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be-the-spark-flyboy · 5 years ago

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Glitter On The Floor

Call It What You Want 4/?

Pairing: Med student!Poe x Reader (college AU)

A/N: I have an unusual ship going on in this dont come for me if you dont like it okay also I suck at writing summaries

Chapter summary: A new years party that brings more revelations than resolutions

Warning: little angst, drinking, swearing

Word count: ~3.2k

You never thought you’d ever be excited to attend a party but here you are checking and double checking your reflection in the full height mirror in Jessika’s room.

“Oh god, you look hot okay? Stop hogging the mirror,” She teases you, nudging you aside trying to perfect her eyeliner.

Oh, you look hot, alright, and you feel damn good too. Your cropped sweater top was thick enough to keep you warm and paired with the mini skirt and velvet thigh-highs boots, you feel damn fine in your all black ensemble.

Normally you would’ve opted to stay at home and watch the fireworks all by yourself at midnight from the rooftop. But after a lonely Christmas eating takeout and binge watching shows all by yourself, you just wanted to see you friends again. Rey and the boys were also attending, which made you feel a lot better about going. You had a good feeling about this.

No one was more excited at the prospect of you attending a party than Jessika. She’d basically went through your entire wardrobe to find you something appropriate to wear, then ended up lending you her sequined mini skirt because your all black theme was too gloomy for new years.

“Our ride will be here in five minutes and then we’re gonna find you someone to make-out with at midnight,” Jessika wiggles her eyebrows at you suggestively and you roll your eyes, “Unless, you’d rather make-out with a particular med student you can’t shut up about instead, huh?” She’d been teasing the hell out of you about Poe since you told her about the hot stranger, who saw you fall down the stairs, who also happened to be a friend of a friend who was an adorable med student, dog dad and also afraid of ghosts-

Okay maybe you did talk about him slightly more than anyone else. But that didn’t mean anything did it? “Poe is just my friend, Jess,” You shove at her, sighing in frustration. “And he has a girlfriend,”

“But don’t his friends hate her? I’m sure if you ask, they’d help you break them up and set you up with Poe,” she says, drawing indignant gasp from you.

“Jessika Pava, since when did you start giving out ideas to ruin peoples’ lives?”

“I’m not trying to ruin lives,” She grabs you by your shoulders, bringing you to look at her, features set in a serious frown. You wonder if she was actually being serious for once in her life. “I just want to see you happy, with the man you love,”

Nope, not serious for once. You slap her hands away and she guffaws at your exasperated groan, “God, who said anything about love?”

“So you do like him though, right?” you roll your eyes again, walking away from her to collect you purse from your room. “You didn’t deny it!” You hear her squawk from behind you.

—-

The party was already in full swing when you arrive. Jessika drags you along with her right away to introduce her boyfriend to you for the first time. She had only been dating Snap Wexley for around three months now, but she seemed to really like him.

Snap was a nice person. He was warm and welcomed you into his residence with a huge smile. His apartment was a two storey duplex with a ridiculous amount of patio space. It seemed everyone in your college were filthy rich, except you.

The entire place is crowded, music blaring from the speakers and people dressed in sparkling attires, milling around. Thankfully, you recognize almost no one, though it seemed like Snap had invited almost half of the entire campus.

Jessika loops her arm around yours, pulling you along into the house. You see Rey excitedly waving you over from the living room and you happily tackle her and Finn in a hug.

Jessika gels right in with the two of them although this was the first time they got to meet. Extroverts. The night goes on as both Finn and Rey animatedly recount their holiday stories and in no time, the four of you are laughing at Finn’s reenactment of how his cousin almost broke the Christmas tree in half, trying to decorate it.

“Where’s Poe?” You ask, noticing the absence of the third member of their little clique. Not like you were searching for him or anything.

Rey shrugs, “He should be here soon, he said he was about leave the house,” then her attention shifts to behind you, “Oh look, he’s here,” Rey motions.

You see him from across the room and your breath catches at the sight of him. Dressed in a navy blue button up tucked into his dark jeans with the sleeves rolled up, he looks handsome as ever, with an arm around his girlfriend’s waist. Your chest tightens for an entire different reason at the sight.

Then the entire conversation you had with Jessika earlier on plays in your head. You couldn’t possibly like Poe right? He was just your friend.

They look good together, like some celebrity couple that just stepped out of a magazine. Sarah’s dressed in a burgundy cocktail dress that fits her like a glove, elegantly coiffed curls sits on her shoulders, not a hair out of place. Something like jealousy curdles in your stomach and you stomp it out before it grows into something ugly. But not before it spoils your mood entirely.

“Urgh, he’s with that witch,” Finn scoffs beside you. You have no idea why Finn hates Poe’s girlfriend so much. He really isn’t the type to just be mean to people for no reason and it also confuses you to no end that Rey seems to agree with him. Not that it was any of your concern, anyways. So you brush it off.

You make the mistake of turning back to the pair just in time as Sarah pulls Poe in for a kiss. You quickly avert your gaze elsewhere. The excitement you felt since morning completely drains out of you. Suddenly, the last place you want to be in was anywhere surrounded with people.

“I’m going to get something to drink,” You inform Jessika, unhooking your arms from her. You break away from your small group without another word, before she even gets the chance to react.

—-

Poe never thought he’d ever feel this miserable around people. Because these weren’t his people. He wanted to run to where his childhood friends were standing as soon as he had caught sight of them. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do that. He was to busy being talked at by people he barely knew. This was the last place he ever wanted to be.

But Poe keeps up the pretense of a happy couple and feigns through the crowd convincingly enough to not invoke the wrath of the woman beside him. Poe follows Sarah, steering away from the corner where he spotted his friends. Having Finn and Sarah in the vicinity was just a recipe for disaster. He had only made that mistake once.

Poe finds you weaving through the crowd, hurriedly moving past everyone with a singular destination in mind. And you look...wow.

Poe remotely registers that he shouldn’t be ogling you from afar with his girlfriend right beside him. Despite that, he just can’t seem to tear his eyes away from your figure until you disappear around the corner.

Your outfit complements your figure just right, and your boots- Shit. He catches himself wondering how soft your thighs would feel under his fingertips.

