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icyharrington · 5 years ago

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Is It Wrong?- THE PREQUEL- Part 1 (Michael Langdon X Reader)

so basically,,,, i took my adhd meds for class this morning, and then suddenly got super inspired to write this, so i figured i couldnt waste the focus and wrote this whole ass thing in a few hours. this is the first part of a 3-part prequel series, which details the events leading up to the first part of iiw! just a whole lot more teen angst, drama, fuckboy michael, and more... there isn’t going to be any SMUT smut for obvious reasons, but in a future part there is going to be some dirty stuff ;) anyway i know this will prob flop but this is the first full length fic i’ve written in months and i had a lot of fun writing it, so ima post regardless ^__^

plot: things are turning upside for you now that the biggest fuckboy in school, michael langdon, is about to become your stepbrother. if you think shit is crazy now, wait til you find out that this is just the prequel 😏

warnings: underage drinking, talk of sexual shit, teen angst, sexual tension, taboo relationships

wc: 4.2k

It wasn’t like you didn’t want your dad to be happy.

You did, of course you did.

You’d seen him, engulfed in his loneliness, floating from day to listless day like some kind of cheesy Victorian spectre. Too many times you’d found him alone at night, one hand cradling a glass of sewer-brown liquor, the other thumbing through worn photo albums extracted from dust-ridden shelves in the living room. You hadn’t known your mother well- she’d died back when you were still in diapers, but what you did know was that she’d been a vibrant light in your father’s world that had been unjustly snuffed out in its prime. He was a good father to you, and you knew you made him happy despite the dull ache ever-present in his heart, but it was evident that deep down he craved a companionship you could never provide.

So of course you were glad when he met Miriam. Of course you were glad when you’d seen his beaming smile, sharing the news, with the giddiness of a teenage girl in love, that he’d found somebody. He was practically glowing, that night he’d gone out for their first date. You’d known it’d been special to him, because he’d shelled out a few hundred to treat them both to a fancy dinner; he’d even gotten her a bouquet of flowers on the drive there.

You hadn’t said anything when he’d gushed to you the next day about how he’d found the one, despite having known her for only a week; sure, he was rushing into things, but at least he was happy! And that was all you wanted- for him to be happy.

That was why you were especially crushed when you finally met Miriam’s teenage son, whom your father had briefly mentioned with a passing “he goes to your high school, maybe you know him”.

There were so many boys at your school that it was impossible to guess who your potential stepbrother might be. The prospect that you might know him didn’t bother you too much, though you did think it might be a little awkward upon first meeting, but really what did it matter? A little bit of teenage shyness was a small price to pay for your father’s newfound happiness.

That is, until you met him.

So really, it wasn’t like you didn’t want your dad to be happy.

That wasn’t the case at all.

You just really, really, wished he’d fallen in love with anyone other than the mother of Michael fucking Langdon.

ii.

“Oh, you’re so pretty,” Miriam gushed over a glass of Chardonnay, which had already been defaced with aubergine lip prints around the golden rim. “Gosh, I just wish I had your hair. Mine was fried from years of coloring, so I just chopped it all off!”

You smiled sweetly, observing your father’s glimmering eyes as he hung onto every word that rolled off her tongue, menus still stacked neatly in the middle of the table as you awaited the fourth and final guest. The three of you had been there for fifteen minutes already, and still her son had not arrived.

I guess his study session is running late, she’d explained, after seeing your furrowed brows at her lack of accompaniment. It was the first time you were meeting your father’s new love interest and her son, and you were rapidly growing more and more anxious in anticipation of the big reveal.

Studying, you’d thought, racking your brain. So maybe he’s one of the nerdy teacher’s pet types? You could certainly live with that; there were a great deal of others you could think of who would be far worse to potentially become step-siblings with.

“Thanks, Ms… Mead, did you say it was?”

You weren’t sure you knew of any boys whose last name was Mead; he definitely had to be someone you hardly knew.

“Oh, honey, call me Miriam,” she said warmly, and you nodded, unsure of what to say next.

Miriam was certainly not what you’d imagined your father’s girlfriend to be like, not that you cared either way; she sported short, dark hair with vampy makeup, clad in all black with a tasteful leather jacket to match. She was also a bit older than you’d anticipated, with fine lines adorning her rounded face, but again, none of that mattered to you at all. She seemed perfectly sweet, and you had no complaints about her thus far.

“Okay, Miriam,” you said, feeling somewhat peculiar addressing an adult by their first name, “so, remind me, how’d you guys meet again?”

“Well, it’s a funny story, really,” Miriam chuckled, plucking a dinner roll from the woven basket across from her and dropping it onto her plate. Her dark eyes shifted from you to your father, poising an impeccably groomed raven brow. “Should you tell it, or should I?”

“Oh, you should, definitely,” your father said, sipping his wine.

“Okay, okay. Well, we were in the meat section at the grocery store when we both reached for the last steak on sale. So I looked at him, and I told him- oh my, this is embarrassing- (your dad’s name), you finish!”

Your father looked like he was about to bust out into laughter, and, suppressing a snort, he blurted, “she said she’d cut off my hands if I took it!”

Immediately after the words left his lips, the two fell into boisterous hysterics that ushered forward a few disapproving glances from the stuffy rich assholes at the next table over, and you couldn’t help but laugh a little yourself. Well… she definitely was a character, but as long as your father was being kept entertained…

“Hey mom,” came a sudden, inappropriately loud male voice from behind you, so out of place that you nearly jumped from your seat. “I was helping Dan with the world war three chapter in our textbook, he sucks at geography shit.”

The voice’s owner revealed himself as a tall, blond boy, who promptly slid into the empty chair beside you, chiseled face slightly obscured by the deep shadows resulting from the dimness of the restaurant’s ambient lighting.

This was, indeed, somebody that you knew, and you blinked twice to be sure that your eyes weren’t playing tricks on you.

It took you a few seconds to register the direness of the situation at hand, but once the thought processed in your mind, you about descended into an out-of-body experience.

This couldn’t be.

No way.

No motherfucking way.

You’d never been all too much of a religious person, but in that moment, you found yourself silently begging whatever higher power was out there that this was all just some sick, cosmic prank.

The boy turned his head to give you a good, uncomfortably long look, stupidly perfect mouth twisting into an amused sideways grin, and then he spoke. “Ohh shit, (y/n)? (Y/n) (y/l/n)?”

He spoke your name like it was a punchline, tongue darting out to lick his teeth like a lizard about to gobble up some poor, helpless cricket as you sat there with your jaw unhinged. You were at a loss for words, or at least almost, managing to croak out a pathetic, puny, “Michael.”

“Oh, good! You guys know each other already!” Miriam exclaimed, seemingly oblivious to the complete and utter horror that had just about finished swallowing you whole.

Michael let out a snort, roughly translating to ‘uhh, yeah, not that well… I’d never be caught dead hanging around with someone like (y/n)’, and you grimaced. “Yeah, a little bit. You were in math class with me last year, right?”

You cleared your throat, forcing yourself to regain your composure for fear of feeding into this complete asshole’s already massive ego. Yeah, in fact, you had been in math class with him last year, and, not-so-coincidentally, that very same class had turned out to be the one you dreaded the most.

Michael Langdon was the most insufferable, mind-numbing, self-obsessed asshole that you’d ever had the displeasure of knowing; he was easily the most popular boy in the grade, and it was clear he was fully aware of his own high school bullshit prestige. He was loud, cocky and obnoxious; the type of fuckboy- yes, you knew the word fuckboy was overplayed, but in this case there was no other way to describe him- who’d loudly brag about his sexual escapades in the middle of the hallway to his flock of adoring fuckboy minions. He was an I-don’t-do-relationships type, a U-up-text-at-3am type, a Yo-dude-did-you-see-Zoe-Benson’s-tits-today type, a bro-I’m-so-fucking-baked-right-now type. Just the sound of his voice from across a crowded hallway was enough to make you physically recoil. And the worst part?

Every-fucking-body loved him.

Your complaints about him during lunch would only result in your friends cooing dreamily, as though he were some kind of sympathetic creature that needed babying: But he’s so cute, they’d say, twirling locks of their hair and fiddling with their bracelets. I’m sure he’s not that bad.

But he was that bad, and if they took off their shit-stained, teenage hormone-clouded rose tinted glasses for only a second, they’d see exactly what you saw.

It wasn’t only the students, either. He was able to get away with everything and anything he pleased, whether it be sneaking sips of vodka in a water bottle between classes or ditching class to smoke a joint behind the bleachers. There’d even been rumors that he’d fucked some senior girl in the handicap stall during the autumn pep rally while the rest of the student body was packed like sardines in the sticky-hot gymnasium, subjected to incremental barks from the football coach to scream louder and louder.

How the hell was somebody as pleasant as Miriam the mother of such an incurable douchebag? And how, in all the unholy realms of hell, did your luck get so miserably bad that she ended up with your father?

It was all so fucking unfortunate that you almost wanted to laugh. And you probably would have, if not for the chance that you might puke all over your nice new sweater if you opened your mouth.

“You smell funny, hon,” said Miriam before you could reply. “Was Dan burning incense in his room?”

Oh, god. So she was one of those oblivious parents. You rolled your eyes; it made a lot of sense when you thought about it.

“Huh? Oh. Um, yeah. Incense,” Michael said, before suddenly extending his arm across the table to your father. “Oh shit, how rude of me. I’m Michael. Nice to meet you, man.”

Your father seemed unfazed my Michael’s distinct lack of manners as he accepted the boy’s hand and shook it, and you felt yet another knot twist up in the pit of your stomach as you realized that your father, too, had somehow been cast under Michael’s spell.

“Michael, we talked about this,” Miriam said under her breath, like she was scolding a child who didn’t know any better. “Keep the potty mouth to a minimal when we’re out in public, especially while we’re in such a nice restaurant.”

“Oh, sh…oot, sorry, mom,” Michael said with a faux-sheepish smile, his eyes flickering with amusement despite his supposed remorse. “And sorry to you too, sir. Bad habits.”

“Don’t worry about it, Mike- can I call you Mike?” your father said as they released hands, moving his to rest atop Miriam’s on the cloth-sheathed table. “I remember what it was like being a boy your age.”

You scoffed, loud enough that the table fell silent for a moment, and quickly you disguised it with a cough. Your cheeks went hot as all eyes laid on you, and you frantically scanned your brain for something to fill the silence with.

“So, um,” you said, clearing your throat. “Michael’s, uh, how come Michael’s last name isn’t Mead?”

Fuck. That sounded so fucking stupid. Instinctively, you felt your eyes wander to Michael to see if he was laughing at you, which you hated yourself for; why should his stupid, pea-brained opinion mean anything to you anyway? As much as you wanted to distance yourself from that idiotic, made-up high school hierarchy, you always wound up finding yourself being sucked back in, it seemed.

“Well, my late husband’s last name was Langdon, and since he was kind of a dirtbag, I decided not to keep his name after he passed,” Miriam said slowly, as if taking very careful thought to word herself correctly. You took in a breath; this seemed like a whole new can of worms that you hadn’t meant to open up.

“Hey, c’mon, don’t talk about dad like that,” said Michael, his tone only half-playful, eyebrow cocking as he flashed his mother a knowing look.

“You try being cheated on multiple times, Michael. Then you’ll see that dirtbag is really a nice way of putting it.”

Oh, sure, you thought bitterly. As if Michael fucking Langdon is even remotely capable of understanding someone else’s pain.

You took this as your cue to stand up from your seat, mumbling something about needing to use the restroom before scurrying off in the opposite direction as fast as you could without drawing attention to yourself. If ten minutes with Michael as your psuedo-stepbrother got to you this badly, you could only imagine how awful your life was about to get.

You could only hope that your father would find some reason to nip things in the bud with Miriam, but right now, that appeared to be an unlikely prospect.

iii.

“Give me one good reason I shouldn’t end my shit right here and now,” you griped to your best friend, who sat crosslegged on your bed as you stood idly before your floor-length mirror, arms dangling limply at your sides in an unintentional stance of defeat. Your face was one that you hardly recognized anymore, forehead creased with worry and eyes shadowed by bruise-colored rings from a seemingly endless barrage of sleepless nights; a week ago, your father had gleefully announced his and Miriam’s engagement; you of course, as his loving daughter, had to behave as though you hadn’t just received the worst news of your life, which somehow you’d pulled off (for a second you wondered why you’d never taken up theater, seeing at how convincing your acting could be sometimes). It was like you’d been plucked from the familiarity of your boring, normal world and dropped into your own personally tailored hell without any warning at all, though you couldn’t think of a single thing you’d done bad enough to warrant you deserving this. “The worst person on the planet is about to be my fucking stepbrother and nobody else seems to think this is a big deal!”

Your best friend shook her head, letting out a snort as if any of this was even remotely funny in the slightest. “So your stepbrother is hot and cool and he pisses you off. They literally make porn about that.”

You resisted the urge to take her by the shoulders and shake her until some semblance of sense entered her head, instead shoving your hands into the pockets of your jeans with a loud huff. “Yeah, but this isn’t fucking pornhub, (best friend’s name), this is real life! And I’d rather skin myself alive than sleep with that walking STD.”

“You have a lot more self respect than I do. It’s admirable,” she said, still startlingly calm for your liking, and you were beginning to believe that she’d never understand the mental turmoil you were currently suffering with. “Personally I’d ride him into the sunset, whether he had a herpes dick or not.”

You gagged, shaking your head with adamant disgust. Was she really that fucking horny? “You’re sick, you know that?”

“Sick for diiiiick,” she sang back, batting her eyelashes playfully at you. You turned away, scrounging up every weary shred of self restraint within you not to scream.

“Look, (b/f/n). I’m being serious right now. If you fuck him, or suck his dick, or whatever, I will literally never speak to you again.” Your tone was stern, and you faced her again to see whether your seriousness had computed in the hormonal wasteland that was her brain. There was an extended pause as she blinked at you, tilting her head to one side thoughtfully as she chewed her lipgloss-slick bottom lip.

“I mean, he wouldn’t fuck me anyways,” she finally said, still infuriatingly chipper. “I’m nobody. And he’s, like, royalty.”

“Jesus fucking Christ! I don’t care whether you think you have a chance with him!” You realized too late that you were nearly shouting, so you took in a shaky gulp of oxygen and coaxed yourself to soften your tone. The last thing you needed right now was for people to think you were losing your mind, although sometimes that was exactly what you felt like was happening. “Please, just promise me you won’t? I just need one aspect of my life not to involve him. Please?”

“Okay, fine,” she said, drawing her knees to her chest and settling her chin on top. “If it really matters that much to you, I’ll just shift my thirst to Dan Mott instead. That boy is a fucking snack and a half.”

A wave of almost-relief cascaded over your body, and you closed your eyes, letting yourself become one with this momentary victory.

One year. Just one stupid, insignificant year until I can go away to college and forget all about him.

If you could survive that much, you told yourself, you’d be able survive anything.

You just hoped that intoxicating spell of his wasn’t strong enough to bring your best friend into his web of bullshit, alongside all the other girls who’d become entangled along the way.

If she did, you’d be stranded, left to run from Michael and his ever-expanding army all on your own.

iv.

In what seemed like a blink of an eye, the dreaded date of your father’s wedding ceremony arrived; now you stood amidst a small group of distant relatives at the subdued reception party, seeking refuge from the disturbing thought that, legally, Michael Langdon was now your brother, at the open bar.

You and your best friend had decided to make something of a game out of how many drinks you could finagle from the bartender without any adults noticing, which had ultimately proved to be pointless- an hour into the reception, your father had staggered over with two overflowing dirty Shirleys, thrusting them towards the two of you with a big, sloppy grin on his face.

To say he was in a good mood would be a severe understatement- the man was jovial, and you almost felt guilty for hating the circumstances of his marriage so much. By the raised-brow looks your best friend had been shooting at you all night, you knew she was thinking the same thing: that you were being selfish for worrying so much about yourself when this was the best thing that’d happened to your father in years. And maybe it was true; maybe you’d been so wrapped up in your own teen angst bullshit that you’d willingly blinded yourself from the truth. So, with your father’s beaming face dancing in the back of your mind, you pushed any thought about Michael back to the dredges where they belonged.

Fuck Michael Langdon. You couldn’t allow him the satisfaction of knowing that you were distraught, though you’d surely already made that pretty obvious over the past few months (he’d wasted no time in taunting you about it, seeming to relish in your death glares and eye rolls- hey, future sis! he’d crooned at you as you passed his table in the cafeteria one afternoon, nearly causing you to trip and spill your perfectly mediocre iced coffee all over yourself as his friends cackled like demented hyenas).

I’m not gonna let him bother me anymore.

I’m not-

“SIS-TERRRRRR!”

Okay, this had to be some kind of divine test of will.

A blazer-glad arm flung itself around your shoulders and you flinched, immediately jerking away from your intoxicated stepbrother (god, it felt weird to refer to him that way) whose brash motions had sent you both stumbling.

“Getting shitfaced at your mom’s wedding… classy,” you spat, crossing your arms in front of your chest and narrowing your eyes at the blond-haired boy.

He was, admittedly, good-looking (only by conventional standards, of course); his lightly gelled blond hair had long since come undone, now soft and unkempt from hours of attention-whorish dancing, but you thought the disheveled look suited him better anyway (since his whole thing was to look like a grimy, rugged fuckboy, not because you personally found it attractive, obviously). He’d undone the top few buttons of his white top (no doubt the only formal article of clothing he owned), which was now stained beyond foreseeable repair with a colorful variety of liquids, and there was a bead of sweat traveling from his slick forehead to his model-sharp jaw. Even in disarray, he looked good, and you couldn’t help but hate him for it.

“God, you are so uptight,” he said, pale eyes flickering towards the multicolored ceiling in exaggerated annoyance as he dragged out his syllables with leisure. “You need to relax, set up a dick appointment or something. Or pussy appointment, I don’t know what you’re into.”

Your mouth fell open at this remark, too stunned by his vulgarity to even get angry with your friend, who had dissolved into a fit of giggles beside you; it wasn’t that you were some pearl-clutching grandmother- you had no issue discussing sexual matters with your friends, and in fact some would even say you had a perverted sense of humor. But this? This was different: something about the way those words had fallen from Michael’s mouth made you feel dirty.

At your lack of response, Michael flashed a pearly grin that could only be categorized as evil, and he crossed his arms to mimic your stance. “Oh, sorry. I forgot that you’re probably still a virgin.”

He glanced over to your friend, whose feeble attempts to suppress her second wave of laughter had proven unsuccessful, before averting his gaze back to you. “Aw, don’t feel bad, (y/n). There’s nothing wrong with being a late bloomer.”

Then, as if to punctuate his words, he smirked.

Your mouth pressed into a thin line, you felt something like a storm swirling inside of you, winds thick and unyielding and relentless, and you were almost positive that you’d tear him apart once the feeling aligned with the rest of your body.

It was then that the song blaring through the speakers switched to something inappropriately upbeat, each thump of the dance-friendly bass feeling like punches to the gut.

The storm inside you hadn’t been giving way to anger at all; it was sadness you were feeling in your belly, hopeless and humiliated sadness, though you couldn’t quite understand why: he’d made some stupid, generic joke to try and get a rise out of you- what else was new these days? Maybe it was the fact that your best friend was, by her passiveness and obvious amusement at your expense, encouraging his taunts when she was supposed to be there for you. Or maybe the reality had finally, finally sunken in, that this kind of interaction with Michael would now consume your life for the next year.

Either way, it didn’t make a difference, and as if on cue, the familiar sting of unshed tears arrived patiently at the back of your eyes.

All at once you were were dizzy; Michael’s perfect face was doubling and distorting before your eyes, and your friend’s pitched laughter rang like incessant, robotic television static in your ears.

With very last straw of self preservation you could grasp, you said nothing at all, walking away with the dazed sluggishness of a zombie on autopilot.

You considered yourself lucky; soon enough, you wouldn’t have the luxury of walking away at all.

“She’s too sensitive,” you heard your friend say, faintly, in the background of your thoughts.

You didn’t have the energy to wonder why she wasn’t coming with you, much less the energy to chastise her for being a bad friend, which was what you knew she deserved. If she cared more about getting Michael’s attention than preserving her friendship with you, you supposed there was no use in trying to stop her anymore.

He’s like a disease, you thought as you ambled your way towards the bathroom, surrounded by people but yet still so alone. He’s like a disease, infecting everyone he touches.

It was only a matter of time, you supposed, before he got to you, too.

Who knew? Maybe he already had.

tagging some people from my old iiw tag list!: (i’m sorry if i tagged anyone twice, i’m literally half asleep right now cuz i got like 2 hours of sleep in the past 24 hrs lol) @wroteclassicaly @ritualmichael @sloppy-little-witch-bitch26 @trelaney @kissydevil @sloppy-wrist @michael-langdon-appreciation @ccodyfern @sojournmichael @starwlkers @maso-xchrist @space-princesssss @ahslangdon101 @isabellaserpentiawesson @stupidocupido @bademliimagnum @nana15774 @urlocalgothb @hexqueensupreme @gold-dragon-slayer @langdonsboots @langdonstrash @fckinsupreme @hisgirlwonder @venusxxlangdon @obsessivenostalgicbaby @kleinegamerin @lambofcairo @kiiteiru @littledemondani @beriveri @grossgayartist @featherpool-852 @discocalico @cryptid-coalition @nu-tt @diamcndscarred @chocolateandhorror @michaelsfrenchtoast @sarcasticbxtch20 @ringpop-poppy @imjustasadhoe @melodylangdon @codycrazy @perfect-ginger-maniac @baphomet-wears-gucci @bigstudentpatrolbonk @jazzcowgirl @a-n-t-s @langdonsblood @ritualmichael @myluciferiscody @fentycoven @gracebtw @bongwaternation @king-of-mischief-and-bitchez @hoseokchild @witchywcmans @satanicbimbo @lvngdvns @langdonskillerqueen @aradevil @anemia-doll @muralskins @funtomimagines @mrssgtjamesbuckybarnes @our-mrlangdon @lotsofhunny @sevenwonderwitch @horrorstreet @kpopmademedo-it @naughtygranger @codyshands @krazycags01 @skullag��

#michael langdon #is it wrong #michael langdon x reader #mine #michael langdon fic #ahs #american horror story #apocalypse #ahs apocalypse #cody fern #x reader #ahs x reader

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bgn846 · 4 years ago

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Marshal’s Creed FFXV Fanfic

Summary:

Cor dresses up for the annual Halloween gala in hopes to win a bet. Can he beat out everyone else at the party with the best costume?

Notes:

I had a fun prompt from my friend @ragewerthers for Cor Leonis getting invited to a Halloween party.... but what in the HELL is he supposed to go as?! Do Regis and Clarus help him? Do the boys help him? Does he decide to go scary? Funny? Mythical?

I hope you all enjoy, I had fun writing this! :)

Work Text:

“What is he wearing?” Regis asked under his breath from where they were standing near the steps to the throne.

“Not so sure, but it seems pretty popular with the ladies,” Clarus admitted as he craned his neck to see better.

“Dear six, he looks half-naked!” spluttered Regis after a moment.

“Sorta, he’s got pants and maybe something someone would consider a shirt on.” Though Clarus was still clueless as to what Cor had dressed up as. The annual Halloween gala was always a fun event. However, the marshal never dressed up.

Ever.

It was only the quick thinking of Regis with the tempting draw of a bet that enticed their friend into wearing anything special this year. A hefty amount of 500gil sat waiting for Cor if he dressed up and won one of the sundry costume awards to be gifted that night. The prizes given out were little awards trinkets, and the bragging rights until the next party. Of course, Cor could care less about any of that, the only reason he’d even agreed, was to prove Regis wrong and maybe relieve him of some decent spending cash.

The king had figured Cor wasn’t creative enough to even stand a chance. Regis had merely snorted and waved him off when the marshal assured them he’d win something. Now, as Clarus watched their friend navigate through the crowd he was beginning to think Regis might have to pay up at the end of the night.

The squeals of impressed party goers only got louder as Cor approached, as did the flash of lights from photos being snapped. The crowds dispersed once he’d reached the king. Cor yawned once seemingly bored with the whole affair already. “You might as well give me the money now, Regis.”

“Never!” the king hissed, “You aren’t going to win, look at you! What is that, it looks like a pile of rags!”

Before Cor could answer a young staffer passing by interrupted them with a shout, “Awesome costume!” They left just as quickly as Clarus began to examine the outfit in more detail.

“I’m afraid I’m lost as to what you are, care to enlighten us?”

“Eh, this? I have no idea, Noct helped me pick it out. Said it was the best costume to wear and had Ignis go online and order me one before I could say no.”

“You asked my son to help you?”

“Nope, he found out I was going to dress up and he nearly flipped. How could I say no, he begged me to let him help.”

“Still what the hell are you?” Regis asked in exasperation.

“An assassin I think?” Cor supplied with a furrowed brow. “Honestly, the kid was talking too fast for me to catch the exact name, but he said it was from a game.”

“Why in the heck would an assassin wear that? Your entire right side is exposed, seems like a defensive nightmare.”

“I’ll admit it’s not exactly realistic but it’s comfy at least.” Cor offered with a shrug.

“I don’t know why you let my son talk you into this, you look ridiculous.” Regis was about to add more when another party-goer/staffer wandered by and started staring. They were of course after a picture of Cor. The staffer was young and blushing like mad but still managed to ask for a selfie.

“I’m sorry what were you saying majesty? I got pulled away to have my picture taken because I’m going to win.”

Regis sneered and turned around to walk away. Clarus couldn’t help but snicker at the sight. Regis was a sore loser so a part of him hoped Cor wouldn’t win, but he probably would. The marshal, though not a youthful twenty-year-old anymore, could hold his own in the looks department. He was only in his forties now but still trained just as hard. His well-defined six-pack was evidence of that. Clarus suspected that most of the girls wandering over were trying to get a better look at what he’d been hiding under his guard uniform.

Cor for once didn’t mind the attention and even smiled for a few shots. It was nice to see his friend out of his element for once. “Have you seen his highness?” Clarus asked, figuring Noct would have at least had to help Cor get ready. Otherwise, the man wouldn’t have known how to wear the costume.

“Yeah, he’s coming soon, he was getting picky about his nails.”

“What?”

“You’ll see, he’ll match grumpy pants over there,” Cor announced with a chuckle. “Regis thinks sporting little tiny fake fangs makes him a good vampire. He’s so wrong.”

“Oh dear,” Clarus could only guess what Noct had conjured up. Ignis would have been key in gathering his needed elements, but the idea was most likely the princes. “What are the others dressing up as?”

Cor barked out a laugh, “I only saw Ignis and Prompto but it appeared they were wearing matching black suits.”

“That’s it?”

“Almost, if you don’t count the wolf tail they both had clipped to their belts and the wolf ear headbands.”

“I’m so confused,” he sighed. However, right as he was about to ask for more details a sudden hush overtook the room. Looking up he noticed what had caused the reaction. Ignis, Prompto, and his son were stalking over towards them. They all matched and looked quite formidable. However, Noct seemed to be missing. The black suits had matching black shirts and ties to go with. One might take them all for security guards aside from the addition of the animal ears atop their heads. One thing Cor hadn’t mentioned was their eye color. Each had donned a pair of contacts that made their eyes look golden and cat-like.

As they neared, Clarus realized there was a fourth pair of legs hiding behind Ignis. This must be the prince. Waiting patiently as the group finally came to a rest in front of them, Clarus was treated to the reveal. A pale hand with amusingly long pointy black nails slowly crept out from behind Ignis arm. It reached out and pointed straight at him. Then in a move that had Clarus snorting with laughter, Noct curled his fingers and beckoned him closer.

“You’re nuts if you think I’m letting you near me with those daggers,” he laughed.

Noct merely shook his finger and carefully leaned to the side to show his face. The prince’s hair was slicked back and someone had drawn in an exaggerated widow’s peak.

“I see you’re taking your role far more seriously than your father.”

“I shall win,” was all Noct uttered before he hissed and retreated behind his bodyguards again.

With a quick bow, Ignis led the way back out into the party. The advisor was playing his part very well and looked like he’d snap a person in two if they even tried to talk to the prince. Prompto was fighting to hide a smile as they turned to leave. Gladio offered Clarus and eyebrow waggle and a wink before he left. They were having fun it seemed.

“So forgive me for being a little behind on my fantasy lore, why are they all wearing animal ears and tails?” Clarus asked kindly.

“He’s a vampire and he needs his werewolf pack to protect him.”

“Ah, I see. Noct basically thought up the perfect costume, ensuring he doesn’t have to talk with anyone.”

“Pretty much, he’s clever in that way, unlike his old man!” Cor teased as Regis joined them again.

Ignoring Cor’s comment, Regis stared at Noct’s retreating party and tilted his head, “Was that my son?”

“Yep you missed the reveal; he’s a vampire with a coven of werewolves.”

Regis simply smiled and straightened his shoulders slightly, “He takes after me in so many ways.”

Cor groaned loudly and rolled his eyes, “You wish, look it I’m gonna go mingle and get some more votes in my favor. I’m winning this contest tonight, be ready to pay up.”

