#and I’m not even counting my yellow top and hoodie with my night blue pants and green shoooooes

[wallywise]

Me with : my new yellow prom dress, my blue ribbon and green purse, feeling like the embodiment of lesbyler 😌

💙⭐️💚

[george-mackay-macfine]

Fight Club. Part 2

Requested: Yes / No

Synopsis: Part two to fight club.

Word Count: 3,324

“So you and MacKay, on again?” Jane asked as we sat on the bay window in our recently acquired apartment.

“Off again,”

“What?” I cried, “I thought you two were getting passed all your idiotic shit,”

“We were till I saw him with another girl two weeks ago,” I huffed, “He had his arm wrapped around her, so I’ve been ignoring him,”

“I wish you’d told me that sooner,” Jane frowned guiltily,

“What did you do,”

“Baby,” His voice sent chills up my spine, “I’ve been trying to get a hold of you,”

“Didn’t try hard enough,” I muttered picking up my vodka and coke.

“Well after you ignored my first sixteen phone calls, I figured you needed to get the stick out of your arse,”

“I’m going to go see Dean,” Jane muttered as I spun around to face the dangerously hot man I’d been fucking for the past three months,

“Are you serious?”

“What is this about, because I know you don’t believe that I’m fucking another girl behind your back,”

“Really? Because you have before,”

“Low blow,”

“Truthful,” I picked my drink back up as George sat across from me.

“I told you, you’re it for me so what’s going on?”

“I don’t know if we’re going to work George,”

“Why?”

“We’re opposite’s,”

“Who attract, try again.”

“It’s not something I can explain. You’re just… You seem… dangerous—like someone I should stay away from. All the fighting,” I elaborated.

“Dangerous,” He repeated. “Okay, so you do like me, but that scares you because I’m different than the straight-laced guys you fucked before I came back into your life and showed you what a fuck really was?”

“Don’t put words in my mouth.”

“Would you prefer something else?” My mouth dropped open.

“You’re insane.” His blue eyes were piercing.

“You like it.” I shook my head.

“I don’t.”

“If you didn’t, you’d be long gone.” I sighed. I did like it, and this exchange was getting me hot under the collar. “God, you have a pretty smile.”

“Stop that,” I mumbled.

“So back to clarifying…” George cleared his throat. “If that’s my other girlfriend, what are you?” Oh shit. It was a trap. We’d never clarified what we were, we just said we were it for each other, and now I’d gone and baited myself. I folded my legs under myself and pushed up, forgetting about the ankle I’d rolled trying to avoid George on campus. I yelped and fell forward, face-planting into George’s chest knocking us both off balance. George fell off the seat and landed on his ass, and I landed on top of him. George’s tongue poked out to lick his lips, a small silver ball on it.

“Did you?” I whispered amazed at the small silver ball, He’d only gone and pierced his fucking tongue.

“Answer the question,”

It would have been the perfect position under different circumstances.

“I’m just the girl you’re stalking.” George wrapped an arm around my waist, keeping me where I was.

“I think you like me stalking you.” I snorted a very unfeminine snort.

“Well, you’re a criminal, so of course you’d think that.”

“We’re back to that, are we? Don’t you think the stereotype is getting a little old?” The arm around my waist tightened. His eyes dropped from mine and focused on my chest that pressed against his. “I don’t know if you know this, but this shirt is pretty much transparent. I can see your bra through it. And that’s a lot of cleavage you’ve got going on there.” He stuck a finger in it to demonstrate. “If I was your boyfriend, I don’t think I’d be all that happy that you wore it to around campus today. Especially paired with this skirt and knowing what weirdo’s people are.” George’s hand eased lower to my ass giving it a little squeeze.

“I guess it’s a good thing you’re not my boyfriend then, isn’t it?”

“Definitely a good thing,” George squeezed harder and shifted under me. “Way better that I’m just stalking your fine ass.”

We stared at each other for a half-second before I yanked off his beanie, shoved my hands into his hair and plastered my mouth to his.

George cupped the back of my head and rolled us over so he was on top. The seam at the back of my skirt gave way with a huge tear as I forced opened my legs so George could fit himself between them. We dry-humped the living hell out of each other as we made out in the middle of my living room floor.

I grabbed the hem of his hoodie and yanked it up, pulling it over his head when there was a break in the kiss. His white T-shirt came off with it. Under all those clothes was his seriously cut body that’d I’d missed exploring.

“I’ve done another thing since you last saw me,”

“Oh?” He nodded his head, “What?”

“You’ll find out.” I ran my hands over his chest and down his abs. “Badass enough for a stalker?” George asked, that damn dimply smirk curving the corner of his mouth.

“You must be the king of badass stalkers.” I tried to pull him back down for another kiss but George sat back on his heels. He untucked my shirt from my skirt.

“I don’t think you’ll be wearing this shirt again.”

“Why not?”

“It doesn’t have any buttons.” He grabbed the hem on either side and pulled. The buttons popped off, pinging against his ripped chest—seriously, all that fighting did a body good. I didn’t even care that he’d ruined my sort-of slutty professional shirt. I thanked the gods of bra design for the little heart-shaped front clasp on the one I was wearing. I opened it and set the girls free. They were like homing devices for George’s hands. He cupped them immediately, separating his fingers so my nipples peeked through. Jesus. He really did look like a criminal—an incredibly hot criminal who’d broken into my house - technically he was invited, but still.

George ducked his head and sucked one of my nipples into his mouth. I moaned and arched as I fumbled around, searching for the buckle on his belt. Finding it, I freed the clasp and went for the button on his jeans. There wasn’t a zipper to make him easier to access. It buttoned all the way down. It was hard to concentrate while he continued the nipple sucking and biting, but I finally managed to get them all undone. I took a deep breath I missed this part of him, two weeks is too long I wrapped my fingers around his shaft.

“Thank God,” I muttered watching as George lifted his head.

“Worried I wasn’t going to have a dick anymore?” I stroked the length, getting a feel for how much there was once again until I hit something that didn’t feel like it belonged. I looked between us, but it was dark down there. I put a hand on his chest so I could check it out a little better.

“Is that a—” I brushed the steel with my thumb. Not only was George now sporting an above-average cock, but it was also now pierced. I met George’s amused gaze. “I want to know what that feels like.”

“Go ahead and touch it all you want.” George’s mouth went slack as I stroked him a few times.

“No.” I licked his lips. “I mean I want to know what it feels like from the inside.” George grinned.

“Should I assume you’re not talking about the inside of your mouth?” I thought for less than a second. I could do the whole blow job thing another time. Besides, knowing my luck, I’d end up sucking the ball right off the piercing and that would result in a trip to the hospital. I’d been fantasizing about being pounded by George since the last time he’d pounded me, a long two weeks ago. I shook my head.

“Not the inside of my mouth.”

“Just to clarify, are you asking me to fuck you?”

“Yes, please.” George pulled his wallet from the back pocket of his jeans and slapped it on the coffee table beside us. Then he stripped off his pants. George didn’t bother taking off my skirt. He just shoved it up to my hips and dragged my panties down my legs. He lifted his hot gaze to hers. “Did you bedazzle your pussy for me?”

“What?”

“It’s all sparkly.” I lifted my head and tried to see what George was seeing, but I’d have to pull off a seriously difficult yoga pose to make that happen. He rubbed the crest of my pelvis with his thumb and held it up for me to see: pink sparkles.

“Jane,” I growled remembering how she’d thrown glitter on me to try and cheer me up this afternoon. George nodded as if he understood. He dropped his eyes again, along with his hand. He rubbed a slow circle around my clit, then went lower, sliding a finger inside. “Later, I’m going to eat that pretty little pussy of yours. It’s perfect.” I was sure all my sex parts had just exploded in their own glitter bomb of excitement.

“That sounds like a lot of fun.”

“Oh, it will be.” George grabbed me by the hips and dragged me closer. “Wrap your legs around my waist.” A shiver raced up my spine, goosebumps breaking out across my skin. George circled my clit with the head of his cock, then slid low, teasing me with the tip. “How do you want it, baby?”

“Huh?” I was too focused on the feel of his cock nudging me to hear the question.

“How do you want me to fuck you?” He leaned over me, slipped low, and eased inside. “Hard and fast, or slow and easy?” His question inspired an image of being pretzeled into some porn-star position and pounded. It was exactly what I expected. Except that wasn’t what I got.

George stayed deep, rolling his hips, hitting sensitive places inside my body. I held on to his shoulders, submerged in sensation as that piercing worked its magic and brought her to the edge of an orgasm, then dropped-kicked me right over the edge into heaven.

Sometime in the middle of the night, a police siren’s bloop woke me out of a very dead sleep. Shivering, I turned into George’s arms, seeking warmth. The chill from the night air danced across my naked skin, lining it with goosebumps. We need a blanket, I thought but then changed my mind.

The bright yellow streetlight shone through the apartment windows and across George’s chest. He slept in the nude, like any self-respecting, criminal underground boxer would. Smiling to myself, I turned my attention to his face. Over his strong jaw and scruffy cheeks, his eyes remained shut, his breathing deep and rhythmic.

I would never have ever imagined myself in bed with George as he was now, maybe the George I’d fallen for in high school, but I never thought I’d be with this version of George. I giggled softly. He was so different, but even now he was still the same George.

I shifted to get a better look at him. His dick piercing winked in the window light, cutting through the darkness and her thoughts. I winked back, giddy upon remembering his words. ‘Should I assume you’re not talking about the inside of your mouth?’

The plan formulated in my mind, seizing me from the inside out. Bold I was not. Ever. But with George, something spurred me on. Maybe it was his reckless abandon of convention or the way he pushed me to be free. I felt it warming me again. I wanted to borrow some of his bold. Maybe inherit it a little.

“Midnight snack,” I whispered and slipped from beneath his arm. As I moved, he remained asleep, but his brows furrowed together. His mouth slanted and his arm stretched as if seeking me out. My heart squeezed and my stomach dipped. His long, lean body shifted, scratching against the carpet as he slung an arm over his eyes. The other scratched his stomach before falling to rest against my leg.

Our clothes were strewn across my living room. Belts, shoes, jeans, and then I spied his T-shirt. I pulled it over my head, relishing the scent that surrounded me. Looking down at myself in it, I realised I looked wanton—all mussed and ruffled, the picture of properly fucked.

I needed to get this show on the road.

Tucking my hair behind my ear, I sized up my best approach. I wanted nothing more than to feast on him, savour him fully and feel the ball at his tip against my lips. His hands in my hair. My name on his breath. But I needed to move slowly, gently, for maximum effect.

Careful not to disturb him, I moved into position from the side. The prickly rug rubbed against my belly. It wasn’t helping the butterflies already in there. Deep breaths in and out were my saving grace as I inched my mouth down and around him. Once, twice, three times, and then I was no lady.

Lust roared through me on a moan and took over. All sense of slow and steady went out the window on the breeze. In a flash, he was awake.

“Y/N,” He gasped, muscles bunching beneath my hand as I dipped again. “Y/N, what are—oh, fuck,” I nipped at him playfully. Just a bit, but it was enough for his entire body to snap with tension.

“Midnight snack,” I informed him, dizzy with need as I plunged my mouth around his cock again. One hand cupped him, and I reached the other between my legs to lessen the throbbing. George caught my hand before it hit home. “No,” He ground out, his body angling up off of the rug. I knew he must be getting close. When I tried to reach my pussy again, he slapped my hand away.

“My turn,” He demanded, smoothing his palm over my ass and down my thigh.

With each pass, he got closer to where I wanted him. Needed him. Two fingers traced from my hip to my thigh and back up. He swirled them around until finally, I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Please,” I begged around his cock, rubbing the tip between my lips. I shook my ass in jest. Something to spur him into action

“Oh, baby, you don’t know what you’re in for.” He surged up and slid backward to lean against the couch cushions we’d pulled down last night. His hard cock slipped out of my mouth, and I whimpered a full-blown you-took-away-my-candy whimper. I was fairly certain I pouted as well. “Give it here,” He said with a light slap to my ass. Instead, I crawled away, brushing my knees against the rug, taking my ass out of his grasp as I looked over my shoulder. He’d slouched comfortably like he was ready to relax and watch television, but it just so happened he was naked and his hand was moving up and down leisurely over his cock. His eyes, though. They let me know this was no game to him. He was going to devour me.

With narrowed eyes, I wiggled my ass for him to come to me.

“I said,” He repeated slowly, his finger signalling for me to come forward, “Give it here.”

“No,” I quipped, marching away on all fours. Quickly, he caught my ankle and pulled me back. The rug burn would hurt like hell in the morning, but for now, it did nothing but kindle the fire. His legs were spread, his cock jutted up, and I tried to reach for it …

“Not yet,” He barked, pulling one of my legs over his body so I straddled him, still facing away from him. “Give it here,” He urged, laying his hands on my calves. He massaged, deep and just a tad too hard, and waited for me to catch on to what he wanted.

“You can’t mean…” I dropped my head to look at him from below. Upside down, he peered at me, watching my breasts sway with my shuddering breath.

“I can mean,” He said, smacking his lips as his eyes drank in my pussy. “And I want.” His hands came to rest below her hips, guiding me back slowly.

Anticipation choked me as my pussy came close enough to feel his warm breath.

Shifting, he tipped my hips up to meet his waiting mouth. His tongue dipped and swirled. Slowly, he kissed me. Fucked me with his mouth until my arms, weak like jelly, gave out. I managed to prop herself up at an angle: ass in the air, my forearms on his legs.

“You had your midnight snack,” He said against my pussy. “This is my breakfast.”

I pushed back as George lunged forward, burying his tongue inside me. He ravaged me, unrelenting, unforgiving.

“Holy fu—” I began when I felt the ball, the tiny silver ball wreaking havoc on my clit. His hands came up and slid me apart. Fingers, tongue, lips, and a little teeth. I was melting from the inside out.

“Please,” I gasped, reaching for something to hold on to before I fell. He wouldn’t let me slip. Not yet. Not until he’d had his fill. I knew that even in the haze of my building orgasm. I felt him shift, legs spreading while his upper body shifted to take the weight of my legs onto his shoulders.

Closer to his mouth.

Jesus Christ.

I surrounded him, and he me. My cheek brushed his cock, and he moaned, the vibration rumbling through my entire being.

“You fucked…” I paused, my eyes rolling back, my awareness heightened from the sensations of his lips on mine. “You took. Now I want.” With a cry, I took him in my mouth again and lavished, meeting his actions with my own. For every lick, suck, and nibble, I gave a swallow, a pump, and a run along the shaft with my teeth, which I’d realised he loved.

“Y/N,” A warning, He was going to come.

“George,” An answer, I wasn’t stopping. I was lost in the single-minded focus of making him come, of losing myself to his mouth and—fuck! He added fingers now.

“Come on me,” he begged. He was losing it. We both felt it. Precise movements gave way to harried and frantic actions, that final climb to the top before we both fell over.

One more time I swallowed, deep, and with a groan, he let go. I kept going, enjoying the way all her senses lit up on the build of my orgasm.

“Please, Y/N,” I heard him say. Or I thought I did. I teetered on the wire until he pinched the nerve, and I snapped. Overwhelmed by the emotional surge, I felt tears streaming down my face, running over my nipples and dropping on his still-shaking legs. He slowed, kissing me reverently before helping my weak body into a more comfortable position.

Quietly, we laid together, breathing heavily. I felt dizzy, weak, and happier than I’d been in forever. After a few minutes, George’s breathing slowed to a normal pace. I figured he had typical-man syndrome and had fallen back asleep like a lump after he’d destroyed me, I was wrong.

“My girl?” He whispered lips pressed against my forehead.

“Your girl,” An agreement.

“Wear your uniform to the next fight and let me fuck you in the bathrooms,”

“You’ve only just cum, and you’re already making plans for your next turn?”

“What can I say? You do this sort of thing to me,” He chuckled his arms holding me tighter. “Do you like the piercings?”

“I love the piercings,”

[neerasrealm]

Breakfast and Thrift Stores

Part two to this story. Literally just Dad Tim and Toby doing some bonding idk what you want from me man

word count: 1954

Toby looked himself over in the bathroom mirror. His pale, thin frame was covered in thin, faded scars. Some were from as a kid, some were more recent. Some were given to him, some were self inflicted and others...the car crash. He gulped, his fingers tracing over scars where doctors had given him stitches, where he’d been cut open to remove shrapnel, where he was cut and hit. He sighed softly and dropped his hand, grabbing his shirt from where it sat on top of the toilet lid. He put it on, then slipped on his usual sweater. He stepped out of the bathroom and looked around. His eyes fell on the white door connecting his room to the one next door. Tim had told him he could come inside, spend the evening with them.

The three of them were...odd. Tim was nice. He was friendly, and understanding. Toby had answered his questions the best he could, telling Tim his age, where he came from, some of his disorders. Keyword being some. Tim hadn’t pried too much into the boy’s personal life, but somehow Toby felt like he somehow knew more than he let on. Still, he had made a vow to himself.

He would never, ever tell any of them about what he’d done. He refused to mention anything about his dad, or his mother and sister. And he definitely wasn’t going to talk about...the thing. If it was even real. Maybe he’d imagined the creature. He wasn’t sure but- it was nothing Tim needed to know about. 

Hesitantly, he walked over to the door. He held his fist up, hesitating on whether or not to knock. And then his arm jerked and slammed into the door, forcing him into knocking. Ah, thanks tourettes. 

‘’Come in.’’ he heard Brian call. Toby grabbed the doorknob, turning it and pulling it open. The other room was identical to his. The three of them were sitting on one of the two beds. Or rather, Tim and Jay were on the bed, and Brian was sitting on the floor in front of it, his back resting against it. Jay waved a bit in greeting.

‘’Hey Toby.’’ he chirped. Toby smiled a bit and raised a hand in greeting, waving a tiny bit.

‘’Uh- hey.’’ he greeted softly. He closed the door behind him and fiddled with his hands, unsure of where to go. Tim gestured to the other bed.

‘’Take a seat kid.’’ he said simply. Toby clicked his tongue, another tic, and shuffled over to the bed. He very carefully sat down on the edge of it and crossed his legs. He tilted his head at the three men. 

‘’So uh- why did you want me in here…?’’ he asked gently. Tim shrugged while Jay pulled a TV remote from- somewhere- and began flicking through channels on the small, cheap TV across the room.

‘’Just thought you’d get lonely.’’ he replied. Brian nodded.

‘’You’ve been travelling alone, right?’’ he asked. Toby nodded. ‘’For how long?’’

‘’I dunno...two weeks?’’ Toby shrugged. And then his head jerked abruptly to the side. Nobody seemed to notice it too much though, thankfully. 

‘’Well- now you have some company!’’ Jay looked at Toby and smiled. Tim pat him gently on the shoulder and smiled a bit. ‘’Not that we’re very exciting company to have- eheh- but it’s better than nothing, right?’’

‘’I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m the most exciting guy you’ll ever meet.’’ Brian replied. Tim rolled his eyes, though Brian didn’t see it. Toby laughed gently. He liked these guys...they were nice to him. Really nice. Nice enough to let him stay in their room till late into the night. The four of them really just talked, watched TV and exchanged stories until night. Toby fell asleep in his own room, feeling just a little bit more secure than he had in the days before. 

He was woken up the following morning by someone knocking on the door to his room. Toby groaned sleepily and dragged himself out of the bed, stumbling over to the door and opening it up. In front of the door stood Tim, dressed in a pale yellow bomber jacket and blue jeans. He looked up at Toby. ‘’Morning kid.’’

‘’Morning,’’ Toby murmured, rubbing sleep from his eye. ‘’Did you need something…?’’

‘’Yeah,’’ Tim replied. ‘’Can I come in?’’

‘’Sure, sure.’’ Toby stepped aside and watched Tim walk into the room. His shoulder jerked involuntarily and he closed the door. ‘’What is it…?’’

‘’I wanna know how much stuff you got. Spare clothes, food, stuff like that. If there’s anything you need, I wanna get it today, before we head out.’’ 