Shut the fuck up, Dameron! He scolds himself, forcing his thoughts back to the present. He really shouldn’t be thinking about you like that.

He wonders how far his imagination would go if he didn’t try to stop it. No. He really shouldn’t. A tug on his arm brings him back to reality as he gets dragged along to patio, half against his will.

—-

“Shit, shit, shit,” you curse as the liquid sloshes out of the cup spilling onto the table.

“Are you always this clumsy?” You yelp as a tall figure materializes behind you, almost making you drop the cup. “Relax, its just me,” Ben Solo passes you a roll of kitchen towel for the mess.

You had managed to somewhat befriend Ben over the course of two weeks while the two of you worked on your assignment together. He wasn’t bad company.

“How long have you been standing there?” You mop up the beer on the table, “And how did I not see you?”

“Lost in thought?” he shifts back to his previous position, perfectly blending in with the wall painted black. Huh, no wonder you didn’t notice him.

“Um, no,” you lie. “Who are you hiding from?”

“People, in general.” He replies like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. But of course, you understand.

You hear bright laughter before you see a head of blonde hair walk towards the kitchen. Her eyes light up in recognition when she sees you standing there, “Hey, it’s you! We have that class together, right?” You try your best to make small talk but thankfully Phasma was chatty enough for it to not feel awkward while she collects her drink.

She turns to leave and then startles when she sees Ben standing against the wall, casually sipping on his beer. You’re pretty sure he didn’t mean to position himself like a Halloween decoration meant to sneak up and scare everyone, but you wouldn’t put it past him to do just that.

“Oh hey, Solo. Didn’t see you there,” She quickly recovers, sending him a bashful smile.

“Hey, Phasma,” Ben replies, barely meeting her gaze and shifting on his foot, cheeks dusting pink as she brushes past him. Your eyes widen when you realize what just happened.

“Oh my god, Ben, do you like her?” You whisper-shout at him once you’re sure she’s out of earshot.

“What? No, what are you talking about?” He tries to act nonchalant but the pink in his cheeks turns to a full blown scarlet, giving him away.

“Is that why you’re hiding in the kitchen?” You tease him. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone,”

“Who are you hiding from?” He throws back at you.

“I’m not hiding,” it was your turn to act nonchalant.

“Really? Then why are you here?” He crosses his arm, scepticism evident in his tone.

“To get a drink,” you raise your beer as if to prove your point.

“Oh so you’re gonna leave now, right?” He raised an eyebrow at you, not buying your excuse.

“What? Is this your kitchen now?” Leaning on the counter, you roll your eyes, relenting. “Fine, I’m hiding. Let’s not talk about this anymore,”

---

“I don’t know, she seemed a little down all of a sudden,” Finn leans against the patio parapet, facing Rey. Raucous laughter bursts through the quite night from the group gathered on the other side of the patio.

You had disappeared after telling them you were ‘going to get a drink’ and Jessika had informed Rey that you were still in the kitchen only minutes earlier. Rey couldn’t help but wonder if there was something going on with you.

“Maybe she’s just tired, Rey,” Finn pulls her into his embrace, trying to comfort her. Rey worries to much about other people. It was just in her nature to try and take care of everyone she could and Finn loves her for that. But sometimes it also causes her more stress than she needs.

Rey rests her head on his shoulder, “Maybe,” You seemed pretty pumped to be hanging out with all of them, why did you deflate so suddenly?

“Oh my god,” She pulls away from the embrace, looking at Finn in shock from her sudden realization, while Finn watches her, confused about what caused her outburst. “I think she likes Poe!” Finn continues staring at Rey in confusion, unsure how she came to that conclusion. “Think about it! She was fine until Poe came waltzing in with his girlfriend,” she gestures frantically to the pair on the other side of the patio, Sarah practically draped across Poe, the two of them looking like the embodiment of an ideal couple. Only in the outside.

“Oh... OH,” Finn exclaims when it finally hit him. “Is she jealous? I don’t know, maybe hurt?”

“If only he wasn’t with her,” Rey couldn’t keep the malice out of her tone at the mention of Sarah. “We can’t even do anything about it now,”

“I’m really gonna kick Poe the next time I get a chance.” Finn groans. Finn really would’ve loved to meddle with his best friend’s life, but in this scenario it would only make things more complicated. But the drama was so tempting.

“Kick me for what?” Poe’s voice startles the both of them as they swivel around to look at him. How the hell did he walk across so quickly?

“Heyyy, Poe, didn’t see you there,” Rey forces a chuckle from herself, trying not to look too suspicious.

“Yeah! Hey, Poe,” Finn adds lamely.

Poe narrows his eyes at the two of them acting all dubious. It was never a good sign. He’s been on the receiving end of way too many of their pranks to not know what that look meant. He sighs, thinking, what’s one more prank in the joke that is his life right now?

---

“So... Phasma, huh?” You start again, determined to get something out of the brooding man beside you. If you’re going to spend the rest of the night in the kitchen, you might as well try to get entertainment out of your fellow anti-social buddy.

“I thought we weren’t talking about that anymore,” he mumbles. You grumble something about him being no fun under your breath. “I’ll tell you if you tell me,” he bargains with you.

You contemplate your choices. Surely it wouldn’t do any harm telling Ben about Poe right? “Okay, fine,” one advantage of taking refuge in the kitchen was that you had a free flow of drinks. You were on your third cup of whatever was in the punch bowl and feeling slightly tipsy. “There’s this guy I kinda sorta like, but he’s also my friend,”

“Why don’t you just talk to him if you’re friends?” Ben questions you.

“He’s here with his girlfriend,”

“Oh,” He winces as you nod your head in agreement.

“My turn. Why don’t you talk to Phasma?”

“I don’t want to?” He answers you, unsure, more like question instead.

“You’re just scared, aren’t you?” It was pretty obvious. Fear was the reason so many people held back from doing what they want.

