#an i assure toto misses him too

[becometheknifemaster]

So Maurizio is banned from football for at least 2 years, it's time to bring him back to F1, his husband Toto miss him very much

I said what I said

[dilemmaontwolegs]

Hey! So I had this Hurt comfort fic idea with Charles where she is engaged to him. Have you seen the video about the crowd in Montreal surrounding him? So something like them arriving and he's signing and clicking pics through the crowd holding her hand and the crowd and paps goes a bit haywire and she is separated and then visibly very hurt and injured because of that. And Charles is angry and protective, with the "Idc about myself but if anyone touches/hurts you I lose it" or something similar. Add drama and spice as you feel

Thank you Babe ❤️

A Step Too Far || CL16

Warnings: fluff, angst, implied smut WC: 1.9k

Charles could remember the first time he met your father. Obviously it wasn’t the first first time but it was the first time as your boyfriend, and that made it more important than any of the times they met in the paddock. Toto had gripped his hand tightly as they shook, pulling the younger driver closer to whisper in his ear.

“That’s my daughter, Charles, you put her above all else. It’s my job to protect her, and I’m trusting you here.”

“I understand, sir. I’ll keep her safe.”

“What did he say?” you asked as you left for your date.

“Nothing, ma chérie,” Charles assured you with a smile and a kiss to your cheek.

For three years he had kept that secret promise religiously, even as his popularity grew beyond his wildest expectations. He couldn’t walk down the street without being recognised, crowds gathering and people asking for photos or signatures. It wasn’t exactly new for you having grown up the way you did, but Charles’ fans were far more excitable and passionate than the ones who met your father.

Monza 2023

Everywhere you looked it was a sea of red supporters, the tifosi out in force to celebrate the third and fourth places Ferrari had taken in the race. You could see the equal parts of pride and disappointment on Charles’ face as he watched Carlos take the third step on the podium.

After heading back to his driver room, he collapsed into a chair with a groan and hung his head in his hands. You wrapped your arms around his shoulders and kissed the top of his head, wrinkling your nose at the sweat that dampened his dark hair. “That was a hell of a fight, baby.”

His grunt told you he thought otherwise but he placed his hand over yours and gave it a soft squeeze. “I almost had it, amour.”

“I know.” You nuzzled into his neck until his shoulders bunched up and he wriggled with a laugh at his ticklish spot.

“Okay, okay, no more moping,” he said as he stood up and turned to face you. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” You held up your hand that had a sparkly new ring resting upon it. “Or I wouldn’t have said yes.”

“I’m very glad you did.” He smiled as he took your hand and kissed the engagement ring. “I need to shower. There’s room for one more…”

Charles kept you tucked close to his side as he made his way through the lines of fans to where his car was pulling up. You were running late once again, after being distracted while you were meant to be getting dressed to go out for dinner. He left your side for only a moment to open your door but that moment was all it took as the metal barriers separating the crowd came crashing down and they surged forward.

The sight and the sound gave you a fright and you stepped back instinctively. “Charles!” He turned at your panicked tone and watched with horror as your heeled foot missed the curb, twisting painfully as you fell. For a second he lost sight of you in the sea of red and he was spurred into action.

“Back up! Get out of my way!” he shouted to the crowd as he pushed his way to you. Rage filled him as he found you crumpled beside his car, arms wrapped protectively around your head while the bodies finally started to give you room. Tears blurred your vision as pain radiated from your ankle and suddenly you were weightless as a familiar pair of arms picked you up. “Amour, are you hurt?”

You could hardly hear him as the crowd demanded his attention, screaming as they waved hats and posters in his direction. The look he sent them should have been warning enough but they were too high on his presence to notice.

“Amour?”

“My ankle,” you admitted with a wince as it was jostled.

He released a torrent of expletives under his breath as he carried you to the driver’s seat and climbed in with you on his lap, your legs hanging over onto the passenger seat. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” he apologised as he kissed your temple and pulled out of the hotel.

“It’s not your fault, Charles, I should have been paying more attention.”

“You got hurt because of me, that’s the only reason they were there. Shit.” His eyes darted to the centre screen as it announced an incoming call from Toto and he hit the accept button on the steering wheel.

“You haven’t lost your watch again, have you?” Toto greeted, his voice thick with amusement.

“We are almost there,” he replied as he turned onto the street where the restaurant reservation was booked. “We just ran into some trouble with some fans.”

The silence was deafening until it was broken by the scratch of a chair being pushed back on a wooden floor followed by the click of your father’s footsteps. “Trouble?”

You watched the door to the restaurant open and your father ignored the concierge as he stepped to the curb Charles was pulling up to. “This should be fun.” Charles grimaced at your words and ended the call as Toto tucked his phone away and opened the passenger door.

Toto stared at the empty seat before dragging his eyes across the space to find you on your fiancé’s lap. “Hi papa.”

“Don’t hi me,” he tutted as he walked around and moved the valet along with a wave of his hand. “What happened?”

“Nothing,” you assured him as you accepted his hand out of the sports car. “You two are as dramatic as each other.”

The flare of pain was sudden and impossible to hide when your shoe touched the pavement, the joint weakly giving underneath you. If not for Charles behind you it would have been much worse but he took your weight and kept you upright.

“What the fuck have you done to my daughter, Leclerc?” You found yourself in a tug of war, but you were the rope. Your father tried to pull you out of his arms but your yelp of pain froze the very air. He relinquished his fight and raised his hands before pointing a damning finger at Charles. “Hospital, now.”

“But I’m hungry,” you whined as he instantly moved to follow the order, stepping back towards the Ferrari. “Can’t we go after dinner, please?”

You turned your pleading eyes to your father and watched his resolve weaken.

“No,” Charles interrupted before Toto could agree and you turned to him with a look of betrayal. “Don’t look at me like that, amour. I can’t bear to see you in pain, especially when it’s my fault.”

“At least you take ownership,” Toto muttered. “Susie and I will bring you dinner. Go.”

There was no room to argue, not that Charles would. He respected your father too much for that.

“You need to make a statement,” Toto said tiredly as he sat in the hospital chair opposite Charles. You were on the bed separating them, enjoying the lack of pain while the drugs did their job and waiting for the moonboot to be fitted. “Something like this cannot be allowed to happen again.”

“He didn’t exactly give them permission, papa.”

Charles cut you a look out the corner of his eye before nodding to Toto. “I’ll make sure of it, sir. It might be time to hire some security.”

Your father barely hid his scoff as he muttered, “Better late than never.” Toto sat up straighter and rubbed his tired eyes. “These are things you will need to think about even more in the future, especially when you have children of your own - you’ll realise you can’t wait until something bad happens before making changes. You need to start thinking about the future now, son.”

Charles’ stare turned out the window as he took the advice seriously. You could see the contemplation set in hard lines across his face. The look turned sad when the nurse arrived with the moonboot you would need to wear for at least two weeks and he started to withdraw into himself as he pulled his phone out. Only a few moments later you saw your phone light up with a notification that he had posted to his Instagram.

“Good man,” Toto said as he read the statement that in no uncertain terms warned his fans there would be consequences if they couldn’t respect the boundaries set.

“Was that really necessary?”

“Yes,” they both answered adamantly.

“You are all set to go, darling,” the nurse said with a soft smile. “Rest up, and if there are any concerns just come right back.”

After thanking her you hobbled along, sandwiched between your father and fiancé, to the underground car park where the car was waiting.

“I’ll come back to your hotel, make sure you get inside safely,” your father said as he opened your door and kissed your cheek.

“His fans have probably all run away by now.”

“I think you’re underestimating the tifosi. I’d rather not take the risk.”

Toto was right, because if anything there were even more fans lining the entrance to the hotel than before. Only this time there was also more security.

You were quickly ushered through to the quieter reception area where Toto shared a look that said ‘I told you so’ before bidding a goodnight and heading his own way back. The elevator ride to the penthouse suite was silent and it wasn’t the comfortable silence you were used to. It grew heavier with each level and you were itching to get out of the confined space by the time the doors opened.

“It’s not your fault,” you whispered as Charles pulled his shirt off and sat on the edge of the bed with a sigh. “Don’t blame yourself.”

“I broke my promise,” he said as his shoulders sagged further, like he was moments from imploding on himself. “I swore to your father I would protect you.”

“Charles, I love you, but you can’t protect me from the world - no matter what my father thinks.” You crawled over the duvet and onto his lap so you could cup his face. “I don’t blame you and it is me who is going to be marrying you, not him.”

His brows pinched together. “I hadn’t even thought about children.”

“What?”

“After the wedding, having children - what that would be like in this environment. I hadn’t thought about it. I obviously knew it’s what I wanted for us down the line but now…it’s a little scary to think what might happen to them.”

“Char, there’s no rush. We don’t know what our future will look like in five years, or ten.” You stroked his cheeks and dipped your head forward to kiss his pouting lips. “Just focus on the here and now, baby. Forget what happened out there. In here, it’s just you and me, and a king sized bed that’s far too neatly made.”

“It is pretty neat.”

“So why don’t we mess it up?”

His eyes flicked to your legs draped over his, lingering on the bulky boot. “Amour?”

Your fingers were already running down his chest, reaching for the waistband of his trousers he had worn to dinner. “You won’t hurt me. You could never hurt me. I trust you.”

[minkyungseokie]

第二章 | Moving and Meeting the Boss

warnings; age gap love(R: 23, S:39, T: 50), gxg, throuple, controversial age gaps, random German and Scottish pet names, topics of eating that aren't ED related, but might be triggering to some, DeepL translated languages. Untranslated Chinese, French, and other languages

note; okay! second chapter is now ready. I might start another series based on driver x reader x wag. I sort of rushed through this. I also changed a couple of things

She now contracted meningitis during her F2 days and that was the reason for her leaving, but she told people it was the lack of funds

There has something to do with eating, but it's not an ED

The eating thing is based off of a very adorable mukbang YouTuber named Tzuyang. I also never been to Monaco, so Idk how everything works

Realized she should have a last name since she's Felix's sister

note2; please give me requests for moodboards, blurbs, smaus, or anything else you want for this series. Or just request anything as long as you read my rules and how to request thing

fc; imleslie(Y/n), xavier serrano(Aaron Antognelli), blanca soler(Chiara Lorenzi)

Come Talk to Me

Driven by Destiny Masterlist | Previous | Next

Autosports Masterlist | Main Masterlist | Toto Masterlist |

I do not give anyone permission to change, copy, or put my work on any other platform. It will only be on top, so if you see it, please report it. Or let me know.

DO NOT ask me to update this story. I'll update when I can.

Anyway, only accepting 10 more people to be tagged

Buckle up! This is a long one!!!!!!!!

(My god, Susie is so fucking pretty that I might actually cry)

In the now packed-up house, Y/n gazed around. "Are you all packed up?" Her brother asked as he crossed his arms next to her. Chan sighed, "I'm going to miss coming over to your house and hanging out," he said, looking around the house. With a soft smile that showed off her sharp teeth, Y/n looked at her brother, "He'll miss popping by my house during random times when the homeless orphans don't have work to do and mooching off me until he needs to go home to Korea." Y/n teased, pinching his freckled cheeks.

Chan giggled at Felix's expression and looked away, clearing his throat when Felix's glare turned to him. The long-haired male slapped his sister's hand away gently and tried to keep his scowl before giving up and breaking out into smiles as laughs filled the room. "For real though, I am going to miss you." Felix said, opening his arms for Y/n to enter, "Aw, I'm going to miss you too, but you can come visit me anytime you want in Monaco." Y/n offered, pulling back.

"You too, Channie. You and the rest of the derelict unparented are free to come visit me in Monaco when you want." Y/n said, opening her arms up to the shorter male. "Why does this feel like I'm sending my little sister off?" Chan asked, gladly accepting the hug that was offered, "You are basically family, mate." Felix assured, wrapping his arms around both his sister and his best friend. The group continued to hug until there was a loud honk heard in front of the house, "Well, I guess we should get this stuff into the truck." Y/n said, letting go of the two singers to grab one of the nearest boxes.

Y/n lugged the box to the truck where a mover stood, ready to grab the box from her hands and put it in the truck, "I'll take that, sir." The worker offered. Y/n froze and stared at the mover, "Excuse me?" Y/n asked, "Oh? Did I say something wrong?" The worker questioned, looking at Y/n with a raised eyebrow, "I am not a man. Please don't assume because I have masculine features." Y/n said, steeling her nerves. Y/n wasn't a confrontational person, but over the years, resentment had built up enough for her to tell someone off when they called her a man.

Her boobs were prominent enough for people to know that she wasn't a man and she was wearing a sports bra with flannel, how the hell did the man assume she was one as well? "I'm sorry, I didn't know--" "I think you did know, but it's whatever. Don't do it again." Y/n huffed, turning around and walking away.

Y/n entered the home again and grabbed a box aggressively, huffing dramatically. Felix and Chan shared looks before putting the boxes they had in their possession down, "Hey, what's wrong?" Chan questioned.

Y/n shook her head, taking deep breaths to calm herself down. She sometimes felt like it was irrational of her to get so upset by someone assuming she was a man, but at the same time, anyone would get upset by being called the wrong gender.

Y/n squared her shoulders and picked up another box before turning to look at the two with a smile, "It's nothing, mate. Just a bit of an annoyance." Y/n then turned and walked out with the box in her hands.

The trio made their way back and forth until all the boxes were in the truck. Now, they stood on the lawn watching as the movers grabbed the furniture and loaded it onto the truck, "Y'know, we're actually going to miss you." Chan spoke up, continuing to watch the movers work. "I know. That's why I said you're free to visit me in Monaco. I'll also try to visit you and in Seoul whenever I can." Y/n assured, throwing her arms around each of the boy's shoulders and giving them an awkward side hug.

"We know. We'll try to visit when we can too." Felix said, laying his head on her arm with Changbin following suit, "We're done, ma'am. We'll be taking this to the sea freight now unless there is something else you need." The mover looked at the tall half-Asian with a pointed look, asking if there was anything she needed or if were they good.

"You're good to go. Thank you." Y/n said, nodding at the mover. The trio watched as the movers packed up and drove away, "What time do you leave?" Felix asked after a few moments of silence, "Three o'clock in the morning. Seeing as my insomnia is so bad that I can't fall asleep, I'll probably be up and out by two. Do you mind dropping my keys off at the realtor office safe drop box? I won't be able to do it since I leave at three." Y/n said.

"Yeah, we can do that. We'll be dropping you off anyway." Chan nodded, shoving his hands into his pockets.

⋘ 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑎... ⋙⋘ 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑎... ⋙

"Yah, wake up. It's two." Felix hissed as if there were others in the house.

Y/n groaned and swatted Felix's hands away before turning onto her side and snuggling into the blankets, "Y/n, it's time to wake up." Chan said, joining Felix at the side of the hotel bed Y/n was sleeping in. The two put their hands on her and looked at each other, nodding before violently shaking Y/n back and forth.

"搞什么鬼?!" Y/n yelled in Chinese after being woken up so violently, turning to stare at her brothers with wide eyes, "Sorry, you wouldn't wake up, so we decided to shake you until you woke up." Chan snickered, signing as he spoke, looking away as Y/n glared at him and Felix. 

Y/n sighed and threw the blankets off of her body, "Jesus, dude. You could've kept trying to wake me up gently." The dark-haired woman scowled, reaching over to grab the external part of her cochlear implant and the hearing aid for her other ear. Felix grabbed the hearing aid and helped her put it into her ear, "When are you getting your other cochlear?" Felix questioned, making sure the volume was on the level Y/n always kept it on.

"I get the second implant after I start my new job. I'll have to tell the boss about it as soon I do the interview. Especially since I forgot to tell her about my lack of hearing." Y/n mumbled, looking at Chan and Felix from the side since she knew that they would be giving her judgy looks.

Y/n turned to see that they were indeed giving her disappointed looks as if she wasn't taller than Chan, older than Felix, and more intimidating than the both of them combined. "Stop looking at me like that! I was trying to get the application in as fast as I could. I simply just...forgot to put it on my application." Y/n explained, looking down and scratching her cheek. When she looked back up, they were still looking at her with disappointment, "Stop looking at me like you're my parents and I just got caught smoking a fat one....or something cause I wouldn't know how they would look at me." Y/n quickly added the second part and gave the two boys a awkward smile.

Felix and Chan sighed in unison, "Okay, well, I guess we can't really be that upset with you since you'll be telling her face-to-face. Get up and get ready. Felix picked out some clothes for you to wear." Chan said, pointing to the end of the bed where some clothes were laid out for her, Y/n sighed, running a hand through her thick hair, "Okay, whatever. Please move out of the way." 

Chan stepped back as Y/n swung her long legs over the side of the bed and planted her feet onto the floor, grabbing the clothes and studying them before going to the bathroom to get changed while Felix and Chan checked to make sure that everything was properly packed. Y/n exited the bathroom wearing a pair of high waisted brown trousers, a white collared button down with a brown, beige and white sweater vest one top.

Y/n sat down on the bed and picked up the socks that were sitting on the bed, putting them on while Felix and Chan continued to talk, "Y/n, do you want to get some McDonald's on the way or something?" Felix asked.

"I just want a coffee and a bagel honestly. We can get something from the bagel shop nearby. I heard they have some good bagels and coffee." Y/n suggested, putting on her boots and grabbing the glasses that were on the nightstand next to the bed. "I'm down." Chan said, looking to Felix, "I'm okay with that." The blonde shrugged, grabbing Y/n's suitcase and pulling it out into the hallway.

Y/n stood up and looked around, making sure that she had left nothing on the ground

⋘ 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑎... ⋙⋘ 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑎... ⋙

Y/n turned and looked at her brother as she got ready to board the plane, "Okay, so you'll call when you've landed in Monaco, right?" Felix inquired, holding her wrists lightly. Y/n rolled her eyes and chuckled, "I promise that I'll call you as soon as I get to my new home in Monaco. Don't worry about me. Just make sure that you take care of yourself. All of you." Y/n gave a pointed look at Chan.

"What? Why'd you look at me like that?" Chan chuckled nervously, "I'm telling you to take care of yourself. You tend not to do that." Y/n joked, looking him in the side. Chan jumped away as if he was shocked and held his side, "No promises, but I'll try."

"Flight 35 A is now boarding."

Y/n looked over at where people were beginning to line up, "Alright, it seems I've got to go." The girl pointed behind her with a thumb. Felix pulled his sister into a hug and laid his head on her shoulder, "You better call me when you land. I'll fly to Monaco myself if you don't." He said voice muffled into her sweater vest.

"Okay, let go. I have to board." Y/n groaned, pushing the blonde away from her playfully, "See you, Y/n." Chan said, giving the girl a quick hug. Y/n grabbed her carry-on and boarded the plane, "Make sure the other Stray Animals are around when I call. I want to talk to all of you." Y/n spoke.

After a long flight, of which she slept through most, she hopped off the flight feeling groggy and completely disoriented. To be quite honest, she just wanted to go to sleep in a bed with thick blankets and the fan blasting on her face so she didn't overheat while sleeping. The thing was, she wouldn't be able to meet up with the person who sold her the house until the next day because the offices were closed and her stuff wouldn't arrive until the next day either, so she had to get a hotel for the night.