‘’Oh! Uh- okay well- hot’n’fresh!- all my stuff’s in here,’’ Toby walked over to his bed and grabbed the black gym bag sitting on the end of it. It contained everything he still had from home. He opened it and rummaged around. ‘’I got some spare clothes, my phone charger, hairbrush, a towel, uhh…’’ he frowned. There were a couple other things in the bag, including a pair of orange goggles, an old framed photo, and two sharp hatchets. Toby decided not to let Tim know about those. ‘’My wallet, though that’s mostly empty and- 50% off!- I think I might have some cereal bars??’’ he frowned and pulled out a bunch of plastic wrappers and two water bottles. One empty and one half empty. ‘’Aw man- must’ve ate em all…’’ 

‘’So you got basically nothing.’’ Tim said. Toby shrugged at him. ‘’I’ll take you downtown to the goodwill and get you some more clothes and some other stuff, okay? And we’ll take your stuff to the laundry. It’ll probably start stinking of sweat soon.’’

Toby shut himself up before he could tell Tim that he actually couldn’t physically sweat. He instead nodded. ‘’Oh uh- you sure…? I don’t wanna be a waste-’’ he paused for a second, his tongue clicking a few times. ‘’of money-’’

‘’You’re not.’’ Tim interrupted. He turned and headed for the door again. ‘’Get dressed, okay? We’ll get breakfast while we’re out.’’ he left the room before Toby could even protest, leaving the boy alone in the room. He rocked on his heels for a few moments before sighing and looking at his bag. 

Toby stepped out of his room with his bag slung over his shoulder. He looked at Tim, who was leaning against the wall beside the door, also holding a bag. Tim looked up at him and smiled a bit. ‘’Ready?’’

‘’Uh-huh.’’ Toby followed him down the hall and out of the hotel. As they reached the car he moved to open the backseat, only for Tim to call him.

‘’Kid, why don’t you ride up front?’’ 

Toby’s head snapped up. Up front...last time he’d been in the front of a car was- ‘’Mmm…’’ he hesitated. ‘’Sure…’’ Toby walked around to the side and sat in the passenger seat beside Tim. Sitting in the front, he could see everything in front of them. The road...oncoming cars...pedestrians...Toby swallowed his nerves. Thankfully for him, Tim didn’t drive fast. The car ride was calm, and not too long. Their first stop was the local laundromat. Toby followed Tim inside and to one of the machines in the back. He put money in two of them and gestured for Toby to take one while he loaded up the other. Toby felt a bit of relief at that. He definitely didn’t wanna risk Tim finding the hatchets in his bag, or anything else for that matter. 

With the laundry in the machine and an hour to kill, they left and walked down the street to the local goodwill. Toby stopped next to Tim and looked at him. The shorter man looked at the teen and gestured around. ‘’Pick out what you want, kid.’’ he said with a shrug. Oh. Okay- Toby actually felt a tiny bit of excitement. He hadn’t gotten to pick out new clothes in a long time. Timidly, he wandered over to the men’s section and began perusing the clothes. A lot of it was ugly trash, which Toby and Tim both quietly made fun of. Eventually, after making fun of a dozen or ugly sweaters and gingerly sifting through t-shirts of questionable cleanliness, Toby picked out an outfit. An faded navy hoodie that was a couple sizes too big on Toby but very comfy, a white button-down shirt with blue vines and flowers patterned over it that made Toby feel fancy, and denim jeans that had colourful paint splatters along the legs. Toby didn’t know if it was a fashion choice or if the pants previously belonged to an artist, but he loved them. 

‘’How do I look?’’ Toby asked excitedly as he stepped out of the dressing room. Tim looked at him for a moment, examining him up and down before he walked over. He reached up and tugged the collar of Toby’s shirt up over the collar of his hoodie. He stepped back and smiled. 

‘’Looks good.’’ he said with a nod. Toby beamed. ‘’I also got you this.’’ Tim presented four pairs of sunglasses. ‘’Figured I’d get some for all of us. Jay likes to complain about getting sun in his eyes.’’ 

Toby looked over all the sunglasses before grabbing a pair of cateye shaped glasses that had a single sparkly gem on each corner. He put them on and grinned at Tim. The shorter man broke into a smile, and then began laughing. ‘’Nice choice.’’ he chuckled. Toby shot him some finger guns and clicked his tongue. Tim shook his head, still grinning. ‘’Go take that stuff off so I can buy it.’’

Toby smiled to himself. ‘’Okayyy.’’ he said, wandering back into the changing room. After he had his regular clothes on, the two of them paid and left. They went back to the car, with twenty minutes still left to kill. 

‘’Any ideas for breakfast?’’ Tim asked as he backed the car out of the small parking lot. Toby frowned for a moment. 

‘’I haven’t had a breakfast burrito in like...two years.’’ Toby looked over at him. 

‘’Christ kid, who’s been starving you?’’ Tim asked jokingly. Toby laughed in the seat next to him. The two of them drove to a nearby taco bell and picked up breakfast for not only themselves but Jay and Brian too. The smell of hot, fresh burritos and cheese filled the car and made Toby bounce his legs, an excited tic of his. They picked up their laundry before heading back to the hotel. Tim was holding the bag of food. He would have given it to Toby but- well, one wrong tic and their perfectly good breakfast could probably hit the ground. Tim was not risking losing his breakfast. 

Tim and Toby walked into the hotel room where Jay and Brian were still fast asleep. Tim set down his bag of laundry, walked over to Brian’s bed, and flicked him on the forehead. Immediately, the sleeping man gave an agitated groan and swatted at him. Tim flinched away from Brian’s swats until he was still again, and gave him another flick. 

‘’Aghh!’’ Brian squirmed where he lay and opened his eyes, glaring up at Tim, who just smirked. ‘’Asshole.’’

‘’Dick.’’ was all Tim replied with before turning over to Jay’s bed. He leaned down and gently shook him awake. He smiled warmly at Jay as his eyes fluttered open. Brian glared at him. Jay sat up and rubbed at his eyes. ‘’Morning.’’ Tim murmured. He held up the bag of taco bell. ‘’We got you two breakfast. Toby’s choice.’’

Brian looked at Toby. ‘’...breakfast burritos?’’ he asked. Toby nodded. He smiled approvingly. ‘’Good choice.’’

[banashee]

 Day 1: Snow

 When Clint wakes up before sunrise one day in december, he knows without looking or checking his phone that it’s been snowing at night. It’s just a feeling, not based on any facts yet, but he knows this with the certainty of a child who has been waiting for it ever since the last spring snow has melted.

 He slides out from under the many blankets and from Natasha’s grip around his waist, careful not to wake up Lucky who is sleeping by their feet. Clint can’t hear it, but he knows that his dog snores loud enough that it is a miracle their furniture hasn’t turned to sawdust yet.

 “Just like your human.” Natasha tells Lucky every time while gently scratching the good spot behind his ears. Clint laughs then, claiming that accusation to be entirely untrue. Every single time, without a fail. Natasha will laugh in response and god, Clint loves that sound. As it is tradition by now, she will reply that his opinion doesn’t count since he wouldn’t be able to tell now, would he?

 It only makes him laugh harder and love her more.

 The cold air of the room hits Clint. He’s still sleep-warm, but the bedroom is freezing cold. They never sleep with the window open - both of them are way too paranoid for that - but the building is old, and there are always cracks and crevices where the icy chill of winter can creep in.

 Sooner than later, Clint knows he will curse up a blue storm when he has to fix the damn radiator for the billionth time, like every winter. But right now, the lingering warmth of his partners embrace and the sleeping dog keep him warm. When he peeks out of the blinds and into the early morning of New York, the street lights and neon signs reflect themselves in glittery snow on the ground. Even the streets are still covered, and the parked cars by the side of the road are half-buried under a fluffy white blanket.

 Childlike excitement and a giddiness spark through him, and Clint smiles.

 Silently, he creeps down the hallway. Chances are, Natasha already woke when he left because she always notices, but maybe she already fell back asleep. Only a few years ago, that would have been unthinkable. At that time, neither of them would have been able to find any rest unless they went to check on the other, just to make sure they’re okay.

 Just to make sure there is no attack.

 Just to make sure the other wasn’t on the verge of a breakdown.

 Now, these days are less and less, and both of them are doing mostly alright. Enough to be able to go back to sleep when they wake up because the other slides out of the bed for any reason that isn’t urgent.

 Clint is clad in only underwear and one of his ancient T-shirts. This one is a cheesy, cheap thing from some tourist attraction on the other side of the planet, but it’s well-loved and worn soft, and he refuses to part with it until it either falls apart, or, much more likely, it finds its way to Natasha’s side of the closet. Clint knows, if one item of his clothing is suddenly missing under mysterious circumstances, chances are he’ll find Natasha wearing it or squirreling it away to sleep in later.

 Right now, the cold from the windows is creeping into him, and Clint takes a thick, woolen blanket from the back of the couch while walking past, wrapping it around his shoulders. He starts a pot of coffee in the kitchen, room still dark around him. It doesn’t make a difference - his eyes are good enough to see what he is doing.

 While the coffee is running through, Clint makes his way over to the floor length window next to the balcony door.

 He sits down on the floor, blanket wrapped around himself and with his forehead pressed up against the cool window. The glass is fogging up due to his warm breath and he wipes it with a corner of the blanket. Then he settles down to watch the snow fall in the dark.

 It’s a beautiful sight, and he loses time for a bit.

 Clint only moves to look away from the window when Natasha sits down next to him, with Lucky trotting after her, holding two large mugs of coffee and handing one over to him with a sleepy smile. He turns to kiss her good morning, and then the two of them settle down with Lucky by their feet, watching the streets of Brooklyn in silence. They simply breathe in each other's company, without a single word, but utterly happy.

 The snow outside keeps falling.

 By the time they have finished their first coffee of the day, the street lights have turned off, and the snow is glittering in the low light of the slowly rising sun. Natasha puts her empty mug down on the floor, then she wraps herself around Clint, snuggled up close to him and smiles happily.

 She knows just how much he loves the snow. Even though she’s had more than her fair share of icy weather while growing up in Russia and many years following, she can’t help but let him infect her with excitement.

 It amazes her sometimes, that people like them can find happiness in such small things, what with everything they’ve lived through.

 The two of them have been home for each other for a long time now. It’s taken them longer than most, but now they are finally free to      live     and not just survive. Even after all these years, it feels a little bit surreal sometimes but they wouldn’t want it any other way.

 By the time the sun is up, they get up from the floor to start making breakfast.

 Lucky is crunching loudly on a bowl of kibble while Liho is inhaling wet cat food and their humans work together in the kitchen. Natasha and Clint move around each other in a familiar and well-practised way, and neither of them talks much.

 Some days, one or both of them are particularly chatty in the mornings, but that’s rare. Especially on a day like this one, when they started it in such a romantic way.

 Clint disappears into the bedroom to get his hearing aids at some point and soon after, the room smells of pancakes, eggs with bacon and another pot of coffee.

 They stay in the kitchen, since the room has warmed up from their cooking and the rest of the apartment is still cold - Clint sighs into his half empty coffee mug.

 “I’ll definitely have to take a look at the damn heat again.”

 Natasha nods, running one hand through her messy red hair. She turns to face Clint so he can read her lips as she answers,

 “Let’s do that soon. We’ll freeze our asses off when we come home from the-”

 Natasha finger-spells W-A-L-K so that Lucky doesn’t run crazy at the word “walk” like he tends to do,

 “- and the apartment is still cold.”

 “Yup.” Clint nods, and shoots a dirty look in the direction of the offending appliance.

 “Let me finish my coffee and I’ll get to it.”

 Half an hour and many profanities later, the heat is running again and the apartment warms up rapidly. As soon as Clint is done with the work, Liho curls up on top of the radiator.

 “You’re welcome.” he tells the cat, and strokes the shiny, black fur in between her ears. He can’t pick up the purr, but Clint can certainly feel it. Like a little motor, Liho is vibrating under his touch, leaning into it for a moment. Then, a pair of green eyes slowly blinks at him before Liho is drifting off to sleep in the blissful heat.

 Natasha is already dressed in one of his hoodies when Clint enters the bedroom to put on some pants. Both of them layer up before they are ready to leave - they plan to spend a good amount of time outside, not just to get some exercise for Lucky and themselves, but also to enjoy the snow day. There are no other plans and they don’t have to be anywhere. The day is all theirs.

 “Lucky! Come on boy, let’s go out for a walk!” Clint calls out and a second Later, the yellow mutt comes scrambling down the hallway, barking in excitement and running circles around his human. He waits for the dog to calm down so he can put a leash on him, as well as snow boots.

 It’s freezing cold outside, and Clint wouldn’t want to be out there with bare feet - so why would he do that to his beloved companion? Besides, he doesn’t know if someone put road salt on their way yet.

 As soon as they step out the front door, a biting cold wind hits them. The air smells fresh and clean, which is rare enough here in the big city, but they’ll take the magic for as long as it lasts.

 The city is already covered in blinking fairy lights and all sorts of festive decor. Somebody is baking, and the heavenly scent of it wafts through an open window and down the street.

 “Hmm, so good.”

 “We could bake later. It’s about time.” Clint sounds excited about that, not only for the cheesy pre-Christmas-time-reasons. He likes doing it, and it’s been a while since he had the time to do so. Avengers business never sleeps for long. But right  now, they have a small stretch of free time.

 “You mean      you     bake and I steal your raw dough? Because I’m totally game for that” Natasha smirks - she is capable of many things, but baking isn’t one of them. She does, however, have a huge sweet tooth. Thankfully, her partner is able to produce what must be magic in the kitchen.

 “Eh, same thing.” He wraps one arm around her shoulders, and they share a bit of body heat on their way to the park.

 The sky is blue and bright, and there is another round of fresh snow coming down. When they reach their destination, Lucky can barely contain his excitement - he keeps running wild and digging up the thick white snow, again and again as if he is on the search for a hidden surprise.

 Every now and then, he’ll return to Clint and Natasha for cuddles, but then he’ll get distracted by a snowflake and it all starts over, until they decide it’s time to go home.

 A hot shower feels great, especially now that the heat is working again.

 Cold and wet clothes are immediately tossed into the dryer, and they take their time. When they step out of the room, they make their way back to the kitchen. Natasha starts making hot chocolate, one of the few recipes she trusts.

 There is an unhealthy amount of melted chocolate and heavy cream in it, as well as their special mix of spices that they tossed together just for this occasion. By the time their drinks are ready, Clint finishes kneading a batch of dough and waits for Natasha to pull away a piece to snack on before he puts the ball of dough into the fridge to firm up - this is going to take a while.

 They are happy to curl up by the window again, wrapped up in blankets and with their animals close. Liho is curled up near Natasha, oblivious to the world around them and fast asleep while Lucky is snoring again, with his head pillowed on Clint’s lap.

 Clint keeps running a hand through the thick, golden fur and leans his cheek against Natashas head, who has chosen his shoulder as her pillow. A lingering scent of orange flowers wafts up whenever she moves, coming from the shampoo that she uses for as long as Clint can remember knowing her. It’s so her, so very much familiar.

 He knows it so well, he once managed to bring her a new bottle from the store just by smelling every single one on the shelf. He couldn’t remember the name of it to save his life, but that scent - he’d recognize it anywhere.

 That day in winter, they sit together in silence and watch the snow through the window, which is still falling and creates a new layer of glittery white fluff on the ground. While the world outside is just as cold as it is beautiful, they are happy to be warm and happy at home.

 Life is good sometimes.

     END

 *+~

 Side note: while writing this, I’ve had this song on loop more than any other:

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GScdfCKB7xA  

 Jeremy Renner - “Stereo Love”

 It’s just beautiful

*+~

This is a writing challenge set up by AJ Woolfenden on Instagram, starting on December 14th. One word per day for a week. Works shared have to use #writingweek

https://www.instagram.com/p/CILEG_agRzF/?igshid=1p72flhf7lhzz

Day 1: Snow Day 2: Festive Lights Day 3: Santa’s hat Day 4: Gifts Day 5: Silent Night Day 6: Red Noses Day 7: Miracles

All cover photos 1-6 used from Pixabay , 7th from unsplash. Free to use photos

[gyllenhaalstories]

TOMORROW NEVER CAME (time to dance part 2)

SUMMARY: you met with this stranger at the bar a little while ago. things went intense, intensely fast. it was an encounter you would never forget and his final words before walking away, leaving you standing in this cold winter wind have yet to stop resonating in your mind. as you start to believe you will never cross paths with this myserious man and his killer, icy blue eyes, life has other plans.

WARNINGS: mentions of smoking, knives, alcohol, violence, a bunch of dark stuff, smut (d/s dynamic, spanking, rough intercourse)

WORD COUNT: 1 742

NOTES: reminder when i watched CAMERAS FOLLOWING JAKE AROUND DURING A NORMAL DAY and i also stumbled upon THIS AMAZING GIFSET ? i’m back, with a sequel no one asked for! i didn’t proof read it yet but i’ll read it later and correct some mistakes. thank you for reading i hope you’ll enjoy it! 

 You came home from work late, that day. You hated closing the place and working at the last shifts. You were not the easiest person to scare out there, but there was something about winter nights that terrified you. Bulgars could storm in at any moment. Roads could get icy and a car could drive straight into the front window and run you over. You could break a leg trying to climb up the dangerous and squeaky stairs to your apartment. You had an endless list of worst-case scenarios, still... You were so ignorant. 

The only thing you had to be afraid of, was that stranger from the bar. You had a gut feeling about him. He was up to no good. A man like that could not simply disappear from your life as abruptly as he entered it. 

Truth be told, Jake had come back to that very bar every evening. He sat at the exact same table as he did when he met you. He had one eye on the door, hoping to see your heady silhouette. His other eye checked the bathroom, in fear that you would walk out of there with someone else. He waited patiently, hope devouring his soul. He told himself you would be there tomorrow. 

Tomorrow never came. 

He walked out of the bar on a gloomy night and he looked around, waiting for a car to pass by so he could cross the street and go back to his business. He had spotted that annoying duo of friends, who ordered so many rounds of shots it was a miracle they were still standing up. They terrorized the lonely girls at the bar and he was not having any of it. His hands were buried in his pocket, tightly wrapped around the handles of two small knives. All he had to do was to get a little closer... 

Jake looked to his left and his eyes, empty and cold, widened. 

You had your earmuffs around your head and you stared at the ground, trying to avoid any ice spots and an inevitable bone fracture. Your nose and cheeks turned pink from the cool breeze and you bopped your head to the music blasting through your covered earbuds. You did not hear the honks and the loud shoutings, not even your feet breaking the thin layer of ice as you walked up the stairs to your apartment, just the sound of your favorite music. 

The entire time, he watched you. He dragged himself around, following your path from a safe distance. His heart was beating loud, so loud it was deafening. He slid the hoodie of his jacket on his head and followed you. He recognized your neighborhood, he had been around this part of town before. Memories of that night when you smashed the skull of a random guy on the concrete made him grin. 

You took your coat and your accessories off, kicking your shoes on the small mat by the door and made your way to the fridge to drink orange juice straight from the carton. It was only then you stopped your music and decided to head to your bedroom. You did not even know what time it was, and the only thing that mattered was meeting with your beloved bed. You took other pieces of clothing off and decided you’d sleep in your tank top and panties. Your hand grabbed the bedsheets and swung them away, making room for yourself. It was only then you looked up at the walls and noticed a shadow. 

It was long, slim, dark. Heavy breathing echoed from behind you as you slowly, very slowly, turned around. Your jaw dropped open, ready to scream for help, but instead, you went silent. You recognized these features, this body, these arms and these hands that moved you around like a rag doll in that bathroom stall. “What the fu—” you exclaimed, but he spoke before you.

“I won’t hurt you.” 

And you believed him, which made of you the biggest dumbass on the planet. A stranger whom you only met once snuck into your house, your bedroom, and you were trusting him with your life. Quite literally. Oh, the things one person could do for a good fuck... 

