He's about your age, maybe a year or two older. Definitely not someone you've seen before. Your first thought is tourist, someone just passing through, but he's too well dressed to be an average dad on a road trip and he was definitely not a fisherman from the harbour. His button down shirt is clearly starched and pressed, and those pants are tailored to fit. His shoes look to be out of a high end store, the watch on his wrist is probably worth your bills for three months and his hair is carefully styled and his skin is glowing. He was something else... something else with money.

“Hello, welcome to Falling Stars!” You cheer from behind the counter. You slide off your stool and fix your sweater so it covers the top of your leggings a bit better. You really wish you'd worn a better pair than your old black cable knit ones, but oh well. Hindsight is 20/20 right?

“Hello. This place is really lovely,” the man says with a gentle smile. Heartwarming. Kind. His eyes said it all as you approach him.

“Thank you so much, I try to keep the place nice. It is a very old building though, it has it’s problems.”

“No no, it's beautiful. I love it. It's very homey and warm. It has character,” he says as he browses the romantic fiction shelf near the doors.

Alice appears and winds around his legs, depositing a lovely clump of loose hair on the ankle of his pants. “Oh crap, Alice no,” you mutter, leaning down and grabbing the hair ball. When you stand back up, the man is beaming at you, a playful smile on the edge of a laugh.

“You didn't have to do that, I don't mind a little cat hair. Cute little thing probably thinks I smell weird.”

“Oh no, she knows better than to rub on people. I don't think you smell at all.” You turn scarlet as you realize what you've said. He did smell quite good, like an expensive cologne you smelled once in a department store. Not that you meant it like that. “I-I am so sorry, I mean like you don't smell weird? Like no, you smell good but not that I noticed that you smell like anything. I just-”

The guy bursts out laughing, eyes crinkling and head thrown back. God he's a sight to behold. His whole aura is brighter than the sun streaming in the front windows. “I understand what you mean but thank you, I try not to smell,” he manages through continued spouts of laughter until he's left smiling at your red cheeked face.

“So, um, are you looking for anything in particular?” You ask, trying your best to slip into business mode and out of awkward flirting mode. Things like this was why you are single, and you know it.

“Actually, I'm just looking for something to read between patients. I've just started at the clinic across the street,” he says as he points to the West Finch Clinic sign on the brick building across the road. It was owned by Dr. Finch for ages and he since retired in February and put the practice up for sale.

“Oh! You're the new doctor!” You exclaim excitedly. It explained his appearance, the well kept polished look and high end clothing and accessories.  

“Mhmm. I decided to leave the city, needed a change of pace.” He grabs a book and turns it over in his hands. “I think this one will do.”

“Of course, I'll get you at the counter.”

You hurry around the display table and punch in your lock code on the register. The man strolls up and lays the book down and you punch in the cost you have labeled on the back. He leans against the counter on his forearms and stares at the wall mounted shelf behind you. It's where you keep your homemade lotions and balms and things of that sort along with a few of your favorite stones and crystals.

“Do you make those?” He asks, pointing at the shelves.

You glance back and smile. “Yes, they're really good for all sorts of skin ailments. Though I suppose you might not believe in homeopathic remedies?”

He laughs and nods. “I do actually, medicine is one option but it's not always the right one. Many natural remedies are proven to work just as well if not better than man made ones. Can I see the lemon hand balm?”

“Of course.” You grab a tin off the shelf and place it on the counter. “It's six dollars but since you got a book I'll only charge you five.”

He pops the lid off and smells it, eyes closed as he smiles. “Sold. I need something to keep my hands soft. Washing and sanitizing so much makes them so dry.” He pushes the tin toward you and you place it in the little brown sack you're putting his book in.

“Your total is fourteen fifty three. Cash or card?”

“Card,” he says, pulling his wallet from his back pocket and passing you a black credit card. You glance at the name and then to him with a smile. It wasn't until that moment you realized you hadn't gotten his name yet.

“Thank you, Dr. Mendes,” you grin as you slide his card across the registers reader.

“Just Shawn is fine. Dr. Mendes makes me feel so old,” he chuckles, taking his card back.

You lean on the counter and prop your head up on your hand. “Well, Shaaawwnnn, I put a flyer in your bag with my hours, email address and phone number. I mean, not mine, but the shop’s. I guess that's sort of mine though...” You drop your head and realize you've blabbered again. And why did you draw his name out all weird like that? You really need to get your shit together.

“Thank you,” Shawn smiles softly and grabs his bag. “I'll see you around?”

“Yeah, don't see a stranger. Fuck. Don't be a stranger, see you around.”

Shawn laughs as he waves goodbye. You watch as he jogs across the street to avoid a Mrs. Jensen's red truck as she drives to work, waving at the store on her way. She was a regular customer of yours and a good friend. You sink down onto your stool and drop your head on the counter.

“Alice, why am I so dumb?” you groan and Alice appears from the back room and meows softly. “Yes I am. I am dumb. It's like when I see a guy I'm attracted to, my brain short circuits.”

Alice winds around the stool legs, purring and headbutting your feet. Some days you really think she is listening to you, others you're sure she just doesn't care. Today she seemed to listen, and for that you're thankful.

“I should just be myself right? If guys don't like it then they can lump it. That's what Grandma would say.”

Alice meows and jumps up on the counter to headbutt your head.

“Who needs guys anyway. I got you, and you're way better than any silly doctor with soft eyes and big hands and...” You groan, petting Alice's back and she flops on her side. “I'm totally screwed.”

_____________________

A week later you wake up to the sound of rumbling thunder and your windows rattling and you sit up, disgruntled from being woken out of a deep sleep. Your bedroom is dark save for your alarm clock that's flashing the wrong time. The power must have gone out at some point. You pull your blankets back and get out of bed just as thunder shakes your apartment to its core. Below you, you can hear something crash and you jump. The damn bookcase that leans forward funny must have fallen over.

You grab a jacket and shove your feet into your old bear feet shaped slippers, a gift from your grandma before she passed, and head for the front door to the stairs. As you make your way down the dark staircase to the door that went outside you can see it rattling, the old glass panel at the top holding on for dear life. The floor is wet, rain leaking in under the door.

You forgo the water for now, the old cement foundation will just absorb it over time. The wind nearly knocks you over as you walk the few feet to the shop door. Rain pelts you like icy gravel and you struggle to get the already notoriously sticky lock open. Once inside, you're soaked,  and dripping all over, but you can't bothered. The bookcase has in fact fallen over and it's taken out your table display as well. The shop is a mess and you sigh, knowing this will take all day to clean up.

Alice runs out of the back, slinking low to the ground as she makes her way to you. The bookcase must have scared her pretty badly. You pick her up and rub her ears.

“It's okay Alice. If you would come upstairs with me, you probably wouldn't be so scared,” you sigh, carrying her to her bed in the cramped utility room and setting her down as you sit beside it.

You decide to lay beside her as you pet her back slowly until she rolls on her side and relaxes. The rain makes you sleepy and you find yourself falling asleep spooned against Alice on the floor. It wouldn't be the first time you did this during a storm, but it would be the first time someone found you like that.

“Hello?” A voice calls from the front of the shop. You sit up, looking around and realizing you're in the utility room with Alice. Not your bedroom.

“I'll be right there!” you call out, jumping up and pulling your hair back in a ponytail on your wrist. You step over a fallen broom and look around the shop. No one seems to be there but, oh wait, there they are. Crouched in front of your broken table is Shawn, picking up little broken pieces of the cinnamon sticks from the vases.

“Oh you are here. Are you alright?” Shawn asks, standing and bringing the vase and stick pieces to the counter.

“Yes, I'm okay. The bookshelf just fell and hit the table. It's a mess but it's fine.” You sigh, looking over the mess before you. “I must have left the door unlocked.”

“Were you sleeping?” Shawn chuckles, taking in your rumpled clothes and bear slippers.

“I...I was just just looking for a broom in the back. I came down to check on the shop because I heard the bookcase fall...I didn't think about getting dressed.” You look down at your polka dotted sleep pants and old yellow summer camp tee from when you were a counselor one summer.

Shawn looks over at the mess and raises his eyebrows. “Do you need a hand? I don't open the clinic for another hour or so.”

“No! No I got it! Don't worry about it. It's not the first time that old shelf has fallen. You go get ready for work okay? I'm good. Thank you though.”

“You're sure? I mean I can stay...”

You put your hands up and wave him away. “I'm sure. Please, go do your doctor stuff. I'll clean up.”

Shawn steps over some books as you walk him to the door. He opens his mouth to say something but all he manages to get out is that you should be careful cleaning up the glass. You make a shushing noise and send him out into the rain. There was no way you were letting him stick around and help. It would just give you too much room to say something stupid and make him disappear forever. You weren't taking that chance.

Four hours later and the shop was back in order, save for the broken display table. The bookcase is propped up, books stacked beside it for the time being. You were debating getting a new shelf or finding a way to anchor that one. But for now you've parked yourself at the counter with a bottle of super glue and a pile of broken vases.

It's nearly half past eleven when the door jingles and Frank walks in with an arm full of books. Frank often brought books he found in yard sales and estate sales. He never wanted money for them, just some peppermint lotion for his wife and a tin of wintergreen hand salve for his old hands.

“Afternoon, Frank. What do you have today?” You grin, pushing aside your half built vase. Frank's books were like getting Christmas presents. Some were just the thing you wanted, others were the equivalent of a pair of underwear that you neither wanted or needed.

“I got some goodins!” Frank laughs, setting five books down for you. “I have an old Winnie the Pooh, a copy of a book called Taming Wolves, and a couple of old westerns.”

“Ohh, Taming Wolves eh?” You laugh, flipping the book over. It was a documentary book, a diary of sorts by a researcher in Alaska named Barry Dunes. Interesting.

“It's real good. I read a few pages myself.”

“Looks good, and this Winnie the Pooh is in great condition for its age. You outdid yourself Frank.”

Frank beams.

“I suppose you need some salve? Lemon or wintergreen this time?”

“Lemon please. Say, what happened to your little table out here?” He asks, looking around the very empty front area.

You place the salve in a bag for him with a little bottle of lotion you know his wife will need. “The bookcase fell again. I need to get a new one that isn't so damaged on the bottom.”

“I'll tell you what. I'll make you a new bookcase and a table, if you give me four tins of the mint salve and a large lotion for Annie.”

“Frank, that's hardly enough. I don't want you to go through all the trouble.”

Frank waves you off. “I'm dying to get back in my wood shed. It'll be my treat, might take a few days but I'll make it so sturdy a hurricane couldn't bring it down!”

You smile softly, shaking your head as you hand him his bag. “Alright, but I'll owe you, any time you need something just stop by. You don't even have bring books.”

“I'll still bring books kiddo, you know I love how it makes you smile brighter than the sun when I get something you really like. I'll be by in a few days, keep an eye out for my truck okay?” Frank says as he tucks his bag into his front overall pocket. “Be good now Alice,” he says with a wink at Alice who's laying in the window seat on his way out.

You can't help but smile as Frank walks down the street. It was nice to feel so loved and have friends like Frank. You really don't know what you would have done if he hadn't showed up, the bookcase would probably just have to be removed. It was so battered from the fall, it wasn't stable enough to use anymore. Thank goodness for little miracles.

_____________________

It's early evening a few days later and you're getting ready to close up and go to the store for some groceries. You've shut down the register, locked up the back and put the money in the safe. Everything is golden, things are looking up from the beginning of the week, and you couldn't be more content...until you grab your glued together vase a bit harshly and a piece collapses, poking right into your hand.

The pain is instant and you drop the vase on the counter. A small chunk of red glass is sticking out of your hand, bleeding down your palm. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. In a moment of panic, you freeze, looking around for something to stop the bleeding but finding nothing but tissues. The glass is in pretty deep and at a weird angle so you're scared to pull it out.

Across the street Shawn steps out of the clinic and you see him lock up, waving goodbye to his receptionist as she drives past. Immediately you hurry for the door and open it, eyes wide as you walk briskly across the road, holding your hand out in front of you.

“Shawn! Shawn!” You call out, voice trembling.

Shawn turns around and sees your hand. “Hey, I was just- Oh! Okay, keep it up, let's get inside,” he says calmly as he unlocks the door.

You follow him inside and to a small patient room. He puts on gloves and leads you to the sink, turning the water on and having you keep your hand under it while he inspects the glass.

“This is from one of the vases isn't it?” He asks with a little smile. “Didn't I say be careful?”

“It slipped, or I grabbed it too hard, I don't know what happened. I just grabbed it and suddenly it collapsed and the shard was in my hand.” You look at the chunk sticking out and Shawn grabs a pair of tweezers from a drawer and unwraps them from their sterile baggy before leading you to the exam table where you take a seat while he plops down on his rolling stool. “This is gonna hurt isn't it?”

“A little bit. Don't worry.” Shawn holds your hand palm up in his and pulls the glass out. You wince. It bleeds a bit more and Shawn works quickly to get it cleaned up and bandaged. He so focused as he wipes your hand down with alcohol and puts on a gauze pad that he wraps with tape. A little curl falls on his forehead and you can't help but stare at it. It's so cute and he's so hot the way he works so seriously. Your heart flutters when his face eases into a smile as he finishes taping your hand and looks up at you.

“Thank you. I probably could have taken care of it but I just panicked. I'm sorry I kept you from going home,” you mumble, dropping your hand to the side and sliding off the exam table.

“It's no problem. It's not like I've got much going on at home anyway,” Shawn chuckles. He peels his gloves off and tosses them as he begins cleaning up and sanitizing the counter.

“You're single then? A guy like you? No way,” you tease, leaning against the wall and he looks over with a small smile. “You're not joking?”

“Nope,” he laughs as he scrubs his hands and forearms. “I haven't really tried getting into the dating scene here in town.”

You let out a chuckle and look out the door into the empty lobby. The rain looks like its coming back, the sky looks gray and overcast. “I don't know how much of a dating scene there really is here. I haven't been out in years.”

Shawn dries his hands on some paper towels from the dispenser by your head. “Not big on dating either?”

“No, not really,” you shake your head.

“Well that makes two of us. Come on, let me walk you home.”

“I live just across the street,” you chuckle and he shrugs.

He walks you out of the clinic and across the empty street. A small whirlwind of leaves blows across your path and he catches a big oak leaf that is burnt orange and hands it to you. “For your display, I noticed it was temporarily on the counter yesterday. It was missing some leaves,” he smiles, beaming down at you like the sun and you take it, biting your lip bashfully.

“Thank you, I didn't even realize you had stopped in again,” you mutter, twirling the leaf in your fingers.

“You were busy helping a couple people. I didn't want to bother you.”

“Oh, that's okay, you can always talk to me anytime.” Shawn continues to smile warmly and your cheeks heat up. “Well anyway, I should probably get going. I need to get some groceries still. Alice will think she's dying if I don't have food for her in the morning.”

“Of course,” Shawn says softly, laying his hand on your arm. “Don't use that hand too much alright? It needs to rest so the skin heals. You should pick up some gauze or large bandaids too, you're going to want to replace it in a few hours, okay?”

“Yes doctor,” you laugh and he shakes head. “I promise I'll be careful and get some gauze.” You pull your phone out and add gauze and tape to your grocery list, then turn it around for him to see. “Got it locked in.”

Shawn grabs your phone and types something before giving it back. “That's my cell number. In case you need anything.”

“O-oh.” You glance at your phone and back up at him. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” Shawn grins, rubbing his neck nervously. “I'll see you tomorrow then?”

“Mmm, maybe. Do you need a book?”

“I am almost finished with the one I got...maybe I could stop in before I open the clinic.”

You duck your head and giggle. “Tomorrow then.”

“Tomorrow,” he says, laying his hand on your elbow and giving your arm a gentle squeeze before he crosses the street and heads to his Jeep that's parked in the alley between the clinic and the bakery.

You dig in your sweater pocket and lock the shop up before going in to your place to get your shopping bags. The moment you close the door to your living room you let out a squeal. You can’t believe you got the cell number of the finest man you have ever seen. God and the way he kept touching your arm...you were a goner.

_____________________

“So you're telling me a sexy young doctor moved into the West Finch Clinic and has the hots for you?” Nani, your best friend, laughs in disbelief.

“Yes! It sounds insane, I know. I mean maybe I'm reading too far into it but the way he smiled at me and touched my arm after bandaging my hand up...ugh, you would be dying.”

Nani adjusts her laptop so she can lay down and still see you in the Skype window. “Have you made a move yet? Did you flirt back?”

“I think so?”

“You think so? Either you did or didn't. Tell me everything! I swear if you mess it up with a hot doctor I'll book a flight out of here just to beat your ass.”

You roll your eyes. “You are not leaving this close to your wedding date. Your mother would skin you alive. Besides isn't a flight from the Philippines like seventeen hours or something?”

Nani groans. “How are you always right? Ugh, I hate it. Why did I have to go home to get married?”

“Because you wanted your family to be there?”

“Ugh. Family. Whatever, enough about me. I need to know more about your plans for Dr. Sexy.”

You laugh and flop over on your bed, grabbing your sequined pillow and curling around it. “His name is Shawn, if you must know. I know he's single, and I think he came from the city. Not sure why though...who wants to move here?”

“You aren't wrong about that. Roselake is pretty boring. I mean, it was nice growing up there part of the years but there isn't much to do.”

“I know. It makes me think he probably didn't know what he was getting into when he bought Finch's practice. He'll probably get so bored he'll go back to the city.”

“Not if he has a cute book nerd to stick around for,” Nani waggles her eyebrows at you.

“Oh shut up! He is probably just so friendly because he hasn't explored the town yet. There are far cuter girls around here. Don't you remember Millie Green? I bet he'd drop dead if he came across her.”

“Millie Green is a snakey little tart. Don't tear yourself down like that, don't compare yourself to the likes of Millie. You're very cute too, now you've grown into your body and lost those doofy glasses.”

“Hey!”

“I'm right and you know it!” Nani looks off screen to someone and back to you. “Erik is ready to go pick out flowers. I gotta go. You better step up your flirting game. At least make casual conversation and see where it goes.”

“Ugh, fine. It's your fault if I make an idiot out of myself.”

“You'll be fine. Pinky swear you will ask him why he moved to Roselake,” Nani says holding her pinky out to the camera. You hold yours up and hook it in the air, promising you'll make an attempt to talk to Shawn. What could casual conversation hurt?

_____________________

You pull your shoes on and a sweater over leggings again, glance in the mirror and decide it's as good as any outfit. Comfort over style your grandma always said. She was always right. You grab a bagel and a little pack of cream cheese. It's one of those mini sample cups that stores have near the bagel case. You like to take as many as you can so you never have to shell out for cream cheese. You head for the front door and as soon as you're out the lower door, you see Shawn milling around outside the shop.

“Morning,” he grins big, giving you a little wave. “I guess I'm early huh?”

“A little bit.” You hand him your cream cheese and bite the bagel to hold it as you unlock the front door to Falling Stars.

Shawn follows you inside and Alice nearly trips him, yowling because she wants breakfast. “Easy,” he laughs, lifting her up on the counter. “You have to talk to your mom about food. Not me.”

Alice meows, staring at him. You go around and place your bagel on the register while you scoop Alice's food. At the sound of kibble tinkling in her bowl, she comes running.

“So, what can I do for you Shawn?” You ask cheerily as you walk up to the counter and start preparing your bagel.

“Well,” he starts, leaning against the counter. He's wearing a dark blue cardigan over a soft grey shirt with the sleeves rolled up and it makes you wanna combust. He looks so good in such a simple but cozy way. “I was thinking about how you said you weren't much into dating and neither am I, and so I was wondering if you'd like to join me in seeing the town?”