Y/n groaned as she rolled her neck, attempting to massage the stiffness out of her shoulder and neck as she entered the Uber, "Uh, Hôtel Fairmont Monte Carlo, s'il vous plaît." Y/n spoke in a tired and dull tone.

The driver nodded and pulled off. Y/n pulled out her phone and pressed on the contact of the one person she knew would be up. It was 9:41 PM in Monaco, which meant it was 4:41 AM in Seoul currently and there was one person she could guarantee would be up at that time.

Chan.

Y/n pulled out a pair of headphones with a large-diameter ear cup that completely encloses her ear and audio processor and put them on. Y/n looked out the window while the phone rang, "Hey! You're in Monaco, I'm guessing." Chan said as his face popped up on the screen. "Yeah, I'm in an Uber right now. I'm heading to the hotel." Y/n mumbled, mouth stretching into a little yawn.

"Oh, yeah. Your stuff isn't there yet, is it?" Chan asked, looking at something off to the side, "No, it'll be arriving tomorrow afternoon. I'll be contacting Mrs. Wolff tomorrow as well to schedule the interview. The jet lag was going to be a bitch." Y/n sighed, leaning against the window. "Yeah, it is. What time is it there?" Chan questioned, "It's, uh, 9:43 PM." Y/n answered, dragging her eyes away from the fogged-up window to the face on her phone.

"Have you eaten?" Chan questioned, "No, not yet. Have you?" Y/n raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I ate some ramen earlier. I'm just snacking on some honey butter chips right now." Chan responded, lifting the yellow bag to the screen.

Y/n opened her mouth to say something, but she was interrupted by the driver, "Madame, nous sommes arrivés à votre destination."

Y/n looked out the window and saw they were indeed in front of the luxury hotel, "D'accord, merci, monsieur. Je vous souhaite une excellente soirée. Sorry, Chan. I have to go. Tell Lixie and the others to text me when they can." Y/n said, exiting the car.

"Okay, I will. Have a good night." Chan said, "Have a good day, mate." Y/n said before hanging up. Y/n pocketed her phone and grabbed her items from the trunk. She waved at the driver in thanks and made her way into the hotel. It was a random one that she picked out and it was probably way too luxurious for a one-night stay, but it was the closest to where her new home would be and she was way too tired to find an even cheaper hotel.

She checked in and paid for the room, trudging up the stairs in a slumped-over position. As soon as she found her room, she stood up and unlocked it as if she was being followed by someone and had to enter quickly. Y/n threw the door open and closed, dropping her bags where she stood before making her way to the bed and getting in

Y/n woke up the next day and immediately ordered an Uber. Her items would be arriving today and she already slept in pretty late. Y/n's dark brown eyes swept the room until they landed on the digital clock on the dresser. It was 2:52 PM. The truck with her stuff would be there around four and the realtor would be there around 3:00, so she had to get going pretty quickly. Luckily, her Uber was on its way and she would be at her new address in no time.

Honk!

Y/n's head snapped up once she had heard the honking of the horn. She could only assume that they were there for her and the chime from her phone telling her that her ride has arrived only confirmed her suspicion. Y/n quickly gathered her items and sped and walked out of the front of the building with her hand up in a wave to show that it was her who had ordered the Uber. Y/n pulled up the trunk after the driver had opened it from the inside of the car.

Y/n put her suitcase and carry-on bag into the trunk and closed it, rushing to get to the backseat and get into the car. "Bonjour, Monsieur. Monaco, La Condamine, 98000 Monaco, s'il vous plaît." Y/n said breathily, pulling her phone out of the bag she had and opening the notes app. Seeing as she would have to move all of her stuff in, of course with the help of the moving pros, and there were some other things she needed to do through the day, she decided that it would be a good idea to make a to-do list.

To do for today and tomorrow

Move my stuff into the house

Rearrange everything to my liking

Unpack everything

Go grocery shopping

Call Mrs. Wolff back

Y/n reread the list over and over to see if anything else came to mind, but when nothing did, she pocketed her phone again and stared out the window. Monaco was a truly gorgeous place and she could see herself living out the rest of her life in this beautiful country.

She could definitely see herself finding a man or woman, who would most definitely be an F1 fan seeing as the country basically lived and breathed F1, finding a much better home, settling down, and having a family.

It wasn't something she wanted anytime soon since she was still pretty young, but it was something she could see happening when she was ready.

Actually, now that Y/n thought about it, and as the car passed by the water, she doesn't think any house, which was actually one of those apartments where you have a whole floor to yourself, would be better than the one she got. It cost an arm and a leg to get and she would be able to afford it after she finally started the PA position.

The flat included three bedrooms, one bathroom, two shower rooms, one separate toilet and a kitchen. In total, it has four rooms. Two underground parking spaces provide space for any vehicles and a balcony that overlooked the water. It that high street, city center, bus station, and shopping center all within 500 m, so it was well situated.

Y/n sighed and closed her eyes. This was the start of her new life. While she was is Monaco, she was going to be a different person then what she was in Australia. Gone is the shy, antisocial, introverted girl that lived in Sydney and in is the girl who is still the same thing, but trying to be more confident.

"Pardonnez-moi, madame. Nous sommes arrivés." The driver announced, "Hm? Oh, merci beaucoup." Y/n thanked as she exited the car. She waited until the driver popped the trunk and then grabbed her things, "Merci encore, madame. J'espère que vous passerez une excellente soirée."

The driver gave Y/n a smile, "C'est très gentil de votre part. J'espère que vous passerez également une excellente soirée." She responded before driving off, giving Y/n a wave as she drove off.

"Miss Lee?" A voice with a thick accent called out from behind her. Y/n whirled around to face a tall man with dark, curly hair, a chisled jaw, and broad shoulders. It was the realtor, "Ah, Mr. Tomatis. How are you doing today?" Y/n greeted, looking to the side so she didn't make eye contact. "I am well. Listen, I would love to stay and talk with you, but I have an important showing to do, so here's your keys. Enjoy your new home." Mr. Tomatis gently place the keys into her hands before walking off.

"Oh-kay. Guess it's time to check out the new place in person." Y/n took a deep breath, trilling as she exhaled. The girl made her way into the building until she reached her floor. Y/n put the key into the door and unlocked it, "Home sweet home, I guess. Once I step through this door, my new life officially starts." Y/n mumbled, resting her forehead against the cool wood. Y/n opened the door and wheeled her suitcase in behind her, "Woah, this is sick!" Y/n awed, looking around her home.

She left the suitcase and carry-on near the entrance and walked around, looking through each room and mentally mapping what went into each room and how she would lay everything out.

Once she was done with her mental mapping, her hands fell to her sides and she looked around with a flat face and eyes dulled due to boredom.

She didn't know what to do now.

The truck wouldn't be there until four and it was only... Y/n looked down at the screen of her phone, which displayed the time in a large blue font...3:12.

Suddenly, an idea popped into Y/n's head. She had to schedule the interview and was advised to do so once she was settled down enough, but since she had time to waste, why not do it now? Y/n opened her contacts and pressed on Susie's, making sure it was on speaker, "Hello?" The sweet Irish voice that Y/n had heard last time, answered the phone.

"Uh, yes. It's Y/n Lee. I'm calling to set up my interview for the PA position." Y/n stammered, "Oh, Ms. Lee! I've been expecting your call back. I assume that means you're in Monaco?" Susie asked, "Yeah, uh, yes...ma'am." Y/n confirmed, nodding as of the woman on the other line could see her.

"Great, I know that you're going to need some time to settle down completely, so the interview will not be taking place any time this week. How about the next week around 10:00 AM? What day works for you?" Susie questioned, "I can do next week. How about Wednesday?" Y/n pulled out a pen and pad of paper to write down the date and time. "Wednesday works perfectly. Alright, I will e you then." Susie said.

"See you then." Y/n confirmed before pressing the 'end call' button. Just as Y/n put her phone on the counter, she got another call but this time from the company that had her stuff, telling her that they had arrived early and were ready to move her stuff in.

Y/n ran out the front door and down the stairs to see that they had indeed arrived earlier than planned and were already beginning to unload the lighter stuff, "Hey, I didn't expect you to be so early. Please, follow me and I'll show you where my apartment is." Y/n said, grabbing a box and leading the way to her floor.

After showing the movers where she was, Y/n went back down to grab another, but before she could make it too far, someone stopped her. "Hey, I couldn't help but notice you're moving in. Do you want some help?" A tall slender man with dark hair and dark eyes. The man in front of her was the very definition of tall, dark, and handsome and Y/n was the definition of awkward around pretty people.

Y/n opened her mouth to decline, probably stutter through the sentence before falling too embarrassed to continue speaking, when another voice spoke up. "Babe, what are you doing? Who's this?" A woman who absolutely gorgeous saddeled herself next to the man, looking up at Y/n with a raised, perfectly sculpted, eyebrow. "I-uh..." Y/n's eyes darted around frantically, trying to find any way out of the situation.

She knew she said she was going to be a totally different person than she was in Australia, but she had the worst night of sleep where her body got too hot with the blankets, too cold with the fan, and still too hot with both. She also kept waking up randomly during the night, feeling dizzy and disoriented. She also may be up and doing things, but she was severely jet lagged and wanted to do nothing, but drop dead on the floor and sleep until she could physically no longer sleep.

Y/n was going to be quite honest, she could use the help and it would make things go a lot faster, but how was she, a socially awkward person, to talk to two very pretty people? 

Answer; she didn't.

She walked past them with a quick 'excuse me' pretending like she didn't hear them. If they got upset with her, she'll just say her hearing aids weren't on or turned up enough for her to hear that they were speaking to her. "Wait! Ma'am, hold on." The man called out, following Y/n outside and grabbing her wrist gently, stopping her in her tracks. Y/n steeled herself and whirled around with a fake smile, "Oh, sorry. Can I, uh, can I help you?" Y/n asked, eyes darting between the man, who was giving her a smile, and the woman, who was scowling at her with her arms crossed.

"Yes, you can help us. My boyfriend asked you a question and you just walked past us as if you didn't hear. Are you deaf or something?" The girl sneered.

"Yes."

"Pa-pardon?" The girl asked, dropping her arms, Y/n turned her head to the side, showing the couple her cochlear and the the hearing aid, "I-I am in fact...deaf." Y/n muttered, turning to go get more boxes. Behind her she could hear the flustered man scolding his girlfriend while she stammered out flustered responses, 

"How could you-?!"

 "I..I didn't know, okay? Hop off my balls."

"Woman, what balls would I be hopping off of?"

"I... You... Just shut up! We should be helping anyway."

The two stopped their flustered play fighting as Y/n walked past. They both grabbed boxes and followed her, "Hey, we are so sorry." The man spoke up, speed walking so he was next to Y/n, "Especially me. I didn't know you were actually deaf and even if you weren't, I wasn't being the nicest. It's just, and this isn't an excuse, there have been some... how do I say this?" The girl asked, looking up.

"Issues." The man supplied, the woman snapped her fingers and pointed at her boyfriend before quickly putting her hand back under the box as it began to tip over in her hands, "Issues. We have had some issues with our last neighbours and it made me sort of defensive. Sorry about that. My name Chiara Lorenzi and this is my boyfriend..." Chiara trailed off so that he could speak for himself.

"Aaron Antognelli. And you are?" Aaron asked, depositing the box on the floor of Y/n's apartment, "Y/n Lee." Y/n answered. "It's nice to meet you, Y/n. I hope we get to become very good friends in the near future." Chiara said, nudging the taller girl as she and Aaron walked out to grab more boxes.

With the extra two sets of hands, Y/n and the movers were able to get everything inside quickly and it was a good thing too since the sky began to dark with thick rain clouds. "Um, thank you for your help." Y/n muttered, going into her house and beginning to close the door when a hand appeared between the door and the frame, keeping her from closing it fully, "Hold on there, kangaroo. Don't you want help unpacking?" Aaron asked.

"Oh, no. I couldn't ask for that. You have done quite a bit a-and I don't know you well enough." Y/n frantically shook her head. The couple shared a look before turning back to Y/n, "Please, we... I insist. We want to make up for the rocky way we greeted you. Of course, we won't force you to and if you don't want us to help you, we'll leave." Chiara said.

Y/n sighed and nodded, opening the door fully to let the couple in. She didn't know them or trust them, but she also needed all the help she could get. That, and she was shit at decorating, so it would be nice to enlist the help of someone else.

Chiara and Aaron looked around, "Why does your apartment look so much better than ours?" Aaron asked, "I thought they were all the same." Y/n said, looking at her spacious place. "Nah, yours has much more space, but it could be the fact that you're living alone that makes it seem that way." Aaron shrugged.

Chiara whirled around and clapped her hands together, "Alright, let's get this done."

With a yelp, Y/n fell out of her bed as the alarm she had set on her phone blared in her ear that contained the hearing aid. She had so much fun with Aaron and Chiara the previous night that she ended up going to be later than she usually liked to whenever she had something important to do the next day. After the day they helped her unpack, the two quickly became friends Y/n and they had been hanging out with each other ever since.

Y/n groaned and hobbled over to a cabinet near her bed where she kept her medicine, "Shit, getting drunk the day before my interview was not smart." Y/n grumbled, opening a bottle of pills and a bottle of water from her mini fridge.

Y/n gathered her clothing and put it on the end of the bed then went and took a scalding hot shower that helped her sober up. Y/n gave a quiet groan as she messaged her shoulders, "Man, my shoulders are stiff." She complained.

Stepping out of the shower, Y/n put on her outfit, which consisted of wool wide-leg pants, a skims t-shirt bodysuit, a nocturne cropped jacket, and a pair of heeled patchwork boots. Looking in the mirror, Y/n narrowed her eyes, "Hmm, wait." Y/n looked around to the clothes she had thrown everywhere when looking for a good outfit.

Her room was covered in an explosion of beige, brown, white, and black. There was not a lick of color in any of her wardrobe, save for her shoes, which were still not brightly colored, so they still fit her aesthetic. "I need to add some color to my wardrobe." Y/n muttered, before grabbing her things and making her way down to where the Uber was waiting for her.

She gave the driver the address of a café that Susie had suggested, Café de Paris, and  off they went. Y/n's heart thudded so hard in her chest that she was pretty sure that the beat was coming from her stomach rather than her chest. Y/n ran a hand through her long, messy hair and tried to calm the nervous feeling in her stomach.

The driver looked at Y/n through the rear mirror and cleared his throat, "Nerveux? Vous avez un rendez-vous ou une raison de vous énerver?" He asked, causing Y/n to jump from the sudden addressing. "Euh, oui. J'ai un entretien très important. J'ai déjà obtenu le poste, mais je suis encore nerveux." Y/n answered shakily, wringing her hands together nervously.

The driver studied Y/n through the mirror before turning his eyes back to the road, "Eh, don't be nervous. It must be just a 'get to know you' interview." The driver said, switching to English and waving a hand to the side as if he was brushing Y/n's nervousness away.

"You're right. Merci, Monsieur." Y/n sighed, leaning back against the headrest. The rest of the car ride was spent in silence.

⋘ 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑎... ⋙⋘ 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑎... ⋙

Susie sat at a table in Café de Paris, occasionally looking at her watch as she waited for Y/n to arrive. Admittedly, she had arrived a bit too early, but she was excited. She had been looking forward to finally starting the F1 academy and with Y/n working by her side, she'd make these girls into Formula One champions.

Susie continued looking out the window for Y/n, even though she has no idea what Y/n looked like at all. Y/n walked through the door and approached Susie from behind, "Mrs. Wolff?" Y/n spoke up, causing the blonde woman to jump up. As soon as they were face-to-face, both women froze.

Now, Y/n was open about her sexuality and what she liked, but Susie wasn't. Susie had never been interested in women and she wasn't one who would ever fall in love when she already had a husband and a beautiful son, but Susie's heart raced looking at the younger woman and she couldn't understand why. Susie had no problem admitting when another woman is beautiful and the one in front of her? Well, she was drop dead gorgeous in Susie's eyes.

"Ah, Ms. Lee. You startled me." Susie chuckled, putting a hand on her chest to calm her racing heart. Whether it was racing because of Y/n's beauty or because she genuinely got startled, she didn't know. Either way, the woman in front of her made her heart race. "My apologies, Mrs. Wolff. I didn't mean to scare you." Y/n apologized, giving the older woman a shallow bow instinctively.

"Shall we sit and begin?" Susie asked, gesturing to the chair. Y/n nodded and sat down across from the older woman. "Okay, remember that you already have the job. This is just to get to know you a bit more. Do you want to order something or do you just want to start?" Susie questioned.

"I would like to order something." Y/n muttered, Susie gestured to someone and a waiter came over, "Are you ladies ready to order?" The waiter asked politely. "Yes, I would like a chocolate chaud and panna cotta parfumeé au citron." Susie told the waiter who wrote it down before turning to Y/n, "I would like Le Chou Profiterole and the Irish coffee. Please." Y/n said.

Once the waiter finished writing down their orders and left, Susie turned back to Y/n with a smile that made Y/n want to throw herself off a cliff. She was so pretty and Y/n didn't think Susie knew just how gorgeous she was.

"Okay, let's start while we're waiting for our orders. Can you tell me about yourself?" Susie questioned, "Oh okay, um... I'm Y/n Lee, I am half Chinese and Half Australian, I am 23 years old, I want to do modeling in my spare time, I like surfing and skiing, and I used to be a Formula Two driver before I contracted meningitis and had to stop." Y/n replied.

"You contracted meningitis?" Susie asked, "I did. I lost hearing in my right ear," Y/n turned her head and moved her hair, showing her cochlear, "I had to get a cochlear for my right ear and I have a hearing aid in my left because I'm losing my hearing in that ear. After I got my surgery, I just decided not to continue driving even though I would love to continue." Y/n shrugged.

Susie nodded, "If you had the chance, would you try and continue to drive in F2?" Susie questioned. Y/n sighed and looked around the café, "I honestly never thought about it. I wanted to but I didn't have enough money to continue, so I thought that my chances were over. If I had the chance to do it again, I don't know if I would take it. I'm turning 23 soon and I fell like I'm getting too old." Y/n said, looking up as the waiter arrived with their stuff.

"Thank you/Merci." Susie and Y/n said simultaneously. Y/n brought the glass mug up to her lips and took a sip of the drink. Y/n put the mug down and looked at Susie again, "What are your goals for the next five years?" Susie asked.

"Hmm, I think I still see myself working in the motorsports world or perhaps attempting to further my modeling career. Or both." Y/n answered, picking up one of the cream puff and taking a bite, refraining from making any sort of noise. 

"Do you consider yourself a passionate person when it comes to this sport?" Susie inquired, Y/n nodded as she swallowed the pastry in her mouth, "I was..am...Before I got meningitis, I was obsessed with being a Formula One driver. I was about as passionate about it like most of the guys on the grid. It was my passion." Y/n explained.

Susie nodded and sat back in her chair, "That'll be all." She said, picking up her spoon and eating some of her panna cotta parfumeé au citron. Y/n paused halfway from the plate where she was reaching for another mini creampuff, "That's all?" She asked, "That's all." Susie reiterated 

"Okay." Y/n nodded. She was honestly so unsure as to why she needed to do the interview when she was only going to be asked about four questions, "Now, let's get to know each other since we're going to be working closely together. My name is Suzanne Wolff, but you can call me Susie. I am Scottish, 39 years old, I have a wonderful husband who is the team principal of Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One team, and I have a gorgeous fiver-year-old son named Jack." Susie introduced herself.