“I’ve been waiting for this moment all this time.” 

You studied him. He had removed his jacket, but his hands were still hidden in the pockets of his jeans. You could swear his glance softened when your eyes met his, his shoulders almost relaxing. There was something about this mysterious man that made you feel safe, and you hated yourself for it. “Get out of here.” You told him, your voice practically shaking. 

“I have one of these too.” His chin pointed at the yellow plastic bird on your last stand. 

It was some stupid toy a child gave you when he went to your work place, to thank you for bringing him paper and crayons to draw with when his family and him waited for their food. You looked at the toy, then at the man, in back and forth movements. He was smiling. Smiling.

“You wore that with me the other night, right?” His index finger pointed at your crotch area, but his eyes were locked with yours as you nodded. “I like the color. Red.” His smile grew wider, and he stepped a bit closer to you. 

It was unbearable. “Are we going to spend the whole night talking or what?” 

Like a bird of prey, he dove towards you, his lips meeting yours in a violent kiss. He tasted of whiskey and cigarette, two flavors you never thought you would appreciate. You two battled for dominance, and when you teased him as you sucked on his tongue, you felt your entire body being pushed backwards. You hit the cold bed as he hovered you with his broad shoulders. He kissed you again, roughly, and trailed kisses down to your neck on which he sucked, and sucked, and sucked. Satisfied with the color of the bruise, he grabbed parts of your tank top and ripped it open. Another grin appeared on his face as he busied himself with your breasts and nipples.

Your back arched against him, when you felt his teeth grazing on your sensitive buds. It felt as intense as it did the other night, and you were barely getting started. In a blink of an eye, his head was between your legs and his tongue licked your soaking wet panties. Again, he ripped them off your body and threw them on the ground as he helped you wrap your legs around his head. 

You stretched your arms out to grab his hands as he stared at you through hooded eyes. He was nose deep between your wet folds. The moans you made had him painfully hard, but he did not care about it that much. Again, he used his teeth to bite on your clit before he fucked his tongue into your entrance. He dragged his mouth up to your clit then back to your heat again and again until he felt your legs tighten around him. He pushed them towards you as he took you over the edge for the first time. 

You kept your eyes shut as waves of convulsions took over your body. 

He took the opportunity to remove his clothes, showing up his fit body and his hard, thick cock that he stroked slowly. “Ready?” 

The two of you already knew what was coming. And you nodded frantically. “Please, please just fuck me.” 

“Are you always such a good slut?” His laugh echoed in your bedroom as he slowly pushed himself inside of you. You felt tight, warm and wet and it dragged the longest groan out of him. 

He pressed on your legs, holding them down and wide open for you to watch just how deep he was fucking you. The skin of your ass slapped with his thighs as he thrusted faster and faster. You did not care that your bed was hitting the wall and that all you could do was scream incoherent pleas and thank you’s. 

The man grabbed your breasts firmly and gave them a few blows of spankings. It made you scream louder, and he was loving it. Without telling you, he pulled out and flipped you over so you were on all fours. His sweaty chest was pressed flat against your back and his mouth rested by your ear. 

You heard all of his moans and his praises about how good your pussy felt around his throbbing cock. He never slowed down the pace, leaving you thinking he was not even human at all. 

“Is that pussy mine?” He spanked your ass once, harder than he ever did. “Huh? Answer me? Whose pussy is this?” 

“It’s yours, fuck! It’s all yours!” You stuttered, earning more spankings. “You fuck me so good! Don’t stop!” 

And he certainly did not. Both of his hands used your ass to hold himself up. You were completely pressed into your bed as he fucked you, even deeper. His balls slapped on your sensitive clit and right when he noticed you started to clench around him, he went to grab your throat with one hand, using the other one to spank your red ass cheek. 

“You gonna give it to me? You gonna prove me you’re my fucking slut?”

And you did. You came so hard around him that no sound escaped from your open mouth. Only seconds after, you felt him emptying himself inside of you. He came in long strokes and stayed still inside of you for a while, admiring how exhausted you were from being slayed this hard. 

*~*~*

Jake panted, when you laid your head on his naked chest. He was pulling the blankets up to cover your bodies. The warm feeling of your legs as you wrapped them around his and of your arm around his waist sent electric shocks through his body.

You pressed a tender kiss on his collarbone and closed your eyes, only for a second. 

“It was so fun.” He said, his voice suddenly became monotonous and low, raspy even. 

You looked up at him, a frown on your forehead. You tensed up against him.

“It’s time for you to burn.” 

“What?”

“You’re gonna be sore, it’s gonna burn.” He genuinely sounded concerned. 

“Will you meet me up here tomorrow?” 

[writershapeholeonthedoor]

Dino Gear - Supercop

Read at AO3

That day turned out to be one of the worst days in Lena Luthor’s life. And she had a lot of days were people tried to kill her, including her mother and her bother, she was kidnapped more times than she was comfortable with and she did pretty much looked like a walking target to whatever shit the universe decided to throw her away, but, pushing all of that to the side, that was one of the worst days in her life.

She woke up late, which was a first in her life, after staying awake until very very late talking with Kara over texts. Her friend seemed bored and with insomnia and kept texting her the most random things for hours, going from asking her silly questions like her favourite color to sending pics of animals she found cute. And, for a reason she would like not to adress in the moment, Lena had stayed up with her until her friend finally fell asleep – or at least until she took more than five minutes to text her again. So when her alarm went off at 6am like usual, she didn’t heard it.

Jess saw her basically running to her office two hours after she was supposed to be there, but she was gracefull enough not to mention it while informing Lena of all the things she had pushed on her schedule. Because of her delay, Lena had even more meetings to attend in the afternoon and she had a board meeting and so many meetings that, by the time she exited the last one, she had lost count of which one that was.

She also hadn’t eaten nothing all day. Literally. She was late for work so she had to skip breakfest, she was in a meeting during lunch and another meeting after that. Lena spent all afternoon talking with stubborn, blockhead, white male, and by the time she realized she still had to put some solid food on her body it was already too late to ask Jess to grab her something.

To top all of that - because what more did she needed really? – she had to stay until late at her office, trying to finish some reports and working on some things she had promissed Winn she would take a look at. Not to mention that, in her rush to make everything on time, she didn’t had time to talk with Kara all day, even if she saw that her best friend had texted her more than once through the day. By the time she called her driver, Lena’s head was feeling twice it’s size.

She wanted nothing more than take her uncomfortable clothes off and go to bed. She had a terrible migraine, her body was tired and honestly her bed was just too inviting in the moment.

Lena had managed to take a quick shower and put her old National City University hoodie, and was on her way to pour some wine to herself, when there was a knock on the door. Her heart jumped against her chest at the sudden loud sound in her quiet apartment, but the panic quickly soothe when her brain started to work. There was only one person that would be allowed to go up by security without her being informed before.

What exactly Kara was doing on her door at 00:14am was beyond her, but Lena knew it was better ask her than keep asking herself instead. She sighed, putting down the wine bottle, and started making her way to the door. Lena loved her friend, she really did, but she wasn’t in the mood to entertain her that night. Her head hurt and she was tired, and it wasn’t even wednesday yet.

She took a deep breath before opening the door, ready to break Kara’s excited little heart, but then she had to stop short on her tracks when she took in whatever her friend was wearing.

Her hand instantly flew to her mouth to hide her laugh behind her palm, but it was already too late by the look on Kara’s face.

“Special delivery for miss Luthor!” Kara exclamed in her most cheerful tone, raising her hand that was holding a plastic bag to show her that she had, indeed, something with her.

Lena shook her head, her hand dropping back to the door handle, her smile almost too big to be comfortable. “Please, tell me this isn’t happening right now.”  She said with a scoff.

Kara raised one eyebrow at her, but her smiley face was just too happy for it to stay like that for too long. “You like my dino gear, don’t you?” Her eyes moved up, clearly trying to look at the said clothing item, before coming back to stare at Lena with that bright glint on the blue orbs.

Lena looked at her friend from head to toe, still smiling, and quirked her eyebrows to what she saw. Kara’s bottom half was rather normal, just some old sneackers and a maybe too large grey hoodie pants with CatCo symbol on it, but her top half was something entirely different. She was using what had to be the ugliest sweater Lena had ever saw. It was a dark shade of blue, with a large green and yellow dinosaur on it, and it would have being an attrocity if she wasn’t looking so cute while wearing it. And, in her head, Kara was wearing a black cap with a green dinosaour being mounted by a green smiley alien, full with stars and planets around them and a fluffly coloured woolen ball on top. In the bottom, the phrase “Give me some space” was written in white and red, making everything even better.

Kara looked ridiculous, but, oh so cute. Especially with that easy smile of her and her face full of freckles around her nose that Lena could see thanks to the fact that her friend wasn’t wearing any make up.

“I heard you had a rough day.” Kara offered as an explanation, raising the bag again. “I thought I would show up to make you smile a little bit.” She wiggled her eyebrows and her cap moved along with it. “With kale to help me out.”

Lena couldn’t hold back anymore, she laughed openly now. “Jesus, Kara, you’re the best, I love you.” She shook her head again.

They hadn’t said it before, not even in a friendly way. They had said how much the other meant for each other, how much they cared, how far they would go for each other, but, for some reason, it felt different that time. Lena could hear in her own voice how blunt out honest she was when she spilled the words without thinking. She didn’t sounded like a thankful friend, no. She sounded like a in love fool, like her heart had just spit out of her mouth.

And apparently Kara had also realized it because all laugh and smile left her beautiful face when she stared back at Lena in shock. So Lena also stoped laughing, because clearly her friend was not amused anymore, and her heart started beating fast inside her chest, begging her to find a way to get out of the mess she dug herself and not ruin things for them, because having Kara as her friend was better than not having Kara at all.

“I, uh-“ Lena cleared her throat twice before she was able to speak again. “What’s in the bag?” She clinged visibly to her stupid question and clear attempt to find another thing to talk about.

But Kara wasn’t having it. “What did you just said?”

“What?” Not the best time to play dumb, Lena realized too late. Not the best way to get her out of that mess.

“You-“ Kara pointed at her with a shaking finger and wide eyes. “You said you- You said- You just...” Ok, so clearly she wasn’t the only one who had no idea what to say. “You said you love me.” Kara whispered the words almost in reverence.

Lena wanted to play dumb again, at least she would be able to buy her some time before having to answer the though questions, but she doubted that saying ‘No, I didn’t’ was going to sound any better than whatever crap she could come up with. Her brain was way too tired for that conversation to be happening.

So she went all the way around. “Yes, I did.” Lena crossed her arms in front of her chest, trying to embrace herself for the impact.

“Wow.” Kara whispered in awe while nodding along with it. “That’s some big news.”

“Kara, look, I’m sorry. I haven’t slept very well and I also didn’t eat anything all day, and I really want to go to bed, so...” It was the lamest excuse she ever gave anyone, but she couldn’t think straight when Kara was staring at her like that. It made her inside all mushy and warm, and it made her really nervous.

“I love you too.”

“What?”

“I love you too, Lena.” Kara repeated, her growing smile getting bigger and bigger by the second. “As like more than friends kind of love you.”

“You really do?” Lena never felt more nervous or hopefull in her entire life before and it showed on how low her voice became suddenly, the words barely audible for any human.

But Kara smiled at her again and, with a wink, said: “Well, I did used this thing in public, didn’t I?”

The CEO chuckled and shook her head. “To be fair, I think you would use it regardless.”

“That’s not the point here.” They shared a light moment where they both giggled like school girls about to kiss their crush, but suddenly Kara became very serious and she looked even more nervous than before.

“What?” It was ringing way too many bells inside her head and Lena didn’t liked it.

Kara’s eyes suddenly filled with tears and she looked down at her dirty sneakers so she wouldn’t have to see Lena’s reaction to what she was about to say. “I- Lena, I can’t do this, not without telling you the whole truth, it’s not fair with you and...”

“Kara.” Lena interrupted her gently. She hesitated only for a second before she reached out to grab Kara’s hand that wasn’t grasping the bag. The brunette coaxed her to come foward, but the blonde only followed her once she looked around and realized she was still literally standing in the hallway. “I think I know what...”

“I’m Supergirl.” Kara blurred out suddenly. She was still looking down, but after her outburst she looked up to meet the emerald eyes that made her feel so many things. Lena had raised her eyebrows, but she didn’t let go of her hand, so she took it as a good sign. “I’m Supergirl and I love you, Lena.” She stated, straightening her posture and stuffing her chest to give the impression that she was more confident than she really was.

Lena’s eyes softened and she took a step back, than another one, until she finally raised her other hand to push a stray of hair behind her ear, the touch almost making Kara combust in place. “I knew the first part, just for the record.” She claimed with a little amusement. “Quite hard to miss it. The rest is kind of surprising, not going to lie.”

“I really want to kiss you right now.”

“Kara, I don’t want you to take it the wrong way, really.” Lena paused and bit her bottom lip. For a second, the hero thought she was about to be rejected, but then she saw the corners of Lena’s mouth trembling slightly as she fought a smile. “But it’s really hard to take you serious when you’re wearing this hat and this sweater.”

Kara nodded and pretended to think for a second. “I can compromise with the hat, but I really like this sweater.”

Lena chuckled softly. “I think you look quite cute with it.” She raised both hands, using one to remove Kara’s Alien-Mounting-A-Dinosaur gear and the other one to brush the blonde curls away from her face. Her heart swell with love when Kara closed her eyes and leaned to her touch. “I will never say it again, so you better save this in your memory, but I did enjoyed the dino gear too. It made me smile.”

“That’s all I want.” Kara confessed as she leaned for their first kiss.

A week later, after Kara convinced Lena to a late walk through her block, people would see Lena using the dino gear while trying to convince Kara that she wasn’t cold enough to use the damn sweater.

[bubmyg]

a pink peony - ksj

pairing: seokjin x reader

genre/warnings: (pre) ceo!au, college!au, fluff, yoongi is a lil insufferable but also just loves his roommate, awkward but incredibly intelligent seokjin is a kink and a half

word count: 1,554

summary: before seokjin was mr. kim seokjin, ceo of kim enterprises, he was jin, president of the only business fraternity on his campus and entirely too nervous to ask you out let alone sign a multi-billion dollar deal or yoongi bans his tie drawer and throws his business math textbook out the third story window of their building when he tells him to get dressed at ten o’clock on a tuesday.

a/n: based on a request i got for ceo!jin and oc’s first date which dates all the way back to their undergrad days :-)

“Give me your textbook.”

Seokjin didn’t even entertain his roommate, snorting with a single cocked eyebrow as he pointedly flipped the page. The numbers were running together regardless, not computing further in the forefront of his conscious as the other presence in the other room continued to glare at him from the doorway.

“Jin. Give me the damn textbook before I take it from you.”

That got Seokjin to look up, regarding Yoongi’s thin frame with a wrinkled forehead and a short, exaggerated laugh.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Try me.”

He wasn’t expecting his mint headed roommate to stalk straight for him, ring clad fingers clasping around the spine of the book and lifting upward. Pens and pencils and highlights and stray post it notes spilled from within the glossy pages, falling limp into Seokjin’s lap as Yoongi pointedly closed the book.

“I have an exam next week to study for.”

“What day?”

“Friday.”

“It’s Tuesday.”

Seokjin glowered and Yoongi’s lips twitched in a smirk, holding the textbook hostage across his chest. He plucked a highlighter between his nails and seethed quietly, “I still need it.”

“Later. You have a date to attend.”

“I have a what—”

“Yeah, I grew balls for you and told your little crush that you wanted to meet her tonight.”

Seokjin blinked owlishly at his friend before turning that stunned silence to the metal linked watch latched to his wrist, “Night already happened. It’s nearly ten—”

“Good thing the pizza place on third street stays open until midnight then—” Yoongi placed the textbook down on the windowsill, a loud noise in the otherwise quiet apartment, “—and good thing we’re university students. Who rarely go to bed before two in the morning.”

“Says you—”

“Jin, I swear to god if you give me an hours of sleep per night statistic and its ratio to those who earn their MBA’s I’m canceling your half of the lease tonight and letting Jimin move his shit in.”

Seokjin’s throat jumped and he swallowed the butterflies that had balled and lodged in the base of his throat, instead taking purchase in the entirety of his stomach, spreading and fluttering and brushing their delicate wings against his churning inner walls. He popped the cap from the highlighter in hand, smearing the neon yellow onto his thumb just underneath his nail, muttering, “What did you tell her?”

“That you were free tonight and ready to not blow her off again.”

His eyes widened, “I’ve never blown her off—”

“Not only does she think that you don’t desperately want in her pants—” Yoongi’s voice was scolding, protective almost of his friend that he’d introduced Seokjin to in the first place, “—she thinks that you don’t like her. At all.”

“B-but, how could—”

“I know you think you’re just being polite because you’re nervous and she makes you nervous and her literally asking you out makes you nervous but you aren’t like, normal person polite. You’re loud. And short. And when your chair fell over in the library last week when you tried to run out after she asked you to pizza with some of her friends? It fell on her.”

The butterflies in Seokjin’s stomach seemed to scold him too and his shoulders deflated, capping the highlighter and tossing it into the pile of discarded things from his textbook. Miserable, his chin hit his chest, “So what are you suggesting I do?”

“I’m suggesting that you get dressed…” Yoongi abandoned the closed textbook on the window sill to slide in front of Seokjin’s chest of drawers, slapping a hand across the third from the top, “...in something that doesn’t involve a tie. And then collect the vase of things on the kitchen counter because I have to do everything for you. And then go to the pizza place. Pay for dinner, or let her pay for it. Split the check. Whatever, just go on this damn date.”

“No tie…” Seokjin’s eyes squinted suspiciously as Yoongi moved back for the window, fiddling at the black lining the glass, “...what’s on the kitchen counter?”

“They’re flowers, Jin.”

“You bought me flowers?”

“No, you bought her flowers. You said you wanted to do that anyway...remember?”

Seokjin blinked, “Why did I want to buy her flowers?”

“Probably something about chivalry and old school romance considering you’re basically sixty years old but—” Yoongi sighed, mostly because he’d finally freed the latch on the window and shoved it open, letting cool air flood through the room, “—she studies botany. I got them from kids selling them outside the greenhouses. Take her the flowers.”

“I knew that…” Seokjin squinted as Yoongi’s hands framed his textbook and began to drape it out the open window, “...what are you doing with my textbook?”

“Nothing.”

“Yoongi, give the textbook back—”

Seokjin watched in horror as Yoongi let go, letting the glossed cover catch on the lip of the window before tumbling three stories below to hit the turf with an audible but dull thump.  

“Now you officially have nothing to do tonight,” Yoongi beamed and Seokjin wondered the trajectory and force he’d have to throw a highlight at to concuss someone as his roommate waddled around the edge of his bed. His final instruction came after he’d shrugged through the ajar door, “Get dressed! And don’t you dare go look for the fucking textbook!”

He fiddled with the plastic ends of the pink hoodie hanging off his torso. The right side had been peeled away, fraying at the edges and straying into his fingernails when he drug a pinched thumb and index finger across them.

The hoodie wasn’t his. He’d dared Yoongi’s room for help after he decided a long sleeve declaring the cheesy llama mascot he’d created for AKP probably wasn’t the best first date look. It was pink and it was huge and it still had the tag on it, buried behind Yoongi’s sea of mundane black, blue, red, and green.

His index finger hooked into the collar this time, tugging and effectively exposing his collarbones to the chill of the tiny establishment. There were no other customers besides himself, cornered in the back in a booth that was barely big enough to fit his stature, a coke on the table with a candy striped paper straw spiraling out of the beverage, the slightly damp tip poking against one of the pretty pink peonies spilling out over the generic plastic vase.

He’d ordered a pepperoni pizza because who didn’t like pepperoni pizza and he was fretting over the likelihood of you having an allergy to tomatoes all together when keys clattered against the table and you fell into the seat across from him with a huff.