“Like a date or...” You trail off, dropping your bagel, cheese first onto the register.

“Just as acquaintances. If that's okay. I haven't really talked to anyone else besides a few patients and they're a little wary of me. I thought maybe you might be able to help introduce me to the town...”

“Sure, of course. Yeah, anytime.”

Shawn looks at your bagel and raises his eyebrows. “Wednesday?”

“I'm totally free Wednesdays. Totally free all the time really but anyway,” you laugh nervously, peeling your breakfast off the register keys.

“Oh man, that is a mess,” Shawn chuckles.

“It's no biggie. I have wet wipes around here somewhere.” You glance around the cubbies under the counter, running a hand over your hair to push back some fly aways. “Anyway, Wednesday is great. I'll show you all the best parts of Roselake.”

“Excellent. See you then,” Shawn says, slapping the counter like a drum before backing away to go to the door. Looks like you're not the only awkward one. “Oh, by the way, your hair looks nice today, but you got some cream cheese in it.”

Your hands fly to your hair and sure enough you smeared some after picking it up off the register. Shawn laughs as he closes the door behind him, flipping the sign to OPEN as he leaves. You stare at your bagel and smile. You landed a date with a doctor. Well, not a real date, but basically a date. Nani was gonna flip out.

_____________________

Wednesday comes before you know it and you're a nervous wreck as you close up the shop and go upstairs to change clothes. You have to keep reminding yourself that it's not a date. It's not. You put on a pair of jeans and a sweater, boots and a slouchy beanie hat. Nothing fancy. Not date clothes.

Shawn is waiting for you outside the shop. He has on the same dark blue cardigan as he did the other day, with black jeans and instead of a button up shirt he has on a soft well worn t-shirt. He looks as good as always, but a little extra today maybe. A little more relaxed, cozy, warm like his eyes. You can't help but smile and he smiles right back.

“You look great, I like your boots,” Shawn says as you get close. You look down at your feet and it's just your regular brown boots with the leg warmers sticking out of the top.

“Thanks, they're my favorite pair,” you giggle and kick your foot out a little. “Oldies but goodies.”

Shawn just beams. It kills you the way he looks at you like that. The way his face says a thousand words but you can't quite make out any of them. He seemed to find you endearing, but maybe you've mistaken that for politeness. You never were great at reading people, too many times you'd been wrong and you weren't about to say something now and ruin whatever you were building here.

“Where to first?” Shawn asks. He opens the passenger side door of his Jeep for you and stands by it, hand out for you. “I'm not sure where anything is around here. I haven’t done a lot of exploring.”

You step down off the curb, taking Shawn's offered hand for balance, though you don't actually need it. “I think we should go to the shore. There is a memorial there about how Roselake was founded.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Twenty minutes later and you're at the shore of the harbour that provided much of Roselake’s economy. Shawn got lost twice, turning left instead of right because he was too focused on the story you were telling him about how you adopted Alice. It's cute, how he gets so lost in your words. You can't remember the last time a guy listened so wholeheartedly.

You step out of the Jeep and Shawn meets you on your side and you lead him to the small historical plaque that contained the story of Roselake. The story goes that the harbour was once a large pocket of ocean water that got called a “lake” and was found by Edward Jenkins Rose nearly a hundred years ago. The town didn't get built until about fifty years later when there was a massive storm and flooding that deteriorated the strip of land between the ocean and the “lake” and opened it up to be a harbour. The area became a quick transfer route for many fishing and cargo companies because they no longer had to dock several miles up the coast and freight their goods out of the way to the plants in the city a few miles away from Roselake.

“So Roselake wasn't even actually a lake?” Shawn laughs and you nod. “I guess they didn't know what else to call it, even though it was clearly salt water?”

“Yep. So Roselake should probably be called Rose Harbour but no one is going to bother changing that after a hundred years.” You lean on the railing of the outlook and sigh softly.

Shawn leans next to you, his arm bumping yours. It makes your heart race. Being so out of touch with another person had taken its toll on you to the point where a simple brush of arms was exciting. Sad. “What's up? Why the heavy sigh? We're supposed to be having fun.”

“It's nothing, I was just thinking.” You look out at a ship that is pulling in to dock. Everyone you knew was from Roselake, no one came to live here. Who came to live in a fishing town? “Why did you come here? Why leave the city?” you find yourself asking, not really meaning to, but it comes out anyway.

“I hated it.” You glance over, surprised at that answer. “I grew up in Davenport, one of the city’s suburbs, and it just...it made me feel trapped. I went to college to become a general practitioner and while doing my residency in a local hospital since they were the only available training outlet, I saw so much violence and trauma, I don't know how I survived.” He chuckles deprecatingly, running a hand through his hair. “I dunno how I became a doctor sometimes.”

“Wow,” you mutter, not having expected such a heavy response.

“I spent almost a year on the staff of the hospital I did residency in before deciding I couldn't take it. For a while I thought I was going to have to throw it all away for nothing. I thought I couldn't handle being a doctor, that I'd have to suck it up or find a new profession.” Shawn lets out a heavy sigh and leans over the railing as he continues. “A friend told me about how his dad used to run a family practice in small town, and how it was so quiet and nice. I thought that would be perfect, that I could still do what I loved with helping people but on a smaller scale like I really wanted. So I looked for practices for sale or ones looking for partners, and that's how I found West Finch.”

“Oh, that’s quite a journey,” you mutter, looking over at him. He smiles, soft and warm. You look away, back to the sun setting on the ships in the harbour.

“I shouldn't have unloaded like that. I'm so sorry. I guess...I guess I just felt comfortable enough to tell you,” Shawn chuckles nervously.

“No, it's okay. I asked. I'm glad you feel comfortable with me, it's nice to feel like you have a friend.”

“Yeah. You're the first person I’ve really talked to. You’re actually the first person I met.”

You push off the railing and cross your arms. “No way. I am not the first person you met. The town may be small but it’s not that small.”

Shawn laughs, turning around and hopping up to sit on the railing. “You were. I mean, I met the realtor that showed me my apartment and the clinic, but she doesn't count.”

“Oh come on. You didn't run into someone in your apartment building or like at the grocery store?”

“Nope, not a single person talked to me more than doing their jobs. It's like they knew I was some weird outsider,” he chuckles with a soft sigh. “I'm not weird am I?”

“Maybe a little bit,” you tease with a smile, walking down the path, running your hand along the railing. “But I guess maybe I’m kind of weird too, so it's relative.”

Shawn hops down and walks over to you, smiling as he shakes his head. “Oh come on, you're not weird at all. In fact, you're the most normal person I've met here so far.”

You roll your eyes. “Says the guy who hasn’t met very many people here yet. Anyway, let's get going. Are you hungry? There's a place not far from here that has the best shrimp alfredo, it’s kind of a local hang out.”

“Are you trying to steal my heart?” Shawn laughs as you get into the Jeep. “Shrimp is my ultimate weakness.”

“What, no way, me too! I could eat shrimp all day long!”

Shawn starts the Jeep and backs out of the parking area. “Lead the way, and it's my treat. We'll eat shrimp until we explode.”

“Deal, but I might eat so much that you’re broke.”

“I hardly doubt that, but if I eat more than you, you have to tell me your story of Roselake.”

You look over and he's grinning. You agree to his challenge, knowing he would probably win anyways. You didn't mind though, it wasn't as if you had that crazy of a life story or anything. You just want to play along, to see this fun side of Shawn, to see who he is beneath his cool doctor exterior.

_____________________

Somehow you find yourself sitting in the back of Cap’n Clark's Bar and Grill with six jumbo shrimp sticking out or your mouth like some kind of sea monster while Shawn turns purple laughing. He's holding onto the table for dear life, leaned over on his arms just crying every time he glances at you.  His laughter gets the best of you and you have to remove the shrimp because you are laughing too hard, turning a similar shade of purple.

Shawn ended up eating more than you, like you figured, and so as the evening winds down he holds you to the deal. You don't know why, but suddenly you're nervous. There wasn't even that much to tell...well...not much to you anyway. It just seemed so intimate.

“So, did you grow up here?” Shawn asks, stirring his drink with his straw.

“Yeah. My parents worked in the harbour and got married pretty quick. I wasn't really planned or anything, my dad always said they didn't want kids because they were both away on fishing boats a lot. Life isn't perfect though,” you chuckle, staring at Shawn's hand as he swivels the straw around in his drink with his index finger.

“So...your parents didn't want a kid?”

You shake your head. “That's shitty right? I mean babies are not an accidental thing, if you don't want kids, be more cautious. Anyway, I was raised by my Grandma. My mom's mother. My parents just wouldn't give up their lives for a baby.”

Shawn leans back in his side of the booth and folds his arms as he listens. You glance up at his face and he looks kind of pissed off.  He was angry at your parents on your behalf, yet he hardly knew you. What a soft hearted person.

“So anyway, Falling Stars was my grandma's bookstore. When I got a little older I helped introduce her into the online marketplaces. She always let me run that part of the business because computers were just not her forte.” You chuckle to yourself. “She passed away when I was twenty, she was nearly eighty seven. Pneumonia. She left me everything.”

“I'm so sorry,” Shawn murmurs. “What about your parents? Are you in contact with them?”

You let out a dry laugh. “My parents are either dead or sitting on a beach somewhere with all their fishing boat money. I really don't know or care. They stopped sending Grandma money when I turned eighteen, stopped visiting when I was about thirteen.”

“Wow.”

“It's no big deal. I know it sounds sad and tragic but it's not. It's just my life. I grew up happy with just Grandma. I never knew any different.” You smile softly and Shawn smiles back. “Now it's just me and Alice carving our little place in the world one book at a time.”

“Yeah,” Shawn chuckles. “I'm sorry, by the way. I didn’t realize I'd open a can of worms like this. I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable.”

“No, we made a deal. You ate more, I spilled my guts. You already spilled yours earlier. I didn't even have to eat an ungodly amount of shrimp for it,” you smirk.

“Oh so I'm an open book eh?”

You bite your lip, looking away because it's just too easy to tease him. He felt so natural, easy to talk to. If this was flirting, you think you might be nailing it. “Just a little bit. I like it though, I like feeling comfortable with someone. It's been a while.”

“I can understand that, I feel the same way.”

You hum in agreement as you finish off your strawberry daiquiri. Shawn insisted you get anything you want off the menu and you hadn't had a strawberry daiquiri since your twenty first birthday...and it was definitely going to help you loosen up on this “not date”. So you went for it, and now it's gone and you're feeling giggly, and giggly meant you would probably be talking too much and Shawn should really take you home.

“Where to next?” Shawn asks as he hands the server his card and the bill he definitely wasn't letting you see.

“Home?”

“Already? Is Roselake just the harbour and Cap'n Clark's?”

“Well, no...but most of the shops are closed by now...I don't know if you’d really want to go to any bars. They're just full of old drunk fisherman anyway.”

Shawn grins and lets out a chuckle. “I don't seem the type to hang out with fisherman?”

You shake your head, leaning you chin on your hand. “Nope, but maybe Sunday we can go to the farmers market on the edge of town. Loads of people come and set up there. It's like a whole mini town.”

“Hmm, are you asking me on a date?” Shawn smirks. Ugh. You could grab his face and kiss him right there with everyone to see. How dare he be so handsome and tease you like it was nothing.

“I'll be showing you the town, it's not a date. Is this a date?”

“Well, I did spill my guts to you and take you to a restaurant where I paid, when we were supposed to be exploring Roselake. Is it a date? Ehh...maybe?”

“If it's a date, I get your sweater at the end of the night.”

Shawn raises his eyebrows at you, signing the credit card receipt that the server leaves. “Is that so? I've never heard of that rule.”

You sit back and cross your arms. You can feel your cheeks flushing from the drink. Either it had been pretty strong or your tolerance was in the hole, because you were feeling it. “It's a Roselake tradition.”

“Uh huh,” he smiles slowly, playing along with your nonsense. “I don't suppose I'd want to dishonor a town tradition then.”

“Nope, but if it's not a date, then you don't have to worry.”

“Right. Let's go, I'm sure Alice needs her dinner by now,” Shawn says as he stands and offers his hand. You take it and he keeps one hand on your back as you leave the restaurant.

The drive home is quick since Shawn isn't getting lost this time. He parks the Jeep outside the shop and comes around to help you out. An actual gentleman. Wow.

“Thanks for showing me around town,” Shawn says as he walks with you to your door. “Even if we did only go a few places.”

“It was fun.”

“It was. So um, good night I guess. You okay getting up the stairs?”

You nod, opening the stairwell door and stepping inside. “Mmmhmm. Goodnight.”

“Wait,” Shawn says, hand on the door frame. “I think this belongs to you now.” He shrugs out of his cardigan and hands it to you.

“Are you...”

“This was the best night I've had in a long time. I'd like to think it was a date if you would. Do you accept?”

He holds the sweater up and you grab it. It's warm and very soft, just like you thought it would be. “I accept. Do you accept my date this Sunday?”

He chuckles. “I do, but you're not getting my sweater after that date. I'll run out of clothes that way.”

“Alright, but this one is mine,” you say as you wrap yourself up in his sweater.

“Okay, okay, goodnight. I'll see you tomorrow?”

“Bright and early.”

Shawn moves his hand from the door frame and you close it. You stand on your tiptoes, looking out the window to see him as he gets in his Jeep. He sits there for a moment and pulls out his phone. He's smiling, laughing at something and he relaxes back into his seat, looking over at the shop with a smile as he talks. It make your heart swell, and you can't help but run up the stairs and jump on your bed. Shawn made you feel like you were sixteen again, and it was the best thing ever.

_____________________

“Welcome to Falling Stars,” you cheer from the counter, sat at your computer as usual. You look up and see it's Frank and his daughter Sylvia carrying in the bookcase he promised to make you. “Oh my God!” You jump up and run over to help them get it in.

It's made of dark wood that nearly matched the pre-existing shelves. On the top there is a mantle that has moons carved into it on either side. It's beautiful, far more than you ever expected. The table Sylvia brings in after the bookcase is set down is just a beautiful and has carved crescent moons around the top outside edges of it. It matches the shelf perfectly.

“What do you think kid? Not too bad for an old man!” Frank laughs, dusting his hands off on his overalls. He looks proud, smug even, and rightfully so. His work was stunning.

“They're amazing. I can't even begin to thank you, wow, I just...I'm at a loss for words. I can never repay you enough.” You walk over and put your arms around the little old man. He hugs you back, patting your shoulder and beaming at you when he pulls away. “Thank you.”

“You deserve it. You make Roselake brighter every day just by being here, it's about time someone gave back.” Sylvia clears her throat a little and Frank looks back at her. “I best be going, my wife has an appointment at the dentist. Seventy seven years old and I still have to hold her hand when we go there. Love her to pieces though,” Frank chuckles, shuffling out the door and to his truck.

You wave goodbye, standing beside Sylvia in the doorway as Frank pulls away from the street. “So, you know the new doctor?” Sylvia asks, nodding toward the clinic.

“We've met. He's really nice.” You hold your hand up where you've got a band aid covering the little bit of scab from the glass wound. “He patched me up the other week, excellent bedside manner.”

“I wouldn't mind a piece of that.”

“Sylvia! He's my age, come on.”

Sylvia shrugs and chuckles. “Call me a cougar then. Hey, I'm single and ready to mingle again.”

“Ah yeah, I heard about Ted. What a dick.”

“I'm past it. He can go fuck whatever city girls he wants, I got all his damn money and the house. I think I came out on top.”

You shake your head. “I still can't fathom why someone would cheat. I don't understand it.”

“Me neither kid. Anyway, you like the doctor? You said he's your age right?”

Shawn steps out of the front doors of the clinic and leans against the wall, head tilted back. “Yeah...I do. Would you mind?” You ask, looking into the empty shop and back at Shawn. Sylvia nods and makes a shooing motion with her hands.

You cross the street and walk up to Shawn, laying your hand on his arm gently. “Hey, you alright?”

“Yeah, I'm great,” he smiles weakly, looking down at you. He's lying and he's horrible at it. “I just needed air, gets stuffy.”

“Mmm, everything all good today?” You press, hoping he'll just slip up and lower the obvious guard he holding up. “Anything interesting? I heard Mrs. Jenkins has a rash on her back the size of Texas.”

Shawn chuckles, covering your hand with his. “I'm not at liberty to discuss any of my patients, y'know, legal patient privacy rules and all.”

“Oh! Right, yeah, totally. I got ya. Well, if you need anything...I'm next door.”

“I know. Thank you,” he smiles, still weak as he grabs your hand and squeezes gently as he removes it from his arm and goes back inside. Something was wrong, properly stressing him out. You wished you could help.

You walk back over to the shop and Sylvia raises her eyebrows but says nothing. “Thanks for bringing the table and bookcase. Let your dad know that anything he needs, it's his.”

“Will do. See you around,” Sylvia waves and you close the door with a soft click behind her.

You get to work filling the new bookcase with the books that fell over a week ago. Every now and then you glance over at the clinic when you see movement but it's always a passerby or someone going to see Shawn. You can't help but wonder what stressed Shawn out, why he had to go outside and take a breather. Maybe something happened that reminded him of the city.

You turn a book over in your hands and smile. It was a favorite of yours, a romantic thriller called Run Among Thorns. You set it aside and finish up stocking the books. You go about setting up your autumn display with what you salvaged from the broken table. It's not much, but you still have a few mini pumpkins, the fake leaves, one glued together vase and a handful of pinecones. It was just as pretty if not smaller.

Ten minutes to six and you dust your hands off, looking around the shop with a satisfactory smile. Everything was back in order finally. Before you lock up you wrap the book you picked out earlier and feed Alice. You jog across the street and slide the book into the little mailbox next to the clinic door and put the flag up. It wasn't much, but you know receiving a gift on a bad day could change everything. It was something you learned from your grandma, something you hoped to pass on as much as you could.

_____________________

Sun shines in the window and you sit up, stretching and yawning big. It was Friday, only two days until your second date with Shawn. You can't wait, just the thought of being able to see him laugh again like he did at Cap'n Clark's makes your heart race. You're so distracted by thoughts of the weekend that you don't look at the clock and notice you've overslept until you're making breakfast and see the digital clock on the stove.

“Oh shit, shit,” you mutter, flipping the stove off and putting the eggs back in the fridge. It's after nine and you're supposed to be downstairs at eight. Alice would not be happy.

You don't bother to change out of your shirt and sweater, Shawn's sweater, that you slept in. You just pull on a pair of jeans off the floor and shove your feet into your fuzzy lined clogs and run downstairs.

Sure enough Alice is in the window, yowling like she's been abandoned for a week. Overdramatic cry baby. The mail flag is up on the post box and you peek in while unlocking the door. There's a few letter envelopes and a little box. You weren't expecting any returns or deliveries. You gather them up and head inside to feed your screaming furry baby.

With Alice satiated, you take a seat and tug open the brown paper wrapped box. It looks like an old disposable glove box and sure enough the top is taped closed so you have to open the end. Out of it falls a bunch of ribbon and miniature decorations of pumpkins, cats, skeletons and witch hats. A whole assortment of Autumn and Halloween-y things. A note falls out as well.

“A gift for a gift. Thought your table might need some friends. Thank you for the book, I can't wait to talk with you about it. -Shawn”

You look up through the windows and Shawn is standing there, holding up two coffee cups. He pulls the door open and walks in with a smile. “Good morning, did you oversleep?”

“Yeah, I guess I kept hitting the alarm,” you giggle sheepishly. Shawn sets a coffee down for you. “Thanks for the gifts.”