The woman held out a hand for Y/n to shake, "It's wonderful to meet you, Mrs. Wolff. I look forward to working with you." Y/n said, grabbing the older woman's hand and shaking it firmly. Susie waved off her formalities, "Oh, please. Call me Susie. We'll be working close together, so we might as well drop the formalities." She chuckled.

The two women continued to talk about random topics, getting to know each other more and more. The two became quick friends and even made plans to hang outside of work sometime in the future and even talked about Y/n meeting her son and husband since she would have to meet them eventually.

By the time Y/n was in her Uber and on her way home, it was well into the afternoon and Y/n had a small permanent smile on her face as she thought about the older woman.

Y/n hated to admit it, but she tended to catch feelings for people quite easily. She didn't and never would believe in love at first sight, but she did believe that one can get to know someone well enough to gain some sort of feelings for someone. 

And Y/n could tell that the bubbling feeling in her stomach was her feeling giddy and anxious. She was beginning to feel something for the older married woman, but she brushed it off. It was just a small puppy crush, and even if it wasn't, nothing would ever come of it. Susie was a heterosexual married woman with a family and if there was one thing Y/n could never be, it was a homewrecker.

 Susie entered her home happily. Her husband and son greeting her at the entrance, "Hello, liebling. How was the interview? I can assume it went well since you're smiling from ear to ear." Toto said, kissing his wife on the forehead. "She's perfect, Toto. She is everything I wanted and more in a personal assistant. Not to mention she's absolutely gorgeous. If she were to go to a GP, people would assume she is some sort of supermodel WAG." Susie said absentmindedly.

Toto gave his wife an odd look as she bent down to greet their five-year-old. His wife was what some people would call a girl's girl and she definitely has complimented other women before, but the way she had talked about the woman she had met with made him feel curious. She had never sounded so infatuated with anyone other than him and Jack.

Of course, Toto knew that his wife was not going to cheat on him and especially not with another woman, but there was just a feeling in his gut that said there was something more than just a regular excitement to be getting the F1 Academy project off the ground. 

"Yeah? Is that right?" Toto asked, "Yes. She used to be a F2 driver too, so she is the most perfect candidate for the job. I think you and Jackie would lover her." Susie said, kissing the top of Jack's head and carrying him into the kitchen.

Toto shook his head as he chuckled. He didn't know what the woman was like, but she must have been super amazing because she left such an impression on his wife that she was positively gushing about the new PA.

By the time Susie stopped talking about the new PA, Toto himself couldn't wait to meet her and he was now sharing the excitement that she was practically projecting off her in waves.

This was the start of something new and both Wolff's could tell.

↳ ❝ [Taglist] ¡!❞

@exotic-iris13 @alliwantisadonut @evie-119 @xoscar03 @cheyxfu @laur2608 @sunnylikesfrogs @goldenmoonbeam @victorharrington @only-nope

Unable to tag all of you

This one was over 6k words. I felt like I needed to give you guys this since I had been away for so long.

DO NOT ask me to update this story. I'll update when I can.

Anyway, only accepting 9 more people to be tagged

[gyunglitter]

i'll always choose you ⚘ choi beomgyu

-for the days being alive seems too hard, you're so happy to have your boyfriend

warnings: none really, just beomgyu being a simp—also, not edited

tags: established relationship, angst, fluff, hurt to comfort

notes: this is the first time i’ve ever finished a story (even if it is just a one shot), but i’m so happy it was this one. i wrote this during a couple of my bad days, so i hope it can help you on yours <3

Beomgyu was just barely getting out of his post-practice shower when he heard his special ringtone he had set just for you go off. You hadn’t talked to each other all day, your last interaction being a quick facetime and good night texts. And while the other members teased him for being clingy, he admitted with his full chest that he missed you. Tiredly wiping a towel through his damp hair, Beomgyu looked at his phone to see a new text message from you.

From: bubs <3

are you busy?

Beomgyu raised an eyebrow at the simple message; typically, you were a pretty energetic texter. It was something he liked about you since he was the same way with people he cared about. Your relationship was still fairly new, but he didn’t think it felt that way with you– the two of you seemed to just get one another, clicking instantly right off the bat and your connection getting deeper with every interaction. So to see a quick text like that surprised him a little bit, but with the thought of getting to facetime you, Beomgyu texted you back immediately.

To: bubs <3

hey, just got out of the shower! practice went a little long today🙃

Beomgyu set his phone down for a moment to throw on some clothes, thinking you would take a bit longer to respond since you typically send longer texts once you knew he was free to talk. However, he was proven wrong when he heard your ringtone go off not even ten seconds later.

From: bubs <3

can i see you?

Beomgyu couldn’t help but feel a little worried as he glanced at the message, throwing his shirt on to get his hands back on his phone. Call him dramatic, but the simple sentence made the worst possible scenarios run through his mind.

To: bubs <3

is everything okay?

what happened?

From: bubs <3

it’s fine

nothing happened

sorry, didn’t mean to worry you

A sigh left Beomgyu’s mouth as he read your last text, confusion and worry only building up even more. Though you assured him nothing had happened, it sure as hell didn’t feel like it. Not only were your texts incredibly bland, but you also weren’t elaborating much of anything, something you supremely hated. Communication was key to you, and he was just now starting to realize why.

To: bubs <3

are you at your dorm right now?

From: bubs <3

yeah

To: bubs <3

okay, did you want any food or anything?? i can drop by the dumpling place or tteokbokki stand on the way to yours! 

From: bubs <3

its fine, see you soon?

To: bubs <3

yeah, i’ll be there in 15

just gotta let the guys know!

Beomgyu waited for any other texts from you to come through, but was left with the same screen. No “thanks”, no “stay safe” text, not even one emoji that could possibly express some form of affection. At first he thought you got into an accident of some disastrous sort, spiking his worries. Now, he can feel the worry levels rising again, this time for himself.

What if you wanted to break up with him?

He thought your two a half months of being together had been perfect so far, he hadn’t messed up once. Sure, he teased you about the way you sang his songs sometimes, or the times you needed his help with your perilla leaf, or even when you couldn’t beat Hueningkai in arm wrestling. But he thought it was cute! He thought you liked him annoying you since you dished it back much worse than he did–BUT WHAT IF YOU DIDN’T?

Oh no. 

He had to beg you to not leave him, he was not ready to let you go, he hadn’t even taken you to meet Toto yet.

You sat by your front door, resting your head beside the door frame as you waited for Beomgyu to show up. You had no idea how much time had passed since you couldn’t even bring yourself to look at your phone after his last message got through to you. You’d left your phone on your bed and used your remaining energy to trudge your way to the front door. You were tired.

True to your texts to your boyfriend, nothing had happened. And it was okay. You weren’t, but the vague subject of “it” very much was. Sort of.

Nothing inherently bad happened to you: no one spilt their coffee on you, no mean people at work, not even a long red light while driving home. It had just been one of those days where the world felt a little heavier on you. You honestly haven't felt this way in a while. Not since before meeting Beomgyu, who made you smile more than you thought was possible. But alas, mental illness isn’t cured so easily.

You’d gotten home from work less than thirty minutes ago, but you had yet to feel any relief yet. Not knowing what to do and not wanting to be alone, you reached out to the boy who makes you feel lighter effortlessly. You’ve only been together for two and a half months, but they have been the happiest two and a half months you’ve experienced–cheesiness be damned.

Frantic knocks on the front door motivated you to get up for your boyfriend, the tightness in your chest already getting ready to loosen at the thought of Beomgyu standing on the other side. 

You could see your boyfriend’s startled face when you opened the door, most likely from the fact that he had barely taken his fist off the wood when you’d whipped it open.

“Y-Y/n! I got here as fast as I could! I know what you’re gonna say, and I just wanna say first that I’m so sorry for teasing you so much–you just make the cutest facial expressions when you get annoyed and I didn’t realize you might have actually cared that I said Hyuka’s arms are bigger than your mom–”

You stared at the boy rambling in front of you, waving one arm in the air as chaotically as his words. However, you also saw in his other hand was a small bunch of flowers–flowers that looked suspiciously like the ones planted in your main lobby’s centerpieces. The poor things still had clumps of dirt on their ends and were staining your boyfriend’s fingers, but he didn’t show any indication of caring as he was still staring at you intently, unshed tears lining his eyes.

This was your boyfriend. Your sweet, loud, silly boyfriend who never failed to make you feel lighter. Effortlessly.

Quickly, you wrapped your arms around Beomgyu’s waist and held him tightly. You felt his arms secure themselves around you automatically. You only realized he’d done it without thinking when he stopped talking and could feel his heart rate suddenly pick up after a few seconds in each other’s arms.

“I don’t wanna break up with you, you loser,” you muttered into his neck and chest.

Beomgyu breathed out. “You don’t?”

“No, I just…really wanted to see you.”

All you could manage was burying yourself even deeper into your boyfriend’s embrace. For the first time today, you felt like you could finally trust someone enough to take hold of the weight from the world and bear it with you. As a result, you slowly leaned against Beomgyu even more and let him really hold you, feeling as if you didn’t have to hold yourself up now that you knew help was here.

Beomgyu tightened his grip on you, when he felt you sigh into his neck. His mind flashed back to the messages you sent. Sure he was relieved that you weren’t trying to leave him, but now he was back to square one: worrying about you.

“Y/n?” He whispered into your hair.

“Hm?”

“I…I really like you, y/n…” Beomgyu admitted quietly. “You said nothing happened, but I know you’re not okay. I don’t know what’s wrong, but please tell me so I can fix it.”

He felt your head burrow even further into him for a second and was about to say…well he doesn’t quite know what to say, he’s just so damn worried about you. But he ended up not needing to say anything. Because you had instead pushed yourself away from his embrace and grabbed his hands, not minding the dirt gathering on your fingers from his pathetic flowers.

“Let’s head inside, Gyu.” 

And you led him through, not letting go of his hand once. Not even when he reached to take off his shoes. You instead stuck to him, as if you couldn’t bear to be physically apart from him for one second. He didn’t mind. He felt the same way.

When you both made it to your room, Beomgyu placed the crushed flowers on your bedside table and laid down on your bed. It only took him a second to open his arms for you to snuggle into him once again, shrinking yourself even more than you had before. He massaged the back of your neck under your hair, a habit he randomly developed with you to soothe both you and himself, and felt you release another big sigh.

Though this felt really nice, Beomgyu couldn’t feel at ease. This was completely new territory for the both of you. Sure, you had many quiet moments together. But your silences together were more so ones of peace. This one felt more like…an absence. As if he was missing something and just waiting for you to fill it in again.

“Thanks for the flowers. I’m sorry I worried you so much,” you whispered, your voice so low he wouldn’t have been able to hear had it not been for the lack of space between you. You sounded so, well, small.

And as much as Beomgyu wanted to tell you it was okay, he knew he couldn’t. Because if he said it was, you’d think you could do it again. And he really did not want to go through feeling like this again. Others would call him dramatic, but he calls it his Y/n Intuition. You may be the light in his life, but he knows all about hiding your real feelings behind a smile.

“I just…I don’t think about what I’m saying or doing sometimes when I get…like this…”

He can practically hear the struggle you’re going through as you try to communicate with him.

“What is this, bubs?” Beomgyu asked patiently, prompting you to keep trying.

Taking a breath, you took the time to sort out your thoughts before saying, “Somedays I just wake up…duller I guess.”

“Duller?”

You nodded hesitantly. “Like the colors are fading, my days all become the same, and even though I just woke up I’m so tired. And I just…don’t get the point anymore.”

Beomgyu tried his hardest to not flinch at your confession. 

“I’m so tired, Beomgyu, I can’t bring myself to do anything. And I can’t want to do anything either. Just the thought of it….” You shook your head back and forth, as if to erase what you’d just said. “Agh, I hate myself sometimes. I’m sorry, that’s so lazy. I’m not like this most of the time, I promise, Gyu. Some days are just harder than others.”

Beomgyu frowned deeply at your denial to yourself. He didn’t like hearing the things you thought about unconsciously, but even more, he didn’t like the way you talked about yourself.

“Why do you talk about yourself like that?” He asked, hands still.

You raised your head to look up at him. “Like what?”

“‘Lazy’. You’re not lazy, y/n.”

“That’s what being lazy is, dude,” you scoffed, letting out a light laugh.

But Beomgyu shook his head. “That’s not the root of the issue–there’s a difference between being lazy and overwhelmed. It happens to me too, you can’t help that sometimes. But you’re. Not. Lazy, y/n. You just need help.”

He watched as your eyes widened at him, before you frowned and scoffed, mostly aimed toward yourself. “I’m, uh, not very good at asking for help.”

“You did a good job of getting me here,” Beomgyu smiled.

You shook your head at him. “But I wasn’t trying to get you here for help. I…” you sighed out, laying your head back in Beomgyu’s neck. “I just wanted you.”

With a new soft feeling taking over, Beomgyu nearly burst into tears for the second time that night. He felt things in his heart and stomach he had never felt before, and he didn’t want it to ever go away. God, he couldn’t put a proper name to how he felt, but he wanted you too.

“I missed you today, “ he whispered into the quiet room.

“Yeah?” you whispered back.

“Mhm. Practice went long today, but it felt even longer because I couldn’t focus on anything but that goodnight text you sent me last night.”

“It wasn’t anything special, Gyu,” you said, but he could tell that you were blushing, which made him let out a soft chuckle.

“I swear, you have such a way with words, bubs, I think you chose the wrong profession,” he joked lightly, feeling the way your lips curved against his neck. “But it’s not always the words you say that matter to me, it’s the fact that you say anything at all.”

Beomgyu’s hand that had been rubbing the back of your neck moved down to squeeze your waist again.

He said softly, “I know it’s hard for you to see what the point is some days, I feel like that sometimes too. But I just have to remind myself of the things that keep me happy.”

“Like Toto?” you chimed in, a small smile creeping up your lips as Beomgyu snorted at your lame joke to stop your tears from coming.

“I was thinking more about you, but yes, I guess he counts too.”

You gasped playfully, “Wow, some pet owner you are.”

He just shrugged in response. “It was either that or a being a good boyfriend, bubs.”

“Well,” you sighed heavily, “Even though I feel bad for your bird, I have to say I am grateful you chose the second option. I mean, look at these beautiful flowers you got me. They’re so authentic, they still have the dirt from my lobby on them.”

Beomgyu merely smiled, before saying, “It’s not that hard of a decision—I’ll always choose you, bubs.”

He felt a groan reverberate off of his neck from your whining form and tried to stop the laugh from bubbling out of his chest, knowing it would distract you from his point. Meanwhile you were too busy trying to fight off your embarrassment.

“Oh my god, Gyu, you’re so cheesy!” You try and nestle into your boyfriend further to hide from him, but fail as you’re already as close as can be. And with the fact that Beomgyu does not put up with it this time.

“No y/n, I mean it!” Your boyfriend pushed you away gently but firmly to make you see his gaze that was filled with determination and sincerity. “I know it’s only been a couple of months, but you need to know this because I can’t see myself not being with you anytime in the near future. Meaning there are going to be more days like this, whether it’s you feeling off, or me! While I try to let you know just how much I care about you everyday, I want you to remember especially on the hard days that you are so important; to the people you call family, to the people you work with, to the people you smile at, to our friends, to my family, to me. God, y/n, you mean the world to me.”

You could feel tears start to build up on your lash line. Usually you’d try and hide away when you started to get emotional, but between Beomgyu’s firm hands holding you and his own watery eyes staring intently into yours, you couldn’t bring yourself to pull away.

“While I want you to be the happiest person everyday of your life and never have to cry, I know personally how that isn’t healthy or fair of me to put on you,” Beomgyu said, his voice starting to become wobbly, “So whenever you feel like this, I want you to know that I understand. And if you’ll have me, I’ll be here.”

The tears were already falling, from both your eyes and his, but you didn’t care. All you could feel was Beomgyu’s heart beating under your hand as you slowly moved it to rest on his chest. Your heart rate matched his easily, speeding up just the tiniest bit as Beomgyu moved his hand to rest on top of yours.

“Gyu…”

“Please have me, Y/n. I really, really like you. And I want to be here, no matter what kind of day it is,” he whispered now, the words slowly getting lower the closer you inched to him.

You let out the smallest laugh, as if the peaceful feeling filling your stomach was floating through your lungs to now fill the small space between you and your boyfriend's lips. The laugh was a tinkly, kind sound that seemed to have reached Beomgyu, because the tears running down his cheeks were overtaken by his dimples you so famously adored. Your laugh sounded out, but the smile on your face remained as you started to cup his cheek and lightly trace over his dimple.

“God…you mean the world to me too, Beomgyu,” you whispered.

Your voice sent shivers down Beomgyu’s spine, and the way he sighed in awe at your words made you lean forward to close the space between you two, your lips finally connecting after what felt like too long.

His hands shifted to tugging you even closer as he sighed in the kiss. You hummed against his lips as well, relishing in the way he deepened the kiss, a bit desperately as if he couldn’t possibly get enough of you. You couldn’t complain, as you felt the exact same. And as you felt the connection between you both deepen, you could also feel the tightness in your chest melt away.

While you knew your problems/feelings weren’t something Beomgyu could kiss away, you knew he would understand. You knew he would be there. And you knew he would care. 

And for now, that was enough to get you out of bed the next morning with a smile, ready to take on another day.

(additional) notes: just wanted to say that while this beomgyu isn’t real, i hope y’all know that everything this one said is still true. if y’all need anything, message me or any of the ones mentioned and watch some to do :)

[ladyvictory22]

Anesthesia

The beginning of a new season is upon all the teams now. New cars, new suits, a fresh competition.

There were some slight changes for Red Bull and, consequently, for Christian. After a tight season for the teams behind them, Mercedes would now be the neighboring team to the champion, and for Christian... Toto would be his "neighbor."

Not that Christian was thrilled... well, maybe a bit. Since Red Bull became champion, there hasn't been such a challenging rivalry. It's not that Christian belittles the rivals, nor does he necessarily want his rivalry with Toto to return... or maybe he does, but not in the same way as last time.

They hadn't spoken for a while, and even though Christian denied it, he missed Toto's company so much... having him around was always pleasant.

Then, things started to mend gradually; everything felt more or less peaceful between them, and Christian liked that.

Yes, in some way, he wants competition again, but this time maybe he wants to choose his words carefully. He had seen Toto so stressed last year that when he approached cautiously, he thought Toto would snap at him.

But Toto isn't like that; he's calm, kind; when someone approaches him, you'll always see a smile on his face. So that same serenity greeted Christian when he approached again.

During the early practices, the teams were getting ready; Christian was focused in the pit lane when he turned to glance at the Mercedes area. Toto was there, his height always standing out. Christian isn't sure if he was momentarily mesmerized... but then Toto was looking at him, smiled, and gave him a wink.

Something that made him smile and quickly look away due to nervousness.

And, as expected, when they were close, like two magnets, they sought each other out. In the middle of both garages in the pit lane...

"So... do you see improvements in the car or not?" said Christian.