“Oh! Peonies from the botany club,” There was a smile on your lips already and Seokjin found his heart ricochet off each of his ribs before shooting up into his throat, “You must have just missed me. I worked the afternoon shift…”

“They’re for you,” Seokjin rushed, gently nudging the vase for you. When your lips wobbled in confusion, he, bluntly, bullshitted, “I-I figured you probably sold out and they’re too pretty not to have some of so…”

“Thank you, Jin,” You smiled softly and the apples of his cheeks were stroked in the same pretty pink of the flowers you cupped gently in your palms, “At least I know how to take care of them properly, right?”

“They’re pretty like you too,” He blurted. “I-I mean—”

A shy smile graced your lips and dimpled into your cheeks and you glanced at him fondly through your eyelashes and he thought he was going to puke all his adoration for you right on top of the pizza the waiter left with a quiet eye roll.

“I hope you like pepperoni,” He tried again and his voice was just as loud, something he correct with a cough, “I figured that—”

“...everyone likes pepperoni?” You finished together and the bashful light still slanted at the seam of your lips, “Yes, pepperoni is perfect, Jin.”

He managed to suppress the you’re perfect in his throat this time, lodging it deeper into his esophagus by jamming a mouthful of grease into his cheeks. Some of the red tinted liquid dripped off the corner of his lips and onto Yoongi’s hoodie but he found you giggling at him when he went to inspect you in horror. He barely chewed, swallowing the mouthful with an audible gulp that only heightened your giggles and soon you were staring at each other in a comfortable silence, half smiles painted to the crooks of your mouths, uncertain light dancing behind your eyes.

You ducked away first and Seokjin indulged in being able to trace the lines of your features to memory as you delicate nibbled on the edge of some stray cheese.

“Your president of AKP, right?—”

“So, how’d the flower sales go—”

You giggled, dusting off your hands that weren’t dirty onto a napkin, “You go first.”

Seokjin was glowing far more than the unnatural shine on the grease creviced between ridges of cheese on the pizza slices, nudging his plate out of the way by means of folded fingers that came to rest on the table. His smile was genuine, voice curious as his chin tilted, black bangs dangling over his eyes.

“Peonies. Tell me about them.”

[honestsycrets]

Not My Scene || 5CW: Hvitserk

❛ Author’s Notes | fulfillment: party with hvitserk, masturbation with panties, right one too late.

❛ pairing | hvitserk/reader

❛ word count | 4661

❛ genre | angst

❛ summary | once upon a time, hvitserk cheated on his girlfriend. what a mistake that was.

❛ warnings | mention of drugging, mention of cheating, crazy margrethe, crazy freydis, reader is biiiiitch, but a lovable bitch

He could have stayed home. After all, house warming parties weren’t really his style. They were just excuses to booze up. Which, shit, he had. His brothers were busy arguing over wine coolers. Ivar insisted that they were a pussy man’s drink with malt liquor while Sigurd insisted that they could have heavier alcohol if they wanted to! Then were wine coolers really wine coolers or malt coolers?

Ugh. This whole thing was giving him one huge headache and he wasn’t sure it was the frozen tequila lemonade swirled with raspberries that he had downed. It was… well, it was you. You were slinking around wearing a cute tule minidress complete with a black matching cincher. A silky bow around your waist and--

Wait, he recognized that leather jacket.

It wasn’t like he hadn’t been the one wearing it that first day he met you, swirling around in chunky black ankle boots that you were also wearing just by chance.

“Hvitserk!” He hears a group of your friends call out to him. His big brother Bjorn and Ubbe were in the fray. “Come take a picture with us!”

When Ubbe was there, he made it really hard to say no. So biting the bullet and carrying on, he made his way over to the group with his hands shoved in a freshly new hoodie.

“Stand by (Y/N)! For old times sake!” Your bubbly asian friend calls out and before he can really deny her, her adorably pudgy frame pushes him in beside you.

“Come here, bun-bun.” You pose cutely beside him, the side of your breast against his flat chest. “You’re not wearing a white shirt, today, white shirt?” You tease like old times, letting the ache of his heart beat for the times which… things were easier. When you loved him. He looks down to his black v-neck, laughing softly.

“No, guess I’m not.” He notes.

One! Two! Three! The blinding light of a flash marks the end of a photo. You reach onto the top of your head, flicking down holographic bug eyed glasses.

“Nice to see you again!” You wink at him then bubble on past the thin, stringy purple curtains back to the kitchen of your home. He wonders, and yet he knows, you feel nothing for him after falling apart in college.

You had your scene.

He had his.

With an aching sigh in his chest, Hvitserk turns the corners up the stairs to your bathroom. He could do with a cold splash of water to drag him out of this funk. It wasn’t as if Ubbe hadn’t taken to Bjorn. Sigurd and Ivar were begrudging company in their drinking contests-- spiting each other and loving each other all in one.

Climbing up the hardwood stairs, he comes to the bathroom. Locked with the flicker of a bright yellow light and obscene-- faster, faster off the lips of a couple. He almost thinks its some dude getting his rocks off but then, you like that? The other voice has an equally feminine quality.

Shit, he feels himself grow beneath his pants. He knows its wrong to harass a couple that may or may not be lesbians. So instead of beating down the door, he spots another room. The second he walks into it he knows its a mistake.

You always loved fairy lights. White ones to contrast against your favourite lavender, royal purple and cerulean blue. Deep and vivid while still being light and dainty. Quirky-- like you. He travels his fingers along the airy white of your furniture.

That one he pounded you into while your father was downstairs, claiming that the door better stay open. Then the armoire where… and mistakenly he ambles that way, sliding the metal dangling moon on top of your long cabinet that sits on top of the wooden piece to pull out the one place where you always kept them.

His fingers run across pretty, stringy panties. The other will be the same, he assumes. You always kept bras in one place and panties with another. Your sex toys would be in a sneaky-not so sneaky pouch and god, you would sneak into your bed at night and ride a fat dildo just for him on really good nights. Send him the video while you thought he wasn’t looking.

God damn.

His favourite panties always were those stringy, aqua cheekies with the cut outs. They weren’t there. He closes back up despite catching sight of all of the pretty white, powder pink and dark blue and purple panties that he bought you once upon a time. There’s some other obscure colours even. But his curiosity brings him to your galaxy clothes bin, searching between mini skirts and leggings until he finds what he’s after… his favourites.

Used and soiled by your sweet cunt, he shudders to think of where these might have been. Hvitserk hopes that they weren’t where he thought they were.

Bun-bun. Bunny.

He can hear that stupid nickname. What was it? For your love of bunnies or his man bun that had been chopped off the moment you messaged him, we’re over. God, it burns, it burns. He comes to your bed, squeaking as he lays upon it.

But it wasn’t all bad. There were good times! How cute you dressed up as his very own playboy bunny once. He sucks in air at that very memory on this very bed, shaking your puffy faux fur tail at him. Which really wasn’t a tail but a cheap marketing ploy for a beautiful fucking anal plug.

He should really not be here but thank god he locked that door because the heavy steps outside your door as he loosens his pants would have been killer. Beside your bed is a desk, bearing stupid little k-beauty masks and sweet vanilla lotion. He pumps a bit into his hand, drawing the panties around his cock. To his shock-- there’s still a moist spot.

Did you wear them to bed?

With another man?

A woman?

Or were you being the woman he remembered, watching your favourite porn on x-videos or hentai haven or whatever it was. Your body would grind down upon the chair, a bullet grazing your lips up to your slutty clit for love and shit, he knows how much you used to love gangbang porn.

Shiiiit. He tugs his cock, turning in the bed to turn his nose into your lavish silk pillows. Good for the hair, or some shit. He inhales sharply, working his fist harder and reliving the moments he was so able to lay in bed  with you… once upon a time ago. His strokes lose focus, falling apart in the richest of his memories.

“Bunny?”

Oh no. His nose is still deep in your pillows when he dares turn his face to you. Shock wears your beautifully done up face-- that purple highlighter accentuating your cheek bones and adorably innocent white glitter of your eyes. Shit, he squeezes his dick in his hand.

“You’re not…. You are!” You flick off those bug eyed glasses, tossing them aside as you take a few steps closer. He cringes, turning onto his forearms and backs up as if that can help him find the right words.

To be in your bed-- jerking his cock off.

With your panties.

“I… was… uh.” Hvitserk runs his hand through his slicked back hair, trying to find the right words. You pluck your panties off of his dick, flicking them in another direction. He nearly leaps out of his skin when you fist the root of his cock, sinking onto the bed.

“No need to say anything.” You hum, slapping the head of his dick against your glossed lips. “You missed me, BunBun.”

He wishes he could come up with something, but the only words are a shocked moan when you shove his dick into your wet, hot mouth. Hvitserk cringes, trying his best to still upon the bed. He can’t help himself, kicking out his legs as you suckle him down. It’s a show, taking him as far as you can take and then lifting up off of him like he was nothing.

“Please… no.” He whines at the absence of your lips upon him. But then, your lips sloppily kiss down his shaft in the same way he used to make whilst eating you out. Your mouth makes its way down to his balls, suckling one. Instant pleasure hits him like a train, causing him to uncomfortably shift. His hands search out for the top of your head but then-- you take ahold of his shaft. It’s too much-- it’s too much to have your lips upon him, migrating from one side to another, then on top of his his tip to devour him whole.

“Stop, stop stop!” He shouts for you to stop. Instead of helping though, you ignore him. He spills into your mouth with a great shout, painting the cavern of your mouth with his seed. Your lips seal around his cock, suckling the remains of his excitement down.

Damn.

“Shit.” He curses as you sit up. You push the remnants of his excitement into your lips and despite having gone soft-- its almost as if he wants to go hard allll over again. Your lips quirk into a wicked smile.

“You’re as easy as I remember.” You say, bouncing off of your bed and going into the connected bathroom. He hears you in the bathroom messing with your brush and toothpaste.

“What are you doing?” He asks from your bed— as meek as the bunny he was named after.

“Cleaning your spunk out my mouth, what do you think?” You say. A few minutes later, you resurface from the bathroom fluffing your hair a bit.

“Well? Get out, Bun Bun.” You busy yourself with applying a bright, popping lipstick. “If we get caught, it’ll be all your fault.”

You were kicking him out without talking of that? Whatever that was… it was random. He tucks himself away into his pants and you toss him your panties to confuse him further. You pop the door of your room open, flicking your glasses back on.

“Keep them as a momento. Since you’ll never get my pussy again, slutty bun. Maybe Margrethe is out there somewhere.”

I was drunk!

It was his fault.

All of this-- losing you, sleeping with Margrethe. Yeah, he knew that you were in your right to break up with him. But as he composed yourself in your bathroom, he kept convincing himself that there was something there.Most women would have tossed him out on his ass if there hadn’t been! Not sucked him off.

Even with all that in mind, he wished he could remember actually sleeping with Margrethe. This was the exact reason you kicked him out of your shared apartment at the time-- throwing trash bags of his shit out the door with. Every time that he tried to recall it, it was like descending into a deep black abyss. Perhaps guilt had done him in. Water is cold on his skin, sweat on his body mattifying. He digs into his jacket pocket, covering himself in what you always called a whore’s bath of cologne.

Fuck this… fuck this. Why couldn’t he… remember? Why!?

“Hvitserk.”

Behind him, Ubbe stood with his latest fling. A curvy, dark skinned girl with beautiful waved curls that wave in front of her face. Her slanted eyes dark and obscure… but she was warm. Different from what he was used to seeing on Ubbe’s arm.

“Yeah.” He smoothes out his hair, a few stray honey locks in his eyes.

“Laarni and I are going home.” Ubbe slides his arm behind the small of her back, leaning in to plant a small kiss on her head. Her plump lips spread into a sickly bright smile-- and of course it did. They were happy. “Margrethe and Freydis are here. Are you coming home?”

“I’ll be fine.” He says, staggering from behind the couple. “I just need a drink.”

Against his better judgement, Hvitserk stays.

Freydis and Margrethe were an unlikely sort of friends. He can’t say how they really got to know each other, only that as he sways down the steps, they cluster about drinking. Freydis chitchats beside her boyfriend Eric.

“--a little cherry makes it all better.” He catches the tail end of Margrethe’s words. “Hvitserk!”

Shit, fuck. She’s here. Hvitserk gives a light smile as he turns into the cluster of friends. Beside them is a cooler of drinks. He slips down to pick up a beer, popping it open and standing beside them. Margrethe sticks to him like a magnet, one that he quickly shaves off of his arm.

“Uh, I think I gotta go…” He murmurs an excuse for himself. Past Freydis’s sassing bob and Eric’s smooth hair, he finds you standing in the way you always used to when you watched him. A pop of your hips out, weight on one hip and your nail to your lip. The other held some kind of hard liquor. You shift the glass around between your manicured fingertips, tilting your head like the time you overheard he ate a pound of sourbelts at the mall.

“Why? Do you have someone new?” Freydis asks, bobbing her hair in a sassy little bob.

“No, I just…”

“Margrethe is here to take care of you.” She cuts him off, running the back of her hand over Margrethe’s soft cheek almost affectionately so. The touch could even be called tender. The thought whizzes by his head that the two must have been sleeping together because god, Margrethe leans into the touch.

“Uh, no I-- I think I’ll go home.” He slurs. “Lemme just go get a snack before I call a uber. I’m kinda wasted.”

Before he can move, Margrethe grasps his shoulder. She reaches out to take his drink, holding it with a sickingly bright smile that Hvitserk can’t see past.

“Get me some too! I’ll hold your drink.”  

Against his better judgement, he slips off to the kitchen. If it means getting away from Freydis, he would do anything. There was something… wrong about her. He couldn’t place it. It would just take a little bit, he reasons. Then he could get away from them. Besides he swore that there were wings when he came in earlier!

“Okay.”

Something didn’t sit well with you.

Yeah, Hvitserk wasn’t your responsibility any more. You should have just left things where they were in that room. He could have your panties and Margrethe’s pussy. Who cared! You certainly didn’t-- but in the same breath…Hell yeah you cared, that was the bitch that he cheated on you with.

You convince yourself to focus on what you were talking about. But of the corner of your eye, you catch something that doesn’t set well with you. Freydis digs into her glittering handbag, handing Margrethe something small. A vial that is smaller than her finger. Margrethe fiddles with the top, cracking the plastic top open… and then she spills it within what you were sure was Hvitserk’s drink. She swishes it around just enough that the liquid might mesh with whatever he has been drinking. There’s no guessing what that was.

“Sis, take a picture with us!” Your twin brothers call out to you. Ahh, shit. Being popular wasn’t all what it was cracked out to be.

Before you could get back to Freydis and Margrethe, Hvitserk came back with a plate for his once fling. Margrethe took it from his fingers, handing him his drink. Hvitserk sets his hand into his pocket.

“It’s kind of salty.” He motions, chugging down his drink. His face scrunches up tight. “So is this shit.”

“Must’ve gotten one of those skunk beers like me.” Eric nudges Hvitserk’s arm with a closed fist. Innocently Hvitserk thinks nothing of it. Shit, it happened. He moves to toss it into a recycling bin when you grab his wrist tight.

“Shit!” He jumps, heart pumping. “(Y/N), where did you come from?”

“Did you drink that?” You ask, light strobing off of your lovely cheeks. His face contorts as if he can’t understand why you were so protective over a drink. Maybe it was yours?

“Uh… was I not supposed to?” He asks.

“We were just leaving!”

From his side, Margrethe clings to his arm. You almost throw back something at Hvitserk, but he’s the first to insist that he wasn’t going with her. Desperately he looks toward you as if concerned that you would believe her-- her over him. Reasonable, you think. You recognize the glazing look over his eyes little by little. Just like last time.

“The fuck you are, you ratchet little bitch.” You sneer.

“Excuse me?” Margrethe rolls her neck around, a pink bob of hair bobbing on her head. Hvitserk looks between his ex and well, his other ex.

“Who the fuck do you think you’re playing with?” You snap her hand off of Hvitserk’s toned upper arms. A small, hope filled smile creeps onto his face-- but not at all for the reasons that he originally hoped.

“(Y/N), I’m uh, I’m fine.” He deflects the impending fight. Beside Hvitserk, Freydis and Erik creep closer. It should have been intimidating, but pushing Hvitserk behind your arm you ball up your fist. He staggers back from your arm shielding him.

“Get out of my damn house.”

It’s the first and last warning. Freydis looks toward Erik as if to threaten him-- but with two muscular twin brothers pushing past those clustered around the fight, Erik takes the high road. Sensing her boyfriend’s skepticism and perhaps having some of her own, Freydis reaches for Margrethe’s hand, pulling her in the way of the door.

“Come on Margrethe.” She says. “You can see Hvitserk later.”

The pathetic little whimper signals the fact that yeah, they’re leaving. As you turn back to Hvitserk, it’s with the realization that the glazing of his eyes has only thickened. If what you thought was true, was really true, time would be on your side.

“Are you okay, Bunny?” You ask.

It’s slow at first. The sluggish way he scratches the back of his head, arms like heavy weights. Everything in his body slowly begins to feel weaker, more prone to accidental brushes when his perception is throne off.

“I don’t feel so good. I’m sleepy.” Hvitserk’s speech shifts, almost pleasured. “But you look good. Real good.”

You shift around Hvitserk, bringing his arm over your shoulder. You grasp his waist to help him up the steps to your bedroom.

“Let’s go to my bedroom, okay?” You ask.

“For fuckin’?”

“Not quite, bunny boo. You’re drunk baby.” You respond in a smooth, quick response.

“I want it. I miss that tasty fucking pussy on my face.” Well, at least he wasn’t agitated.

Whatever it was that they had slipped into his beer, you couldn’t say. But knowing Hvitserk and his fear of doctors, you take him up to your room. Your brothers pull open the door and help you lower him onto the bed. Hvitserk’s drops his hands at his sides, laying limply upon your bed while you slip off his shoes.

“You okay, Hvitty? I’m going to change you, okay?” You slip off his socks, loosening the button to his belt. His eyelids are heavy with his need to sleep but he still manages to nod at you loosely.

“Okay… Does this mean I get a kiss? I got a headache…” He whispers while you strip him off his pants. His pasty legs are still beneath the fabric-- even more when you pull them away. You’re not entirely sure how the loss of motor function doesn’t bother him.

“Kiss?” He whines heavily while you walk over to your dresser. His old basketball shorts in your dresser being one of the main items. You lift up from his hips to place a gentle kiss on his lightly damp forehead.

“Kiss.” You affirm. At long last Hvitserk smiles loosely, but its not without its drawbacks. The heaviness of his eyes begins to overtake him. How did I get here? Before he can even get the answer to that question, he loses himself to the wave of exhaustion.

If this time was like last time, so you feared, Hvitserk wouldn’t remember anything from the next day. On the top of your bed was a thick, green blanket. Black shadowing makes the outline of a cutesy kitten with pearly white fangs mewing at the viewing party. You drape it over Hvitserk’s body, watching his respirations closely.

Through the night, it all becomes obvious.

Catching Hvitserk in bed with the claim that… he couldn’t remember anything. Back then it seemed like a handy excuse for a man that was caught in bed with his woman. Why not? You had caught him in his ball faced lie! What man woke up in bed with a woman and could not remember any details of the affair?

Apparently, Hvitserk.

The next morning comes as a shock to Hvitserk, puking his brains out into the trash receptacle on his edge of the bed the second he woke up. He felt his mind wandering… and again, that black hole of space owns his head.

Except this time, it’s not with Margrethe. Its your perfumed pillows under his head. Your quirky sheets and most importantly, your body by his. In his daze, he can hardly appreciate the fact that yeah, it wasn’t her this time.

“Shit… what happened?” He collapses upon the pillows at long last. You lay beside him, hands on your chest. A plain black slip covers your body-- evidence that he didn’t fuck you. If he had, shit, that thing would have been chucked onto the floor. His favourite was spooning naked with you, after all!