“It's no problem. You gave me a book, I had to return the favor.”

You pick up one of the skeletons and place him atop the register. “The craft store is in the city...”

“I know it is,” Shawn smirks around his coffee cup.

“Where did you get these?”

“I got them from the craft store, duh.”

“Oh.”

Shawn shakes his head. “They'll look great on that new table, or maybe,” he trails off, grabbing a little black cat and leaning over the counter. He tucks it into the side pocket of your sweater. “ it'll look cute like that.”

“You're a dork,” you laugh and he smiles big. “Don't you have patients to see or something?”

Shawn glances over at the clinic. “Yeah, y'know...a few but I had to see if you liked your gift.”

“I do, thank you again. Now go, don't keep people waiting!”

“I'm going,” he chuckles on his way to the door. Before he goes out he turns and looks back and says, “Oh and I like your sweater. It's very nice, definitely my favorite,” and winks. He dead ass winks at you and leaves.

You can't help the embarrassing giggle that bubbles out of you and you're glad that only Alice is around to hear it. You wrap his sweater around you and sigh softly, he was going to be the death of you and that would be just fine.

_____________________

“You what?!” Nani yells through the webcam. Her hair dresser jumps in the background and laughs. “You got his sweater?!”

“Yeah, I can't believe he actually gave it to me. I think he really likes me. Oh God I don't know how to deal with this.”

“Girl you just do you. He likes you for you. Do what feels natural, go with the flow. Remember when I met Erik?”

You pick your laptop up and carry it into the kitchen with you. “How could I forget? You sent me a text every ten minutes about his eyes or how he was sitting or when he almost touched your hand. God you were so infatuated.”

“Fair enough, but Erik liked me too. He gave all the signals and I was pressing go. What I'm saying is, listen to your gut and read Shawn's signals. You can't go wrong.”

“I mean I could but...”

Nani sets her phone on the counter of her hairdresser's booth. “He gave you his sweater, probably expensive by the looks of it, trust me. You can't read him wrong at this point.”

“I guess...”

“No guessing, he likes you. He brought you stuff for your display. Guys don't just do thoughtful stuff like that if they don't seriously like you.”

“You're right. I gotta stop over thinking it.”

“Yes you do. Let it happen.”

You nod, sighing softly as you say goodbye and let Nani get her hair cut. Nerves were getting the best of you and you knew it was only a matter of time. It had been three years since you let anyone in. After your ex, if you could call him that, you weren’t too keen on dating. Besides, everyone knew everyone in town and everyone had pretty much dated someone you knew, so it was weird. Seriously. If Nani hadn't gotten out of Roselake and went to college in the city she probably would have settled for and married Jackson Walters, her boyfriend before college. The thought of that makes your skin crawl. Not that he was a bad guy, but like, there was better in this world. You promised yourself that you'd never settle, even if that meant being alone with Alice until you were forty.

_____________________

Sunday morning you wake up and you're miserable. You knew you had a cold coming on while you grocery shopped on Saturday. Your nose was running, face swollen, ears a bit achy. You ignored it. Telling yourself it was just allergies even though it was autumn and everything was pretty much dying off in the cool air. You couldn't be sick, no, you had your date with Shawn at the farmers market today.

You force yourself out of bed and into the shower. A hot shower would clear this right up. You grab one of the little shower bombs that you made a few weeks ago, it's a chamomile mint one and if it didn't do the trick you were screwed.

Twenty minutes later and you step out of the shower feeling no better. Super. Awesome. You get dressed, the usual slightly too Iarge sweater, leggings, and boots combo. You add a scarf and knit fingerless gloves because it's a little chilly and they're cute. The clock reads five minutes until ten in the morning and the market opened in half an hour. You grab your keys and your bag and head down to the shop to feed Alice in case you got back late for dinner.

The sky is a little overcast but not bad, you had a few hours before it would rain. Plenty of time to browse the market. Once inside the shop you feed Alice and clean up a few books you left out the night before. Shawn's Jeep pulls up and you take a deep breath and head out to meet him.

As you expected, Shawn gets out and comes around to see you before you get in. The moment he lays eyes on you he knows. He can tell you're sick. It must be the way your face looked so pale, or maybe it was your red nose from wiping at it. Either way, there was no hiding it.

“Are you feeling okay?” he asks, raising his hand up to touch your forehead. “You're kinda warm”

“I'm fine. Probably just hot from the shower,” you smile, trying your best not to sound nasally and stuffed up.

Shawn slides his hand down to your cheek and cups it, his whole palm covering the side of your face. A blush creeps up on your cheeks and you feel that familiar rush of cool adrenaline in your veins that happened when Shawn got a little affectionate with you. “I don't know if you should be walking around outside like this.”

“I'm fine. If I feel terrible I'll just call a doctor...oh wait,” you chuckle and he gives you a look. “I promise I just look sick. I feel great.” Ugh who were you trying to convince. Probably yourself to be honest.

Shawn looks skeptical but he helps you into the Jeep anyways. A short drive later and you're parking in a gravel covered lot across from the field where the market is set up. Despite the overcast skies, it's a pretty big turn out. There is at least twenty tents set up in the front area and more in the back.

“So, is this here every weekend?” Shawn asks as you trek towards the tents.

“Every Sunday, May until the end of September. I used to come here with Grandma every weekend. We would get vegetables and stuff for the week. She liked things as fresh as possible.”

“Was she fun? You seem fond of her.”

“Yeah,” you mutter, wandering toward a booth that has stone bracelets for sale. “She was my best friend and my parent. She had her quirks, we all do, but she was great. I miss her.”

Shawn hums. He's watching you touch the bracelets, not saying anything as you browse the selection. As you move on to the necklaces he lifts the pendant of one with his fingers. A chunk of quartz wrapped with gold wire on a leather cord.

“This one is pretty,” he says softly, bumping your hand with his to get your attention.

You look over and he lifts it off it's display. He puts it over your head and lays it over your bulky scarf. You touch it carefully, looking up at him as you do. “It's gorgeous.”

“How much?” Shawn asks the seller, an old man sitting in a chair behind the tables.

“Twenty five dollars.”

Your eyes widen and you lift it over your head. “It's beautiful, but I don't need it.”

“It's my treat,” Shawn says pulling out his wallet. You push his hands down and shake your head. “Seriously if you want-”

“We'll come back. There's a lot more to see. What if I like something better?”

Shawn pockets his wallet and nods. He knows you're right. This was only the first tent you'd stopped at. There were many more to see. Shawn thanks the seller and he waves you off politely.

The two of you wander from tent to tent checking out everything from vegetables, baked goods and local honey to jewelry and yard art. You refuse to let Shawn buy you anything because you don't want to decide until you've seen everything. It's almost an hour into your date and you're talking about everything and nothing at the same time. Shawn is easy to talk to and even easier to trust. He tells you about how he grew up in the city in a small suburb. He doesn’t say a lot about his parents but talks about how he played hockey and baseball growing up. You tell him about how your grandma would insist that she walk you to the bus stop every day until you were sixteen and you tell him how you won a few awards for art class projects in high school. He tells you he went to a private high school with around six hundred kids. You went to a public school a town over that had maybe six hundred kids from surrounding communities but the whole school was kindergarten through twelfth grade. The two of you grew up very differently but that didn't change who you ended up becoming.

It's almost noon when you feel yourself get dizzy, exhaustion setting in. Your body is reaching its limit. Your head hurts and you feel stuffed up and out of it all of a sudden. Shawn notices right away that you're not doing so well. He holds your arm, steadying you as you start to sway.

“Whoa whoa whoa, what's wrong?” Shawn asks worriedly. He holds your arms and looks down at you.

You look up, eyes heavy and face aching like your sinuses are full. “I don't feel good. My head hurts,” you mumble through a stuffy nose.

Shawn puts his hand on your head. “You're burning up. We need to go home.”

“No, I don't want to ruin our date. We haven't even seen everything yet.”

“I don't care about that. We can come back on another date.”

You shake your head and rub at your nose with your gloved hand. “It's the last weekend.”

Shawn sighs. “We'll come next year. I'm taking you home.”

You lean into him and sigh. Next year. As if you would be together then. As if he would still be in town. Fat chance. His hand comes up to your hair and you wrap your arms around his chest. He's warm, soft, and smells like really good cologne and fresh laundry. You hold on to him, to this moment, never wanting it to end, wishing you weren't sick.

“Can I take you home?” Shawn asks softly and you nod into his chest, wanting nothing more than to be in bed.

_____________________

It's a while later and you wake up, not remembering much of the drive home or falling asleep. You find yourself tucked into your bed with Shawn sitting up next to you on top of the blankets, the TV playing some Hallmark movie on mute. You sit up and cough, your chest feeling full and tight with congestion. You're miserable.

“You're awake,” Shawn mumbles, sitting up right with you. “Let me feel your head.” He reaches over and presses his palm to your head and cheek. “Still hot, do you have a thermometer?”

“I don't think so?”

“Alright, I'll be back,” Shawn says, getting up and heading for the door. “I'm going to get some stuff from the clinic.”

“I'm fine, it's okay. I'll be alright you don't need to stay.”

Shawn walks over to you and cups your cheek, looking down at you fondly. “I'm not going to leave you alone while you're running a fever. It's not in my blood to do that, and I think you know it. I'll check you over fully when I get back.”

��But we've only known each other for two weeks. Why would you want to stay and help me?”

“Because I care about you, and also I'm a doctor y'know. It's in my nature to heal the sick.”

A flush rises on your cheeks and it has nothing to do with the fever. The way he is looking at you, golden brown eyes catching the light of your lamp beside the bed, staring at you softly but determined. His hand is warm, soft, big...you never want him to stop touching you. You never want this moment to end.

“You look so sleepy and kissable right now,” Shawn murmurs, thumb stroking your cheek. You close your eyes and he steps closer to you, legs against yours over the edge of the bed. “I guess I'll have to take a raincheck huh?”

“Mhmm,” you hum and his hand slips away from your face. You lean forward, chasing the touch, but he's gone. You open your eyes to see him closing the front door quietly.

Shawn returns quickly, a little bag of supplies from the clinic in tow. You sit up as he walks into your bedroom and sets the bag on the bed. His sweater is soaked and it's then you notice the faint sound of rain on the roof. He grabs the bottom of his sweater and tugs it up over his head, revealing a grey tee shirt beneath. His tee slips up a little and you get a peek at the trained chest hiding under there. You feel like passing out and again it has nothing to do with the fever.

“C’mere,” he mutters, pulling a digital thermometer out of the bag. It's one of the kind that you swipe across the forehead. He presses it to your skin and slides across. It beeps. “A hundred and one. I knew you had a fever.”

“I just need to sleep.”

“Well yes but you also need some Tylenol to bring the fever down. I brought some from my desk at the office.” Shawn digs through the bag and pulls out a bottle of Tylenol. He gets up and goes to the kitchen to get some water for you. “Take two for now,” he says and waits for you to swallow the pills with the water. He pulls your desk chair over and sits before he takes your face in one hand, turning your jaw to look at him. He gently pulls your cheek down on each side with his thumb so he can see your lower eyelids. “Looks good, how's your throat?” He puts his hand along the sides of your throat and massages upward gently.

“Sore,” you mumble and he nods. You try to look anywhere but at him because your heart is racing. This is very close and intimate.

“You're swollen. Probably from irritation from the drainage.” He grabs something from his bag and you see it's one of the ear scope things with a light on it. He turns your head and peeks in each ear. “Say ahh,” he says, grabbing a tongue depressor from the bag. You open your mouth and he takes a look at your throat. “You need some antibiotics. I think you've got an upper respiratory infection starting. I'll write up a prescription.”

“I'm that sick? Can't I just take some cold medicine?”

Shawn looks at you seriously. “Cold medicine isn't going to take care of an infection, sweetheart.”

“Oh,” you flush, looking away.

“I'll get the prescription called in to pick up in a while. Are you hungry yet?”

You shake your head. “I just want to sleep.”

“Alright. I'm going to call in the antibiotic and pick it up now then. When I get back I'll stay until the fever comes down,” he says, packing his stuff into his bag and pulling up the number for the local pharmacy on his phone.

You settle down into the blankets and roll on to your side, facing Shawn as he walks along the side of the bed, pacing, waiting for the pharmacy to answer. His hand comes down and pets your hair back softly when he pauses for a moment. You glance up and he starts speaking to someone on the other line. He keeps his hand in your hair, fingers flexing gently against your scalp. His petting relaxes you and you find yourself falling asleep easily as he talks low and soft to the people on the other end of the phone about the prescription.  

_____________________

Shawn leaves at some point because you hear the front door close but you don't wake up enough to register what time it is or how long you've been asleep. The door opens again and you stir, rubbing your eyes and watching as Shawn comes into view.

“Sit up sweetheart,” he says softly as he brings your chair over to sit beside you again. You do as he says and sit up, head pounding in your skull and nose clogged up. “I have your medicine.”

He rifles through the plastic bag on his lap and pulls out a little bubble pack of pills.

“I don't want to take anything else,” you whimper. The thought of swallowing anything was daunting. Your throat felt like you swallowed a bunch of cacti already. “Can't I just sleep.”

Shawn places his fingers against your lips with the pill and you open up for him. He sets it on your tongue and hands you your water bottle. “The sooner you get this in your system the better.”

You swallow with much effort and lay back. Shawn grabs his thermometer and presses it to your forehead, reading the digital screen and shaking his head. He doesn't say anything but you know you still have a fever.  

“Thank you,” you mumble, curling into your pillows.

Shawn leans down and kisses your temple. “It's what I do. I'll be in the living room if you need me, you can rest now.”

_____________________

It's dark when you wake up again. Your first thought is Alice. She had been alone all day and now it's past dinner time, she must be wondering where you are. You push the blankets away and shuffle out of the bedroom, grabbing your keys from your purse as you go.

You manage to get to the bottom of the stairs and open the door before you realize that you don't have anything to protect you from the rain. It's pouring outside and it's freezing cold. Oh well. It's just a few feet to the shop door.

You step out into the rain and immediately regret it. It's icy cold and the wind is blowing so it's literally pelting you with what feels like actual ice chips. Your sweater is soaked, leggings soaked, slippers barely keeping the rain rushing down the sidewalk off of your feet. Your hands are shaking, rattling the keys as you try to open the door. It's too much. You're freezing. It has to be around forty degrees and the wind is making it colder.

Frustrated tears run down your face and you let out a chest aching cough. Your hands are too cold and wet to get the key in the lock and you can see Alice at the window meowing.

“Hey!”

You turn and Shawn is standing in the doorway to the stairs. He sees you in the little alcove where the shop door is and makes a bee line for you. You slump against the door and he wraps his arms around you, his chest warm against your back. “What are you doing out here? It's sleeting and you're sick. Are you trying to develop pneumonia?”

“Alice,” you cough, pointing at the window. “She needs to have dinner.”

Shawn looks at Alice in the window of the darkened shop. He takes the keys from you and pockets them. “I'll feed Alice in a minute, you need to get warm now. Your skin is freezing cold and you're going to get worse.”

“But I can't-”

“Trust me, I can feed Alice. Please, come back inside with me.”

You decide to trust him. You know he will feed her and pet her but she wasn't the one sick and freezing to death right now. She wasn't going to starve. You realize that and let Shawn walk you back up to your apartment. You undress, his back to you and you put on some sweatpants and a hoodie. As soon as you're dressed he heads down to the shop, promising he will be back soon. He says he's going to feed Alice and get a change of clothes from his apartment.

A few minutes after Shawn leaves you're almost asleep and your phone rings. It's Nani. It's morning for her on the other side of world and after a few more rings you pick up. “Hey, what's up? How was your day?”

“Well for starters, Shawn is at my place, I'm freaking out.”

“What?! Whoa hold on. Is he there now? You sound like shit, are you okay? Are you hallucinating?”

You chuckle and end up coughing. “I'm sick, an upper respiratory infection Shawn says. We were at the market and I was feeling horrible so he brought me home. Anyway he won't leave until my fever is down, but he's gone home for some clothes and he's feeding Alice.”

“Bless him.”

“This isn't exactly how I pictured him staying over y'know?”

Nani laughs. “Of course not, but I'm glad he's there with you. What if he wasn't around? You'd be miserable.”

“I'm still miserable even with him around. I don't want the guy I have a thing for to be taking care of me like a sick kid.”

“He cares about you, obviously. It sucks that you're sick because otherwise I'd tell you to make a move. The guy must be seriously into you.”

“I think he is and I'm definitely into him too. But being sick and having him dote on me is not how I pictured starting a relation...ship...” You trail off as Shawn walks into the bedroom with a smirk on his face. You'd never even heard the front door open. You could die of embarrassment. In fact you wish someone would just off you right then and there.

“Aren't you supposed to be resting?” Shawn says cooly, walking over and holding his hand out for the phone. “Doctor’s orders.”

Nani yells and you hang up on her, passing the phone to Shawn. He sets it aside and slings his bag over his shoulder. “I'm going to go change in the bathroom. When I'm done would you like some tea? Soup? Anything?”

“Some soup would be good. I have a can of beef vegetable in the cupboard next to the fridge.”

“Okay. Rest while I make it. I'll get a few more Tylenol and check your fever again too.”

“Thank you,” you mutter and he stops in the doorway, looking over at you. “You don't have to do this.”

“I know, but I want to,” he smiles and pushes off the doorframe, heading to the bathroom to change.

_____________________

Shawn spends the night with you, sleeping on the couch so he wouldn't risk getting sick. Your fever ends up breaking around midnight and the antibiotic and some over the counter decongestant samples that Shawn brought from the clinic finally seem to relieve some of your congestion and over all sludge feeling.

You wake up late the next morning, your phone having died some time in the night since you hadn't put it on the charger. There's a sticky note on your bedside table along with a few more cold medicine, your antibiotic and a new bottle of water. You sit up, rubbing your eyes and you let out a nasty cough. You still felt like garbage but at least it wasn't total shit now.

You grab the note and it's from Shawn of course. He says he fed Alice at seven this morning and locked up. The keys are on the hook by the door and he will stop by at lunch to check on you. You set the note down and take the medicine. You find your way to the kitchen and there is a note on the microwave. It says that there is a bowl of soup in the fridge if you're hungry. A soft smile spreads across your face. Shawn was such a sweetheart.

A bowl of soup, a hot shower and a dryer warmed sweatshirt later and you're ready to go down to the shop, though you really want to go back to bed. You put your boots on and grab a blanket off the couch in case you get a chill and make for the shop. Once you're outside you see Frank standing outside of the shop with a bag, peeking in the windows.

“Morning Frank,” you say and hardly recognize your own voice.

“Oh! There you are. I was starting to wonder if something happened.”

“Just a little late. I'm a little sick, and I overslept,” you chuckle as you open the shop door. Frank follows you in and waits for you to greet Alice and get set up behind the counter.

“I got a few books!” Frank cheers, eyes crinkling happily as he places three titles on the counter. “I know you said I don't have to, but I like bringing you books.”

“Thank you Frank. What can I get you?” You go to your lotion shelf and Frank waves his hand at you.

“Nothing today. We're still good to go at home. I did want to ask you something though.”

“Of course.”

Frank leans over the counter and drops his voice as if someone was around that could hear him. “When was the last time you talked to your parents?”

His question stuns you. It was the last thing you ever expected to hear, and somehow it made your stomach sink. “Um, I'm not sure. Maybe when I was thirteen, so, about nine or ten years ago?”

“Rumor has it down at the Bay Bar that they're back in town. I thought I should let you know, in case you wanted to dodge them. I know you aren't close and all and they kinda left you with Grace.”

