#a friend introduced me to it like two years ago before I got into esc

[enter-the-phantom]

the hottest esc contestant of all time will always be Francesco Gabbani from 2017. Italian mfers hit diff 🤤

No but see the name of the game is not who is the hottest Eurovision contestant. It’s who is the hottest unhinged Eurovision contestant.

Now one could argue that the dancing gorilla thing was unhinged, but it’s also in reference to the music video and the lyric “the naked ape is dancing”. I would counter with the song and performance being serious enough that this one does not count. Also I don’t know anything but the one song but Gabbani does not strike me as being on the chaotic part of the spectrum so he doesn’t count in my book.

If it’s not at least as chaotic as Käärijä, at the bare minimum, I do not want it.

I respect your vision though. Kind of.

[soranihimawari]

what he sees...

word count: 1.8k

tagging: @m0nstergeneration20xx​

warnings/genre: gamer friends to lovers [is that even a thing?]// rated F for fluff

<< |master list|>>

hallway meeting [day 0] :

part of kenma’s daily routine was to roam the halls of his high school during lunch break in search for a stronger wifi signal. recently that proved to be a challenge considering the fact the wifi was acting all wonky during the aftermath of the thunderstorm that occurred two weeks ago. the dual-toned setter was about to abandon all hope and just suffer the penalty for using one of his many devices as a hotspot during school hours.

that plan was almost coming into fruition when he heard a rather pleasant monotone voice pleading with the audio visual club members to take on a new second year recruit. with a resounding and stern, “no,” kenma heard the door close when he rounded the corner. he paused long enough to see the girl in the class across from his lower her closed fist before releasing a short lived sigh. for the life of him, kenma could not remember the name of the student he was quietly observing, but that didn’t stop him from staring at the phone you took out from your blazer pocket.

you held your phone in one hand while using your dominant hand as a mischievous smirk carved its way across your features. you swiftly stepped away in the opposite direction of the clubroom with a few keystrokes of code being typed before you pressed enter. you pretended to not hear the screams of horror when you whistled a tune down the hallway. kenma glanced down at his phone to notice his phone switched from LTE to a new closed wifi server nicknamed “chaos fiber.” it wasn’t password protected, meaning the girl’s device picked up his phone’s presence. kenma let out a chortle before he turned on his heels to head back toward his homeroom.

that afternoon on the train ride back to their neighborhood, kenma was rather quiet,even more so than what his best friend/neighbor had been accustomed to.

“kenma, do you think there’d be aliens on mars?” kuroo baited a question to see if his friend would bite.

“mmhm,” kenma replied; his subconscious was busy trying to remember any noticeable detail from lunch. the mysterious tech angel helped him out, but he didn’t want the rooster haired third year next to him cause a raucous over it. 

“you’re acting strange, even for you,” kuroo said when they were heading off the train and taking the stairs outside to the platform leading to their side of the tokyo suburbs.

“you think so?” kenma quipped knitting his brow.

“i don’t know what happened, but i guess it’s alright for now. you probably need sleep. don’t stay up too late, man.”

“ok.”

the next day right before classes were dismissed for the day, you found yourself tinkering with your mother’s old phone trying to breathe it back to life. you decided to take a break to crack your knuckles and stretch your arms when your class vice-representative, sayo-kun, said you had a visitor. Kenma did not come up with a valid reason why he thought his feet to moved on their own at lunch leading him to an impromptu visit to your class across the hall. 

he wanted to know thank you for sharing the closed wifi name with him because he was able to finally play all this games without any interruptions whatsoever, but since he knew himself to be no expert on romance, he decided to text the team. ok, let’s be real, he texted kai and yaku. if kuroo found out, homeboy would have made a big show out of something so small like kenma’s first high school crush. kenma did receive some decent advice after making the vice captain and libero of his sports club team promise to not tell their captain right away for fear of scaring the girl. 