“What do you remember about the night I caught you cheating?”

That was a hell of a way to wake up the morning. Reflecting back upon it, the whole… weekend was a blur. He could hardly tell down from up or left from right. Not that he thought that you needed to know how he handled that night after catching him in another woman’s bed. No woman deserved that.

“I don’t remember. You… I guess you found me in bed with her when you came home from your overnight shift. So you broke up with me then and there.” Hvitserk states with stale emotion as if he’s reading lines handfed to him out of a book. Of course you knew that!

“Before that.” You roll onto your side with eyes following the fuzzy line of his sideburns down to his jaw.

“I don’t.” He states uncomfortably. What kind of man was he to… to… “Do we have to talk about this? You didn’t explain how I got here.”

As he points it out, you don’t have the heart to tell him why. Really why, not because of what happened that night. What could have happened before was what frightened you. What did Freydis, Eric and Margrethe want with your Bunbun? What had they planned to do to him?

“The girls drugged you.”

Hvitserk turns to face you in the bed and meets you with uncertainty. No, not uncertainty glinting in his innocent grassy eyes. That was… fear inking his irises. After all, it… if it was true… that could only mean one thing to him. Hvitserk wasn’t going crazy like Ivar and Ubbe told him he was while recounting the story.

It wasn’t because he was a whore who couldn’t keep his dick in his pants. That wasn’t the reason that he lost time with the one woman that changed his traitorous body from succumbing to lust. No, he hadn’t just… laid on his back and slept with someone else because he wanted to. The whore, skank, slut, easy, she’s better off without you at school. It wasn’t him.

“What… what do you mean?” He dares to ask, knowing indeed the answer to his own irrelevant question.

“She was planning to rape you, Bunny. If I… hadn’t been watching, Erik and Freydis would be in bed with Margrethe and you.” Your words settle like a heavy stone in his gut. Of course, he always speculated there was more.

But… this? Margrethe would do this to him?

He never thought he broke up that cruelly with her for Margrethe to ruin his world. Not just his world, but to strip away something that belonged to him: his memory. For so long Hvitserk did not believe his own brain. He lays there, staring at the smooth lines of the top of your room.

“She… raped me.”

It doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense. Your hands come over his waist, winding around him to hold him nice and tight. His hand falls down to the one around his waist.

“It’s okay Bunny.” You soothe. “It’ll all be okay.”

It certainly didn’t feel okay. Not when he considered all that he lost. Yet…

“Don’t tell Ubbe. You know my brothers.” He glances over his shoulder, tears pricking his eyes that he holds still. If Ubbe found out then the rest of his brothers would surely know. Sigurd could hold no secrets and he fears what Ivar would spill with that big mouth of his. Because, after all, what kind of man allowed himself to be drugged by a woman? He was meant to be a protector. To protect YOU. Not the other way around.

“You should tell him.” You whisper, setting your cheek upon his shoulder. “In your time.”

All this time he thought he drank too much.

“Maybe one day.” Hvitserk nudges his arm over his cheek, rolling into his shoulder to dry the wet lines of his shame. You know that he would not. Pressing him-- after all that he had gone through, that would have been a mistake. After a decisive moment, you reevaluate everything.

“Bunbun?”

Hm? Hvitserk grunts in his response.

“Was that the only time you… “cheated” on me?” You question with great skepticism. That wasn’t cheating. Of course you knew that was a woman that worked hard with at risk youth who had gone through the same experiences as your sweet, adorable bun. Who was now much less of a Bunbun than he used to be.

“Why would I do that?” Hvitserk turns back around. The tears he spilled earlier are dry and now, well, he only shows his outrage to the assumption that he had done it upon his own. Not exactly the most graceful of appeals but he knows the manner in which you speak. If there was any doubt of that-- he rather take care of this pesky issue now.

“I never gave you reason before then. (Y/N) if I ever did you should have asked me! I wouldn’t lie to you. You are the only reason I would cut my bun, (Y/N). The only one!”

Sure, he never did. But in your concern for going through that feeling again, kicking Hvitserk out with trash bags of his things, slouching against the cold walls of your constricting apartment… you had to ask. You hold his green eyes in an accusatory glare, searching out the sign of his fault. There’s none.

“Then… you can come back home.” Your hands travel behind his head, picking at the short little bits of hair that have been making a sad little ponytail.

“What?” He murmurs. A smile escapes his lips, growing until you give him a little tug. “You serious?”

“But first you have to grow out your hair, Bun!” You exclaim. What kind of bun didn’t have a proper bun!

“Done and done.”

@two-unbeatable-beaters, @igetcarriedawaywithyou, @kylobien, @titty-teetee, @breathlessouls, @nejijjeoroo, @bcat1291, @readsalot73, @mslothbrok (no mix), @romanchronicles, @captstefanbrandt, @ailucascen, @michaeliskindahot, @naaladareia, @cbouvier23, @the-geeky-engineer, @dorned, @lisinfleur, @tephi101, @akamaiden, @ethereallysimple, @venusloviing, @happylittlepuppydog, @beyond-the-ashes, @slutforrpg, @hipsternoionlylikeunicorns, @mixedwiththemoon, @sparklemichele, @alicedopey, @lif3snotouttogetyou, @rubyquartzshades, @noregretsandyeteveryregret, @dangerous-like-a-loaded-pistol, @deathbyarabbit, @unacceptabletatertots, @beyond-the-ashes (no sig), @babypink224221, @titty-teetee, @ivarandersen, @queen-see-ya-in-valhalla, @moose-squirrel-asstiel, @icarus-fell-in-spring, @piebytheocean, @strangunddurm, @atequilahead, @rekdreams247, @justacrush, @ivarswonderlust, @peachesnpisces, @elenawrit, @equalstrashflavoredtrash, @roxxck, @dylanowhyyien, @ilvebeenabad, @vikingsmania, @huntingbears, @my-little-wolfe, @seize-the-droid, @moondustmemories, @colourmeinblue, @ilvebeenabad, @queenmissfit,  @hallowed-heathen, @neeadinghugs, @mblaqgi, , @triumphantreturnofpies, @dmv49, @attorneyl, @iconicvaleria-blog, @lovelynerdytraveler, @tierneygonzalez, @zabee113, @meganjudee, @sdcyumyum, @ms-allenbrown, @pancake-blonde, @ivarswickedqueen, @starkiddreamer, @austenkingmylady, @thisisparadisemylove, @pinkrockstar19, @jeowjungkook, @end-of-night, @yaminax-kuss-a , @gruffle1, @arses21434@natalie-rdr, @tempt-ress, @thevikingsheaux, @poisonedjoinery, @smokealone, @chewythecatus, @laughinglikenialler, @lefrenchfrye, @mybarnesmyhero, @vengefulflange, @imcreepininyourheartbabe, @therealmrshale, @that-goodgirl, @supernaturalvikingwhore, @athroatfullofglass @igetcarriedawaywithyou, @kylobien, @titty-teetee, @breathlessouls, @nejijjeoroo, @bcat1291, @readsalot73, @mslothbrok, @romanchronicles, @captstefanbrandt, @ailucascen, @michaeliskindahot, @cbouvier23, @naaladareia, @cbouvier23, @the-geeky-engineer, @dorned, @lisinfleur, @funmadnessandbadassvikings, @tephi101, @akamaiden, @ethereallysimple, @venusloviing, @happylittlepuppydog, @beyond-the-ashes, @slutforrpg, @hipsternoionlylikeunicorns, @mixedwiththemoon, @sparklemichele, @alicedopey, @lif3snotouttogetyou, @rubyquartzshades, @noregretsandyeteveryregret, @dangerous-like-a-loaded-pistol, @deathbyarabbit, @unacceptabletatertots, @beyond-the-ashes (no sig), @babypink224221, @ivarandersen, @queen-see-ya-in-valhalla, @moose-squirrel-asstiel, @icarus-fell-in-spring, @end-of-night, @gruffle1, @lol-haha-joke @arses21434,  @smileyparrots, @Moosemittens13, @miss-artemis-wild, @two-unbeatable-beaters, @wonderwoman292, @wish-i-was-a-mermaid, @fangirls94, @mcuimxgine, @killerb00sdeath, @heartbeats-wildly, @boo20017, @acacheofstrange, @shaelyn102, @astoryoffireandlight, @smokealone, @shaelyn102

[sofreakinmanyfandoms]

It Started with the Mud Puddles - Bucky X Reader

Hello, lovelies! This is a Bucky x Reader one-shot I wrote for the wonderful @barnesrogersvstheworld‘s Marvel Kiss Challenge.

Challenge: Feature a significant kiss

Prompt: Mud puddles

Word count: 2813

Warnings: None. Iz fluff and wholesome weirdness. Actually, no, one warning: DO NOT DO WHAT CLINT AND THE READER DO. (That will make sense in the end.) Just don’t do it. Don’t let anyone else do it. I have not researched what could happen but it can’t be good. Don’t do it, nope, nope, nope.

I hope you enjoy this! Feedback is always appreciated.

You had had mixed feelings when you were asked to join the Avengers. On the one hand, you wanted to help people, and the Avengers would give you a way to do that on a larger scale. On the other hand, you would have to move to their compound in upstate New York. Your tiny apartment in New York City was home; there was no way some compound could ever change that.

Consider your mind officially changed.

You couldn’t stop the smile that spread across your face as you zipped up your coat. The yellow rain gear and red boots reminded you of your favorite children’s book. It had rained all last night and you couldn’t wait to get out in the yard.

The fresh after-rain scent of the grass and surrounding trees hit your senses and set your heart racing. Rain in New York City left a hint of a fresh scent in the air, but it didn’t have what the compound was surrounded by right now: mud puddles.

With a squeal and a running start, you launched yourself into the first puddle you saw. The splash flew up around you and you felt like a little kid again. Puddle stomping had been a tradition for you and your siblings after every rainstorm when you were growing up. It had been so long since you had lived where puddles like this formed and you were going to spend the day enjoying them.

----------

Bucky followed Natasha off the jet and onto the rooftop landing pad. Exhaustion was seeping from every pore and visions of his bed were dancing through his mind. It had been a long mission and he was ready to crash.

Before he could get inside, a laugh from the yard caught his attention. He looked over the edge and saw you splashing in the puddles.

Who is that?

Steve came out to welcome Bucky back and found him watching you. The Captain’s face lit up with a soft smile when he saw you splashing around.

“I see you’ve spotted Y/N.”

“Who is she?” Bucky couldn’t take his eyes off you.

“The newest member of the team.” Steve clapped Bucky on the shoulder. “Come on in and get cleaned up, maybe get a few hours of sleep. Dinner is at seven. I’ll introduce you then.”

---------- 

At six thirty you finally forced yourself to go back inside. Several splashes had worked their way up your pants and into your boots, soaking you with cold, muddy water. You couldn’t care less.

You used your half-hour before dinner to dry off and change. It was exactly seven when you padded out of the elevator in your leggings and fluffy socks, Tony’s MIT hoodie enveloping you in its warmth. He’d probably want it back once he found out you were the one who stole it. Too bad for him; it was your new favorite item of clothing.

Most of the team and two people you hadn’t met were shuffling around the kitchen and dining room, determining the contents of various Chinese takeout containers and distributing them to the correct recipients. Since arriving, you had learned that Tuesdays were for takeout and video games. It was your favorite night of the week.

“Y/N, I’ve got some people for you to meet,” Steve called when he spotted you. He motioned to the two you didn’t recognize. “This is Natasha, and this is Bucky. They just got back from a pretty long mission, which is why they haven’t met you yet. Guys, this is Y/N, our new resident telekinetic.”

You smiled at Nat, a bit nervous at meeting the famous Black Widow. “Nice to meet you both.” You turned to Bucky. “I hope the mission went okay?”

Nat waved her hand. “It turned out in the end. I think we’re both just glad to be back.”

“You’re a telekinetic?” You weren’t sure what the look on Bucky’s face as he asked meant, but you replied before you could stop yourself.

“No, I actually just shapeshift into a huge bat. Travel by echolocation, eat fruit flies, sleep upside-down – stuff like that. Not sure why they thought I should be an Avenger.”

Clint cracked up and Bruce smiled, handing you a container. You accepted it and peeked inside. God bless Bruce; beef lo mein was your favorite. You quickly snagged a pair of chopsticks and settled into your usual dinner perch: on top of the fridge.

Nat quirked an eyebrow at your strange position. “I see there’s some stuff I’ll have to get used to.”

Bucky was openly gaping. “How did you get up there?”

You grinned at him. “Didn’t you see me transform into a bat? I flew.”

“She can make herself fly with telekinesis,” Clint informed him with a smirk. “Hey!”

He grabbed for the shrimp floating out of his container but it dodged his hand and deposited itself in your mouth. You bit off the tail and flicked it at him with a giggle.

His pouting made you feel a little bad. “I’ll let you have a bite of my lo mein,” you offered. Clint reached out his chopsticks and you held your container down where he could reach inside. Once he’d snagged a bite, he headed towards the common room where Sam had started setting up Mario Kart.

“I want a rematch against Bruce,” Wanda announced as she joined the group. “Sam and Clint can have their weekly pissing match after I get my revenge.”

“Tony finally bought more controllers to replace the ones broken last month,” Steve laughed. “We’re doing four at a time again.”

Wanda shrugged. “Then they can do their weekly pissing match while I get my revenge. I’m not picky.”

This was your favorite part of living with the others and precisely why you always settled up high where you could watch everything that happened. The team was one big family, teasing each other and having a great time. Sometimes you missed the peacefulness of your own apartment, but by now you wouldn’t trade these evenings for the world.

You brought your lo mein with you as you transitioned to the hammock swing Tony had hung for you in the common room. On the couch, Bruce and Wanda had settled in for their rematch; Natasha and Steve had snagged the other controllers. Wanda selected a track and with that, the night of gaming had begun.

You were so focused on the games happening you didn’t notice that Bucky studied you all evening.

---------- 

Bucky rounded the corner to the kitchen and found you perched on a bar stool, a canvas board and paint spread out across the counter. You didn’t notice his arrival until he cleared his throat.

“Oh, hi Bucky!” Your face lit up with its usual smile when you saw him. “How was your morning?”

“Too short,” Bucky replied, his voice betraying the fact that he had just woken up despite the fact that it was now the early afternoon.

You gave him a solemn nod. “I haven’t been on any long missions yet, but the short ones are exhausting and I imagine your body needed all the sleep it could get. Coffee pot is fresh even though it’s not full. Tony just finished brewing more and he took more than half the pot with him.”

Bucky poured himself a mug of the offered beverage and surprised you by settling onto the stool next to you.

“What are you doing?” he asked, looking at the colors across the canvas.

“Finger painting.”

His eyes shot to yours, unsure if you were serious or not. You waggled your paint-stained fingers at him.

“Nothing should get between the artist and their art. I just take that a step further than most.”

Bucky looked back down at the picture you had were working on and creased his brow.

“You did all of this with your hands?”

You nodded and tucked your hair behind you ear, leaving a smudge of green behind.

“It makes me feel more in touch with what I’m painting. It’s kinda like sculpting in two dimentions.”

“Except you need more work on your sculpting,” Steve teased as he entered the kitchen. He reached into the mug cupboard and pulled out a misshapen monstrosity decorated with a shield design.

“Hey, you still use it,” you grinned at him as he filled the mug with the remains of the coffee and set to work brewing more.

“That I do,” he laughed. “Clint keeps asking when he’ll get his.”

“Tell him I’ll make him one whenever I make it back to the studio.”

You and Steve fell into an easy conversation. Steve noticed Bucky alternately studying you and your painting. He tucked it away in his memory as something to think about later.

----------

“Hey, Bucky, have you seen Nat?”

Bucky looked up from the book he was reading and froze. You were standing with your hands on your hips decked out in the most ridiculous outfit he had ever seen. Your t-shirt was neon green and your leggings were purple with pink and blue triangles of varying sized across them. There was a bright yellow terrycloth headband around your forehead and bright orange bands on your wrist, and you had pulled your hair up into the biggest side ponytail he had ever seen.

“Well?” you prodded when he didn’t reply.

“No, I haven’t seen her,” he managed to get out. “Um, what are you wearing?”

You glanced down at your outfit and waved your hand dismissively.

“Oh, Clint found an 80s workout video while we were thrifting earlier and we decided to try it out. This is just my way of getting into the spirit of it. He thought Nat might want to at least watch.”

“Watch what?” Nat asked, blowing a bubble as she walked in. The bubble popped as she took in your outfit. “Never mind what. The answer is yes.”

“Did you find her?” Clint poked his head into the room, a neon pink headband the same style as yours wrapped around his head.

“Yup, we’re coming!” you replied, grabbing Nat’s hand and dragging her behind you. “See you later, Bucky!”

Steve came across his friend half an hour later. Bucky was staring at nothing, his mind still lingering on a certain colorful telekinetic.

----------

“You know, stuff like this never happened off-mission before you joined the team.”

You shrugged at Sam. The movement caused you to wince. “I’d like the record to show that I don’t have a fully-developed frontal lobe yet, but Clint does, and he thought it was a great idea.”

“Which in retrospect probably should have been the first indication it was actually a terrible one,” Tony admitted.

Bruce had Clint laid out in traction until a chiropractor could come to fix his back. You had dislocated your shoulder and were now icing it to keep down the swelling and pain from it being forced back in place. Tony was only in the med bay because that was where the two of you were; he was being forced to listen to Sam and Steve’s “how could you be so reckless” lecture because you and Clint probably couldn’t have pulled off your stunt without him.

“It was so fun, though,” Clint retorted from his bed. “How many people can say they’ve been hit with a six-foot water balloon?”

“One too many,” Steve replied before turning his glare to Tony. “And you! You built them a slingshot?”

Tony held up his hands. “In my defense, I only knew they wanted to launch a giant water balloon. I didn’t know they were going to aim it at Clint.”

“That bit was Clint’s idea,” you cut in. “I just wanted to launch it. He wanted to know what it would feel like to get hit with it.”

“It was great,” Clint added sleepily. His pain meds seemed to be kicking in.

Bucky watched the whole scene from the doorway and tried to fit this piece into the picture of you his mind was forming.

----------

“Power of positive thinking, Barnes. Power of positive thinking.”

Bucky clenched his jaw and glared at you. “You’ve been shot. That’s not positive,” he growled, taking out two more HYDRA agents.

“But it won’t be fatal and I don’t need my arm to do damage,” you retorted in a sing song voice as you telekinetically ripped a man’s gun from his hands and shot him with it. “We’ve still got to get out of here. Might as well have fun doing it.” You launched into an off-pitch rendition of “Hakuna Matata” and lobbed a grenade to your left.

Bucky swore under his breath and followed you toward the exit. Going on missions with you would be the death of him.

----------

“Y/N, have you seen –” Bucky entered your room and cut off as you shushed him, motioning with your eyes to the sleeping child in your lap.

The team had rescued a group of orphans on the last mission, and Tony had made room for all of them at the compound until they could be placed in good foster homes. One of them, a small girl no older than four, had stumbled upon you sitting on the floor and curled up in your lap, promptly falling asleep with her head against your chest.

“What are you looking for?” you whispered ask Bucky sat next to you.

“Her,” he whispered back. “Bruce did a head count and was wondering who was missing.”

You studied the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed deeply. “Bruce is remarkably good at mothering.”

“Seems like you’re not so bad at it yourself.”

You smiled shyly at Bucky and the two of you sat together in silence until Bruce found you and whisked the girl back to her bed. Bucky felt a tug of disappointment in his chest when the two of you had to go your separate ways. The more time he spent with you, the more being with you felt right.

---------- 

“Dude, decorating the tree is so much easier with Y/N around,” Clint called to Bucky as the latter entered the common room. Everyone was there bustling around and decorating, but you were what his eyes were scanning for.

You were sitting crisscross on the floor by the couch, eating sugar cookies and holding Clint up in the air near the top of the tree. He was reaching out to put the star on top when you pretended to drop him.