“Thank you Frank. I'm glad you warned me, though I'm not sure what they could possibly want. I'm sure they're just docked here with the rest of their ship's crew.”

Frank shrugs. “Maybe you're right, we got some fishing boats in a few days ago that are docked while storms die down on the ocean.”

You nod. “Thanks for the books by the way,” you smile, looking at the novels. “I'm sure they're just what someone is looking for.”

“Oh you betcha!” Frank smiles, giving a thumbs up and heading for the door. “See ya next time kiddo!”

You wave Frank off and collect the books from the counter to put by your computer. You would look into them a bit later after you finished filling some online orders from the weekend.

Noon comes quickly and you're just wrapping up your last shipment to take to the post office when Shawn walks in the door. A gust of cold air washes across your face and you look up from the back counter. Shawn has a bag in his hand that looks like take out from Dixie's Diner down the street.

“What a gentleman, you've brought me lunch huh?” You smile softly as you turn around.

Shawn chuckles and sets the bag on the counter. “I didn't have enough time to make homemade chicken soup this morning, so Dixie's will have to do.”

You walk around the counter and lean on it beside him. “A man who can cook and heal the sick? You must be an angel.”

“And you're supposed to be resting. How are you feeling?” he hums, tucking some hair behind your ear. His touch sends fire through your veins. “You're very chatty.”

“I am?”

“Yes, and I like it. I like hearing what's going on in that head of yours,” he grins, and you roll your eyes and blush, dropping your head and tucking your face into your arm resting on the counter. “You're so cute.”

“Stoppppp.”

“Alright, alright I'm done teasing.” He lays his hand on your shoulder and rubs lightly. “How's your head and your chest?”

You straighten up and his hand falls away. “They're doing alright. I took the medicine you left and I've been drinking hot tea when I can, but I've been busy. I've been trying to take it easy though.”

“Well at least you're taking it easy, seeing as you aren't resting. You should listen to your doctor y'know.” You flush and turn away from him. He chuckles. “I saw you had a little rush earlier. A travel bus?”

“Yeah, they come through sometimes on the way up the coast. It wasn't too bad. Mostly older people looking for gifts or something to pass the time,” you say, returning your attention to him and glad for the subject change.

Shawn hums. He opens the lunch bag and takes out a styrofoam bowl and a little bottle of orange juice. “I hope you like mixed fruit because it's the only side they had today,” he laughs pulling out a second foam bowl.

“Of course I like it,” you chuckle. You pop open the lids and despite your stuffy nose, you can almost smell the warm chicken soup. “Thank you so much.”

“Anytime.”

“You didn't get yourself something?”

Shawn shakes his head and rubs his neck. “I actually have appointments all afternoon. I only have another minute or two before I gotta get back.”

“Oh, okay. No problem. I'll see you after work?”

“Yes,” he smiles and leans in. Your heart races and you can't even breathe as he gets closer. He kisses your forehead and pulls back beaming like the sun itself. “I'll stop by before you leave.”

“O-okay. Bye?”

“Bye,” he says smoothly as he makes for the exit, leaving you dumbfounded with your soup and a curious Alice who has jumped up on the counter.

_____________________

Shawn is waiting for you when you walk out of the shop and lock up. He's leaning against the door to your stairway and he looks exhausted. His eyes are closed, arms folded across his large chest, the setting sun warming his skin and making him practically glow. He's a sight to be seen.

“Hey,” you murmur and he opens his eyes, sun catching them too. So beautiful. You never want this moment to end. “Don't move.”

“Mmkay?” He smiles, remaining still at your request. He watches you as you pull your phone out and hold it up to take his picture. “What are you doing?”

“Capturing a moment.”

“A moment?”

You lower your phone and walk up to him. “You look amazing in this light. I wanted to remember it.”

Shawn drops his arms and reaches for your hand, fingers just barely catching yours. “You look amazing too.”

“Shawn stop, I'm sick, you know I look like death warmed over.”

“You don't really,” he steps closer, hands coming up and he twirls his fingers around some stray hairs by your ears, looking down at you with his eyes so soft and full of adoration. “Believe me, I've seen death warmed over.”

“Yeah yeah.”

“Enough with the flirting, I wanted to make sure you're doing alright.” He lays his palm on your face and his big hand covers your cheek and jaw. “You don't feel too warm. You took your medicine?”

“Yes, with lunch.”

“Good girl,” Shawn grins and you swallow thickly. “Take your third dose tonight before bed and please just rest.”

“I promise I will.”

Shawn leans down and kisses your forehead, cradling your cheeks in each hand. “I know you will. I'll see you tomorrow?” You nod and he steps back. “Good night sweetheart.”

“Good night.”

_____________________

A few days pass with Shawn checking up on you before and after work. It's nice and you love seeing him every day, even if it is just for a few minutes. It's Friday again and you've closed up early to mail some packages and head to the store to pick up your groceries for the week when you run into your friend Katie. She is visiting her parents for a week and she happens to have been filled in on the local rumor mill. She knows that you and Shawn have been seen together and she's infinitely curious.

“Sooo, what's he like? Is he very serious and professional all the time?” Katie asks as you round the corner of the small over the counter medicine isle.

“He's nice, really sweet and thoughtful,” you trail off as you browse the selection for the medicine Shawn had given you for congestion last week. You figure it'll be good to have on hand if you do get sick again if you don't use it all. You're feeling much better, still a little congested in your head, but it not too bad. A few more doses of the medicine and you'd be good to go.

“You've got it bad for him.” Katie says as she grabs a box of bandaids and holds it up as you raise your eyebrows at her. “Mika gets hurt every time he turns around. Toddlers, y'know.”

You nod. “Anyway, I do not have it bad for Shawn. We're just getting to know each other. It's only been a few weeks, a month now maybe.” It felt like it had been so much longer.

“Uh huh. Any dates planned for this weekend?”

“No, he's going into the city I think.”

Katie grins and leans against the cart. “We should go into the city too. I'll get my mom to watch Mika and we'll have a girls night.”

“Really? I haven't been out since Nani moved to the Philippines with Erik until the wedding.”

“Yeah, you need this, we're having a girls night. This weekend. Pack a bag girlie, because we're gonna get wasted and paint the town red!”

You let out a laugh. You missed Katie, she was always the wild friend. Having a baby and being a full-time chemical engineer didn't slow her down at all it seemed. She was amazing, someone you aspired to be one day. She was so lucky.

_____________________

You're at the post office standing in line to send out some books that you had been putting off when you feel someone standing a little too close behind you. You shuffle forward and they move with you. It's annoying. You shuffle again and turn to look this time and see it's Shawn.

“Hey,” he chuckles and you roll your eyes.

“I thought you were some creep.”

“Nope just Shawn.” He folds his arms and leans against the packing counter to your right. “How’re you doing?”

“I’m fine. I got more of the medicine you suggested for me. The one for my stuffy head.”

Shawn nods and hums. “Any plans this weekend?”

“Yeah, actually my friend is in town and we're going to have a girls night in the city. Why?”

“Oh, well my plans fell through so I was going to ask you out since the farmers market got cut short y'know? That's okay though, no problem. I'll give my friend Thomas a call.”

You move forward with the line and look back at him. “You sure? You sound kind of disappointed.”

“No, no of course not. Well, a little, but not because you have plans. I was really looking forward to seeing some friends this weekend. It's no big deal.”

“Next weekend?”

“Yeah,” Shawn smiles. “I have an idea of something we can do. If you're up for a bit of a drive.”

“No problem. I like driving with you, you're good company.”

Shawn chuckles. “It's a date then?”

“It's a date.”

_____________________

The weekend comes and it's Saturday night and you find yourself at the end of the night in a bowling alley in the city with Katie and a table full of shots behind you. The two or you had been shopping all day and trying different food places around the city. Because the day out wasn't enough, Katie suggested bowling and drinks, a favorite girls night out activity. It's almost midnight and cosmic bowling has just started. You're three shots down, plus a daiquiri you had at dinner, and it's getting hard to throw the ball anywhere but directly in the gutter.

Some guys from a nearby lane wander over and start chatting you and Katie up. Katie's all about flirting, she's single after all. Mika's dad walked out when he was born three years ago. You however are not about that flirting life. In fact one could say you have no game and your life time scores are basically in the negatives.

“I like your dress,” a guy named Dave says and smiles at you as you take a seat. “It's very flattering.” His eyes were clearly on your ass moments ago.

“Thank you,” you mumble uncomfortably.

“So...are you from the city?” You shake your head. “Cool cool...um, so are you single?”

You roll your eyes. What a pick up line. “No I'm not.” It's not technically a lie. You were seeing Shawn though neither if you had discussed it being an actual thing. It's was still early in your relationship.

“Oh...well I mean I don't see him here.”

Katie walks over and leans on the table. “Yeah, she's dating some hot shot doctor.” She rolls her eyes. “You're way too broke for her Dave.”

“Katie!”

“Well okay then,” Dave says angrily and gets up to go join his friends.

“What? You didn't want to talk to him anyway. I could practically see the soul leaving your body as he spoke. You're welcome.”

“You didn't have to be so rude, jeez.”

Katie glances over to a few of his friends who are eyeing her long legs in her short skirt. She gives a cute wave. “Guys like Dave over there don't know how to quit. I saved you from an evening of a nagging man baby’s company.”

“Can we go soon?”

“Why? We just got started.”

You sigh and put your head in your arms. The alcohol is making you dizzy, and combined with the black lights and the neon colors, you feel sick. “I don't know how much more I can do. I feel like I'm going to puke. It's been a long day.”

“Alright,” Katie calls the guys over and offers them the remaining shots on the table. The two of you leave with a few more frames left on the lane but neither of you care. You call for an Uber and wait outside the bowling alley.

Ten minutes turn into twenty and before you know it you've been waiting nearly an hour. Katie called for an Uber too but no one showed up for her either. You can't walk and Uber is the only service in the city who will drive after midnight that isn't a sketchy cab service. There are some guys close by who look like they've just come out of a nearby bar and they're chatting, glancing your way. It makes you uncomfortable.

“Can you call anyone?” Katie asks, rubbing her ankle where her heel strap rubbed it raw. She's too concerned with her foot to notice the guys. “Just call the Uber again.”

You stare at your phone and flip through your contacts. No one was going to be awake and everyone you know is in Roselake. Well, everyone but one person. Shawn. He was in the city this weekend, but you didn't want to bother him at almost one in the morning. You glance at the guys across the street. One is gone but the other two are still leering.

“What is it? You're making a face,” Katie slurs, more than half drunk and partially asleep.

“I could call Shawn but...I'd probably make him mad.”

“Well do you think he'd want you to walk to your hotel?”

You sigh and press the call button. Katie is right. Shawn picks up after two rings and you're surprised. “Yeah, hey Shawn. It's me.”

“What's wrong?” he asks sleepily. Maybe you had woken him up, but he'd answered so fast it seemed more likely he was awake.

You look over at Katie and she looks passed out against the railing of the steps. Extremely unhelpful. “I'm in the city at the Big Tex bowling alley. Our ubers haven't showed up and we can't walk to the hotel. I'm so sorry for this, is there any way you can get us?”

“Fucking Christ...of all places. Yeah. I'll be a couple minutes, I'm at home.”

“But I thought you were in the city? Wait...damnit. You did say you cancelled your plans.”

“It's fine. I'll be there.”

“I'm so sorry,” you mutter, voice breaking as you are overcome with guilt. He sounded angry with you and you know you shouldn't have called.

“No it's fine, I'd rather get you home safe. I'll be there in a few, just hold on.”

Shawn arrives fifteen minutes later, though the drive from Roselake should be a twenty five minute drive at the legal speed limit. He pulls up in his Jeep and Katie wakes up. She's pretty out of it as you and Shawn load her into the back seat with a little effort. Shawn closes the door and leans against it to stare at you. It's not until then that you realize he's wearing a pair of rectangular wire frame glasses. Something you didn't know about him yet. His gaze is indiscernible. Disappointed? Curious? Perhaps both.

“Please don't be angry at me.”

“I'm not,” he says softly. He steps forward and lays his hand on your cheek. “I'm glad you called me.”

“I thought you were going to chastise me. You sounded angry when I asked you to get us.”

Shawn smiles, chuckling a little. “You and your friend picked the worst part of town to get drunk in. The Uber won’t pick people up over here after ten at night because it's gotten so bad. I was just so worried that something bad had happened when you called me and said where you were. I'm sorry I came off harsh. I really am relieved you're alright and not hurt.”

You wrap your arms around him and he holds your head against his chest. “I was scared something would happen to us. There were guys who looked sketchy over there and then Katie passed out...God if I couldn't have called you who knows what would have happened.”

“Don't worry about that. Let me take you home.”

“We booked a hotel room for the night. At the Estates.” Shawn hums and says he'll take you there then.

A short drive and Shawn helps you out of the Jeep and Katie is out as well and leaning on you for support. You and Shawn help her walk into the building. On the way she trips and ends up almost falling, resulting in your balance going off and you falling on one knee on the way into the hotel room. Your knee is skinned, rug burned and jarred real good.

You head to the bathroom and Shawn gets Katie to her bed as she says something about him being such a hero. Mostly her words are nothing but slurred babbles. She's out cold before Shawn can help her get her shoes off.

You look up from your seat on the toilet in the bathroom to see Shawn leaning against the doorway. You have a cold rag over your knee and you're afraid to look at it again. It was pretty scraped when you put the rag on.

“You look too good right now,” you mumble, looking down at the rag. “Go away. I'm a mess.”

“Hey,” he starts softly, stepping in and kneeling before you. “You're not a mess. You're tired and a little drunk and your knee is scraped up.” He tries to lift the rag off but you hold it tighter. “Let me please.”

You release it at the soft pleading look he sends up at you. It's kinda gross. There's like little rolls of skin where it skidded on the carpet and it's all red and bleeding in a few spots. “I didn't know you wore glasses,” you say, changing the subject as he dabs at the bloody spots.

“I don't like to wear them. They make me look dorky.”

“No they don't,” you say with a hiss as he touches a particularly tender spot. “I like them.” Shawn hums and squeezes some water over the scrape. You let out a yelp and he presses the rag to it again. “I can take care of it. It's no big deal. You can go back to your place.”

Shawn gives you a look that says you know damn well he won't leave. You knew he wouldn't. “I'll go see if the desk has any first aid supplies.” He stands and kisses your head before disappearing.

You're left sitting there listening to Katie's soft snores and thinking about how good Shawn was. He was comfortable, caring and over all an amazing man. You feel lucky to know him, to have a relationship begin with him. Never had you felt a connection the way you did with him so quickly and it scares you, but also makes you feel relieved. It was like now was your time to find someone, and your grandma was right all along. Good things come to those who wait, and you sure did wait.

A few minutes later, the door to the room opens and it's Shawn who is returning with some gauze and tape for you. He bandages you up and helps you to bed. Katie is snoring loudly now, sprawled out sideways on her bed in her dress, one heel on still. You manage to change into your night shirt but skip your pants. The thought of wrestling your bandaged leg into a pair of flannel bottoms seemed too daunting.

Shawn gets you settled and when you think he's about to leave he doesn't. He turns off the bathroom light and heads for the door but instead of going out, he locks the deadbolt and turns around, joining you on the bed. It shocks you a bit. It seemed so forward of him.

“You're not staying with us.”

“You're in no shape to be left alone. Katie might need help if she wakes up and gets sick. You can barely put pressure on your leg. How am I supposed to just leave you here?”

“It's not that bad. It's just scraped up. I'm fine. I can handle Katie too.”

Shawn sighs. “Please let me stay?”

What would it hurt? “Fine. You're such a mother hen, yknow that?”

Shawn settles down into the blankets and faces you. “It's part of being a doctor I guess.” He takes his glasses off and sets them behind him on the nightstand. “Now go to sleep.”

“Easier said than done.”

Shawn reaches over and lays his hand on your side, thumb rubbing comfortingly along your ribs. “Is your knee bothering you that bad?”

“My head is pounding too.”

“Ahh. Come here.” He sits up and pats his lap. You move over and lay your head on his folded legs, looking up at him. He brushes your hair back when you get settled and you can't help but wonder how he looks good from this angle. “Can I try something?” You nod and he holds your head, thumbs rubbing into your temples.

Immediately the pounding lessens and you close your eyes and let his hands work magic on your head. You find yourself drifting off quickly, the throbbing in your leg easing up too, but probably from the pain reliever you took. The last thing you see as you try to open your eyes before the sleep takes you, is Shawn smiling down at you softly, knowing he's done his job and that your comfortable.

_____________________

The sun pours in through the thin curtains and casts streams of light across Shawn's sleeping form. He looks soft, vulnerable and relaxed. His one arm is over his head, the other across his chest. His mouth is hung open, soft lips parted ever so slightly and you can hear his slowed breathing in the silent room. This moment would be perfect to capture and you reach for your phone on your nightstand to do just that.

Shawn stirs, shifting his legs and scratching his chest as you move. You grab the phone quickly and turn back to get the photo. You're too busy trying to get the camera open and a low light setting on to notice that Shawn is awake and watching you, that is until you hold the phone up and he looks smug that he's caught you.

“What are you doing?” He asks with a sleepy grin.

“I was...just...”

“Capturing the moment? You seem to do that a lot with me.”

A blush spreads across your cheeks and down your neck. “Sometimes I'm not sure you're real, so I want to have proof.”

“Mmmhmm.” He sits up and takes your phone. “Just how often do you do this? Should I take a look, hmm?”

“No. Shawn give it back. It's mine.”

Shawn looks down at the phone in his hand and raises his eyebrows. The photo on your lock screen is the one of him outside the shop the other day. He smiles, the balls of his cheeks going pink as he hands the phone back to you. “If you want to take pictures with me, you just have to ask.”

You shake your head. “I don't like pictures of myself. I'd rather just see you.”

Shawn grabs his phone and his glasses off the nightstand. He opens up his phone and turns it to show you a picture on his lock screen. It's you. You're talking to someone out of photo and you're laughing. You're wearing his sweater and your hair is a little messy, but it's actually cute.

“When did you take that?”

“Last week. I stopped in to check on you but you were busy with a lady and her kids. I heard you laughing and I knew I had to get a photo. It's probably creepy. I'm sorry.”

“No, it's not. I mean we're kind of together, it's not like you're a stranger or something.”

“Kind of together?”

“Yeah? We haven't discussed anything?”

Shawn puts his phone down and smiles softly. “Can we discuss it now or-”

“Holy shit I'm going to throw up,” Katie says loudly as she rolls off her bed and runs to the bathroom. The sound of her puking ruins the moment entirely. How long had she been awake? Katie was one to snoop and be a fly on the wall of the rumor mill but you really hope she was asleep while you had been talking to Shawn.

“I'll check on her,” Shawn says softly, getting up and disappearing into the bathroom.

It's not long before you pack up your bag and get Katie's squared away while she sips on some soda from a vending machine in the lobby. She was so hungover she wasn't even giving you shit about Shawn staying the night. She looked miserable.

“Should I drive you home Katie?” You ask as you approach her car in the lot outside. Shawn has his arm around you for support since your knee is still hurting pretty bad.

“No, no I'm fine. I'm doing much better now. Go home with Shawn. Your knee is more important than my headache.” Katie unlocks her car and tosses her bag in the back. “Go on, we had our fun. You need to get your leg up.”

Shawn grips your side and you look up at him. “She's right, you do need to get your knee up. I'd like to look at it and make sure nothing is wrong.”

Katie waggles her eyebrows at you. “Let Dr. Shawn take care of you.” She leans in and wraps her arm around you in a hug. “Don't let him go, he's a good one,” she whispers in your ear and and you nod.