Regis tried to whack Cor in the shin with his cane, but the marshal was quicker and leaped out of the way. He laughed and casually wandered away, complete with a smug look of satisfaction.

“He’s such a brat sometimes,” Regis huffed.

“He’s only five years younger than you.”

“Shut it; let’s go see if we can convince the judges to ban him or something.”

Cor did not get banned.

Clarus had the joy of watching his friend claim a very special award, the citadels’ sexiest costume. Apparently, the panel of judges was also distracted by Cor’s exposed right side and six-pack. The few other contestants in that category didn’t stand a chance. No manner of makeup could fake muscles or a square jawline.

Regis didn’t have to pout for long though when his son won the night's overall best costume design. The king was proud of his son and his friends. They’d banded together to create a memorable look. Noct stayed in character when he accepted his award and tried to bite one of the presenters. Gladio sprang into action and held him back. The room erupted in laughter and cheers.

Suddenly thankful they could all enjoy moments like this together; Clarus smiled and looked over to his friend and King. Regis must have had a similar reaction as he returned a warm smile of his own and a small nod.

The rest of the night was a blur; Cor had come playfully demanding his money. Regis denied him, but Clarus knew he’d pay up in the morning. His liege kept trying to accuse Cor of cheating since he was only wearing half a costume. The marshal would then wiggle his award in front of Regis’ face as a rebuttal.

The music soon turned up loud enough that they couldn’t talk anymore. Opting to retreat to the far corner of the room the three friends sat and relaxed. They spend the remainder of the evening commenting on the costumes and the terrible music.

The End.

AO3 link is posted in the comments.

#ffxv #fanfic #cor leonis #the immortal #the marshal

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zerochanges · 4 years ago

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2020 Favorite Anime

I am sure I don’t have to exactly spell it out that 2020 was a different year, we all know the spiel now. It was in particular a bad year for me for a lot of personal reasons on top of the whole world wide pandemic thing killing millions and shutting down business and and all our hobbies--so I really was straight up not having a good time. It’s because of that I honestly didn’t really keep up with a lot of my hobbies this year so when it comes to choosing my favorite anime and games of 2020, I don’t have as much as I usually would.

So this year I decided to just say screw it, there are no rules. I usually try to impose some on myself every year for my lists: rules like no sequels, no long running shows, no shows that technically started last year, only new content from this year and not older stuff I watched/played this year but came out from a prior one. This time, there are no holds barred. I am just going to list my top whatever the hell I feel like listing. So starting with anime and in my usual alphabetical order; here we go.

The 8th Son? Are You Kidding Me?

Maybe a guilty pleasure? Maybe I just enjoy some trashier shows? It’s hard to say. There is nothing that great about 8th Son, it’s very bland and doesn’t stick out amongst the million other isekai (another world) power fantasy series that are all the rage now and yet there is a strange draw to it. Perhaps it’s because almost all the isekai elements in the series feel more forced than anything else, like they are just tacked on to appeal to modern audiences.

8th Son honestly feels more like a good old fashion fantasy series from the 90’s that just had to add isekai elements in it to appeal to kids today. I really enjoyed it for that aspect. The power fantasy isn’t too out of control (although the protagonist is quite strong), and there is no real end goal or attempt to return to your previous life. The protagonist Wendelin is more or less just cool with how things are now. Instead it focuses on his growth as a mage and how he tries to navigate the political intrigue of this feudal world being one of the youngest born in a noble family with no clear line of succession to take over yet being the most talented and magically gifted child of said family.

Ascendance of a Bookworm

Proving that not all isekai series have to be a power fantasy, Ascendance of a Bookworm plays out more like an educational take on medieval times, think something among the lines of Spice and Wolf, if you will. One day Motosu Urano wakes up in the body of the small child Myne in a fantasy world much like medieval Europe but with a few other elements like magic and sorcery. While at first that may sound like a high flying adventure it really isn’t. The series is more about following the average life of a peasant in this world and how far out of reach literature is to them, given the lack of printing press and the like. Urano now Myne tries her best to create books for the common people and spread literature, a herculean task considering the insane douchebaggery of the higher caste in this world. But armed with modern day knowledge of the 21st century Myne is able to create modern conveniences and wow most people around her.

Black Clover

So I am going to include long running shows now this year, get over it. Black Clover has been a favorite of mine in recent years. Out of the modern Jump battle series I find myself more and more drawn into Clover (and also my one true love, the ever underappreciated World Trigger) than the other more popular ones that seem to rule all the anime conversations today. Since I was following the series dubbed as it aired on Toonami this year brought me the end of the first part of the series; finally seeing the epic conclusion of Clover Kingdom’s long standing battle with the Eye of the Midnight Sun and revealing some pretty great and shocking twists behind the war of elves and humans along the way.

This finale was fantastic and honestly while I am glad to see the series continue on and grow from there, and look forward to seeing more of this new second part of Clover that focuses on a war with the Spade Kingdom, I absolutely would not have complained if the whole thing ended right here with this story arc. It wraps up so beautifully and is a compilation of three great years of episodes.

BOFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt so I’ll Max Out My Defense

Bofuri is not a series I thought I would enjoy as much as I did but it really won me over. Essentially just a ‘cute girls do cute things’ kind of show but with a twist of it being in an MMO game, there is something about it that made it so comfy and easy to watch. There’s always something enjoyable about watching the protagonist Maple, an absolutely clueless newbie at video games continue to be the bane of existence to the developers and admins of the game as she constantly breaks it and becomes insanely overpowered on a regular basis all from her own cluelessness.

As the title suggests she is the only person in the world to get scared of taking damage in a video game and puts all her stats into defense and literally nothing else entirely. After so much grinding the girl is such a tank she can just walk through enemies to kill them. It’s fun little things like this that make the show always worth a chuckle as her legendary player status continues to rise while in reality she just has no clue how to play RPGs whatsoever.

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations

If you think Black Clover had a great run of episodes this year in 2020 just wait until you see what Boruto had to offer. While not a perfect year, the series did take off for about 2 months thanks to a pandemic hiatus, once it came back it was stronger than ever. We came out of the gates running and kicked off the return of Boruto with a fantastic 20+ episode long story arc centered on introducing the main group of villains in the series, the Kara. The world of Boruto became much bigger and much darker, and the series in the last year has started to bring in a lot more manga content and moving at a brisker and faster pace, changing the status quo up quite a lot. Watching the New Team 7 grow so much and rise to these challenges was rewarding and I am so excited for the vessel story arc teased at the latest Jump Festa this December.

Ultimately though their first encounter, crushing defeat, and subsequent rematch with Deepa; a new anime only member of Kara meant to introduce the organization to anime viewers was an insane show de force of animation and one of the best battles in 2020 anime, dare I say. These kids are growing into great warriors and the stakes have been raised so much.

Cardfight!! Vanguard Gaiden IF

The 2018 reboot of the Vanguard series saw not only the card game get refreshed but the television anime as well. Dubbed the V Series by fans thanks to all the new card serial numbers starting with a V post reboot, these last two years have been fun and full of fan service for long time viewers of the anime. Gaiden IF is the final season of this reboot before the fourth entry of the franchise Overdress begins in 2021, and was a very strange and experimental one at that. Gaiden IF holding true to its name was a gaiden, or spinoff of the series that wasn’t necessary in the same canon as the regular show and more fascinating had zero card fights during the entire show--instead being one huge parody of card game animes in general and the beloved cast of characters the series has built over its ten year run.

It’s quite hilarious and a great round of fun, especially since there isn’t a main character in sight. Gaiden IF is carried entirely by a cast of side characters and former villains now taking over the role of protagonist. I’ve never seen a show go for an entire season with such minor characters playing such a huge role and that is one of the best aspects of it. Every week watching Ibuki Kouji, one of the most feared and powerful villains in the series being tormented and kicked around as a would-be hero now honestly carries the entire show.

But really, this was one of the first anime to air post pandemic hiatus and it was so refreshing to have Vanguard back. Every week it reminded me how much I loved the franchise and anime in general, it was such a delight to finally have something enjoyable back in my life after such a grueling pandemic hiatus of nothing.

Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibouken (2020)

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think there would be a modern adaptation of Dai no Daibouken, or The Adventures of Dai as it is being called in English now. This was one of my all time favorite Jump manga growing up and I always thought the original unfinished 1991 anime was the best we were ever going to get as far as animation goes, so to see this beautiful new series with its fantastic storyboarding and animation, great use of CG mixed in with hand drawn, and what seems like an outright declaration from the series itself that it will adapt the series in its entirety this time, it’s all too much.

This new Dai adaptation is like a dream anime that was made just for me. Every Saturday morning I giddily log on to watch the new episode just like being a kid again with Saturday morning cartoons. If you are sleeping on this show, don’t! You won’t regret watching it, Dai was one of the all time great Shonen Jump properties of the 90’s and is ready to show kids today what that era has to offer!

Gundam Build Divers Re:rise Season 2

Rerise was hands down one of my favorite shows last year when the first cour aired, and this year is no different either, dare I say once again this was probably my favorite show of the whole year. It’s hard to really go into what made this second cour so good without flat out spoiling all the best parts, and all the character development, and all the amazing battles, but suffice to say, this may be one of the best Gundam shows of the entire decade, Build series or not. Hell I ain’t afraid to say this kicked G-Tekketsu (Iron Blooded Orphans) ass this way to Sunday, I don’t care that this is a toy commercial for a much younger audience. Basically, watch Rerise, it’s going to be a great time.

If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die

This was another series that I expected very little from but ended up really enjoying each week. The basic premise is pretty simple, a super fan obsessed with an idol (singer) goes to insane lengths to support her and thinks her love will never be reciprocated but maybe it just might be. It’s kinda strange and an unusual romance series that isn’t really all that big on romance. In fact it seems to be much bigger on being informative about idol fan culture and nerd culture in general and poking fun at that while never being too mean spirited.

I think that’s the charm of this one. These are by all extent weird kinda creepy people that are obsessed over young girl singers but it never demonizes its cast for that nor does it ever go too far in the power fantasy of them ‘getting the girl’. It’s about the struggle of fan life and the tightknit and utterly bizarre groups of friends you can make in a fandom--and also maybe some love might happen along the way.

Jujutsu Kaisen

Another big modern shonen jump battle manga got its chance to be animated this year, and this time courtesy of studio Mappa who are the real stars of this party. Everything about Jujutsu Kaisen feels like Mappa throwing down the gauntlet and trying to one-up the highly praised and beloved Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba from last year that wowed everyone with UFOtable’s signature beautiful animation. It’s very fascinating to see the insane levels of gorgeous jaw dropping action set pieces between these two series, both raising the bar to ridiculous levels in their own ways. On top of the animation front though are some very easily lovable characters, a much darker feeling supernatural story than one may expect, and probably Crunchyroll’s best dub produced in 2020.

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken is another series from beloved auteur Masaaki Yuasa. Bringing with it his signature style and wonderful animation, his hardworking compatriots at studio Science Saro deliver something truly special, an anime about why anime is great and just how the heck it is made to begin with. I think one of my favorite aspects of Yuasa’s work is just how sincere almost his entire output is, and how you can really feel a certain kind of emotion and vision behind each work that is unique to it. For Eizouken it is definitely the joy of creation and what it means to pursue something creative. Easily one of the best watches of 2020 for both its visuals, sound design, characters with great chemistry that have to deliver very heavy and technical dialogue but do so in a really natural and enjoyable way--and hey the shows within the show that the girls make are also usually pretty interesting and good too.

MAJOR 2nd Season 2

I think my favorite aspect of this new middle school arc of MAJOR 2nd was seeing just how much Daigo has changed over the years since we last saw him in elementary school in the first season. No longer in little league and now trying to save his school’s baseball club, Daigo has grown into a strong leader and really feels natural with everyone he talks to. It’s a huge departure from the bullied and reclusive selfish kid he was in the first season. Seeing the kid grow up into somebody reliable and caring like this almost brings a tear to my eye.

It’s an old cliché but saving the falling apart club in your school is a classic underdog story and the fact that Daigo built his own team from the ground up really sells it. The team is largely made up of girls too which brings a really great girl power aspect to it as well. With just 3 boys and the rest of the positions being filled with females, the haphazard team Daigo put together not only has to show that nobodies can make it but that girls are just as good as the boys.

Rent-a-Girlfriend

I love trashy romcom harem anime, I will be the first to admit it. I am not even their target audience, in fact I am probably the exact opposite of their target audience yet I can’t get enough of this kind of garbage, and Rent-a-Girlfriend brings in the garbagest of garbage it can! The name says it all right there, our hero is literally so pathetic he has to pay girls money to go on dates with him. And he just continues to ruin everything around him with his constant lying and all around patheticness. He is like a blackhole of suck that will drag down any and all that go near him. What more can you even want?!

I am half facetious here of course, but to an extent what I said about Kazuya isn’t wrong. He’s the biggest loser around, and I love him. It’s fun to watch him squirm, and it’s nice to learn more about him and see he has a good side deep down too. In a lot of ways he’s probably one of the more relatable leads in these kinds of shows as he’s just as pathetic as all the rest of us who watch these kinds of shows are. But besides Kazuya there are plenty of nice leading ladies too and probably most surprisingly a fairly well fleshed out circle of friends that he hangs out with. Usually these kinds of shows will sideline the male friends of the leads and only focus on time between the lead and the girls, so it’s refreshing to see so much time spent with other boys in the show too.

Also as an addendum to anyone who watches the series dubbed, Aleks Le‘s performance as the lead role is maybe some of the best casting in modern anime dubbing I have ever heard. He kills it in this show. It’s a performance that carries the entire show.

Shadowverse

You might say, I saved the best for last, but honestly this was a coincidence. Shadowverse is a by-the-numbers card game anime. It starts very slow and very bland, and offers nothing new to the genre instead sticking entirely to the classic tropes and clichés of sports anime and Yu-Gi-Oh clones alike. That is for the first 12 episodes or so. It begins to evolve and gets a little more interesting from there, then something happens. Something I cannot explain. Something that makes no sense. Something that the production committee probably should not have allowed to occur. The show just goes absolutely, positively, certifiably, fucking insane.

Out of nowhere, the plot suddenly turns into a straight Neon Genesis Evangelion knock-off, complete with plugsuits, random nonsense mysticism from exotic religions, and soul crushing nightmarishly harsh treatment of the child protagonists. Suddenly time freezes for everyone but the main characters, and the totally original not Kabbalah, Tree of Woe, begins to end the world. Now armed with their new psychic powers (that they just have now out of nowhere!) the kids have to fight brain washed former enemies and loved ones alike that seek to destroy the world via assimilation into the darkness.

Suddenly we have moments like the above where Luca, the coldhearted and cool Shadowverse player who only ever began fighting in tournaments to earn money for his younger sick sister’s treatment has to face off against a possessed evil version of his sister who bemoans all the isolation he put her through, never being there with her, always away trying to earn money. She berates and destroys the young man’s heart for his well intentions. Luca with no other options has to put her down for the good of the world.

You know, for the 12 year old kids in the audience that signed up for a show about a cellphone app.

I haven't even gotten to the best part yet, the show isn’t over! There’s still 12 episodes left in the series and do you wanna know the best part?! The heroes already failed! The world blew up and everyone got sucked into a blackhole and died! That’s not a joke. The bad guys won. And there’s still another season worth of episodes to go! I am not kidding, this is how the show ended the year 2020! This is legendary, no fucks given status if I ever saw it. The best way to end 2020 if ever there was one:

Every week I anxiously log on to watch Shadowverse after it jumped the shark just to see what insanity happens next. This is Tommy Wiseau The Room energy levels of pure insane dribble. Shadowverse might be the biggest disaster of a card game anime of all time, and I simply cannot get enough of it now.

BONUS THOUGHTS For 2020

Random Anime Collecting: This year saw Discotek release three Case Closed/Detective Conan movies on blu-ray. Detective Conan is a series near and dear to my heart, and one I spent a lot of my college days obsessed over. This is a franchise I really went to great lengths to collect after Funimation reprinted many of the long time out of print volumes of the series back in 2013, and I bought them all back then. Buying new Detective Conan movies in 2020 felt super surreal, and also wonderful. I really hope I can keep buying more in 2021.

Hidive for these hard times: I didn’t include anything really from Sentai, I am not sure why, maybe none of what I watched this year would count as a favorite of mine, maybe I was just lazy and didn’t want to add to my list anymore. Honestly though I watched a lot of series this year on Hidive. I think my favorite has been the new dub of Pet Girl of Sakurasou.

A Lost Classic: Nobody is talking about God Mazinger finally getting released in English from Discotek and that kind of bums me out. The series was one I obsessed over when younger, especially because it was rare to find even raw footage of it lead alone subtitled. It was never subtitled in fact, so Discotek’s release is the first time it has ever been in English.

#anime #The 8th Son? Are You Kidding Me?#Ascendance of a Bookworm #Black Clover #Boruto #Boruto Naruto Next Generations #Bofuri #Cardfight!! Vanguard #Dragon Quest #Dragon Quest Dai no Daibouken #dragon quest the adventure of dai #Gundam Build Divers Re:rise #JuJutsu Kaisen #Keep YOur Hands Off Eizouken #MAJOR 2nd #Rent-a-girlfriend #Shadowverse

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slytherinprongs-writing · 4 years ago

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At Long Last

Warnings: Mention of death, and very slight swearing.

Chapter 1 - The Beginning, and the Spreading of Rumours

Madeline Penhallow was in many ways very different from Katerina. That was the point, after all, to make sure that she was different enough to never be discovered.

Katerina had the Dumbledore auburn hair and bright blue eyes, much like her grandfather before his hair had whitened.

Madeline had blonde hair and green, catlike eyes. Her face shape and features were different, and she was a few inches taller - just enough to notice a difference if you stood beside one and then the other.

Kat thought she was rather clever coming up with Maddie's backstory: she was a transfer student from Ilvermorny in America, after her parents had died in a car crash. Minerva McGonagall (who had always been like an aunt to Kat) had agreed to pose as a distant relative of Maddie's, who she had come to England to live with.

It was simple really. The trick with lies was remembering the details, and Kat, had a very good memory.

XXX (scene break)

"Remember the charms must be reapplied every morning," her grandfather told her for what felt like (and probably was) the 12th time.

Kat, or rather, Maddie, simply sighed, grabbing her trunk and moving to stand by Minnie, Professor McGonagall, she reminded herself, although a slip up on that part would be salvageable since she was supposed to be Maddie's aunt.

The charms were complex, however well within Kat's capability. Despite her multiple expulsions, she was a good student and had studied well beyond her level. That would have to change. There would be no room for Maddie to go round casting N.E.W.T. level spells, as if being a new Fourth Year student wouldn’t be enough!

After the whole process of gathering her trunk, coat, and other belongings, Minnie (for she was still Minnie before they were at Hogwarts, Maddie’s mind argued) apparated them to the train station.

The most striking thing about Platform Nine and Three Quarters, was of course the great scarlet steam engine that stood before her, and Maddie couldn't help but sigh in delight, as she finally took in the view she'd been missing all these years.

Turning around, she stood on her tiptoes to kiss her aunt on the cheek and grinned.

"See you at Hogwarts Minnie!" She shouted over her shoulder as she made her way towards the train.

XXX

She made sure to walk down the entire length of the train, peeking through the windows of every carriage. This was partly because she knew the 'cool kids' would be at the back end, but also because, ever the dramatic, surely at least a few students would realise as she went past that this newcomer was not a first year.

She couldn't wait for the rumours to begin.

A smirk, tired but pasted there, graced her lips as she finally reached the second to last compartment. She was about to knock when she was unceremoniously barged out of the way by two boys coming from the next one down.

She let out an indignant huff as she was pushed to the side, only to be drowned out by one exclaiming: "Oi Evans!"

The girls in the compartment turned to the now open door. A couple of them were trying to hide smiles, but the redhead in the corner had the same expression as Maddie. Annoyance. Plain and clear across her face.

"An hour."

What? Maddie looked on from the side-lines confused, before the girl continued, "I can't even have ONE bloody HOUR with my friends before you come and start harassing me again!"

Ah. It seemed like this was a regular thing.

"But Lily-" the messy haired boy protested, only to be cut off,

"No Potter. Shut up, and get out. I don't want to see your face again before tomorrow at the very least!"

"What about my face Evans?” The second boy interjected, “mine is clearly much better than James's." He had black hair down to his shoulders, masking his face from the angle Maddie was at, and his comment welcomed a half-hearted shove and an indignant snort from his friend.

"You too Black! Out! Just- URGH!" The girl threw her hands up in irritation and sat down on the seat with a heavy thud, crossing her arms.

Mercifully, at least for the redhead (Lily seemed to be her name), the two boys dispersed, although not without a few lingering looks. One from the boy with the glasses and messy hair towards the irritated girl, and a couple from girls in the compartment to the other boy.

As he turned towards her, Maddie suddenly realised why.

He had fine, perfect features, she saw, as she scanned his face. Cheekbones that could cut glass and a chiselled jawline, immediately stood out, as well as the smoky grey eyes that stared at her in confusion.

"You. You're new. Why are you new?" He asked her jokingly.

Luckily, Maddie was used to fine features and was not even partially swayed by his pointed gaze. She was used to beautiful people (for this boy certainly was beautiful,) and she was used to - no, loved - the spotlight on her.

She sent a smirk and a light chuckle his way. “Well..." she lowered her voice, leaning towards him, "that would be for me to know, and you to find out."

She locked eyes. Challenging him.

"Well..." he mimicked her, leaning in further until she felt her hair flutter from his breath, "then I suppose I'll just have to try my best."

He drew back, and stepped to the side, gesturing to let her past. Gathering her belongings, she approached the door of the compartment, but not without missing the look on the other boy - James's - face, a mixture of exasperated annoyance, aimed at Black, and confusion at Maddie.

She smiled to herself. It was all going perfectly. After all, those boys and these girls seemed like the popular type, and the popular type were the best spreaders of rumours...

XXX

The girls welcomed Maddie at once. There were five of them, plus her, and all of their luggage, and even though the compartment was one of the larger ones, it was still a tight fit. Nevertheless, after the few hours the journey had taken, Maddie felt as if she'd known them forever.

Lily, was sharp tongued (as Maddie had witnessed earlier), but her kindness more than made up for it. Marlene was blonde, beautiful and brash. She was the flirt and proud of it, but through the mask, Maddie could see she was incredibly intelligent.

Emmeline was quieter, with long brown hair hanging straight down towards the book she was reading, but she smiled warmly at Maddie when she sat down opposite Emmeline and beside Dorcas. Bright and bubbly, Dorcas seemed to never stop laughing, and her laughter was the type that made others helpless but to smile and join in.

Alice had a permanent smile, soft and gentle. She came into the carriage halfway through the journey after meeting her boyfriend Frank. Marlene had told Maddie that Frank and Alice were practically soulmates, and from the way Alice’s face lit up when she mentioned him, Maddie got the impression they were a perfect match.

XXX

The journey was worth it.

As they rounded the bend, all of the girls stopped what they were doing to gaze out of the window. Maddie joined them and finally, after 14 years she saw the castle.

It was majestic, incredible, and even more so up close as they took the Thestral drawn carriages up to the doors.

The other girls giggled at her look of awe but Maddie didn’t care. With a smile on her face, she stepped over the threshold.

And at long last, she was home.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

a/n: so kinda a lot of description here but I'm just setting the scenes. You can already see some flirting, but we'll see how that continues... (I'm telling you now, there's gonna be angst.)

Anyways, hope you liked it! Next chapter is posted.

#at long last #sirius black #sirius black fanfiction #sirius black x oc #katerina dumbledore #Dumbledore's granddaughter #madeline penhallow #marauders #marauders era #fanfiction #marauders era fanfiction #james potter #remus lupin #peter pettigrew #lily evans #lily potter #harry potter #harry potter fanfiction #potterverse

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jinyoung-please · 5 years ago

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Busking For You

When I skimmed through the last post, I noticed it was rather short so I tried to make this longer. I think I made it too long, though. I’m sorry.

I also have this NASTY habit of typing up my stories when I am DEAD tired and it’s about 3 or 4 in the morning because I like screwing myself over it’s fun. Please don’t mind me.

Group/Member: DAY6/Dowoon

Characters: Jae, Dowoon, Y/N

Genre: Bland fluff

Y/N just can’t seem to help themselves when it comes to seeing a certain someone busking on the streets. Jae the matchmaker is back to spread the love!!

Ping, ping! Your alarm went off signaling that it was time for you to hurry and get the hell out of your apartment and run downtown. You jumped up and rushed to leave, already in the clothes you laid out earlier for this very moment on this very day. There were only a few days you loved out of every month and they were all because of one thing. One moment, one sound, one man. Once every two weeks, the downtown area came alive with bands and artists of any sort promoting their craft and ever since you strolled through the downtown area a few months ago with your friend and came across him performing you made it a sort of ritual to go. Why? Because he was worth it. Who? You didn’t know, but he’s the drummer.Since the moment your eyes landed on him, you knew there would be no one else like him. Your heart practically sighed at the sight of him, for crying out loud! Time didn’t just slow down to a halt, it danced around for you to breathe in every move he made. Your friend had to reach over and hold your chin up just to keep your mouth closed.

“Hey, Y/N! What did I say? I said grab your coat because it’s cold.” Your friend shook their head, “At least, I knew to bring another coat.”

“Thanks, Jae. Weren’t you supposed to be downtown already?”

“Yeah, I told the guys I was meeting a friend to bring you over.” You nodded along as you stepped onto the crosswalk. There was a beat of awkward silence and as you were about to ask anything he opened his mouth to say, “That’s his coat, by the way.”

“What?” You ask, almost afraid of the answer.

“The drummer I refuse to name. I grabbed his coat for you.” The serious look on his face with a hint of amusement in his eyes made you freeze. “Jesus, Y/N, at least we made it to the other side of the road.”

“Jae, why?”

He shrugged, “Because I ship you.” Of all the excuses he chose that one. The one excuse that would give you hope. “We have to hurry, it’s almost show time. Last one there is a rotten egg!” He yelled back to you as he ran ahead of you. It’s too cold for this, you thought still running behind him, anyway.

When you finally make it to the busking section, you realize Jae hadn’t told you where they were going to be, making you come to terms with the fact that you are the rotten egg. “I’m out of shape.” You quietly say to yourself. You sigh heavily and decide to walk forward to the highest and most popular spot in the downtown area, hoping to catch a view of Jae’s fluffy hair or even just see if you could spot the drummer. Oh, who are you kidding, you could pick him out in the heaviest of crowds and you are all too aware of that.

I SENT YOU A MESSAGE!! A voice screams from your phone. You roll your eyes realizing that Jae had gotten a hold of your phone the last time you went somewhere with him. You pull out your phone and see an image of him with his bandmates with the caption, ‘Hurry!! We’re at the pointe! 2 minutes left.’

You gasp and sprint to the pointe. Dodging and evading people and things on your way up making you feel like you’re the star in an action movie. The pointe wasn’t just the highest spot downtown, it was called that because it’s the highest and it’s the one spot all performing artists wanted to be at. The only way you could perform there was by invitation and only the best are invited. You couldn’t believe it, your friend and his band were invited to perform on the pointe!

When you finally make it to the pointe, they start performing Time of Our Life. You had to bump and nudge people to attempt to get closer to them and the closest you could get still felt far away. You were also standing behind about five people that cursed at other people trying to get through so you didn’t dare chance it. Instead you enjoy the music surrounding you while also trying to catch glimpses of the drummer. At one point, you could swear that you caught him looking your way, but that didn’t seem possible and he was also moving his head a lot and smiling at everybody so it was hard to tell.

As they were starting their fourth song, Deep in Love, enough people had moved or left for you to move forward and live in your moment of happiness. The small smile on his face grabbed any attention you had left that wasn’t focused on him. The sound of life and music that was once there slowly faded along with all of the people surrounding you, leaving you and him. And his drum set. Though you felt like it was just the two of you left on this spot, he kept going. Moving and introducing his drumsticks to the drums over and over.

His soft eyes moved ever so painstakingly slowly to land on you.

The moment they did, you noticed small white flakes floating down in your field of vision. Another thing to add to his amazingly gentle looks to take your breath away. Something else must’ve caught his attention because in the next moment, you could feel your heart breaking watching his eyes turn away from you. You clear your throat and turn to look at Jae showing off a giant smile. You shrug as he yells out a thank you to the crowd when the song ends.

Even as Jae is putting his guitar in the case, you glance over to the drummer hoping to catch his eyes again. “You’re so obvious, it’s embarrassing.” Jae says walking up to you.

“Imagine being me.” You reply. He shivers. “Exactly.” You look back to Jae and hug him. “I’m so proud of you! Why didn’t you tell me you were invited to perform here?”

He shrugs as you let him go, “It was a surprise. Plus, someone requested we not share it because he wanted to do something.”

“What? Who?” You ask, confused.

“Don’t know. I have to finish packing up. I’ll catch up with you later.” He starts backing away when you reach out to stop him. “Have fun!”

“Jae!”