Ben sighs heavily before turning to you, lowering his voice a little more “I just don’t wanna screw this up, okay? I really like her and I don’t know how to talk to her,”

“So you’d rather not try?” Ben just shrugs. “I think you should ask her out,” you give him your opinion. “Okay consider this. The worse thing that could happen is that things between you two remains the same. But if you try, at least you’d know,”

“The worst thing that could happen is that she throws her beer in my face infront of everyone,” You couldn’t help the laughter that bubbles out of you from the picture he paints. “But I get where you’re coming from,”

“Okay, maybe don’t immediately ask her out. Just chat with her a little, first.” You reach up to pat him on the shoulder, “Whenever you’re ready,”

“Wait, right now?” He whips his head around to look at you, alarmed at the prospect.

“Then when? After your graduation?” You sass. Ben takes a deep breath steeling himself.

“Okay,” He pushes himself off the counter, smoothing down his shirt, then his hair. He takes a step forward, then turns back to you, “Do I look okay?”

You give him a reassuring smile, poor boy was so nervous. “You look great, Ben,”

He takes another step forward then immediately propels backwards again, turning to you, “What if I get rejected?”

“Then we’ll ditch the party and get greasy pizza from that shop around the corner,” you promise him, earning a grateful smile from him.

Another step forward and he turns back, again. “What if-”

“Oh god, Ben just go!”

“Okay, fine fine,”

—-

You carefully position yourself in the kitchen so that you’d still have a view of what was going on in the living room but still be hidden from sight. It’s been a few minutes since Ben had gone on his mission to ask his crush out.

As the clock strikes closer to midnight, the crowd gravitates towards the patio to watch the fireworks. You follow, staying at the back of the crowd. The whole place was packed.

You briefly wonder if you could just pick up your coat and leave. You could take a nice long walk back to your apartment and curl up with a book and mug of tea. You had promised Jessika you’d stay, but you were also tempted to leave. She was already in her boyfriend’s care anyways.

You can clearly see Ben’s tall figure sticking out in the crowd. It’s not easy to miss him. Surprisingly, he spots you easily in the dark as well. He sends you a discreet thumbs up and you respond with no lack of enthusiasm on your part. At least one of you were having a good time. Good for him.

You wrap your arms around yourself, trying to keep yourself protected from the cold. But it finds a way to your bones anyways. It seems it was your curse to spend all your time all by yourself, year after year. You couldn’t remember the last time you had your family around you, opening Christmas presents together in the morning and watching the fireworks on New Year’s Eve. Although this time was kind of your fault. You could’ve still hung out with Rey or Jess, but you really didn’t feel like it.

Well, if this was what the rest of your life was going to be like, then you’ve already had enough practice for it.

—-

Poe watches the firework being set off in the distance. The light and the colours painting itself across the night sky, ebbing and flowing like waves. One disappears and another one explodes, sending a different shade shining through the sky.

From his vantage point, he could clearly see Finn and Rey, arms encasing each other, giggling at something. So content to just be in each other’s company. He wants that so much it aches.

Sarah’s arms around his feels like lead, weighing him down, and he wishes it were someone else’s. Finn was right. He shouldn’t have let himself be treated like he was expendable.

Maybe in this new year he’d finally let go of his fear and look for someone who actually loves him. In this new year Poe decides he deserves better.

—-

The Dameron Taglist (open):

@writefightandflightclub @arkofblake @yougottakeeponkeepinon @multifandomlife22 @skymerons @smol-peter-parker @rae-rae-patcha @demigod-dragonrider-schoolidol @spider-starry @hkmultifandom @cloud-leader @elmoakepoke @staringmoony @valhallavalkyrie9 @the-cry-of-youth @liadamerondjarin @m1rkw00dpr1ncess @takemepedropascal

#poe dameron #poe x reader #poe dameron au #poe dameron fanfiction #sw fanfic #fanfic #its finally hereeee

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urdearestmom · 7 years ago

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Airport Ballrooms | Sylvia Is Bae

Here’s part 2!

ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13332432

(part 1)

Hey :)

Mike has sent the same text every afternoon for the past year. It’s after his last student leaves at five o’clock, and it’s when the clinic El works at closes. She’ll undoubtedly respond within minutes.

Hey loverboy :)

It never fails to make him smile. Everything she does makes him smile, even when she’s not there. Tonight, however, he has plans.

Do you wanna see a movie later

The greatest showman is still in theatres and I know you wanted to see it so

If she says yes, they can go see the movie and then come back to one of their houses and order a pizza or something. Then he’ll have to work up the courage to ask her about a thing he’s been considering for a while.

Ya def

What time

There’s a showing at the Greenwood cinemark at 7 is that enough time

Then we can come back here or to yours and get a pizza or smth

Sounds good

I’ll go home and shower then meet you there at 6:30

Love you <3

Love you too <3

He turns off his phone and puts it down with a smile, getting up to get a glass of water from the kitchen. He almost trips on his cat, who is sitting in the doorway. She does this at least once a day, refusing to let him pass. When Mike tries to step over her she hisses and throws up a paw to claw at his pants, or if he’s very unlucky, his bare legs.

“No- come on, Sylvia! I just want some water,” he says, looking down at the fluffy mass of grey fur on the floor. She looks up, and he notes that she looks deeply unimpressed (she always looks like that). She gives a satisfied meow when he huffs and walks into his bedroom instead.

Stupid cat, he thinks. But then he feels bad. Sylvia has been with him for the last five years since he brought her home from the shelter. He’d originally gone in to look at the dogs, but he had to walk past the cats first and something about Sylvia had spoken to him. He never realized it, but it was probably the very same deeply unimpressed look that he sported himself quite often that he noticed on the cat. They have made use of the same living space since.

Most days she’s like any regular cat, minding her business and sleeping, only coming to bother him when she’s hungry and doesn’t have food. Other days all she does is be bothersome, meowing at Mike’s feet every three seconds for no discernible reason. But the days that really count are the days she can tell he’s upset.

Those are usually days he talks to family or friends, hearing from his older sister about the state of their parents’ marriage, his younger sister about the latest idiot she dumped, his friend Will or cousin Richie about someone who’s told them they deserve to go to hell for being who they are. Sometimes it’s when he himself is having a bad day, either a student isn’t putting in enough effort or he’s frustrating himself with his own shoddy practice. Somehow, Sylvia always knows, and that’s when she comes to curl up on his stomach while he couch surfs at night.