“Not cool, Y/N. So not cool.” He glared once you had stabilized him.

“That’s okay, I prefer being hot anyway,” you smirked back.

Bucky sat down next to you and took the cookie you offered.

“These are pretty good. Who made them?”

You shrugged. “Whoever Tony bought them from. I was going to protest buying Christmas cookies, but these are better than anything I could make, so I decided to roll with it.”

“Hey guys,” Natasha sang from the couch behind you. “Look what I found!”

The two of you looked up to see Nat holding a sprig of mistletoe above your heads.

“Gah!” You had actually dropped Clint that time. At least you had been lowering him so he didn’t have as far to fall.

“Sorry!” Your hand came up over your mouth as Clint stumbled to his feet. “Are you okay? I’m so sorry, I got distracted.”

“He’ll forgive you if you two kiss,” Sam said with a grin.

“Sure, what he said,” Clint confirmed, rubbing the back of his head. “Go on, kiss him.”

Chants of “Kiss him! Kiss him!” rang out around the room. You and Bucky looked at each other, and almost before you could realize it he had pulled you into his arms and was kissing you. The two of you lost yourselves in the feeling of each other’s lips on your own, deepening the kiss until finally you had to pull back, gasping for air.

“It’s about time that happened,” you breathed, your faces only a few inches apart.

“Been wanting to do that for a while,” Bucky admitted. “I’ve never met anyone like you before, Y/N. You’re perfect. You live through what we all go through every mission but still manage to keep a sense of wonder. It’s… it’s really nice. It started with the mud puddles; when I first saw you, you were out in the yard splashing around and having so much fun just… being. The more I get to know you, the more I don’t want to ever have to live without you again. You keep me from losing myself, and I think I’ve fallen in love with you.”

“Look what you did,” Clint complained to Natasha. “Now they’re gonna go all lovey on us.”

“Shut up, Barton,” you laughed before pulling Bucky in for another kiss, whispering something only he could hear.

“I think I love you, too.”

[spooksuprex]

1-150 you bish!

1. Who was the last person you held hands with? A resident at my work. 2. Are you outgoing or shy? Shy I’d say 3. Who are you looking forward to seeing? Yo mama 4. Are you easy to get along with? I think I am 5. If you were drunk would the person you like take care of you? Well she’s not around, so no. 6. What kind of people are you attracted to? Funny people. 7. Do you think you’ll be in a relationship two months from now? No idea. 8. Who from the opposite gender is on your mind? My friend from Arizona 9. Does talking about sex make you uncomfortable? Depends on who I’m talking with. 10. Who was the last person you had a deep conversation with? You, goof. 11. What does the most recent text that you sent say? Yo, what toppings you want? 12. What are your 5 favorite songs right now? Day of Fate Spirit vs Spirit, Cake by the ocean, symphony... 13. Do you like it when people play with your hair? Not really 14. Do you believe in luck and miracles? yeh 15. What good thing happened this summer? I got a raise 16. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again? Haven’t kissed anyone 17. Do you think there is life on other planets? yeh 18. Do you still talk to your first crush? no 19. Do you like bubble baths? yeh 20. Do you like your neighbors? Eh, I’m indifferent 21. What are you bad habits? lazy bish 22. Where would you like to travel? Italy 23. Do you have trust issues? No 24. Favorite part of your daily routine? Sleeping 25. What part of your body are you most uncomfortable with? My stomach 26. What do you do when you wake up? Lay there and be lazy 27. Do you wish your skin was lighter or darker? Darker, cause any paler and I’d be a skeleton 28. Who are you most comfortable around? Family 29. Have any of your ex’s told you they regret breaking up? Got no exes 30. Do you ever want to get married? It’d be nice 31. If your hair long enough for a pony tail? No 32. Which celebrities would you have a threesome with? You act like I’d only have 2. 33. Spell your name with your chin. Is too big for keys 34. Do you play sports? What sports? Bowling 35. Would you rather live without TV or music? TV 36. Have you ever liked someone and never told them? Now and then 37. What do you say during awkward silences? Yup 38. Describe your dream girl/guy? Hmm... funny, nice. Can clothesline a bitch. 39. What are your favorite stores to shop in? Eh.. usually supermarkets so I don’t have to visit a bunch of places. 40. What do you want to do after high school? Well I’m out of high school, so a bit late there. 41. Do you believe everyone deserves a second chance? ... It depends really on what they did, and even then giving someone a chance to not fuck up again isn’t really the same as forgiving them. 42. If your being extremely quiet what does it mean? Tired 43. Do you smile at strangers? yeh 44. Trip to outer space or bottom of the ocean? Space 45. What makes you get out of bed in the morning? Bathroom. 46. What are you paranoid about? Spiders. 47. Have you ever been high? no 48. Have you ever been drunk? nah 49. Have you done anything recently that you hope nobody finds out about? Mmm.. nope 50. What was the colour of the last hoodie you wore? Black 51. Ever wished you were someone else? Nah 52. One thing you wish you could change about yourself? Weigh less. 53. Favourite makeup brand? Don’t use it. 54. Favourite store? USA gunpla store 55. Favourite blog? Mine bitch. 56. Favourite colour? Yellow. 57. Favourite food? Pizza. 58. Last thing you ate? Hotdog 59. First thing you ate this morning? hotdog 60. Ever won a competition? For what? Some spelling bees. 61. Been suspended/expelled? For what? nope 62. Been arrested? For what? nope 63. Ever been in love? ... I’m not sure really. 64. Tell us the story of your first kiss? Ain’t had it. 65. Are you hungry right now? A bit. 66. Do you like your tumblr friends more than your real friends? Well my real life friends don’t argue as much... 67. Facebook or Twitter? Facebook 68. Twitter or Tumblr? tumblr 69. Are you watching tv right now? no 70. Names of your bestfriends? Kara, ya biiiiiiiitch 71. Craving something? What? peanut butter 72. What colour are your towels? Varies 72. How many pillows do you sleep with? 2 73. Do you sleep with stuffed animals? nah 74. How many stuffed animals do you think you have? 1 75. Favourite animal? Bears 76. What colour is your underwear? Plaid 77. Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate 78. Favourite ice cream flavour? Blue moon 79. What colour shirt are you wearing? Camo 80. What colour pants? none 81. Favourite tv show? NCIS 82. Favourite movie? Deadpool 83. Mean Girls or Mean Girls 2? mean girls 84. Mean Girls or 21 Jump Street? mean girls 85. Favourite character from Mean Girls? never seen it 86. Favourite character from Finding Nemo? Dory 87. First person you talked to today? My roomate 88. Last person you talked to today? my roommate 89. Name a person you hate? You for sending this 90. Name a person you love? Pluto 91. Is there anyone you want to punch in the face right now? Take a guess, miss sending me 150 questions. 92. In a fight with someone? Nope 93. How many sweatpants do you have? 2 94. How many sweaters/hoodies do you have? 2 95. Last movie you watched? Deadpool 2 96. Favourite actress? Uh... don’t have one 97. Favourite actor? Ain’t got one 98. Do you tan a lot? nah 99. Have any pets? my roomate has a cat 100. How are you feeling? annoyed with so many question 101. Do you type fast? yeh 102. Do you regret anything from your past? Hitting a deer 103. Can you spell well? I dunno 104. Do you miss anyone from your past? My friend brandon 105. Ever been to a bonfire party? nah 106. Ever broken someone’s heart? I don’t think so 107. Have you ever been on a horse? no 108. What should you be doing? nothing 109. Is something irritating you right now? these questions 110. Have you ever liked someone so much it hurt? nah 111. Do you have trust issues? nah 112. Who was the last person you cried in front of? no one 113. What was your childhood nickname? CJ 114. Have you ever been out of your province/state? yeh 115. Do you play the Wii? no 116. Are you listening to music right now? no 117. Do you like chicken noodle soup? no 118. Do you like Chinese food? yeh 119. Favourite book? Brother Odd 120. Are you afraid of the dark? no 121. Are you mean? no 122. Is cheating ever okay? fuck no 123. Can you keep white shoes clean? no 124. Do you believe in love at first sight? meh, 50/50 125. Do you believe in true love? yeh 126. Are you currently bored? nah 127. What makes you happy? Gunpla, vidyagames, sleeping 128. Would you change your name? nah, is bitchin’ 129. What your zodiac sign? Cancer 130. Do you like subway? yeh 131. Your bestfriend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do? Help em find someone better 132. Who’s the last person you had a deep conversation with? you. Again. Stop repeating questions you fuck! 133. Favourite lyrics right now? Uh... I dunno 134. Can you count to one million? yes, don’t wanna tho 135. Dumbest lie you ever told? I once told someone I was too busy to help with something while I was leaving 136. Do you sleep with your doors open or closed? open 137. How tall are you? 6′1″ 138. Curly or Straight hair? curly 139. Brunette or Blonde? brunette 140. Summer or Winter? winter 141. Night or Day? night 142. Favourite month? october 143. Are you a vegetarian? fuck no 144. Dark, milk or white chocolate? milk chocolate 145. Tea or Coffee? ice coffee 146. Was today a good day? yeh 147. Mars or Snickers? snickers 148. What’s your favourite quote? “Big monsters are the best monsters” 149. Do you believe in ghosts? Yeh 150. Get the closest book next to you, open it to page 42, what’s the first line on that page?Big monsters are the best monsters

[neversatisfiedswitch]

Home

Author’s Note: Sort of a plain title, but I couldn’t think of anything else. X’D I’ve wanted to write this for a while, once I gave my child Colton a Detroit: Become Human verse I wanted a Hank to like... take him in. Anyway! I don’t know how to Hank, I RP Connor but Hank is still kind of a mystery to me, so if he’s ooc then I apologize!

Warnings for language (as per the norm, only with Hank this time, he curse a lot), mentions of blood/gore/suicide, and a n g s t. But there’s fluff, too! :3

Summary: As Hank Anderson is just starting to get used to his android partner, he also opens his home to Colton-- a young man who is not fully android or human, and who helps him remember the way things used to be.

Word Count: 4531 (my longest thing yet!!!)

After his and Connor’s investigation at the Eden Club, and after leaving the android to go drink more, Hank was just as drunk as he’d been when Connor had found him, save for passing out on his floor. He cursed at the broken window in his kitchen, truthfully pissed off at Connor for more than just the shattered glass-- he was pissed about everything.

However, as he moved to get a broom to sweep the glass up, knowing he’d have to call to replace the window in the morning, he noticed something... odd. There was blood on the floor near the window-- not blue blood, meaning Connor hadn’t cut himself, but red blood. “ ... Sumo? You didn’t cut yourself, did’ja?” The Saint Bernard came waddling out from the hallway, the Lieutenant meeting him on the other side of the table to look him over. No cuts, no blood, which only meant...

Drawing his gun, Hank moved to the end of the hallway, clearing his throat to attempt to keep his words from slurring. “Whoever the fuck’s in here, this’s private property. Come out, don’t make me shoot-- an’ put your hands up.”

The light in the bathroom turned on, the slightly-ajar door moving open as a foot pushed it. Two hands were lifted-- Hank could’ve sworn through his blurry vision that one of them looked like an android’s, and the other was the cause of the blood on his floor, a large gash splitting the palm open. But what he didn’t expect was the eyes... or eye, rather, since the other was covered by hair. Gunmetal blue, scared and soft, peeked out from behind an arm-- both were shaking. With how skinny the person was... Hank assumed it was a kid. And it wasn’t just his arms that were shaking-- his whole body was trembling, from his shoulders to his knees. Whether it was from pain, cold, or fear, Hank couldn’t tell, but he surmised it was a combination of all three.

He holstered his gun-- seeing as how this kid was bleeding, and couldn’t be a threat due to his full-body tremors, there wasn’t any need to threaten him. He held one of his hands up, his voice quieter. “Alright, calm down, kid-- you can put your hands down now. Shit, you’re a goddamn mess.”

Sumo approached the boy as he lowered his right hand, the left being the one that was bleeding. Hesitantly, he petted the top of Sumo’s head, the dog’s tongue lolling out in a pant as Hank snorted. “Some fuckin’ guard dog you are.”

If he’d been sober, he might have been more abrasive, and definitely more harsh-- seeing as how this kid had come in through his window, he had every right to kick him out. But...

“Alright, I don’t know why you came through my goddamn window, but I’m not gonna send you back out. ‘Specially when you’re bleeding like you are. C’mon, sit down.” He pulled a chair back from the table, moving back over to the pile of broken glass so he could sweep it up. When he looked back to find the kid had taken maybe a few steps toward the table, he shook his head, sighing. “Kid, I just said I’m not gonna kick you out. Now if you don’t sit down, I’m gonna have to make you.” A few more hesitant steps and the soft sound of the chair scraping against the floor, and Hank smiled-- tiredly, but he still smiled. “There. Wasn’t so fuckin’ hard, was it?”

After getting up all the glass-- he’d get the shards outside tomorrow-- he dumped the broken pieces in the trash can, then rummaged around in his cabinets, coming back to the table with a warm, damp rag, some gauze, some bandages, and some hydrogen peroxide. “Alright, gimme your hand.”

The boy’s gaze lifted from the table, alarm clear on his face. While Hank was used to yelling at other people, even slamming his fists on surfaces to make his point, he knew he couldn’t do that-- with the way the kid was still shaking, he had to be patient. He sighed quietly, keeping his voice level. “Look, kid, I’m not gonna let you walk around with a bleeding hand. Lemme see it so I can make sure there’s not any glass in it.”

For a few moments, the boy didn’t move-- but with hesitance still clearly written on his face, he finally relented, carefully bringing his hand up and setting it on the table. Hank was gentle as he took it, surprising even himself, and he studied the wound, cursing softly. “Christ... coulda been worse, ‘cause I don’t see any bone, but that looks like it hurts like Hell. No glass, which is good news...” Carefully, he wiped the blood off of his hand, making sure not to touch the wound itself. He heard a hiss from across the table, and when he looked up the boy had his eyes squeezed shut, his head ducked down until his chin touched his chest. Normally, Hank wouldn’t feel bad about making someone else hurt-- but he tried to be more gentle, a frown on his face as he set the rag aside.

He opened the bottle of hydrogen peroxide, looking at the boy before he lifted it. “This might sting some-- so don’t freak out, alright?” He waited for the kid to nod before he carefully poured some of the liquid onto his hand, his frown deepening at the wince the peroxide drew when it made contact. It fizzed slightly for a moment, then it was gone. As he placed some gauze over the wound and began to wrap the bandages around it, he decided he should at least try and get some information out of the kid.

“Shoulda told you my name instead’a pullin’ my gun on ya... I’m Hank. Hank Anderson. I’m a police Lieutenant.” He focused on gently winding the bandages around the boy’s hand for a moment, thinking that after the silence, he’d ask the kid his name-- but his question was answered before he could speak again.

“Colton Robinson...” Colton had long since lifted his chin from his chest, but it wasn’t until Hank introduced himself that he’d decided to look back at the man. Pleasantly surprised, Hank smiled warmly, continuing to wrap Colton’s hand.

“Well, Colton... it’s nice to meet ya.”

--

Hank arrived to work the next morning to note that Connor was impatiently waiting at his desk-- impatience was uncharacteristic of the android, and he held his hands up in defense when the RK800 stormed over to him.

“Where have you been, Lieutenant? I understand you said you were drinking more, but I didn’t expect you to be late. Did you drink again after you woke up this morning?”

“Whoa, whoa, cool your fuckin’ jets, Connor. I ain’t drunk now, don’t fuckin’ worry about that.” He pushed past the android to sit down at his desk, glowering when Connor sat on the edge. “Then why were you late? What held you up?”

Hank held up his hand again, watching the android’s LED quickly go from gold to cerulean in seconds. “Just shut up for a minute. Jesus, Connor, lemme get my thoughts together.”

Connor held his tongue, waiting patiently for Hank to speak. Finally, the man sighed, shaking his head. “A kid came through my window last night, ‘fore I got home. He’s harmless, cut himself on some glass. I overslept ‘cause I spent a few hours tryin’ to get him to sleep.”

There were a few moments of silence before Connor spoke. “I’m sorry about the window, Lieutenant-- assuming the window he entered through was the one I broke. But... how old is he?”

Hank shrugged, rubbing his chin. “Dunno. All I got from him was his name. Colton Robinson. Looks young, though, late teens.” He looked up to see the android’s LED spinning yellow, and he groaned. “Don’t tell me you’re lookin’ up his name to see if he’s a criminal. That kid’s so easily fuckin’ scared that it ain’t funny.”

Connor’s eyes narrowed, and he spoke. “I can’t find anything on him specifically... but I found--” A hand was placed over his mouth, and he glared at Hank, who glared right back.

“Told ya to shut up. He ain’t a criminal. I don’t wanna hear anything else from you ‘bout him, got it?” Reluctantly, Connor nodded, and Hank removed his hand from his mouth. There was silence for a few moments before Connor spoke again.

“Could I meet him? If you’re alright with me coming to your home again, of course. Only to satisfy my curiosity, I promise.” He held up a hand when Hank’s ice-blue eyes stared a hole through him, but after a few moments, the man sighed in defeat.

“Alright, but we’re goin’ in through the front door.”

“I detect sarcasm in your response, Lieutenant.”

“Fuck you.”

--

Hank was careful as he opened the front door, not wanting to disturb Colton as he and Connor entered. He’d given the kid one of his old hoodies and a pair of his old sweatpants to sleep in, seeing as his clothes were wet and had his own blood on them, and in addition he’d given him pillows and blankets to use on the couch. So as they both walked to the living room, that’s where Colton was-- fast asleep on the couch, curled under the blankets with just his head out from under them.

“Heh... I was hopin’ he’d still be asleep. Good to know Sumo ain’t as useless as a guard dog as I thought. Well--” He glanced over at Connor, whose eyes were wide as his LED flashed yellow more frantically. “Uh... Connor?”

He carefully shoved the android’s shoulder, and Connor blinked rapidly, looking over at him. “Apologies, Lieutenant... I seem to be getting conflicting readings when I scan him. Did... he mention anything at all about himself?”

Hank shook his head, crossing his arms over his chest. “No, like I said, he only gave me a name. But he also kept hidin’ his right arm from me, tried to ask if he was injured but he said no. Hey-- what’re you doin’?” Connor carefully lifted the blanket from the boy’s arm, grateful he was laying on his left side. Both he and Hank were left speechless when, as Connor pushed up the sleeve, the unmistakable alabaster color of an android limb became visible.

“No fuckin’ way he’s an android. His blood was red, it was on my fuckin’ floor.” Hank moved to stand next to Connor as the android knelt down to study Colton’s face. “He’s not an android. That much I can say for sure. He seems to have a few android components on his body, and I can understand why he would want to hide them from you. He had a black eye recently, and a scrape on his neck. They’re healed enough that you can’t see them, but I can.”

Connor was keeping his voice soft, but Colton wasn’t a sound sleeper-- he had nightmares so often that it affected his sleep, even if he had a rare night of complete sleep. So as Connor was looking away, Colton’s eyelids were fluttering, and as if on cue, when Connor looked back into his face, his eyes were open. Instead of two normal gunmetal blues staring back, though, his right iris was glowing softly, pulsing a gentle blue much like Connor’s own LED.

The blue soon turned to yellow when Colton realized just how close the android was, and that his arm was uncovered-- and before either Hank or Connor could do anything, Colton was off of the couch. He backed away until his legs hit the table, hiding his right arm behind him again even though they’d seen it.

Hank was quick to cross the room, stopping just behind the couch when Colton looked like he was going to run. “Kid, it’s alright. Connor’s my partner. We’re not gonna do anything to you.”

Connor’s gaze was focused on Colton’s eye. As he approached-- slowly and calmly, so as to not spook the boy-- he kept his focus on it. As he stood in front of Colton, he was able to fully scan the eye, discovering something that fascinated him.