You feel a tap on your shoulder and start to turn. “Wait.” Two shaky hands grab your shoulders to stop you from facing them, but that voice is what caused you to freeze in place. You’ve craved that voice for the past few months and dreamed of the day he would finally say your name. Or his. The drummer was holding your shoulders. He clears his throat. “I just wanted to let you know that I asked Jae to take it so you would be warm because he said you had a bad habit of leaving your coat behind when you were excited about something.” He paused and whispered to himself, “I’m nervous.”

“Me, too.” You breathed out. “I’m keeping it warm for you.”

He chuckled, relaxing his hands on your shoulders. “Thank you, but I have a feeling that coat is about to become yours.”

You shrug, “Only if you give me permission.” Wait, am I flirting? I’m totally flirting right now, aren’t I??

“One condition. You can’t forget it when I take you to see the fireworks for the New Year.”

Uncharacteristically, you blurt out, “You’re still holding me.”

“What?” He asks, lifting his hands up like he’s about to get arrested.

You spin around just to have your breath taken away from you again. His cheeks are a rosy pink and his hair was starting to glisten from the melting snowflakes atop his head. “I… I want to see your face when I say okay.” He smiles, exposing his pearly teeth and pure happiness. Clearly having a hard time containing his joy, he wraps his arms around you, swaying you side to side.

“Finally!!” You hear Jae yell out. “Now you can finally stop talking about each other to me!”

You look up at him, “You asked about me?”

He nodded shyly, “You, too?” You nod in return. “The only thing he wouldn’t tell me was your name.”

You laugh, “Same. I’m Y/N.” Pause. “I guess we’re already past handshakes since you’re still holding me?”

“I’m Dowoon and yes because you are wearing and keeping my coat.” The smile that followed that smooth line made you feel like you signed a contract with the sweetest devil and you’re okay with that.

----Fin

Thank you for reading up to this point! I am now professing my undying love to you because holy cow, I don’t even like reading over my own stories. Thank you so much! I love you.

I know it takes me forever to post these and I don’t mean for that to happen, but it does and I am so sorry for those that await the next installment of Jae the Matchmaker. Thank you so much for being so patient with me.<3

Get stoked for the next one, though because it’s JAE!! What?! Jae gets a match, too?! Yes! Even cupid needs love!

#day6 #day6 imagines #day6 fanfic #kpop #kpop imagine #kpop fanfiction #DoWoon #sungjin #jae #wonpil #young k #dowoon imagines #Jae the matchmaker series

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bellarkefanfiction · 6 years ago

Text

#NoClickbait

written by: Josefine / @selflessbellamy

prompt: This is typical but maybe distracting kiss while playing a video game? Person A is competitive, 100% focused on winning and person B starts to plant kisses, all because of the competition, no one is in love here, it's a cold, calculating strategy. for anonymous

word count: 2204

Sharing an apartment with a Youtuber has its pros and cons. For instance, her roommate has — on numerous occasions — demanded to film alone in the living room for hours, because “it has much better lighting.” At night, she often hears him groan loud in frustration while editing, which would be funny if she didn’t have to wake up early for class most mornings.

However, the pros outweigh the cons, at least as it is right now. They’ve been living together for almost a year now, and since she told him that she didn’t mind being a part of his videos every once in a while, he has involved her in his creative process. Unlike a lot of YouTube channels, Bellamy Blake’s offers a wide range of different content, such as:

cook with me: grilled chicken breast (with a twist)

vlog: a day at the bookstore + haul

history has left us: queer!Achilles (Pride Month special)

If his subscriber count of 3.2 million is anything to go by, this kind of content is great entertainment for everyone watching. Hell, Clarke even watches his videos despite the fact that she lives with him and could easily just sneak into the living room to watch him film. Still, she attempts to stay away, because Bellamy doesn’t tend to stare over her shoulder as she draws one of her pictures.

Sometimes, though, her thriving curiosity gets the better of her. When he first noticed her piqued interest, his dark eyes crinkled at the corners and he told her, “Princess, if you wanna know what I’m doing then you have to be a part of it.”

At first, Clarke had wondered whether having her show up in his videos was just gonna be a cheap clickbait trick, so that he could include her in the thumbnail and write a title called ‘vlog: Santa Monica with my girlfriend’, but he didn’t.

Instead, he turned the camera on her face as they were walking down the peer and said, “Oh, by the way guys. This is my roommate Clarke. She’s tagging along.”

He had probably expected her to not say anything, maybe give a shy little wave in response, because that’s what usually happens when people are camera shy. Clarke’s actual reaction was so far from that. In teasing, she stuck her tongue out at him and retorted, “Oh please, you’re the one who’s tagging along. I need someone to help me decide which Bath Bomb to get.”

That is the start of Clarke’s appearance in Bellamy’s videos, and since then she has only showed up more, for longer periods of time. A couple weeks ago she assisted him while he did the ‘Blindfolded Book Challenge’ by picking various classics and non-fiction works from his bookshelf.

After that video was posted, he told her not to look at the comments, which only made her suspicious, because he’d never advised her to stay away from the comment section of his videos before, and for a moment she thought that his viewers were perhaps making fun of her or something. Despite that the possibilities made her somewhat nervous, she couldn’t hold herself back.

The most popular comment jumped out at her:

[Top Comments - click to show]

Dani Larsson: y’all can’t tell us you’re not dating after this.

781+

Gulping, Clarke clicked on the replies and found the first couple ones to be:

Lydia Marcello: yea, just look at 13:52. That shoulder-lean is the least platonic thing I have seen in the modern era.

123+

Furrowing her brow, Clarke went to the timestamp to see what the girl was referring to — and there right before the end of the video as Bellamy said, “I guess that’s it for the Blindfolded Book Challenge. Thanks for watching!” — he pulled Clarke against his side, making her lean her head against his shoulder for a second, smiling.

After forcing her eyes off the frozen frame, Clarke looked at the comment below Lydia Marcello’s only to find:

TJ Byrne: Well, if he’s not dating her, I would love to tap that.

While the comment didn’t bother her much, it sure as hell seemed to have bothered Bellamy (and a lot of his loyal viewers), because he had actually responded:

Bellamy Blake: @TJ Byrne: Too bad. Sexist white Internet creeps aren’t her type.

201+

Clarke had to bite back the urge to laugh. Also, it was difficult to ignore the clear voice at the back of her head who kept telling her that men with bronze, freckled skin and lots of sharp edges is her type. Still, she has only ever seen one person who looks like that.

A person, whose laughter could light up the entire world, who places pencils behind his ear and hums while he cooks.

***

One late afternoon she returns, violet and vermillion paint caked beneath her fingernails, to the sight of Bellamy sitting cross-legged on the couch, his trusted laptop in front of him and square glasses resting on the bridge of his nose. As always, he looks up when she enters the living room.

“I’m gonna cook dinner. Chicken Alfredo pasta, does that sound good?”

He beams, most likely with as much surprise as amusement, because she’s rarely the one who prepares meals. Still, she wants to prove to him that she’s learned quite a lot from watching his culinary-themed videos.

“Very,” is his simple comment, though the lone word manages to convey his enthusiasm. When she turns to walk into the kitchen, he suddenly adds, “Hey, Clarke, would you mind being in a video later?”

The curiosity in her mind sparks like colorful fireworks. “What kind of video?” Given the complexity of Bellamy’s content, it’s impossible for her to have the faintest idea… Maybe it’s another challenge video? A casual vlog? One of his informative history sessions?

Then he explains that his viewers would love his nostalgia series to feature a gaming video. “I have Mario Kart for my old PlayStation, so… I thought it’d be more fun if we played it together. You know I love how competitive you are.”

That last bit seems to be coated in fondness, the words soft — a stark contrast to his usual teasing tone, and it has color rising to her cheeks, undoubtedly. In order to hide the blush, Clarke turns away, but not without saying, “Of course. That sounds fun,” over her shoulder.

To her joy, Bellamy eats two large portions of the Chicken Alfredo pasta and praises her for using vegetables and spices that complement the creamy sauce. Hearing him say this makes her heart feel warm.

Together, they do the dishes while listening to ‘Cigarette Daydreams’ from one of Bellamy’s vinyl records. Most of his collection he inherited from his dad, but he adds a newer record once in a while. Afterwards the struggle with setting up the lights in preparation for filming — since the sky has now darkened, they need to improve the lighting in the living room.

Before they can turn on the camera, they have to plan a quick intro. Of course, Bellamy will do the most of the talking, since it’s his channel, but he tells her that he doesn’t want her to hold anything back, especially not during the gameplay itself.

It feels like an eternity has passed. At last, Bellamy clicks record, takes a seat next to Clarke and says, “Welcome back guys! I looked at your requests and quickly had to realize that you all want to see me play a video game,” he runs his fingers through the back of his hair, “As you will probably find out, I suck at gaming. I’ve killed a Sim once, and it was not on purpose.”

Clarke mouths, “He has,” hoping that the teasing it will amuse some of his viewers.

“Anyway, I dragged the Princess along for this one. She’s gonna crush me as Peach.”

Chuckling, she replies, “Oh, I sure am. No more of that ‘damsel in distress’ Peach. Those days are over, and you’re gonna go down.”

Even though they didn’t plan it for the intro, they look at each other, faces inches from one another to signify the “stand-off” that’s about to happen. However, within a couple seconds, they both crack up.

As it turns out, Bellamy is not actually bad at Mario Kart, which seems to surprise him way more than it does her. Within ten of playing minutes, he’s in 3rd place, but he makes the mistake of gloating, “Now, who’s gonna go down, Princess?”

Maybe they should stop using that expression…

Oh, well. “You still are,” Clarke laughs just as she uses the Starman that she’s had up her sleeve for a couple minutes, and while it does help her overtake a lot of players, she’s only gets to the fourth position, right behind him.

Bellamy does what he can to maintain his lead. Out of the corner of her eye, Clarke sees him lick his lips in concentration, and the sight damn near distracts her. Quickly, she collects herself, and while it’s difficult to keep up with him when she has to stay on the course, she’s tailing him.

When he bumps his shoulder against hers in teasing, moving his controller just to annoy her, an unfamiliar sensation sparks in her ribcage, causing her to lean closer and press her lips to his neck, right below his sharp jawline. At first she feels him freeze. Scared that she has overstepped an invisible boundary, she draws back, but he…

He is smiling. “You think you can distract me?”

“I can’t?” Turning her attention back to the television, Clarke smirks as her heart flips itself over and over.

Now she thinks she notices the faint pink tint in his freckled cheeks, but it might be her eyes playing a trick on her. With much confidence, Bellamy says, “You gotta keep trying…”

Right now, they’re doing the final lap around the course, still tailing each other, brushing each other like they are in real life. It seems as though he just gave her another challenge — one, which she is even more determined to win. Therefore, she giggles slightly, kisses his throat again, a little lower this time, then his shoulder and the back of his ear.

He releases a strange sound that must be somewhere between a groan and a chuckle. Unsuccessful, he tries to brush her off, but she can feel the heat that’s rising to his skin by the second.

Just when she leans in for the sixth kiss, he groans, tossing his controller to the side. She doesn’t recognize the emotion flashing in his earthy eyes, but she is not afraid of it. Bellamy murmurs intelligibly before giving her a gentle push to the floor — out of the camera frame — on her back, she watches his face move closer to hers than it ever has until she can almost sense the amazing warmth that pours from his features. Taking a slow breath, he nuzzles her, which has her entire chest feeling like jelly.

When their lips meet, it’s as if the living room is filled with light, though it must be nearing midnight. The happiness bubbles in her stomach, runs through her veins to mix with her bloodstream. Burying her fingers in the dark, soft curls of his hair, Clarke deepens the kiss a little, causing him to smile against her lips.

“I’m gonna have to edit this out.”

She laughs at that statement. “The video is useless now, Bellamy. We’ve both fallen off the course before the finish line.”

“Well, it was worth it.”

As opposed to sleeping that night, they sit on the bed in his room eating dry Coco Puffs while talking about where to go from there.

What they end up doing is reshooting the Mario Kart video the next day (Bellamy wins, much to her dismay), then spend the next eight months trying to hide their relationship from his online following, which is easy when she can simply not be present in his videos.

His viewers, however, are far from stupid. The first video that she appears in after the Mario Kart one is a casual writing vlog, where she brings him a cup of black coffee after his all-nighter. And it’s one tiny detail that Bellamy missed in editing that effectively exposes them:

[Top Comments - click to show]

Christine Hollinger: oh my god, he murmurs ‘thanks, babe’ at 8:46 asdjffikoxxkak… Y’ALL

863+

theo lewis: *platonically calls my roommate ‘babe’*

219+

After that, they have to come to terms with the fact that their secret is out, and because Bellamy doesn’t want to trick his followers, he decides to make the announcement (albeit casually) in his next video, which is a brief daily vlog. Bellamy turns the camera towards the balcony, on which she is standing, looking at the sinking sun.

“Isn’t she beautiful? I’m so lucky.”

No forced, half-assed video of them explaining how they got together, no cheesy girlfriend tag — just a simple yet revealing comment. Their relationship is not clickbait; it’s not something that he’s going to use to gain more followers. It’s too important for that.

#bellarke #bellarke fanfiction #bffnet #a: selflessbellamy #wt: josefine #bffwritingteam #prompts #oneshots #title: noclickbait #modern au #roommates #friends to lovers #social media au #youtuber!bellamy #fluff #youtube au

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queenrisa14 · 5 years ago

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2019 Fanfic Year in Review

Thank you @floraone for the tag!!

And full disclosure, this will be a very disappointing year in review lol

1. List of fics completed this year

2....and a half kind of?

“Sparks”

“Fields of Smut”

“Walk These Old Roads with Me”

(I say 2 and a half because I finished Fields of Smut for Smutember but I still have it open for future smut stories so it was finished for its intended purpose but still has the possibility of add ons.)

2. Number of words written this year

38,200 words

I’m actually pretty surprised over that number and kind of proud given how inactive I was.

3. Your most popular fic this year

I’ll be dead honest, none of my fics this year were all that popular lol

“Moonshine” was popular in the sense it had the most reviews, with “Fields of Smut” being second in reviews.

I guess “Walk These Old Roads with Me” was the most popular given it had the most favorites.

4. Your personal favorite this year

“Fields of Smut” I think and even though it was difficult to write it was my favorite because it was difficult and new and a challenge. Never really did smut so venturing into that genre was fun to do!

I really liked “Walk These Old Roads with Me” too.

5. Your favorite scene

I liked a lot of scenes in “Walk These Old Roads with Me”. It was fun writing post-stars usamamo it was still tricky to write nevertheless and I think my favorite scene was in the middle where they were hiking to the top of the mountain and wrote down their wishes. It was a nice mix of fluffy usamamo and I liked the short flashback scenes because that was a nice mix of angsty usamamo.

6. A fic or scene that challenged you

A lot challenged me. The most challenging was the confrontational scene at the end of “Walk These Old Roads with Me”. I’m not good experienced at confrontational/climax scenes - hence my trouble with the new chapter of “Checkmate” - so writing that scene was such a roadblock for me because I don’t know how to write confrontations, I’m a horrible confrontational person in real life so I don't know a lot about confrontations. (big shoutout to @floraone for helping me with that whole scene)

Another challenging writing piece was the fourth chapter of “Moonshine” with Mamoru being a veterinarian and Usagi bringing in Luna for shots. That was hard to write in general.

7. A line of writing you’re proud of

Actually pretty proud of a few lines in the first chapter of “Moonshine” (My Boyfriend’s Best Friend”) I can’t flirt to save my life so the flirty exchanges between Usagi and Mamoru was a big accomplishment for me lol

The snack line was pretty good.

And that I-Spy game wasn’t that bad!

-----

"I spy…." she paused, searching for something they haven't done yet, but she came back to look at his eyes, "..something blue."

"We did the towel already," he chuckled.

She shook her head, pigtails moving around. "This is something else."

Perplexed, he started looking around the tiny room, seeking out the item.

"It's dark blue," she continued, pushing off the wall, "There's two of them."

He became even more confused, and she giggled at his look. "Okay," she stared into his eyes, "I'm looking at them, right now."

His face froze, mind slowly processing and he looked down. "Uh-I.."

She took a step and was practically right in front of him. "I spy the most beautiful eyes."

He swallowed, thick, and he pressed against the door harder. "I don't think that's uh…. how you play the game."

Another step. "Should we switch games, then?"

----

Kind of cheesy but all the same it was fun to write

8. A comment that touched you

All comments touch me. Long and short, users and guests, every time I see an email from ff.net or even AO3 now, I always gets so excited that I want to thank each one and every one of you who review or favorite/kudos. It really does mean a lot and lights me up in such crazy, wonderful ways.

I do really love Guest reviews and the added aspect of it being anonymous also has the downside of not being able to reply to guests so I’m going to give a little shoutout to some recent ones.

It truly touches me when I’m able to write an emotion and other people can get feel that those emotions just by reading what I wrote. To me that’s one of the hugest compliments because I’ve always defined art and writing as something that when you look at it, it creates a feeling within you, if it’s happiness, sadness, love, anger, if it creates a feeling, it’s art. So thank you to all who do review, comment, favorite, anything that shows support ♥️♥️♥️♥️

9. Something that inspired your writing this year

See I think this was my problem this year: nothing really inspired me. Last year I had a lot more drive, new, exciting things were happening in my life, and I was in a better space, physically and mentally. This year had its rough patches where nothing inspired me and nothing continued to inspire me. What kept me going was all of you on here and ff.net where my favorite writers were still creating and I kept reading. So I guess what kept me inspired to write the stories I was able to make were all the wonderful people I’ve meant on here and still support me even when I’m not that active ♥️♥️

10. Your proudest accomplishment this year (that one scene; finally finishing that one fic; posting your first fic; etc)

Doing Smutember and posting “Fields of Smut” was my biggest accomplishment. Writing for that event made me feel all those writing juices come back to life a little bit and doing smut was of my writing goals and I finally achieved it!

11. Do you have any writing goals for next year?

Yes. To. Finish. God. Damn. “Checkmate”. It’s been in-progress for faaaarrr too long. A lot of stories have been in-progress for far too long and I’m fully prepared to make 2020 a writing year for me. I have so many new ideas swimming in my head and I have endings and new chapters for my older stories that I want to finally post. My goal is that next year for the fanfic year in review, I’ll be able to have accomplished at least 100,000 words written and completed way more stories.

I also plan to write in more genres like angst and smut, maybe even a little action/adventure.

Anyway, 2019 wasn’t really my year in general but I already have so many new, exciting adventures planned for 2020 🎊🎉🥳

I tag @moonlightusa @beej88 and anyone else who wants to participate in this!! Come and join!!

#2019 fanfic year in review #still feel proud of what I was able to do #fanfic writing #thank you to all of you

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hannahmcne · 5 years ago

Text

It’ll Be Us - Chapter 3

"Check this out," Ben proclaimed with a bright smile as she wandered into his office, balancing a large plate of sushi that she'd brought for lunch. She set it down on a side table and walked over to where he was holding two phones – hers and his – and comparing them to a large paper calendar sitting on his desk. She squinted at the paper calendar, taking note of the mostly 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. days and the small, fifteen or thirty minute breaks in between clusters of two or three events, and then glanced at the screens.

"Holy crap," She whispered, taking her phone out of his hand. Her schedule had been completely revamped, starting with next Saturday. Suddenly, she was signed up for meetings she hadn't even heard of, mostly with charities and public organizations. A bewildered smile spread across her face as she took Ben's phone and began comparing his old schedule to his new one. "You went from an eighteen-hour workday two Tuesdays from now to a ten-hour workday?"

"Check out Saturday," Ben advised, doing his best to hide a smirk. Mal glanced over at the date in question and her mouth dropped open. "Three hours?" She asked. She couldn't even remember a day when Ben had had a normal eight-hour workday since they'd graduated. "Is this for real?"

"And they're later in the day, too," Ben pointed. "The first thing is at 2 p.m. That means that the morning after we stay out all night partying, we can sleep in and relax."

"If that's what you want to call it," Mal quipped. Ben swatted her knee a little with an eye-roll and then watched as she skimmed over the upcoming dates with a growing smile. "That's amazing." She whispered. "I mean, I'm not excited about all my meetings, but I'm excited that you don't have to do as many meetings."

"Yeah, and I skewed it, see? You have more charity events, public events, things that will make you look good to Auradon while I'm taking on more of the law hassling and judiciary stuff. And now that we have this balance, maybe I'll even be able to take Sundays off," Ben pointed out. He clicked a pen and then began crossing out things on his paper calendar with an almost sadistic look.

"Hopefully this will help me find something to be involved in, right? Didn't you say Auradon likes the queen to be involved in stuff?" Mal asked. She watched him write: "Moved to Mal's schedule," on a corner of a meeting notice and turned off their phones with a smile.

"That's right," Ben nodded. "And I was thinking of a few suggestions if you want them?"

"Yes, please," Mal nodded. She stood back up and went to go grab her platter of sushi. This she brought back over to the desk and put it down on top of the calendar, effectively ending Ben's scribbling. "Also, it's lunchtime. Stop working and pay attention to me."

Ben laughed. He uncapped a sealed container of wasabi and scooped a bit out with his finger. He waited as Mal pulled up a chair and then moved in for the kill, dabbing it on the end of her nose. Mal made a face at him as she reached for a napkin with a growl.

"Okay," Ben began, picking up a pair of chopsticks and using them to leverage a roll to his will as he thought. "Firstly, there's always a need to help lower-income families. There aren't as many in Auradon city though, so you'd have to travel a bit. I was thinking you might like more to help with a.) disaster victims or b.) education support. There are other groups of course, but those two have been really prominent in the news the last few weeks and also I know you happen to have… opinions on those two things."

"I have opinions on the state you left the Isle of the Lost in," Mal crinkled her nose. "How many disaster victims could Auradon possibly have?"

"You'd be surprised" Ben exhaled, slumping into his chair and staring at the ceiling. "We've actually had a steady increase the last few years in kingdoms like Powhatan, DunBroch, Ariel's gateway, Camelot-" He broke off with a dramatic sigh. "Places where they let things fall into disrepair before actually fixing them."

"Ariel's gateway?" Mal asked with a raised eyebrow.

"They have climate problems from that wall they built to protect Melody and harsh weather," Ben explained. "So everything made of wood rots a bit quicker. It's hard to keep up." He popped another sushi roll into his mouth and chewed as he thought. "I was giving a broad 'disaster' description though. Really, you could specialize in victims of a certain disease, sexual assault victims, roadway victims, or maybe-"

"Victims," Mal cut him off. She exhaled. "Education is something I can get behind though. What were your thoughts there?"

"Education is always prevalent because people are always convinced that they're being wronged," Ben shrugged. "And it'd be easy for you to work on the school board because they meet in the evenings when you're free, and it'd make you super popular in the eyes of parents and young children."

"Or super hated," Mal shrugged. Ben sunk a few inches into his chair and let out a longsuffering sigh of agreement. "I don't know. Is there a date I need to have decided what I'm going to throw my weight behind?" She asked.

"Of course not," Ben shook his head. "And you can always change directions. I'm just tossing ideas at you."

"How come I have to get involved?" Mal frowned. "Isn't being queen enough? What do you get involved in?"

"I pass laws since I'm the heir to the line," Ben laughed. "You can make declarations, and you can stop me from making laws, but you can't pass them unless a state of emergency is declared and I'm unable to."

"So, if you died or were seriously ill or something?" Mal asked. Ben nodded in acquiescence. Mal sighed.

A blinking light appeared on Ben's intercom receiver. "Your Highness?" One of the palace secretaries asked.

Ben clicked a button on the receiver. "Yes, Debra?" He asked.

"Someone from the… Knights for Freedom would like to schedule a meeting with you?" Debra relayed uncertainly.

"Knights for Freedom… Knights for Freedom…" Ben grumbled, lifting the sushi tray up to glare at his calendar. He leaned over and opened the connection again. "I have a meeting scheduled with them for next Thursday."

"The Knights for Freedom, not the Knights of Freedom," Debra annunciated.

"Oh," Ben sighed, setting the tray back down and pinching the bridge of his nose while he began to shuffle papers around on his desk. Mal picked up his phone and handed it to him, ending his search. He smiled at her and mouthed: "Thank you." "Knights for Freedom, Knights for Freedom... where have I heard of them?" He pressed the button on his receiver again. "Debra, who are the Knights for Freedom?"

"They're the… sorry, one second," The line went dead. Ben drummed his fingers on his desk like he was trying to remember something. "Oh. Maybe you don't want to schedule this meeting after all," Debra winced, "They're the extreme Monarchists who have their social media thing against the villains and the Isle of the Lost. They say they want to speak with you regarding the immediate security of the Kingdom."

Ben's shoulders fell and he stared at the ceiling in hopelessness. "Yeah, I might need to think on that one. Let me guess, they're angry about me proposing."

Debra didn't respond for a few seconds, and then responded: "Yeah, that would be it."

Ben rolled his eyes. "Not now," He told Debra. "I'm not taking any press or any meetings regarding my personal life for the next two weeks. You can tell them that Espousal Day details are still being hammered out and they will be released on October fourth."

Debra's side of the connection went silent and Ben buried his face in his hands with a groan. "This is ridiculous," He grumbled.

Mal took a silent bite of sushi as Ben began to shuffle through things on his phone. After a few seconds, the intercom came back to life. "Your Majesty," Debra began in a weary tone. "They announced they're going to come up to the palace to protest and hung up. Shall I post guards about the entrances?"

Ben grumbled as he pressed the intercom receiver. "Yes, only about the entrances though and tell them to not allow anyone to hurt palace grounds or crowd entrances." Then, after a brief hesitation, he asked: "Debra, have you been receiving the notifications about responsibility and schedule changes I've been making all morning?"

"Um… no," Debra mumbled. There was the sound of shuffling papers on her end. "Oh, yes, yes. Is this in regards to Lady Mal? Oh, wait, yes, it is." Debra hummed for a few seconds. "Oh, next week? Really?"

Mal snorted, and Ben rolled his eyes at her amusement. "Yes, starting next Saturday. I just let her know of the changes."

"Is she allowed to take stuff up before you're married? And why is there nothing scheduled for Friday?" Debra asked. "I thought you had that charity thing and now you're blank from two o'clock onwards."

Ben started chewing on his cheek in thought as he tried to stop a laugh entering his tone. "Well, see, Mal and I dated for a very long time and neither of us sees the point of a long engagement and we want to have a ceremony away from the kingdom so-"

"Please tell me you're not eloping overnight and not announcing anything to the kingdom a week before you're actually announcing the details of your wedding," Debra groaned. "Because you know that will just send people into fits over how she's 'infiltrating the palace' and 'going behind the public's back'."

"You know what, too bad," Ben declared through the intercom with a snort. "This isn't really about the kingdom. We're going to do a large event for her coronation and treat it like Auradon's wedding. Chances are most people will never realize we were actually married before then."

Debra made a sound of disbelief and there was the sound of more papers being shuffled around. "This is going to be so much paperwork," She groaned. "Okay. Fine. It's your wedding, your life, your kingdom, fine. I assume you don't want this information getting out?"

"Yes, thank you, Debra," Ben chuckled at her dismay.

"I need Mal's Phone so I can key it into my system, so I can schedule meetings ahead of time for her," Debra reminded Ben. Ben nodded and sighed as he looked around for Mal's phone. She held it up to show him, and he gave a thumb's up without reaching to take it from her.

"You'll have it before next Friday," Ben promised, sending a pointed look at Mal, who only rolled her eyes and gave him a thumb's up. "Anything else?"

"Ugh. I'm sure there's a list, but I have to put it together. Are you in-office for the rest of today?" Debra asked. Ben exhaled and budged the tray aside to check his schedule.

"No, only until two. Then I'm out-of-palace and down to Charming Castle. I'll be back around five, and then Auradon Emergency Services has a late-night meeting at seven," Ben rattled off. His shoulders slumped down in exhaustion as he listed the things he had to finish that day.

"Hmm," Debra hummed sympathetically. "Only one more week of this, I guess? Well, I feel bad to remind you of this since I know you have to fix things up there, but Corona is welcoming a new royal baby in three months and you have to clear the Cathedral for use since it's officially a historical landmark, finish paperwork from your meeting with the Charmington Officials last week, and you still haven't sealed those laws you've been working on for the last year."

Ben slumped into his chair a little and shook his head. "I have an hour and ten minutes; I'll try and finish everything up," He sighed. "Okay, thank you, Debra. You're a lifesaver."

"You're welcome, your highness," Debra replied. The light finally blinked off. Ben dropped his head to his desk and thumped it lightly against the wood a few times before he closed his eyes and made an incomprehensible sound at the back of his throat.

"I didn't know Corona was expecting a royal baby," Mal began in a lighthearted tone, reaching over and running her fingers through Ben's hair. He grimaced and sat up.

"Yeah, they are," He confirmed, stealing a sushi roll with his fingers, which was against the rules, and opened a drawer in his desk. "And do you know who it is?" He asked, setting a folder stuffed full of papers onto his desk and finding his pen from before.

"Who?" Mal asked. She moved the tray to give him more room. It was pretty clear that lunch, short as it had been, was over for him.

"Anxelin," Ben shook his head. "That's crazy to me. She was a year younger than us in school and then she married someone from Corona before Evie and Doug even got married. Now she's expecting… I think a boy."