Now that he has El in his life, though, he has a human to confide his deepest secrets in instead of his cat. Still, because his girlfriend doesn’t live with him, Sylvia gets to hear the most. It’s nice to know that she’s judging him but won’t talk back.

Mike flops onto his bed and promptly registers that he hadn’t made it that morning. Gross, how am I gonna convince El that it’s a good idea to move in together if I can’t even make my own bed?

Considering this, he thinks about the rest of his apartment. He lives on the second floor of a duplex, the upright piano he gives lessons on sitting in the room right off the staircase. At the end of the hall is his bedroom, which has a large window in it and is, objectively, the best room in the house. In front of the stairs is a tiny bathroom, and beside that is a doorless doorway that leads to the kitchen, which is open to the living room and back porch. It’s small and cozy, and he likes living there. The problem now is that he’s considering all the flaws. It’s narrow, the shower will boil you alive if a faucet gets turned on somewhere else, the window frames are chipping, and the entire apartment is banana yellow. The floors are also quite hideous, a combination of old linoleum and old wood, as are the pink tiled walls and floor of the bathroom.

None of this is even considering the fact that the place is a mess. Mike has books all over, never quite being able to organize them by level (or by who uses them, really). When a student needs one he always spends about five minutes looking for it because it’s never where he last left it. Their stuff frequently gets mixed up with his, and he’s always surprised he hasn’t managed to forget a recital or competition.

This, coupled with the anxiety he’s felt since morning when he decided that today will be the day he asks El to move in together, catapults him out of his bed and into the bathroom, taking his dirty clothes with him to the hamper. Mike takes the quickest shower he’s ever taken, totalling a whopping three minutes under the water, then rushes back to make his bed the neatest he’s ever made it. He shoots into the piano room and does his best to pick up after his teaching method, although the room looks almost the same after he leaves it. He then makes a running jump over Sylvia, who hisses angrily and turns to look at him as he starts furiously washing dishes.

“Stop looking at me like that,” he says. “I’m cleaning up so if we come back here it’ll be good to ask El to move in.”

Sylvia turns away, and Mike thinks that if cats could snort, she would have. It’s a very derisive head turn.

After the dishes are in the second sink drying, Mike makes his best attempt to fold the pile of blankets that he left on the couch the night before. He’s just grabbing a wet cloth to scrub at a cup stain on the table when Sylvia comes over and sits on his feet.

“Are you serious?” He groans, looking down at her. “I’m trying to make this place look half-decent!”

His cat gives him a look as if to say, you’re an idiot. It’s then that he remembers that El has actually been to his apartment before, so he’s stressing over nothing. This is another of the good things about Sylvia; she knows when he’s being stupid, too. She moves off his feet when she decides that he’s calmed down enough, and he sits on the floor with his legs crossed. She comes to sit in the space created, and petting her fluffy body calms him further.

“Thanks, Sylvie. You’re a good cat, you know?” She purrs in response, as if she comprehends what he’s saying. “Do you like El? I think you like her. Would you like it if she lived with us?”

Sometimes he feels stupid talking to a cat, but there’s something about Sylvia that makes him feel like she understands. She purrs again. In fact, Sylvia likes El more than she likes him, Mike thinks. She’s never an asshole when El is over, and never even once has she accidentally scratched the woman. It’s unfair. Maybe she’ll be nicer when El moves in. If! Don’t get ahead of yourself, here.

After a few minutes, Mike realizes he has to go if he doesn’t want to be late, so he puts Sylvia gently on the floor outside of the cradle of his legs and gets up before pouring some food for her. “I’ll be back later, okay?”

Sylvia meows and pads over to her favourite spot, the middle of the couch.

Leaving now! Sylvia sat on my feet lol

Mike gets to the theatre around six-forty to find that El is in line to buy their tickets. “Hey,” he says, pressing a kiss to her cheek and grabbing a hold of her hand.

“Hey,” she says back, smiling. “I love your cat so much, by the way.”

“Hmph. I’m pretty sure she likes you more than she likes me,” he answers.

“It’s okay, at least I like you more than I like her.”

“I’ll be sure to tell her you said so.”

They start to laugh, but quickly shut up before attracting too much attention.

The movie turns out to be pretty interesting, but Mike likes the soundtrack best because he’s a music nerd (as is made blatantly obvious by his profession). It’s phenomenal!

El definitely agrees, but her favourite thing is the love story between P.T. and Charity. “Come on,” she says, tugging on his arm as they walk down the street to where her car is parked. “You can’t look me in the eyes and tell me that that was not the cutest love story you’ve ever seen! They fell in love as kids and they stayed together even through all the shit they went through!”

“I don’t know,” he laughs as they reach the car. “I feel like meeting the love of your life in an airport at three in the morning because you decided to play some Chopin is pretty cute, too.”

She grins at him over the roof. “Yeah. That’s pretty special.”

Getting in, she turns to him. “Yours okay?”

Mike rolls his eyes. “Yeah, Sylvie’s probably dying to see you.”

“Again, I love your cat.”

“Yeah, yeah, Hopper, just drive.”

“COME ALIVE! COME ALIVE!” El is screeching and Sylvia isn’t even hissing or anything. It makes Mike more bitter than he should be, to be honest. Like, he gets that El is literally the most wonderful human to ever grace the planet Earth with her existence, but Mike’s the one who feeds the goddamn cat and lets her live in his house. It’s shameful.

“GO AND LIGHT YOUR LIGHT, LET IT BURN SO BRIGHT!” She’s doing karaoke and dancing across the carpet from the table to the TV and back. She’s not a bad singer if she tries to sing, but what she’s doing right now is exactly the opposite. She’s trying to get her boyfriend to sing with her, but there’s a reason he’s a piano and not voice teacher, as he always says. El finishes the song with an exaggerated bow. “Thank you, thank you!”

Sylvia meows from her place on top of Mike’s slippers. El glares at him. “Jesus, Wheeler, even your cat appreciates me more than you do.”

“I’m eating and my hands are full,” he says, picking up another slice of pizza from the box next to him. “Bite me.”

El laughs. “I would, but you always go off about not letting your students see inappropriate things like hickeys.”

“It was huge and it was visible! She was seven!” He drops the slice on his shirt, leaving a nice grease stain. He groans. “Look what you made me do.”