"You'll see soon, you miss bothering me, don't you?" Toto smiled.

"It's easy to pull your chain, but yes," Christian smiled.

"Do you want me to fight so you can complain to the FIA?" Toto said playfully, "you and your war games."

"Judge my results, not my methods..." Christian smiled. "Besides, you could do the same... although first... you have to change the car."

They both laughed.

When they were simply chatting, they didn't feel the passage of time; the energy became more pleasant and friendly.

When they both stepped away and returned to their respective places, nobody noticed, but suddenly one of the cars from the Red Bull garage pulled out. It was as if it was driving itself or out of control; it happened so quickly that recounting it in such detail is difficult. But suddenly, Christian heard someone shouting at him to move.

He froze, and when he tried to move, the car arrived.

It wasn't a very strong impact; the car wasn't moving at a dangerous speed, more like a strong nudge. Christian was pushed against the pit lane safety barrier, hit his head, and the car struck his leg.

The last thing he remembers is feeling strong arms lifting him with others, hearing voices he didn't understand. He vaguely recalls opening his eyes in an ambulance, looking at a Mercedes shirt next to him... but then he closed his eyes again.

Toto remembers yelling at Christian as the car approached him; everyone was terrified... something worse could have happened. He offered to accompany him to the hospital, assured Adrian that he would take care of Christian. In the absence of the Team Principal, he should take charge.

They took him to the operating room for an emergency intervention, a fracture in the leg. The wreckage from the car caused the fracture. Then the head impact, not too severe, but it still needed attention.

According to the doctors, it wasn't too severe; they just had to reconstruct ligaments, and he would recover in about two weeks. So now, he was looking at him in the hospital bed.

A nurse entered the room, leaving some items; a small container, a water bottle, and some pills.

"I have to attend to some patients, if he wakes up, and I haven't returned, please hold this container near his mouth; sometimes, they vomit due to dizziness," the nurse instructed.

"Yes, okay," he replied.

Some time passed, and Christian was still quite asleep. For a moment, Toto thought it was odd, but seeing him breathe normally eased his anxiety.

After a while, as he checked team emails and updates on what had happened in his absence, he saw Christian open his eyes.

Toto quickly got up and approached to avoid startling him.

He could see Christian's drowsy eyes open for a moment to examine him.

Toto smiled kindly. "Hey..." he whispered.

As if he were a baby, Christian made a small smile, and the drowsy eyes lingered.

"How are you feeling?" Toto asked.

"Good... even better with you," mumbled Christian, smiling sleepily.

Toto smiled.

"Okay..." he said.

Christian then looked at him again as if examining him and smiled again, with half-closed eyes.

"You're cute," he mumbled.

Toto wanted to laugh; he found it endearing.

"What's your name?" Christian mumbled again.

"My name is Torger... but you can call me Toto," he replied, finding it amusing to introduce himself again.

"Mm... Toto," he said once. "To-to..." he repeated. "Hey... Toto..."

"Yes," he responded, sounding sweet.

"You're very cute, Toto..." Christian said and then brought his hands to his face.

Toto looked at him and bit his lower lip, smiling. "Thank you," he said afterward.

Christian then peeked through his fingers. Then he covered his face again.

Toto looked away, smiling.

After lowering his hands out of fatigue, with his sleepy eyes, he said, "Hey Toto..."

"Tell me..." Toto said.

"I love you..." Christian said tenderly.

"Oh, thank you..." Toto smiled and felt his heart beat strongly for a moment.

"You're welcome..." Christian smiled. "Let's get married..."

"Oh, really? Where?" Toto laughed a bit.

"Yes... I don't know... but let's get married..." Christian smiled.

For a moment, Toto had the fleeting desire to raise his hand and gently caress Christian's face...

Christian smiled at the touch and looked at him.

"Oh... your hand... is big..." he said, taking Toto's hand.

"Yes... it is," he responded while caressing.

Like a kitten, Christian looked at him and smiled sweetly while holding his hand. Toto returned the smile.

"Toto..." Christian called again.

"Tell me..." he responded.

"You haven't told me you love me..." said the drowsy Christian.

Toto smiled, taking advantage of the proximity, leaned closer, whispered, "I love you..."

Christian smiled tenderly.

"Then we're getting married..." he smiled.

Toto just laughed.

"Tell me..." he insisted.

"I don't know... maybe..." Toto smiled.

For a moment, Christian didn't let go of Toto's hand, and he loved the caresses he received.

The nurse arrived then and smiled upon seeing them.

"Do you have a sweet boyfriend, don't you?"

"He's not my..." Toto didn't finish the sentence; he felt Christian pulling him. "How long will this last?"

The nurse chuckled softly. "Just a few moments, he'll fall asleep again."

And so it was... The last thing Christian did was touch Toto's face and tell him again... that he found him cute.

When Christian woke up more aware, he didn't remember anything he had done or said. But he didn't dwell on it much when he saw his concerned teammates asking him how he felt.

He began to ponder on what he had said or done when the nurse, before leaving, commented something. "Your boyfriend couldn't make it, right?" she said with a smile.

"Excuse me?" said Christian, surprised.

The nurse chuckled a bit. "A tall and very handsome man... your boyfriend... accompanied you the first few hours you were here," she said.

"Boyfriend?" He thought... "What do you mean, boyfriend?"

"You're getting married, aren't you?" she said. "When people are under anesthesia, they often say things they desire or will experience."

Christian didn't realize it, but he was blushing.

"Oh... well, maybe... yes, he couldn't make it," he said nervously...

He kept thinking... about the description of the person... "a tall and handsome man..." it was Toto... he's the only tall and handsome man he knows.

As he couldn't travel due to his condition, he spent resting, but the thorn where he had to talk to Toto wouldn't let him be at peace.

"What did I say for the nurse to claim Toto is my boyfriend?"

"What if Toto did something to me?" he wondered mentally... "That's what you would like," a voice whispered within.

And he growled at the thought, pushing it away.

Christian didn't know, but through Adrian mainly, Toto inquired about his condition; under the pretext of not wanting to overwhelm him, he stayed in the shadows, attentive to the slightest detail.

Adrian, primarily, Toto inquired about his condition; under the pretext of not wanting to overwhelm him, he stayed in the shadows, attentive to the slightest detail.

It's not that Toto didn't want to talk to him, it's that he didn't know how to approach Christian; after that closeness they had, even though Christian was sedated, something touched Toto.

It had been a while since he felt something like this since 2021; he had closed his heart off to a possibility, and now he felt... a bit hopeful. But he was afraid it might not be reciprocated. So, to dismiss the thought, he kept his distance... just a little.

The two weeks passed quite quickly; in Milton Keynes, they investigated the matter, it turns out that... after a few days, one of the technicians traveling with the team admitted that the team had mistakenly not secured the car properly. Then, another engineer accidentally moved it when getting on to make a setup.

Embarrassed, these engineers confessed; Christian would never have thought this would happen in his F1 career, but in any case... never say never.

When he returned to the paddock on weekends, he asked Adrian what happened while he was unconscious.

"Well, maybe for a microsecond, we were frozen, until we saw Toto moving everything... he seemed desperate," Adrian mentioned.

"Well, we were talking... and it happened when we stepped away," said Christian thoughtfully.

"Yes, but you know, he lived up to his height and apparent strength... when the others helped move the car, he lifted you in his arms, carried you into the garage," Adrian sighed as he remembered. "When the ambulance arrived, he told me to stay and handle everything, and he would accompany you... he just gave instructions to his team and went with you to the hospital."

Christian fell silent, processing everything; his suspicions were somehow confirmed... the "boyfriend" the nurse mentioned... was Toto.

Unaware, his face turned as red as crimson.

"Are you okay?" Adrian asked, concerned.

"I... um... yes," he responded faintly. "Well, no, Adrian, apparently, I was sedated, and I might have been bothering Toto in the process."

"Isn't bothering Toto a common thing for you?" Adrian said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes... but not in the way I did in the hospital... I said embarrassing things," Christian said.

"Well, then just apologize... besides, you were under anesthesia," Adrian said, trying to reassure him.

"It's not that easy," said Christian.

"Then ask him what you said, and apologize based on that; he probably isn't upset," Adrian advised.

And so, Christian waited for the Friday's first practices to finish and then went to the Mercedes hospitality.

He found Toto going through some papers at his desk. Christian knocked on the door.

"Hello..." he said, and one can guess why his voice suddenly became high-pitched, like a child.

"Hello..." Toto said, looking at him, and a smile appeared. "Come in."

Christian still couldn't walk so well; he limped a bit.

"How are you feeling?" Toto asked.

"A bit better... it just hurts quite a bit sometimes," he replied.

"You'll finish healing," Toto said, lightly caressing his shoulder.

"I wanted to thank you for accompanying me to the hospital," said Christian.

"It's okay..." Toto smiled.

Christian smiled back, but then that smile faded when nervousness returned, and he remembered what he also wanted to talk to Toto about.

"Hey... I want to ask you something... at the hospital when I was sedated, what did I say?" His heart began to beat faster. Toto's heart raced at the question, but he wasn't going to mock; remembering Christian's tenderness made him smile.

"You didn't say much... nothing bad," he said lightly with a smile.

"Be honest..." he insisted, "you're not usually vague, and now you are."

Toto sighed.

"You were just mentioning... that you find me cute," he said and swallowed hard, now he was the one nervous, "and that's it..."

"Just that?" said Christian, sounding a bit disappointed. Was the nurse's comment just because he said Toto was cute?

Toto was nervous; it was now or never... he could seize the opportunity. He took a deep breath, looked at Christian who was looking away; everything felt like a long silence.

He then remembered when Christian smiled like a kitten under the caresses Toto gave him in the hospital.

"Although... perhaps you said many things," Toto said.

Christian looked back at him; Toto's gaze had changed... he seemed more determined.

"You probably flattered me a lot... you told me you loved me..." Toto's hand sought out Christian's "Then you proposed to me in the process."

Christian was still, feeling Toto's hand caressing his; he was starting to blush.

"I really don't know if your words were under anesthesia, and you don't feel the same... but at least I'm willing to go to dinner... if you're up for it," Toto said and brought Christian's hand to give it a kiss.

Christian sighed and smiled; perhaps something he felt and had kept to himself for a while... was reciprocated.

"So... would you like to go to dinner?" he asked formally, noting the younger one's smile.

"I'd love to," Christian responded.

And sometimes, fate has to give little nudges when love is around; even if it may be in an unusual way... but that's the way of love.

~~~~~~

So... a while ago with @silvereds we were talking about what it would be like if Christian were under the effect of anesthesia... so I was thinking about it and wrote it...

I hope you enjoyed

[tooxmanyxships]

Because of popular request, here's a little follow up from this It's Lewis' POV

Shit.

That's the only thing going through Lewis' mind when his car hits the wall.

The impact is stronger than he thinks and it's hard to keep his eyes open. But he can't pass out.....He can't ---

"Lewis!"

Huh?

"Lewis, answer me!"

I know.....that voice....Bono? No.....Who is it ---?

Lewis forces his eyes open, forces himself awake. At least awake enough to say something. To settle his team's worry.

"Yeah.....Yeah, I'm here. Sorry guys."

For a moment he got no response, but then Bono --- the real Bono this time --- says something like "As long as you're okay." and then there's nothing left to do but to get out of the car and go to a marshal to get brought back to the Mercedes garage.

He lets himself be quickly checked out, assuring them he's fine, then he's finally brought to the garage.

He's trying not to think about that voice that he recognized but couldn't quite place anymore than he needs to.

~~~~~~~~~~******~~~~~~~~

He keeps his head low when he enters the garage, not really keen on seeing all the disappointment, all the pity on everyone's faces.

He can hear some mechanics call his name as he pulls his helmet and balaclava off, but he chooses to ignore them.

It works pretty well, until suddenly he's stopped. Stopped by 2 strong hands on his shoulders.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

That voice...

His head shoots up.

Blue eyes. Blond hair.

"Lewis. Answer me."

Those same 3 words....the worry in those eyes. The same as in those words.

"I... I'm fine."

It's all coming back to him. He can see the other guy's lips moving but he doesn't hear what he says.

He looks relieved though.

And it all comes back. He knows whose voice it was when he was still in the car.

The voice that brought him back to consciousness.

Who else would have been capable of doing that except for the person right in front of him.

He feels the hands disappear from his shoulders. He already misses the contact.

"Nico, you----"

He can't even finish whatever he was gonna say. The other doesn't let him.

"It was good to see you."

And then he's leaving.

Too fast. Too soon.

"Nico! Wait!"

Another hand lands on his shoulder. It's Toto's.

"Let him go, Lewis."

I always let him go

[catsafarithewriter]

@champion-masquerade we thank you for your vote! You requested Baron making a fool of himself, and so I did provide!

(Unfortunately it looks like the final results are in amd despite a very close run, the Catbus has won this round! Thank you everyone who voted, and if anyone still wants a ficlet snippet for their vote, the offer remains! However, now I sleep, so please enjoy Baron and his antics!)

x

All Creations were made with a purpose. For Baron it was to help ‐ something he achieved through the Bureau and, before that, through just generally being a nosy busybody.

Toto had been created to protect, and unfortunately he appeared to have latched on to Baron Humbert von Useless Dramatics.

It hadn't been intentional. At first, he'd just joined the Bureau as a favour to an old friend, a temporary thing which gave him a proverbial roof over his head and a perch to call home. It should have been simple. Easy. After all, the Baron was a Creation, immune to age and disease, and hardier than any mortal. He shouldn't have needed protection.

And then the Baron had leapt through a cathedral rose window and only Toto's quick reflexes had saved the cat Creation from being dashed to splinters.

"But I knew you'd catch me," the Baron had lightly remarked when Toto had later aired his grievances. "You always do."

"And if I hadn't?" Toto had pressed. "What was your grand scheme then?"

The Baron had paused in straightening his bowtie, as frustratingly unflappable as ever, and merely looked to his friend with that trusting surety which left him leaping beyond his reach. "But you always do," he had said once more.

And Toto does. He catches the Baron again and again and again, from one sure death to the next, until Toto's begin to ebb. Even so, there are limits.

He perches on his column and watches his old friend with all the raised eyebrow a crow can muster. "I know this won't change anything," he says, "but I have to say it anyway, in hopes that one day it will sink in: this is madness."

Baron stands atop the rooftop of the Bureau and grins one of his smiles which reassure the clients, usually in the absence of anything ekse to do the job. "I would have thought you'd approve, Toto. After all, usually my leaps are in the spur of the moment, unrehearsed things. For once, we shall actually practice this before putting it to use."

"That's all well and good, but jumping for your life is one thing, whereas this simply feels... frivolous."

"It's a practical skill."

"You want to leap off a roof backwards and land on a moving object," Toto reminds him.

"Possibly with a spin, once I get it figured," Baron adds, somehow missing how not-reassuring his addition is. "Or possibly a backflip."

"Well, that makes all the difference," Toto deadpans.

"It's a matter of maintaining an element of surprise," Baron persists. "Say I'm cornered against a drop, nowhere to go but back. If I turn to leap, I'll broadcast my actions too early and probably end up skewered. However, if I learn to leap backwards, they'll never see it coming."

"Right. Because only an idiot would jump back blindly over a sheer drop."

"Exactly."

"And the spin and/or backflip helps how?" Toto asks.

"Momentum."

A long pause passes. Toto supposes that Baron's willingness to practice a leap before he puts it to the test is a sign of... well, perhaps not common sense, but an improvement. Toto sighs. "Alright. But this move better only be used in last-resort measures only, understood? This isn't to be another client-impressing trick like your light show."

"Rest assured: I shall employ it in only the most dire of circumstances."

To his credit, Baron keeps to his word – or almost. Right up until he rescues a schoolgirl from an unwanted marriage, and in their final departing, he makes that backward spin.

Toto catches him – because of course he does.

"Most dire of circumstances?" Toto reminds his friend.

Baron groans and drops his head against the crow's feathers. "Love confession."

Held from Toto's talons, Muta guffaws. "Again?'

[wolfiemcwolferson]

I love your ficlets from within the blue neighbourhood verse. I was thinking about Daniel, and the lasting effects he has mentally from Jules and driving. It would be amazing to see how he would react if one of the boys was in a small car accident (literally just a small bump) and how max and charles and the others would come together to make sure he was OK

Hi Anon! I’ve been sitting on this for so long. I reference this incident in the latest chapter of Galex that is literally just about to post. I had most of this ficlet written in my little secret Blue Neighbourhood ficlet file, but then I didn’t know if I was going to write the Galex chapter from Daniel’s POV, but decided to share something fresh and new for you. 

Thank you for being so patient!

CW: Car accident, mentions of death, minor injuries

Max had meant to buy a new car with the life insurance money, but every time he went to look, he couldn’t give it up, suddenly overly sentimental about it. At first, it was a practical I only ever drive to work and then it was a but I don’t know if I should replace it before it gives out and finally it was a too many good memories to replace.

Daniel understood, of course, because he had one single vehicle since he could drive. 

But, it becomes a fight when Max and Daniel move to Denver. 

“You cannot drive that in the winter.” Daniel says, arms crossed over his chest, pointing at it.

He knows they have a few months before it becomes an issue, but Max is stubborn and it might take him a few months to convince him to buy a new damn car. 

Max huffs out a laugh and waves him off. “We will see.”

Daniel lets it go because he has to pick his battles today and right now one of them is that they are not moving into the apartment building that’s literally down the road from his parents. If Daniel ever wants to see Max again, they’ll be moving into the one that’s 20 minutes away. Sure it’s a longer commute, but Daniel sees the writing on the wall there. Thanks.

.

Daniel is in DC meeting with Lance and Toto about some funding for a new shelter somewhere in the South - they’re still working out the details - the first time it goes icy back home and Daniel is pretty panicked about it, but Max assures him that he’s fine. He can get home just fine - it’s all main roads anyway. 

“Yes,” Daniel agrees, “But you are from Texas and Southern California, you don’t know how to drive in this.”

Max laughs and tells him he loves him and hangs up the phone. Daniel finishes getting ready to go to dinner with Lance and George - now that he’s back from New York - and he’s off. 

When he drunkenly tumbles back into his hotel room later that night, he responds to Max’s goodnight text with a half a dozen kissy face emoji’s and something that might be love u so much i miss you

His flight is at a criminal time in the morning. He’ll be back with him soon.

.

Not hearing from Max much this week isn’t particularly alarming considering the point in the semester and also, he has a deadline to make some edits on his latest book, but what is alarming is Grace waiting for him. 

“Max.” He knows it immediately, feeling like his whole world is dropping away, because -

“He’s fine,” Grace says, firm and unflinching, holding his chin in her hand. “He’s a bit bruised, but he’s fine.”

Daniel doesn’t believe it. If he was fine, he would have been here. He would know that Daniel wouldn’t - Daniel wouldn’t be fine, if he -

Grace is shoving a phone in his face and it’s probably Joe, but Daniel can see Max, laying on one side in Daniel’s bedroom, asleep. He doesn’t look bruised, but then all Daniel can see of him is his face - which is fine, nothing - the noise rushes in again. Daniel takes a deep breath and the noise rushes in again. 

“Danny,” Grace says, taking the phone from him. 