"I thought Rapunzel's daughter was a first-year when we were seniors?" Mal asked with a frown.

"That's Ruby," Ben corrected her. "And she just barely got engaged and they sent out wedding announcements for next summer, like, two weeks ago." He let out a breath as he signed his name at the bottom of one of the documents in his folder and flipped to the next one. "By the way, want to be my date for the Corona Wedding and subsequent Cotillion as Mr. Jack Coebly becomes Lord Jack Coebly?"

Mal let out a laugh. "Only if there's a cake."

Ben laughed and continued shaking his head. "I can't believe she's having a baby. I literally grew up with her. She threw a ball of mud at my face during summer camp one time."

Mal burst into laughter. "Oh, I wish I could have seen that," She laughed. She imagined a smaller Ben spitting mud and pebbles out while struggling to get to his feet.

Ben joined in with her laughter. "Yeah, she had her moments growing up. We all did."

"I mean," Mal giggled, "People still talk about the time I almost destroyed all of Auradon, so…"

"Exactly," Ben agreed. He went down a checklist, blacking out little circles and squares before scribbling his signature on the bottom. "Okay, I'm going back to work. Thank you for bringing me lunch."

Mal frowned. "Ouch, I've been dismissed," She mourned, standing up and taking the remnants of their food off of his desk. Ben gave her a weird look, and she paused. He was giving her a look that told her she was stalling, meaning… "Do I have something right now?" She asked with a wince.

Ben looked at his watch. "Soon." He corrected.

Mal scrunched up her face, trying to remember what Ben remembered and what she didn't. He rolled his eyes. "Evie is coming up to do a dress fitting with you. She literally texted you five minutes before you handed me your phone to fix it today."

Mal let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness it's not actually important," She sighed. "Okay. I'm going to go then. I love you."

Ben smiled and waved as she walked towards the door. "I love you too," He told her. She heard the continuing scribbles of his pen on paper as she walked away.

______________________________________________________________

On Friday night, September 29th, Mal was waiting for Ben outside his last meeting, listening to the unintelligible debate as they finished things up. There was a sudden silence, and then the room exploded into sound. That was a good sign. Mal glanced at her watch. They were scheduled to wrap up in five minutes, but maybe they'd finish a few minutes early. Mal pulled a tube of chapstick out of her pocket and ran it over her lips. The doors opened and she slipped into the doorframe as people began to stream out in small clumps, heading home for their weekends.

Wow, it must be nice to go home and not have work the next day. Ben was lucky if he could take off Christmas day and one of their birthdays, usually hers. When he'd turned twenty-two, he'd taken off half of the day, similar to what he was doing today. Ah, the perks of being a lower royal and not having to balance everyone's problems.

Ben stood at the head of the table, shaking people's hands with his right hand and packing up with his left hand. No, he wasn't ambidextrous, he was just really learned at doing many things at once after eight years of single-handedly ruling a kingdom.

"Should we stick around to hear the drama again?" King Eric asked with a laugh as he slipped past Mal. Her cheeks turned bright red. This was the Seaside's yearly conference, so the room was full of Ariel's red and black-headed relatives. She slipped past one of Ariel's nieces who she had gone to school with and took a seat on the table. Immediately, she became a centerpiece.

"Okay, let me see the ring, sweetheart," Melody said, eyes sparkling as she pulled her husband over to see Mal. Other people, mostly girls, gathered around and chorused: "Let us see!"

Mal held out her left hand with a smile. Immediately, gasps ran out around her. "It's beautiful!" Melody squealed. "You're so lucky!"

"Ready to be a queen?" Melody's husband asked, taking Mal's hand to squint at the pretty stones.

"Ugh," Mal scoffed. "No. I'm not. I just want to be married." He laughed and dropped her hand.

"Well, it's only a few more months, right?" He asked with a smile. "Soon you'll be both."

Mal nodded and glanced down the table. Ben was holding all his papers underneath his arm, standing and waiting for her with a bright smile. She had drawn most of the attention away from her, so he was only talking sideways to Ariel herself as people bubbled around her in excitement. A few more months until she was queen, maybe, but in truth, she only had a few hours until she could call herself Mrs. Benjamin Florian. Eek. She had two bad middle names now. Or, rather, she will have two bad middle names.

Melody followed Mal's gaze to Ben. "Are you two going out tonight?" She asked.

"Yes," Mal nodded. A little color filled her cheeks as she beamed happily. "With all our friends. We're going to celebrate."

Melody waved down the table to Ben, who glanced over his shoulder in a joking manner, as if making sure she wasn't waving to someone behind him. He met Mal's eyes and made a motion over his shoulder as if asking if she was ready to go. Mal slipped off the table and parted the crowd with her arms. She walked over to Ben, who set his things down on the table and leaned into the edge as Ariel's relatives let her through. She put her arms around his neck, and he set his hands on her hips to draw her closer. They shared a kiss, inciting squeals from the people behind them, and then Ben picked his things from the meeting up.

"Thanks for coming," He nodded to everyone. "Mal and I are going to slip out now, so we aren't late."

"Have fun!" Melody waved. She linked her arm through her fiancés with a bright, blinding smile as Ben and Mal waved past everyone with their arms around each other's waists.

"Are you going to look like this all tonight?" Ben whispered as they hurried through the corridors towards the garage, where a stretch car was waiting for them. He picked at her shirt, which was a solid purple, modest top. It had a wide hem across the top and bottom, and was elbow length, without any patterns at all. She wore black jeans with black patches underneath some decorative rips, and combat boots.

"Of course not," Mal rolled her eyes. "Evie would flip out if I married you like this." The two shared a laugh, and Ben presented his own outfit to her for her opinion.

"Do you think I'm safe?" He asked. He wore a long-sleeved blue button-up shirt and dark grey pants. "I think this is the same thing I wore to Evie's birthday last year," He continued with a laugh.

"Absolutely not," Mal shook her head. "You should know that Evie never allows for important occasion outfit repeats. Why do you think I need a separate closet for dresses?" She elbowed Ben with a smile. "She has things for you. She didn't trust you to dress properly."

"Ouch," Ben snorted. "You'd think I could have figured it out since I'm twenty-four and I've been king for almost nine years, but apparently not."

Mal's mouth dropped open. "Oh my gosh, when did we come to Auradon?" She gasped, staring at the ground as the continued walking. "Wasn't it October? Holy crap, has it really almost been nine years?"

"Isn't it insane?" Ben asked. "Everyone's grown up and gotten married and some of our old classmates have kids…" He shook his head and let out a weary breath.

"We're almost there," Mal smirked. "And then no one can say we're the last in our year to get married."

Ben hummed in agreement as they reached the elevators to the garage. He pressed the button for her and guided her in once the doors opened. Mal waited for him to press the button and then pushed him into the wall of the elevator, pressing herself against him. He laughed at her as she leaned into his grasp, listening to his heartbeat as he kissed her head and rubbed her back. The floors changed, and he leaned down to whisper: "Better get up. You know they won't have let us beat them there."

She hummed in acquiesce and straightened herself, though she stole his left hand and held it tightly. He leaned down just as the elevator reached their floor and kissed her softly. Her toes curled and she leaned into him before they heard the ding of the doors and looked up.

The sound of cheers filled their ears. Glitter spilled into the elevator, making Mal squawk a little in outrage as silver sparkles fell into her hair and onto her skin. Doug, Jay, and Carlos let off four or five tiny party poppers each, the kind that parents got for small children on holidays, making colored paper rain down on the group from above.

Mal raised a hand triumphant over her head and yelled in excitement.

"Let's get this party started!" Jay declared, jumping up onto the palace limo in his excitement, and then helping Lonnie up onto the hood as well.

Ben, Mal, Belle, Adam, Evie, Jay, Carlos, Doug, Jane, and Lonnie crowded into the car and spread out as the driver guided them out of the palace. They all had to show ID on the way out, but soon they were cruising along on their way to Merida's Kingdom of DunBroch.

"I have Newlywed questions!" Evie announced as the car slowed into early evening traffic as people rushed home on their Friday nights. She shook a basket full of tiny papers, and everyone laughed. When Evie and Doug had gotten married, everyone had come up with embarrassing or funny questions to ask the new couple. Ben snatched one up immediately, cleared his throat, and turned to Mal with utmost seriousness. "Okay Mal, if my mother in law were an animal, which would she be?"

"That is not the question!" Mal protested, snatching the question out of his hand as Ben leaned back into his seat, laughing. "See? It's not the question. The question is: what color was I wearing on our first date?"

"You answer first," Ben laughed.

Evie frowned. "Wait, but Mal only wears one color! That's not fair!"

"You set up the game," Jay shrugged, shuffling through the papers to find a good one. "Ah-ha! What is the strangest place the two of you have done the dirty?"

"Okay okay, let's not get ahead of ourselves," Mal rolled her eyes. "Ben's mother-in-law would be a dragon if she weren't a lizard. My mother in law would be a mouse because then she could hide away in the library all the time." Mal paused to lean over and high-five Belle, who was already laughing so much her eyes were filling with tears. Or, maybe, that was just due to the occasion. "I wore purple and Ben wore-" She slapped her hand onto her knee as she remembered: "He wore blue but he also had swim trunks with crowns on them underneath that!"

"You didn't answer my question!" Jay reminded her with a frown, waving his slip of paper like a little flag. "Strangest place, come on. My guess is on the Isle of the Lost somehow."

"No," Ben shook his head, covering his eyes and pinching his brow in the same motion.

"Ben's king," Mal reminded her friends. "He's not allowed to conduct himself in such a frivolous manner."

Ben hit her arm lightly. "Quit taking digs at me," He told her. "You were just fine with that explanation when we were nineteen, I don't see why you keep bringing it up more and more now that we're actually getting married."

"Wait, at all?" Jay's mouth dropped open.

"Next question," Mal declared, reaching for another slip of paper. "By the way, we should ask you guys some of these things. Specifically, Jay and Lonnie since they're the ones who are holding out of us."

"You can do the Carlos-Jane-Evie-Doug thing and go for standard engagement time, or you can do Ben and Mal's thing and wait, like, five hours, or you can keep holding out for the right day, and that's what we're doing," Jay shrugged, leaning back into Lonnie's knee and smirking up at her.

"Oh, this is another one we can't really answer," Mal grumbled, shuffling through slips of paper. "Hey, Ben, what do I normally wear to bed?"

"Whatever pajamas are in your drawer," Ben shrugged. "And a ponytail because you hate the feel of hair on your neck as you sleep."

"That's right," Mal nodded with a satisfied smile. "And Ben is big into tank-tops and shorts, but you never know because he wears his blue bathrobe until he actually gets into bed."

The window between the driver and the passengers slid open. "Sorry to interrupt," The driver announced, glancing into the mirror at them all. "Are we stopping by Auradon Courthouse to get a license before we go to DunBroch?"

"Yes, thank you," Ben confirmed, dropping an arm around Mal's shoulder and pulling her close to him. The window closed and Ben picked up the basket of questions and began shuffling. "So, Evie, why don't you tell us what your agenda is while Mal and I go through a few more of these?" He suggested, digging deep and picking one at random.

"I have your outfits in the back," Evie smiled. "And everything is set up. Since Doug, Carlos, and Jane are qualified to witness and your dad is officiating, we can literally do this anywhere once we have your license."

"Like, here in the car?" Carlos asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Don't give Mal any ideas," Adam warned with a grunt. "She'll take us up on that, don't think she won't."

"No," Evie glared at her best friend, who was nodding and looking like she didn't think it was such a bad idea. "No. Not until you're in the dress. So help me, Mal-" Evie made a furious gesture that had Doug laughing and pulling her back so he could rub her hands and calm her down.

Ben elbowed Mal. "First impression?" He asked.

"You were a prince!" Mal exploded, completely baffled. "And then you held onto my hand for an extra two seconds and you were staring at me, and then when you started talking it was right to me and not anyone else, and I was like: What are you doing?"

"Hey, hey Mal," Carlos whispered, reaching across the car to poke Mal with his foot. He flicked his head to Ben and whispered: "Does he shed much?"

"Okay!" Ben groaned as everyone laughed. Belle and Adam, who had heard the joke a few too many times, just shook their heads as they watched the young people interact.

Mal hummed as she raked her fingers through the basket. She picked one, skimmed it, and then slumped her shoulders a little. "What?" Ben asked, leaning over her shoulder. She held it at an easier angle for him to read, and he nodded as he leaned back into his seat.

"What is it?" Jane asked, reaching to steal the basket from Mal as Mal heaved a sigh and rolled her eyes.

"How many kids does your spouse want?" Ben announced to the car. He elbowed Mal. "Zero." Mal took a slow hiss of breath and nodded as Ben rolled his eyes. "Do you know the answer for me?" He asked.

"I don't want to imagine," Mal joked, turning to examine him as he raised an eyebrow.

"Go on, guess," He encouraged. "We've never talked about this, so it's not something you should know an easy answer to."

Mal hummed and traced his facial features with her eyes. "It's between three and five," She announced to the car. Ben's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Five," She decided and leaned back into his shoulder. "Was I right?"

Ben raised his hands in the air with a small laugh. "She knows me, guys." Mal nodded, biting her lip and staring at the carpet as Belle and Adam exchanged amused looks. Everyone else looked a little uneasy at the lack of conversation and the two bitter ends.

Adam let out a guffaw to break the tension. "That sounds exactly like me," He chuckled.

Belle threw her head back a little. "I know!" She laughed.

Mal dropped her shoulders and stared at her future in-laws. "Really?" She asked. "You?"

Belle and Adam nodded through laughter, and Adam pointed at Ben. "Your mother," He began, shaking his head. "Fought tooth and nail for you to be born, and I was not convinced until…" He turned to Belle. "When was I convinced, darling?"

"Right at the end," Belle shook her head, making a motion with her hands to mark the end of a timeline. "I remember you were still shaking your head at me when I was in labor and we were heading to the hospital, and I snapped at you because you were acting like a butthead." She rolled her eyes and squeezed Adam's hand as he laughed and nodded along to her words. "But then I put Ben in your arms, and you held him for a few seconds, and I watched all your walls crumble." Belle spread her hands with a satisfied smile. "So, I got my baby and Adam got over his dad issues."

"In that order," Evie laughed, setting a hand around her belly and leaning her head on Doug's shoulder.

"In that order," Belle agreed, laughing. "And it only took four years."

"But dad," Ben asked, sounding a bit astounded, "You had Auradon to think of. What were you planning on doing?"

"Not having children until I absolutely had to," Adam shrugged. "I just didn't really see the appeal, to be honest. Belle was all over baby names and setting up your nursery and rooms as a kid, and she arranged every birthday, every Christmas, every Easter for you growing up, and when she was making all her plans, I never really got why she wanted it so bad." He squeezed Belle's hand and smiled. "Is it too late for me to tell you that you were right?" He asked.

Belle held her chin up with pride. "Not at all," She smiled, biting her lip as she looked at Ben and Mal, arms around each other and both looking a little surprised. "And really, I think we did just fine with him."

"I think so too," Mal whispered. She leaned her head onto his chest and wrapped her arm around his middle in a flat sort of hug. Everyone laughed. Outside, the car slowed to a stop.

"Here's us," Ben laughed. He got up, still hunched in the small space, and offered his hand to Mal. "Dad, Doug, Carlos, I think we need you guys to witness for us."

"Yeah, I'm staying here to scheme things," Jane laughed, removing her arms from where they'd been around Carlos's shoulders and scooting down towards Evie.

The door opened, and the driver appeared. "Courthouse," He announced, holding out a hand as he helped Ben out. He then moved out of the way as Ben turned to take Mal's hand and help her out of the car.

"Do we need to cover your hair?" Ben asked as Mal straightened up and stretched her arms over her head. She shrugged.

"Maybe," She nodded. She leaned back inside. "E, do you have a hat? And some sunglasses, maybe?"

"I do," Evie declared with a satisfied smirk. She got up. Everyone let her pass ahead of them out of the stretch car before Carlos, Doug, and Adam followed her out. Evie walked around to the back of the car and pressed a button. Inside were two garment bags, some shoes, and a box full of odds and ends. Disguises. Evie handed Mal a wide-brimmed black hat, which she quickly twisted her hair up underneath. Evie handed Ben a baseball cap, which immediately turned him from a 24-year-old executive leader into a 15-year old sports player. They both took a pair of Evie's signature sunglasses and laughed at each other's distorted appearances.

"This is like when you turned your hair white," Ben commented, shaking his head and reaching to curl a little loose purple lock of hair around his finger.

"You're not a fan?" Mal laughed.

Ben shook his head. "I like your purple hair," He sighed. He reached down and took her hand, squeezing it tight to his palm.

Adam took a cowboy hat from Evie and then the five of them walked up to the front doors of the building. It was the first time in many years Mal had been able to use the front doors to a public place that wasn't Evie's spa or salon, or the palace. Usually, she had to be escorted out and around the long way.

The inside of the building was large, made of hewn stone and with large, glorious paintings on the walls. They appeared to be themed around the compass directions – Elsa of Arendelle to the North where she lived, Aurora to the West, for the 'setting sun' theme her story revolved around. Snow White was to the south, probably because her story was first and had begun in the southernmost tip of the Auradon continent before other heroes appeared north of her. And, finally, Belle and the Beast on the East wall, towards the rising sun, because their family was the supreme rulers of Auradon and therefore the sun would always rise on another day of their rule. A skylight made the dust visible in the air, filtering down in soft waves past the glossy oil paintings. A pillar of light fell down, down on top of the head of an office clerk who was behind a desk in the center of the tiled room, carefully feeding papers through a shredder.

"I've got this," Doug whispered to the group, walking towards the clerk. Mal and Ben stood, still holding hands as they stared at the gigantic paintings on the walls. Ben focused particularly on his parents. His eyes followed the slope of the Beast's back, the crooked angle of the horns.

Mal leaned up and whispered in Ben's ear: "Your mom's hair is turning grey."

Ben winced and nodded. "I hadn't realized, but yeah," He whispered. "She's getting older."

Doug set his hands down on the desk of the clerk and waited as he finished shredding and stood with a smile. "Good afternoon," The clerk smiled. "How may I help you?"

"We were hoping to see a judge for a few minutes to apply for a marriage license for those two over there," Doug pointed back towards the group. Ben, Adam, and Mal all directed their gazes to the ceiling so that it would be harder to recognize them from a distance. "I'm here to witness, along with that young man over there, and the larger gentleman behind them is going to be to one to officiate." Doug turned back to the clerk with a smile. "We weren't sure who we needed to have here," He explained.

"Do you have proof of age, proof of citizenship, and a photo ID with you today?" The clerk asked, immediately moving away to draw two long forms out of a drawer in his desk.

Doug glanced over his shoulder. "Please, guys, tell me that this isn't the one time you don't travel everywhere with those papers."

Ben laughed and Mal shook her head with a groan. "I have them," Ben confirmed. "I grabbed an extra copy of hers before I left work today." He patted his breast pocket to signify their location.

"I already have mine," Mal frowned. She unzipped a long pocket in her jeans and withdrew the documents, white and folded in thirds. Her photo ID's were tucked into her back pocket.

"That's a first," Ben laughed. "It's just the event, huh?"

"Yeah," She agreed with a chuckle, glancing back at Doug, who turned to the clerk shaking his head.

"For once they're on different pages," He mumbled. "What else do we need?"

"There's a processing fee of 35 dollars," The clerk recited, pulling two pens out of a jar of beans and handing them with the forms over the desk. "You pay that here, and I'll direct you to a room with a judge. Fill out the forms outside the door and take them in, and they'll give you your license. It'll take about a half-hour."

"Sweet," Ben whispered. He stepped towards the desk and took the forms from Doug as he handed them over. The clerk studied him as if he suddenly recognized him, and then shrugged and returned to his work.

"We'll bring the pens back," Doug told him as Ben pulled a palace debit card out of his pocket and slid it into a card reader. A few beeps later, the clerk leaned forward and pointed to an upper floor.

"Room 216 is open right now. Judge West will see you," He informed them. "Congratulations, by the way."

"Thank you," Ben beamed. He turned and handed a form to Mal as he tucked the palace card back into his pocket. Mal took a pen from him and began examining the form with excitement. Full name… Lady Maleficent Bertha. Age twenty-four. Gender, Female. Birthdate… social security number… place of residence… previous marriage information and contact information.

They took the elevator to the second floor and skirted around to room 216. Ben and Mal, who were both very used to completing paperwork on the fly, carefully stacked the forms on top of each other and put their pens behind their ears. Adam knocked on the door to Judge West's office and slipped his hat off. Ben and Mal removed their sunglasses but didn't dare take off their hats yet. A janitor pushed a yellow cart past them and gave them a bright smile, which they cautiously returned. He didn't seem to recognize them.

"Enter," A cool voice behind the door commanded. Adam twisted the knob and the party passed in front of him, quickly and quietly. Inside were several large chairs and a large wooden desk. A medium-heighted man with broad shoulders stood up with a smile. "Judge West," He introduced himself.

Adam stepped forward, followed by Doug and Carlos, to shake the Judge's hand. "Adam," Adam introduced himself carefully. Judge West raised an eyebrow and waited for the last name, but when nothing happened, he moved onward.

"Doug Gibson," Doug smiled.

"Ah, uh, Carlos," Carlos stammered. He glanced over at Mal and Ben and shrugged sheepishly.

Ben stepped forward. He handed the completed forms to Judge West and shook his hand with the other. "I'm Ben," He introduced himself, exactly the way he had to Mal and her friends when they'd first come to Auradon. "Nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you as well," The Judge nodded with a smile. He set the forms down and reached around Ben to shake Mal's hand. She shook it and hesitated on what to tell him. "And this lovely lady is?" Judge West asked.

Mal smiled. "The future Mrs. Ben?" She chuckled softly and swallowed. The gig was up. "I'm Mal."

"Mal," Judge West repeated slowly. He withdrew his hand, looked down at the papers, and shuffled them around before looking up. "Mal? As in, Lady Maleficent? Is this for real?"

Mal slipped her hat off and her long purple hair cascaded down her back. She chuckled nervously as Judge West looked down at the papers, sat down, and pointed at Ben. "King Benjamin," He murmured and shifted his attention to Adam. "Former King Adam and-" he moved to Carlos. "Carlos De Vil."

"Surprise?" Ben chuckled. He took off his baseball cap and fixed his hair.

Judge West blinked a few times and swallowed. "Well, I'm privileged," He murmured. "How am I serving you fine people today?"

"We're here to get a marriage license," Ben explained. "That's our paperwork there."

Judge West exhaled, looking a bit overwhelmed, and cleared his throat. "Well, congratulations. I need to see a photo ID from both of you, along with proof of citizenship and proof of age."

Ben and Mal both reached for where they had their papers hidden and brought them out. They smoothed them out and placed them on the desk. Then, Ben fished in his wallet for his photo ID while Mal pulled one out of her pocket.

"Do either of you have a Driver's License?" Judge West asked. Ben immediately withdrew his while Mal heaved a heavy sigh and shook her head.

"Okay, I have a few questions I'm required by law to ask you, and then I'll print your License and you're free to get married whenever you want within the next year," Judge West explained. "Any questions?"

"Do we ever have to renew the license?" Mal asked with a frown.

"No," Ben and Judge West answered at the same time. "The license expires after a year if you don't get married. After the ceremony, let us know and we'll put it on record. Ta-da." Judge West explained with a smile.

"Cool," Mal nodded. "Well, ask away."

"Are either of you married to someone else?" Judge West asked, gathering up the forms and scanning them into the computer.

Carlos snorted as Adam rolled his eyes. "No," Ben shook his head. Mal shook her head alongside him.

"Are you third-cousins or closer-related relatives?" Jude West continued, clicking a few things on his computer.

"No," Mal and Ben shook their heads.

"Do both of you offer consent of this union and agree to the terms therein?" Judge West asked. He glanced over at them. "I can recite terms if you need, but I have a feeling you're both relatively well-versed in legislatures."

"Yes," Ben and Mal answered simultaneously. She put her hand on his shoulder, and they smiled at each other. Judge Danforth chuckled, and the sound of a printer behind the desk started up. He whipped out a piece of thick cardstock and plopped it down on the desk in front of them. Mal let out an exhilarated breath.

"I, Judge Charlie West, do hereby declare this marriage to be lawful and uphold this couple's decision to be married," Judge West recited. His eyes rested on Mal as her smile grew wider and wider. Ben could barely keep his eyes off of her to pay attention to the Judge. "You need a witness to sign with you."

"Not an officiator?" Ben asked, pulling the pen out from behind his ear. Mal mirrored him.

"No," Judge West shook his head. "You do need an officiator and at least two witnesses for the ceremony though."

"Cool," Ben mumbled, leaning down and dragging the pen on the line labeled 'Groom' to forge his most kingly signature. Then he turned, and Mal stepped forward. He dropped an arm around her shoulder as she uncapped her pen and together they stared down at the paper in excitement. Mal could scarcely breathe as she took it all in. 'Marriage License', the paper proudly read. The official Auradon crest, the same one she saw Ben stamp on everything he did, graced the bottom of the paper. It had never seemed so glorious.

She leaned down and held her breath as she carefully signed her name across the bottom of the page. "Mal B." She drew. Then she straightened up and let out her breath.

Judge West chuckled as Adam carefully pulled the paper towards him and signed on the witness line. He looked at Mal, and then at Ben. "It's always fun to watch the bride's face light up," He confided. "This, and signing adoption papers are the happiest parts of my job."

Ben pulled her close under his arm and pressed his cheek to her head. "Happiest part of my job is getting off," He laughed. "Unless there's a meeting we're both involved in. Then I get to hold her hand under the table and it's not so bad."

Judge West laughed as he turned the paper towards him and signed the final line in thick, black strokes. "You'll need to sign on the back after the ceremony," He told them. He picked it up and waved it back and forth for a few seconds to dry the ink. "Well, I have something that I personally would like to say before I hand this to you," He announced, standing up and walking around his desk. "You see, I'm here eight to six every weekday. I have people in my office every hour of every day. I don't get ten minutes to myself during that time. I deal with divorces, marriages, lawsuits, adoptions, the works. And I've been here long enough I've seen some people who I issued marriage licenses come back through for divorces."

A still silence filled the room, and Judge West cracked a smile. "I've learned, on sight, the type of marriages that last versus those that fizzle out when spouses get tired of each other. I know the types of dynamics you need to have in order to have a successful marriage. And I can tell you, based on sight alone, that you two are going to have a long and happy life together." He extended the license certificate towards them with a smile.

"Do you tell everyone that?" Mal asked with a smile, reaching out to take her marriage certificate.

Judge West held her gaze for a second. "No," He shook his head, a coy smile balancing on his lips. He shook her hand. "Have a lovely night, you wonderful people." He made a broad gesture to the door.

"Oh, ah!" Ben held a hand aloft to make a quick request. "Out of curiosity, could you not tell anyone that we were here? Or, post about it, or-"

"I've got it," Judge West nodded. He moved to the door and opened it with a flourish. People were passing by the office outside. Mal panicked and quickly started twisting her hair up to cover it with her hat. Ben helped her tuck in the sparse purple strands before he pulled on his baseball cap and put his sunglasses on.

They thanked Judge West and shook his hand as they passed by him, out of the office. He saw them down to the front doors and out of the building. The moment the doors closed, Mal balled up her fists and let out a whoop of triumph. Ben laughed as she skipped down the stairs and towards the waiting car with her brand-new license clutched in her hand. She flung open the door and leaned in, proudly displaying the document. "We did it!" She screamed. The car erupted into cheers. Mal laughed as she pulled off her hat.

Adam handed his hat to Ben and climbed in with Carlos and Doug while Ben and Mal walked to the back of the car and popped the trunk open to stow their disguises. "Happy now?" Ben laughed as he slammed the trunk closed and put his arm around her to start guiding her to the car.

"Very!" Mal laughed, kissing his cheek. "Are you ready for this?" She asked him.

"More than ready. Are you ready to become Mrs. Benjamin Florian?" They paused outside the open door to face each other with bright smiles.

"Of course," Mal whispered. "I feel like I've been waiting for this moment my entire life." Ben smiled and took a step closer to her. She stumbled and fell against the car. One of his hands snaked into her hair and the other to her waist as he fell upon her, pressing his mouth to hers and sending electrifying currents up her spine. Her brain felt like a lightbulb about to burn out – flickering and fading in and out as her hands tried to find a place in his hair.

"Hey, there'll be plenty of time for that later!" Jay called from inside the car. "Come on, let's go!"

Ben broke off of her with a laugh and helped her right herself. She was still seeing stars as the magic of a True Love's Kiss cleared her brain, and almost stumbled over the threshold of the car as Ben helped her in.

"Now," She announced with a wide, breathless grin. "The party can begin."

The car pulled out once more with loud cheers echoing from within.

______________________________________________________________

They rendezvoused at a quiet pub in DunBroch, in a back room where the sounds of the public party outside were loud enough for them to feel like they were normal young adults going out to celebrate while also keeping them well-hidden from any nosy photographers or journalists.