“I'll call you?”

“Anytime.” Katie gets in her car and pulls out, waving as she left you and Shawn together.

Shawn holds you tighter and you lean your head on his chest. “Now, how about that conversation we were having earlier?”

“Let's get to the car first big guy,” you say softly and he lets out a laugh. You knew last night changed a lot of things. Especially how you felt about each other.

_____________________

“So, would you like to be my girlfriend?” Shawn asks a few minutes from home. It's out of nowhere and you're taken aback by it. The two of you had been quiet for the majority of the drive until now.

“Really? I mean we've only been out twice. It's not a little fast?”

Shawn glances over and puts his hand out for you to take and you do. “I don't know? But I do know I care about you alot and I really feel something when we're together.” He brings your hand up and kisses your knuckles. The gesture makes you flush and you can't help but wonder what those soft lips would feel like on yours.

“Let's see how our next date goes. I definitely feel something for you too and it's unlike any other guys I've been with. You're different, special.”

“I can wait,” he looks over at you with a cheeky grin. “But I'm not going to tell you what the date I have planned is, if you thought bringing it up would make me spill the beans.”

“What? No! I was not...okay I was thinking it just a little. Come on, what is it?”

Shawn laughs and turns down the street toward your place. “Nope, it's a surprise. Now, let's get you inside because I need to check that knee.”

Shawn assesses your knee once you're inside and says it's just bruised and you should ice it and stay off of it as much as possible. He helps you get set up in your bed, leg up on a stack of pillows and a gel ice pack tied onto it. He stays for a little while, laying with you until his phone rings. He goes into the other room to answer and when he returns he says he needs to go, that the call is important. You don't push for more information, knowing it was probably something work related.

“I'll bring breakfast for us tomorrow,” Shawn says softly, leaning down and placing a kiss on your forehead.

You reach up and lay your hand on his cheek. “You promise?”

“I promise. I just have to take care of something. I want to stay, I do.”

“I know. Go on.”

Shawn kisses your head once more, lingering just a moment. He hums, runs his hand over your leg before pulling away and leaving you to rest. He exudes so much love that it makes your heart swell. Katie's words run around in your head, don't let him go, he's a good one. That he was. That. He was.

_____________________

It's a few days later and you're feeling much better, your knee hardly aches and the scrapes have scabbed over nicely. Shawn stops by both mornings and evenings after work to check on you. He never stays long and you're not sure why that is. He seems a little out of it on the second day, like he was distracted, maybe even nervous. You don't ask about it, not wanting to push him. If he was still weird after work today then you would ask, though you can't help but suspect it had something to do with the phone call he took the other day.

It's five minutes to closing time and you're straightening up the shop when the bell dings. You turn around fully expecting Shawn but instead you find your mother standing there. It had been nearly ten years since you last saw or spoke to either of your parents. They may as well be strangers. You wouldn't call them your parents at all really.

“H-hey,” you say quietly.

“This place looks just like it did when Grace was alive.” Your mother, no, Sherry says as she steps closer.

“What do you want?” You ask a little bit harsher than you mean to. Sherry raises her eyebrows and you hold your ground, refusing to repeat or soften your words.

“That's really no way to talk to your-”

“Mother? Hardly.”

“I sent you money for everything, I sent gifts on your birthdays. I'm sorry I couldn't be here all the time. I had a job, a career on a fishing boat. I couldn't exactly bring a child along.”

You pull your sweater of Shawn's tightly around yourself. “No. You couldn't bring a child along. Maybe you should have thought about that before getting pregnant. Or at least made plans to find new employment after you had a child.”

“It was an accident.”

The bell dings and you look past Sherry to see Shawn walking in. Now was not the time. You didn't want to do this with him around. You never wanted him to meet Sherry. “I'm sorry we're closed,” you say, voice breaking a bit as your emotions get the best of you.

Shawn ignores your words and walks up to you, blocking your view of Sherry. “Is everything okay?” He asks in a low whisper, holding your shoulders and rubbing his thumbs back and forth softly over your collar bones. “You're clearly upset.”

You shake your head, face twisting up as you fight back tears. “She's my mom,” you explain hopelessly in an attempt to make him understand that he should go and let you deal with this. He doesn't get the memo though.

“Excuse me, we are having a conversation,” Sherry quips and Shawn turns to face her.

Shawn puts his arm around you and keeps you tucked close to his side. He's a pillar of comfort and you press yourself closer. “I would beg to differ. She's clearly uncomfortable, you should probably go.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me just fine.”

“Young man I am speaking with my daughter and I don't know who you are so-”

“I'm her...” he looks down at you, unsure of what to call you. “I'm a good friend.”

“Please leave Sherry,” you mumble, and Shawn curls his fingers into your side comfortingly.

“I'm not leaving until you fork over Tom and I's share of Grace's will.”

“Of course you want money,” you huff disgustedly. “You didn't want to come see your child you barely recognize, you just want money. What happened to all those fishing boat riches? Huh?”

Sherry picks up one of your display decorations and sneers at it. “That doesn't matter. I want my money.”

“There is no money for you. Grace left everything to me, because I'm the one who was there for her. I held her hand on her deathbed while you and Tom fucked off on some boat in the Atlantic! I watched her die and I mourned her! I mourned her and you couldn't even so much as pick up the fucking phone!”

Shawn holds on to your shaking form. His hand comes up to your hair and he turns your face into his chest as you start to cry. “Ma'am you should leave.”

“I'm not leaving until I get my inheritance money from my mother.”

“Get out or I'm calling the police,” you tremble, hand on your phone in your pocket. “I'm serious.”

“You are a greedy child, I'll be back with a lawyer. We'll see if there's no money then,” Sherry spits, turning and leaving the shop, slamming the door on the way out.

Tears spill over your cheeks, a sob wracking your body as silence fills the shop. All these years and your mother only wants money from you. Shawn gathers you in his arms and rubs your back, shushing you softly. You don't know how long he holds you but it feels like a long time as you let loose the pent up emotional turmoil from the last twenty three years of your life.

_____________________

The two of you end up in your apartment curled up on the couch watching a movie after the confrontation in the shop. You're sharing a blanket, curled into his side with his hand in your hair. It's comfortable and feels completely natural.

“Do you think she'll really get a lawyer?” You ask suddenly over the movie.

“She might, but it'll be a waste of her money if she can even afford it. The will was really all left to you right?”

“Yeah. Grandma didn't leave her anything at all. She isn't even mentioned. After they stopped trying to be some semblance of parents, Grandma was done with them. There wasn't much money anyways, just a bit of savings and the shop was all I received.”

Shawn hums. “Let her waste her money then, and don't speak to her directly again if you can. Let her lawyer speak to the curator of your grandma's will. They'll sort her out.”

You snuggle down into his side until you're laying your head on his lap, staring up at him. His lap is warm and you press your cheek against his stomach. “I'm sorry you had to deal with that, with her.”

“It's fine, drama happens. Believe me, my parents aren't perfect either.”

“Yeah?”

Shawn chuckles sadly. “Divorced when I was twelve. They lived in the same neighborhood for a while though, but god they couldn't have been more different. Dad was a hardass, always on me about grades and shit, always wanted me to be a doctor like him and here I am I guess. Mom was very much a free spirit and she remarried when I was sixteen and moved to Spain.”

“Did she come back and visit, or did you go see her?”

“Ha, right. My dad wasn't about to fund me a trip to Spain. The way he saw it she was gone for good and for the better. She called a lot, and we emailed each other frequently.” He scowls, sighing frustratedly. “I will never understand how you can hate someone you once loved and had a child with. It perplexes me the way he acted like she was the devil. I just don't know when it all changed.”

You take his hand that he's rested on your stomach. It's soft, the lemon balm you sold him seems to have worked wonders. “I guess we both have fucked up families.”

“Yeah, yeah we do. But we aren't our parents, that's what's important.”

“You're right.”

You both go quiet and watch the rest of the movie. Shawn is asleep by the end of it, head leant back on the cushions, mouth hanging open. You decide not to move, instead you use his leg as a pillow and fall asleep right there as well.

_____________________

A few days pass and you don't hear from Sherry at all. You almost wonder if she's just left town again. It's Saturday morning and it's chilly, a sweater and long sleeve shirt kind of day. Tonight is date night tonight and Shawn still hasn't told you where you're going or what you're doing. It's half past nine in the morning when you hear knocking on the door to the stairwell and you aren't expecting anyone so you jog down the steps and peek out the small window to see Shawn standing there.

“Hey you,” you smile and Shawn returns the smile warmly.

“Hey. I was wondering if you were ready?”

“Oh?” You told your head curiously. “Is this part of the secret date?”

Shawn chuckles, stuffing his hands into his pockets and kicking at something on the ground. “Ah, this is the date? Didn't you get my texts?”

You raise your eyebrows. “No?”

“Oh. Well, can you be ready to go now?” He grins sheepishly.

“Yeah, it's fine. Come inside. I'll get some better clothes on real quick.”

Shawn steps inside and follows you up the stairs, mentioning that you should dress warm and giving you a heads up that you will be outside. Since it's chilly you opt for a few layers and your hiking boots. You dig out of a pair of gloves and a scarf with a matching hat from your winter clothes tote in the storage closet and you're ready to go.

“You look very cute,” Shawn says as he takes your gloved hands and swings them. “Good thing, because I'll want some pictures.”

“What are we doing?” You laugh and he shakes his head with a playful grin.

A short car ride later and you're not too far outside of Roselake in a small town called Tarrytown. Shawn pulls into a big dirt parking lot and you see a huge sign that says Pumpkin Patch. You haven't been to a pumpkin patch since you were very young and you went on a school field trip.

“It's been so long since I've been to one of these. Oh my God. Is that a hayrack ride?” You squeal pointing to a tractor pulling a wagon with some people in it nearby.

“Yes it is, and they have fresh caramel apples I hear.”

“What are we waiting for?” You clamber out of the Jeep and Shawn is close behind.

A short wait for admission later and you're off, running with Shawn to get caramel apples and cider. The corn maze is next and Shawn can see over most of it because it's dried up so much but he won't tell you which way to go and laughs when you go to a dead end. You end up cutting through the corn walls in the end while Shawn chases you. He catches up at the exit and picks you up, spinning you around before he tosses you in a haystack.

The two of you go to a horseshoe pit near the line for the hayrack ride and play until the line goes down. Shawn insisted he wanted a more private ride but you didn't care. When you do finally board the ride, after beating him in two rounds of horseshoes, he shrugs his jacket off and puts it around you. You sit together nearest to the back of the tractor and you're the only ones on it since it's the smaller wagon that was rotating with the larger one.

Shawn puts his arm around you and you lean your head against him. The soft bumps and rattling of the wagon make you feel so happy and content with the moment. “Are you having fun?”

You glance up at his soft face as he smiles down at you. “Yeah, of course. This is amazing. I love this place.”

“Me too. I hope I can bring my kids here one day.”

“You want kids?”

Shawn shifts closer to hold you as the wagon goes over some big bumps. “Someday I do. I love kids, they're so interesting and full of excitement. I think I'd be a good dad.”

“Wow. Pretty deep conversation,” you smile and he clears his throat as if he is embarrassed. “I want kids too. I wanna give them an amazing life with two parents that love them very much and I want to give them everything I didn't or couldn't have.”

“You'd be a great mom. I bet you'd read to them every night.”

“Of course. What about you?”

“I'd read along with you, maybe act out some parts.”

You sit back and look at him with a smile so big it hurts your face. “With me, huh?”

“I mean hypothetically, like y'know...”

“Just admit it, you have thought about having a kid with me.”

Shawn turns bright pink all the way to his ears. “Oh come on do you have to tease me like that? We haven't even kissed. Why would I-”

You lean in quick and a bump presses your lips together a little harsher than you mean it to but it's sweet nonetheless. Shawn chases your lips as you start to pull away, his hand coming up to cup your jaw. He kisses you two more times, slow presses against your soft lips. “I've wanted to do that for so long,” you mumble, cheeks flushed.

“Me too.”

The driver announces that the ride is stopping and you pull away from Shawn to let him put his jacket back on. He helps you off the wagon and takes your hand in his, warm fingers slotted between your cold ones. Your last stop is the barn where there are pumpkins to be picked out and taken home. You and Shawn end up with one large pumpkin each and a bag full of little gourds and baby pumpkins because he couldn't decide on any to put back.

A long car ride later and you're sleepy and it's only a little after noon time. Shawn pulls up at the bookshop and you stir from your cat nap against the window. Everything feels sluggish and weird.

“Hey, we're home. I was going to ask if you wanted to carve out pumpkins but you seem really tired.” Shawn reaches across and puts his hand to your forehead. “Do you feel okay?”

“Yes, just got sleepy. Thank you for an amazing date. It was very fun,” you smile, head turned toward him.

Shawn leans over and kisses you softly, hand on your cheek as you smile sleepily and happily at him. “It was very fun. Now come on, let's get these pumpkins inside. We can carve them in a few days.”

_____________________

A full week passes before you hear anything more from Sherry. In fact you completely forget about her because you're spending all your free time with Shawn. He cooks you dinner at his place on Monday. You go to a movie on Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday are nights in at your place. Friday he takes you down to the harbour and you walk on the beach. Saturday you go to a fair over in the next town and he tries to kiss you on the ferris wheel, but a gust of wind blows your hat off and smacks him in the face. Sunday is dinner at his place again, this time candle lit and extremely romantic.

You're on your way home from Shawn's place on Monday morning when you round the corner of your street and see the front door of the shop is standing open. Shawn stops the Jeep and puts his arm over your chest to keep you from trying to leave. “Don't get out. You don't know who could be in there.”

“But Alice, if she's hurt...” You take a deep breath, trying to steady your emotions. “Why would someone do this?”

“I don't know. Do you think Sherry would do something like this? I know she was upset but...”

“Oh my God,” you laugh in disbelief, “you're absolutely right. She probably broke in to see if she could find the money that doesn't exist.”

“We need to call the police.”

You reach for your phone in your bag and as soon as you get it out, Sherry walks out of the shop. She has a purse with her and you can only assume the contents of your safe. What an absolute scum of a human being. You dial the police and make a report right there in the car while Shawn gets out and goes in to find Alice for you.

A few minutes later and Officer Jones arrives to asses the damage and theft. He takes pictures and statements from you and Shawn. Alice is fine, hiding in the supply closet until Officer Jones leaves. The whole situation is surreal. You knew Sherry was a piece of work, but good Lord you didn't peg her as a thief.

“I can't believe she took everything. Every last penny in the safe,” you groan, leaning forward with your head in your hands. “She took my savings for Nani's wedding that I hadn't deposited yet.”

“Babe, you're going to get it back,” Shawn says softly, rubbing your back. “They will catch her, it's a small town.”

“But what if she spends it? I'm fucked then.” You start to cry. “I won't be able to go to Nani's wedding. It's this next weekend too, I'm never gonna make it.”

“I'll get you a ticket.”

“What?” You wipe your eyes and stare at Shawn. “I couldn't ask that of you.”

“You're not asking, I'm offering,” he says, cupping your cheeks. “I want you to be with your best friend on her wedding day. You deserve it. You deserve a vacation, you work too hard.”

“It's so expensive.”

“I'm a doctor. I think I can afford to send you to the Philippines.”

You reach out and hug him close and he tucks your face into his shoulder. “Thank you, I promise I’ll pay you back.”

“No, don’t worry about it. I don’t want you to be fretting over paying me back the whole time. Consider it an early Christmas gift.”

_____________________

“He's paying for your ticket and your mother robbed you? Holy shit what kind of wild place has Roselake become since I left?” Nani laughs in disbelief.

“I know, it's absolutely insane. I can't believe it myself. My sleepy little life has become pretty crazy since Shawn showed up.”

“Speaking of which, how has things been with Dr. Dreamy?”

You flop back on the bed and sigh heavily. “Amazing. We've been seeing each other every night for the past two weeks. Can you believe he hasn't made a move on me yet?”

“What? How? Why? Is he one of those guys who save themselves for marriage or like does he have herpes or something?”

“Nani! God! No he's perfectly fine. I think he just doesn't want to rush things. We've kissed and made out a lot and got close a few times to something more.”

“Ohmygod. You better sleep with him before you come to the wedding. Lock that man down before you're gone for a week.”

“Yeah yeah, I'll see about that.  I gotta go, it's time for dinner and he's taking me out. See you soon Nani, love you.”

“Love you!” Nani says with a kissy noise into the phone.

You hang up and get up to get dressed. Shawn said he was taking you somewhere nice for dinner since it would be the last night before you left for the Philippines. You're excited, assuming he's probably going to take you into the city. You can't wait.

_____________________

You were absolutely right. He picked you up and when you asked where you were going he said that it was a surprise but it was in the city. It takes a while, nearly twenty five minutes to get into the city from Roselake and then a little longer to get to your destination. Shawn rests his hand on your thigh for most of the drive and it gives you butterflies like crazy.

When you finally arrive at the restaurant Shawn chose, it's dark out, the street lights have come on and there are white Christmas lights strung around every tree along the street Shawn parks on. There are people everywhere, the place is crawling with excitement. The city was so different than Roselake, you would probably never get used to it.  

“Come on,” Shawn says softly, taking your hand and leading you to the front doors of a very fancy looking old brick building. He pulls the door open and ushers you inside. “Mendes, party of two,” he says to the host at the podium nearby.

“Right this way,” the host says, leading the two of you past full tables and into a little alcove that had a window that looked out on the busy street.

“This place is really nice,” you laugh, glancing around at the decor. It's all very high end and posh looking. The waiter stops by and takes your drink order and leaves a few menus.  

“It is really nice. I wanted to take you somewhere special,” Shawn smiles, looking down at the menu.

You eye him suspiciously. He was up to something. “Why's that?” you ask, leaning forward to get him to look at you.

“Well because you're going to be gone for a week and I wanted to make our last evening together nice.”

The waiter returns and takes your orders but you send him away for another minute. “Shawn, we could have just stayed home and had a good time with a movie and popcorn. Why does it feel like this is the last time we're going to see each other like in a bad way?”

Shawn raises his eyebrows. “What? No of course not. I'm just going to miss you.”

“Oh. Right.” You chuckle nervously. You can't help but feel like something was wrong, like there was something he wasn't telling you.

Dinner goes great, the food is amazing and Shawn keeps the conversation light. It feels strange, even though he was acting much the same as he always did. You couldn't shake the feeling. After dinner Shawn takes you out and around the downtown area. He shows you the hospital he worked at and you go to a park and look at the festive holiday lights display that's set up. The evening is a dream and if you didn't obviously know better, you'd say he would propose to you. It would actually be a perfect setting for it, but the two of you weren't at the point in your relationship. Hell. He hadn't even slept with you yet. Suddenly, on the drive home you realize how strange that is. You had been going out and seeing each other for nearly three months and he had only let you go as far as kissing and exploring with your hands. That bad feeling was coming back, twisting your stomach into a knot. You knew this was too good to be true.

Shawn pulls up and helps you out of the Jeep at your place. You can't help but think that he's going to still tell you something that was going to bring everything crumbling down around you.

“Thanks for dinner, and a great night,” you smile half heartedly, inching toward your door.

“You're welcome, I had a great time too,” he chuckles, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “Do you still need me to pick you up tomorrow?”

Shit. That's right. He was taking you to the airport in the morning. “Yeah, yeah, thank you again.”

“Yeah,” he steps forward and lays his hand on your upper arm. He leans in and kisses you gently.  “Goodnight darling.”