Danny’s chest is cracking open. “Ice?” 

Grace nods, looping their arms together. “Ice.”

“Well,” Daniel’s voice sounds brittle, “he’ll have to get a new car now.” Unless, god, unless it’s fixable. “Right?” He squeaks.

The grim set of her lips tells Daniel nothing.

.

Charles texts him and Daniel thinks he might be shit because he didn’t think to check on him, but Charles is concerned for Daniel and he knows that...well, of course Daniel wasn’t thinking about Charles - he’s not even thinking of himself - just Max. Just getting to Max. He needs to touch him, assure himself that he’s okay. 

And then the group chat messages start and Daniel knows that Charles has told everyone that they can check on him, but Daniel just puts his phone underneath his thigh, feeling it buzz as things roll in. He can’t - he can’t do it until he touches Max. 

“Mom -” he starts to ask her if he’s alright again, but he doesn’t because he knows that it won’t matter. He won’t believe it until he touches him. It’s like he’s on that plane again, feeling like he can’t do anything - desperate to touch him - to hold him - to feel him breathing. 

Grace reaches over and places her hand on his thigh. “I am sorry, my darling.”

Daniel squeezes the steering wheel until his knuckles go white. “I know.”

.

Max is awake and sitting on the couch downstairs when Daniel walks in the door, Grace trailing right behind. Daniel stands in the doorway for two long seconds. “Why didn’t you call me last night?”

Max shifts and then kind of winces and all of the anger and panic bleeds away in an instant. “Hi.”

Daniel moves, dropping to his knees before Max, putting his head on his knees. Max does his best to fold himself down on top of him as Daniel comes apart. 

Someday, he thinks, he will stop thinking everyone is going to die in a car.

“I’m ok, Danny.” Max whispers. “I’m ok.”

Daniel sits up, wiping furiously at his eyes. “You’re getting a car that’s meant for the snow. Don’t argue with me.”

Max pets a hand down his face. “Yes. I know. Joe has already given me the lecture.” He pulls his face up. “Now, please call some of our friends back before they start booking plane tickets.”

Daniel gives a bit of a wet sob. “Ok, I can do that.”

He tries to pull himself up, by using Max’s knees, but he barely keeps himself from audibly wincing, so Daniel uses the couch instead. “I think you’ll have to be gentle with me for a few days.” Max chuckles.

Daniel starts to say, “Oh, I’ll be gentle with -”

Grace clears her throat. “No.” She says firmly. “Daniel. Not in front of me, please.”

“Ow,” Max gasps, trying desperately to laugh. “Ow, ow ow ow, stop.”

Daniel stays on the ground for a little while longer, head on Max’s knee, laughing while Max runs a hand through Daniel’s hair. 

He’s alive. He’s laughing. 

[doctorstethoscope]

In the Garden || A. Hotchner x Fem!Reader

hello babes! Something a little different today-- I didn’t have time to write a request that I was going to be pleased with, so this is something that’s been sitting in my drive for a while. Hope you like it! 

Submit requests here! 

contains: sexual innuendo, gun mention

wordcount: 2.4k

You can’t remember the last time you wore a dress, much less a gown like the one JJ was zipping you into now-- dresses weren’t practical for field work with the BAU, and even when you’d worked in the counterterrorism unit, you’d much preferred a professional blouse and pair of slacks. But the First Lady had decided to throw a ball in the White House to celebrate federal employees, and the Bureau was receiving an award, which the Director had hand-picked the BAU to accept. So, gown. Even though you’d much prefer to be changing into a pair of sweats-- you had been called on a case two days before the ball, and Garcia saved the day by running to everyone’s apartments and grabbing their nice clothes so you all wouldn’t be late. Which is how you found yourself squeezing into a sleek off the shoulder number in the Batcave, with Emily batting at your face with a makeup brush and JJ tugging at your zipper. 

“Babe, you look hot.” Penelope says as Emily and JJ step away from you, admiring their work. 

“All Emily’s work,” you deflected with a shy smile. 

“We’ll have that fight when we’re not running late,” Emily said, pulling you out of Garcia’s office, she and JJ not far behind. 

Derek let out a wolf whistle when he saw you all approaching, and you heard JJ’s windchime laugh from a few steps behind. 

“Hello ladies,” he said with an exaggerated leer. 

“Derek Morgan, you’re lucky that my thigh holster doesn’t go with this dress.” Emily spits out, and all of you burst out in laughter. 

“Chocolate thunder, you clean up good,” Garcia says, crossing to Derek, who moved to put his arm around her shoulders as Reid emerged into the bullpen. 

“Speaking of cleaning up good,” JJ says with a small smile, and you catch Reid blushing. 

“Did you know that balls like this can cost American taxpayers up to a million dollars?” He asks the group, and you smile.

“Maybe don’t mention that when the first lady gives us the award, yeah Spence?” You tease, and he treats you to a little chuckle.

You hear Hotch before you turn to see him and Rossi. “Alright, let’s go,” He says, leading the group out of the BAU and towards your SUVs. You end up in the passenger seat of the car Rossi is driving. 

“You doing okay, kid? You’re awful quiet this evening. Invitations to Federal Government Prom don’t come often, you know.” He smirks, and you half-ass a smile in return. 

“Yeah, I’m okay, Rossi. Just tired, you know. Would have preferred to get a night’s sleep in my own bed before we did this, you know?” 

He nods, but there’s no use in lying to a profiler. 

The food, you have to admit, is leagues better than the instant ramen you would have cooked up if you had gone home tonight. And the conversation isn’t half bad either, you admit to yourself as you lazily flirt with Paul, a junior fellow from the Department of Health and Human Services, just barely putting in enough effort to seem interested while allowing your mind to wander.

The sensation of a warm hand in between your exposed shoulder blades distracts you from your train of thought. 

“Excuse me,” Aaron’s deep baritone interrupts Paul’s nervous tenor. “I’d like to cut in for a dance, if you don’t mind.”

Paul sputters, and you laugh, because you know that Aaron was asking you, not this early-thirties politico type that he towered over, both physically and morally. 

“We’ll catch up later?” you said to Paul, with absolutely no intent to catch up later, before Aaron led you out to the dance floor. 

“Hotch, I’m gonna step on your feet.” You warned. 

“No you won’t,” he assures you. “Follow my lead.” 

You do as you’re told, and you’re surprised to realize just how easy it is to follow him, anywhere. 

“Aaron Hotchner, when on Earth did you learn to ballroom dance?” You asked incredulously. 

“Boarding school,” He answers with an easy smile.

“You’re joking,” you accuse. 

“Ah, yes, something I’m known to do.”

“You remain a mystery, Hotchner.”  You tell him.

“I don’t know. That might have been my last secret.” 

You roll your eyes, content to continue dancing, and finding yourself getting distracted again. 

“What are you thinking about?” Aaron asks, and you mentally curse yourself for letting your guard down in front of your boss. 

“Oh, it’s nothing. I’m just tired. But really grateful to be here, of course, and--”

“I wasn’t asking as your boss, you can stand down,” He smirks, dipping you quickly and it takes your breath away. “You’re thinking of leaving.” He says as he lifts you back up, and it’s not a question. 

“How did you-- I can’t believe-- Damn profilers.” You harrumphed. 

“You’ve been distant, the past couple weeks. You’re in your early twenties accepting an award at the White House, by all accounts you should be ecstatic. That’s when I knew something was wrong. And when I saw you with Peter, or whatever his name was, who you couldn’t be less interested in, that’s when I knew it was us.” 

“See, and that’s exactly why I need to leave. Because I’ll never be able to do that.” You tell him, finally looking him in the eye.

“You will,”  He says in a self-assured tone that does nothing to assuage your anxiety.

“I don’t know,” you sighed. 

“I do.” 

“Maybe I’m not good enough, Hotch.” You confess carelessly. He’s already figured you out. Might as well fess up to your deepest insecurities while your boss holds you and stares you down with his deep brown eyes in the middle of the East Room.

“You are,” he says in that same tone, that you’re sure is supposed to be calming but is only infuriating. 

“But maybe I’m not! Maybe I’m one of those people who always wanted to do it, who always wanted to be an agent, but it’s like a pipe dream for me. I don’t contribute to the team the same way everyone else does. I don’t pick up on the things that seem so obvious to all of you, and it sucks. I can still do good work, but you know-- you change your dreams and you grow up. Maybe I’m one of those people and I’m just not supposed to be here. I just can’t stay knowing that I’m not supposed to be here-- I have to leave.” You’re not even sure if your soliloquy makes any sense, but Aaron pulls you a little closer, so he can speak the next few words lowly, directly into your ear. 

“You’ve been here eight months. It takes time. You are an incredible agent, and an asset to this team. I don’t need another profiler that sees the same things we all see-- I need you, and your observations, the things we missed-- those are the things that solve cases. I can’t-- I can’t allow you to change your dream. I can’t let you leave. I need you here.” 

You let his words hang in the air for a moment before he speaks again. 

“The, uh-- the team needs you. We all need you, and your observations, is what I meant.” He stammers. 

“Hotch?’ You ask, confused by the sudden change in tone. 

“Do you want to go get some fresh air? Get away from the crowd?” He asks, pulling away to look at you, and there’s an invitation in his eyes. Maybe a more seasoned profiler would know exactly what it was, but you were excited to find out nonetheless.  

“Yeah, I think I do.”

You’re certain that you’re breaking some sort of law as Hotch pulls you out of the ballroom and down a hallway, his fingers interlocked with yours. You try not to think about it too much. Your heels click against the marble floors as you follow Aaron’s brisk pace, and eventually he finds a door outside, opening it up and allowing you to pass through it first. It takes a minute to place yourself, especially under the cover of night, but after a moment you realize you’re in the rose garden. 

“Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore,” You say under your breath with a little laugh as you look out over the sprawling display of flowers and plants. 

“It definitely beats the Quantico courtyard,” Aaron agrees.

“Never thought I’d make it there, either.” You confess, not looking at him.

“But you did. It wasn’t meant to be easy, but you made it, and you’ll grow. You just need time.” He tells you. 

“How can you be so sure?” You ask, feeling your eyes well up. 

“I was young once, too.” He tells you with a self-deprecating grin. 

“You can’t play up the wise, ancient elder with me, Hotch. I’ve seen you chase Jack across a soccer field like you’re still in your twenties.” You laugh, but he can hear the emotions behind it.

“Hey, come on, I mean it. I’m not Rossi, but I’ve got my fair dose of wisdom to share,” he says, moving closer to you and placing a hand on your arm, trying to comfort you. “Let’s keep dancing. If you want to talk, you can talk. But you thought you couldn’t dance, and you could dance, right? So we can keep doing that until you believe me.” He said, pulling your hand up in his and placing his other on your waist. 

The two of you moved slowly, the orchestra from inside only barely audible from where you were standing. With Hotch’s bad ear, he could really only hear it when his body was angled just right in the direction of the East Room, but somehow he had perfect rhythm regardless. You move in silence for a song or two or three before Hotch speaks up again. 

“I lied to you, earlier.” He confesses, still guiding you effortlessly through a simple waltz. 

“How do you mean?” You ask, suddenly nervous that you were right, that you’re a complete failure of an agent, and that you need to pack your bags and head on back to Kansas.

“I lied when I said that I’d told you my last secret.”

“Oh,” you said, too caught up in your own head to try to understand what he was saying.

“And I lied when I told you that I meant the team needed you--” you felt that bone-crushing weight on your soul again-- “we do, of course, but that’s not what I meant.” 

“Hotchner, what are you talking about?” You finally asked, no longer able to tolerate the emotional whiplash of his conversation.

“When I said I needed you, I meant it.” 

“Oh,” you say, your face a portrait of shock and confusion, even though you understood him completely. 

“That’s selfish of me as a person, and wrong of me as your superior, and maybe that means that I’m outing myself as the kind of fucked-up person that isn’t worth another second of your time, but I needed you to know.” He stops dancing now, tries to hedge a bit of space between you without letting you go entirely. 

“Aaron,” you whisper, clinging to him more tightly as he pulls away, feeling his jacket wrinkle under your fingernails. 

“Yes?” he whispers back. 

“I’m glad you told me,” you tell him, and that’s all the permission he needs to take your face in both of your hands and kiss you, with a gentleness that makes you feel like spun gold, with the reverence of a man who knows that love is not a game, with the hunger of one who has been starved for months. 

He pulls away from you, too soon, and your eyes are wet. “My resignation will be on your desk by Monday morning.”

He takes a step away. “What do you--” 

“Goodnight, Aaron,” You tell him with a sad little smile, turning around towards the door you came from and leaving him in the garden.

You’re drowning your sorrows in a pint of Ben and Jerry’s when the doorbell rings the next day. You swing the door open grumpily, to reveal Aaron. 

“It’s Saturday, and you can’t turn in your resignation until 9am Monday. What can I do in the next forty eight hours to convince you that you belong here?” Aaron asks, still standing in the hall of your apartment complex.

You sigh, stepping aside to let him in. You can’t give him what he wants, but you won’t have this argument where all the neighbors will hear, either. “It’s too late, Hotch.”

“It’s not too late,” he argues, checking his watch. “I have forty six hours and thirteen minutes.”

“I’ll still be the girl who got this job on her back forty six hours from now.” You tell him, folding your arms.

“You’ll be what?” He asks, incredulous. 

“I know that you heard me loud and clear. 

“I’m sorry, I just didn’t know that you slept with Erin Strauss. I didn’t think you were her type.” He says, and you let out an exasperated sigh. 

“You’re absolutely incorrigible!” You cry out. 

“Who implied that you got this job on anything other than your own merit?” Aaron asks, a glint in his eye that lets you know that they’ll be handled just as soon as he gets you to shred the letter of resignation you drafted last night.

“Didn’t I? You didn’t clear my promotion because you were attracted to me?” You asked.

“I cleared your promotion before we even met-- your interview was a bureau formality. Your reputation and the glowing recommendations from your peers in counterterrorism spoke volumes.”  He assures you.

“Oh,” you let out, your anger deflating. 

“If you want to leave because of my inappropriate behavior, please reconsider. I’m incredibly sorry for--” He starts, but you cut him off, placing your hands on his face and pulling him in for a kiss. 

“Nothing to be sorry for. Please continue to be inappropriate,” you tell him in between kisses. 

He smiles as he continues to place kisses across your face, your jaw, your neck, your collarbone. “Right now?” He asks, slipping a hand underneath your shirt.  “You want me to be inappropriate right now?” 

“If you’re really good at it, I’ll let you tear up my resignation yourself.” 

@romanogersendgame @wanniiieeee      @zheezs14      @greeneyedblondie44 @angelic-kisses13  @baumarvel @ssamorganhotchner  @ijustwannaread2k19    @rexit-mo @shmaptainhotchnersmain @qtip-blog @averyhotchner  @the-modernmary @itsmytimetoodream @choppa-style @hotforhotchner11 @infinite-tides @isthatme-thatsme @g-l-pierce @bakugouswh0r3 @ssahotchie @sleepyreaderreads @rousethemouse @scuttling

[theladyofdeath]

The Yellow Brick Road {Nessian}

an extension of Shelby and I’s, The Ranch. 

31 Days of Halloween: Day 6.

All installments co-written with @snelbz​

Based on a prompt sent in by anon: “ for halloween: the ranch au, sloan's first Halloween! 🤩 she and beau are dorothy and toto”

Autumn/Halloween 2020 {Collection}

Cassian sat with Beau on the couch as Nesta got Sloan ready upstairs. He was exhausted. It had been a long day, for both him and Beau, but he wasn’t about to miss Sloan’s first Halloween.

And, of course, neither would Beau. 

The big, sparkly, red ribbon around his neck confirmed that.

It wasn’t like Nesta Archeron to wave off one of her daughter’s firsts, but when he’d asked about it the week before, he was surprised how quickly her response was. “She’s being Dorothy and Beau is being Toto.”

He tried to explain to her that Beau was a ranch dog and you couldn’t throw a costume on a dog with a job. Sighing and looking down at him now, he patted the pup’s back. “I’m sorry, bud, I feel your pain.”

Because, of course, they were dressing up, too. Nesta had just told him she was going to be the Wicked Witch and he was heading back out to the pasture when she said, “Oh and you’ll be the Scarecrow!”

Cassian had paused at the door and turned back around, back to where his girls had been having tummy time in the living room.

“Why can’t I be the Tin Man?” He asked, leaning against the door frame.

She smiled. “Because you’ve already got the biggest heart I know.”

With a warm smile, he pressed a kiss to both of their foreheads and was back out to work. It was nearly thirty minutes later, when Cassian was getting ready to give one of the horses a brush down that he realized that the Scarecrow was missing a brain.

He had told Nesta as much later that night, where she distracted him from the fact every way she knew how, with kisses and wandering hands and loud, sensuous moans. 

Now, he shoved the hay back into his sleeves before sighing. “They’re taking forever.” 

Beau whined as he laid his chin on Cassian’s knee. 

“Nesta!” he called. “We’re going to be late!” 

“We’re coming! Getting Dorothy’s ruby red slippers on!” she called back, and was followed by a quiet, high-pitched, “Yes I am. Yes I am.” 

Sloan’s giggles filled the silence, and Beau was instantly on his feet, wagging his tail. 

“At least one of us is excited to walk around town like this,” Cassian muttered. 

He checked his phone, yet again. We’re all ready to head out. Where’s Dorothy?

Cassian huffed as he replied to Azriel. Taking twenty minutes to get on the ruby slippers, apparently.

His phone vibrated in his hand and he saw the response. Sounds about right. Let me know when you’re leaving.

He was just getting up off the couch, groaning and stretching when he heard steps coming from upstairs.

Nesta came around the corner, dressed as the wicked witch of the west. She was painted green, although her nose was still cute as a button and not long and pointed. She wore a long, black dress with a high skit, and laced long sleeves, as well as a tall, pointed witch hat.

And in her arms was the cutest little Dorothy that Cassian had ever seen.

In that moment, he didn’t even care that he was about to walk out into the world, dressed like a giant scarecrow.

“What do you think?” Nesta asked, turning in a slow circle.

“I think that I’ve never been so turned on by the wicked witch,” Cassian muttered, giving his wife a quick kiss. He was quickly turning to Sloan, who was smiling up at him. Cassian chuckled and kissed her forehead. “You’re so cute. Yes you are.”

She giggled, as she always did when her father gave her any attention.

“Alright, what’s left to do before we need to leave?” Nesta asked, looking around the room.

“Nothing,” Cassian said, grabbing Beau’s leash from where it hung by the door and Sloan’s diaper bag from its place on the floor. “Candy is already in the truck, as is the duffle bag with a change of clothes.” The hay in his sleeves and pants legs were already starting to itch and he told Nesta he’d be changing at some point throughout the evening. “So all you have to do is get that sexy, green butt in the truck and we’re ready to go.”

Nesta rolled her eyes. “I didn’t paint my butt green, Cass.”

Cassian snorted. “It was just an expression, sweetheart… although, I am a little disappointed.”

She narrowed her eyes and jabbed him in the chest with her finger before bringing Sloan outside into the warm, late-afternoon sun. 

She was strapped into her car seat and they were all loaded up in a matter of minutes. 