12:05 

ꜰʀᴍ: ʏᴀᴋᴜ-ᴢᴀ ʟɪʙᴇʀᴏ

ᴡᴇʟʟ ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ʟɪᴋᴇ ʜᴇʀ? ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜʀ ʜᴀɴᴅꜱ ꜰᴇᴇʟ ʀᴇᴀʟʟʏ ᴄʟᴀᴍᴍʏ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴀꜰᴛᴇʀ ᴘʀᴀᴄᴛɪᴄᴇ ᴡʜᴇɴ ꜱʜᴇ ᴡᴀᴠᴇꜱ ᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ? ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ʏᴏᴜ ʙᴇ ᴡɪʟʟɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ ᴀꜱᴋ ʜᴇʀ ᴛᴏ ᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴏᴠᴇʀ ᴛᴏ ᴘʟᴀʏ ᴠɪᴅᴇᴏ ɢᴀᴍᴇꜱ ɪꜰ ꜱʜᴇ ʟɪᴋᴇꜱ ᴍᴍʀᴘɢꜱ? 

12:09

ꜰʀᴍ: ᴠɪᴄᴇ ᴄᴀᴘ

ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴀɴꜱᴡᴇʀᴇᴅ ʏᴇꜱ ᴛᴏ ᴀʟʟ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇꜱᴇ Qᴜᴇꜱᴛɪᴏɴꜱ ʏᴀᴋᴜ ᴊᴜꜱᴛ ᴀꜱᴋᴇᴅ ᴋᴇɴᴍᴀ, ʏᴏᴜ ᴍɪɢʜᴛ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴀ ɢᴇɴᴜɪɴᴇ ᴄʀᴜꜱʜ ᴏɴ ʜᴇʀ. ɪꜱɴ’ᴛ ꜱʜᴇ ɪɴ ʏᴏᴜʀ ʏᴇᴀʀ ᴀɴʏᴡᴀʏꜱ? 

“talk to her, ask her out for some ice cream or pie at the cafe down the street from campus? practice is cancelled today anyways since nekomata has family visiting today,” kenma mumbled the last text kai sent him right before reaching your class’ door.

“can i help you?” your ears were completely oblivious to whomever sayo-kun was talking to while you pressed the power button of the phone on your desk, eyes lighting up with glee as it slowly powered on. You chuckle amused at your own genius turning your mother’s older (and by all means obsolete) phone into an emergency back up of the back up mp3 player.

“hey y/n! kodzume-san’s here to see you,” your classmate said breaking your thought process. 

“thanks,” kenma said quietly brushing past sayo-kun stopping roughly a foot before your desk. He played with his hands a bit as you lowered your arms back on your desk folded on top of each other.

“what can i do for you kenma?” you asked, an eyebrow raised at him. You knew why he was there. you were the one with the wifi server that you closed off to the other audio visual club jerks the other day, but what you didn’t know was what piqued your interest.

“i wanted to say thank you for the other day,” kenma stated in a shy tone. he was testing the waters by taking a step or two forward in your direction. you had this sly smile growing across your face which kenma found kind of endearing. Have you always looked this effortlessly sophisticated? or was that just how nature laid out your kind features every time artificial fluorescent light made your eyes sparkle in the day time.

“ah,” you reply. you bop your head while adding a quick, “i see.”

a fleeting moment of silence passes between you two before you suggest something to him which nearly caused the aloof member of the volleyball team to be caught off guard:

“want to spend a free period with me? a have one coming up right before classes are dismissed today. i’ll be in the computer lab if you’re interested.”

kenma didn’t say anything else, but you took into account the way his pupils dilated in excitement at the invitation right before he accepted your offer. you exchanged contact info once he arrived at the lab an hour later where you helped each other in creating a small network of computers to connect to the fiberware and now password protected “chaos” server from a few weeks ago. every computer that was turned on in the lab had different operating systems running through (of course with the best games downloaded by the seniors beforehand). 

“welcome to the chaos network. wanna play a game?” 

kenma did not have to be asked a second time as he sat down in front of one of the computers and thus began a partnership between you and the pudding haired setter. you brought over an extra wireless keyboard for the game kenma chose to play, laughing with him as he began to design his  lvl 1 character. you did the same when the game prompted kenma to choose to add another member to his party... 

later that evening, when he offered to walk with you to the train station with kuroo saying he had cleaning duty, kenma and you found yourselves headed in the same direction for the platform close by.