“Hank... these components are early prototypes. His eye is the earliest prototype of an LED-- originally androids had one normal-looking eye and one eye with the LED attached, but the LED was moved to the temple to make it easier to see.” Colton stared at Connor in amazement, his eye returning to a gentle blue as he shifted to sit at the table-- he kept his arm behind him, though, at least until Connor held his hand out.

“May I?” Colton hesitantly slid his hand between Connor’s, a slight shock going through his body-- though he couldn’t interface with androids, apparently he could still feel when they touched his arm. It was more than just the normal pressure something would have on it, it was full feeling, and it was strange and intriguing at the same time. Connor was busy scanning the limb, his thumb grazing the panel under his wrist-- the panel that didn’t do shit, as Colton had previously discovered-- when he turned his head back toward Hank.

“This is one of the earliest android limbs put into circulation... before they made androids more human in appearance and began adding artificial skin.” He looked to Colton again, squatting down in front of him and releasing his arm. “Is there anything else that you can show me?”

Colton seemed hesitant, his fingers pulling at the hem of his shirt. But looking into Connor’s eyes, despite them not being human eyes, made him at least feel like he would be okay, and he swallowed, leaning over to grasp the ends of his pant legs. He slowly pulled them, one at a time, up until they were above his knees. Hank was shocked at what he was seeing, and he moved to stand beside the table, staring in bewilderment at Colton’s legs.

Much like his arm, they were of the same plastic material that all android limbs were comprised of. His legs, from the knees down, were pure white, though when Connor took his ankle and lifted his leg, both he and Hank saw that the bottoms of Colton’s feet matched his skin-- meaning the soles had been attached separately. “These are both from the same batch his arm came from...” Connor mused, more to himself than to either Hank or Colton.

Colton looked... ashamed. That was the only word Hank could think of to describe the expression on the kid’s face, besides upset. He didn’t seem uncomfortable with Connor’s examination, but he looked distant-- more distant than he was with Hank the previous night. Against his better judgement, he carefully placed a hand on Colton’s shoulder, feeling the boy jolt slightly in surprise but ultimately relax once he knew it was Hank.

Connor stood, and Colton quickly pulled his pant legs back down, bringing his knees to his chest as the android leaned back against the couch. Crossing his arms over his chest, Connor’s expression showed that he was deep in thought. “How does a healthy human end up with three android limbs and a prototype eye on their body, especially one so young?”

The question was rhetorical, really. Connor hadn’t meant for Colton to answer, but the boy’s soft voice was loud enough for both of them to hear. “My father put them there.”

Both Hank and Connor’s heads snapped up, and they looked straight at Colton, then at each other. Connor’s LED flashed red for a split second before returning to yellow, and his eyes were wide as he spoke. “Hank-- at the precinct I was trying to tell you that I’d found something. Not on Colton, but on someone sharing his last name.”

Hank and Colton were both watching Connor now, and the android moved to stand in front of Colton again, his voice unfaltering. “Is your father’s name Oliver, by any chance?” The way the boy’s muscles tensed was enough of an answer for the partners, who looked at each other grimly as Connor continued his train of thought.

“Oliver Robinson’s name is one that isn’t heard much anymore. Elijah Kamski hired a few people to help design his first androids, but Oliver’s designs are the ones that Kamski followed the closest. I knew his name from when Amanda was giving me files on CyberLife to consult with, but it didn’t occur to me until I saw it again when I was searching at the precinct.” He pursed his lips, brows furrowed in thought. “That means... Oliver might have been testing his creations before he could get them approved.”

The small nod from Colton was all the confirmation the Lieutenant and the android detective needed. What they didn’t expect were the words that followed.

“I watched him build the parts. Wh-when I was younger, he’d let me play with the spare or unneeded components.” He swallowed, and when Hank squeezed his shoulder, he leaned into the touch. “H-he was a good dad, until my mom... died.” Clearly there was something beyond that statement, but neither Hank nor Connor were willing to prod further. “After that, h-he... knocked me out. I woke up... like this... covered in blood, and everything h-hurt... and I ran.”

Colton felt his vision blurring, and his breath hitched. “I-it was four years ago, a-and I still s-see him when I fall asleep. I...” Tears interrupted his words, and he buried his face in his hands, his breaths hitching and threatening to morph into sobs. Hank and Connor shared a look-- though Hank’s eyes showed more pain than Connor’s, they understood each other perfectly.

Connor knelt in front of Colton, under the pretense of pulling him into an embrace-- and while Colton froze at first, he wrapped his arms around Connor’s neck near-automatically, making it easier for the android to place his hands under Colton’s legs and lift him. Looking back at Hank, Connor was surprised to see that the Lieutenant was gesturing for Connor to follow him to his bedroom, and even more surprised when he motioned for Connor to lay Colton on his bed. Certainly, in Connor’s mind he thought that maybe Hank was thinking about his son, and what he’d do if this were Cole-- but he dared not say anything, instead just laying Colton on the bed and gently patting his arm as he moved away.

Hank’s fatherly instincts had kicked in. Of course, he wasn’t this way with every kid that he came across-- he’d seen more kids at homicide scenes than he’d wanted, but this was... different somehow. He couldn’t really figure out how, if he was honest with himself. But he didn’t focus on it, instead just pulling the covers over Colton and sitting down next to him, gently wiping tears from his face, then running a hand through his hair.

“You don’t gotta say anything else, Colton. You just try’n sleep, alright? Connor and I ain’t goin’ anywhere, just in the next room. I’ll even let Sumo in to keep you company, if you want.” A small nod, and before Hank could turn around, Connor had already called the St. Bernard, who trotted into the room and leapt onto the bed, laying down next to Colton. The boy smiled shakily, immediately wrapping his arms around the dog’s neck in a hug, and Sumo did nothing but snort, his tail smacking against the bed.

“Sleep well, kid. I’ll be back later.” Hank didn’t turn out the lights as he and Connor left the room, keeping the door open a tad in case Sumo wanted to leave later. He grabbed Connor by the arm and pulled him to the door, whispering to the android. “Do me a favor-- look for more information on that fucker, his dad. Prick doesn’t deserve to be called that, really. I wanna know--”

“Apologies, Lieutenant... but I was already doing so while you were tucking Colton in. It appears that about a year ago, Oliver Robinson was found dead in his home. Suicide. He left a letter, but it was covered in too much blood to be readable.” Hank’s tension faded, and while Connor would have been worried to see relief on the man’s face were it any other human being that had been found dead, even he knew this was an exception.

“Hope he’s rottin’ in Hell, where he belongs.”

--

Colton had been sleeping on the couch again, despite Hank telling him he could sleep with him-- Hank had found that the kid could be stubborn, about as bad as Connor, except Hank didn’t have to live with the android. Unsurprisingly, Sumo stayed in the living room with Colton, not that Hank really minded.

But tonight was different.

The Lieutenant nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt someone crawling into bed with him, and he quickly jumped into his more alert state of mind, turning on the bedside lamp... to find Colton, looking an equal amount of sheepish and scared as he was halfway under the covers.

“Jesus, kid... you scared the hell outta me.” His tone wasn’t angry, or even frustrated-- just tired. He’d found that it was hard to get mad at Colton, he was just too nice to be frustrating. “Is everything okay?”

Colton swallowed, looking down at the sheets and anxiously rubbing them between his fingers. Hank knew right away from how red his eyes were that it was a nightmare-- probably a pretty bad one, too. “Got it... c’mon over, kid.” At least now, Colton had begun to trust Hank more-- and it showed when he pressed himself against Hank’s side, resting his head on the man’s shoulder.

Hank chuckled at just how quickly Colton had moved over, ruffling his hair-- but as he lowered his arm, feeling for where the blanket was, his thumb brushed Colton’s side and the kid squeaked, jolting. Hank’s brows raised, he knew Colton hadn’t been injured-- mostly because he stayed around the house, and with Hank around his harassers had been few and far between. So...

“You alright, kid?” The fact that Colton was covering his side and nodding his head very quickly sold it for Hank-- clearly, Colton wasn’t hurt. “You sure? You made some godawful noise, I wanna be sure nothin’s wrong.”

Before Colton could protest, he’d been pulled into Hank’s lap as the Lieutenant sat up-- and Hank wasn’t even trying to hide the grin on his face. Colton squirmed slightly, already starting to giggle despite himself-- he might not have had many good memories of his father, but this was one of them.

“I’m not even touchin’ you, and you’re already laughin’? You must be real ticklish, then.” The word itself made Colton blush bright red, and he ducked his head against Hank’s shoulder, making the man snort. He jumped as he felt fingers digging into his side from where Hank had pulled him over, and immediately, hysterical giggles poured from his lips. He twisted in Hank’s hold, but only succeeded in making the fingers migrate to the side of his tummy-- and that was when he shrieked, genuine laughter escaping him.

“Shit, kid, you’re a sensitive one, ain’t you?” Hank chuckled and moved his other hand to tickle Colton’s tummy as well, aiming for the middle rather than just the side-- and the dam broke completely, Colton tossing his head back against Hank’s shoulder as his laughter became louder. “Seems like I found a bad spot here, huh?”

Colton was laughing too hard to be able to say anything-- that was how it had always been. In the back of his mind he remembered one day when he was younger, when it was just him and his father in the house, before his mother died. How his father chased him up the stairs and tickled him until he was near tears, and held him until he fell asleep afterward.

Of course, Hank wasn’t his father, but when the older man’s finger wormed into his navel, Colton certainly felt that they must have known each other somehow, what with how they both targeted his worst spots as soon as they found them. His body jolted and he tried to squirm away from the tormenting fingers, but found himself unable to-- he was tired, and despite him grabbing onto Hank’s wrists to pull his hands away, it was no use.

His laughter quickly became silent, his eyes squeezed shut as tears of mirth formed in them-- but before they could fall, the tickling stopped, and his whole body slumped, his head laying back against Hank’s shoulder as he wheezed softly.

“You alright, son?” If Colton had been more aware, and less out of breath, he would have frozen where he was. Hank had never called him anything but “kid” or his name... and it was strange to hear that word come from someone else, someone other than his father. He sluggishly nodded his head, glad that at the very least, his slight blush would be confused for being out of breath. As soon as he was able to breathe normally again, though, he knew he couldn’t just leave the man’s question verbally unanswered. After wrestling with himself for a few moments, he cleared his throat, finally speaking.

“I’m alright... dad.” It was Hank’s turn to freeze, and Colton felt as though he’d done something wrong. He closed his eyes tightly again, waiting for Hank to kick him out, or yell at him, or just get pissed at him... but it didn’t happen. Instead, Hank smiled, mussing up Colton’s hair and chuckling when he yelped.

“Alright, enough excitement... I gotta get up early, or Connor’ll come an’ break another window to get in if I don’t show up on time.” Colton giggled, starting to move away as Hank reached to turn off the lamp. He was surprised when Hank looped an arm around his waist and pulled him back over, squeaking again like he did earlier.

“Where d’you think you’re goin’, kid? I told you t’sleep over here, you don’t gotta be shy.” Colton didn’t respond at first, but slowly he leaned to rest his head against Hank’s chest, the sound of the man’s heartbeat helping him as he closed his eyes. When Hank began to card his fingers through Colton’s hair, that was it-- he was out like a light.

Hank wouldn’t notice it in the dark, but for the first time in a long time, Colton was actually smiling in his sleep.

[renaroo]

Sweet Home (3/4)

Disclaimer: Red vs Blue and related characters are the property of Rooster Teeth. Warnings: Language, Canon-typical violence, PTSD and past trauma, Mentions of wartime Rating: T Synopsis: [Modern AU] In the aftermath of war, Wash is left with little direction in his own life. On his own, he takes up an ad for a roommate and suddenly finds himself wrapped up in the perplexing life of Doctor Emily Grey.

A/N: Long time, little see, and I’m truly sorry about that <3 For those who don’t know, as of January this year I have taken on quite a few more jobs than what we had before. I am a graduate student but on top of that I began teaching classes for the university on my own and I have been working very hard on my research project which is picking up steam now that the mating season for wolf spiders has begun! So busy busy here though I do hope everyone has had a good few months themselves and that this story is still worth the wait for those who come back to it <3 I appreciate you all more than you know

A special shout out to @secretlystephaniebrown, @splendiferousblog, @freelancerfeels, @ziggyzagzag, Yin, om3g4, and Zed Said from AO3, ffn, and tumblr for the feedback and support! You guys really help to make this experience that much more rewarding!

Drawing Lines

It has been a very long week and, despite knowing that the town is less than a few miles wide at best, Washington hasn’t brought himself to do much more than accompany Emily Grey to the store and back in order to carry groceries.

As he lays in his bed that still doesn’t feel very much like his, it really and truly hits him how small the world seems after the war. He left for it with this idea that the universe is large and vast, that he is truly fighting for things to be better and for home to be stronger and more taken care of than it ever had been before.

But the world is small and knowing it intimately only proves to show Washington the worst of its cracks and pitfalls.

He fought for this town, he fought for a place like Sweet Home to live up to its name. But the streets are cracked, the roads have holes, and most of the properties have grass reaching for higher standards than the owners.

Sometimes, laying in his bed outside of his supposedly only two hours of consistent sleep, Washington finds himself staring at the proverbial and literal wall, holding his breath and counting to ten.

He’s waiting for an answer. He’s waiting to be told what it is that he sacrificed everything that once made him human for.

He’s waiting for things to make sense again. But without reveille or shouts or marching orders, it just doesn’t.

And the world just gets even smaller around him.

For every morning that Wash woke up to a full course meal and a half naked housemate, there is a morning where he wakes up to absolute silence and solitude.

Asking questions, even if normal and social, feels invasive and uncomfortable, even in concept, for Wash so he opts instead to rely on powers of observations and checking for patterns. The most easily noticed of these being the way the stacks of books all over the house change by the day, and especially how much they change — or how much they grow — on the days that Emily is absent in the mornings and not back until the late nights.

It is then that Wash puts together that his housemate, the already-doctor, is actually still a student. That is why so many younger college age people are coming in and out of Sweet Home.

It’s as questionable as the anomaly that is Emily Grey herself, but again, the anxiety of actually phrasing a proper question that isn’t intrusive, rude, bigoted, sexist, out of touch, judgmental, arrogant, condescending, or just plain vague is too much and Washington fumbles it even in theory.

So he sticks to counting book stacks and making himself cereal on lonely mornings.

Not lonely. Solitary.

Lonely implies that Washington doesn’t prefer it and, well, he doesn’t. But he doesn’t unprefer it either.

And that’s the rub of it.

For all the draining exhaustion that proximity to Emily’s rotation of guests brought him, Washington finds himself not doing much with his solitary time either. Just checking the news, getting the mail, and digging through his own thoughts with all the caution and malaise afforded to a gravedigger.

He’s in the middle of just that one particularly solitary morning, a cereal bowl still in his grasps, when the back door next to the stove opens up with a loud BANG. It’s as if a tornado was trying to rip the door from its hinges, and Washington can’t even process it before the solitary space he has masked himself in becomes occupied by a bounding creature with fur and teeth and an odor similar to tarmac.

There’s a moment, after the sharp paws are buried into Wash’s chest but before the back of his chair is going to find itself addressing the floor, that Washington thinks a bomb has gone off — one that bends reality and warps the quiet he strangles himself with optionally is transported back to scorching heat and screams and the worst that people can do to one another.

It’s a hysterical notion, one that would possibly rival the sort of genuine psychosis that seems to get his housemate all riled up about his sleeping habits, but it’s the only thing Washington can think before he’s dazed on the ground with a literal dog standing on his pajama covered chest, rotating around like it’s looking for the next challenger in a game of King of the Hill.

“Freckles!”

Washington takes in the moment once again. He’s not dying. He’s not shot. There’s not a war in the kitchen, only whatever intrusion Emily Grey has brought upon his life again. And he doesn’t even get in a count to three for his anger exercises before the fury erupts from him like a volcano.

“What the hell is going on!?” he gets out, only to have the dog’s attention whip right back to him.

The dog is a sharp looking, large chested doberman. Chocolate colored where Wash’s senses tell him it should be black, tan where it should be brown on its nose and wrapped around its feet like socks. The eyes are yellow, intimidating, and it has ears pinned high from cropping. Washington hadn’t even realized it was a practice with animals anymore, but he supposes on reflection that inhumanity isn’t restrained to what people do to each other.

What is just as shocking is the man who the voice belongs to.

He comes around the kitchen island with a curious, wide eyed look on his face, lips drawn together in a surprised oh as he examines the situation he brought upon Sweet Home.

The man is large and bulking. Wash’s instincts are to think it’s fitting of his extremely large dog but, somehow, the man is even too large and thick even for that to be a complete fit. He’s not chiseled so much as he’s built large, and his head is weighed down by a mess of spiky, unkempt hair that stands end on end in a way that tells Washington the man’s less familiar with a brush than even Wash is. His skin is tanned hide but not wrinkled or old, just worn and not as well taken care of as he could use.

He’s wearing a blue hoodie and khaki pants that have not a single wrinkle, and those are the strangest things in Wash’s mind because the man is also wearing with them standard issue military boots.

“Hello!” the man says loudly.

“Is this your dog!?” Washington demands just as loudly. There’s a low stage of panic beginning to set in as the dog looks less happy to have Washington talking and Washington’s chest is feeling less happy to have a dog standing on it.

For a moment, the man seems more surprised than Wash, and he glances toward the dog as if there is some other dog that Washington would be addressing. And a big, goofy smile crosses his face as he looks back down to Wash.

“Oh! Yes. This is Freckles. He is a very good boy. Aren’t you, Freckles? Aren’t you a very good boy?” the man coos toward the dog.

Taking his gaze off of Wash, the dog turns around and looks at the man, nub of a tail wagging so hard his entire butt is moving with it. The dog’s front paws pick up and ram down many times excitedly on Wash’s chest. Then it barks loud and keening.

“Get him off of me!” Wash demands in a hiss between gasps of breath.

Blinking again, the man glances down at Washington, then looks around the house in confusion. “Oh, no. I don’t know you. I thought this is the Sugar House. Oh no. This is very bad. I do not want trouble again. I only want the nice lady doctor in the Sugar House—“

The man sounds panicked, and the more he panics, the more the dog reacts. First with a whining bark, then with finally leaping from Wash’s chest toward the man. It prances around its human before pressing the flat of its head into the palm of the man’s hand.

And, suddenly, Wash begins making sense of things. The solitary doesn’t come back, but he’s not gone into chaos anymore.

Not any more than usual, by any means.

“Do you mean Sweet Home?” Wash asks as he raises up to a sitting position, holding onto his no doubt bruised ribs.

“Yes!” the man calls out excitedly. “Oh! Oh! Do you know where it is? I am very lost. Which is strange. Because Sheila told me where to go and I did not believe I was lost so now it is me being confused where I thought I was not. You see?”

Washington feels himself slipping into the chaotic one more time but he fights it, instead clearing his throat and repositioning himself into a more confident stance. “I don’t know who Sheila is, but yes. You are at Sweet Home. You aren’t confused. Well. You’re not anymore confused right now than I am. Uh. I live here now. With Doctor Grey. Emily. Doctor…lady. Am I making sense? I don’t think I am.”

However, the confused posturing seemed to be speaking to the man’s language because his grin only grows and grows the further the conversation goes down the rabbit hole.

“I am at the Sugar House?” he asks. “And you’re the new friend at Sugar House?”

“I’m… what?” Wash asks, the chaos threatening to swirl out of control.

Without clarifying, the man pulls out a large smartphone from his pocket and holds it flat close to his chin. It looks a little awkward from Washington’s angle, like the finer motor movements are lacking refinement.

“Sheila!” the man shouts across the surface of the phone, causing the screen to light up with a familiar app — the service assistant. “Thank you! I’m here!”

“I am happy for you, Private!” the smartphone cheerfully responds.

And, again, Wash pieces it all together.

After all, the service assistant had been offered to him, just like every other veteran from the War. The high tech phone app was a personal assistant for recovering servicemen and women. It was a bit of an insult to be offered one, even though almost no human soldier left the terrain without it being beneficial to have one.