As soon Cassian began driving out of the driveway, he caught Beau licking Sloan’s cheek in the rearview mirror.

Softest ranch dog in history.

At least, he was for Sloan.

But then again, they all were soft for that baby.

As soon as they pulled into the Square, they spotted the rest of their family. Granted, it was hard to miss Azriel painted silver and Elain’s massive, pink dress. It had all been Elain’s idea to begin with, and Nesta secretly thought that she wanted to be Glinda more than she wanted to see Sloan as Dorothy.

Azriel and Rhys made very convincing renditions of the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion, and Nesta couldn’t wait to get pictures of her baby girl with her daddy and uncles. It was the cutest thing she’d ever seen. Feyre seemed to be enjoying her role as the Wizard, as well, if the long dramatic cape she kept sweeping around was any indication.

“Holy cuteness,” Elain beamed, as Nesta and Sloan came nearer to her. She reached for Sloan, and the baby was instantly reaching toward her aunt. “Az was worried she’d be scared of him.” 

Nesta looked over her shoulder where the silver-clad Azriel was robotically drinking a beer, thanks to the cardboard boxes that had been used to make his costume.

Elain had made all the costumes. 

And they were all done to perfection, Nesta’s slim-fitting dress included. It was the first “form-fitting” thing she had worn since Sloan was born, after months of insecurity, but for the first time, she was feeling pretty damn sexy.

Cassian thought so, too. She was completely aware of the way his eyes lingered on her assets. 

“Jury’s still out on that, he’s pretty terrifying on a normal day,” Cassian said as he walked by, carrying a folding table, two lawn chairs, the bag of candy, Sloan’s diaper bag, and her pack-n-play. In one trip. “Now instead of just ugly, he’s ugly and creepy.”

Sloan was batting at Elain’s poofy sleeve as the two women rolled their eyes, and Nesta was about to remind him that he was allowed to make two trips, but then Elain said, “Come look at how cute the truck bed is all set up,” taking Nesta’s hand.

Nesta had to admit, the back of Azriel’s truck, which had never been described as anything remotely close to cute, was. There was an adorable “yellow brick road” drawn in chalk, courtesy of Feyre, leading to and from the bed, which led to a tiny cardboard archway that read “Welcome to Oz!” The kids could walk under it and follow the yellow brick road to the bed of Azriel’s truck, where they’d be waiting to hand the kids candy. 

More and more people were beginning to show up, and the sun was slowly sinking, which meant that it was about to be showtime. Sloan was happily blowing raspberries and playing with Elain’s plastic wand when Beau hopped up on the bed of Azriel’s truck and laid down on the yellow brick road with a huff. 

“Aw, you look distressed, Beau,” Elain said, patting his head.

Azriel came up behind them. “Rhysand keeps terrorizing him in his lion costume.” 

Sloan took one look at Azriel and was reaching for Cassian.

Azriel sighed, exasperated. “She’s scared of the tinman but not of the scarecrow? I knew it.”

“I’m her dad, she expects me to be dressed as weird things,” Cassian assured him, taking his daughter into his arms. 

“She expects you to do a lot of weird things at this point,” Nesta said, giving a ruby red binky to Sloan and clipping it to her little plaid dress. “Dressing as a scarecrow ranks fairly low on the list, actually.”

“So you weren’t going to tell them about how Sloan started crying when she saw your after her nap?”

Nesta glared at her husband. “I was going to keep that fact to myself, yes.”

It was simultaneously the funniest and saddest thing Cassian had ever seen. He’d just gotten out of the shower and volunteered to wake Sloan up since Nesta was running late and wanted to make it there on time. So much for that. After the struggle of waking her up - the girl loved her sleep - and changing her diaper, he carried a sleepy Sloan back into their bedroom. As soon as Nesta came out of the bathroom, hair piled on top of her head, green makeup covering her entire face, Sloan had burst into tears. It took nearly twenty minutes to calm her down, and Nesta felt horrible about it. Cassian knew he should have felt bad about laughing as hard as he did, but he didn’t.

“One day, she’s going to watch this movie,” Feyre laughed, looking around at the somewhat ridiculous costumes, “and she’s going to be terrified and have no idea why. You’re causing internal trauma that she’s going to repress.”

“Everyone stop ruining my child’s first Halloween, damn it,” Nesta mumbled. “She looks precious, I look precious-.”

“I know I look precious,” Cassian cut in. 

Nesta rolled her eyes. “Can I have her basket?”

Cassian pursed his lips. “Uh, what basket?”

“Her...candy basket?” Nesta went on, exasperated. “The one that says Sloan in bright, sparkly, ruby letters?” 

Cassian cleared his throat. “Let me go check in the truck.” He left, hurrying away, fully-aware that her basket was not in there.

It was sitting on the kitchen table.

Where he’d set it about an hour before.

Time to play damage control.

Nearly five minutes had passed by the time he jogged back over to his family, something held behind his hands.

“There’s a reason he ended up as the Scarecrow,” Rhys muttered as Nesta crossed her arms across her chest.

“That doesn’t look like her basket,” Az crooned.

But Nesta was staring at the little “basket” he’d made out of a few clean shop towels and multicolored zip ties he’d braided together. It wasn’t near as cute as the basket she’d made for Sloan.

But it was sweet, nonetheless.

With a sigh, Nesta took the basket, pressed a kiss to Cassian’s cheek, and walked away with Sloan, without a word.

Cassian cleared his throat. “I honestly can’t tell if she’s mad or not.”

“She will be if you don’t hurry after her and take pictures,” Feyre muttered.

Cassian hauled ass, Beau chasing after him on his leash. 

They made their rounds, going to each trunk around the square and getting Sloan candy, which Cassian knew he’d be indulging in. She was the perfect trick-or-treater, giggling as those who were passing out candy said hello to her. She only cried once, at a man dressed up as Frankenstein’s monster. 

Cassian didn’t blame her, but after they got her quieted and happy, yet again, she was back to having the time of her little life. Especially once they got back to their little family and she got to see her Aunt Elain again. Those big, puffy sleeves were what kept her entertained until she finally fell asleep, just as the sun went down.

In the middle of the square, a giant bonfire was starting.

Cassian sighed as he placed Sloan comfortably in her car seat in the bed of Azriel’s truck. “Can I change now?”

Nesta eyed him, from his straw hat down to his boots. “I don’t know. I kind of like the look.” 

He rolled his eyes and started unbuttoning his shirt. “I’m changing.”

“Here?” Azriel asked, his eyelids heavy. “I know the point of Halloween is to scare people, but you’ll scar the children for life-.”

“No, asshole, I‘m going to the restrooms,” Cassian scowled, walking away as heaps of hay began to fall off his body, the more he unbuttoned his shirt. 

The three Archeron sisters had crawled up in the bed of the truck and were hovering over Sloan, who was snoring soundly with her lips hanging open. 

She looked just like Cassian when she slept.

Nesta fought off a yawn and Elain said, “Like mother, like daughter, yeah?”

She chuckled. “Haven't been sleeping well. It’s okay though.”

“Is it the nightmares again?”

Nesta blinked and looked up at her sister. The nightmares had plagued her for months. The scars that Tomas had left weren’t only the physical ones. But things had been better recently, she was waking up in a cold sweat less and less frequently, didn’t jump whenever a board creaked in the old house.

Shaking her head, Nesta smiled. “No, it’s not that. I’m pretty sure it’s that lumpy old mattress in the master bedroom.” She rubbed at her back. “Feels like I slept on rocks.”

“Maybe you should get a new mattress,” Elain said. “Stop spoiling your child for once and treat yourself.”

Nesta snorted. “Cassian and I can’t seem to agree on one. I miss being pregnant. He let me have whatever I wanted when I was pregnant. Now he only lets me have what I want...most of the time.”

“Poor Nesta,” Feyre teased.

She stuck her tongue out at her sister, who laughed quietly as sweet Sloan slept on, snuggled tightly in her blankets.

As Cassian made his way back from the truck, dressed in jeans, a flannel shirt, and, as always, his boots, Nesta caught his eye. He smiled and winked at her as he joined his brothers, ruffling Rhysand’s “mane”. 

She couldn’t stop watching him, still unable to believe that such an incredible man was her husband, the father of her child. 

“You look happy, Nes,” Feyre whispered, and when Nesta came back to reality, both of her sisters were looking at her, their eyes soft. 

“I am,” Nesta said, smiling as she looked back to Sloan and pushed her little hair off her tanned forehead. “I really, really am.” 

[dresupi]

Hold the Line - Coulson/Darcy

Ship: Darcy Lewis/Phil Coulson For: @hollyspacey Song: “Hold the Line” - Toto - 1978 Length: 530 Rating: T Tags: Established Relationship, Love Realization, Fluff, Fade to Black, Implied Sexual Content

Summary:

Darcy makes it so easy to love her.  Too bad now’s not the time to tell her.

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

“Do you really have to go in today?” Darcy asked, tightening her hold around his waist. “Doesn’t AIM know it’s Saturday? And that I was going to make you breakfast in bed?”

“For one, we’re in a hotel room, there’s no way for you to cook me anything in bed…”

“Didn’t say one single word about food, Phil,” she teased, rolling over to her side to prop her head upon her hand. “Breakfast isn’t always food, you know.” She winked, her long lashes fluttering in a way that made him legitimately sad he had to leave this warm little cocoon of affection that she’d, albeit unknowingly, filled his heart with beginning with her impromptu suggestion the night before.

Why not have a staycation, since he didn’t seem to ever leave DC for anything other than SHIELD business?

As it turned out, Darcy’s version of a staycation meant keeping him up past midnight with sex so hot, he almost thought he could have dreamed it, except his imagination wasn’t this spectacular.

And now she was giving him ‘breakfast in bed’ as well?

He reached for her, running his palm down her bare waist and down under the sheets to graze her hip and thigh as well. “Sounds like it was going to be spectacular, I’m sorry I have work…”

“It was going to be the breakfast of champions, I’ll have you know,” she replied haughtily. “I hope you realize that you’re missing a veritable banquet, Coulson.”

He chuckled and shifted closer. “It wasn’t a red alert, I could spare maybe twenty minutes or so? This hotel is closer to work than either of our apartments…”

She grinned. “I guess I could give you two courses rather than the full five.”

“Five? You’re aware I’m a helluva lot older than you, aren’t you? Five courses could kill me.”

“What a way to go,” she breathed, leaning closer and capturing his lips in a sensual kiss that damn near curled his toes on its own.

He wondered as she ducked under the covers. If she knew just how wrapped around her finger he really was. That he’d give her the world if she so much as asked.

Phil had made that promise to himself about four microseconds after Darcy had kissed him that first time. Call him a sugar daddy, call him whatever you wanted, but he wasn’t ever going to say no to her about anything.

Leave it to Darcy to be such a stellar example of humanity that she never so much as asked him for the time. Well, she asked for his time. Which, as it turned out, was one of the only things he couldn’t give her.

He’d put the room on his credit card, though.  And after this wake-up call?  He was going to add a massage and full spa day as well.

“You okay?” she asked, her head coming back up from under the covers and tilting quizzically.

“Fantastic,” he assured her. She made it so easy to love her. Even if he couldn’t tell her yet.

Hell, AIM could wait. He’d never been late before. Maybe he could do five full courses after all.

[trashinaglass-archive]

Two Big Babies

Y/n and Tom unknowingly schedule their wisdom teeth extractions for the same day.

Warnings: Pain? Blood? Teeth?

A/n: I got my wisdom teeth removed the day after Tom got his removed, and I’ve never felt more connected to the boy😂

      About two months ago your dentist told you it was time to get your wisdom teeth removed. You had met with the doctor that will be doing the extraction. He had walked you through the process of what to expect, how to care for it, and the do’s and don’t’s after the surgery. You signed some paperwork saying you understood everything and gave the doctor your consent to follow through with the procedure. You had checked your calendar and picked a day that you were sure neither you or Tom were busy for.

      After your consultation you got in the car and wrote out a text to Tom letting him know what had happened and drove home. When you got there, you added your wisdom teeth extraction to your calendar. Two months later, it was the week before your procedure. You hadn’t thought to remind Tom about it because he usually remembers events like that. However, he didn’t seem to remember it this time.

      Tom was getting ready to leave for the day, grabbing stuff and letting you know some stuff before he left.

      “Oh, and I forgot to tell you. I’m scheduled to get one of my wisdom teeth out next Thursday,” he said causing you to turn quickly to look at him.

      “No, you didn’t,” you said upset. Tom stopped what he was doing and looked at you.

      “Yeah, I did,” he looked confused.

      “Are you serious? You’re not joking?” You asked him to clarify.

      “Yes, y/n. Is that a problem?”

      “Um yes? That’s when I’m getting mine taken out,” you told him. You felt upset. You were planning for him to drive you and take care of you so you wouldn’t have to worry about taking someone else from their day.

      “You didn’t tell me that, how was I suppose to know?” Tom started to feel anger rise.

      “Tom, I did! I sent you a text right after I met the doctor two months ago.”

      “I can’t do this right now. The damage is done. I’m sorry, I love you, bye,” he said walking out the door.

      You took a deep breathe to calm yourself down. You weren’t angry at him, but your feelings were hurt. You felt like the procedure was a big deal, and not only did he forget, he scheduled his own procedure for the same day so he wouldn’t be able to take care of you. You wouldn’t be able to take care of him either. But Tom was right, the damage was done, and you just had to move on from it.

. . .

      The day of your procedures had come, and you were anxious to get it over with. You looked at Tom from your side of the bed as he flipped over to look at you.

      “Morning, Love,” he said to you sleepily, his voice much deeper and raspier than normal.

      “Morning,” you replied to him softly as you were not a morning person.

      “Ready to go get these teeth out?” He asked you as you made a face.

      “Ready as I’ll ever be,” you said and moved to get out of bed. You got brushed you teeth, threw on some sweats and a tee, and pulled your hair into a messy bun. Tom followed your lead, throughing on some sweats and a hoodie as you heard the door open.

      “Where are my two patients,” you heard Harry yell out. You smiled as you and Tom made your way to meet him in the living room. You greeted him with a hug and you were on your way.

       Once you arrived to the facility, you and Tom were asked to fill out some paper work before you were called back. You were called back first. You looked at Tom as you stood up. He held your hand and told you he would see you when you finished. You softly smiled as you walked toward the doctor, out of his sight.

       You sat down in the chair as the nurse put an oxygen mask around your nose and heart monitors on your chest. The doctor started an IV in your arm, and you remember the telling you to open you mouth, putting in a block to keep it open, as you fell unconscious.

      You woke up later to a woman tapping your shoulder.

      “You feel okay?” She asked you sweetly and you nodded, still feeling tired from the anesthesia. “Perfect, let me help you to your car.” She grabbed your arm and you leaned on her as you headed to the car outside. You saw Harry in the drivers seat along with Tom in the back. You sat down next to him and the lady said her farewells as she closed the door and Harry drove off.

      Tom put a hand on your thigh as you leaned your head against the window. And started to fall back to sleep.

      You were woken up again as you got home. Harry did as the nurse did, and practically carried you into the house were you and Tom both plopped onto the couch.

      “Right,” Harry said. “Sam and Harrison are going to be here soon to help out, and they’ll have your medicine.”

      “I want to lay down,” you told Harry, the words muffled by the gauze in your mouth.

      “You can’t lay down yet, just hold tight.” He walked away for a second. You huffed and leaned against Tom’s shoulder and closed your eyes. A few seconds later you felt the weight of warm blankets being placed over your body. You adjusted them to your liking then fell back asleep.

      You woke up to Sam and Harrison entering your house. They waved at you and asked how you were feeling. You felt your face and told them you were numb a-f. They laughed and Sam asked if you wanted your gauze changed. You nodded and as he went to get the new gauze, you looked to your left and saw Tom sound asleep.

      “Alright, let me see,” Sam said coming up to you. He took the bloody gauze out of your mouth and put new rolled pieces in.

      “Are you going to change Tom’s too?” You asked him. Even though you were asleep, you were sure his hadn’t been changed since your were.

      “As soon as he wakes up we will,” he assured you. “Do you need anything else right now?”

      “Will you put on a movie?” You asked while cuddling back into Tom’s side.

      “Of course, what do you want to watch?”

      “I don’t really care, just something.” This caused Harrison to perk up. He said there was some movie he had really been wanting to watch recently, and asked if you were okay with watching that. You told him you were and he excitedly started it.

      Not long into the movie you felt Tom wake up. He looked at you and the boys. “Did you start a party without me?”

      “Yep, sorry you missed it,” Harry told him, laughing. Sam stood up and went to get the gauze for Tom to change out as he promised. He also brought your medicine to keep the pain as minimal as possible.

      “You doing good, darling?” Tom asked looking at you while he rubbed your arm.

      “Yeah, what about you?”

      “I’m good. That was probably the best nap of my life.”

      “I heard that,” you said. You had honestly never felt so rested. “Can I have something to eat?” You asked anyone.

      “Yeah, there’s ice cream and maccorroni,” Harry informer you.

      “Ice cream,” You said with a gasp. Although you hadn’t started to hurt too bad yet, the thought of the cold, soft dessert in your mouth was enough to get you excited.

      “I’ll take some too, bro!” Tom called after Sam as he went to fetch the ice cream for you.

       “When we were at the dentist, how long before me were you done?” You asked Tom.

      “I’m not sure, a bit?” He answered you. “I didn’t take as long because you got all four of yours removed and I only had one removed today. They had me set up in a bed while we waited for you- that’s where most of my loopiness came out.”

       “Oh yeah! I recorded it to post. It was amazing,” Harrison said while handing you his phone. You pressed play on the video of Tom where you could see him slowly, but surely try to sit up. Once he managed to get himself up, he raised his ice pack to his face, saying ‘hello’ like it was his phone. He then faded out and fell back against the bed.

      “Aw, Tom,” You said laughing.

      “I think I deserve a kiss for that,” Tom said matter-of-factly.

      You looked at him like he was crazy, “my nose down is completely numb, that’s not gonna work.”

      “And I’m only partially numb, it’ll be fine,” he argued. “It doesn’t hurt to try.”

      “Whatever,” You said as he pressed his lips to yours. “That was weird,” you told him when he pulled back.

      “Yeah it was, my bad,” he told you.

      “Not happening again.”

      “Never,” he agreed making the three boys laugh at you two.

I had no idea how to end this, and I’m not proud of this. Hope someone likes it:)

I also understand that other countries don’t have the same wisdom teeth extraction process, but this is what I know, and this was my experience so don’t come for my neck please:)

Also, fun fact: When I got my wisdom teeth removed, the day after Tom, I asked my mom toto put Spiderman Homecoming on for me to watch, but the anesthesia kicked my ass so I only saw Michael Keaton at the beginning and Tom under a pile of rubble at the end. 

[loveforpreserumsteve]

Call It What You Want (Trans!Steve and Pan!Bucky Modern Summer AU)

Forty-Three:

As the game progressed, the more Steve grew to loathe Brock. Finding that Brock had the audacity to be both a sore winner and a sore loser. For each point that him and his team made, he would cheer and rub it in Steve's face, specifically. For each point that they lost, he would demand, "Get your shit together, Crossbones!"

The other team members groaned in annoyance and Natasha loudly argued, "That's not the team's name!"