The entire building was made of polished wood with sculptures of the story of the current queen hanging here and there. Wood carvings were of particular importance to DunBroch. The door to their rented room was propped open for sake of heat, but one by one they all began to show signs of overheating. Ben rolled up his sleeves, Mal tied up her hair, Carlos and Jay pulled off their vests and everyone kicked off their shoes in a heap by the entrance. And slowly, everyone's drinks changed to 'on the rocks' alcohols, with the exception of Evie and the two seniors, who sipped water together and watched the others participate in drinking games that changed every five minutes while they regaled each other with stories of Ben and Mal's youths.

"Never have I ever felt threatened by my parent's status," Lonnie announced, trying to flick a penny into one of the filled shot glasses that stood balanced in a little tower in the center of the table. As a simultaneous groan rose around the room, Lonnie pumped her hands into the air with a cheer and handed the glass she'd won from the middle of the table to Mal, who fished the penny out knocked it back like it was water and set the empty glass with a set of others.

"That's a low blow, Lon," Jay groaned, lounging out across a bench that spread against the back wall. Carlos hit his legs to signify he wanted Jay to move and sat down, draping an arm across Jane's back.

"Hey, I know how to win," Lonnie laughed, picking up a glass and examining it tersely. She decided it was water instead of one of the numerous types of alcohol they were playing with and took a drink.

"Just say: Never have I ever worn the color pink," Evie called from her spot of the wall.

"That's true!" Jay pumped a fist. "Never have I ever worn the color pink." More groans came from around the table and Jane dropped her head onto the wall beside Carlos. "I'm done," She announced. "I won't make it to the wedding if you guys keep calling me out."

Ben reached over and poked Mal's arm to get her attention. "You good?" He asked.

Her eyes were bright as she nodded. "Never better," She promised. She handed him a glass and he used it to hide a smile as he, too, knocked it back. She didn't even show the faintest signs of being tipsy, despite the fact they'd been playing for almost an hour.

"Jay!" Evie called. "Why didn't Harry Hook like you?"

"He couldn't keep up with my dashing looks," Jay informed her, sweeping a hand through his long hair and giving her a wink.

"He lost in a swordfight and never got over it," Mal rolled her eyes. "Why are we talking about Harry?"

"You two had a fling back when you were preteens, didn't you?" Evie asked.

The room erupted into boos as Mal scrunched her brow in thought. "Jeesh, maybe? He's gay, though. He and Gil… I mean, they're probably not doing the dirty, but then again they probably are."

"Yeah, I saw them kiss once," Evie nodded in agreement.

Carlos immediately let out a snort. "Only once?" He asked. "I swear, every time the pirates celebrated anything, you'd see Hook and Gaston's kids, making out in the corner."

Mal waved her hand. "It's fine!" She called and then smiled at Ben. "He can do his thing and I'll do mine."

Everyone laughed. Mal picked up a glass of amber brandy and toasted it slyly to Ben before she took a small sip. He grabbed her hand and pulled her forward with a tug that had her sloshing beer all down her side and onto him a little bit. She tried to hold it aloft as Ben pulled her forward and pressed their mouths together. The room was screaming. His hand found a place at the back of her neck where he pushed their heads even closer together and her toes curled up as she tried to find a way to balance on the edge of the bench, so she didn't pull him and her toppling onto the floor. Her hand balled up his shirt as Ben's mouth opened against hers, sending even more jumbled signals to her confused brain. Their noses knocked together as he laughed against her mouth.

He went deeper, pulling her in and holding her tightly to him at an angle she knew would bruise her lips as he chewed lightly on her lower lip and let his tongue skim her mouth. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she tried to keep up with his needy pace.

When they stopped, she felt drunk. Physically, energetically drunk. She laughed, sounding more like her mom as she tried and failed to stand up and ended up staying collapsed across Ben's lap with her eyes rolling into the back of her head as the lights screamed at her brain. She could tell from Ben's shaking hands alone that he was feeling the burn of magic too.

"You drunk already, Mal?" Jay laughed. "We've still got all night. It's only eight!"

Mal waved her hand half-heartedly at Jay. "M'Fine!" She groaned.

"Ugh," Ben sighed, still swaying as his brain tried to remember which direction was up. He carefully helped her off of his legs and tucked her underneath his arm. "We should not have done that." He announced, reaching shakily for a glass of water.

"I can't see anything," Mal complained, trying to lift a hand to rub her face.

"One more?" Ben asked, turning towards her.

Mal leaned up and they shared another kiss. She immediately broke away with a groan. "I'm going to throw up," She declared.

Jane fixed her with a weird look as she stood up beside Carlos and walked to sit with Evie, Belle, and Adam instead. "From kissing?" She asked in an odd tone.

Mal mumbled in agreement and slumped into Ben's side, squeezing her eyes closed as a giddy smile froze on her face.

"It's True Love's Kiss," Evie explained. "It's a little too powerful to be used so continuously. That's why they almost never kiss."

"Ouch," Jay laughed, standing up and prodding Mal's cheek with his finger. Mal batted his hand away, scrunching her face up, and Ben moved to protect her from Jay as Jay laughed. "You guys look wasted."

"I thought True Love's Kiss was just a description, not a condition," Lonnie furrowed her brow as she pushed a few glasses of water towards the two of them sympathetically.

"Both, sort of," Evie shrugged. "But there's a difference between having true love and being someone's true love. I bet all of us in here could cure our spouses if we wanted and if the situation called, but we can kiss each other normally without getting drunk off the euphoria."

"Are they actually drunk off each other, or is it just the spells on the drinks being negated?" Carlos asked.

"The magic shouldn't interfere with anything Mal spelled. And they're like this anyways. It's kind of funny to watch how wasted they can get each other."

Ben slowly began to straighten up. He took a water glass and took small sips and color returned to his cheeks. "It's wicked awesome though," He informed the room with a dry throat. "And it heals, like, everything."

"Everything?" Lonnie asked. "That sounds awesome. So, if Mal wakes up with a cold-"

"Usually, that's Ben," Mal interjected. "He works harder than me. But yeah, True Love's Kiss heals the common cold."

"And anything else gets us black-out drunk," Ben laughed, standing up with a wobble and reaching for a shot glass. "Never have I ever not gotten a buzz from kissing." He rolled his eyes.

Mal leaned forward and punched his arm. "Audrey," She reminded him. Across the room, Belle and Adam let out twin sounds of exasperation. Ben sighed and knocked his glass back.

Mal stood up and put a hand on his shoulder for a few seconds before announcing: "Never have I ever kissed anyone besides my true love."

The room erupted into immediate groans. "Not all of us are as prudish as you are, Mal," Jay protested. He and Lonnie shared an eye-roll, and then a kiss before they knocked back two identical shots.

"How are you all not black-out drunk already?" Adam laughed. "I couldn't even hold that much alcohol and keep a steady conversation when I was the Beast."

"Magic," Mal laughed. "I spelled the drinks. Hope you don't mind." She laughed, and then punched Jay in the arm. "That's for calling me a prude." She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Yeah, I wouldn't call Mal a prude," Carlos rolled his eyes, twisting a shot glass in his palm and holding the empty glass up to the light. "She was just squeamish about kissing those first few months."

"A prude," Jay deadpanned. "The word you're looking for is a prude."

Ben shook his head. "Listen, she's my fiancée and she and I have had all too many conversations regarding the ways of life, and I can tell you that Mal is anything but a prude. In fact, chances are if I wasn't a king and refusing to bed her until I'd wed her, you all could call her a harlot."

"Ouch!" Mal frowned. "Although, you're probably closer to the truth than Jay is." She leaned up, kissing Ben's neck when he wouldn't bend down.

"You almost just passed out and you want more?" He asked, setting a hand on her hip and handing her a glass. "Never have I ever dyed my hair."

Mal dumped the glass on his sleeve without comment. Ben jumped back with a yelp. His sleeve and the right part of his shirt were soaked and stained with amber liquid. "Hey!" He objected. He seized her arm before she could duck away and dumped a second glass on her shoulder as she shrieked and laughed.

"Her hair!" Evie sputtered, jumping to her feet and running to free Mal from Ben's grasp.

"Yeah Ben, my hair!" Mal laughed as Evie batted Ben's hands off of her best friend and picked up a clump of soaked hair with a sigh.

"Yeah, her hair; I didn't finish." Ben stuck out his tongue and raised a third glass threateningly.

"Don't you dare," Evie hissed. Doug rolled his eyes and picked up a glass of his own. He'd been avoiding the conversation for the most part but taking part in the drinking games when his friends weren't too distracted to play.

"E, it's fine," Mal snickered as she started to calm down. "We can just braid it back or something. It doesn't matter."

"It does matter!" Evie whined. "Look, your shirt is all soaked through too!"

"So's mine," Ben shrugged. "It doesn't matter. She still looks amazing!"

"You think that anyway," Evie protested, glaring at him over her shoulder.

Ben picked up a shot glass and took a sip before he moved Evie out of the way carefully. "Watch this," He told her. He pulled Mal towards him and pressed his lips back on hers. Immediately, her eyes rolled back into her head and his knees began to shake. They broke apart before Ben fell into a spare chair and Mal grabbed onto the table for support. "See, Evie?" Ben laughed. "That's all it is. We could have the ceremony right here, while we're all like this."

"Don't sound like such a bad idea to me," Mal slurred. She pressed her hands to her head. "Ugh. I'm going to be so hungover tomorrow."

"You have a meeting at two-thirty," Ben reminded her with a smile. "And I have one at one."

"Cancel them," Mal groaned. She stood back up. "Geesh, some queen I am. The first day and I'm already suggesting we blow off everything."

"Good thing you have Ben, otherwise the kingdom would fall apart," Carlos nodded. "You're just going to have to be the obedience threat. 'Listen to my husband or I'll rain fire down on you.'"

"Casually transform into a dragon every time someone is trying to blame him for something," Lonnie laughed.

Mal shook her head. "Oh, there'd be a revolt," She rolled her eyes. "Already I cause more than my fair share of paperwork."

"Not really," Ben disagreed. "Now, if the country knew I'm actually getting married now, a week after I asked Mal, and not in a few months like they're all guessing, that'd be paperwork." He rolled his eyes and stood up. "It's almost nine now," He announced, kissing the crown of Mal's head. "When do you want to do this?"

Mal smiled and slipped her arm around his waist. "Now," She smiled. "Let's do it right now."

"Okay," Adam stood up. "Where do you want this?"

"What?" Evie sputtered, looking like she'd swallowed a plum as she began to turn thirty different colors. "No!" She protested. "No. First, all these empty glasses have to go. And Mal doesn't have any makeup on – I need at least thirty minutes. And for heavens sakes, you can't wear that. I want both of you out of those soaking wet clothes before we do anything else!"

"I agree with Evie," Mal hummed, staring at Ben with a frozen smile etched on her face. "I want you out of those clothes before we do anything else too."

Evie dissolved into groans as Ben laughed. "Okay, Evie," He sighed. "What do you have for us?"

"Doug," Evie spun on her heel. "Can you run out and get those garment bags from the car for us?"

Doug got to his feet and saluted his friends sarcastically.

"Help me gather up all of this mess," Evie told Carlos, Jane, Jay, and Lonnie. She began to stack empty shot cups by the tens up on the table. Jay dropped to the ground and began to search underneath the chairs for glasses that had been set down or kicked out of sight.

Evie picked at Mal's hair and frowned. "Kneel," She commanded, pressing Mal's shoulders. Mal knelt and Evie gathered her hair up and began to braid the wet strands back. Doug came rushing back in with the black bags and handed Ben the thinner, smaller one before Evie could command him to do so.

Ben patted Doug's shoulder. "Thanks, Doug," He smiled before he slipped out the entrance to the room.

"I grabbed your makeup too, Evie," Doug told his wife, setting the garment bag and Evie's plastic makeup bag on the now-clear table. Jay and Lonnie were rearranging the remaining filled shots and stealing a few as they went. He kissed Evie's cheek and went to aid Carlos and Jane in carrying all of the glasses out of the room.

Evie worked fast, pulling all of Mal's hair up behind her ears and into a beautiful up-do. She used bobby pins to give the impression that Mal's hair had been curled and then twisted her head back and forth to check every angle.

"Wow," Someone said from the door. Everyone looked up. The bartender had come back to check on everyone upon seeing the glasses everyone had carried out. He glanced back and forth, apparently surprised no one was passed out. His eyes landed on Mal and his mouth dropped open. "You-you!" He sputtered in shock. Jay had been the one to check them in and purchase the room, so he'd had no idea he was currently housing royals.

"Yeah, isn't she lovely?" Ben proclaimed, appearing in the doorway. Mal's breath caught in her throat. He'd changed into a white suit with a blue tie and blue satin lining on all of the folds. He stood straight over the bartender, who swallowed nervously. "I'd prefer you didn't mention to anyone that we were here," Ben murmured.

The bartender swallowed, looking more than a little shocked, and backed away. Ben looked back over at Mal, who let out an exhilarated breath. "Hi!" She whispered as Evie finished crimping her hair.

"Hey," Ben smiled. He carefully side-stepped Evie to cup a hand against Mal's cheek before Evie helped her to her feet.

"Out, now," Evie told Mal, taking the bag and her makeup and rushing the bride out into the hall. They took a turn down the hall and into the bathroom, and once again Mal was getting dressed in a stall.

Evie removed the dress out of the bag and held it aloft for Mal to examine it. Even though she'd been fully prepared to marry Ben in an alcohol-soaked shirt with no shoes, Mal was blown away yet again by Evie's skills. The creation looked a bit like Mal's cotillion dress. It was short – only extending to her knees in the back, and it had little wing-like shoulders with embellished scalloping on it. Similar decorations were stitched into the bodice. Dozens of layers made the skirt fall elegantly around her legs. The dress was built of black, shimmering material with purple detailing. Mal saw immediately what Evie was trying to do. Flip the Bride/Groom color code. Ben always wore black suits, so Evie put him in white and gave Mal the dark shades. And Ben was the Auradon kid and Mal was the Isle girl, so in a way, Evie was paying tribute to their roots.

She stepped into the dress in a stall and Evie zipped her up. She carefully applied makeup to Mal's eyes, working fast but keeping it neat. Still, the clock was ticking even closer and closer to ten and Mal was growing more and more excited.

"Aren't you nervous?" Evie asked as she drew a thin line on Mal's upper eyelid. "I almost fainted when I married Doug."

"And you cried," Mal recalled. "No, I'm not nervous. I honestly feel like… this is something I've waited my entire life for."

Evie blew on Mal's eyelid so that the liquid eyeliner would harden. "Well, you've got lots to look forward to. A whole lifetime." She carefully began to work on Mal's lashes. "And really, maybe it's selfish of me to say this, but I hope you and Ben have kids soon. I want my baby to grow up next to yours." Mal's smile faded a little bit and she swallowed. Evie brushed her hair with her fingertips. "You know it's inevitable, right? Especially after tonight."

"I know," Mal murmured. "And that's okay. I'm okay. I mean, sure, it's still a bit scary, but in the end, I'll be okay."

Evie hummed and patted Mal's shoulders. "You're done," She whispered. She took a step back and wrapped her arms around her belly. Mal watched her and then took a look at herself in the mirror. Through the sparse water dots, she smiled at her reflection. The eyeliner made her eyes appear larger, and her smile made the gold flecks Ben had noticed once, long ago and under a spell, stand out even more. She moved her head to see the earrings Evie had slipped through her lobes and smiled a bit at her reflection.

"You look lovely," Evie whispered.

"I do," Mal agreed. "And especially considering I had a whiskey or something, dumped on me a half-hour ago."

"Forty-five minutes, actually," Evie smiled. She let go of her stomach long enough to step forward, slip her arms around Mal's shoulders, and squeeze her arms. Mal examined her reflection. Part of her couldn't believe this was it. This may very well be the pinnacle moment of her life. She turned her head to the side and examined Evie as her face fell solemn.

"Does it hurt?" She asked, drumming her fingers on the sink. Her fingers felt like they were filled with loose energy.

"Does what hurt?" Evie asked with a furrowed brow, turning to look at Mal with a raised eyebrow before they continued staring at her reflection.

"Well, you know-" Mal wrung her hands and continued staring at her reflection expressionlessly.

A light lit up behind Evie's eyes. "Oh," She chuckled. "That." She hummed and traced a little pattern on Mal's back. "Not much, and only at the very beginning. Kay?"

"Kay," Mal whispered. She turned and took Evie's hand. "Thank you. I wouldn't be here without you."

Evie smiled. "Well, I wouldn't miss this for the world," She squeezed Mal's hand and then turned back to the garment bag. She pulled out a pair of black boots with sequins on the heels and dragons curling around the heels. Mal let out a laugh as Evie set them on the ground and then withdrew a small bouquet of white calla lilies. "Ready?" Evie asked.

With new shoes and flowers in hand, Mal and Evie trekked back down through the hallway and back to the room, where everything had been cleared out of the way. The chairs had been rearranged in a semi-circle pattern with one row and one tiny walkway and Adam was standing near the back, leaning a bit on the table, and searching for the correct words on his phone. Evie shut the door behind Mal and everyone looked up. Carlos shook his head. "Now there's an Isle Bride," He whispered, winking at Evie, who had gone for Auradon's white wedding.

Evie took her seat closest to the walkway. Doug sat beside her, and one by one Jane, Carlos, Lonnie, and Belle all took their seats. Adam straightened up and then they all glanced to the side of the room. Mal followed their gazes.

Jay and Ben looked like they had just finished up a conversation. They were staring at her with two very different emotions. Ben looked absolutely amazed by her presence and was breathing very, very slowly. Jay's eyes were filling with tears as he beamed happily at her. Jay moved towards her and wrapped his arms around her. She buried her nose in the tank top he'd had on under his vest and found it smelled like work and sweat.

"Hey," He whispered. "You look amazing. Like a real Auradon Lady."

"Uh oh," Mal breathed. "That wasn't the intention." She wiped away a few sudden tears she found in her eyes. "Thanks, Jay."

Ben stepped forward behind Jay. He put an arm behind his back in preparation to offer the other one to her. Jay let go of Mal as he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. He took her right hand and then reached for Ben's left. Then, carefully, Jay placed Mal's hand in Ben's and withdrew his own. Mal could scarcely breathe as Jay clapped Ben on the shoulder.

"Take care of her, bro," Jay told him firmly. Mal laughed and squeezed Ben's hand.

"Thank you, Jay," Ben nodded, squeezing back.

Jay nodded and looked up, meeting Mal's eyes. She tried to blink back more tears as she cleared her throat. "Thanks, Jay. For everything." Jay nodded and went to sit down. Ben dropped her hand and offered her his arm instead. She slipped her arm up against his elbow and they looked at each other for a few seconds. Mal felt more tears rising up in her eyes.

Ben dropped the hand he'd put around his back and wiped a few tears out of her eyes. "You look flawless," He whispered.

Mal smiled. "So do you," She breathed.

"Are you ready to do this with me?" Ben asked.

Mal nodded. "Always," She confirmed.

They took two tentative steps together through the brightly-lit room and then stepped past the row of their friends and stopped beside Adam. Ben let Mal's arm go and Mal handed her flowers to Evie before she and Ben took each other's hands and looked towards Adam.

Carlos leaned forward in his chair and held out two glinting bands. "Rings," He whispered. Ben quickly released Mal's hands and took the bands from him. He slipped the smaller, thinner one onto Mal's finger, right on top of her engagement band. She took a moment to examine it. It was thin, with a traditional centerpiece diamond and lots of smaller stones set in a perfect line around the circumference of the band. She smiled and looked up to meet his eyes. His face was framed by one of the bright ceiling lights. Ben turned her hand around and dropped his ring into her hand.

Mal took his left hand and singled out his ring finger. She carefully slipped the ring past his nail and knuckles, and then to the base of his finger. He turned it around for her, and she recognized the tell-tale glint of etching. 'Ben Mal', the etching read. And really, that was the thing that did her in. Mal teared up. There was a ring on Ben's finger. A ring with her name on it. Ben was wearing a wedding band with her name forever engraved beside his, and that thought made her want to absolutely sob.

They turned towards Adam, who cleared his throat and squinted at his screen. His large reading glasses made him look like some sort of square-faced professor. He looked down at their joined hands and then straightened his back. "You both look amazing," He started. "I honestly didn't think I'd ever be here. With the other girls Ben dated, I was sure I'd be standing on the sidelines at a big, white ceremony, watching the bride trip a million times on her dress and I was sure I'd be wondering if she was there because she loved my son, or because she loved my son's title. And I'm glad I don't feel like that now. You, Mal, are the miracle Belle and I prayed for for our son, and neither of us would have this event any other way."

Adam looked down at his phone and began: "Dearly beloved, we gather here today to celebrate the union of Ben and Mal, as they choose to be called. This contract is not to be entered into lightly, but thoughtfully and seriously, with a deep realization of its responsibilities and obligations." Adam swallowed and turned his phone off. "Ben," He began. "Do you agree to take Mal as your lawfully wedded wife, to love and take care of her as best you are able to for the rest of your life?"

Ben smiled as he ran his thumbs over Mal's knuckles. "I do," He agreed, calm and clear as Mal sniffled.

Adam turned to her, a repeated the question, but Mal couldn't hear his exact words. She was focusing on how warm and how right her hands felt in Ben's. Her throat tightened with emotion and so, so many words she didn't know how to speak. It was all she could do to rehearse: "I do," when she heard Adam stop talking.

"As an officer of the law, I decree this union to be legal and lawful. From this moment forth, you twain shall be husband and wife. You may kiss the bride."

Ben dropped her hands like they were hot coals and took her face. She rose up on her tip-toes and pressed her lips to his.

It was by far, the most magical moment of her life. Every nerve was on fire, every cell was singing. There were tears – not just hers, but his too, and then suddenly their friends were slapping them on their backs, enveloping them in a giant hug as they all screamed and cheered. They stopped kissing when they both started swaying and became in gross danger of dropping to the ground, and then they just squeezed each other's hands as Jay and Lonnie handed out the last shot glasses to everyone except Evie. Even Belle and Adam took a glass each before Carlos managed to untangle one hand each from Ben and Mal to force a glass each into their palms.

"To the future!" Jay proclaimed, jumping up on top of the bench he'd been lounging on earlier.

"To Ben and Mal!" Belle corrected with a shake of her head.

Everyone raised their glasses over their heads in toast, and no one besides Ben heard Mal's breathy gasp of: "To Happily Ever After," Before they downed their shots. Ben swept Mal of her feet and kissed her again. He almost collapsed as their worlds spun in colorful, enjoyable patterns.

"This is the beginning," Ben whispered against her cheek as he set her back on her feet.

"I can't wait to see what the ending looks like," Mal laughed, and pulled his head down to kiss him again, and again, and again.

______________________________________________________________

They left DunBroch at 1:45 in the morning. Belle and Adam fell asleep in the car, leaning into a corner with their heads lolling every time they went around a new corner. Jane and Carlos spread out on an entire bench and fell asleep with Carlos's arms curling around Jane's shoulders. Doug splayed his arms out over the headrest of a bench and Evie curled into his chest to fall asleep against his side. Jay and Lonnie spread out on the floor, bodies pressed close to each other and fingers wrapped around each others.

Ben leaned into the corner opposite his parents and Mal leaned against him, into his side. Smiles were frozen on both of their faces as Mal played with the tie on his suit.

"Mrs. Mal Bertha," Ben whispered in the dark of the car to her. "Or even Mrs. Benjamin Florian, if you want to really be able to tell the difference."

"I like the sound of both," Mal murmured. She kissed his jaw and pulled the tie out from around his neck. Her mouth still tasted like alcohol. She was smiling as he rested his hand on her hip.

"I'm glad you decided to do it this way," Ben whispered. "It's exhilarating. I don't think we've done anything like this since we graduated."

"We had Evie and Carlos's weddings," Mal recalled, sliding her hands along his frame on top of the white suit. "You got a little drunk with the guys there."

"A little," Ben nodded. "I haven't gotten wasted since you graduated though. It feels great."

"It does now, but just wait till we get up tomorrow," Mal yawned.

Ben made a grumble in the back of his throat. "Do you have a spell or something that can fix a hangover?" He asked. Mal laughed and leaned up to kiss him. Ben let out a sound of contentment against her mouth.

"I don't know about a spell, but True Love's Kiss might come in handy," Mal shrugged. She tried to kiss him again, but he moved, and she got his cheek instead.

"Slow down, darling," He whispered. "We won't be able to stand up if you keep going." Mal sighed and he craned his neck down to bite and kiss at her neck, which was safe territory that didn't make their heads spin.

"How much longer?" Mal whispered against his hairline. His hand moved from her hip to cup at the back of her neck as he continued biting at her neck, turning the skin pretty shades of pink and red.

"Soon," He whispered in between breaths. "Be patient."

Mal threaded her fingers through his hair and hummed as Ben moved further down, to her shoulder, so she could lean her head against the seat beside him. She watched fuzzy lights stream by through the tinted windows and listened to the thrum of the engine, though she didn't feel at all like going to sleep yet.

After about twenty minutes of nothing – no conversation, no looks, only Ben's mouth on her skin, Mal felt the car begin to slow down. Ben stopped and straightened up in the seat. Almost as if he'd announced something, their friends began to roll over, stretch, and yawn. Jane rolled off the seat an on top of Lonnie with a yelp, and the two girls laughed as the car stopped and the Driver's door opened and closed. As Carlos helped Jane off of Lonnie's legs with a laugh, Ben's hand settled back on her hip. The door to the stretch car opened and their driver appeared.

"Evie and Doug?" He asked through the darkness. Mal glimpsed the outline of Evie and Doug's townhouse outside as the driver squinted past them. She listened to Evie waking Doug up across the car and climbed off of Ben long enough to give her friend a hug as Evie stepped over a still-out Jay.

"Thanks, E. You're the best," She whispered, squeezing Evie tightly.

"I know," Evie yawned. She patted Mal's back. "Be good. I'll talk to you later. You look at your schedule and tell me when I need to have your white wedding dress to you."

"I will," Mal promised as Doug helped Evie out of the car. "Love you, E."

"Love you too, Mal," Evie sighed. The door shut behind them and Mal watched her best friend and her husband's fuzzy figures approach their front door.

They dropped off Jay and Lonnie at their apartment and then Carlos and Jane at Auradon Prep before they set on their way to the palace. Adam and Belle had to be helped out and up to their rooms by palace workers while Ben and Mal linked hands and took the elevator up to Ben's room, which was now theirs by default since he was already in the master suite.

As Ben unlocked his door(His was required to be locked by law after eight at night), a female servant came around the corner with a pile of sheets. Her eyes settled on Mal as Ben fumbled with a key and she gave an uneasy, knowing sort of smile as she passed by. Ben opened the door and held it ajar for her. She slipped inside and watched him step inside, close the door, and turn the lock back in place. He turned around and began unbuttoning the coat of his suit as Mal reached up and began taking pins out of her now-messy hair.

"You nervous?" He asked, setting the suit coat on the back of a chair and stepping behind her to tug her zipper down.

"Windows," Mal reminded him as the sleeves slipped off her shoulders. He leaned down to bite the sensitive skin he'd attacked earlier and then moved to yank the curtains closed. The master bedroom was one of the higher spires in the palace and completely closed off to the outside world, but it was more a matter of principle. "And no. I'm not."

He returned to her and she immediately began unbuttoning his shirt, running her fingertips over the skin of his chest. She pushed his shirt aside and leaned forward, into his grasp, and pressed her ear against his chest. Ben set his hands on her shoulders and started to slide her dress off of her, but she stopped him by running her hand down his shoulder. He carefully set his hands on her hips instead.

"This is where I belong," Mal whispered, trailing her fingertips down his pectorals. She closed her eyes and listened to the steady thrum of his heart beside her head. "I feel like I'm finally coming home."

Ben hummed and leaned down, kissing that spot on her neck that was quickly becoming a favorite spot for him. "You are home," He whispered. His hand traveled up her sides. "Are you ready now?" He asked.

Mal closed her eyes and listened to his heart beating against her cheek. She let out a steady breath. "Always," She whispered, and together their hands started to move again.

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malekshardy · 6 years ago

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groupie love – hardy!roger taylor x reader

summary: queen has just finished performing at madison square garden, and you and your best friend have decided to sneak into their afterparty, where you make the acquaintance of one roger taylor. you’ve gotten to know plenty of rockstars before – so why does this one feel different?

a/n: hey everyone! after being obsessed with borhap like everyone else for the last couple months i finally caved and made a sideblog/wrote this and decided to post it. so this is my first official roger taylor fic! the title is groupie love by lana del rey just bc i think it fits well and i listened to it a ton while writing this lol. let me know what you think!

word count: 2,164

part two

New York City: February 5, 1977

The living room of the apartment is already in disarray from excited, drunk partygoers, although no one actually knows if the band is here yet or not. You lean against the wall, holding a strong mixture of mystery alcohol and some kind of fruit juice in your hand. You can’t help but feel excited – sneaking backstage and into afterparties always gave you such a rush of adrenaline – but nothing could compare to your excitement tonight. You’re still buzzing from Queen’s performance at Madison Square Garden, and from the success of one of your most daring stunts yet: sneaking into the private, record-label-organized afterparty of one of the most popular bands in the world, already slightly drunk, with your very drunk roommate Betty. You’re still in the process of patting yourself on the back when the crowd begins to cheer; Queen has officially arrived.