“seems like this is where we part,” you say, readjusting your school bag on your shoulder. “thanks for accompanying me earlier. i haven’t been able to play that game yet. i had fun.”

“yeah,me too.” kenma agreed taking out his gaming console again. what you did next, you had no idea why you did it, but you just went with it: you invaded kenma’s personal bubble rather quickly pressing your lips onto the side of his cheek without any forewarning. you retreated back to where you stood in front of him before

“sorry, i should of asked if that was ok,” you apologize in a meek voice admist a now crowded station. kenma shook his head to indicate that it was alright. afterall, his crush just kissed him and his brain had an emergency halt of normal kenma-esc thoughts. “see you tomorrow at school.”

“see you later,” was all he managed to say seeing as you turned to walk to your platform number to wait for your train.

--[ three weeks later]--

A couple of weeks later, you were formally introduced to the rest of the Nekoma Volleyball Club when you mentioned that your gaming partner left behind his switch in the computer room during mid-class break. Needless to say you were bombarded with questions ranging from, “where did you meet kenma,” “what class were you in,” and finally, “are you going to be our manager? You’re practically kenma’s ‘player 2’ already, right?”

Nekomata chuckled at his team, recalling the days of his youth, when something eerily similar happened to his captain at the time.

“Umm,” you cleared your throat before you drew a deep breath in. You closed your eyes on the exhale and tilted your head to the side, curling a hand under your chin in thought. 

“C’mon, you don’t have to answer any of--” Kenma’s voice was pretty even throughout meaning he was getting more annoyed at how everyone else got to ask you those pressing questions, but he had been interrupted. Over the past three weeks, you hung out with kenma more and more, seeing what was his level of comfort around you versus other people. Every time you hung out with him, kenma finally felt himself breathe a little better than before. His crush still clung on to him, so it wasn’t properly addressed until that afternoon when seeing you dropped by unannounced to return his console after you helped free the os for any bugs and malware. 

“I met Kenma in the other side of the hallway where audio/visual club after they shut me down from joining their ‘prestigious’ club, so I launched a virus that killed their LAN party mid-campaign; class 2-5 [college prep]; if you need one, i don’t see why not? I’ve got time to spare. And actually,” your eyes never wavered off Kenma’s beet red ears from the moment you interjected. “I don’t know. You should ask him that when I leave Lev.”

[ The team’s focus switched back to where their setter was standing utterly dumbfounded by your honesty. You’d think you never saw a clowder of kittens look this excited for their ‘brain’ to find someone as wickedly smart (if not smarter) than their captain. ]

Scowling at the tallest first year on the team, Yaku nearly roundhouse kicked his kouhai for the third time that practice. Kai, judging by the way Kuroo and Yamagoto’s jaws went slack after you agreed to be the official team manager right before the prefecture qualifiers were announced, just laughed with a knowing smile. The first years on the team were so enamoured by your bold, yet casual attitude, they could see why their gaming senpai would find someone special like you. Especially since they noticed how Kenma’s usually displeased expressions seemed to have subsided to his version of “i’m not upset, just disappointed,” neutral face during practices lately.

“Do you want to be?” Kenma’s voice was the loudest anyone ever heard him speak, well except for you. This voice you had grown accustomed to when you helped him during a rare monster raid in one of the various mmorpgs you linked your devices to. By now you two were at the half-way point when you were walking toward each other, it was like your bodies just took comfort automatically as though your subconscious knew the other was close. Kenma was facing you and despite his height, you were a little shorter than he was while wearing your ballet flats. 

You extended your hand to hold one of his, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Your thumb rubbed miniscule spirals to calm the tensions in his fingers down. Much to their surprise, their setter rested his forehead against your shoulder muttering a “please?” so you did what you do best, you pat the top of his head gently. you avert your gaze for a split second; you hum while you prepare a straightforward answer.

“I thought we already were,” you say with the utmost sincerity in your voice. “Let me know when you get home. See ya Kodzu-san.” Your lips curled into a hauntingly gorgeous smile as you walked away shaking your head. You chewed your bottom lip to stop from screaming in excitement. You introduced yourself with a slight bow toward the coach, asking him to cut the team a little slack with the remainder of time left for practice; you told him you’d also fill out the manager interest form asap.