"Yes, it is!" Brock insisted, appearing to be absolutely bonkers as he questioned, "Then what is it?!"

"I don't know," Natasha placed her hands on her hips and challenged, "But it sure as all hell isn't that."

Steve stood there, watching the other team bicker while tossing the ball in the air and catching it. It was his turn to serve again, and he was going to make sure not to take it too easy this time. He was ready to end the game, if only to shut Brock up.

Sam was trying to diffuse the situation on the other side of the net, and Steve sighed. Holding the ball against his hip, and looked over at his teammates as he asked, "Should I wait?"

"Hell no," Hildy loudly answered.

Turning to face the front again, Steve caught Bucky's gaze. Bucky encouraged, "Go ahead. If they miss it, they miss it."

Assuring himself, Steve nodded and smiled at the support and skillfully tossed the ball up and hit it with the heel of his hand. Causing the ball to harshly and flawlessly fly over the net. Having been practiced almost religiously for the early half of his adolescence, Steve had near-perfect aim and managed to hit the ball where it would land directly between Natasha and Brock.

Brock and Natasha paused their bickering. While the ball bounced up, Sam caught it, looking at it in awe. Shocked, everyone on both sides of the net looked over at Steve. The only one who wasn't surprised was Natasha. But, of course, Natasha wouldn’t be, considering she had been one of his main supporters during his games.

"Where the hell did that come from?!" Brock accused, approaching the net with furrowed brows.

Steve shrugged and before he could say anything, the members of his team all cheered victoriously. Sharon, Clint, and Hildy all crowded around Steve, ruffling his hair and holding his arms up as their proclaimed champion. Steve's cheeks burned and so did the tops of his ears as Sharon's younger brother, Evan, ruffled his hair. Bucky held back, smiling fondly at him and causing a shot of pride to develop in Steve's chest.

"Why the hell are you acting like he just won a tournament?! We're still playing!" Brock complained.

"Oh," Hildy started and childishly stuck her tongue out at him before heading back over to her spot.

"Such a dick," Evan muttered, following Hildy and taking his spot between Hildy and Bucky.

Clint companionably clapped his hand on Steve's shoulder and claimed, "Don't take it seriously."

"Right," Steve nodded, keeping his gaze down.

"You're serve!" Becca called from the other side of the net. She waited until Steve was looking before tossing the ball over to him.

"Thanks!" Steve called, focusing on catching the ball rather than the way his voice cracked.

Steve's jaw clenched tightly, he tossed the ball up, getting ready to serve again. Brock chose that moment to tease, "No wonder Bucky's got such'a hard on for ya! You're damn cute when you're determined!"

Fumbling, Steve caught the ball before it could go too far and his mouth dropped open in shock. Bucky was standing in front of Brock and Bucky lowly warned, "Stop."

"Oh, c'mon. I'm agreein' with ya!" Brock claimed, looking over Bucky's shoulder at Steve. Winking at Steve as he continued, "Your mouth really does pucker in the cutest way, sweetheart."

"Brock, seriously," Sharon sternly demanded, casting a cautious glance at Steve.

On the other side of the net, Sam shook his head in disappointment, "Not cool, man."

Brock mocked a pout, "But, babe --"

"Better be careful," Natasha warned with a smirk, "He purposely didn't hit you last time. If you keep talking you can guarantee he'll hit you this time."

From the back, Hildy's girlfriend, Carol, tucked the fallen blonde strands behind her ears and instructed Steve, "Serve it."

So, Steve did just that. Throwing the ball up, Steve made sure to serve it more aggressively than the previous time. Soaring over the net, Becca got to it, passed it to Mandy who hit it back over to his side. Hildy set it up and Evan jumped -- much higher than Steve expected -- and spiked the ball, scoring the game point.

From beside Steve, Clint yelled, "That's what I'm talking about Soaring Eagles!"

Sharon groaned and Hildy complained, "That's not our team name!"

"Seems fitting to me," Carol snickered, walking under the net to throw her arm around Hildy's waist and affectionately kissed her cheek.

Smiling, Steve bashfully averted his gaze. Not wanting them to think he was a creeper or a pervert watching their loving behavior. As they started heading over to the food, Hildy ruffled Steve's hair, regaining his attention.

"It's a damn shame that you don't live here, the Valkyries could use a player like you," Carol stated, causing Steve's chest to clench. If only his school back home was as supportive.

"Thanks," Steve smiled, meaning it.

"I'm starting to think that Wizard had it all wrong," Natasha started, slinging her arm around Steve's shoulders, "'There's no place like home'? Complete bullshit."

"Bullshit?" Steve questioned with a chuckle, allowing Natasha to guide him over to where the rest of the teenagers were getting food.

Natasha nodded, "I've never wanted to stay in Oz more, Toto."

Steve's eyes locked with Bucky's and he admitted, "I know what ya mean."

[catsafarithewriter]

“Not to be the bearer of bad news, but I’m ninety percent sure you grabbed the wrong person." 

A/N: I immediately thought of this post with this concept a la haunted house attraction, ironically before we started discussing Disney’s Haunted Mansion on Discord. Anyway, human AU (for reasons that will be clear), enjoy!

x

This was the last time Haru would let Hiromi talk her into something. 

“It’d be fun,” she’d said.

“Different,” she’d promised.

“Exciting,” she’d wheedled. 

So far, the only point Hiromi had been right on was different. If she had included dark and cold, she would have had three for three. 

In her designated nook of the haunted house attraction, Haru lurked. She was rather good at lurking, she reckoned, and would be capable of lurking for a good few hours longer. Which was just as well, since that was what this summer job was paying her to do. 

She resisted the urge to scratch her nose. The face paint itched something awful and hadn’t lessened, despite what her supervisor had assured. A monochromatic design of black and white had sunk her face into skeleton outline; simplistic but effective in the gloom of the corridors. At least she hadn’t had to apply the fake sores and open wounds that Hiromi - albeit rather gleefully - had needed to administer.

The shuffling of feet and shushed voices announced the arrival of her next victims. She hunkered down into her shadow an watched as the guests - a young couple with the guy making a show of going first - rounded the corner, waiting until they were just passing before giving a pointed cough. 

The lights flickered, momentarily illuminating her face and its otherworldly makeup, and there was a scream as the guests fled onto the next corridor, dissolving into giggles as they vanished. 

Haru couldn’t help herself she grinned as she returned to lurking. Okay, maybe Hiromi hadn’t been entirely wrong. It had its fun moments. 

x

This was the last time Baron would let Louise talk him into something. 

In hindsight, admittedly, the haunted house attraction would probably have been a little more enjoyable if he hadn’t taken it upon himself to stand between Muta and Toto in their group lineup. If anything, it had forced the two to shout louder at each other. 

“And I’m telling yer we’re going the wrong way!” Muta snapped. 

“It’s a haunted house. There is no wrong way,” Toto retorted. 

“If we keep going this way, we’ll jus’ end up at the beginning.”

“Do you have fluff for brains? Obviously the entrance is that way.”

“Children, children,” Persephone chided from the front. “Right now the scariest thing is how loud you two can bicker. Shut up and let the ghosts do their job.”

Louise tilted her head back to shoot them a glare. “Also we’re leading and we’re going this way.” 

Baron decided against mentioning that he had already seen one designated scarer, but they’d raised an eyebrow at the raised voices and had evidently agreed with Persephone’s assessment. 

They turned a corner and the corridor dropped into deeper darkness. Their pace slowed, senses heightening in the absence of sight. Suddenly he was aware of his hands curled around Muta and Toto’s, the shallow breaths of his companions, the shuffle of feet, the tap on his shoulder–

He froze. Muta walked into him. Toto was pulled to a halt. 

“What’s the holdup?” Muta hissed. 

“Something tapped my shoulder,” Baron whispered. 

The lights flickered into momentary blaze, but all he could see were his friends and the crossroads in the house ahead. His sister gave a tug and issued them slowly along. 

“At least it was polite ghost,” Toto offered. “It could be worse; it could have actually tried to scare us–”

The lights flickered again and everything happened at once. A shape leapt from the darkness, a blur of movement, the face of death, the roar of something animalistic and feral, and Baron lost both hands of his companions. In the passing light, he saw the others scatter down the split corridors like something out of a Scooby Doo skit and he grabbed Muta’s hand and hauled the tailend of their team after the vanishing shadow of Toto. 

He slammed into a dead end. Okay, maybe it hadn’t been Toto. He leant against the wall, still holding Muta’s hand on instinct, breathing hard and feeling a little foolish, when he realised a few discrepancies about the hand he held. 

For starters, it was significantly smaller, palm fitting comfortable in his instead of dwarfing it, the fingers slimmer and less comparable to sausages than usual. 

It was also wearing a skeleton glove. 

He looked at the hand. And then slowly up to its owner. A skull stared back. It grinned, because skulls are always grinning, but he was fairly certain, even in the dim light, that he could see the corner of the scarer’s real mouth twist into a smile. There was the shadow of a dimple along their left cheek. 

It occurred to him that if he could see the dimple of their smile, he was probably too close for comfort. He tried to step back and immediately hit his head on a low beam. “Uh,” he managed eloquently. “Hello.”

“Hello,” the skeleton replied, the voice higher than expected and now he could definitely hear the smile. “Not to be the bearer of bad news,” she said, “but I’m ninety percent sure you grabbed the wrong person.” 

x

Haru felt a little bit bad for her overreaction. 

Not a lot. But a little. 

She had been planning to only tap a few shoulders, cough a few times, maybe lurk in the light - but at the dismissive ‘actually trying to scare us’ comment, she’d - without any real conscious thought - decided to up it a notch. Or several. She hadn’t imagined it would go down so well. 

Or that, in the confusion, one of the guests would grab her hand instead of their friend’s. She stared at him in the confines of the dead end, feeling rather confidence with the mask of her face paint. 

“Not to be the bearer of bad news, but I’m ninety percent sure you grabbed the wrong person.”

He grinned nervously. “Only ninety? What about the other ten?”

“I don’t know. You might have a thing for cute skeletons.”

“I might, but I don’t.” 

A beat passed. They were still standing intimately close. 

“So,” he said, “what do we do now? Is there a precept for this sort of thing?”

“Well first,” she answered, “you let go of my hand.”

“Ah.” He released his hold, running his freed hand sheepishly through his hair. “Sorry. I… don’t suppose you could get me back to my group, could you?”

“Do ghosts go boo?” She cringed almost immediately after saying that. “Sorry, I’ve been here too long. Yeah, uh, please hold.” She stepped back, hitching a walkie talkie from the depths of her costume. “Machida? Machida, you there?” She held it away from her ear as a cacophony of laughter crackled through the speaker. “Machida, stop laughing!”

“I’m sorry,” her coworker replied. “I’m so sorry, but you should have seen your faces!”

“Trust that to have been caught on camera,” she muttered. Louder, she added, “Machida, I’m looking for this guy’s group. Can you tell me where they are?”

“Sure, give me a moment.” There was the clack of keys as he cycled through the cameras. “Two guys, two ladies, the guys have been bickering for the past ten minutes?”

“That’s them,” Baron said with a sigh.

“Got them. Okay, they’re in Room F, the zombie cage.”

“Fantastic. Have Hiromi keep them occupied, I’ll drop him off there.” She flicked the speaker back into her pocket and turned to her accidental companion. “We could go the long way, but I have a shortcut. How do you feel about tight spaces?”

“Depends on the context.”

“In a totally non-murdery-way.”

“Oh. I’m good then.”

“Great.” She grabbed his hand before she could think twice, and pulled the hidden staff door open. “Follow me.”

x

Sickly green safety lights lay low along the staff back corridors, bathing the narrow walkways in a glow that made Baron think of preserved museum specimens. The scarer wove her way though with practised ease, as if she wasn’t surrounded by a Frankenstein-background reject, hand still curled surely around his. 

“You can’t scare easily if you work here,” he said, searching for something to break the silence and detract from the creepy environment. 

She gave a snort. “I’m not actually a huge fan of horror movies. I didn’t sleep for a week after watching The Signalman.”

He watched her outline silhouetted by the safety strips. Like that, it was easier to see the curve of her face and bypass the skeleton decal. “They why do this?” he asked. 

She shrugged. “It pays. It’s different. And my friend kind of talked me into this.” She glanced back. He focused on her eyes and not the skull design. He wondered what she looked like without it. “How about you? Are you a fan?”

He chuckled. “It’s not my preferred genre. My sister dragged us all along, but I’m fairly certain she just wanted an excuse to hold her girlfriend.”

The scarer laughed. “Does she need an excuse?”

“No, but she’s an opportunist. She’ll take any opening.”

“And so she dragged the rest of you along.”

“She has a penchant for that.”

“Apparently it’s a family trait,” she said, and Baron reddened at the reminder of what had got him into this mess to begin with. 

“Miss, I am sorry for–”

She waved it away. “Honestly, no worries. It’s the funniest thing to happen to me all day. And it’s Miss Skeleton to you. Ah, here we are.” She clicked to a halt by what appeared to be another section of wall until she slid it back to reveal a haunted house room beyond. “Your group should be just round that corner.”

His feet didn’t move. They should have, but they didn’t. “Miss Skeleton,” he said with a small smile at the amendment, “regardless of your good humour, I still feel somewhat responsible for this situation.” He considered. “Ninety percent responsible.”

He saw the grin now for sure, even hidden beneath the layer of makeup. “And the other ten?”

“Well,” he said, “you are the one still holding my hand this time.”

She released him with a sheepish aura. “Just making sure you get back safely. Didn’t want you accidentally befriending another monster while you’re here.”

The open door waited for him, but he still didn’t move. “May I know the name of the monster I’ve already befriended?”

“Was Miss Skeleton not good enough for you?” she teased, and she gave him a gentle push out into the room. But before the door slid shut, she hesitated. “But my friends call me Haru.”

“Humbert,” he replied. “But my friends call me Baron.”

She grinned. “I’ll see you around, Baron.”

[danysghost-archive]

1, 2, 3

hey there! my first reddie fic is finally here! i really hope you guys enjoy it, and if you want to make any requests, just hit up my inbox! also, my inspo for this fic is this song, so go listen to it if you want the ‘full effect’

word count: 3,018!

warnings: mentions of abuse, mentions of drinking, swearing, eating a bug, and one homphobic term (sorry :(  )

Rainy days were always the best for Richie and Eddie. They could steal themselves away from the rest of the town and become the entire world to one another. On this particular afternoon in, the taller teen was stretched out on his bed, feet almost hanging off the edge. The smaller asthmatic lolled his head onto the bare chest before him. Their legs were tangled together, and the sound of Toto’s ‘Africa’ blended with the rain pattering on the window.

Richie already had his eyes on the back of Eddie’s head. When did he not? The boy was beautiful. His fingers were wrapping themselves in his brunette curls, and if he knew it wouldn’t hurt his boyfriend, he’d use Eddie’s hair to bring their lips together. Instead, after admiring him long enough, he poked the back of Eds’ skull, desperate for attention. “Hey… Spaghetti boy,” he spoke gently.

Slowly, Eddie lifted his head and turned to face Richie, resting his chin back down. “I thought we agreed that you’d never use that nickname? I hate it.” His smirk said otherwise. He stared at Richie dreamily, reaching his hand up to stroke his cheek. “What’s up?”

Richie grinned lazily, reminiscing on some of the best times he had with Eddie. “Did I ever tell you about how I fell in love with you?” He pushed himself up into a sitting position, pulling Eds with him. He draped his arms around Eddie’s frame, hugging him close to his body. “I can think of a few times that led me to loving you. Remember that day at the quarry, with the cricket?”

Eddie raised his eyes to Richie’s, a disgusted look on his face. “Ugh, really? That was attractive to you?” He let out a belt of laughter, just like the way he laughed when they were kids.

five years ago

Six of the losers were sitting in a circle at the edge of the quarry, all screaming at each other in a mix of separate conversations. There was only one member missing, Richie, who was supposedly on his way, but for some reason, incredibly late. Apparently he’d found something, and was overly excited to show it off.

Soon enough, Richie swung his bike up to the group of friends, with a small takeout container gripped in one hand against the handle bars. Without a word, he lept off his bike and slid right up next to Beverly, presenting the container to her. “Eat it,” was all he said.

Confidently, Beverly scoffed, beginning to open the container. “You want me to eat, what, some old Chinese food? Is that it?” When she unlatched the box and peeked inside, however, she groaned and made a puking motion off to the side. “No. No way!” She passed the box back to Richie.

He dumped the contents into his hand, revealing to the group a large cricket. Before it could jump away, he cupped his other hand in front of it, creating a dome. “Why not? It won’t hurt you!” He showed it to Stan, who was on his other side.

“It’s disgusting, dude. Admit it,” Stanley retorted. He snorted in laughter and shook his head, not surprised by Richie’s latest antic.

“Come on, it’ll be so funny!” The boy seemed to have his heart set on it.

Beverly, rolling her eyes, suggested, “Then you eat it.” She nudged Richie’s shoulder, nearly knocking the creature out of his palm.

A voice of reason spoke up immediately. “How about no one eats it?” Mike shouted, trying to drown out the ridiculousness of what his friend was suggesting. He reached out across the circle to Richie’s hands, attempting to open them up. Just as Richie was about to protest-

“I’ll do it.”

All eyes turned to Eddie, who was now standing up. There was something about him that Richie noticed, a new air of assertiveness around him. He hand his thumbs looped through the belt loops of his khakis, and his fanny pack was stuffed. Richie rose to be eye level with him, holding the cricket close to his chest. Everyone was watching them, as if it was a cowboy standoff.

“No way,” Richie challenged. He narrowed his eyes, testing the hypochondriac's seriousness.

“You’re joking?” Ben said, but it came out as more of a question. He, along with Bev and Mike, began to stand as well, ready to jump in if Richie forced the task on Eddie.  

“Nah, come on. Hand it over,” Eddie assured, stretching out his hand to take the insect. He also moved closer to Richie, to avoid the risk of letting the cricket go. They were less than a foot apart, and he scooped his soon-to-be next meal into his hand.

“Are you serious?” Surprisingly, this question of worry came from Richie himself. He’d never expected anyone to actually go through with it, let alone Eddie. His face of amusement was gone, and his eyebrows were now scrunched in concern.

At this point, everyone was on their feet. Bill stood right behind Eddie, and placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to talk him down.“Don’t f-f-fuck with him, Eddie. He’ll make you d-do it.” He went to knock Eddie’s hand away, but Kaspbrak was too quick. He spun out of the crowd, still holding the cricket, and wearing a smile on his face.

“I know. It’ll shut him up.” He took a look at the insect in his hand, contemplating his decision. At first, it looked like he was understanding the reality of the situation, like might reconsider. But, after just a few seconds, he met the gaze of every loser and nodded in affirmation.

“Oooh-ho-ho, fuck yes.” Richie was shaking with anticipation. He flipped his hair out of his eyes, gesturing for Eddie to go for it whenever he was ready.

A chorus of voices rang out around them, with words like, “Eddie wait,” “Are you sure,” “You

don’t have to do this,” “Just let it go, Rich-” But all of them were silenced with the soft words of Eddie Kaspbrak.