“Whoa, there, Taylor Swift,” she giggles, dropping onto the couch next to him and grabbing the last slice.

Mike throws her an irritated look. “We may both be musicians, but I am not Taylor Swift. And now my shirt is dirty.”

“So?” She bites into the pizza in her hand. “It’s not like it was gonna stay on you anyway.”

It comes out garbled because of the pizza she’s eating, but he still understands and he flushes. He’s gotten somewhat used to her bluntness over the course of the year they’ve been dating, but sometimes she still says things that make him feel hot all over. However, it means he’s mastered the art of answering her with a straight face.

“You are disgusting.”

She shrugs as he gets up to throw the box out, shoving the last of the slice in her mouth and following. “You love me, so… I’d say that sounds like a you problem.”

He doesn’t turn around for a second, bracing himself on the lip of the sink before whipping around and pulling her up onto the counter, capturing her lips in a searing kiss. She breaks it a few moments later, breathless. “God, I love you,” she says.

Then she hops down and drags him away to his bedroom, ignoring Sylvia hissing in the background.

It’s after, when they lie tangled in his sheets, still ignoring Sylvia who is now scratching at the closed door, that Mike remembers what he’d meant to ask.

“Hey, El?”

“Yeah?” She murmurs. Her hands are cupping his face as she runs her thumbs softly over his lightly freckled cheeks.

“I have a question.”

“What is it?” She presses a tender kiss to the tip of his nose and pulls back, smiling.

“Do you- um- would you, maybe… want to move in together?” There, I’ve said it. God.

She looks into his eyes, and he thinks he’s about to get a yes when she turns over and says, “Good night, Mike.”

“El- what-” He splutters, heart sinking. Fuck, was I too soon?

El flips back, starting to laugh, but then sobers up at the look on his face. “Sorry, that was a little mean. I’d love to. I love you, and I love Sylvia, so getting to see you both all the time doesn’t look like it has any negatives.” She snuggles into the crook of his neck and kisses his collarbone. “But we can talk about that tomorrow. Good night,” she yawns.

Mike feels warm all over, and sighs contentedly before shutting his eyes.

Outside the room, Sylvia purrs. She’s excited too.

#i love sylvia #and the greatest showman #airport ballrooms #mileven #mileven fanfiction #stranger things #stranger things fanfiction #mike wheeler #eleven #au #alternate universe #urdearestmom

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endlessarchite · 7 years ago

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The New Duplex Floor Plan

If you saw our before & after post about the beach duplex demo, then you know we’ve got some big plans for the duplex’s floor plan. We want to make the most of the given space – and we’re even adding on a smidge more – so it can sleep more people, offer more bathrooms, and generally improve the feeling of being in this cool old house. Before each side had only one full bath (!!!), so we’re hopeful that we have nowhere to go but up. So we’re back today with some floor plans to show you exactly what we intend to do. And the nerd inside of me is extremely excited about it.

If you’re new around here or aren’t sure what we mean by “the duplex,” you can catch up on everything in detail here. But the short version is that it’s a rundown duplex that we bought last fall to renovate and turn into a weekly vacation rental. It’s just one house away from our pink beach house in Cape Charles, VA, which is located on the Chesapeake Bay of Virginia’s Eastern Shore. So far it has just been gutted and once the weather starts cooperating, we’ll finally get to start rolling on exterior improvements like a new non-leaking roof and some new not-rotten siding.

The Before

The two halves of the duplex are nearly identical, just mirrored along the central wall that separates them. They have separate addresses and we intend to keep them separate so that they can be rented separately (although a larger family might rent both sides to have the whole house for a week). All of the changes we make will be the same on each side, so we’re just going to focus on the LEFT side of the house as you face it from the street. But again, each side will remain a mirror image when it comes to floor plan/layout. As for decorating them, Sherry thinks it’ll be fun to decorate them slightly differently. Think cousins and not identical twins.

But back to the floor plan. First of all, since it’s a common layout question we have been getting a lot on social media: we aren’t doing an interior door to make it optional for someone staying in one side of the duplex to open that door and have access to the other side. This isn’t possible due to code reasons, but the front doors of each side literally couldn’t be closer (and under a covered porch) so if a larger family rents both sides for the week it is basically the shortest walk ever to get from one side to the other:

Each side is a little under 1,300 square feet, and when we bought it each side only had two bedrooms and one full bathroom – all on the second floor. We don’t believe that was the original floor plan (it was extremely choppy with doorways and lights in very odd places) so we’re just doing our best to make the house feel more original, intentional, efficient, and less oddly closed off – since we’ll probably never know the original floor plan. Although we do know that the house has always been a duplex as far as we know. There are two lots and two different house numbers as far back as we can go. You can see before photos in this post & walk through it on video to get more of an idea of how oddly things were laid out.

Note: The pencil drawings we’ve been working on with our contractor were too hard to read in photographs, so we’ve recreated them as well as we can using free online software called HomeStyler and then we added our own labels in Photoshop. They are mostly to scale, but some details are approximate.

The After (or at least, The Plan)

I’ll take you through all of the major changes in a moment using side-by-side floor plans, but here’s an overall look at what we’re planning to do. When we’re done, each side will go from 1 bathroom to 3 (well, two full ones and one powder room), and from 2 bedrooms to 3. And yes, we spontaneously break out in full body sweats when we think about having to tile all six bathrooms and install two kitchens once the walls go back up, so let’s not talk about that right now, mmmkay?

Downstairs Living Areas

I know it’s often easier to understand changes when you can see the before and after floor plans side-by-side, so that’s what we’ve done below. This is just the front half of the downstairs (the before is on the left, and the after is on the right, with numbered labels that I’ll get into in a moment).

Here’s a quick summary of the big changes in this part of the house:

We’re opening up the wall that separates the stairs from the living area so that the entry vestibule gets more light and is less claustrophobic.

The living area is quite large (we’re not sure how the previous occupants used it) so we’re planning to use the back half of it as a casual dining area since it will be right off of the kitchen. Exact furniture plan TBD, but we love Chris & Julia’s open dining room & living room.

To create better flow and sight lines between the kitchen and the dining area, we’re widening this doorway.