Betty giggles. “This is so fun, Y/N!”

You resist the urge to look over at the band and nod. “It’s exciting.”

“And you do this all the time?!”

“Well, not all the time.” You say, smirking. “Just when people I like are here.”

“So when do we get to say hi to the band?” Betty asks distractedly, taking a sip of her drink and glancing around the room.

“We have to wait until we get someone’s attention.”

Betty’s gaze lingers on the band for a moment, then she whips back around to face you and snorts into her drink. “I guess we don’t have to wait very long, then. Roger Taylor is staring at you.”

You look over your head and sure enough, Roger Taylor is staring at you, with a playful smirk on his face. A hint of a smile graces your face as you make eye contact with him, then you settle your gaze back on Betty, finishing off your drink. “C’mon, let’s go to the bar.”

***

Roger doesn’t quite know what’s hit him as he walks into the room, fresh off the stage of Madison Square Garden. The crowd had been electric, and despite having a few minutes between the show and the party, his heart is still beating out of his chest.

“Good show, Roger,” a girl giggles as she flits past him. He watches her go for a minute before turning back to say something to Freddie. But before he gets the opportunity – his eye catches on a girl across the room from him, holding a drink and talking animatedly with another girl.

“What was that, Rog?” Freddie asks, but Roger doesn’t reply. Sighing, Freddie follows his friend’s gaze, groaning when he spots you.

“Who’s that, Fred?”

Freddie smiles, just a little, at the awestruck look on Roger’s face. “I have simply no idea who she is or how she got here, dear. But her friend’s looking so you’d better change your expression. Wouldn’t want you to lose that darling playboy image you’ve worked so hard maintain.”

“Oh, piss off,” Roger mutters, but he follows his friend’s advice just in time to make eye contact with the girl. A smile ghosts over her face before she looks back at her friend, finishing her drink. Hardly thinking straight, Roger takes a step towards the bar.

“Where’s he going now?” Brian asks Freddie from behind him. “I thought Reid wanted to talk to us before everything gets too crazy.”

Freddie must make some snarky comment about him, because Roger can hear Brian laughing behind his back, but he doesn’t care. He’ll get them back later.

***

You’re ordering your fourth drink of the night with Betty beside you, reveling in how everything has become light and soft around the edges, when suddenly Betty’s eyes go wide.

“Oh, what? You’ve already talked to the bassist – which is the one thing you wanted to do tonight, might I remind you – what else could you possibly be freaking out about?”

Betty looks down at her glass as you hear a soft chuckle come from behind you. “So you have a thing for Deaky, then?”

You freeze, knowing immediately who the voice belongs to, then turn around. “Not me,” you say, smiling softly. “That’s my friend, Betty.”

“And your name is…?”

“I’m Y/N.”

“Roger,” he says. “But you probably already knew that.”

“Cocky,” you smirk. “But you’re right, I did.”

“You were at the show tonight then, I assume?”

“We were!” Betty exclaims, her voice a sudden reminder that you and Roger are not the only people in the room.

“You know,” Roger starts. “I’m sure Deaky would love to continue your conversation from earlier? He’s not usually a huge fan of these sorts of scenarios. I mean –” he coughs. “If that’s okay with you, Y/N.”

Betty laughs. “I’m sure it’s fine.”

You turn back to face her and wink. “I’ll be okay. Go have fun!”

With Betty gone off in search of her beloved bassist, Roger slides closer to you, his hand falling over yours. You smile, excitement growing in the pit of your stomach.

“Now, if this was a real bar, I’d offer to buy you a drink and then take you somewhere more private,” he grins.

“Well, unfortunately for me, I already have a rather full drink,” you say.

“So I suppose all I can do is take you somewhere more private.”

“I suppose you’re right.” Your heart is pounding in your chest and internally you curse yourself. You were what many would call a groupie, you had done this exact routine nearly a hundred times – so why did you feel so nervous?

Roger’s grin widens, and he wraps his arm around your shoulders, steering you towards the door to the terrace. It’s freezing outside, but Roger keeps his arm around you, his thumb brushing against your hip, and you can barely feel the frigid New York air.

“So, my first question is… how did you get into this party?” He bites his lip, smiling widely.

You shrug, trying not to focus on the way his shirt is completely unbuttoned or how he’s looking at you with his lip between his teeth. You feel almost like a sixteen-year-old girl again, the way you’re blushing, the butterflies in your stomach. Or maybe it’s just the alcohol. You’ve been with your fair share of men – your fair share of rockstars, even – and yet you’re painfully aware of how close Roger is to you, the way his fingers dance on your skin, occasionally slipping just under the hem of your shirt. You’ve been with your fair share of rockstars, yes, but none of them have had this kind of hold over you.

He chuckles, reminding you that you haven’t answered his question yet. “Oh. I guess it’s how most other girls get into these kinds of parties,” you answer as innocently as you can. “Your crew is easily persuaded.” You shift your body ever so slightly, so that Roger’s whole hand can rest more comfortably on your hip.

“That’s not true,” he laughs. “My crew is easily persuaded by pretty girls. That’s a very important distinction.”

You smile, taking the last sip of your drink. “That’s probably more accurate.” You stand there for a moment longer before you start to shiver.

He pauses in the middle of his sentence. “Sorry – are you cold?”

You can’t help but burst into laughter. Your last drink has fully hit you now and suddenly everything is funny – especially the idea that you might possibly be cold while standing outside in New York in February, wearing only a short sleeved shirt and a skirt with sheer tights underneath.

“Yeah, just a little bit. I’m also,” you pause for dramatic effect. “In need of another drink.” You stumble a bit when you take your weight off the railing, but Roger’s grip on your waist tightens and you find yourself toppling into his chest.

“Maybe you don’t need another drink,” he chuckles.

“You’re also drunk,” you chide, laughing. “You were slurring your words a lil’ bit back there too, I noticed. Plus, I’m okay. I’m fun drunk.”

“You’re something, that’s for sure,” he says, and your heart stops for a minute when you catch his eye. He looks… soft. Who would have guessed it. Roger Taylor, notorious womanizer, soft? You stare at him for a second longer as he leads you to one of the couches in the corner of the room, stumbling a little as he walks. You have half a mind to bring this up and make fun of him for being just as drunk as you are, but you’re distracted by the eager look on his face as he sits down on the couch.

“So I feel like I haven’t really gotten to know you.” His hand rests on your knee and your heart hammers in your chest – come on, Y/N, what’s gotten into you?! – and blushing, you lift your gaze to meet his.

“What do you want to know?” You ask, turning your body towards him. His hand trails ever so lightly up your thigh to your waist and your whole body feels as if it’s on fire. Once again you’re aware that you’re close enough to Roger to feel his heart pounding. He’s mere centimeters from you, and without thinking you bite down on your bottom lip again. He laughs – not really a laugh, more of an exhale – and before you can fully look up at him his mouth is on yours.

To say that he leaned into you would be an overstatement. A more accurate way to put it would be that he fell into you. It’s a lazy kind of kiss, a sweet one; not what you had come to expect from his reputation. It only lasts a second, and that’s another surprising thing, but when he pulls away he only looks at you for half a heartbeat and then he’s kissing you again. He pulls you closer to him, one of his hands gripping your waist as your hands tangle in his hair. You must tug on his hair in the midst of all this because he opens his mouth ever so slightly to moan, the vibrations rippling through your body. You laugh, and he takes this opportunity to slip his tongue between your lips. This kiss – this is what you had expected from Roger Taylor. It’s all passion. You can feel his hand burning into your waist, and excitement bubbles up in your chest. You had made fun of Betty earlier for making her dreams come true, talking to her bassist – and now here you were, on the couch in a crowded living room, making out with Roger Taylor.

After what feels like hours, he pulls away, breathing hard. His pupils are blown wide, hair a tangled mess, and you realize with a shock that you’re now sitting on his lap. With a dazed smile on his face, Roger slides out from under you and stands. “I’ll be right back – I’m going to get a drink.”

You sit there in blissful satisfaction for a moment, watching him make his way towards the bar, when someone sits down next to you.

“Y/N!” She hisses. It’s Betty, jolting you out of your dreamy, post-makeout haze. “It’s almost four in the morning and I have to be at work at nine!”

You giggle. “You sound sober.”

“I feel sober! We have to go home!” She hops back up, grabbing your arm and tugging at you.

“I can’t leave,” you say seriously.

“Yes you can,” Betty replies. “I’m making the executive decision, let’s go.”

Sighing, you stand, wobbling a little as you and Betty start walking. “I have to – I have to say goodbye to Roger.”

“Mhm,” Betty hums, taking your hand. “If you see him, you can wave, but we’re not stopping. C’mon, let’s get home.”

Suddenly, you feel overwhelmingly tired, barely able to keep your eyes open. Somehow, the two of you stumble out of the apartment complex and into the snowy street. Betty manages to hail a cab and before you know it, you’re back in your apartment, dressed in warm pajamas and covered in blankets, a glass of water on the nightstand next to you. There’s something in the back of your mind bothering you, something you know you should have done, but you can’t possibly be bothered to remember right now, so instead you burrow down further into your blankets and drift off to sleep.

***

When Roger makes his way back to the couch from the bar holding two cups of water, he finds it empty. His heart drops to his knees, it feels like, as he sits down. This is an uncommon feeling for him. He’s been with his fair share of women – his fair share of groupies – and yet he is painfully aware that you’re no longer sitting on the couch next to him. That you had left without saying goodbye – and that he had no way to find you again.

#roger taylor x reader #bohemian rhapsody imagine #ben hardy as roger taylor #ben hardy x reader #roger taylor imagine #queen imagine #bohemian rhapsody fanfic #hardy!roger taylor

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cursedstrayct · 6 years ago

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The tour. Taeyong

Pairing: Graffiti artist!Taeyong with Gender neutral reader

Warnings: Escaping home, some swearing here and there

Words: 2850

Author notes: Ohmygawd this is so long sorryyyehruifgheiru. Aight so I might have used way too much graffiti lingo stuff in this but i’m not sure, feel free to ask anything if you don’t understand. Also all the cities mentioned here are in the list of the 99 most popular cities for graffiti so yeah, no printer just fax. Last but not least: this story was so much fun to write because there’s a lot of stuff in this that actually happened to me so yeah, it’s like little snipets of my and some of my friends lives :)

Tomorrow it was your 23rd birthday and also the 8th anniversary since you left home. Your gang was at the billboard you usually hanged out, holding a cupcake with a candle on it. You thought about what you could wish but honestly right now everything was fine, your friends were there and your brother was also at the “party”. You were able to enjoy a pretty happy life.

Usually people told you your future was going to be dark, that you would have nothing and art wouldn’t take you anywhere, of course you never listened to them and you kept forming your path. Yeah maybe you lost your first family, but you found a new one in the streets, the other artists you had met across the years became your new siblings and most of the things you know now were thanks to them. It was like a family of 5 siblings and no responsible adult to watch over you even though all of you were technically adults.

Right now you were happy.

After a while, the group of people you were with were just talking while they were waiting for the night to arrive so you could go to an underground dance battle all of you were invited to. You started to think why you left your parent’s house in the first place, you were just a kid but apparently not you or your parents saw that, so seeing that you already couldn’t be fixed from your less than common aspirations in life on your 15th birthday you just left the city without any notice except for a note. You heard that your parents looked out for you for a couple of months but they got tired of looking, according to your brother, the only relative who you still keep contact with.

“They miss you, y’know?”

Your brother said in a shy tone, trying to bring the sensitive topic to surface.

“Please tell me you didn’t cross all the country just to tell me that”

You answered sharply, it wasn’t something you loved to hear to be honest. It always went the same way, your parents missed you but you didn’t and that made another year of you not going back home.

“Just wanted to tell you how things are back in Chicago”

“Tell them that things in San Francisco are good”

You checked your phone and it was 11:37, and because you were going by foot, it was probably a good time to leave to the pier were the dance battle was.

You always loved going to those battles, even though you couldn’t dance for shit, there was a lot else to do, like freestyle battles, graffiti sessions and overall there was a bunch of new people to meet.

You guys arrived at about 12:30 to the pier and everything was already set up, obviously. The music was playing and the colored lights gave a different feeling to the place. Some people were warming up while others were just sharing a cig. It was like another world, happiness and relevance took another meaning here and it almost felt like time stopped, you were at your element right now.

You grabbed some paint cans and checked one of your sketches, you didn’t really care it was night time, your phone lantern could help out a bit. After a couple of minutes some more people joined you were you were, but you could only concentrate in the sounds of the can and the sea behind you, maybe it was a bit dangerous being at the breakwaters of the pier but you thought that just for this day the tide wasn’t that high.

About two hours passed when it was only you and another guy who you couldn’t really recognise at the breakwaters. You saw him before with a couple of cans in his hand but apparently this guy stayed just to look at the waves and listen to the music of the battle.

“Don’t you think we should leave?”

You said in a loose tone with a can still in your hand. The waves were indeed getting taller and taller and maybe it was for the best to go with the rest, you didn’t wanted for your birthday to finish in the tragedy of you and another dude drowning.

“I think you still have a couple of minutes to keep working”

The guy was also lingering a bit, even though you thought it was a smart consideration.

“Are you watching over the waves?”

You were chuckling a bit, you’ve never seen this guy before and you were curious about him, he looked like he didn’t had much friends with him right now.

“I thought it was weird you guys were working near the sea at this hour so I thought someone should be watching”

“You’re not from here right?”

“Nope”

With this comment you imagined he was probably a pretty nervous guy who overthought everything, probably a hopeless perfectionist.

“You alone right now?”

“The guy I’m traveling with is at the battle”

You sat down next to him and both of your feet were dangling, following the pace of the waves.

“Don’t you want to go check them out? I think the rappers already stopped their thing.”

“Oh yeah sure, by the way I’m Taeyong”

“I’m ___, so you said you were traveling huh?”

“Ah yes, I’m actually from Seoul but I’ve been doing this thing with a friend that we call ‘the graffiti tour’ it’s basically us going around the world going to cities were it seems nice to leave some tags.”

You were surprised about this, you could think of about a 100 cities that would be worth the visit and a bunch of 20 year olds weren’t the first type of people that popped to your head that could afford that much traveling.

“We actually arrived from San Diego yesterday, It’s our first stop in the states -he continued- We still don’t know how we’re getting to Los Angeles yet but we’ll figure”

“I’m actually leaving in about a week to LA with some friends, I can get you a ride if you want.”

You now knew what their way of moving was, they just took a plane to get to a part of a continent and the rest was just them moving on their own, you were so familiar with this type of thing that you couldn’t help but to feel almost pity for them.

“That’d be awesome”

His smile looked sincere and… pretty; unusual if you had to say another thing.

The both of you went up to where the battle was to check up on Taeyong’s friend, and like 30 seconds after you got on the superior part of the pier, you saw a wave hit the place you were just in. You noticed Taeyong saw that as well, he looked with wide eyes probably contemplating how much of a coincidence was the fact that he didn’t just got crushed against the rocks in who knows how much kilometers per hour. You shot him a nervous smile and he did the same.

A short guy approached you two and bumped Taeyong on his arm in a friendly way. His smile was as bright as his ears thanks to his piercings, you thought that was what an elf would look like. He said something in Korean that you couldn’t understand for obvious reasons but you did hear you name in the phrase though.

“Hey this is Ten, he’s actually Thai” Taeyong said with a big smile in his face, he looked like he was showing off a new toy.

The three of you talked for a couple of minutes about various things, apparently Taeyong was a dancer too and a very good one according to Ten. People started to move to the circle where the battle would take place and you took the both guys by their wrist to lead them, you were so curious to see them perform, you were giggling like a child.

The mc and the judges stood in the middle and gave a few words, including mentioning your birthday. One of the judges that was a close friend to you gave you a small gift that you decided to leave for later. Taeyong looked at you with a surprised face, almost as if he had forgotten your birthday, ignoring the fact he just met you.

“It’s your birthday?!”

“Well yeah, like as of 1 hour ago”

You chuckled a bit with bright eyes, it was like you involuntarily got the bubbly part of your personality thanks to Taeyong.

The last cyphers were finishing off and everyone was having a seizure thanks to Ten, he was crazy good and you were pretty sure you saw your judge friend shedding a tear. You encouraged Taeyong to go in, at first he got shy because he didn’t knew anyone but Ten talked him into it.

Taeyong was standing in the middle like a deer on headlights with his eyes fixed on the floor. The track wasn’t starting and people were looking at him weird because nobody knew who he was. Finally the music started after someone kicked the speaker, Taeyong started easy with some footwork but you could see that he was getting more relaxed as time passed, he just had a bit of stage fright but his overflowing confidence won over. You thought someone who was so sure about his skills had such a hard time opening up about them.

Eventually the battle finished with Ten taking the second place to a new kid who was probably made of rubber and Taeyong getting kicked out at the fourth round.

You changed phones with Taeyong to keep him posted about the LA trip and left to your house with your friends.

“Actually do you know any place where we could stay?”

Ten approached you, apparently the lady where they had rented had bailed them last minute and so far, it looked like they would have to sleep for a week on the street.

“Can we take take the pretty tourists back home?”

“Take it as my birthday present, the one on the left is going to be my Christmas present”

“We can understand english”

“OH”

You finally arrived to your dorm at around 5:30 in the morning, you gave the invitees a bunch of pillows and blankets and made gave them some instructions of the house, what things were of who and how the bathroom works, etc.

You guys woke up and two of your roommates were preparing breakfast, there was soft music playing and Ten was taking a shower. You saw Taeyong cleaning his space a bit frantically, leaving everything in an order that looked very planned, you saw him and smiled a bit.

“How did you sleep?”

“Ah ___, I slept well and you?”

He answered hurriedly, as if he was waiting for someone to ask them that.

“Like a baby”

“Did you wake up in the middle of the night crying because you were hungry and with pooped pants?”

“Whatever makes you happy”

Most of the mornings went by like that, the 7 of you having breakfast with the sun creeping in the window while you and your friends bombarded Taeyong and Ten with questions, questions that with the days got more and more personal, going from how’s life in Korea to what is up with Taeyong and bacteria.

Taeyong was a pretty fun person to hang out with. One day you went out to tag some walls and as you expected, seeing him paint gave you a lot more information of him. What he thought of the world, how he liked to do his stuff, that was always something that mesmerized you.

“Ah dammit, I lost some of my cans at the battle”

He said with annoyance in his voice while he looked for something in his backpack.

“Chill, we’re sharing”

He took a deep breath and proceeded to check up what you had in your backpack.

He was a helpless perfectionist, but he was very optimistic with the world, he was such a bright person. You talked about the sweet and the sour, his family back in Korea, your rocky relationship with your parents, your childhood years, how you got into the underground scene. You never thought you could get this close to a person you met some days ago. Taeyong was one of those people that felt like you’ve known them for forever.

The day that you were leaving to LA had arrived and you started to prepare your stuff while you shared some conversation with Taeyong. Everything was pretty chill until one of your friends entered the dorm completely out of breath with an expression as if they had just seen a corpse.

“____ you need to get out of the city or you’re going to jail”

“WHAT?”

“Apparently one of your murals you did on the pier was found by a cop and it apart from being a literal vandal act, some residue fell to the sea and you got the Sanfran sanitary department coming for your ass”

“What do you mean residue? I arrived with everything here and I saw everyone taking their shit”

You noticed Taeyong’s face going pale as paper, he couldn’t move and it looked like he was trying to say something but the shock wasn’t letting him.

“It’s my fault”

He said it almost unintelligible, he probably left his cans somewhere that night and when you two started talking he just forgot.

“Dude we can’t afford an international legal thing”

When Ten stated the obvious Taeyong shot him a look that could break stuff while everyone entered in a slight state of panic because either you were going to jail or Taeyong was getting deported or some shit.

“We have to leave right now let’s go, I’ll call my brother to buy us some time until we have the money to pay the fine or something or to justify I was out of the city and none of us did anything”

You said as you grabbed your backpack and the car keys, fortunately everyone was moving fast. You weren’t sure if a 6 hour car ride at night was the best idea but it was certainly the most convenient.

When you were already two hours in the trip, the only awaken people inside the car were you and Taeyong, he took shotgun because he felt he had to calm you down since all this mess was his fault according to him. To your relief, a couple of minutes later your brother called back to tell you that incase you had to pay a fine he had you covered so you had to pay him and not the government and the charges were somehow lifted from you, you were finally breathing calmly

“____ there’s just one thing”

“What thing?”

“Our parents found out”

“What? Why?”

“They didn’t have in mind that their child would get in trouble with the cops!”

“I fucking escaped from their house! What else were they expecting? That was what they always thought that would happen to me, that I was going to be a delinquent, escaping from everything for the rest of my life, what’s the fucking news?”

“I don’t know maybe they had like a secret hope or something, I don’t care, you better talk to them in LA”

Then your brother hanged up and silence conquered the car. You just wanted to cry.

“Do you want me to drive?”

Taeyong said in a small voice, he was looking at you shyly.

“I’m okay thanks.”

Anyone kilometres away could notice you weren’t with your shaky voice and red eyes.

“I didn’t knew you escaped your home”

“It’s been 10 years since I’ve seen them and my brother was getting worried and shit and I thought maybe it was a good idea to rub in their faces that I’ve been doing fine but apparently they are going to see this and it will go the other way around.”

You pulled over because your view was getting way too cloudy.

“You’re an adult now, they probably understand that, and I’m sure they won’t rub one mistake on your face after 10 years of a clear record”

“I’m just scared, it’s been so long”

Taeyong took your hand to try to calm you and looked at you in the eyes, he tried to say something but again, nothing came out.

You started laughing while tears kept rolling along your skin.

“I’m so stupid, I shouldn't've ever done this”

“I mean, you’ve had fun the last ten years right?

You kinda just looked at him while he was still holding your hand, and a thick awkward silence formed and you both chuckled.

“You should hit the road, we still have a long way to go”

Taeyong said in a slightly teasing manner, you just chuckled and then bumped him playfully on his arm.

“What the hell do you know, you’ve never been here”

#taeyong #lee taeyong #taeyong fluff #nct fluff #nct fanfic #nct 127 #au

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simplechicwithacrazedheart · 6 years ago

Text

The Way (Ned Leeds x Reader)

A/n: Posting this short fic because there is a lack of Ned Leeds fics here and my boy needs some apperication. Also I have no idea why my masterlist isn’t working on mobile so I’m so sorry for that! Prompt: There was just something about the way he made you feel. - FLUFF

words: 1.6k +

warnings: None. Grammar and spelling errors probably didn’t properly proofread because I’m suppose to be working on a project and not writing Ned Leeds fanfic

There was just something about him.

The way he laughed and it just lit up the room. His laugh brighter than the fireworks that rocketed through those hot Fourth of July nights.

Peter had been staring at his latest crush when you slid into the seat across from Ned, the lunch tray clattering against the table.

“Planning on catching some flys today with that frog in your mouth? Keep it open long enough and you just might.”

Ned laughed at your remark, a laugh that he tried to keep quiet after Peter gave him and you a look, cheeks flaring red.

“H-hey! I’m n-not- I don’t have a frog in my mouth.” He mumbles, his hand covering his lips as he pondered if he really did look as if he was holding a frog in his mouth.

You were too distracted from Ned’s little snickers. How each one was felt as exciting, as if you had discovered new colors of the rainbow.

“Told ya she was going to find a way to knock down your ego since you blew off the video game tournament.”

“I had the Stark Internship!”

“I know! But (y/n) is a different story from me. I’m wise. Forgive and move on. (y/n) on the other hand.”

“Leeds, I’ll come after you next if you don’t hush.”

The world filled with color once more as he chuckled shaking his head.

“I’d like to see you try.”

The way he seemed to know how to prioritize, to live a full life. His grades never slipped despite the fact that you knew that he was up until two in the morning playing the latest video game he got his hand or organizing some lego set.

“How in hell do you get an ‘A’ on this project when you spent the last four nights playing video games and putting together a Lego Quinjet?”

“Elementary my dear (y/n).”

“You stayed up the first three nights it was assigned so you could spend the next three weeks messing around didn’t you?”

“See? So Elementary you figured it out.”

“Did you just insult my intelligence?”

“No. I would never!” Your eyes narrowed, “I’ll buy us some sandwiches from Delmar’s.”

“Now that last part I believe.”

“Sometimes I think you manipulate me into buying those for you.”

The way there was something lurking in the depths of his dark eyes, a worry that was beyond your grasp. Everytime you questioned it, you were met with a simple, “It isn’t my place to tell,” a sentence you grew to respect hearing.

“Ned, is everything ok?”

“I’m fine. Just been a bit worried about things is all.”

“You can talk to me about it you know. I know we aren’t as close as you and Peter are but we’re still pretty good friends. I like to think we are at least.”

“Thanks y/n, but this reason why I’m worrying.” A slight pause, as if he wanted to tell you but simply couldn’t bring himself too, “It isn’t my place to tell.”

“Alright. I get it. Tell me about the latest game you’re planning. Were you able to defeat that boss level you were trying to beat?” His face morphed and he dove head first into a long winded discussion of the steps he took and the reason behind them, on how he was finally able to defeat one of the bosses of his latest game.

The way he noticed that you were undergoing a stress overload. How he showed you a bench, a bench that looked like nothing special. Just an ordinary wooden bench along a path way in the park near Midtown. How he patted the spot next to him with a confidence that belonged to the elite of Midtown, yet he was far from them. You knew why. He wasn’t muscular nor thin. No, he was large, squishy, shock absorbent. How ever one wanted to label it. Not only was he that, he prefered talking about things that made most people roll their eyes. If only they could just actually notice the things you noticed about him that you did, he would be Mr. Popular at Midtown High, even with a stupid fedora on. A part of you was glad that they didn’t notice, you didn’t have to worry about him leaving you behind. Not that he ever would.

“So, you want to know why I brought you here right?”

“Mind reader now are we?” A chuckle escaped his lips and your world erupts with color at the melody “Talk to me Leeds, what am I supposed to be seeing other than the world falling apart at the seams?”

“You see that lake in front of us?” “The one that is probably as empty as my future?” Your hand extending outwards towards the lake in question, “Yup.” Something small and smooth pressed itself to the palm of your hands, little jolts of electricity accompanying along it, glancing towards the foreign object you found it to be a stone the color of ash. He stood and gestured you to come along.

“Now, this is a process that only the best people know. Take this stone,” Between his fingers he revealed his own stone, “this is your worries. Stress. Fears. And you just watch it-.” His arm reach behind his head and he capulated it into the lake at a distance that left you in awe. “-Plop.”

Chewing on your bottom lip, you stared at the stone. Pouring all your insecurities into it. All your worries of the future. All of the fear that held you back, this stone was now a physical representation of it. And you held onto it.

“How did you come across this place?” Fingers closed around the stone, your eyes flickering over to his.

“Peter and I would come to the lake and throw stuff in it. Nothing to harm the environment. Just rocks, sticks, the random chunk of bread if we went to delmar’s beforehand.” A look must of crossed your eyes because he added something else before you could even give that nod that confirmed that you had been listening, “This spot though, in front of the bench. I’ve only come here alone.”

“The reason you’re always worried? That isn’t your place to say right?” He nodded, his hands slipping into his pockets.

“Yeah, been coming here since sophomore year.”

“Does it actually work?” You shifted your weight from one leg to the other.

“It isn’t a permanent solution but it clears the mind to let you breathe.” There was something in his voice, it was the embodiment of zen. The way he spoke, he was at peace this very moment. You wanted that. The peace he was feeling, the confidence he had. Your grip on the stone loosened and with a deep breath you threw the stone as far as your could, watching it soar through the air before finally sinking into the icy pits of the water, the only sign that it had ever passed was the ripples on the surface and the weight that had been lifted off your chest.

You felt better. But was it because of the stone or was it because of the way Ned Leeds looked at you as if he was proud of you with that twinkle in his eyes?

“I’m going to do something that I’ve been wanting to do for a while.” It was all the warning you could give him. One hand clutched over your chest, the other over his arm, those same little jolts of electricity jolted through not only you, but through Ned as well. You didn’t take the time to see the confusion in his eyes by the sudden contact, instead your lips pressed against his.

It was the way he froze. His eyes wide, his mind trying to wrap itself around the events that just transpired.

It was the way when you pulled away believing you made the biggest mistake of your life due to his lack of response.

It was the way his hands left his pockets, pulling you back into him.

It was the way his large arms wrapped themselves around you, holding you close as his lips brushed over yours, electricity running down both of your spines.

It was the way when you two finally pulled away, how his eyes seemed to be brighter than before, something you never thought possible.

It was the way a blush crept on his cheek as a soft ‘wow’ left your lips.

It was the way his hand fit with yours, fingers laced together.

It was the way he pulled you behind him when a sudden THUMP echoed the air around you two making you feel safe. A certain figure in red and blue cussed, having either fallen out of a tree or smacked into one and waved at you two. “Stay safe kids!” Before running off, shooting out a thick stand of web to swing away.

It was the way how he made you feel such at ease.

It was the way how he made you feel noticed.

It was the way how he was able to cheer you up.

It was the way he understood you.

It was the way how Ned Leeds looked into your eyes with a twinkle in his.