“Did we just get my second player to be our manager?” Kenma was given enough time to process what he said aloud a few more times. Before he realized what he truly said,he took a knee covering his mouth in a failed attempt at hiding the widest grin he’d ever show his teammates.

Kuroo chuckled, nodding with his answer. “Yep we sure did buddy. Is she the reason why you were acting so strange that day?”

Kenma glared at Kuroo who held up his hands in the air like he was caught stealing cookies before dinner like when they were kids.  

fast forward four days later, you found yourself in the comfort of kenma’s room. more so, in the comfort of his hoodie you saw lying around at the edge of his bed. you were stealth enough to quietly slip it over your head while kenma went downstairs to grab a plate of cut fruit from the kitchen. you were invited at the request of his grandparent who just happened to be visiting that day after he mentioned your name in passing right before he left for school that day. you were lost in your within your own stream of consciousness, so you were unaware that kenma was standing behind you. the sound of the plate landing on the corner of his desk in his room caused to you to turn around quickly. 

“you look cute,” was all he said slightly lowering his head to kiss your forehead. you hugged him, sweater paws and all, causing him to chuckle when he made his way to his bed. kenma patted the space next to him. 

“oh?” you hum in earnest. your eyes scrunching up when you felt your blush under your eyes glow a little more iridescent than before you sat down next to him on the bed. “glad you think so highly of me.” 

kenma rested his head on your shoulder similar to the way he did on the day you dropped off his switch earlier that week. you raised you right arm in order to have your hand run through his hair and you could of sworn you heard him purr right as he drifted off into a nap. you felt your eyelids grow heavy not too long after, not realizing you were about to lay yourself down on the bed to get more comfortable with kenma’s arms loosely wrapped around your waist (and your hand lost in his blonde hair).

Later that evening/morning:

[sole-cuore-amore-e-droga]

Tel Aviv 2019: Straight outta Latvia to Eurovision with a cinematic French rendez-vous

Supernova with their strict-on decision to only focus on all that’s radiofriendly this year went to hell for me. I mean, I like me some pop tunes, but not those that are purposefully marketed to be enjoyed by the massive sheeps of the Eurofandom who usually fall for those songs by Michael James Down, Will Taylor, even Ylva & Linda... because at the end of the day they’re all just shallow and pointless outside the ESC bubble.

Well the best they could do is to accept some different winds out of nowhere! And so they did when the audition stage hit place and we guys got to witness the 33 shortlisted tunes for this year, among which of them are loudly and proudly different - like “Alligator” and “Grow”, which I did not fathom but I was also raging for their not qualification for - more precisely “Alligator” which was way more outstanding of those two I mentioned. The guys that performed that song were fun, their performance choice was fun, they could have totally rocked on Supernova... but alas.

In fact not that many alternative songs made it to the final down-to-16 cut! There might have been a couple of those that sound nothing a radio would play unless it’s not playing pop on its purpose (Laime Pilnīga’s ”Awe” comes to mind right away), but in the end of the day, not many of those survived and we were graced with some... choices, like letting Samanta Tina waste herself on a cocky-ass tune with terrible chorus rhyme-scheme and unbearable charisma and putting through the most Eirodziesma-like mess-fest with the Beaver guy on top of it. Honey I like you in costume but... not in this emploi.

I don’t blame them though, as one of non-blatant-pop tunes conquered the Latvian hearts for this year. These next Latvian people in Laura Rizzotto’s succession are collectively named Carousel and their song is “That Night”.

It sets a romantic mood throughout, like we all are reliving this magical last date - it was in a restaurant, the candles were lit, the restaurant looked vintage with bordeaux satin tablecloth on the table, and the couple is having a smooth evening... until the love runs out to the probably cold and rainy streets and the other half of the couple starts longing for one's love. That's all I can imagine with this.