Since the current downstairs has no bathroom, we’re turning this large closet area under the stairs into a powder room. A few people said they worry about bathroom smells wafting into the dining area but my parents have a beach rental with an extremely similar layout and it works out really well. Anyone doing something smelly wants to go upstairs instead of doing it right off of the living area anyway. Is that TMI? Probably. But the point is that we think it’ll be just fine.

For reference, this is what that space is looking like at the moment.

And here’s an inspiration photo of how we’ll open up the side of the stairs, which was formerly enclosed all the way down to the first step:

image source

Downstairs Kitchen Areas

The back half of the downstairs was pretty hardworking before, but we’re making it work even harder – incorporating laundry, a larger kitchen, and even a “mudroom�� zone for people coming in from the back door. There will also be an outdoor shower by the back door, so people will wash the sand off there, then enter through the mudroom, and toss their towels into the washer or hang them up in the mudroom area. We are hopeful that the combination of an outdoor shower and a tiled room to enter through with laundry/mudroom capabilities will keep a lot of sand out of the rest of the house.

Again, looking at the before and after plan side-by-side, here are the highlights:

We’re moving the kitchen into the larger former dining space so that we can greatly increase storage, counter space, and even add a dishwasher. Exact layout TBD, and we may incorporate a small (maybe movable) island or baking cart in the center.

The former kitchen (which wasn’t the original kitchen location, since that area used to be a side porch) will become laundry/pantry space. We think it will be nice to continue the cabinetry in here to visually extend the kitchen, but we’ll be adding pocket doors so that it can be closed off – especially if laundry noise needs to be muffled. Plus, we just love pocket doors in these old homes. They feel original and cool (even if they haven’t always been there, like the ones we added to the back bedroom in the pink house). Note: I know laundry/pantry sounds weird together. It’s basically just going to be a laundry/mudroom with extra cabinetry for various storage needs – sort of like this.

This back section of each side was fairly unused apart from the water heater and a toilet (just on the right side, kinda sitting out in the open). Since it opens to the backyard, we want to create a space for sandy gear and towels in the form of a small mudroom, just beyond the outdoor shower.

We’ll also put a utility closet back there that can hide stuff like the HVAC system and a tankless water heater.

Here’s a view of the old kitchen that was in that former side porch when we bought the house. The future mudroom and utility closet will go just beyond the right side of where these creamsicle-colored cabinets once were.

And since we’ve landed on “mint” as the accent color for this project, we’re thinking the pocket doors that will go in this doorway (which, again, will separate the future kitchen from the future pantry/laundry) might look something like this charming door from Yellow Brick Home’s kitchen… just two of them since the opening will be double wide like the one above.

Upstairs, Front Bedroom, & Hall Bath

Moving upstairs, let’s start at the front of the house:

Just like downstairs, the space up here hasn’t really been used to its maximum potential (we believe things were constantly being chopped up/changed/moved just based on some odd light placements, etc). And since maximizing the beds and baths is important for a vacation rental, this is what we’re planning to do:

The area at the top of the stairs is very cramped and feels cut off, so we’re giving it a more spacious landing without losing the linen closet

The bathroom up here was unnecessarily large, so we’re basically splitting it in half to make a more modest space that’s still large enough for a tub/shower combo (probably a drop-in tub with a tile shower surround).

By splitting the bathroom and stealing a little bit of space from the main two bedrooms, we’ll be able to create a third sleeping space (similar to our beach house’s bunk room, but probably a little larger).

Not much is changing in the front bedroom. It will get a hair smaller and we plan to re-orient the closet. The closet has a beautiful window in it (the one with the diamond grill pattern seen from the front) but the old owner had it boarded over and covered with drywall (!!!) so they could run a closet bar across the opposite wall. To uncover the window and let the light shine in, we’ll move the closet bar to the wall across from the window (where it will be hidden from view in the bedroom thanks to being tucked into that nook) and use a pocket door, which we hope will encourage people to leave it open and let the light shine in.

This is what the view from the front bedroom looks like right now, so you can kind of see how the bathroom will be split:

Upstairs, Back Bedroom, & Master Bath

This is the area of the house where we are actually adding space, which is going to earn us another full bath that is also an ensuite. Woot!

But there is more than just an added bathroom going on back here, so here’s what you should take note of:

This “bump out” on the back of the house already exists downstairs (remember the mudroom and utility closet?) so we already have approval from the town to continue that footprint upstairs and bump out the second floor to match it. The cheapest way to do an addition is to build on top of something that already has a foundation/footers, so we’re excited to just pop the second floor out. It won’t be a huge bathroom (probably just a walk-in shower) but we always love having our own ensuite bathroom when we travel, so we think it’ll be a big bonus.

Since we’re losing the existing back window (it will become the bathroom door) we got approval to add a new window so that we don’t reduce natural light in this bedroom.

This room was already very long, but by stealing some square footage for the bunkroom it got even more elongated. So we landed on the idea of adding two built-in closets (with drywall and proper doors) on either side of the side window. It makes the room shape a bit more natural and gives the room the closet it still needed – plus we think we may use the other one as a locked owner’s closet.

We used this same trick in the pink house, but by pulling the bedroom door into the hallway a little bit (in this case to line up with the linen closet door) it creates a “vestibule” for the inswing of the door. Since the bed will likely go on that right wall (facing the window bench) this means the door doesn’t open right into the nightstand.

And to give you an idea of what we mean in #3 about the window bench, here’s an inspiration picture that Sherry dug up to get excited about this spot. We might leave it more open underneath for people to tuck suitcases (or, if we’re really ambitious, we could make it a flip top bench with linen storage underneath).

image source

This is what that bedroom originally looked like (that’s the window that’s becoming a bathroom door) so we’re looking forward to making it feel more “masterful.”

I’ll leave you guys with one parting look at the full “after” floor plan:

If it’s like the pink house, we know this is not likely to be our last iteration of these plans. We’ve done most of our tweaking already, but some things are dependent on how some construction shakes out. For instance, this plans assumes we can make room for the upstairs HVAC system in the attic. That’s not a certainty yet, so it could throw a wrench in our plans. We’ll keep you posted…

The post The New Duplex Floor Plan appeared first on Young House Love.