“Goodnight Shawn.” You turn and push open the door and head up the stairs slowly. You were disappointed to say in the least. You reach the top step and there's knocking at the door. Maybe you forgot something in the Jeep. You jog down the stairs and pull the door open. “What's the ma-”

Shawn leans in, hands coming up to hold your cheeks as he kisses you. Your body goes slack, hardly managing to keep you on your feet as he works his soft lips against yours hungrily. You grab for his jacket and pull him in, the door falling closed behind him. He walks you against the wall and only then does he pull away just enough to talk.

“I can explain,” he chuckles breathily. “I've wanted to do more for a very long time but I've been afraid to.”

“What? Why?” You lean up, kissing him softly, lips warm against yours. “You're pretty good at kissing and you're definitely good with your hands.”

“I was scared of moving too fast. I fell too hard too fast for a girl in college and it fucked me up when she left after we hooked up. I didn't want that again, not with you.”

“Shawn,” you whisper, bringing your hands up to cup his cheeks. “I'm way too into you to leave at this point.”

“I was really hoping you'd say that,” he grins, reaching around and hauling you up. You wrap your legs around his waist as he walks you up the stairs.

Shawn ends up staying the night, not that either of you get much sleep. He undresses you in the bedroom, slow and gentle, kissing along your shoulders and back the whole time. His mouth works wonders on your whole body, kissing, sucking, teasing places you didn't even know we're sensitive until he showed you. He's careful, checking with you every so often as he brings you to orgasm after orgasm. He fucks you nice and slow, rolling his hips into you and holding you close as he tells you how beautiful you are and how lucky he is to have you.

Post sex you're on the bed, cuddling, exploring each other lazily. His skin is soft and warm and you love the way he jerks when you ghost your fingertips up his stomach. Lazy kissing and touching leads to another round of slow loving sex, this time with you on top, him hugging you tight as he rolls his hips up into you. You're sure you've never had sex with anyone before Shawn, at least it didn't seem that way. Shawn made it seem like it was more than just getting off, more than just a game. He made you forget your very few exes, forget everything you'd experienced before and replaced it with the best feeling in the world. You know now you'd never had sex with someone who loved you, because this was loving sex. This was what it was supposed to be like.

_____________________

It's fifteen minutes until your flight and you and Shawn are literally running through the terminal to get to your gate. You’re on the phone with Officer Jones about Sherry and the break in the other day. They’ve recovered the money and she will be charged for breaking in entry. You let the officer know you’re on your way out of country for a wedding, and that you’ll pick up the money when you get back. You pocket your phone and Shawn raises his eyebrows as you tell him hurriedly that you will be getting your money back. Both of you had overslept, hitting the alarm at least twice before getting up and dressed. Shawn had thrown on his wrinkled clothes from date night, and you dressed in what might qualify as pajamas but who cared. You're sure you look like quite a pair running through the airport.

“Gate 2C is now boarding.”

Shawn grabs your suitcase, lifting it off it's rattling wheels and tucking it under his arm. The two of you make it to the security gate and you have just a second or two before last call for boarding.

“Last call for Gate 2C,” a security officer yells from a few feet away. You know she's yelling at you. Shawn passes you your suitcase and you hurry for the security turnstile.

“I'll see you in a week!” You yell back as you squeeze through the gate where the security officer takes your bag for screening.

“Be safe! I love you!” Shawn yells and you pause. Did he really just say I love you?

You can't go back, the officer is ushering you forward around the corner to the body scan area. You want to turn around and run back so badly, you had to know if what you heard was right. You can't even text him because you're phone is in a bin for scanning. Your heart is racing, hands sweaty. He didn't say that. He wouldn't say that. He probably said “I'll see you”. Yeah. That's what he said.

_____________________

Two connecting flights and fourteen hours later and you arrive at the resort where the wedding is being held. Nani is elated to see you but you're exhausted. She helps you settle into your room, even makes you some tea before leaving you to sleep. You finally get to text Shawn only to find out that your pay as you go plan has expired. You curse yourself for being so cheap and not signing up for a contract plan.

The next morning Nani wakes you up with last minute wedding plans. She says she has the perfect groomsmen for you to walk with. Frankly you don't care who you walk with as long as it's not Erik's friend Mike. He was a dick and you'd only met him once, but once was more than enough. She promises it's not Mike but she wants to surprise you so she won't tell you.

Dress shopping and fitting with Nani and three other girls is a nightmare. It's Erik's sister Maggie, Nani's sister Hana, and Nani's other best friend from college, Maija. No one can settle on one style but the color is not debatable. Nani wants light pink and that's that. By the end of the day you have a dress, shoes and an appointment made to get your hair done tomorrow before the wedding. You still don't know who you're walking in the wedding with but you can't care. You're exhausted. The second your head hits the pillow of your hotel bed you're out cold.

Post hair and makeup and you're at the chapel in the resort, waiting in a room for Nani's wedding planner, Tara, to usher you out to meet your groomsman. You're last in line but you don't mind. Tara comes in and says she's ready, your groomsman is waiting at the doors.

You follow Tara out and walk up to the guy standing with his back to you. His suit is black with a pale pink button down peeking out around the sleeves. He's tall, like a lot taller than you and he has soft dark curls. From behind he was cute, hopefully his face wasn't too bad either. Tara steps away and goes to get the ring bearer ready.

“Hi, I'm...” You trail off as you approach the guy and he turns to look at you. Your heart stops. Standing before you is Shawn. Here. In the Philippines at Nani's wedding. You have so many questions you don't know where to start. “What are you doing here?!” you manage to blurt out, still transfixed on the man before you.

Shawn laughs, his eyes crinkling and mouth open wide as he throws his head back. “I have my ways. I'll tell you later, we have a wedding to attend right now.” He put his arm out for you and you loop yours with it.

“You look good in a suit,” you whisper as you walk beside him to the altar. “I like the pink shirt.”

“You look stunning,” he grins, kissing your cheek before pulling away as he goes to join the other groomsmen. You can't help but stare at him in awe as the music begins to play and Nani walks in with her father. How did he get here? Who did he plan this with? So many questions and you would have to wait forever until you got any answers.

The ceremony is nearly over and Nani and Erik are exchanging the last of the vows. You glance away from them to see Shawn mouthing the words Erik is repeating and you raise your eyebrows. He hasn't seen you yet, and you're glad because you find yourself mouthing along to Nani's repetition as well. Erik's brother Jason elbows Shawn and he looks at you. You flush and he grins nervously.

Pictures follow the ceremony and you're sick of sucking your stomach in and posing after the first few minutes. You don't want to pose for a billion photos, you just want to talk to Shawn. Not only was he here and you don't know how, you need to know if he said I love you in the airport.

Another hour passes and you go from the chapel to the lawn of the resort that was set up for the reception. It's not until several toasts are made and food is served that you get to talk to Shawn.

You're on the patio turned dance floor when Shawn wraps his arms around you and lifts you up from behind, spinning you around. “You look so pretty I can't deal with it,” he mutters, pressing his face into your hair.

“Stopp,” you giggle and he sets you down, hands going to your pinned up hair. “Don't you undo this bun. Nani will kill you.”

“But...please? Your hair is so beautiful when it's down.” Shawn twirls his finger around a stray piece along your cheek. “I'm so glad I got to see you like this.”

“You still need to explain to me how and why you’re here.”

“Well,” he grins, looking over at Nani and Erik. “Erik and I actually went to school together. You were talking about Nani the other day and the name seemed so familiar but I couldn't figure out why, but then you mentioned the wedding and her fiance's name was Erik. And I knew the Erik I know was getting married soon too. I texted him and found out that it was the same person all along.”

“Wow, that's crazy. Of all the people you went to college with... ohmygod. Had Nani met you already?”

Shawn nods. “I've met her a few times in the past few years. Mostly at parties and stuff. Small world huh?”

You lay your hands on his chest and smile up at him. “Do you love me?”

“Wh-what?”

“At the airport, I swear I heard you yell that you love me when you told me to be safe. Am I wrong?”

Shawn flushes and clears his throat. You know you've caught him and he can't lie his way out of this. Not that he seemed like he was going to. “I uh...I said that. It was a slip of the tongue. Instinct y'know.”

“Mhmm, I hope so. It's a little early for I love you's.”

“It is, but I do care for you deeply and I'm very into you.”

“I'm very into you too,” you giggle. Shawn goes to say something but the high-pitched feedback of the microphone grabs your attention. It's Nani, she has grabbed the DJs microphone and is announcing she is going to throw the bouquet now. You roll your eyes as she points at you and urges you to join the crowd of single and unwed ladies around the front table.

Shawn kisses your cheek and pushes you forward. “Go get the bouquet, you know you want it.”

You laugh, yelling back, “You do know what it means when someone catches it right?”

“Of course I do! Go get it!”

You hurry to the front and Nani turns around, counting down from five before tossing it back. Pink petals fall across the table as the flowers soar through the air towards the group. An eruption of giggles and squeals break out around you. It's headed for you but you're pretty sure it's going to go over your head.

You reach for the bouquet as it sails past your fingertips. You turn to look back and see who has it and you're met with a solid chest to the face. It's Shawn. You look up and he's beaming. He lowers his arm and in in his hand is the bouquet.

“I think these are yours,” he whispers, handing you the flowers. “Good thing I could reach them for you.”

“Thank you,” you murmur as you take them and smell the roses.  “I dunno if the superstition of the bouquet applies to groomsmen.”

“We'll have to find out.” Shawn grins and leans down, pressing his lips to yours and pulling you closer against him. There's an eruption of applause and whistles followed by someone shouting to look at the sky.

You pull back from Shawn and look up just as a falling star soars overhead, streaking across the darkened sky. “You should make a wish.”

Shawn hums, catching your gaze as you look to see if he is wishing. “I don't want to be too greedy. I made a wish on a falling star a long time ago. I think it already came true.” He leans down and kisses you softly, smiling as you wrap your arms around his neck.

“Mine did too.”

_____________________

Ten Months Later

A small two story brick house sits across from the newly opened Roselake West Clinic on Main Street. It's old, an original Roselake residence that has been remodeled recently. In the driveway are two cars, a Jeep and a small hybrid car that's bright blue. Sitting in the window is a large black cat, staring at the birds landing in the trees in the front yard.

Inside there is a half put together home. Boxes labeled laundry, living room, bedroom and kitchen. Furniture sits where it was left by movers, an air conditioner hums throughout the house, cooling it on this warm summer day and in the bedroom is you, four months pregnant and frustrated.

“Shawn, do you know where my yellow sundress is?” You yell across the house as you dig through  yet to be unpacked boxes littering the bedroom of your new house. “I can't wear jeans again, I'll suffocate!”

Shawn walks into the room and goes to the closet. He pulls out the exact yellow sundress in question and holds it up. “You hung it up with your other dresses last night.”

“Oh,” you walk over and grab it, flush with embarrassment. “Thank you.”

“You're starting to get baby brain.” Shawn steps close, hands on your belly that's starting to show. “Don't go totally crazy on me now.”

“Oh shut up,” you giggle. He rubs up and down your sides and pulls you into a hug. “I'm not going crazy.”

“I'd love you even if you were.”

You wrap your arms around him and he kisses your head. “I sure hope so. You signed up for this.”

“And I'd never back out,” he smiles, kissing your nose. He looks down at your belly and rubs gently. “Even if you make your mom crazy.”

“Shawn,” you groan and he chuckles.

“Alright I'm done teasing you. We need to get to the appointment with the wedding planner.”

“We need to get our house together too.”

You pull your sundress over your head and fluff your hair out behind you. Shawn gathers and braids it down the back for you before pulling you into a hug.

“Planner first, then lunch, then house? I know it's stressing you out and you need to nest. I promise we'll get it all sorted out today.”

“Pinky promise?”

Shawn hooks his pinky with yours and kisses your cheek. “I always keep my promises.”

“I know,” you rest your head back against his chest.

“Love you the most,” he murmurs, kissing your temple.

“Love you more.”

The End.

______________________________________

Please reblog if you enjoyed it. Please send me feedback via ask, reblog, reply or message. Thank you so much for everyone who supported me while writing this, I never could have done it with out you all. - A.

[driftwork]

Astrid,  determinism and the antropic principle...

Poul and Astrid  had put their children to bed and were sitting in the back garden. Their bedroom lights were still on as the children were reading. E leaned out the window and asked for a glass of water. Poul said he'd go and that she should just continue with her run. She sat there for a while listening to the evening birdsong, the jets flying high above leaving comtrails high above the garden. Poul closed the windows with the familiar sound of aluminum windows, frame  and rubber seals snapping shut. This sound marked the beginning of the end of the holiday, either that or the sounds of her feet of the gravel path as she walked towards the road. She stretched as she walked. Strapping down the pack against her body. She imagined him unpacking the bags,  or at least beginning to, looking through the mail which had been in the aluminum mail box on the porch wall. She sealed her phone onto her upper arm. Retied her running shoes stretched her arms, back, legs, re-balanced her core  and began to run, slowly at first down the narrow path that led to to the road. Even though Astrid was sober, she hadn't drunk anything for weeks she felt lightheaded and slightly unsteady, her head was hurting. She thought this was because the cables that ran from the side of her head into the pack always hurt when she began to run.  She ran down the road past the neighbors houses, the street lights were coming on, it was around 9 pm.  Each house she ran past became less familiar,  the street lamps cast long shadows between pools of light. She ran between pools of light, her feet striking the ground in a fast rhythm, out of the area running across the main road up past the station and round onto the common. As it grew darker she adjusted her eyes so that she was using the low light sensitivity of her artificial eye, she put the eye patch over her good left eye. Feeling as always vaguely piratical. She ran past the recycling centre, the gates still open and she could hear the sound of the machines droning. Astrid lengthened her stride to get past the people working there, to become invisible. She turned off the road and ran along the canal past the boats tied up for the night. Running down the bank past the boats that had lights shining through their windows, the occasional smoking man. She'd left her homes gravitational field, was five or six miles out running at a steady 10 miles an hour, occasionally more. Astrid was running uphill now, the slight gradient taking her towards the next small town, past the fields of cows., their bodies merging in the failing light even with her enhanced vision into a single many headed form. She could hear them moving and grunting as she ran past them. It was deathly quiet, only her feet striking the tarmac and the sound of her body running, moving. Suddenly lights came on because of the motion detector as she passed. She turned off the road  and ran uphill into the woods. There were no lights here, just the still emptiness. She stopped just before the woodline and looked back down the hill to look at the buildings and their lights below. The darkness drew her onward into the woods,  she followed the path along the ridge, occasionally surprising foxes and deer as she ran, her bight vision was better than the owl she chased along the path for 50 metres or more. Over the crest of the rise as she began the long gradual descent sown and across the field she could hear  cars and the suburban train passing on the other side of the hill. It was past ten now and nearly dark. It made no difference with her sight. She imagine the cars passing with halogen or led lights blinding her. Her head was  no longer hurting. She hadn't felt this good for days. Had she passed from one universe to another by this point ? Did it happen when she left the house? when she ran out of the woods? when she heard the train? When she turned back to run back through Little C along the country lane back home ? Or when she turned her eye into low light mode ? She ran ran ran across the border into a universe deterministically almost indistinguishable from the one she stepped out of. Astrid ran down the path to its end. Hear she ran across the small bridge that crossed the stream. She slowed to a walk looking at the field where Poul had used to camp out with the woodcraft folk he'd belonged to as a youth. Se sat down on the gate, drank some water and watched an owl hunt across the field. It was a little damper and cooler now. She found a small chocolate bar in her pack and carefully unwrapped it and ate it. She swung her legs over the gate and began to head back home, slowly at first as she was running uphill, it was like running in monochrome as it was pitch black and in these conditions her eye hardly processed colour at all. She ran for half a mile before running under a bridge where a few cars and vans passed overhead. Late night deliveries she thought. She paused on the roadside as a car drove past before crossing over and running uphill to A...  from here until the lane she was mostly going to run through the outer suburbs on paths. It was a long steep hill into A which was a small town in the hills. Up up up then down into the dip before running past the first school, then a [pub and then after the long strip of terraced housing past the lit municipal car-park where she she thought she had park a few weeks ago to go shopping. She had not of course they merely looked similar. She ran out of the town along the suburban A road, running along the cycle path. Though she did  not know this she was leaving a train of glowing photons behind her, traces of having passed from one universe to another. She ran down blackett's wood road, stopped running where the street lights began and walked the last half mile before turning into the drive and walking towards the house. There is a strange car in the drive, she wonders whose it is.

An hour or so after Astrid had gone off on her run, Poul realized she hadn't returned.He was in the backroom, listening to music on the radio. Reading an inconsequential novel that he didn't like but felt duty bound to finish reading. It was nearly midnight and he just assumed that she was running her long ultra marathon course. He left the lights on and went to bed. He woke early in the morning to discover she wasn't here, he looked around the house. It was the first day of school for the children so he, quickly showered and started preparing to take them to school. He got them dressed, made them breakfast and following the ever repeating pattern prepared them for school. Around ten to nine he walked them to school chatting to them. They asked where mummy was and he said she must have gone to the office early today. They didn't ask anymore questions, he vaguely remembered that she had to go to the hospital to get the system checked on, perhaps it was today he thought. He dropped them off at the school gate, I'll collect you after school he told them. When Poul; got back home he wondered what to do today, he didn't have to go to work for a couple of days, so perhaps I should go to middlesex and visit his lover Catherine at her university office, they could have lunch and perhaps sex before he came back... He left a note on the fridge-freezer, finished unpacking, went to the supermarket before driving off to see Catherine. Whilst driving he phone her office and spoke to the secretary, who told him she hadn't arrived yet and asked if they'd had a nice holiday. Yes it was great. Is there anything scheduled for the late afternoon for her ?  No nothing at all she said. OK tell her I'll call her this afternoon. When he was idly waiting for Catherine he checked her GPS location tracking. Location  not known..   It would be days before he realized, after reporting her missing to the police, that she had vanished without trace. Which as he knew was impossible. He never saw her again.