So yeah, I really like this! It's got lovely instrumentation that doesn't need all the over the top instruments - just guitar, simple drums, etc.; the noir flair is distinct on here and that's not bad on here; this is just a simple and soft song that you too could play in your own restaurants when all the lovely couples have romantic dinners and sip wine. And in some kind of a French movie, too (with the lead role being a curly redhead artiste with striped sweater, looking for love in Paris (because it’s so romantic in there honhonhon). I'm not sure if the revamp touched upon this one little problem I noticed but the problem kinda seems to be that the chorus repeats. A lot. And verses are way too short that they could be easily forgotten against the 4th and 5th time one would be hearing the "lo-o-o-o-ove, where? Are? You?" line, and then lulled into sleep at how peacefully relaxing it is. Which is indeed of a problem because repetition has quite a bit of a negative effect on people. Yes, it gets the song onto your brain more easily, but the repetition drives people insane too. Just like it was suspected for “Story of My Life” (Belarus 2017) on its original version to be unable to be ‘stood’ - after the 2nd chorus, the rest of the song just went like “hey hey hayayayaho” until the end. Naviband fixed the problem by throwing in another vocal onomatopoeia in a form of the song bridge and I loved them for it, even if there still were too many “hey hey hey”s at the end, haha.

Final conclusion? Yep, issa good entry, and if anything it’s helluva underrated. Say what you want about it being “boring”, to me it’s somewhat fresh and exciting, because the melodies are pleasant, the instrumentation is top notch and Sabīne’s vocals are relaxing. Delightful starry night music, oh yes, thanks a lot for it, Carousel, I’m taking it.

Obviously, after they won Supernova, there was a lowkey uprising from fans who were dead certain on wanting Edgars Kreilis or Markus Riva to win, eek. Honeys, honeys. I do like those two as well, BUT for a bit of a mess that Supernova 2019 was with some of their decisions to include, I think it’s for the better they finally let themselves go lighthearted over it all rather than blatant tryhard to sound radio for the masses just cuz the NF wanted. Just forgive Carousel for winning, okay? Okay. ^_^

Approval factor: Definite yes from me, because why wouldn’t I rate it a yes. Yay brotherland!

Follow-up factor: For me personally this is miles better than Laura Rizzotto's last year's melodrama. Overall I think it just flows nice and is a delightful addition to the Latvian collection.

Qualification factor: This I cannot think about all too often but I am not sure if they'd... stand a chance anymore? I'd use to think it did, but that was weeks before supposedly much stronger entries rushed in, squeezing Latvia into an uncomfortable position. But I really hope it's just charming enough to kind of get through. Sort of. A little bit. I'm positive about it happening, but not that much. And a lot of older audiences might love it enough to vote it, too.

NATIONAL FINAL BONUS

I admit that I got way too heated about hearing Supernova’s new approach to selecting entries, but in the end it turned out that I didn’t need to worry all that much in the first place - some of those alternative entries we got were very nice (or at least the entries out of the standart overbearing radio-pop norm), both in their actual auditions (this time they were on an actual stage in front of a jury instead of the listeners pick-pocketing the submissions themselves) AND among the actual picks. But what else is there to be note-worthy in this year’s edition of this show?

• Well, among of the auditionees there were those too-weird-ass bands/artists (some of them I mentioned), and you saw me mention the “Alligator” song to you beforehand, which is done by an ambitious project ATOM.LV (so did I mention “Grow" by Waterflower and her show is worth mentioning as well <3 Those flowers in her hair, the hair color, the makeup, her overall image (it’s like Jamie-Lee upgraded) and the dance moves are ADORABLE <3333 but the song is... hmm... :c). And I’ll repeat myself - those guys rocked! I may have not been a massive fan of this but I can at least commend them - they had a good song structure going on, a clear message (alligators from the stars *catchy trumpet fanfare part* trying to probably conquer the world, yeah!) and an outrageous tribal image with that facepaint on! Awh hell yeah! Who wouldn't want THAT through the live shows??? Ah, only the Latvian juries ofc. (And me because I never got the appeal of this but I sure felt sad for 'em kids hoping and wishing for them through :x)