The New Duplex Floor Plan published first on https://bakerskitchenslimited.tumblr.com/

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interiorstarweb · 7 years ago

Text

The New Duplex Floor Plan

If you’re new around here or aren’t sue what we mean by “the duplex,” you can catch up on everything in detail here. But the short version is that it’s a rundown duplex that we bought last fall to renovate and turn into a weekly vacation rental. It’s just one house away from our pink beach house in Cape Charles, VA, which is located on the Chesapeake Bay of Virginia’s Eastern Shore. So far it has just been gutted and once the weather starts cooperating, we’ll finally get to start rolling on exterior improvements like a new non-leaking roof and some new not-rotten siding.

The Before

The After (or at least, The Plan)

Downstairs Living Areas

Here’s a quick summary of the big changes in this part of the house:

We’re opening up the wall that separates the stairs from the living area so that the entry vestibule gets more light and is less claustrophobic.

To create better flow and sight lines between the kitchen and the dining area, we’re widening this doorway.

For reference, this is what that space is looking like at the moment.

And here’s an inspiration photo of how we’ll open up the side of the stairs, which was formerly enclosed all the way down to the first step:

image source

Downstairs Kitchen Areas

The back half of the downstairs was pretty hardworking before, but we’re making it work even harder – incorporating laundry, a larger kitchen, and even a “mudroom” zone for people coming in from the back door. There will also be an outdoor shower by the back door, so people will wash the sand off there, then enter through the mudroom, and toss their towels into the washer or hang them up in the mudroom area. We are hopeful that the combination of an outdoor shower and a tiled room to enter through with laundry/mudroom capabilities will keep a lot of sand out of the rest of the house.

Again, looking at the before and after plan side-by-side, here are the highlights:

We’ll also put a utility closet back there that can hide stuff like the HVAC system and a tankless water heater.

Upstairs, Front Bedroom, & Hall Bath

Moving upstairs, let’s start at the front of the house:

The area at the top of the stairs is very cramped and feels cut off, so we’re giving it a more spacious landing without losing the linen closet

This is what the view from the front bedroom looks like right now, so you can kind of see how the bathroom will be split:

Upstairs, Back Bedroom, & Master Bath

This is the area of the house where we are actually adding space, which is going to earn us another full bath that is also an ensuite. Woot!

But there is more than just an added bathroom going on back here, so here’s what you should take note of:

Since we’re losing the existing back window (it will become the bathroom door) we got approval to add a new window so that we don’t reduce natural light in this bedroom.

image source

This is what that bedroom originally looked like (that’s the window that’s becoming a bathroom door) so we’re looking forward to making it feel more “masterful.”

I’ll leave you guys with one parting look at the full “after” floor plan:

The post The New Duplex Floor Plan appeared first on Young House Love.

The New Duplex Floor Plan published first on https://novaformmattressreview.tumblr.com/

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yesterdaysdreams · 7 years ago

Text

The New Duplex Floor Plan

The Before

The After (or at least, The Plan)

Downstairs Living Areas

Here’s a quick summary of the big changes in this part of the house:

We’re opening up the wall that separates the stairs from the living area so that the entry vestibule gets more light and is less claustrophobic.

To create better flow and sight lines between the kitchen and the dining area, we’re widening this doorway.

For reference, this is what that space is looking like at the moment.

And here’s an inspiration photo of how we’ll open up the side of the stairs, which was formerly enclosed all the way down to the first step:

image source

Downstairs Kitchen Areas

Again, looking at the before and after plan side-by-side, here are the highlights:

We’ll also put a utility closet back there that can hide stuff like the HVAC system and a tankless water heater.

Upstairs, Front Bedroom, & Hall Bath

Moving upstairs, let’s start at the front of the house:

The area at the top of the stairs is very cramped and feels cut off, so we’re giving it a more spacious landing without losing the linen closet

This is what the view from the front bedroom looks like right now, so you can kind of see how the bathroom will be split:

Upstairs, Back Bedroom, & Master Bath

This is the area of the house where we are actually adding space, which is going to earn us another full bath that is also an ensuite. Woot!

But there is more than just an added bathroom going on back here, so here’s what you should take note of:

Since we’re losing the existing back window (it will become the bathroom door) we got approval to add a new window so that we don’t reduce natural light in this bedroom.

image source

This is what that bedroom originally looked like (that’s the window that’s becoming a bathroom door) so we’re looking forward to making it feel more “masterful.”

I’ll leave you guys with one parting look at the full “after” floor plan:

The post The New Duplex Floor Plan appeared first on Young House Love.

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billydmacklin · 7 years ago

Text

The New Duplex Floor Plan

The Before

The After (or at least, The Plan)

I’ll take you through all of the major changes in a moment using side-by-side floor plans, but here’s an overall look at what we’re planning to do. When we’re done, each side will go from 1 bathroom to 2.5, and from 2 bedrooms to 3. And yes, we spontaneously break out in full body sweats when we think about having to tile all five bathrooms and install two kitchens once the walls go back up, so let’s not talk about that right now, mmmkay?

Downstairs Living Areas

Here’s a quick summary of the big changes in this part of the house:

We’re opening up the wall that separates the stairs from the living area so that the entry vestibule gets more light and is less claustrophobic.

To create better flow and sight lines between the kitchen and the dining area, we’re widening this doorway.

Since the current downstairs has no bathroom, we’re turning this large closet area under the stairs into a powder room. A few people said they worry about bathroom smells wafting into the dining area but my parents have a beach rental with an extremely similar layout and it works out really well. Anyway doing something smelly wants to go upstairs instead of doing it right off of the living area anyway. Is that TMI? Probably. But the point is that we think it’ll work out nicely.

For reference, this is what that space is looking like at the moment.

And here’s an inspiration photo of how we’ll open up the side of the stairs, which was formerly enclosed all the way down to the first step:

image source

Downstairs Kitchen Areas

Again, looking at the before and after plan side-by-side, here are the highlights:

We’ll also put a utility closet back there that can hide stuff like the HVAC system and a tankless water heater.