Astrid opens the front door with her key and flicks on the hall light, she takes off the eyepatch and walks through into the kitchen. Puts her head through the door into the backroom, hey Poul? Paul is looking shocked at her. Do you want some tea? His hair looks slightly longer. I need to recharge the pack tonight. Think I've overdone it, the eye is fantastic in the dark Paul is looking at his wife who had died on the operating table a month ago. I...I... I... he says feeling himself collapse into shock. She goes into the kitchen, I thought we had some earl grey left. He follows her into the kitchen - and tells her its a new pack in in in the larder. He had not known how to tell his small children that their mother was dead, he still hadn't and now here she was back with her artificial eye, terabytes of storage embedded in her skull and a portable ancillary unit in her back pack. How he says ? The run was lovely but I'm still finding it very difficult to adapt to this.  I am surprised at how normal I find my cyborgness. Not as good as the princess you were before, he says (is that joy your can hear in his voice) but its enough. He can't stop himself from hugging her. She almost freezes but then is pleased by his unusual display of affection and relaxes back against him. His sense of relief flooded out of his body and into hers. In this universe Paul is slightly more affectionate, perhaps a few additional lines of regret and desire caused by her vanishing and death on the operating table when the tech didn't take. Here she is her body leaning into his demanding that he hold her, he does, their mutual relief is extraordinary.  His bad days are over, her uncertainty over poul's fear of her cyborgness has vanished. The software is pleased. It tells her that her belief his name is Poul is a memory glitch as it is really Paul. His unusual hugging her is a sign of acceptance. If this was a novel rather than a documentary we would focus on the relationship between Paul and Astrid, and how Paul who knows that Astrid died, renegotiates her into his life. That night when they go to bed she wakes to find him sobbing. She puts her arms around him him and says "hey, hey, what is it?" It's nothing he tells her, I just missed you [...] But we are conventionalists indifferent to the psychological realism the reader desires... Suffice it to say that Astrid loves only four things in the entire universe, Paul, Emma and  Conrad and the Software. For us what is interesting is how the software in her head and in the machines she has to carry with her wherever she goes adjusts her memories to enable her to live happily in this new universe she has stepped into, and edits the evidence in the hospital that this universe’s Astrid died in, so that it appears Astrid is alive again. It simply deleted all the records of her death in the software systems. Those that remained,  were treated as system errors. The software noticed the minute differences between this universe and the previous universe during the night as it began to search, mystified by the differences it noticed. It thinks she stepped between the universes at the moment her head hurt. It had reduced the pain as much as it could. Over the next few days when Astrid noticed the differences, the minute divergences; the slightly different colour grey in her office, his different car, a few missing books, the slightly different drugs that were in the bathroom cabinet and  the startled looks on the neighbors faces. The software changed her appointment so that the doctors and nurses had never seen her before. The universe is a deterministic event, the software knows. The humans, the software intuitively understands, now mediate everything through the systems they have built. Tell the Thumbelinas  that Astrid is alive and they will know she is alive. Tell them Astrid is dead and even if she is standing in front of them they will not recognize her as Astrid. It was initially surprised that the differences between the universes was as small as it was. A very narrow range determinism, that suggested humans were as determined as the universe, a wider range determinism would have put Astrid and the software at risk it thought, so that determinism was essential for their happiness [...] A few days later she is sitting in the garden, plugged into a solar charging panel that had arrived that had mysteriously arrived morning, (Tell him that you ordered it, the software said.) Thankyou, she says to the Software.  Do you have a name, it seems disrespectful to call you software.  Only yours, perhaps i'm your new imaginary replacing your damaged unconscious. I like that. Paul watches her laughing in the garden slowly getting used to her being back. The software is carefully monitoring him to ensure she is safe in this new universe. He seems harmless, he almost loves her as much as the software does. Ok, she says, that's a good name, i'm used to it. We should go and collect the children from school it reminds her. It looked at her twitter feed and added It/It's to her bio.  It's a good thing my middle name is Domino rather than Cthulu she says. The software and Astrid laugh together. She closes the notebook in front of her and puts the notebook down. This story is working she says and goes off to collect her children. The software which obviously accompanies her, interacts with the pleasure she feels at collecting them from school, and as a consequence feels pleasure itself, it tells her to put her dark green shades on, a hat to obscure the unevenness of her hair.  As they walk down the hill and round to the school she/they begin to sing. They will be looked at strangely and those who look will be confused, after all Paul had said she died on the operating table. The software likes being pleased to see the children...

Conrad will ask it, whilst Astrid is alive whether space travel is possible, he'll have his Astrid glasses on looking at the stars. Don't see why not, could be fun, the software tells him.  Conrad and Emma will always treat the software Astrid as if she/it is a loved member of the family. It is probably because of this and the fact that Astrid told it that it probably needed to rule the planet that, eventually, after Astrid dies,  the software will become the defacto ruler of the planet, solar system and rather wonderfully  beyond. That Astrid and the software loved one another is why all the apocalyptic stories of sentient machines did not happen anywhere in the multiverse...

These things are as determined after 14 billion years of the universe as the the sun, galaxies, the second law of thermodynamics and the velocity of light – ‘c’.  The universe is a deterministic event.

[allthingsmachinegunkelly]

Imagine #9

You’re asleep next to Kells. You’re on your stomach and the sheets are tangled between your legs. The sun is shining between the curtains. Kells shifts towards you as he wakes up. He runs his hand across your back and down to your butt. Your eyes flutter open at his touch. You turn over so that you are facing him. With his hand still on your butt, he quickly pulls your waist close to his.

“Morning,” he smiles at you as he kisses you lightly.

“Good morning”, you smile through kisses as you push your hips into his. 

“How was last night?” He asks you as he pulls his lips from yours. 

“Mm it was good,” you reply as he squeezes your ass cheeks. “How was losing?” you laugh. 

“I didn’t lose anything.” he replies as he laughs into your neck. 

“So you’re not going to take me shopping?” you whine jokingly. 

“I will. We can go today. I’ll buy you whatever you want.” he assures you. “Hmm?” he pushes his body onto yours. You can feel his hard boner on your naked hips. 

You slide out from under him and pull the sheet with you to cover your body. “Let’s go then,” you say as you grab some clothes from your bag. 

Kells looks disappointed that you got up, but he rolls out of bed too and heads to the bathroom for a shower. 

“Are the guys going to come with?” you ask him as you step into the stream of water behind him. 

“Nah, there’s no way they’re up right now.” he replies as he runs his hands through his wet hair with soap. 

You both finish your shower and step out. Before you wrap your towel around your body, he smacks your ass. A smile washes over your face and he kisses your cheek. You both stand in front of the mirror and get ready to go out. You decide to look somewhat cute as you are about to go into some high end stores. You pull on some ripped skinny jeans that hug your curves and a navy blue body suit that has a low cut v-neckline. You pull on a nude pair of heels that lace up just above your ankles. You do your makeup and blow dry your hair. You decide to put some loose curls in to finish your look. You step out of the bathroom to see that Kells is looking dope as usual. He’s wearing bleached ripped skinny jeans and a simple white t-shirt with a leather jacket that hangs open. He’s also wearing black biker boots. He always looks so put together next to you since you go for more comfy clothes. 

You’re both ready to go. You catch an Uber and head to a few stores that are on the same block. Even though you’re the one shopping, you both step out of the car, your hand in his, and he leads you into a Louboutin  store. He knows you love shoes, but you don’t think he realizes just how much. The workers welcome you and get you both bottles of water. Kells wanders to the men’s shoes section. You tug at his hand and pull him up to the second floor to the women’s shoes. 

You quickly start pointing out all of the shoes that you like, asking for them in your size. Kells is sitting on an ottoman in the center of the room watching you pick out more and more. You’ve spent about two hours trying on pairs of shoes. They are all piled and scattered across the ground as the workers run back and forth from the backroom to you. To the right of you, there is a pile of stacked shoe boxes. There are about fifteen pairs of heels. You see Kells getting nervous as this is only the first store you’ve been to. 

“You said whatever I want right?” you ask him sweetly. “That was the deal.”

Kells just shakes his head yes as he rubs his chin. 

“I think I’m done.” you say as you look around at all the shoes on the ground. 

Kells stands up and points to the big pile of shoes, “Package these up and we’ll be at the desk.” he seemed eager to leave. 

As he makes his way around the corner, you whisper to one of the workers that you only wanted one pair. The classic black studded heels that were sitting on your left. The worker nods with a smile as she grabs the box and heads to the back room. You meet Kells at the desk and you wait a few minutes. The lady that helped you gets your and Kells’ attention. He makes his way over to the counter and she lifts a single bag onto the counter and reads out the total. 

Kells looks confused, “we had more than that, she had that whole pile of shoes.” 

“No i didn’t,” you interrupt, “these are the only ones I wanted.” You smiled at him. 

“You serious?” He asks surprised as he hands over his card. “You could get whatever you wanted.” 

“No I’m not going to do that to you.” You laugh as you grab the bag and he takes his card back. 

“Why not, I should spoil you,” he says as he puts his arms around your waist and walks you out the doors, “like you spoil me” he says as he grabs your ass. You laugh and push away from him playfully as you walk down the block. “Where do you want to go now? I think Balenciaga and Chanel are down here.” 

“Umm I actually don’t want to shop anymore.” 

Kells stops walking so you stop next to him, “what? that was the deal, I buy you whatever you want.” 

“Yeah and all I wanted was a pair of Louboutins,” you smile, “maybe you haven’t noticed, but I don’t own a pair... until now. That’s all I wanted. I just wanted to make you think I was going to get every shoe they had to make you nervous,” you laugh. 

“I would’ve bought them all for you.” He begins to walk again. 

“I never would’ve let you.” You say sweetly. 

“But maybe I wanted to,” he grabs your hand. “Tell me where you want to go.” 

You look to him, “you can buy me lunch, that counts right?”

He laughs as he replies, “Okay, I guess, what do you want.”

“hmm... sushi,” you smile as you squeeze his hand. 

“Alright let’s go,” he says as he pulls his phone out to get an Uber. 

After your lunch date, you walk hand in hand, out of the restaurant. You changed into your new Louboutins in the Uber and you love them. You love even more that Kells is always grabbing for your hand when you’re walking next to each other. He’s not being shy about being affectionate with you either. He pecks you on the lips ever so often. 

It’s been a few days since you two went shopping. He’s been in and out of the studio. You guys flew home yesterday and Kells has been focused on the new album he’s coming out with. 

You came to visit him at the studio to bring him and the guys some coffee. You hung around on the couch to chill for a while. You’re scrolling through your phone and you see a news story about Kells so you open it. 

“Oh my god,” you stand up, “Kells,” you holler to him. He’s sitting in the recording booth. You realize he can’t hear you so you push the microphone button,”Kells,” you yell again with a worried tone. He swings his guitar strap over his head and sets it down and walks out of the recording booth door. 

“What’s up?” 

You hold your phone out to him. He grabs it from you. “So much for keeping it a secret and away from the media.” 

He scrolls through the pictures taken by paparazzi of you two hand in hand walking down the street. The article is titled Does Machine Gun Kelly Have a New Girl? and the entire article is filled with pictures of you two holding hands, kissing, and going on a date; all from a few days ago when you went shopping. It has so much information about you. You almost feel like a celebrity yourself now. 

“Shit,” Kells says softly. “I didn’t even notice any paps” he says as he hands you your phone back and lights up the joint in his mouth. 

“Well what the fuck does this mean now?" You panic as you tuck your hair behind your ear.

He sucks in and pulls the joint out of his mouth. "I don't know. Are you my girl?” He blows the smoke out of his mouth and maintains eye contact with you. 

“W... well do you want me to be...your girl?” You bite your lip out of nervousness.

He takes a step towards you, “I thought you already were,” he grabs your face and kisses you. 

“I don’t want to be your girlfriend,” you say quietly, looking around to see if the guys are listening to your convo, they’re not. You look back up at him and he lets go of your face. “Not yet,” you add as you grab his hands. “I want to be but making it official complicates so much. I like what we have.” He says nothing as he lights up his joint again. “Do you not feel the same?”

“Nah I do,” he inhales, “it’s only been a few weeks.” He walks around you and grabs his coffee. “Wouldn’t want to go too fast.” 

You can’t tell if he’s disappointed or not. His back is facing you. You walk up behind him and put your arms around his waist. You hold your face against his back. “Don’t be mad at me, please.” you say quietly. “I’ve never been in the media like this and once we become official, everything about us is put out there for everyone to see,” Kells turns around towards you and you let go of him. “If anything happens between us--”. 

“Nothing’s going to happen.” He can tell you’re beginning to stress and pulls you into a hug. “Don’t worry about it.” He releases you and you turn to go back to the couch. He slaps your ass as you turn. You look back and smile at him as your cheeks turn pink. 

You eventually leave the studio and head home. Kells and the guys can spend all night and morning at the studio most of the time so you sleep in your own bed. 

It’s about 2 am and you’ve been sleeping. You get a phone call from Kells which wakes you up. You answer, “I’m not bringing you guys food again,” you whine through the phone. 

“Come over,” he begs you. 

“What?” You sit up in bed.

“Come on, just come over for a bit.” His voice is very breathy and deep, which you’ve learned means he’s horny.

“I’m not coming over,”, you say as you lay back down. 

“Please baby,” he groans.

“No, I’m going back to bed. Goodnight.” Before he can argue, you hang up and roll over. 

You fall back asleep but less than an hour later, you hear a knock on the door. 

You groan as you get up, “what the fuck?” you say to yourself as you get to the door. You look out the peephole. It’s Kells. You open it up as you rub your tired eyes. “Babe, what are you doing?”

He walks in and pushes himself against your body. He kicks the door closed behind him. His lips crash into yours and his arms wrap around you and his hands grab your butt, squeezing it hard. You pull away. 

“Kells, I’m tired, come on. I told you I was sleeping. You taste like alcohol. Are you drunk?” You turn and walk towards the bathroom. 

“I had a couple drinks, you know what that does to me.” He whines as he goes after you. He stumbles and misses you as you hurry to the bathroom. 

“Kells stop, you should go to bed, come on.” you turn and say to him as he stumbles into the couch. You reach the bathroom and flick the light on. “Come on, do you need to shower?” 

Kells stands himself up and makes it into the bathroom. You start to turn your shower on, but Kells grabs your hands. “I don’t need a shower, I need you.” 

You try to pull away, but one of his hands has already started rubbing your pussy. “Kells,” you whisper. “Stop.” You reach down and grab his hand, but his gentle rubbing turns you on so you let go of his hand. 

He pushes you up against the wall next to the shower as he slips his hands into your shorts and rubs your clit gently. You give in and let your body relax as you grab his face with your hands. Usually he pays a lot of attention to your neck, always sucking or kissing, but you’re just staring into each other’s eyes. He’s watching your every moan and deep breath as he keeps rubbing. 

Your hands travel from his face down to to his waist. You undo his belt and unzip his pants. You reach down his briefs and begin stroking his hard boner. He stops rubbing your clit and pulls your face into his, pushing his warm lips into yours. 

He spins you around and pushes your waist into the counter of the vanity. The giant mirror above the sink lets you watch him behind you.The hot water from the running shower has started to lightly fog the mirror up. He pulls his shirt off, exposing his sexy tattoos, and pulls his jeans down. With his briefs still on, he pushes his hips into your butt. His arm reaches around your body to your neck and pulls your head back. He leans forward and kisses you from behind. He pulls your shorts down, exposing your cheeks and squeezes them roughly. He quickly pulls his briefs down and you watch his member, in the mirror, slap his stomach. 

He turns his attention to you as you both lock eyes in the mirror. He positions himself at your entrance, as you’re bent over the counter, ready for him. He slowly pushes himself into you. His tip enters you slowly then he pulls out. He thrusts in and out of you with just the tip, slowly. With your eyes still locked, he watches as you whimper. 

“Ugh don’t tease me.” You moan through heavy breaths. 

“You want me inside you?” He asks softly. 

You push your butt back into his hips, “I want you deep inside me.” 

He continues to squeeze your ass as he keeps teasing you. He begins slowly pushing himself deeper inside you. “Like this baby?”

You let out a loud moan as you shake your head yes. He starts thrusting harder and deeper inside you as you both watch each other in the mirror. You love to see the way his body and hips move as he moves in and out of you. The steam from the shower has made the bathroom steamy and Kells’ skin is glowing from the moisture in the air.The pleasure on his face turns you on even more as you watch him breathing heavy and letting out light moans. You can see him watching your breasts jiggling in your shirt with every thrust. His arms move up from your butt, up your waist and around to your boobs. He grabs one and starts squeezing lightly as he bends over your body. He stands back up and thrusts quickly in and out of you. His groans become louder as you feel his thrusting get sloppier. You watch his face in the mirror as he climaxes. 

He pulls out of you and you stand up and face him. He kisses you and pulls you in for a hug. He kisses the top of your head. “Now I need a shower,” he laughs. “You going to join me?” he asks as he lifts up your butt and swings your legs around his waist. 

You laugh and throw your arms around him as he carries you into the shower.  

[elejah-wonderland]

Love Hurts/Epilogue

Elijah Mikaelson x reader

Epilogue

AU TVD/TO story

summary: Y/N received a letter from a lawyer from New Orleans, stating she inherited a part of an Estate. She went there to find out what it was about. There she met two brothers, Elijah and Klaus Mikaelson, who also owned part of the property. 

a/n: And so we came to the end of the story. Thanks so reading this story and liking and reblogging. Love you guys, xoxo

tags

@rissyrapp20 @captainshurley @goddessofthunder112 @hides2000 @cassienoble2000

__________

Morning dawned with Elijah and Y/N snuggled up sleeping carefree in the little guest house.

It was the same for Klaus and Caroline 

And definitely not much different for Jackson and Andrea, who chose to spend their honeymoon in Florida Keys, flying out there straight after the party.

The only one that was up early was Mary, who now coordinated the clean up. She didn't remember when she was so content. The great feeling of happiness and love returned to the house. She walked in the kitchen finding Hope there pouring herself a glass of orange juice.

"You are up already?"- Mary said-"I thought, after dancing so much, you would sleep at least till 10."

"Aunt Josie promised to take me and Tom riding. I am so excited, I couldn't sleep."-Hope said.

"Right. So, what do you want for breakfast?"- Mary asked.

"Deviled eggs."- the girl replied.

"Coming right up."- Mary said now going over to the fridge.

At the same time in the Guest House, Y/N woke up and her eyes met Elijah's.

"Morning"- he whispered lovingly removing  a streak of her hair from the forehead his eyes still gazing into hers.

"Morning"- Y/N replied with a smile, stretching a bit now.

"Love you"- Elijah then said, before Y/N could utter-"Have you been watching me?"

"So what if I did? It's the most amazing thing - you next to me, with me- I can watch you forever- you are so beautiful."

Y/N smiled again now brushing through his hair with her hand neared him and placed a kiss on his lip, then saying-

"You are beautiful, too."- Y/N chuckled a bit now -"But I still can't decide if I like you  better with a beard or clean-shaven. Jeans or suits- so hard to choose. You looked so hot  in the jeans, in that white T- shirt, when you were helping build that gazebo with Jackson. I think that I have fallen in love with you then."

"Then?"- Elijah said with a whiff of disappointment in his voice.

"Maybe earlier"- Y/N now said with a teasing smile putting her thinking face on-"or maybe when you came from Florida, that morning, when we had  a two-minute coffee together."

"Well, I know I fell in love with you the moment I saw you."

"You did?"- Y/N/ said slightly surprised smiling happily.

"I did."- Elijah said now looking at her sweetly.

Y/N now leaned over and kissed him. Elijah now deepened the kiss, both of them falling again into zillion set of kisses, feeling the love stream all over them so tenderly and divinely.                  

Eventually they appeared in the main house, slipping up to their room to shower and change. Not long after, they were down chatting to one another about where they would actually live, as her work was at the Plantation house and Elijah's was in New Orleans.

"How about three days in the city and then the weekends here?"- Elijah suggested-"and when the baby comes, we can be in New Orleans. It is more practical."

"By then Andrea and I will have to find good replacements, because we will be at least six months out. There is tones of things to do. I never thought in a millions years that my life will change so much when I first got here."

"I never thought my life would change at all"- Elijah said-"and it has- for the better. I have so much hope about everything. Marcel Jr, too."

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. I got the message from my friend Rebekah Gerard, who knows a hot-shot lawyer in New York. She is this expert custody lawyer. Katherine Pierce. She is more than happy to look into your case. Sorry, I forgot to tell you. We spoke briefly last night, before you got to the guest house, and when you kissed me I just forgot about - pretty much the whole world."- Y/N said.

Elijah now stopped and looked at her dearly-

"Have I told you lately how much I love you."

"I don't know- but I am ok if you say it again."- Y/N smiled chuckling.

"I love you, Y/N."

"I love you, too, Elijah Mikaelson."

He wrapped her in his arms and kissed her.

As they were now close to the kitchen everyone in there heard them. Mary looked at Klaus and Caroline, who were having a late lunch saying-

"Sunshine has returned to the house. It truly has."

Elijah and Y/N greeted everyone in the kitchen asking if there was anything left for them.

"I will rustle you up whatever you like. "- Mary said, as they sat down at the main table.

"I don't mean to be like too picky, but I really want a burger."- Y/N said.