• Thank Goodness I had my faves through - all hail Double Faced Eels! They're the little legendary pop band who went all their way to compete in some Youtube contest and have had sung with Bebe Rexha as the prize for winning it almost 1,5 years ago :o Believe it or not but I have heard of them way before their Sulernova stint - I got introduced to them through a friend, known on Tumblr as Soupgeist. :3 And I don't regret stanning a name I know, as "Fire", their entry in this year's 'Nova, was a pop-rock banger with some electro in! Granted the vocaliat might've had some troubles singing live but he still pulled it off nicely in the finals, with that energy coming out on top! Yeah yeah, uguns. 🔥

• Like I mentioned earlier, there were people rooting for other favourites this year so heavily, and that annoyed the hell out of me, because I thought that Eurofans have some sort of evolving tastes that accept more than just pretty pop boys/girls with not-so-special songs? Well, I mentioned that Eurofans’ targets were Edgars Kreilis and Markus Riva. The latter felt so attacked about him trying to achieve his representation dream over and over he even tweeted about it once... well I did like his song “You Make Me So Crazy”, but I found it a little too overrated with the fans. So I did Edgars, but his song was way catchier and had way more personality than being a club track, I tell ya. Why would his song be renamed from “Fire” (yes, he partially shared a song title with that Double Faced Eels’s song!) to “Cherry Absinthe”, anyway? It gives it a bit more of an exciting feeling, tbh. ^_^ So I ended up rooting for him a little bit more out of the two ‘pretty’ pop boys, if I had to accept one of those kind of winners that everyone wanted (like everyone wanted just either yesyes or The Middletonz for Hungary this year).

• There were a lot of other nice chosen songs too that I would’ve loved to discuss, but I just can’t not mention the Riga’s Beaver as one of the more memorable moments here. I did write earlier in this that I was disappointed though. Not because of the beaver being out of costume and coming at us as a young-to-middle-aged stunning lad, but because the Beaver-entry, “Tautasdziesma”, was a “Supernova”-times cluster-mess. I think of this as a charity music medley-parody of some sorts, and that doesn’t bode with me well, and sometimes I like parodies, like the one Klemen Slakonja (aka the guy who portrayed Putin for a musical number once) did in his country’s NF in 2012 (that he hosted) was fairly nice (although a bit too much), but... ehhh... at least the men are fine and their costumes were dandy.

• Let’s not forget that those auditions had this one glorious thing going on during the performances - we saw shots of the jurors judging all of the 33 shortlisted acts with... rather less-than-enthusiastic looks, and man oh man were they fabulously done with this shit <3333

if that’s not a big indicator of them being too dead inside to be judging anything that day, then idk what is...

Anyway, I am finished with this review also, and I’m happy about it! I don’t think I can move any of this at a more quicker pace (seriously, I have to do so many more even during rehearsals!!!), but I am still trying to do my best. Good luck to the Carousel quartet and may they not flop in May! To hell with the naysayers sweeties, you’ll do just fine x ✨

[timelock97]

Out of Order Love

Chapter Nine: Uncontrollable Giggling

tomhollandxreader

Summary: It was meant to be a fun time in Vegas. Spending time with the best friend and celebrate getting done with college to turn the page to a new chapter in life. If only (Y/N) realized she would be turning a few extra pages by accidentally marrying her favorite actor.

Word Count: 2110

Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4  Part 5  Part 6  Part 7  Part 8  

I stand in the master bedroom's walk in closet and call out, "Am I supposed to wear anything in particular, or is your mum coming to decide what we wear?" Tom is in the bathroom, the door is open slightly so we don't have to yell too much. Him and I had decided to keep our clothes into the master bedroom, that way none of our family or friends can ask why they are in separate rooms.

"Uh, I honestly don't know. Usually if she is taking pictures she just tells me to wear whatever." The door creaks open and I turn so my back is to him in case he is in just a towel. I stare at my clothing with my lips pursed. "I can give her a call, if you would like."

"I just don't want to, I don't know, mess up." I murmur the last part, I sigh as Tom's arms wrap around my waist and he rests his chin on my shoulder.

"Why don't you pick something you like, (Y/N/N), and then I'll find something to match. That work?"

"Yeah, that works, but that's also the problem." I sigh and lean my head back against his shoulder, "I don't know what to wear."