It was the way how electricity ran through your body when you both touched.

It was the way how his laugh brightened up your world and the sound of both of your laughter filling the air as Spiderman swung away fit together like two pieces of the same puzzle.

This was the way it was meant to be.

Tags @xaestheticpeterx

#Ned Leeds x reader #Ned leeds #Ned leeds x y/n #Ned Leeds fanfic #Ned Leeds Imagine #Ned Leeds Blurb #Ned Leeds cute #Ned Leeds fic #Ned Leeds Fluff

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secret-kkh-fics · 4 years ago

Text

Anywhere But Home | Chapter 4

Due to this not being posted anywhere else yet, please like but DON’T REBLOG my fics.

Chapter Summary:

The twins call a Code Fluffy to try and make Pacifica feel better. Mabel gains some new blackmail material.

Author Note:

Hello all again! Well, all I have to say about this chapter is that it is pure fluff. Every bit of it. So, I hope you enjoy it!

Cuddles and Potential Blackmail

“Hey, Dipper?” Mabel called out from the kitchen.

“Yeah?” he called back.

“Code Fluffy?”

He looked at Pacifica, staring at her like he was trying to decide something. “Do you want to sleep?” he asked her. Pacifica shrugged in response. “Code Fluffy!” he shouted.

“Okay, you're getting the blankets!”

“I know!” He turned back to Pacifica. “We're going to have to try and get you upstairs.” She groaned at the prospect. There was no way she was going to be able to get up a flight of stairs. “It's okay. You won't even have to put any weight on your foot at all. I'll help you.”

“No offence, but I saw your stairs on the way in and they look tiny.”

“Yeah, they are a bit... Why would that be offensive?”

“Ah... because I kind of think that everything in this house is tiny and dirty.”

“Pfft!” he snorted. “That's because you live in a mansion. And because this place is really old and inhabited by an old man who doesn't know the meaning of the word 'clean'. Now come here, you snob.”

She glared at him for that, but it wasn't as sharp as her usual one, she noticed that his tone seemed teasing. Like... in a nice way, not a nasty way. The way that friends teased each other. The idea of Dipper seeing her as a friend kind of made her feel... warm.

Smiling slightly, she gingerly lifted her foot off the skull table and rested it on the ground. Dipper grabbed her bag and hoisted it onto his back, then offered her a hand. Once he'd helped her to her feet, he stood on the side of her bad foot and ducked his head so that she could put an arm around his shoulder. Even though he was stooped down, she still found that he was a bit tall. She knew that by the end of this, he was going to be as sore as she was... well, almost.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Yeah, I guess.”

Slowly they began walking, Dipper going as slow and steady as she could, acting as her crutch. She hobbled along beside him, glad that she didn't have to put any weight on her foot. The hopping was already starting to get to her, her feet already sore from running. And she was sure she was putting most of her weight on Dipper. She turned to apologise or something for it, then noticed that he was still practically at her eye level. “Are you still crouching?” she asked incredulously.

“Well, yeah, you're short.”

“Hey!”

He chuckled. “Relax. Why do the really short ones always get so worked up? Height's no big deal I mean, I'm short for my age. Even Mabel's taller than me.”

“Seriously?”

“Yep. Well, only by a millimetre, but that's enough for her to claim she's the alpha twin. Doesn't help that she's outgoing and older than me by five minutes... I'm just crossing my fingers for another growth spurt soon.” She suddenly realised that they'd been standing still since she'd noticed him stooping, and she realised why. They were standing at the base of the stairs. She bit her lip, looking up at the rickety staircase in apprehension. “Hey, it's okay, you can do this,” he told her. “You've got me and the rail. You'll just have to kind of jump I guess.”

She gave him a determined nod, and they started up. She relied on Dipper and the rail quite heavily, putting all her weight on them and swinging her way up. They almost fell down a few times, and her arms and good leg were horribly tired by the time they got to the top. She felt a bit sorry for Dipper, but he just grinned at her.

“You made it!” he celebrated.

“Your room is way too high up.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Your room is on the fourth floor of your house.”

“Your room is the attic! That's the top of your house!”

“That's not- You know what, never mind. The attic is the best place anyway, apart from maybe Soos's break room. We'll see if he's willing to give it up while you're here. But for tonight it looks like we're having a sleepover in the attic. Now come on, we have to get set up.

“For what? What's Code Fluffy?”

“It's love in a blanket!” Mabel said, skipping up behind them with a tray of hot-drinks and other sweet snacks. She went off ahead of them, and they slowly made their way along behind them. It was a good thing that Stan was still up, or all the thumping would have woken him.

“It's our method of making each other feel better,” he explained further as he helped her along to the room. “Our favourite advice is to get a nice drink, some snacks, bundle up in blankets, cuddle something fluffy, and watch a feel-good movie. So if either of us is upset or not feeling great, we'll call a Code Fluffy.” As he was saying this, he led her over to a bed and helped sit her down on it.

“Dipper calls them the most. He gets panic attacks,” Mabel said casually.

“Mabel!”

“What?”

“That actually sounds really nice,” she said, stopping them from arguing further.

“It is. And it really works. Of course, it works better with other people. It relaxes you and makes you happier because when you hug someone, it releases serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin, which-”

“Alright, alright, nerd,” Mabel said. “Just go get the blankets, would ya!” Dipper huffed out a sigh, rolled his eyes, and left the room mumbling under his breath. “Right, down to business,” she said matter of factly. She bounced over to the other bed and picked up a pile of stuffed toys from it. “What one do you want?”

Pacifica blinked at the lineup before her in bewilderment. She hadn't cuddled a stuffed toy since she was six. Her mom had thought they were too childish after that. The next thing she knew, Lily the Llama was gone. “Um... the... rabbit, I guess.”

“Done. Her name is Daisy.” She handed the white rabbit over to her, a purple felt flower had been stitched on just above one of the ears. Then she began to pick out a few more. “Dipper usually likes Mr Bearington. I'll take Kitty Snufflepants today. And Waddles can have Widdles!”

“Widdles?”

“Yeah!” she cried in delight, holding up a stuffed pig. “He's like Waddles, but he's 'widdle'! Dipper won him for me in a crane game.”

“Oh, okay.” She didn't understand why the pig needed its own toy, but whatever floated the strange girl's boat. She and her brother were being way too nice to her for her to care.

Quickly she made the decision to divest herself of any uncomfortable clothing while Dipper was out. She unhooked her bra and pulled it out from under her shirt. She also took off her other shoe and sock but decided that it would be easier to leave her jeans on, rather than painfully struggle to get them off and again struggle to put on her night clothes.

“And now onto the movie,” Mabel cried. She went over to the bed Pacifica was sitting on and pulled a laptop from underneath. It had a blue sticker of a pine tree, just like the one on Dipper's hat. It must be his... which would also make this his bed. That made sense considering the toys, glitter, and Sev'ral Timez posters on the other bed. Mabel tapped a few keys, then frowned. “That's weird.”

“What?”

“His password's changed.”

There came a muffled chuckle, and they both turned to see Dipper staggering back into the room under a big pile of blankets and bedrolls. “I was wondering when you were going to notice.” He dumped the pile on the ground near the window.

“When did you change it?”

“Like, three weeks ago or so.”

“Oh... Well, that's good, I guess. Ooh! Hold on, I bet I can guess the new one...” She sat there a moment, her tongue stuck out in thought. Then her eyes widened, a smile creeping over her face, and she quickly typed something in. It instantly logged her in. “Yes!”

“Aww, damn it.”

“How did you do that?” Pacifica asked in amazement.

“It's easy. Dipper's passwords are things he's obsessed with at the time. It wasn't hard to guess 'journal author'. He's been trying to find clues about him since he found that book.”

“I really need to think of better passwords.”

“At least you change yours. I've the same password for three years now,” Pacifica told him.

“I have to change it. I have a Mabel to attempt to protect it from.” He fluffed up some pillows and blankets, starting to put together a makeshift bed to fit three.

“Never works,” she grinned. “Okay, here's the movies. What do you want to watch? Pick any, Dipper's okay with all of them.”

The man in question shrugged. “I'm not picky.”

“Really? You'll even watch girly chick flicks?”

“I was raised with Mabel. I'm used to them.”

“And he just likes them anyway. He even likes Babba! Oof!” She was knocked over when a pillow hit her square in the head. Dipper grinned smugly.

“Really? Babba's awesome! Have you seen the musical they made that had only their most popular songs? Cheesy as hell to watch, it was good.”

“We've never actually been to see any musicals,” Mabel told her.

“Well, we'll have to change that. You have to see Wicked! It's not an option.”

“Ooh! I've always wanted to do Wicked as like... a play or something!” Mabel said excitedly. “We should totally put on a performance here! I could be Elphaba, and you could be Glinda! You're blonde! And you can hit all the high notes!”

“And your friendship started out about the same,” Dipper commented.

“Loathing. Unadulterated loathing...” Pacifica sang, her smile faded. “Yeah, sorry about that.”

“Ah, you know how it is. Water and bridges and all that. Maybe something about ducks? I don't know. I think there should be ducks somewhere in that saying.”

“You're thinking of 'water under the bridge' and 'water off a duck's back', Mabel. Though, if you mixed them together you'd get a pretty interesting malaphor.”

“You mean metaphor.”

“No, I mean malaphor. The combining of two or more idioms. You know, like 'we'll burn that bridge when we get to it' instead of 'cross that bridge' and 'burning bridges'.”

“...You're right, he is a nerd,” she said to Mabel.

“Hey!”

“What? I never said it's a bad thing. So what, you're smart.”

“Don't encourage him!” Mabel cried. “His head is already big enough. Literally.”

“Beats me then. My head is tiny. The only reason I can fit half my hats is because my hair is so thick and boofy! Ooh, hey, how about this?” She turned the screen around to show them her selection.

“Princess Diaries 2. Heck yeah!”

“Sure. I'm in.” He gestured to the blankets. “Also, I've made the bed.” To be honest, it looked more like a giant nest of pillows and blankets. They were a little old looking for her liking, but it did look comfy.

“I call middle!” Mabel shouted, scrambling over. She snuggled down under the top layer of blankets, putting the laptop on her lap.

“Here.”

Dipper held out his hand to her, and once more he helped her walk over to the bed. He sat her down beside Mabel, and she was able to tuck herself in. It would be a close fit for the three of the of them. She wasn't really sure how she felt about that. She wasn't used to it. At her sleepovers, her friends would all get their own double bed. Dipper grabbed the tray of snacks and sat them down beside her, then he took his place on the other side of his sister. As soon as he was settled in, Waddles came trotting over with the stuffed pig in his mouth. With a soft oink, he plopped himself down with his head resting on Dipper's lap. She passed out the hot chocolates, which were somehow still hot, and took a sip of her own. The top was completely coated in melted marshmallow. It was so sweet but really good.

“Alright, that's the hot drinks and snacks, the blankets, the fluffy things, and the movie. So, without further ado, let the Code Fluffy commence!” Dramatically she hit the play button, and the movie started.

They all smiled and settled back to watch the movie. Pacifica had seen it many times, but it was the kind of movie that you could still watch many times more and still want to watch it again. It was so cute, and Julie Andrews was a goddess!

Their drinks were all gone by the time Mia had intentionally stomped on Nick's foot. But they continued to eat the chocolate, and other sweets as the movie went on. Dipper even got up to grab the candy she'd told him was in her bag. She found herself slowly leaning into Mabel to get a better view. Her eyes were starting to become heavy, and she just gave in, leaning on the girl in something similar to a cuddle. It actually felt... kind of nice. When it got to the scene where the Queen showed Mia her new room, Mabel gasped in wonder, despite how many times she'd already seen it.

“I'm just imagining that that's what your wardrobe is like,” she said. “Is that what your wardrobe is like?”

“Pfft! Don't be ridiculous,” she told her. “I don't have crown jewels in my wardrobe.” Mabel laughed, and she smiled in reply. It wasn't quite true, her wardrobe was way smaller than that... though, it was still a rather large walk-in wardrobe with mirrors and everything. Still, that was irrelevant.

As the movie continued, her eyes grew heavier and heavier. She would catch herself with her eyes closed for too long and jolt herself awake. She finally gave in sometime around the engagement slumber party. The last thing she remembered was hearing Julie Andrews and Raven singing together. At one point she was woken up by Mabel laughing at Mia exclaiming that she was a moose, but sleep quickly pulled her back under again. She was exhausted. And this was nice. This was very, very nice...

By the time the movie was finished, Mabel was pretty tired. She yawned loudly, giving a stretch. It was a little awkward with the other two leaning on her so heavily. She looked at her brother and new friend to find that they were both asleep. Waddles looked up at her and gave a soft oink.

“Yep, they're totally out to it,” she whispered to him. “Come on, let’s get to bed.”

Carefully, she extracted herself from between the two of them. She closed the laptop and put it back under Dipper’s bed, and cleared away all cups and trash. She considered waking up Dipper to get him back in his own bed but decided against it. She knew how hard it was to wake him up, and how he'd react. And considering the fact he'd only just fallen asleep, it was probably best to let him sleep.

Waddles oinked again. “What? It's not like they're cuddling or anything. They're on opposite sides of the nest! They can complain about it in the morning. I'm too tired to deal with Dipper.”

She shuffled over to the lights and flicked them off, before going back over to her bed and curling in. She held on to Kitty Snufflepants, and not long after, Waddles jumped up to his usual spot on the bed. Soon, she was as fast asleep as the other two.

Mabel groaned as sunlight shone in her face, dragging her out of her wonderful slumber.

“Ugh, stupid sun!” she grumbled. She rolled over, having to push Waddles back on the other side of the bed, so she didn't fall off, and looked at the clock. 11am. Geez, she'd slept in! Well, she had been up to like, 6am, so it wasn't that bad really.

Yawning, she jumped out of bed and started gathering her clothes for the day. She was confused by Dippers empty bed for a moment until she remembered that she'd left him down on the floor last night. She looked over towards the nest and had to stifle a giggle.

Lying curled up in the middle of the nest of pillows, Dipper and Pacifica were snuggled up to each other. Their stuffed animals had been abandoned at some time in the night, as had half the blankets. One of Dipper’s arms was cushioning Pacifica's head, his other was wrapped around her waist. Pacifica seemed even more tangled up than he was. One of her arms was stretched up above his head, her fingers twisted in his curls, the other arm was flung over the arm that was holding her, and her leg had hooked itself up over his waist.

Huh. Who knew that they were both cuddlers? They... actually looked... kind of cute.

Silently she grabbed her phone and took a picture of them. “Hehe,” she giggled. “Blackmail.”

Then quietly as she could, she snuck out. Those two deserved their sleep.

Pacifica had been drifting in and out of dreams for a while. Strange dreams that she couldn't recall. And she was too tired to remember any of the moments shed woken up either. This time she blinked at the hazy light around her. Morning.

There was something in front of her, a pink and brown blur. And she was holding onto something. What was that strange shape in front of her? She blinked a few more times, trying to focus.

“Dipper?” she mumbled.

“Mmm,” he replied, still half asleep.

“No, dipper. On your head.” Lazily, her hand attempted to point, but it didn't really move far before flopping back around his body, her eyes drifting shut again.

“Yeah. Wait, what?” His eyes flew open, and he looked about cautiously. No one else was in the room. Just him and Pacifica... cuddling. “Uhh...” He looked back down at the girl in his arms. She seemed to have fallen asleep again.

Hmm... she looked rather cute when she was sleeping. No! No, he was not having any thoughts along those lines when they were cuddling like – like, well, a couple. Nope!

Carefully he began to extract himself from their human tangle, taking her arm from around him and gently placing it in close to her body. She muttered something when he tried to de-tangle their legs, but when he looked up at her, he found she was still asleep.

Once he was free he let out a sigh of relief, then he grabbed his clothes for the day and his hat and went off to have a shower. Erm... he better make that a cold one.

EXW PRQVWHUV RI WKH GHHS DUH VXUH WR EH IHDUHG

Author Note:

To be honest, I didn't think this much would take up an entire chapter. But oh well, just means there'll be more chapters later. Also, Code Fluffy is a real thing for me. I do this often when I feel down, usually watching Disney films and cuddling my partner or best friend. It's always my advice for people who aren't having a good day. And I always get told that it made them feel a little better. So, if you ever feel horrible or anxious, Code Fluffy. It works. Also, nests are great. Me and my friend used to make these outside in summer on my veranda (back when we lived in a double story house), usually with candles and fairy lights. Anyway, that's all for now. Bye!

Chapter Index | First Chapter | << Previous Chapter | Next Chapter >>

#anywhere but home

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akiramakoto · 7 years ago

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12 Days of Christmas

Hello all! I’m very happy to post my #ererisecretsanta2k17! My secret santa recipient is @eren-loves-dogs I’m so sorry it took me until the very last day to finish this for you! I hope you enjoy it!

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .

Eren tried to hurry and wrap up his shower. He was already running late for work and didn’t want to push it. Not that he needed the job. Levi had even asked him to quit, but the brunette wasn’t quite ready to let Levi provide everything. He was still a man after all, and he had to contribute somehow. It’s hard to believe that our one year anniversary is the 22nd, that’s only a week from tomorrow. I really need to come up with a great gift for him to celebrate. He quickly ran the towel through his hair, drying most of it before he went to get dressed, throwing on the warmest thing he had so he wouldn’t freeze while he photographed the university’s football game. He decided to stay on at the school paper even though he had graduated back in May. Photography, he had discovered, was a passion of his.

“Do you want me to go to the game with you?” Levi called from the living room when he heard Eren walking down the hall.

“No, you don’t have to. I know you hate the cold anyway. It would be tragic for us both to suffer when only one has to work.” Eren chuckled and dodged the pillow Levi tossed in his direction. “It is supposed to be a decent game however. Not that I’d know. I’m a weeb, remember? Not a jock.”

“You’re not thinking of leaving now with your hair still wet are you? It’s freezing out there. It’s seriously only like 30 degrees right now, and it’s only going to get colder the later you’re out for that game.” He shook his head and walked back to their room to retrieve a hairdryer. “I know you’re supposed to be there soon, but it’s only a 10 minute drive at most to campus. The five minutes it takes to dry your hair will be well worth it when it prevents you from getting pneumonia.”

Eren huffed but sat down and let Levi dry his hair. “You wanna drive me, or can I use the car?”

“I can drive you. We probably do need to look at getting you a car though. It would be a lot easier on you.” He ran his slender fingers through the soft brown hair as it dried, attempting to keep the locks from getting tangled. As soon as he flipped off the dryer, Eren bounced from the chair, grabbing his coat and camera bag.

“Well, if you’re driving we need to get going. I don’t want to miss the kick off. Those are always popular pictures with the journalists.” He purposefully ignored his lover’s attempt to convince him once again to buy him a car. No Levi, a car is just too much. I’ll save up on my own and get a new one eventually.

Levi nodded, grabbing his keys and satchel from the hook by the door. Once they got to the football field, Levi parked on the curb to get Eren closer. Pulling out his bag, he retrieved a wrapped box from it. “Here, I got you something. I thought it might come in handy.”

“Levi! It’s not even Christmas yet! I can’t open this…” He tried to push the gift back into the bag, but the older man shook his head and dropped it into the boy’s lap.

“No arguments. Open it. Please?” Eren rolled his eyes and huffed as he carefully opened the box, pulling out a soft, thick, hunter green scarf.

“This is so soft! Oh my god! Where did you even find a scarf this thick and soft?” He quickly wrapped it around his neck and snuggled into its warmth.

“Oh, just a little boutique a few towns over. Nothing too major…I knew that color would bring out your eyes.” He brushed his fingers down the boy’s tanned cheek and smiled warmly. Well, for me it’s not major. He doesn’t need to know that’s a merino wool scarf, or that I spent $200 on it. “So, you like it?”

Eren blushed at the gesture. Even after two years of dating and a year of marriage, he was still affected by Levi’s actions. “Of course! I love it! You always take such good care of me... I really wish I could do more in return, especially now that I’ve got my degree. I promise I’m looking for a better-paying job.”

“Babe, you could work at the newspaper for the rest of our lives. Hell, you could sit at home and watch every anime that ever airs for the rest of our lives and never work again. It wouldn’t make a difference to me. You’re still my Eren, and I love you no matter what you do.”

The boy smiled and leaned in to meet Levi for a kiss. “I love you, and I seriously don’t deserve you, but thank you so much. I’ll call you when the game is over.” Levi nodded. He waited for Eren to disappear into the stadium before heading back to their apartment. He had a few more presents to wrap, and he wanted to make sure they got done while Eren wasn’t home.

On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .

Eren woke before Levi Sunday morning. He loved when that happened; it gave him time to admire the man’s beautifully angled features and how peaceful he always looked when he was asleep. Most of the time, Levi was up and kissing Eren goodbye before the younger man had even thought about trying to wake up. But such was the life of a professor. Levi had made such a good impression as a graduate assistant, and his thesis had done so well, that the university had hired him immediately for the French Literature department after he had earned his Master’s [Okay so they would only do that with the condition that he was in school for his PhD. Universities have to have doctors for profs.]. Propping himself up on his elbow, Eren draped his other arm over the man’s rising chest, fingers absentmindedly tracing his various scars. He’s had such a rough life. I’m glad it’s finally settled down. Levi’s ice-blue eyes were staring sleepily at him when he brought them back up to his face. “Oh… did I wake you? I’m sorry…”

“No, it’s fine. I need to be getting up anyway if it’s late enough that you’re already awake.” Levi grinned playfully while Eren feigned hurt. “How does french toast and strawberries sound for breakfast? We haven’t had that in a while.” Eren nodded excitedly and got out of bed in a hurry. Levi yawned, stretching before he followed Eren.

“Levi, I thought I said all the Christmas presents go under the tree. Why did you leave one on the table?”

The man grinned as he entered the main part of the apartment to find Eren holding a thin blue box with a brow raised. “Well, that’s because that’s not a Christmas present. It’s an 11-days-til-Christmas present. Very different. Now how about you just open it and don’t question my wisdom.” He crossed his arms and dared the brunette to argue.

Eren gaped at the smaller man before shaking his head. Seriously? I didn’t think you liked Christmas, Levi. Obviously that was a huge act.

“And no, this doesn’t mean I like Christmas. It just means that I thoroughly enjoy giving you gifts, and this gives me an excuse to do so.” He crossed his arms and waited for Eren to open the box. For the love of god, don’t recognize the Hermes logo on those.

Eren carefully unwrapped the box, not wanting to tear the paper. This is really nice paper... thick... We could reuse this. Taking the lid off the box, he gasped softly at the beautiful tan leather gloves that laid inside. He gently ran his fingertips over the buttery leather. “Levi… these must have cost a fortune! No affordable gloves are this soft or this beautiful! How are these even functional?”

“Oh they weren’t too bad. Plus, it’s better to spend a bit more on nice gloves. They last longer and keep you hands warmer. Cheap ass shit would still let your fingers freeze off. Can’t have that now, can we?” Well, he’s not totally oblivious, but thankfully he doesn’t know the brand. “Anyway, strawberry french toast?”

Setting the gloves down, the brunette went straight for the kitchen and started pulling out the ingredients. “Hell yes. I’m starving.”

Levi smiled as Eren hummed happily while they made breakfast. Maybe this Christmas thing isn’t so bad. It’s gotten better every year since I met him. Maybe it was just that I didn’t really have anyone to spend it with besides Maman and Papa. Huh. Who knew.

On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .

Eren plopped down on the couch and flipped through the channels. There is seriously nothing to watch. I wish Levi didn’t have to work today. I know its just to wrap up what was left of finals papers, but still. Just then, his phone went off with a text.

Levi: Check under the TV, should be a 10 days til Christmas gift. I figured you’d be bored without me there to entertain you ;)

Oh my god, Levi. That’s not how this works. Eren chuckled, shaking his head as he found the box wrapped in paper with some kind of Christmas tacos with faces on them. Where the heck did he even find paper like this? Leave it to Levi. Unwrapping the box, he found it contained the entire Studio Ghibli Blu-Ray boxed set as well as the deluxe, uncut, Blu-Ray of National Treasure.

Eren: OMG WHERE DID YOU FIND THE BLU-RAY SET?? THESE ARE SO EXPENSIVE. AND HOW DID YOU KNOW I LOVE NATIONAL TREASURE??

Levi: Magic. Also, I kinda got the hint after you DVR’d it every. Single. Time. It came on TV.

Eren: . . . I could never remember if I had it saved or not… I had to be sure >.>

Levi: Hope you don’t miss me too much. Enjoy your movies. I’ll be home as soon as I can. <3

Eren: Butt connnnneeeee :D

Levi: =____= Love you even though you STILL say my hearts are ass cones.

Eren: :DDDDDD

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .

Eren shivered as a chill hit him when Levi got up from the couch to get tea. We should really turn up the heat or something. They had been working their way through Eren’s new movies now that Levi was officially off work for winter break, and he was loving every minute of it.

“Hey Eren, come here. I need you to make a decision for me.” The brunette tilted his head in confusion but got up and made his way into the kitchen anyway. He found Levi leaning against a counter filled with brands of cocoa mix.

“What on earth is all this?” Eren glanced between the canisters and Levi, trying to figure out what was going on.

“Happy nine days til Christmas!” Levi crossed his arms, looking very pleased with himself. “You were out of hot chocolate, and you always make me get you the cheap stuff. So I got you the good stuff this time! Trust me, it makes all the difference in the world. I just need you to pick which one you want to try.”

Eren looked through the various types. Raspberry, peppermint, dark, milk, marshmallow; Levi had really gone overboard. “Do-Do we really need this much hot cocoa?” It was hard to hide how excited he was for the options, and he knew that Levi could already tell this had been a good decision.

“Absolutely. Now, raspberry, peppermint, or traditional?” Levi asked with a smirk.

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .

Wednesday morning, Eren woke up alone. Huh. Levi must have already gone to get breakfast started or something. Crawling out of bed, he went to reach for his phone but stopped short at the plastic on top of it. What the heck? Examining the out of place object, he discovered a $100 iTunes gift card. “Levi?” He called into the apartment. “What the heck is this?”

Levi’s head peeked into the room. “Well, what does look like? It’s a gift card. Specifically an iTunes gift card. Most people use them to purchase music. I’m fully expecting you to put it to good use buying your weeb music.” Levi stuck his tongue out playfully before disappearing down the hall, calling back over his shoulder. “And hurry up and get up! Breakfast is ready in five minutes.”

Eren grinned and grabbed his phone, quickly loading the card to his account. Oh, hell yes. BTS, here I come.

On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .

“Hey, Levi? Would you mind bringing me a hoodie when you come back in here?” Eren called to the bedroom where Levi had just disappeared. When he returned, he had a large box in hand. “Seriously, babe? Another gift? Are you even going to have anything to give me on Christmas?”

“Of course I am,” the man scoffed. “This is your 7 days til Christmas gift!”

Eren rolled his eyes as he grinned, unwrapping the thick package. Pulling the top off, he was met with black and orange fabric with a tell tale red swirl on the back. “AH! Is this Naruto’s jacket?!” He asked excitedly, looking up to meet Levi’s dancing eyes.

“So I take it that was a good choice? There were so many options, I wasn’t sure.” He smiled as Eren quickly slipped the jacket on, zipping it all the way up like the iconic character it was inspired by.

“Excellent choice.” Eren smiled brilliantly and wrapped his arms around his husband. “Thank you babe. You really know how to spoil a guy. You’re the best husband ever.”

On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .

“Levi?” Eren questioned from the closet. “Where did my Converse go?”

“They were falling apart. I didn’t think you’d miss them. Like really, the sole was starting to come off.”

“Leviiii…. Those were my favorite shoes…. What am I gonna wear to dinner now?” He raised a brow as a wrapped box slid into the open doorway. Levi’s head poked into view right after.

“Well, you could check these out for one.”

Eren sat on the floor and pulled the box toward him, giving Levi a playful pout. “They better be ten times better than my kick ass classic black and white converse.” Ripping the red paper off, he found a brand new Converse box. Inside was a pair of black leather high tops with matching black laces. “Oh my god. These are awesome! I’ve never seen leather converse!”

“Try them on. They may take a little breaking in since they’re leather, but they should be extremely comfortable once you do.” He grinned at the dazzling smile across Eren’s face.

He pulled the new high tops on and stood quickly. “Ah! They’re awesome. Thank you!” He leapt onto Levi, pulling him close and pressing a kiss to his neck. “Thank you, Levi. I could get used to this 12 days of Christmas thing. You’re spoiling me.”

“Good,” he grinned and hugged the boy tight. “You deserve to be spoiled. Every day for the rest of your life.”

“I get the feeling that’s gonna be what happens if I stick around you.”

“Well, I should hope so. That’s usually what happens when you marry someone. Especially someone like me who loves someone as much as I love you. Now, let's go get dinner.”

On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .

“Hey, what do you want to watch while we eat lunch?” Eren was digging through their movie shelf trying to find something they hadn’t seen recently.

“How about anime? I know you always enjoy that and most of them aren’t bad.” Levi walked back into the living room with a cup of tea in one hand and the other behind his back.