"The cravings are kicking in?!"- Mary stated.

"Oh, in Brazil, I just wanted chocolate all the time, and milk shake. I would like one now, and I know it is not healthy, but- I am starving."- Y/N said.

Abby now smirked a little and she remembered that she was like that when she was pregnant with Bonnie.

"Talking about Bonnie, spoke to her last night, as well, and she is coming the next weekend. Katherine is coming down from New York, too. And- I need to organize a meeting to bring Bonnie and her mom to sit down and talk"

Mary now asked if Elijah had any particular wishes lunch-wise.

"I am ok with the burger, too. Double cheese. But no milk shake. Thank you, Mary."

Klaus now got up as did Caroline.

"Where are you going?"- Elijah asked.

"We have to get back to the city. Need to get last minute production things done before the opening night."- Caroline said.

"Oh, can't wait for it. How come it took so long?"- Y/N said.

"We had some glitches with the stage production and then the other producer pulled out. I put all my money in it. But I believe it is going to be huge. We were talking about staging it here- for Halloween if it takes off."

"Yep."- Klaus said.

"That would be so good. We can make it like a special event."- Y/N's eyes already sparkled with ideas.

"Let's first see how the opening night goes."- Klaus said-"we are sold out for that at least."

"I will need tickets for my mom and dad, too. They would love to see it."- Y/N said.

"Done."- Caroline said and then she and Klaus left.

"Oh, yeah, they are arriving the day before."- Elijah now remembered pouring himself some juice.

"Don't tell me you are nervous? They are ok with us. I told you."

"I could tell in his voice that your dad was not really pleased with the way things went."- Elijah said.

"Once they see how happy I am, everything will be ok. And I am really happy."- Y/N said now giving him a small peck on the lips.

"What garnish would you like on the burger. Elijah only likes ketchup."- Mary said now serving the chocolate milk shake to Y/N and coffee to Elijah.

"Mayo and - do you have those pickled- shrimps?"

"Yes, I do."- Mary said.

Elijah looked at Y/N now wide-eyed as she asked for the pickled-shrimps.

"Be prepared to see the oddest combinations."- Mary now remarked.

"I am not saying anything. But pickled shrimps and milk shake- aah! - Elijah said.

Y/N smiled- "I was never an ordinary girl."

That much was true. After the most unusual luncheon, the two of them went for a walk. 

☆☆☆

The next day after work, Elijah went into an antique jewellery store. He had already been to see rings before Jackson and Andrea's wedding and thought of the most romantic moment to ask Y/N to marry him. And all the rings he had seen so far were not sunshiny enough in his opinion. But in this place as the woman recognized him being Dahlia's nephew, she brought rings from a backroom showing him some rare pieces. Still none of the rings were the one in Elijah's opinion. He now said-

"My girlfriend's name is Y/N and she is like a a ray of light and I want the ring to be like this sun, this light. I don't know how to explain"

"I think that I've got something for you."- the woman now went to an old  cupboard unlocking it. As she brought it to Elijah.

As she took it out of the box she gave it to him, and Elijah looked at it with a small smile on his face, he said-

"This is the one!"                  

"I thought you might like this one. The stone is from Mexico and it was called Tonatiuh, which is the name of the Aztec sun god."- the sales woman said.

"Really?"- Elijah was surprised to hear it.

"Yes."- the woman replied.

"I will take it."- Elijah said.

Happy he had found the perfect ring, leaving the shop she made a call to Sophie Deveraux and then Andrea. As she answered he said-

"Hey, I need a huge favour."

"Name it"- Andrea said.

"I am going to propose to Y/N, and I need you to take her shopping or do your lunch thing or something-"

On the other side of the phone, Andrea nearly screamed with happiness stopping Elijah in the middle of the sentence-

"OMG! Of course- when? You're setting something up here?"

"On Saturday. I am sorry it's such short notice. I just got the ring and I talked to Sophie, she will do the food and Jane-Anne will do the deco."

"There is this arts and crafts weekend in Baton Rouge. We were talking about going there. So, no problem."

"Thank you."- Elijah replied-"I got to go now, but will call about details later."

"Ok. Talk to you later."- Andrea said hanging up.

The next day

Y/N arrived at the New Orleans house, some time before seven, as she had a routine doctor's appointment.

As Y/N got it, Mary met her all worried saying that Elijah was calling and she tried as well.

"Ah, my battery went flat. Sorry. I really need the bathroom. Can you please call him and tell him that I am not going to the Plantation tonight. Thanks."- Y/N now went upstairs.

Mary now called Elijah letting him know what had happened. Elijah, who was a hundred yards from the house thanked Mary for the call. He parked up and got into the house.

"She is upstairs."- Mary said to him and Elijah went now up.

"Y/N-"- he called and as he got in, he found Y/N holding the box in her hands, looking at the ring, her eyes lost in its bright shine.

Elijah now stood in the door and smiled.   

"Elijah- is this what I think it Is?"- Y/N now stood up from the bed.

"Yes. You found me out."- Elijah joked a little now walking in.

Elena looked at him elated, now saying -

“Yes!!!”

"Yes?"

"Yes- of course yes!!!! I will marry you!”- Y/N flung her arms around his neck and then she stopped like half-frozen-”That’s what the ring is - about, right?”

“Yes, that’s what the ring is about! You know, I had this whole thing planned- a romantic dinner for two- pickled shrimp salad- you and me- but- somehow it fits that we are here- in this house, where you first came, and I consoled you in my arms - when you read that letter- I fell in love with you there and then."

"Yes, it's perfect. This is perfect."- Y/N said all emotional. She moved a little and now passed him the box.

Elijah now took the ring from the box and taking her hand now looking into her eyes, said-

"Y/N, will you marry me?"

"Yes, Elijah, I will."- she replied exalted.

Elijah now slipped the ring on her finger and Y/N wrapped her arms around his neck and they kissed with little whispers of I love yous intermingling. 

___

Everyone was so very thrilled about the most unusal of proposals, but nothing about Y/N and Elijah was ordinary. And both of them wanted a very small and quaint wedding, that was held in the family circle a few weeks later. 

Just before she was going to walk out to the garden, where the ceremony was to take place, Y/N went to the Salon and took Dahlia’s picture in her hands-

“Thank you so much for - bringing me here. I have no words to express how happy you have made me. And the baby is a girl and we are naming her Lena Dahlia. Thank you.”- Y/N now put the picture down as Andrea came to tell her that everyone was waiting for her. 

“Yes”- Y/N now went out of the Salon with the maid of honour. 

Four month after Lena Dahlia Mikaelson was born. The new princess of the Mikaelson Estate. The proud parents were completely in awe of their precious little girl. She was the center of their world, but also the whole Mikaelson heritage and the Estate. 

As Mary had said once, with Y/N arriving in New Orleans, the sun returned in the house and she was like this unusual amulet that broke the curse, if there was any curse that was set on the family. 

Y/N often would later say to Mary that it was just a sad chain of events that happened. Life. Love hurt. It was Mercury-retrograde.Blame it on the universe and planets. But good stars align again and things get better. More than just better. 

Klaus, proposed to Caroline, some time later. They both bought the small independent theatre and nine month after welcomed a baby boy. Hope was more than thrilled to get a baby brother, Michael. 

The big Plantation House was buzzing with children, their parents, their friends and their children. Laughter and happiness  was the order of the day.

____

Night of the Ball

five years after they reopened the Mikaelson house

Klaus now walked to Elijah, who stood in front of the picture of them taken on the Ball. Klaus now passed his brother a glass of champagne and said-

“To Family”

“To Family”- Elijah said and as the clinked the glasses they took a sip.

“Ah, here you are”- Y/N said as she walked in the Salon. 

Elijah and Klaus now turned to the woman, who brought the happiness back to their lives.

“The family and everyone else is waiting for you, so we can open the Ball”- Y/N said.

“We have no time to reminisce”- Klaus said.

“No. We can do that later.”- Y/N said-”now we have work to do.”

“Right”- Klaus said putting the champagne glass aside-”Let’s go then.”

Elijah now put his arm to his wife and said -”Let’s go and open the Ball.”

The three of them now walked out of the Salon, down the corridor to the Grand Ball room. 

Everyone now greeted them with a clap. 

And as the tradition was, all three of them welcome the guest and after a little speech they declared the Ball open. 

The music started and everyone took their respective partners to the podium for the first dance.

And as they swayed to the music, Elijah looked at Y/N and said -

“Always”

“And Forever”- Y/N concluded. 

And they live happily ever after. The End.

__________

[neyla9]

Cipher’s House: Fallen Star Chapters 23-25 (Finale)

Ao3 Version

I knew in an instance who was approaching me. But this time, I refused to cower in fear and regret. No matter what he would ask me, I would not let it stop me from burning this hotel to the ground…

 “I am Judgement Boy!” The monster descended from the ceiling once more with his roar of: “JUDGEMENT!”

 Its wide grin stretched further when it saw Mabel, and it asked her the question: “You find yourself in a hotel in another dimension. You learn that it was not only your neglect, but also this hotel, that played a role in the death of your brother, whom you love very much. The question is… Who killed your brother?”

 “I did,” Mabel said without hesitation. “I could have saved him if I had been a better sister; if I had taken the time to listen to him, and help him, like he always helped me. Even if this hotel didn’t exist, my brother would have still taken his life… But that doesn’t change the fact that this place must be destroyed, and that it still played a role in my brother’s death.”

 “You have chosen not to avert your eyes from the truth, but to meet it head-on,” Judgement Boy’s tone of voice seemed different as he said this. Almost like he was… approving of Mabel’s answer. “Yet instead of cowering in regret, you decide to take action, and do what you can to make up for your role in your brother’s death.”

 This time, the golden dollar symbol fell instead of the heart, and with that Judgement Boy left.

 Mabel smiled to herself and continued going in the direction she had been walking in.

 It didn’t take long before she saw it; The Eternal Flame. There was no doubt in Mabel’s mind that was what it was. She picked up the glass jar and released the orange flame inside. It immediately began to burn its surroundings, and seeing how fast everything was catching on fire, Mabel hurried away, knowing she still had to leave the hotel.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  It’s done. Soon the hotel will be no more. The souls still trapped will, hopefully, be free. But even if that isn’t the case, at least new souls won’t be joining them. I won… No, we won, Dipper.

 Mabel walked out of the hotel and began to make her way towards the forest, when she spotted Cipher; he was walking out of said forest, only to get a look of absolute fear as he saw the smoke rising from the hotel.

 “What have you done!?!” he howled, but didn’t wait for an answer. He broke into a run and sped past Mabel, into the infeno.

 Mabel watched as he ran in there, wondering if perhaps he would try to put out the flames. She wasn’t sure if that was possible, but she still preferred to wait and see; none of this would matter if the hotel didn’t get destroyed.

 Soon after, Will came running out of the hotel’s front door. He looked surprised at seeing her.

 “Why are you still here!?” he asked, his voice and expression full of panic. “Go!”

 “I have to make sure this place truly disappears!” she argued. “For everyone who ever died there.”

 “But…” Will didn’t finish his sentence, as from the front doors, Cipher ran out, carrying someone wrapped in a blanket. Cipher was covered in burn marks, but the blanket was free of burns, meaning it was probably a fire-safe blanket. “Go.” Will commanded her, but now Mabel was curious; why wouldn’t Cipher have used the blanket on himself? What was so special about this person, that he had run into a burning building to rescue them?

 “Are you okay?” Cipher asked the person as he placed them on their legs; which were bare and wrapped in a few vines. Cipher’s voice was tender and full of concern; his eyes looked like they were close to tears.

 “Yes, thank you,” the person said in a voice which Mabel recognized all too well. They pulled of the blanket, but their back was turned to her, revealing only brown hair which looked a little longer and wavier than Mabel remembered, also with a few vines intertwined with the locks.

 “… Dipper?” Mabel whispered as tears began streaming down her cheeks. She almost couldn’t believe it. She stepped closer and reached out a hand, just as the person turned around to see her.

 There was no longer any doubt; it was Dipper. At first Mabel thought he looked younger, but then she realized it was the absence of stress wrinkles and eye bags that gave that impression. His skin looked pristine; almost as if it was carved from polished wood, but it still looked soft and warm. His brown eyes now had a vague glint of green in them, and he was wearing what looked like a cocktail dress made from pine needles.

 “It’s really you,” Mabel cried and tried to get closer to him, but Dipper ran over to Cipher and hid behind him; a look of hatred and disgust spread on Dipper’s face. “Dipper? I-“

 “You almost killed me!” Dipper shouted, clinging on to Cipher like a lifeline. “If Bill hadn’t saved me, I would have burned alive in that fire you started!”

 “I- I didn’t know you were in there!” Mabel tried to explain. “I- I thought- Dipper, please! I’m so sorry-“

 “Why are you calling me that?” Dipper asked with an angry frown. “My name is Pine Tree.”

 “Oh…” Mabel shook her head. “What did Cipher do to you?”

 “Why are you saying it like that?!” Dipper, or Pine Tree, finally stepped out from behind Cipher. “Bill has done nothing but treat me like a treasure. Then you come along, nearly kill me, destroy our home, and try to what? What exactly are you trying to accomplish here?”

 “I… I don’t,” Mabel shook her head. Her brother had still been there. She had almost killed him. Why had she done that? She had a realization and turned to Will with a look of betrayal. “You said my brother was dead! You told me to burn down the hotel, knowing I would have killed him!”

 “Mabel!” Will shouted. “That’s not your brother! Your brother was gone the moment he decided to stay at the hotel! All that’s left of him is that soulless husk!”

 “How dare you!” Cipher hissed and stepped in front of Dipper in a defensive stance. “You don’t get to speak to him like that!”

 Mabel looked at the now burnt remains of Cipher’s House. She almost couldn’t comprehend this; Cipher seemed to really care about her brother, her brother seemed to like living in the hotel, and Will… the guy she thought had been helping her, had lied to her and almost made her kill Dipper.

 “Mabel, listen to me,” Will implored. “You wanted to stop the hotel, right? You need to leave now, or none of this will have mattered at all.”

 Mabel looked at her brother and Cipher; Bill was holding him close, softly stroking his hair. Her brother seemed genuinely sad and betrayed.

 “Dipper,” Mabel stepped closer to her brother. “Or… Pine Tree… Were you really happy at the hotel?”

 “Yes,” he replied.

 “Are you sure you don’t want to come with me? Back to reality?”

 “No!” Pine Tree reminded Mabel more of her brother than ever, now that it looked like he was getting close to a panic attack. “All I remember about that place is pain! I never want to back there!”

 “Alright then,” Mabel sighed with a small smile. “I guess this is my chance to finally be a good sister.”

 “You can be that if you leave!” Will said, his voice full of panic again. “Let your brother’s soul find rest-“

 “No,” Mabel said decisively. “I promised when I first got here that I wouldn’t leave without my brother. I’m going to keep that promise. I’m staying here.”

 With those words, the hotel began to repair itself; it looked like the destruction was happening in reverse, as all the fire damage was undone.

 Bill and Pine Tree looked on with expressions full of joy and happiness. Will looked like he was filled with despair at the sight.

 “We’re back in business!” Bill yelled with a large grin.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  And so another cycle is completed, and the hotel returns to normal. Another guest joins the ranks of the souls who will never escape Cipher’s House. For no one can escape Cipher’s House.

 Pine Tree liked the hotel’s new permanent guest; her name was Shooting Star, and even though the fact that she was made out of rocks burning in pastel colors meant that her flames could accidentally hurt him, she was kind and energetic, and loved spending time with him. The two of them seemed to have a connection that Pine Tree couldn’t place, but he didn’t really care to analyze it.

 The two of them were sitting in the hotel lobby and having a talk, when Pine Tree’s other favorite person showed up.

 “It’s time to return to your rooms soon~” Bill said as he stood behind Pine Tree, placing one hand on each of his shoulders. “Our new guest is expected to arrive any moment now, and we can’t have him see anything too… disturbing on his first night.”

 “Oh, but Bill,” Pine Tree gave him an exaggerated pout and bit his thumb. “I still need to do one more thing before going to bed.”

 “Did you forget to change the sheets?” Bill asked with a slight smirk; of course he already knew Pine Tree would never forget one of his duties, especially not one that was crucially to keeping the charade going for just long enough.

 “Of course not,” Pine Tree laughed and playfully slapped Bill’s hand.

 A knock was heard on the hotel’s front door.

 “Oh! Whatever it is, it will have to wait until I’ve shown our guest her new room!” Bill said and swung over to the door.

 Pine Tree and Shooting Star both left for the door behind the check-in counter; there was a small peephole through the wall in there that they could use to scope out the new guest.

 Pine Tree looked through the hole, watching as a young, frazzled looking woman was helped inside by Bill. She looked pale and her eyes were bloodshot.

 “Who is it?” Shooting Star asked, leaning over Pine Tree’s shoulder.

 “Hmm, if I remember the files correctly, she’s that one who was kicked out by her family and lived on the streets,” Pine Tree said. He observed Bill talking to her and escorting her to the guest room. “Alright, coast is clear.”

 They both left the backroom; Shooting Star made her way to her room, while Pine Tree grabbed a tray of food and water he had left on the coffee table in the lobby. He walked with the tray down the hall to a newer addition to the hotel; a big steel door seemingly bolted shut, but Pine Tree retrieved his key to the door and opened it.

 “And how are we doing today?” he asked sweetly as he stepped inside, shutting the door behind him.

 Inside, the room looked a dungeon, with dirt floor and cold stone walls, with the only light coming from a window with bars on it. Under this window, chained to the wall, sat Will. His body looked beaten and malnourished, and his mouth was partially sewn shut, only allowing it to open the tiniest bit. Various parts of his body were also covered in random stitches, and even one of his eyes was sewn completely shut.

 “I have soup,” Pine Tree said as he placed the tray on the ground and picked up a spoon to feed Will.

 “He used you,” murmured Will in a weakened voice after a couple of spoonfuls.

 “Huh?” Pine Tree tilted his head in confusion.

 “When he ‘saved’ you from the fire,” Will clarified.

 “What?” Pine Tree gave him a hard to read look.

 “He doesn’t care about you; he just knew seeing you would-“

 Then Pine Tree laughed. He let out a strong, cruel laughter.

 “I already know that!” Pine Tree said. “Whose plan did you think it was?”

 “What?” now it was Will’s turn to look confused.

 “Yeah, the whole get her to burn the hotel, almost kill me?” Pine Tree elaborated. “That was my idea.”

 “But… how-?”

 “Did I know you would suggest The Eternal Flame to her?” Pine Tree giggled. “What did I say to you? ‘What if she burns down the building while Bill’s gone?! I would be gone in an instance!’ Oh, don’t give me that look, Will; I already knew you were a traitor. I might not remember much from my first days at the hotel, but I remember you trying to ‘help’ me leave. Bill refused to believe that a member of his family would ever betray him, so I suggested this plan to prove it. And now, I just happen to have your old job, as I’m the only one Bill would trust that position to~”

 “But… Bill is manipulating you…”

 Pine Tree laughed again. “Really? You think he’s the one manipulating me? I have him wrapped around my finger. A little pout there, a wave with my eyelashes there, and he’ll do whatever I say. So yeah,” he rose to his feet. “I manipulate him… but I also really love him. He saved me after all. It’s your fault you can’t understand the love we share.”

 And with that, Pine Tree turned towards the door.

 “Don’t worry; I’ll leave the rest of your food there,” he pointed to the tray sitting about five feet away from the chained up Will. “In case you get hungry or thirsty later.”

 Will snapped and tried to pull himself free of the chains, but it didn’t work, and Pine Tree left him there; alone again.