He chuckles against my shoulder and hugs me a little tighter, water droplets now darkening the shoulder of my shirt. "Well, it is warm out, and my mum said that she had several places in mind so why don't I see where then we can figure it out?"

"Please," I murmur.

He nods and let's go of me, walking back into the bedroom leaving me to ponder. "Why are you worried anyways? My family loves you."

"Paddy may have mentioned that I stole you." I muse, pulling a navy romper from the hanger and looking at it, only to put it back.

"He's teasing you, darling. Besides, you are amazing with children, not that he is one anymore, but I doubt that he dislikes you." I smile at the thought, knowing exactly what he is talking about.

About a week ago, I had Tom come and walk with me out in my neighborhood. We needed some alone time to talk about house related subjects that my family was trying to 'help settle'. As we had walked past a house, I heard a faint '(Y/N)!' come from the front yard. Three kids, two six year-olds, a boy and a girl, and a four year-old had come running down the driveway and tackle hugged me. Tom, I had found out later, had recorded the whole interaction of me picking up the four-year-old girl and the six-year-old's holding my legs on for dear life while I attempted to walk back up the long driveway to their mom. "I found these things, do you want them?"

"No, you can keep them!" She yells back with a smile, the kids squealing as I swing my legs forward.

Tom had watched from a bit of a distance until I was able to introduce him to the mom. Afterward, Tom laced his hand into mine smiling. "You are phenomenal." I look at him with a raised eyebrow. "You just handled those kids so easily. And wow, they love you." He had the biggest smile on his face.

"I mean, I've babysat for them before. I've known them since the six-year-olds were three."

"You amaze me every day." He whispered, tugging me closer before wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

"Love, my mum says she's taking us for more nature-esc pictures." Tom calls from the bedroom. "Maybe shorts, or a dress?"

"If I pick two, will you decide?" I ask walking to the door and looking at him, he had slipped back into his sleep pants from the night before.

"Of course." He smiles at me.

I slip back inside the closet and shut the door behind me. I undress, grab my bra from one of the dresser drawers, then grab a baby blue dress from its hanger and pull it over my head. I sigh and look at myself in the mirror before grabbing a pair of flats from the small shoe rack that had more of his shoes than mine. I open the door and clear my throat.

Tom looks up from his phone and goes wide eyed. "That one."

"I haven't even showed you the other one-" I laugh, walking back in and grabbing the other dress from the closet and coming back out with it.

Tom shakes his head. "I think what you are wearing will be perfect for today, and tonight?" He stands and walks over to me and pulls me toward him by my waist causing me to giggle. "We can go out to dinner? Just the two of us?" He tilts his head slightly to the side, smiling down at me softly.

"Yeah, that sounds great, Tom." I smile back.

"Now," he tugs me into the closet, "I need your opinion." I smile and nod while he begins pulling shirts and pants out of his side of the closet.

"Alright you two, let's get you over on that trunk that is curved enough for you two to sit on." Nikki points.

Tom tugs me forward while Nikki waits for us to get in position. He kneels down and lets me place my foot in his hand as he helps me up on the branch. I position myself and wait for him to hoist himself up.

Nikki comes over with her camera around her neck. "I want you-" she looks at us- "to be leaning back to back and then get comfortable from there." Tom presses his shoulder to mine and places his opposite arm over his bent knee, his other leg dangling in front of the branch. I cross my legs and fix my dress so I don't show anything. "I want you both to look at one another!" Nikki yells playfully.

I turn my head and my nose brushes his, causing us to laugh. After a few minutes of smiling at one another and leaning our heads together, we get down, Tom helping me. "Where to next, mum?"

"This way, this way!" She calls as she walks away Tom and I trailing behind her.

"I think today is going to be a good day." Tom murmurs in my ear.

"Me too." I hum.

Over the next few hours, Tom and I took a lot of photos. Most were done where we were just goofing around: Tom running over to me and picking me up bridal style from off a merry-go-round and spinning me around, me threatening to push him in the river getting a picture of us panicking and trying to regain our balance, him pushing me on the swing and then jumping on the back of it nearing knocking me off, and eventually us laying in the grass laughing at one another. The ones that were planned were much more professional, and just as fun, simply because him and I couldn't help but laugh.