“I mean, I guess we can. We’ve seen most of what I have on blu-ray though… I could dig through crunchyroll for something new?” he turned at the sound of Levi’s soft chuckle giving him a quizzical look.

“Well, I was thinking we could watch this?” He pulled a bag out from behind his back with a smirk. Eren rolled his eyes but got up with a smile nonetheless. Taking the bag from his husband that insisted on drowning him in gifts the last few days, he sat on the couch and unpacked the bag. His excited smile growing as he pulled out all the seasons of Naruto and Shippuden that were available in the states.

“Good lord, babe. This had to cost a fortune! This is amazing though! I bet you’ll love Naruto, it’s a little slow at the start but man does it get good!.

Levi sat beside the bright eyed brunette and kissed him softly. “I’m glad you like it, now put one in and let’s get started. It looks like I have a lot of ground to cover”, he winked.

On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .

Eren bounced out of bed Sunday morning planning to cook breakfast and bring it to his husband in bed. I want to make today special! It is our 1 year anniversary after all. And he’s been spoiling me so much lately… He made a simple breakfast of toast, eggs, and sausage. Slicing up a few strawberries after he decided the plate needed more color. Then put it all neatly on a tray with a steaming cup of Levi’s favorite tea and carefully headed back to the bedroom. Making his way through the door he found the raven haired man already sitting up on the edge of the bed, running fingers through his stray locks. “Aww you’re already up?”

Levi looked up, eyes widening slightly. “You made breakfast?”

“Well… it was supposed to be breakfast in bed as a surprise… But it looks like you’re already up. Which kinda defeats the purpose.”

“Oh come here with that, it smells amazing, and we can still eat in bed.” Levi smiled reassuringly as he climbed back under the covers with his back against the headboard. Eren gave a small smile and did as he was told, carefully setting the tray on Levi’s lap before crawling in bed himself.

He leaned over and gave the older man a soft kiss. “Happy anniversary, love.”

Levi gave a kiss of his own, careful not to knock over Eren’s hard work. “Happy anniversary, Eren. Thank you for breakfast, this seriously looks amazing.” After they ate, Levi instructed Eren to stay in bed while he took the dirty dishes back to the kitchen. When he returned he had a fairly large box with him. “So try not to be surprised, but I have a gift for you.”

Eren rolled his eyes playfully. “Should I not be surprised because its our anniversary, or not be surprised because it’s four days till Christmas and you’ve developed an interesting habit of gift giving starting at twelve days out?”

Levi shrugged and set the box in Eren’s lap. “Either? Personally I think it makes total sense. Now open your gift.”

Eren ripped the paper off, trying to not make a mess on their bed as he broke into the box. He gasped as he found 28 brand new, still in the wrapping volumes of Red River. “Oh my god...Levi… How did you even get these? Volumes 15-17 are easily $150 each! These are out of print! Beyond that, how did you find them still in the original wrapping! This is amazing!” He took each manga volume out of the box, fingers brushing the covers carefully.

“Well, it wasn’t too bad. You had every volume saved on your amazon for the last I don’t even know how many months. I figured you’d never buy them for yourself since they were a bit more expensive than most manga. So I got them for you. Don’t worry about how I found them. Just enjoy them now that they’re here.” Levi smiled and leaned across the books surrounding his husband carefully to plant a lingering kiss on his soft lips.

“Thank you… I don’t even know what to say… Thank you.” He smiled up at Levi, misty eyed as he hugged a few of the books to his chest.

“Anytime. Anything for you, Eren Ackerman”

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .

Eren fiddled with his old headphones before growling and tossing them on the coffee table. “So much for all my new music… my headphones have officially died….”

Levi walked over and sat down beside the brunette, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and pulling him close. “Technical difficulties?”

Eren crossed his arms and mumbled into Levi’s shoulder. “Headphones broke…”

“Ah, well that’s no good.” Pulling a small bag out of nowhere, he set another gift in his lap. “Happy three days till Christmas. Apparently I have good timing.” He grinned when Eren gave him a funny look. “Don’t question it, just open.”

The brunette pulled the paper aside and found a small box with blue powerbeats 3. “Holy shit, these are beats?!”

“Supposedly they’re some of the best headphones on the market. We can exchange them if you want another color or something…”

Eren was already pulling them out of the packaging and plugging them into his phone before Levi could finish his thought. “Ah, they’re perfect! And they sound amazing, this is incredible, I didn’t know headphones could sound this good! Thank you, Levi!” Eren wrapped his arms around the man hugging him tightly.

Hugging back, Levi sighed in relief. He hadn’t been sure if this one would be a good gift for his lover or not. “You’re more than welcome, babe. Glad you like them.”

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .

As the couple got ready for the Christmas Eve party they had been invited to Eren watched Levi get into his suit. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a party this fancy before. It’ll be nice to see Maman and Papa though. Levi’s parents had invited them to fly up for their get together for Papa’s company. Once he had fixed his hair he slipped on one of his watches. Those always look so sharp on him. Seriously, how did I luck out to get this god of a man as my husband?

“Hey Eren, come here for a minute.” When he stood in front of the shorter man, Levi took his wrist and slipped a cool band around it. “I already paired it with your phone last night after you went to bed. So you’re good to go. The passcode is the same as your phone as well. I figured you could put it to good use..”

Turning his wrist over he found a carbon grey apple watch with a sleek leather band. “Oh wow.. This is incredible, Levi. How does it work?”

“Let’s get going first, I can show you in the plane on the way to my parents. How does that sound?” Eren nodded and leaned down giving the man a lingering kiss.

“You’re simply the best, most amazing man ever. Je t’aime, mon amour.”

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .

“Oh, Eren dear, you have one gift left here!” Maman smiled as she handed an oddly shaped box to the brunette. Eren looked around the room feeling self conscious as he opened the last gift. Pulling out a snorkel set he looked up with confusion.

“You’ll need that where we’re going for the next week.” Levi answered simply with a small shrug.

“But… Why would I need this at home? There is no where we can use a snorkel in Pennsylvania…”

“Well my dear, that’s because we’re not going home on our flight this afternoon. We’re going on a trip. You picked the first honeymoon in Paris, I pick the second one.” He chuckled lightly as Eren’s eyes grew wide.

“Oh my god! We’re going on another trip? But I didn’t bring my passport! And where are we going? AH! I forgot my camera bag!”

Maman and Papa both laughed at Eren’s sudden excited outburst. “I’m sure that Levi has brought all that for you already if I know him like I think I do.” Papa interjected. “Where are you boys going anyway, Levi?”

“I booked a cabana in Bora Bora for the week. We’ll have to go here soon though since we have to go to the main airport to catch the international flight.” Eren squealed with excitement as he jumped up and launched himself at Levi.

“I can’t believe you sometimes! I’m so excited!”

“Merry Christmas, Eren.”

“How about, best Christmas ever? Well, second best Christmas ever. Can’t forget last Christmas. Getting Married was a pretty big deal I think.” Levi hummed his agreement as Eren took his lips in an excited kiss.

Later that week as the boys laid in bed after making love for the third time that day, Eren lunged up off of Levi’s chest. “OH MY GOD. LEVI. THERE ARE SEA FLAP FLAPS UNDER THE FLOOR.”

Once Levi had recovered his senses after the abrupt outcry from his husband he turned his attention to his naked lover with his body pressed against the floor as he attempted to get the sting ray’s attention. “Yes. Yes there are. You know we can go swim with them if you want… you just have to put your swim trunks on…” Before he even finished the sentence Eren was up off the floor and lunging to his suitcase.

“Come on Levi! I want to pet them!” After he got his trunks on he was out the door, calling back to his husband.

Levi shook his head as he slipped his own trunks on and followed the excited brunette. I knew he’d see them eventually. They were the whole reason I picked this place after all. He chuckled as he dropped down into the water to swim after Eren. Making a mental note that he’d have to bring him back again.

#ererisecretsanta2k17 #ereri #married #drabble collection

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faequeen40 · 7 years ago

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Past the Point of No Return

One of the song prompts I’ve been working on. This one was a lot of fun to write!!

@savethelastklance

The sun above made Keith seriously consider his life choices, a piercing violet glare thrown in Shiro’s direction for good measure. It hadn’t been his idea to stand on the roadside in the middle of August in order to help gather donations for the upcoming holiday season and the ever popular “Shop with a Firefighter”.

It was a good cause, sure.

But it was so fucking hot.

“I honestly don’t know how you roped me into this.” He huffed, continuing to glower at Shiro even as his Captain laughed.

“You did it because it’s a good idea.” Shiro smirked, “And because you really didn’t want me to post that picture of you cuddling Red to the Firehouse website.”

“I wasn’t cuddling! I had fallen asleep on the couch and she curled up with me!”

“You were cuddling the Firehouse cat and nothing you can say will ever convince me otherwise.” Shiro laughed, wiping at the sweat on his own brow, “Besides, our shift is almost over.”

“Our fundraising shift is almost over.” Keith grumbled, “After this, we have to go to the high school for that demonstration thing.”

“And you act like you don’t love getting to completely drench the entire parking lot.”

Keith couldn’t help but grin at that, crossing his arms over his chest. There wasn’t a lot that he could argue with there. Even high schoolers got a kick out of seeing the fire hose in action.

He also may have continuously aimed for this one really shitty teacher’s car. His aim wasn’t great but it was the thought that counted. “We’re doing the demonstration after school right?”

“Yeah, apparently the administration was worried that we would be disruptive this year.” Shiro hummed, lifting one brow as he gave a Keith a pointed look.

“I didn’t start that food fight.”

Shiro only laughed, turning away to walk up to one of the cars that had stopped nearby, the driver looking up at Shiro in a strange half-admiration/half-awe sort of way.

Shiro tended to have that effect on people.

Keith turned to the stoplight on his side and glared at the continuously green light. It would turn soon and he’d need to see if any of the cars stopped would be willing to even roll their windows down in this heat. Most of the people in the area were kind enough to give a bit but even the nicest place in the world had its fair share of assholes.

Grumbling, he dragged his hand through his bangs, the sweat gathering there threatening to slick them back against his skull. He grimaced at the feeling and lifted the hem of his shirt to wipe at his face.

Whoever decided that wearing black in August was a good idea was an idiot….

That would definitely still be him. Whatever. He was going to blame Shiro.

He let the t shirt fall away just in time to make eye contact with the driver of a quickly approaching blue mini-van. The man driving had the brightest blue eyes he’d ever seen and an expression of complete distraction.

Keith was even kinda sure he was gaping at the moment.

And he wasn’t slowing down. Like at all.

That was definitely a yellow light.

Even if this guy was gorgeous, Keith couldn’t really encourage him in what was probably going to result in running a red light.

“Hey! Slow down!”

His words seemed to pull the man from his stupor and his face abruptly turned panicked, a pterodactyl-like screech pulling itself from him as he continued to drive forward, speed almost seeming to increase.

The van’s tires crossed the white line just as the light turned red and the screeching resolved itself into some very pleasant if a bit panicked singing that Keith could clearly hear as the van rushed past him.

“Past the point of no return, no going back now!”

Keith couldn’t help but bark out a surprised laugh, pushing his bangs out of his face so he could stare incredulously after the van in question. That-admittedly, very cute-guy had just run a red light and was justifying it himself by singing the Phantom of the Opera.

What even was life?

“What the hell was that all about?” Shiro chuckled, coming up beside him as the lanes Keith was responsible for started filling up.

“Some guy just ran the red light while singing Phantom of the Opera.” Keith said incredulously, body moving on autopilot to the first car in the lane.

“Probably not the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen doing this but it’s definitely a top ten.”

~~~~

“So you’re telling me that thanks to a very hot firefighter, you had a slight gay crisis and may or may not have run a red light on your way to work this morning?” Hunk laughed, leaning against the stage behind him, a hand over his eyes as he tried desperately not to laugh at Lance’s put off expression.

Lance scowled at him, reorganizing his notes for rehearsal for the fourth time as he refused to look at his best friend. “I didn’t ‘run a red light’. I was the past the point of no return. Couldn’t have stopped.”

“Yeah, and you totally weren’t so distracted by said hot firefighter that you didn’t start stopping in time.” Hunk snorted, losing the battle with his giggles.

“You didn’t see him though, Hunk!” Lance whined, letting his forehead hit his desk with a resounding thunk, “Those were the kind of abs that one can only fantasize about. You don’t see that in real life!”

“Gay crisis notwithstanding, you’re pretty lucky you didn’t get hurt.” Hunk said seriously, Lance quailing a bit under his patented ‘teacher face’.

“You make such a good shop teacher.” Lance grumbled, “I bet no one ever gets hurt in your class because they don’t want to disappoint you.”

“Don’t change the subject, bro.”

“Sorry, couldn’t help it.” Lance sighed, “I know. I was pretty lucky. But the situation is behind us. I’ll probably never see that firefighter again and I need to focus on my show this weekend.”

“Speaking of, you might be a little too immersed.”

“How so?”

Hunk’s grin returned and he gestured to the desk in front of them. “Well first of all, your first reaction to going over the ‘point of no return’ was to actually start singing ‘Past the Point of No Return’. And all this? Lance, your rehearsal doesn’t start for two more hours. Everyone is going to that demonstration before they get into club activities.”

“It’s not that great.”

“The firefighters douse the entire parking lot and one of them almost always aims for Lotor’s car and completely soaks the interior. It’s absolutely worth seeing just to watch how mad he gets.” Hunk countered, “Plus, don’t you want to see if you can run into your hot firefighter again?”

“No!” Lance shrieked, “I literally told you my whole embarrassing story and you think I want to see him again?!”

“Kind of? I’m getting mixed signals here.”

“Absolutely not!”

Hunk huffed out a frustrated sigh and walked over to where Lance was slumped behind his desk, almost compulsively organizing everything. “I know it’s Hell Week but you need some time out of here. You let the kids go to the demonstration for the same reason, right? They need you in prime shape too!”

“There’s so much work to get done!”

“Bro, either you go or I tell Pidge the whole story about your hot firefighter.”

Lance sat up abruptly and glared at his best friend, clutching his notes almost protectively to his chest. “You wouldn’t.”

“Definitely would.”

“What are we telling Pidge?”

The gremlin in question popped her head out from props on the stage, paint streaking one cheek and a flashing contraption clutched in her hand.

“Nothing!” Lance squeaked, sending sharp looks between the two of them.

“I could almost sense some kind of blackmail material going down.” Pidge grinned, disappearing back within the prop, her voice echoing through the empty theatre, “And I will not rest until it is mine.”

“This is why we can’t have nice things.” Lance growled, throwing a dark expression in Hunk’s direction, the broad man only lifting his hands in an effort at placation even as he laughed.

“I’ll fill you in later, Pidge. But your purpose as a threat has been useful.” Hunk laughed, following along as Lance trudged toward the theatre doors.

“I aim to serve.”

“Don’t set anything on fire!” Lance hissed, voice carrying easily through the back stage area.

“I’m a professional, Lance. You didn’t hire me to set shit on fire. You hired me to make this show fucking awesome.” Pidge said airily, “Beside, fire comes later. We’re not rehearsing that part today.”

Lance hesitated for a moment before Hunk continued to push him the rest of the way out of the door. “Nah, buddy. We need fresh air and the wonderful poetic justice of Lotor’s inevitable freak out. You can worry about Pidge and her inscrutable life choices when you come back. Let’s go be easily entertained like teenagers again.”

A sigh pulled itself from Lance’s chest and he simply let his oldest friend pull him along, the promise of fresh air doing more than to perk him up than he really wanted to admit. It really had been a hellacious week already and with two more days left until the show’s opening night, it didn’t show signs of getting any better.

Putting on the Phantom of the Opera at such a small school was ambitious, almost scarily so. Allura was letting him take this risk with the school’s Theatre department and he didn’t want to let her down. He certainly didn’t want his kids to be ashamed of this performance. It was part of the reason why he was trying so hard.

That and he’d always dreamed of being a part of this production. It was a teenage dream come true.

He wasn’t about to let anything get in the way of that.

The August heat hit him like a brick to the face and he frowned, this morning’s issue with his car’s air condition nearly forgotten until he had decided to let Hunk drag him back out into the almost oppressive air.

He squinted through the blinding sun and almost turned around and marched right back into the building.

The sleek red fire engine parked right in front of the school gleamed in the intense sunlight, the small crowd of high schoolers not doing much to block Lance’s vision.

And for once, Lance was absolutely not grateful for that.

Because, lo and behold, there stood his hot firefighter in all his muscled, mulleted glory.

It wasn’t fair!

Any other time, Lance would be on that. He would be on that so fast he’d leave a cloud of dust in his wake….but this firefighter had absolutely seen his embarrassing display this morning.

There was no way he could simply waltz up and hit on him now!

Lance whined as Hunk continued to drag him closer, actively digging in his feet now that he knew for a fact that the firefighter responsible for his slight panic this morning was here.

What was he going to do?

~~~~

The crowd of students surrounding the fire engine was far smaller than Keith was used to and he tried not to let the lack of turn out bring down his mood. The demonstrations really were some of his favorite things to do and while high schoolers didn’t get nearly as excited as the elementary school students did, they had their own special brand of enthusiasm.

A lot of the students seemed to be excited just to be outside which was something that Keith absolutely couldn’t understand.

It was hot as fuck out right now.

“You are going to do the hose thing, right?” One of the students asked excitedly, her phone bobbing in her hold.

“Of course we are.” Shiro answered brightly, ever ready to answer any of the questions posed during these demonstrations.

Keith wasn’t always great with words and may have made a few children cry in years past. They all just agreed to let him be the one to man the hose instead.

It worked out.

He went about the motions of setting the hose up, double and triple checking every valve he could think of just to be safe. While watching the hose was fun, he didn’t want any of the kids to be in danger around the potentially dangerous piece of equipment.

Satisfied with his checks, he lounged against the side of the engine, peering out over the parking lot in an effort to identify his intended target. It was a yearly tradition at this point and he was definitely going to go out of his way to douse Mr. Prince’s car.

It wasn’t hard to find.

No one else would drive a car that shade of gaudy orange, the blue detailing almost as eye-searing. And it was in such a perfect spot too.

No collateral damage.

It’s almost like everyone wanted that particular car to get hit.

A grin pulled at his lips and he made to turn around when he caught sight of another familiar vehicle.

The blue minivan.

Its windows were still down, the beat up exterior speaking of a long and varied life of experiences. Judging by the way it had been driven earlier, Keith wasn’t altogether surprised at how dinged up it appeared.

Phantom guy wasn’t kind to his car.

But seeing as the minivan was here, that meant he probably worked at Altea High. It was the smallest school in the county and Keith had never run into too many people who worked there, Lotor notwithstanding.

He was also parked in the faculty lot so that meant Phantom guy was a teacher.

Keith pushed down the thought and turned back to the crowd, steeling himself for working with the hose. What would he even do if he ran into Phantom guy again?

Sure he was cute but literally their only interaction had been that awkward moment of eye contact before Phantom guy had run a red light.

He was probably too busy with grading papers to come watch anyway.

As he pulled the hose into position, Keith tried to pretend he wasn’t disappointed.

“Ready?” Shiro called, catching his attention with a loud clap.

Keith nodded, planting his feet as best he could and giving a slight bend to his knees. The pressure of the hose was always a shock, a wave of force that could easily knock someone off their feet. Shiro had been knocked backwards before during a demonstration but Keith was smaller, stockier.

There was no way in hell this hose was gonna take him down.

The muscles in his arms flexed as he pointed the hose skyward, the water cascading in a deluge out over the parking lot and blowing back over the students, their delighted screeches making him grin. Carefully, he maneuvered the unwieldy hose, tongue sticking out between his teeth as he tried to line up the hose just right.

A wordless howl of rage let him know that he’d hit right on target.

Hitting Lotor’s car was always his favorite part.

Maybe next time he’d roll up his windows.

The pressure to the hose eased off slowly as Shiro continued with the rest of his presentation and Keith took the opportunity to wind up the giant piece of equipment and stretch the kinks out of his arms.

Holding that much pressure steady was hell on his arms.

A burst of laugher made him glance up, face flushing as he saw the man from this morning looking anywhere but in his direction while the mountain of a man beside him laughed loudly.

His…uh, his car didn’t really do him justice.

Phantom guy was gorgeous.

When he wasn’t gaping like some kind of startled fish, he was actually pretty handsome, the ‘gonna double take in public’ kind of handsome.

And tall.

Keith couldn’t not want to climb that.

His mouth went dry as it was his turn to gape at the very hot teacher, the students rushing past him to return to whatever after school activities they had neglected to come watch the demonstration. Several students called out words of greeting to Phantom guy and he returned them warmly.

Whatever Phantom guy taught, his students loved him a lot.

It kind of made Keith curious.

Surely it wouldn’t hurt to go introduce himself, make sure things were okay?

Psssh, who was he kidding? Talking? Like an actual person?

That sounded entirely too terrifying.

Besides, Phantom guy looked very embarrassed right about now.

Shiro clapped a heavy hand on his shoulder, pulling him out of anxious thoughts and making him shut his jaw with an audible click. “I see you managed to hit it again.”

“That almost make it too easy.” Keith grinned, gesturing to the drenched car, “No one ever wants to park around him when we come to do these.”

Shiro laughed and squeezed his shoulder. “The new principal seems to get a kick out of it anyway. She says she wants to give us an official tour of the school.”

“We’ve been here so many times though?” Keith hummed, confused even as he followed after Shiro’s retreating figure.

“She says that they’ve changed a lot.” Shiro shrugged, his own eyes going wide as Altea’s new principal met them at the doors, her long white hair thrown up in a messy bun, and paint streaked jeans held up by mismatched suspenders.

“Oh! There you are! Sorry about my mess. I’ve been helping in the Theatre department. They have a big production coming up.” She rushed, a genuine smile pulling at her lips.

Keith took one look at Shiro’s shell shocked expression and smirked. Oh this was the perfect pay back for the cat cuddling picture.

“Why don’t you go with the Principal, Captain? I’d like to see this Theatre department.” Keith said sneakily, Shiro’s flushing glare going completely ignored.

“Oh, that’s perfectly fine! We’re very proud of it. Mr. McLain has been a great addition to our staff. We’re actually putting on the Phantom of the Opera this year thanks to him.”

Keith nodded along quietly, the principal chattering away as she led Shiro into the school, the Captain pointing to his eyes before pointing to Keith himself.

“That picture still exists.”

“Your face still exists.” Keith retorted, grimacing as Shiro left his line of sight.

He took a few steps into the air conditioned building and simply sighed, the coolness of the air immediately putting him in a better mood.

What else could he ask for?

He was cooled off, he had once again managed to hit Lotor’s car and he now had prime teasing material for Shiro.

Today wasn’t that bad a day after all.

The pitter patter of quick steps startled him and a familiar head of brown hair peeked around the corner, suspicious gaze going bright with excitement. “Keith!”

Keith blinked for a moment before a smile broke out over his own face and he stepped forward to greet one of his best friends. “Pidge! What are you doing here? I know you can pass for a high schooler but I didn’t think you’d try to sneak into one for fun.”

Pidge grimaced and gestured for him to follow her as she continued to walk. “Ha ha, very funny. I was hired by the Theatre director to be in charge of some special effects for the show. So far it’s all coming together pretty good. Hunk and I make a pretty great team when it comes to making stuff.”

“He must be pretty serious if he hired you.” Keith mused, following after Pidge and absently carrying the mess she jabbed into his space, “Don’t you usually do more robotics based work?”

“I may or may not have owed Lance a favor.” Pidge grumbled, leading him down the hallway and continuously adding to his load.

“That and you can’t help but show off a bit.”

“You got me in a box there.” Pidge sighed, holding open a set of double doors for Keith to walk through.

Loud music echoed through the theatre and Keith barely suppressed a bark of laughter when he recognized the words being sung by the boy on the stage, a girl standing directly opposite him in a brightly colored dress.

”Past the point of no return, no going back now…”

“Stop! Just…stop.” A distinctly male voice called out, clearly tired and a little irritated, “Mark, I love you but right now you’re not giving me Phantom vibes. You’re giving me the vibes of a tired old man. This is a huge part of the show. You need to have some energy.”

“Gotcha, Mr. McLain.” The boy sighed, “I’m just really hungry.”

“There’s a couple of granola bars in the bag next to my desk. Grab one and watch. I’ll run through the scene with Clarisse. She missed Monday so I want her to make sure she’s got the rest of the scene.”

“Oh, this oughta be good.” Pidge grinned, nudging Keith with a shoulder, “Come with me.”

Setting down the bundle in his arms, Keith followed Pidge’s direction obediently, the two of them moving around the side of the stage so they could see the entire set up. His tech gremlin of a friend sat them in the far back but there was no mistaking the man on stage.

It was Phantom guy.

Certain things made way more sense now.

He fit into the scene almost seamlessly, everything about him just enthralling Keith. His voice was beautiful and he moved with purpose, circling the small girl on the stage with a grace that bordered on ethereal.

Keith was on the edge of his seat for the entire scene, fingers curling over the seat in front of him as Phantom guy, no, Lance chased the actress over the stage, lithe frame swinging from the sturdy set pieces and cutting her off at every turn.

Throw in the deeply thrilling song currently being sung?

Keith had never been jealous of a fifteen year old before but this might be a first.

Then just as quickly as it started, it was over and Keith was left wanting, a need to know this Lance better digging at him.

Pidge leaned back in the chair beside him, kicking her feet up over the chair in front of her, a wicked look in her hazel eyes. “He’s single by the way.”

Keith sputtered at her words, trying and failing to dissuade her from that line of thinking but nothing would come.

She had him.

“Although, if you’re gonna ask him out you might want to specify it for after this weekend. I’ve never seen someone so devoted to a fucking show before.”

“What makes you think I’ll ask him out?”

“You want him to ask you? It does seem a bit like his style.”

“Pidge.”

“Keith.”

“I wouldn’t even know how to ask him out.”

“Easy. You wanna go get dinner some time?”

“That’s not how I work and you know it.”

“Okay, fine. Wanna go set shit on fire with me?”

Keith groaned and climbed to his feet, intent on making his way back to the engine and waiting for Shiro to return. Pidge let him go without a word although the grin on her face did make him slightly nervous.

Pidge didn’t just let things go.

He walked by the front of the stage as quietly as he could, not wanting to interrupt their rehearsal when a loud yelp caught his attention and he found himself with his arms full of a very attractive, very shocked drama teacher.

A mechanical floor panel slowly lowered itself back into the stage proper as both men watched, the two of them still with shock before turning their gazes back to each other.

“Guess I’ve fallen for you.”

What.

~~~~

Oh my god, what did he just say.

Could the ground open up and swallow him now?

Lance resisted the urge to bury his face in his hands, the relative ease of the firefighter’s hold on him making his mind wander places that it definitely shouldn’t while on school property.

“Uh, what?”

Eloquent. Articulate.

Not that Lance could fault him after all. That definitely wasn’t his best line.

“Good thing I was here to catch you?” The firefighter tried, an adorable awkwardness in his answer that made Lance want to curl around him and squeal.

“Mr. McLain are you okay?”

Sweet Clarisse. If only she had given him like five more minutes.

Gingerly, the firefighter lowered his legs to the floor, holding on to his waist like he was afraid that Lance might fall again.

He might if that guy wasn’t careful. Gonna take an express ride to swoonville. Population Lance.

“I’m okay. We’ll just need to be careful around that panel. I know Pidge said it was weight activated but I didn’t think it was quite that touchy.”

The firefighter didn’t seem to know what to do with his hands, his fingers making aborted moves towards letting go of him but seeming to be unsure if he should.

“I really should thank you.” Lance tried, turning in the man’s hold to look at him properly.

Damn it. No one should be that pretty up close.

He could even excuse the mullet.

The mullet.

“It was no problem. I’m just glad you aren’t hurt.” He said softly, pretty violet eyes a little nervous.

“I’m Lance by the way.”

“Keith.”

“As thanks, why don’t you let me take you out to dinner? My treat?” Lance tried, a voice that sounded suspiciously like his older brother berating him about asking out the firefighter he’d embarrassed himself in front of this morning.

“Are you asking me out?”

“Would you be amenable to that?”

“I mean…yeah, but…”

~~~~

Keith had no idea what his life was.

Hot drama teacher literally falls into his arms and then asks him out.

What is life?

“But what?” Lance asks, a somewhat apprehensive look on his face.

A smirk pulled itself over his face and Keith felt his arms cross over his chest. “You’ll have to promise not to run any more red lights to get us there.”

Crimson danced across Lance’s face and the drama teacher turned away from him with a cough. “I’ll do my best. Just as long as you promise not to distract me.”

“No promises.”

A grin curved over his face and Keith walked towards theatre entrance, glancing back to see Lance watching him intently. “I’ll come find you after the last show. Sunday at 2 right?”

“I’ll be the one with the rainbow bowtie!”

Keith laughed as he left, excitement pooling in his chest.

This may not have been the weirdest fundraiser day he’d ever had but it was definitely the best.

Especially when he got a date with the Phantom guy out of it.

Part of my birthday bomb!

#holyshitiwritefanfiction #voltron #klance #modern au #this got really fucking long and i still didn't write as much as i really wanted to #i might continue this at one point #it was a lot of fun to write #kinda wrote this a little messy

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