“Watch and learn, friends.” And down the cricket went. A sickening crunch signaled its demise in his mouth, and his hard swallow meant that it was real. No one was shy about their feelings on the event they just witnessed.

“Disgusting,” Ben choked out.

“Oh my god,” Bill followed, almost sounding impressed.

“Did he just-” Stan started.

And Bev finished, “He did.”

The one who was most vocal was Richie Tozier himself. After gaining his composure, he clapped a couple times. “Ho… ly… shit, Kaspbrak! Ha! I didn’t think you had it in you!” He slapped a hand on Eddie’s shoulder, proud of his typically quiet friend.

With a wiggle of his eyebrows and a wipe of his mouth, Eddie replied, “Oh, I’m full of surprises, Trashmouth.”

After recalling the day, Richie nuzzled his face into Eddie’s neck, giving him a bunch of tiny kisses. “I knew we were friends, but that was definitely when I decided you were worth keeping around,” he mumbled, his voice still drenched with sleepiness.

Eds shied away, being so ticklish, and pushed Richie off of him. “Jeez, trashmouth, didn’t know it took such extreme measures to get your attention.” He leaned his head back against the headboard, staring at his boyfriend. “If I’d known that, I would’ve eaten a cricket a lot sooner.”

Richie lightly punched Eddie’s shoulder, grinning playfully. “There was more to it than that! Remember the movie night we had with Stan? When we went to see Jurassic Park?” Based on the confused look he got in response, Richie brought him back to that night.

three years ago

The three boys were sitting in the balcony seats of the Aladdin Theatre. Richie was wedged between Stan and Eddie, holding the bucket of popcorn in his lap and hoovering nearly all of it down. The screams of the characters kept his eyes locked on the massive screen, even as Stan snatched his snack away.

“Dude, stop hogging the popcorn!” he whispered as loudly as he could. He was enjoying the movie, but Richie’s common color commentary was a growing annoyance. Plus, he’d barely gotten a chance to enjoy the deliciously buttery treat they had all wanted to share.

Richie scowled at his friend and slapped him on the back of the head, snatching the popcorn back while he was stunned. He shoved another handful of popcorn into his mouth, and simultaneously said, “I’m the one who bought it! I get hogging rights!”

Eddie, finally fed up with their bickering, leaned forward in his seat and glared at them. “Both of you, shut the fuck up.” As they were silenced he leaned back, and returned to munching on his Reese’s.

After a minute, Richie started to fidget. He looked between his friends several times, knowing that they were paying attention to the film. He didn’t want to disturb them, but staying still and quiet for so long was becoming difficult. So, he decided to focus on something. He glanced at Eddie for what must’ve been the twentieth time. He noted what he was wearing - a yellow polo shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans. His shirt was neatly tucked in, wrinkleless, and his pants were perfectly cut off at the ankles. As he stared, he felt a blush creep up his neck, which spread to his cheeks; there were knots and butterflies forming in his stomach. On a whim, he nudged the boy’s arm with his elbow. “Hey Eds.”

The boy didn’t respond. Not even a sign of recognition from him.

Confused, Richie shoved his arm a little harder this time. “Eds.” He raised his voice slightly to get his attention.

Still no response. Stan, however, noticed Richie’s attempts, and scoffed in disbelief.

Giving up on the subtlety, Richie pulled him to face him. “Edward!” His voice was nearly a shout, and several people shushed him. But all he cared about was Eddie’s response, which was -

“What?!” While his tone sounded angry, his brows were raised and there was a hint of a smirk on his lips.

Richie chuckled at this difference. “Jeez, don’t bite my head off, Spaghetti boy,” he murmured, feigning fright and gesturing to the velociraptor on screen.

“Ugh,” he groaned in disgust. “Come on, Rich, don’t call me that.” This was his response to any nickname the trashmouth gave him. Even though he may have said he hated them, the pet names always made Eddie feel special in some way.

Richie patted his arm reassuringly and whispered, “Hush now,” as if it was Eddie who’d drawn the attention of half the theatre. He continued, in an unusually sincere voice, “I just wanted to tell you… you look nice tonight.” They locked eyes, and for a moment, it seemed like there was a deeper meaning those words.

He was shocked. What should he say? Eddie’s whole world had suddenly halted over, what, a simple comment on his style from Richie Tozier? “Oh…” he began, not wanting to stare too long. “Oh, thanks. Uh…” he quickly peeked at Richie’s torn up jeans and oversized flannel, “So do you.” It wasn’t exactly a lie, either. Eddie loved how Richie’s style fit him so well.

At this, Richie winked, attempting to play his nerves off as cool. “Heh…” he started his British accent, “shall we take this to the bedroom, spag-”

“Beep beep, Richie,” Eddie cut him off, placing a hand over his mouth. “And please never call me ‘Spaghetti Boy’ again?” He was obviously pleading at this point.

The trashmouth nodded and slid Eddie’s hand away from his face. “We’ll see.”

“See?” Richie croaked out between fits of laughter. “I never actually agreed to getting rid of that name!” He had one arm braced across Eddie’s chest, and was ruffling his boyfriend’s hair with his free hand.

Eddie had both hands locked behind Richie’s neck, staring up at him with the biggest smile on his face. “Okay, I concede,” he cried. When he was released, he snuggled back into Richie’s side. “What about love?” he asked after a moment.

“What about it?”

“Well, you’ve told me about liking me, and really liking me. But what about… loving me?” Eddie’s eyes hadn’t left the beautiful face in front of him, but Richie couldn’t seem to meet his gaze.

Still, without a second thought, Richie answered: “Oh, that’s an easy one.”

two years ago

Richie had his knees pulled up to his chest, curled beneath Eddie’s open bedroom window. Tears were staining his cheeks, and blood ran down his forehead. His breathing was shaky, and he looked like he would break if touched. Eddie found him there not long after hearing the crash of his friend clambering inside.

“Richie…” He quickly shut his door and grabbed the first aid kit in his desk. He sat on the edge of his bed in front of Richie.

After a sniffle, he finally spoke. “It happened again, Eds,” his voice barely audible. “She was drunk off her ass, throwing empty bottles around the kitchen.” A sob escaped his lips, tearing through his body. Out of all his friends, he was crying in front of Eddie fucking Kaspbrak. He straightened his back, not wanting to give up his facade completely. “I - I went in… to see if I could calm her down, ya know? Shut her up?”

“Richie, you don’t have to tell me,” he interrupted. By now, Eds had the gauze, bandages, and antiseptic wipes all laid out. “Let me just clean you up.” He doused a cotton ball in hydrogen peroxide and held it out to his friend, who pushed it away.

The boy rose to his feet, with a surprising surge of energy. “No, I…” He paused, meeting Eddie’s eyes. “I need to tell you.”

There was a pregnant pause. The teens just stared at each other, one sympathetic, the other furious. For a while, all they could hear was the sound of their own breathing. It seemed that they were confirming for the other that everything would be fine; that what was about to be heard wouldn’t effect them in the morning. Slowly, after what felt like hours, Eddie moved his first aid supplies onto his lap, clearing room for Richie next to him.

“Okay,” was what he finally said.

Richie took the offer being made to him and sat on the bed. He pushed the hair against his forehead away, peeling it out of the sticky, half dried blood. With his free hand, he cleared his tears, smudging his glasses in the process. He winced slightly upon feeling the towelette against his skin, but resumed his story nonetheless. “I walked in… and she just… She turned on me. I’ve been in her cross hairs before, but… not like this. She said she didn’t want a fag in her house; that I was a disappointment!” There was no holding back his emotions after that. Richie let himself collapse onto Eddie’s shoulder, letting go of any inhibitions. “She threw a bottle at me, Eddie! She could have killed me! I had to get out-”

Eddie immediately embraced his friend, running a comforting hand up and down his back. “Hey, hey, hey. Come on, shhhh…” He let the first aid supplies fall to the floor. “You’re fine. You’re fine, she’s not here. You’re safe, Richie,” he whispered, his lips grazing the boy’s ear. He had both arms wrapped around Richie’s midsection. “I’ve got you.” With his face pressed into the side of Richie’s head, Eddie repeated the soothing words, reminding his favorite loser that he was loved, safe, and cared for.

After his sobs stopped, the foul mouthed Tozier sat upright. He chuckled at himself, attempting to regain his humorous, sarcastic exterior. But before he could: “Thank you, Eddie.”

It didn’t take long for Eddie to answer; hardly a second. “Of course. I’m always here for you trashmouth.” And it was true. Eddie would always drop everything for Richie. It was never a question. He interlaced their fingers, and gave his hand a squeeze. “Always.”

There it was. The deeper meaning they had been looking for.

Richie let out a short laugh, almost not believing what he was hearing. To think that someone he liked - someone he loved - actually cared just as much for him was an entirely new concept. He looked down at their hands, already knowing that he never wanted to let him go. “Really?” he asked in disbelief. Now was the moment to tell him, and he knew it. “Eds-”

Before he could continue, he was cut off by the soft lips of Edward Kaspbrak. He felt a hand in his hair, another on his neck, and his breath being taken away. It didn’t take long for Richie to kiss back, prepared to love Eddie for however long he wanted.

Eddie was sitting on Richie’s lap, his body tightly pressed up against the other. “I never knew that was when you fell in love with me.” He pressed his nose to Richie’s collarbone, closing his eyes. “I guess it makes sense though.”

Richie huffed a short breath, combing his fingers through Eddie’s hair. “I thought you always knew.” He readjusted his boyfriend so that he was straddling him. “Ever since that night… I have been crazy, deeply in love with you.” He smirked devilishly, shaking Eddie’s shoulders playfully. “Now it’s your turn.”

He chuckled and shook his head. “My turn for what?” He wound their hands together, playing with Richie’s lanky fingers.

His brows pushed together slightly. “Your turn to tell me,” he kissed Eddie’s nose, “how you fell in love with me.” He placed another kiss at the base of his throat.

Eddie shook his head, leaning in slowly to kiss Richie’s cracked lips. “That story, my love, is for a day yet to appear.” He took Richie’s face in his hands and kissed him again.

The sounds of music on the radio lulled them back into their own blissful world of each other. The rain pattered on against the windows, quietly keeping the rest of the town away.

tag list: @lomo-is-not-cool @80srichie @wintersember

[tcrmommabear]

Menasaur’s Christmas Gift!

Merry Christmas @themenasaur!!!

For your Christmas gift, I chose the “Haru leaves for college” prompt. It was exceptionally fun to write, and I actually completely it rather quickly xD

I hope you enjoy it, and that you have a merry Christmas!

May your days be merry and full of joy!

She had the house to herself after sending her mother off for more boxes. Despite knowing she’d be there for less than a year, and was sharing a small, dingy room with Hiromi (as luck would have it), she wanted to be sure she had everything she could want. That, and she wanted a few moments of quiet to herself. Naoko Yoshioka wasn’t always a present figure, but when she was, she could be overbearing.

What little alone time she was given, she made use of. She played the radio quietly, unfolding and refolding her clothes into either a box or suitcase, interspersing valuables in between. It was an effective system, but once the box she was on filled up, she had nothing else to do. That left the young college student alone, with her thoughts.

She thought of her classes, mentally routing the way through campus so she wouldn’t get lost. Though, that task soon became difficult, as she couldn’t quite remember where each of the buildings were. The only way she’d establish a route was getting lost and magically finding her way.

The thought made her laugh, wondering if another fat, white cat would help her find her way again. It was with this thought in her head did she finally stop fiddling around. She smiled wryly, a little niggling feeling of bitterness burrowing its way into her chest. It’d only been a couple years since the Cat Kingdom incident, but it made quite the difference.

Her little outing with Hiromi had truly cemented how much things had changed. She’d come to the crossroads right as her best friend told her of her “crush”, of how he broke another young girl’s heart. Though, her friend seemed to be assuring her the tragedy was “good news”. At that moment, standing at the center of the crossroads, she knew she had a choice.

More than a metaphorical choice, of course. She truly did have to choose a direction and path for her and her friend to continue exploring. Yet as she stood there, she knew she truly was at the most important crossroads she could ever come across. She was young, and still growing and learning. Taking every experience she’d had to heart, using their lessons as a ladder to her success.

It was how she was managing to get into college, after all. Work and school wouldn’t be easy on her, but she was prepared to face those challenges.

Yet when she stood at that crossroad, stood at the intersection where her life truly had spun out of some meaningless pattern and into her control, she knew. She could continue to be complacent, to sit back and watch the world take charge of who she was. Her words to the lecherous Cat King would become hollow, and every sign that told her to move onwards would point to a life of misery.

To a life where she was an ignorant teenager, refusing to grow up.

It was a fair choice, and one many took at that age. Growing up later, rather than sooner. Hiromi, she thought with a faint smile, seemed to be taking that route. Growing old was mandatory, growing up was optional, as the saying went.

A sense of discontentment pooled in her stomach, her steps ready to tread in that direction. It felt wrong to go that way, felt like a disgrace against everything she had learned and done. Lessons were taught for a reason, and she wouldn’t do anything but learn.

And so she took the second option.

She remembered turning to Hiromi, a smile on her mouth and the words forever ringing in her head.

“Doesn’t matter anymore.”

She chose to go forward. To work hard and be who she wanted to be. After all, she told the Cat King exactly what she felt- “Nobody decides who I am, but me!”.

She took control. And, damn, did it feel good. Being so sure of herself, knowing that whatever happened, she’d made it. She’d made it this far, and she’ll always make it further the next day, and the next. She was a continuous machine, built of steel and determination and personal blends of tea. Progress was progress.

She sighed, the bitter feeling in her chest niggling again. Years may have passed, and she may have changed, but the one constant she thought she could count on was the Bureau. Even after her problems had been solved, she continually visited that magical place. Basking in Baron’s cheesy light show, making little jabs at Muta that had Toto in stitches, and always dishing back at Toto when he went a bit too far.

It was a comfort she’d grown to rely on. Leaving it behind was heartbreaking, even if she wasn’t going far. Her time would be consumed by schoolwork and regular jobs, and visits home would be spent with her mother and friends. Though, the Bureau members were her friends, weren’t they? She’d make time for them, regardless of what excuses she had to make.

When she told them she’d be leaving, though, she’d been met by a rather upset silence. It seemed everyone in the Bureau had forgotten she had a regular life outside of the confines of their world. One she was, currently, violently dedicated to. Telling them had been about a week ago, and she was leaving tomorrow morning. She hadn’t heard a single word from them.

That… Is where the bitter feeling came in.

Years of constant companionship. Frequent nights of warm tea and warmer sounding laughter. Little looks exchanged, the brief feeling of his touch on her hand as he handed her a cup. Muta’s wry comments under his breath, the way Toto lit up when she brought mulberry pie. The sound of Baron’s purr.

She wasn’t happy to leave them behind, she told them that much. It was hard on her too, leaving everything familiar. But that was the choice she made, at those crossroads. To never be content stuck in one place, with a predictable path. She will grow, and face every obstacle, challenge, roadblock, and such forth head on. Always and forever believing in herself.

She knew Baron was proud of her, beneath the forlorn exterior.

Her mother came back with boxes, and tape, and bubble wrap, and everything became a blur. Her mother took equal turns showering her daughter with praise and tears. It was a strange sensation to be so… Smothered? It was a welcome change, but exhausting all the same.

Night fell, and she finally had a moments time to herself again. She sat in her barren room, devoid of most personal touches she gave to it. Her ecstatic grin she’d maintained through her mother’s constant questioning fell. The heel of her hand pressed against her eyes, fireworks shooting through the darkness of her closed lids.

She took a shuddering breath, then another, and another, until it all came back out a mangled whimper. The bitter feeling exploded, a brilliant bloom that could only be described as black and blue. She did her best to keep quiet, not wanting to wake her mother up. A week of silence and hurt feelings came out. Weakly, and crawling from her mouth in agonizing pain.

She was just in the middle of drowning in tears when she heard it. Three taps on the window pane, achingly familiar to her. She turned as quickly as she dared, hoping against hope that her imagination wasn’t deceiving her. Toto pecked at her window again, a grumpy Muta hanging in his talons, with Baron perched atop Toto’s back. She crawled across her bed, throwing the bedroom window wide open.

“Good evening, Miss Haru, I hope we…” Baron started to say, avoiding looking her in the eye, but his head jolted up when she sniffed, his voice turning shocked and accusatory.

“Have you been crying?!”

“Maybe a touch. Just some dust in my eye…”

“Haru, are you okay? Is everything alright?”

“Y’know you can talk to us, Chicky, we ain’t gonna judge ya.”

She laughed at the way they were all trying to fuss over her, the coddling appreciated. She’d missed them, after all.

“I’m fine, I’m fine, guys, really. I just thought you were mad at me,” she told them, smiling as she wiped away her tears. Her face felt a bit too warm, her cold palm pressing against her cheek. Baron leapt to her nightstand, and when she turned to keep facing him, he dabbed at the trails with his tiny handkerchief. It didn’t work as well as either of them hoped, but it got Haru to laugh.

“Oh we definitely were,” Muta cut in, rubbing his head against her arm despite his harsh words. The larger cat didn’t purr often, but she felt the slight rattling of it as she scratched under his chin.

“But,” Toto cut in, “we were also tremendously proud of you, Haru. We were just going to miss you.”

“Which is why we were gone. I had been doing some research into a… Let’s say a “present” for you. Your leaving forced me to expedite the whole thing.”

Before she could ask, Baron pulled something from his pocket, holding it out for her to clasp. It tumbled into her out stretched hand, expanding out until it was a small amulet with a green gem in the center.

“Baron, this is… Gorgeous. What’s it for?”

“Well, Miss Haru, it has multiple uses. For one, it’s a Stone of Far Speech. Should you ever need us, either to chat or for an emergency, you can contact us. Along with that, but when you enter the Sanctuary wearing it, you shall shrink to a more appropriate size.”

Before she could thank him, he quickly brought another amulet out of his pocket. From what she could tell, it was his size, and extremely like the one she was now putting around her neck. Toto and Muta were quiet, a sound that set her slightly on edge. It didn’t help Baron seemed especially nervous about his own.

“Of course,” he started, jumping from her night stand to her floor, “the Cat Bureau will always come by to visit, to make sure you’re safe and to help in your studies. Our stones are also capable of…”

He paused, unsure how to phrase his next words. Instead, he slipped the amulet over his head, hand holding the gem away from his chest. The second he let it go, and it clunked against his sternum, Haru found a man kneeling on the floor before her. Green, green, green eyes staring into her own.

“Oh… Oh wow,” she breathed out. Baron smiled.

“The Bureau… We would never abandon you Haru. I would never abandon you.”

Muta crawled into her lap, while Toto took Baron’s shoulder. She felt all three’s eyes on her, a wave of heat and scarlet crawling across her cheeks as she realized… She technically had a man in her room. Whoops.

“Can you forgive us, Haru?”

She looked between the three. Down at the older cat who had filled the father figure role, despite his small size and grumpy behavior. To the left, at the wise crow she trusted with her life, with a gravelly voice and warm eyes. And finally, back to the half-cat, now man looking, gentleman she… Well, she always did admire a young man who spoke from the heart.

Haru came to a crossroads, once. There, she made a choice on the life that she’d live and pursue.

There, she’d always choose them.

“Of course I forgive you.”

Because they always chose her.