Upstairs, Front Bedroom, & Hall Bath

Moving upstairs, let’s start at the front of the house:

The area at the top of the stairs is very cramped and feels cut off, so we’re giving it a more spacious landing without losing the linen closet

This is what the view from the front bedroom looks like right now, so you can kind of see how the bathroom will be split:

Upstairs, Back Bedroom, & Master Bath

This is the area of the house where we are actually adding space, which is going to earn us another full bath that is also an ensuite. Woot!

But there is more than just an added bathroom going on back here, so here’s what you should take note of:

Since we’re losing the existing back window (it will become the bathroom door) we got approval to add a new window so that we don’t reduce natural light in this bedroom.

image source

This is what that bedroom originally looked like (that’s the window that’s becoming a bathroom door) so we’re looking forward to making it feel more “masterful.”

I’ll leave you guys with one parting look at the full “after” floor plan:

If it’s like the pink house, we know this is not likely to be our last iteration of these plans. We’ve done most of our tweaking already, but some things are dependent on how some construction shakes out. For instance, this plans assumes we can make room for the upstairs HVAC in the attic. That’s not a certainty yet, so it could throw a wrench in our plans. We’ll keep you posted…

The post The New Duplex Floor Plan appeared first on Young House Love.

The New Duplex Floor Plan published first on https://carpetgurus.tumblr.com/

0 notes

statusreview · 7 years ago

Text

The New Duplex Floor Plan

The Before

The After (or at least, The Plan)

I’ll take you through all of the major changes in a moment using side-by-side floor plans, but here’s an overall look at what we’re planning to do. When we’re done, each side will go from 1 bathroom to 2.5, and from 2 bedrooms to 3. And yes, we spontaneously break out in full body sweats when we think about having to tile all five bathrooms and install two kitchens once the walls go back up, so let’s not talk about that right now, mmmkay?

Downstairs Living Areas

Here’s a quick summary of the big changes in this part of the house:

We’re opening up the wall that separates the stairs from the living area so that the entry vestibule gets more light and is less claustrophobic.

To create better flow and sight lines between the kitchen and the dining area, we’re widening this doorway.

Since the current downstairs has no bathroom, we’re turning this large closet area under the stairs into a powder room. A few people said they worry about bathroom smells wafting into the dining area but my parents have a beach rental with an extremely similar layout and it works out really well. Anyway doing something smelly wants to go upstairs instead of doing it right off of the living area anyway. Is that TMI? Probably. But the point is that we think it’ll work out nicely.

For reference, this is what that space is looking like at the moment.

And here’s an inspiration photo of how we’ll open up the side of the stairs, which was formerly enclosed all the way down to the first step:

image source

Downstairs Kitchen Areas

Again, looking at the before and after plan side-by-side, here are the highlights:

We’ll also put a utility closet back there that can hide stuff like the HVAC system and a tankless water heater.

Upstairs, Front Bedroom, & Hall Bath

Moving upstairs, let’s start at the front of the house:

The area at the top of the stairs is very cramped and feels cut off, so we’re giving it a more spacious landing without losing the linen closet

This is what the view from the front bedroom looks like right now, so you can kind of see how the bathroom will be split:

Upstairs, Back Bedroom, & Master Bath

This is the area of the house where we are actually adding space, which is going to earn us another full bath that is also an ensuite. Woot!

But there is more than just an added bathroom going on back here, so here’s what you should take note of:

Since we’re losing the existing back window (it will become the bathroom door) we got approval to add a new window so that we don’t reduce natural light in this bedroom.

image source

This is what that bedroom originally looked like (that’s the window that’s becoming a bathroom door) so we’re looking forward to making it feel more “masterful.”

I’ll leave you guys with one parting look at the full “after” floor plan:

If it’s like the pink house, we know this is not likely to be our last iteration of these plans. We’ve done most of our tweaking already, but some things are dependent on how some construction shakes out. For instance, this plans assumes we can make room for the upstairs HVAC in the attic. That’s not a certainty yet, so it could throw a wrench in our plans. We’ll keep you posted…

The post The New Duplex Floor Plan appeared first on Young House Love.

The New Duplex Floor Plan published first on https://ssmattress.tumblr.com/

0 notes

endlessarchite · 7 years ago

Text

The New Duplex Floor Plan

The Before

The After (or at least, The Plan)

Downstairs Living Areas

Here’s a quick summary of the big changes in this part of the house:

We’re opening up the wall that separates the stairs from the living area so that the entry vestibule gets more light and is less claustrophobic.

To create better flow and sight lines between the kitchen and the dining area, we’re widening this doorway.

For reference, this is what that space is looking like at the moment.

And here’s an inspiration photo of how we’ll open up the side of the stairs, which was formerly enclosed all the way down to the first step:

image source

Downstairs Kitchen Areas

Again, looking at the before and after plan side-by-side, here are the highlights:

We’ll also put a utility closet back there that can hide stuff like the HVAC system and a tankless water heater.

Upstairs, Front Bedroom, & Hall Bath

Moving upstairs, let’s start at the front of the house:

The area at the top of the stairs is very cramped and feels cut off, so we’re giving it a more spacious landing without losing the linen closet

This is what the view from the front bedroom looks like right now, so you can kind of see how the bathroom will be split:

Upstairs, Back Bedroom, & Master Bath

This is the area of the house where we are actually adding space, which is going to earn us another full bath that is also an ensuite. Woot!

But there is more than just an added bathroom going on back here, so here’s what you should take note of:

Since we’re losing the existing back window (it will become the bathroom door) we got approval to add a new window so that we don’t reduce natural light in this bedroom.

image source

This is what that bedroom originally looked like (that’s the window that’s becoming a bathroom door) so we’re looking forward to making it feel more “masterful.”

I’ll leave you guys with one parting look at the full “after” floor plan:

If it’s like the pink house, we know this is not likely to be our last iteration of these plans. We’ve done most of our tweaking already, but some things are dependent on how some construction shakes out. For instance, this plans assumes we can make room for the upstairs HVAC in the attic. That’s not a certainty yet, so it could throw a wrench in our plans. We’ll keep you posted…

The post The New Duplex Floor Plan appeared first on Young House Love.

The New Duplex Floor Plan published first on https://bakerskitchenslimited.tumblr.com/

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