"(Y/N/N), you have to stop laughing!" Tom chuckles as I lean on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry! I can't help it! I'm not good at keeping a straight face."

Tom shakes his head before cupping my giggling face and kisses me, causing me to quiet down. I sigh into the kiss and when he pulls away we just look at one another. "That got you to quiet down," he murmurs, smiling at me.

"That was perfect you two!" Nikki yells, pulling me from my thoughts. "I think that's a wrap! I know you two want to be able to go out to dinner tonight, and the boys and I are going to start driving up north, so let's head back!" Tom and I pull apart and he stands up, offering me a hand. I take it and let him tug me behind him until we reach his mum. "Thank you for letting me take pictures of you two! Now I have some to show family back at home until you two come to visit!" Nikki pulls her son into a hug, I can see the love pouring out of them. I can tell he has missed her. The thought made my heart clench. They pull away, Tom taking his mother's camera and bag back to her car as Nikki motions me to hug her as well.

"Thank you for taking the pictures, I know that they turned out wonderful."

"No, no, it was no problem. But honey," she pulls back to look at me, "thank you for giving my son someone who he can talk to and make him happy."

"He's the one who makes me happy." I smile at her as she pulls me into another hug. "And Nikki, if you all come back soon enough please feel free to stay. I know Tom has missed you all. I might even suggest to him to go visit once I'm into work. I won't be able to take the time off since I'll just be starting but, you know."

Nikki smiles at me. "I don't think he will, but I wouldn't be mad if he did come home for awhile."

I nod and her and I walk over to the car and finish our goodbyes before we separate and head home. "Tom?" he turns his head to look at me, "Do you want to go out to eat now? Then we can go home and relax."

"I'd be alright for that, where would you like to go?"

"You pick, I'm driving." I giggle, turning out of the park parking lot and onto the main road.

"Do you want to pick up something and go home and eat?" He says as he types away on his phone.

"I thought you wanted to get out and 'show me off'?" I tease, smirking at him.

"Well, darling,-" He takes a hold of my hand and squeezes it- "maybe I want to have some time alone with you." After a minute, he lets out a sigh, "I also just got my script and I need to look at it."

I laugh and nod "Let's take it home, but you have to light a candle to make it romantic-"

"I'm romantic," he says pretending to be offended, I let out a 'mhm' making him laugh and put his phone to his ear. "I'm ordering Chinese food. The usual?" I nod and squeeze his hand. I am ready to be home.

Once we pull into the driveway, Tom takes the food and I go let Tessa outside. After she pees, I walk back inside and change into a pair of shorts and a black t-shirt. Tom is sitting on the couch talking to someone on the phone while I get our food ready. After I walk over and plop down next to him. "Here you go-" I stop short seeing that he's live on Instagram.

Tom lets out a laugh and takes is food from my hand. "Hold up guys, thank you, love." He smiles at me.

"I didn't know you were live, I'm sorry." I whisper.

"You're fine, they were actually asking about you." He turns back to the screen, "Now that we have more people let me explain what has been going on. I am sorry I have been MIA. After posting that picture almost a month ago, wow it's almost been a month. I had to get everything together to move in with my wife, yes you did hear that correctly, she is wonderful." He turns his phone so I'm visible and I wave softly at the camera. "I'll be posting a little more over the next few weeks, maybe even some short videos I have been recording the past few weeks-"

"Oh, no you're not." I giggle which causes him to look at me and laugh.

"Aww why not, love?"

"Because you already sent them to your family without me knowing."

"You thought they were funny."

"I do think they are funny."

"Please, baby?" he pokes out his lip and widens his eyes at me.

"No," I whine, covering his face. "My weakness!" He laughs and looks at me again, poking out his lower lip. "Fine, you can but only the ones I've seen."

"Deal," he turns and looks at the screen again, "You hear that! You get to see my wife being absolutely adorable. Now, however, we have dinner so I am going to say goodbye." He does his little peace sign before logging off and looking at me with a smirk.

"What-"

"MY WEAKNESS" He yells loudly causing me to flail my arms at him and laugh.

"STAHP!"

Part 10