The stigma had been enough to keep Washington away from accepting the service assistant at the time, and as a result he unwittingly had refuted future medical and mental health claims he could take from his service. It seems that pride was a good way to keep those who gave almost everything to their country from actually receiving anything in return.

While judgments flared up in Washington’s mind, driven into his instincts from basic, he also wondered if the man before him is actually a secret genius.

“What branch did you serve in?” Washington finds himself asking.

The main blinks at him, stroking the dog’s head as he fumbles his phone back into his pockets.

“I was marines,” Washington offers again.

“Yeah, I was with Church and Tucker,” the man says happily. “Did you know them?”

Wash feels his brows knit together in concern. “I… no?”

“Oh, okay. They were with me. I never remember being in a tree,” he states with a shrug of his large shoulders.

“Okay,” Wash says. “Well, my name is Washington.”

“That’s a funny name,” the man says with no tact. “I am Michael J. Caboose.”

“That’s a funny name,” Wash says sardonically before he can even catch himself.

Almost as if he understands, the dog pins his ears back against his head and lets out a low string of growls in Washington’s direction. He doesn’t seem to appreciate Wash’s sarcasm. But his master doesn’t seem to mind.

“It is funny. We both have funny names. I’ve never met a General Washington. I bet you’ve never met a Caboose. Or maybe you did. Have you met any of my sisters? I have many of them. It wouldn’t surprise me,” Caboose says breathlessly.

“Who knows in this town,” Wash says with a soft laugh of his own. “And believe me, I’m no general. Kind of glad I’m not… except for the retirement benefits.” He tries to laugh again but sees only blankness in return from Caboose. Wash coughs to clear the air and then tries to move things along in a way that may not hint to the other man that Washington has absolutely no idea how to handle social situations. At all. “I’m sorry I wasn’t expecting you. Emily didn’t mention anything about someone coming in today. Not… that she ever mentions it… But she’s never gone for too long if you want to sit in and wait.”

“Oh, no, thank you, no. I cannot stay. I cannot stay because I have to go. Sheila has told me many times already that I have to go. She has been reminding me everyday that today is the day that I have to go.” Caboose explains without any semblance of explanation. He then looks like an idea has just crossed his mind and he fumbles in his pockets again to repeat the move with his phone. “Sheila!”

“Yes, Caboose?” the service assistant says, lighting up.

“Tell Mister Washington how I have to go!” he says with the excitement of a kid at Christmas.

“Private Michael J. Caboose must be at the platform in forty-five minutes in order to depart on the 343 train to—“

“See, I told you,” Caboose interrupts, shoving his phone back without even bothering to tell the app to turn off. Wash can’t help but stare at the way it glows through the man’s khaki pants in the worst way imaginable. “I cannot stay for the doctor. I have to leave. I have a train.”

“Oh, okay,” Wash says. “I’ll…uh… tell Emily you came by then. I’m sure she’ll be sorry that she missed you.”

Caboose’s smile is brilliant, but sort of in a way that Wash isn’t sure what he’s smiling about. “Oh, she’ll know.” He then turns to face his dog and gets down on one knee to be level with him. The dog, almost knowingly, begins whining like a puppy. “Be a good boy! Be a good boy! I’ll be home soon, yes be a good boy!”

Processing the moment takes Washington a second longer than he should and, as suddenly as his morning was interrupted by Caboose, it is being uninterrupted by the man stepping out the door.

“Wait what,” Washington finally manages to utter just before Caboose grabs the handle of the back door.

The large man waves emphatically. “Thank you, General! I will see you and the good doctor lady soon! But I have to get to my train!”

“Private Michael J. Caboose’s train is departing in forty-two minutes—“

“Wait! I don’t know—“ Washington tries to shout but the door is slammed shut with tremendous force, enough to make one of Emily’s piles of books nearby tip over and go scattering across the floor.

Washington and Freckles both stare at the books for a few disquieting seconds.

Then Washington gives the dog a wary look. “I can’t escape the nonsense can I?”

The dog snarls in return before huffing. It then walks — with confidence and ownership of the house that Washington dreams of building up to at some point before his fifties — through the short hall from the  kitchen and into the living room where it promptly takes the seat that Washington has been using for the last week.

“God damn it Emily,” Wash curses at the air, nose curling.

When Grey returns home it is with the flourish that Washington has com to expect.

It’s almost like nothing in the world and changed and everything is good and there’s nothing but perfect innocence exuding from Emily’s every pour. And that doesn’t change even slightly as she trounces on through the door and looks down to meet Wash’s gaze.

For his part, Washington’s sitting on the floor with his back against three stacks of books. The one in his hand has been occupying the space he had been staring at prior to Emily’s entrance.

A funny expression came over Emily’s perpetually peasant face as she locks eyes with Wash and she puts her hands on her hips, flouncy skirt bobbing in a wave. “Why, Washington! What are you doing on the floor, silly?”

There’s some sort of crack in Wash’s forced smile like his teeth are too sharp to be contained. “I’ll give you three guesses,” he offers.

Then, there’s a ferocious bark from the living room that draws Emily’s eyes away from him.

“The first two guesses don’t count,” Wash declares as the dog’s head pokes out from around the corner.

“Freckles!” Emily calls out in utter delight.

With a complete change in character, Freckles loosens up the ramrod straightness of his body and begins bounding through the hall, heftily landing two paws on Wash’s lap without warning. By the time the dog is at Emily, he’s nothing but an overgrown puppy with a wagging tail and playful keening barks.

She happily catches the dog’s front paws and meets his nose.

It would be an adorable image if Washington wasn’t already sick to death of everything surrounding it.

“That all we got to say?” he demands soothingly.

Emily looks up from the dog, a curious smile, but a smile all the same, looking back on him. “What now?” she acts coyly.

“This has to stop!” Wash snaps, finally getting to his feet, slamming the book in his hands onto the top of one of piles of books as he does so.

Of course, the world never wants things to work out simply for Washington and in mere moments after his tantrum, the line of books begins to topple as a result. And soon, like dominos, the books around the house begin to fall, one into another, all around them.

Freckles is unhappy at the development and bravely gets between Wash and Emily, growling with his haunches raised.

Emily Grey is looking around in complete shock.

Washington feels like an asshole. “Goddammit! I mean. I’m sorry. Here,” he mutters, beginning to get on one knee to pick up the stray books. But he stops himself, after only grabbing two, he gets back to his feet and shakes his head. “No. No! Okay. Goddammit. I have to… I have to say something before it makes me explode!”

“Like defacing hundreds of dollars of property belonging to a roommate?” Grey offers.

“Fucking— yes,” Washington grits his teeth angrily. “This is not going to work if I don’t say anything, and you know what? I actually want this to work. I want to live here. I want to be… I don’t know. I want to be here with you. In this house. Stupid. Confectionary. Sugared-ice-tea house.”

“Sweet Home,” Emily answers, like it’s vital to the conversation. “Why do you want to be here, Mister Washington?”

Wash stares at her, beginning to wonder if she’s listened to anything he’s ever said but, suddenly, looking into her eyes, he realizes for the first time that she is being frightfully serious.

She wants to know. Which, is to say, she doesn’t understand.

“I don’t have anywhere else to go,” Wash answers pathetically.

“Neither do I,” she agrees.

“Yes, but it’s still your house at the end of the day,” Wash says. “I can leave, even if there’s nowhere to go. Because this house isn’t mine. Because there are no parts of it — no lines in it — that are mine and only mine. I need. I need…”

“Boundaries?” she tries to guess again.

Wash scowls at her. “Respect,” he corrects her. “And I’m…. I’m just not going to receive it as long as you continue to be inconsiderate of our differences.”

It isn’t quite knocking down every book in a maze of a house, it isn’t quite a fiery explosion, but it’s every bit of Washington’s guts and brains spewed out all the same. Words he hasn’t even put together fully formed in his own mind yet are suddenly there, bared open for them both.

For the first time since they met, Emily Grey is speechless.

Until she isn’t.

“So you are a cat person?”

Washington takes off up the stairs, fuming all over again and not sure when he’s going to blow.

[pinkfan-gurl]

Starry Night

chapter six of an 1oo high school au

Monty tried to keep calm as he sat in the backseat.

Never in a million years would he have thought that he'd be riding in the backseat of Bellamy Blake's car. And it wasn't that Monty was afraid of Bellamy, because he wasn't.

Bellamy wasn't exactly popular in the traditional sense that typical movies like Mean Girls try to portray. Everyone knew that he was working three jobs and taking advanced classes in attempts to get into a recognizable college. Everyone knew that his main goal at this point was to get a degree in social science.

The hard work and dedication that Bellamy had been putting into his work since starting high school was notable and everyone respected him for it or held him in at least some high esteem. Almost everyone. Clarke was too oblivious by their rivalry to view him any differently from the boy who dumped a pail of sand in her lap in kindergarten.

The car ride wasn't long at all—maybe ten minutes at the most. Jasper and Monty stayed quiet while Octavia filled the silence with a recap of her day while Bellamy listened. "Thanks for the ride, Bellamy," Octavia said as she pushed the front-seat forward enough for the two boys in the back to scramble out.

Bellamy eyed Jasper warily before glancing back to Octavia. "What time do you need a pick-up, O?"

Monty noticed Bellamy regard Jasper suspiciously again and Monty wondered if it was because he was Clarke's brother or if Bellamy knew of Jasper's crush on Octavia. "Few hours," Octavia said and let the seat spring back into place. "I'll call you."

"Are they going to need a ride too?" Monty had expected Bellamy's tone to be hostile but it was surprisingly calm.

Octavia glanced over at Jasper who shook his head. "No, uh," he hesitated, looking nervous, "Clarke's supposed to come get us."

Bellamy scoffed slightly, shaking his head. He muttered something under his breath—"the princess" Monty heard—then he nodded. "Okay, I'll be back around ten to get you, O."

Octavia scrunched up her nose, clearly disappointed. "Why so early? I said I'd call you."

"Mom doesn't want you out later than that. Plus, I'm going over to Miller's and I don't need to be worrying about the trouble you're getting into while I'm over there."

"Fine. But don't show up even a minute before ten."

"Someone's being bossy. Makes me wonder what you're up to." He tilted his nose down and Octavia blushed slightly.

Monty turned away politely, pretending to take an interest in an ant crawling between the cracks of the sidewalk while Octavia hastily hissed at her brother. When Monty looked up, Bellamy was pulling out of the parking lot and Octavia's face was returning to it's normal color.

"Everything good?" Jasper asked upon her return to them.

Octavia nodded, rubbing circles into her arms. "Just Bellamy being a dick, per the usual. Come on, I can see Sterling's car parked near the front."

…

After having gotten his M&M blizzard, Jasper followed Octavia to a table where a few of the other soccer kids decided to settle.

The entire place was full of people that Jasper recognized from the team and most of them had other friends along with them. The noise decibel was through the roof, reminding Jasper of when he was forced to eat in college cafeterias on field trips. He found not being able to hear the person sitting across from him rather annoying.

Octavia slid into a booth with Harper, Fox, and Sterling which Jasper found appropriate. Other than being on the soccer team, he knew that the three of them also resided on student-council because on more than one occasion they had been over to help Clarke out with something or other.

When Harper smiled at them, Jasper made sure to nudge Monty in the side roughly and he almost tripped head first into the table except he was able to right himself at the last moment. "Hi," Monty tried to cover it up but his face was still slightly flushed and his voice was weak.

Jasper had to keep from laughing, but then Octavia grabbed him by the cuff of his hoodie and pulled him over so that their shoulders brushed as they sat. He took it that his face said it all because suddenly Monty was the one refraining his giggles.

"You guys did great today," Harper gushed excitedly to Sterling and Octavia.

Octavia shrugged nonchalantly. "Not a big deal. Right place at the right time."

"Yeah," Sterling agreed, crossing his arms on the table. "It was kind of a fluke. It only went in the net because the goalie tripped over his own feet."

"Who cares?" Jasper's stomach twisted as everyone's eyes turned to him. God, he was so awkward. "I mean, we won right? Flukes still count."

Everyone stayed quiet for a second, but then Fox said "Jasper's right" and the growing pit in his stomach stopped deepening.

"We beat Mecha Prep and that's what matters." She planted a kiss on Sterling's cheek.

Quickly licking the ice cream off of his spoon, Japser stuck it back into the lump of ice cream and then held the cup up over the table. "To winning!"

He felt stupid for a second, but then Monty's cotton candy and Octavia's double-chocolate chip cookie dough blizzards joined his in the middle followed by everyone else's. "To winning!" they cheered, breaking out into giggles.

As more people filtered in, the louder the room got. Some of the kids who happened to be present were trembling behind their parents, terrified of the older kids hanging around like they owned the place.

Octavia must have read his mind because she called over the noise, "You guys wanna go to the elementary school play yard?"

"Sounds good!" Harper shouted back.

Jasper slid out of the booth, falling into step with Monty as Harper and Octavia led the way through the restaurant and to the door. The elementary school was just down the sidewalk from the Dairy Queen, making it an ideal spot for them to unwind.

"Are you going to talk to her?" Jasper nudged Monty. Harper and Octavia were talking in depthly with their hands.

Monty scowled. "No way."

"Why not?"

"Unlike you, I don't have an entire battle plan drawn up on how to get a girl to like me."

"I can get my box of crayons and colored construction paper and have one drawn up for you in like, thirty minutes."

Monty rolled his eyes. "No thank you."

"Okay," Jasper shrugged as they stepped onto the school yard field. "But I'm always here to help you with your girl problems, buddy."

They took their time crossing the field opposed to the mad bolt to the merry-go-round that Octavia had opted for. Harper called out to her to slow it down, but then she took off to intercept Octavia at break-neck speeds.

"Come on," Jasper laughed, pulling Monty along once they made it within a reasonable jogging distance.

Octavia's hair whipped around as she held onto the metal bars, leaning her torso off the edge as far as she dared. Even in her dirty, yellow uniform and clashing flip-flops she looked so beautiful.

Jasper was so busy staring at her, he hadn't even registered that Monty had already climbed onto the merry-go-round or that he was just awkwardly watching them spin with a dopey smile on his face.

"Jasper!" Monty cupped his hands around his mouth. "Make it go faster!"

"Yeah!" Harper whooped and Octavia's grin just widened, but it was enough to motivate Jasper into running what felt like a mile around in a circle to help it gain speed before jumping on himself.

"Oh my God," he panted, falling flat on his back in the middle of the rotating disk. "This thing is so heavy, especially with you giants on here."

"I'm a giant?" Monty snorted, obviously trying to be heard. Harper chuckled.

Twisting her leg around the bars, Octavia stood up and stretched her arms out. From his spot on the ground, Jasper couldn't see anything but the blue sky and clouds revolving around her as she stood freely against the wind. From the gentle smile on her face to the deep inhalations to the way her hair barely touched her face as they moved, Jasper could tell she was in a bliss.

And right now, while she was sweaty and covered in dirt, he couldn't think of a moment where she looked more beautiful.

…

Darkness came too early in Octavia's opinion.

The covers of darkness first started taking it's dim hold on the sky around nine and only continued to darken since then. Now at a quarter to ten, she knew that she was going to have to leave soon, even though the darkness called for to stay.

After the merry-go-round, Octavia and the others alternated between the different pieces of playground equipment, acting like they were kids again. At one point, they busted out Jasper's soccer ball and used it as a basketball on the blacktop. When Harper left about a half-hour after dark, the rest of them decided to settle down and enjoy each other's company.

Originally they had been sitting on the top of the monkey bars, but that soon grew to be uncomfortable so Monty suggested they chill out on the grass.

"Do you guys ever wonder what's out there?" Monty murmured suddenly.

Octavia turned to her right where Monty was lying. "What do you mean?" Jasper asked from her other side.

Monty sighed, keeping his eyes trained on the stars. "Do you think there's other life other than our planet? Or if there's something out there that could support human life?"

Octavia rolled on her side, waiting expectantly for Jasper's rebuttal. "Maybe," he said finally. She noticed how he kept his gaze on the sky intently as well.

"What about you, Octavia?" Monty's voice came from behind her.

Octavia returned to her initial position on her back. "I'm not really big into the whole science aspect behind the galaxy. I'm more into the history behind it."

Jasper pursed his lips. "Isn't history and science the same thing?"

Octavia laughed wistfully. "Not the history I'm thinking of."

"What do you mean?"

"I haven't done this in awhile," she started. "Watch the stars, I mean. I used to do it all the time with my brother when I was a bit younger. He's really into mythology and stuff so he would tell me the stories behind the constellations."

Octavia pointed up at what she distinctly knew as Orion but could be easily seen as a clump of stars. "That's the Hunter, Orion. He fell in love with the goddess Artemis, but she swore herself to eternal maidenhood. Apollo, Artemis's brother, was so furious that he shot and killed Orion on the day he was supposed to marry Artemis."

She pointed out another group of stars that could've easily been overlooked by the untrained eye. "And that's the constellation of Andromeda. She was a princess of Ethiopia who was doomed to being mauled by a sea monster after her parents pissed off Poseidon. But the demigod Perseus saved her on the condition that her parents let him marry her, which they agreed to but kind of forgot when it was all said and done. But Andromeda upheld her parents end of the bargain and married Perseus, so the goddess Athena put her in the stars as a reward."

"Wow," Jasper breathed. "That's really cool that you know those stories."

Octavia grinned, rubbing her palms against the grass. "I don't know nearly as many stories as Bellamy does. He's like a walking encyclopedia for Greek myths. He could probably recite an ancient story for how every star that's visible from earth came to be."

"He must be great at parties."

Octavia laughed out loud. "Yeah. One day, I want to be a legend in the stars. I want people to recount the epics of Octavia Blake every time they see a certain constellation."

"That's a lot cooler than asking about aliens," Monty conceded.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, drinking in the cool atmosphere. It was the first time in a long while that Octavia genuinely felt at peace.

"Hey, look." Jasper nodded toward at red light that flashed in intervals as it crossed the inky blue sky. "Satellite."

Octavia shivered. "How could people ever voluntarily live in space?"

"I think it could be cool," Monty said. "Not forever, but it'd be cool to see the planet from a different angle."

"Not to me." She shifted her legs so that they were pulled up to her chest. "It sounds claustrophobic and restricting. No fresh air. No soccer. No pizza. Oh my God, no pizza." She faked a groan. "But especially no fresh air. I'd lose it in space. I need the freedom of the ground, ya know?"

"I understand that." Jasper smiled, tearing his eyes away from the sky.

For a minute, Octavia was tempted to lean over and kiss him. It didn't have to be big or extravagant; a quick kiss under the stars sounded perfect. She was already starting to lean in when her phone buzzed where it sat on her stomach, surprising everyone.

Jasper fell back in the grass, and if it weren't for the cover of darkness he probably would have been visibly red in the cheeks.

"Hello?" she answered as harshly as she could into the phone.

"I'm in the parking lot outside of the Dairy Queen but it's closed. Where the hell are you?" Bellamy's voice came from the other end and Octavia didn't even stop her eyeroll.

"We're just down a block. At the elementary school."

"You're not alone are you?"

"Jasper and Monty are here with me."

"Still?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't they be?"

"I just assumed Clarke would—you know what? That's not important. Come to the sidewalk; I'm gonna pull over and get you."

"See you in a minute." She hung up the phone. "That was Bellamy."

"We figured," Monty said. Jasper shot him a look, but Octavia figured that Monty couldn't even tell with how thick the dark was. "You want us to walk with you? It'd be safer."

Out of the corner of her eye, Octavia saw the headlights of a car pulling over to the side of the road. "No, that's okay. I see him now. Thanks for the offer though."

She stood up and Jasper quickly scrambled to his feet. His hair covered his eyes. "Well thanks for inviting us. I sure had fun."

"I did too," Octavia smiled. "I'm glad you guys could hang out for a little bit." She cupped Jasper's face and placed a kiss on his cheek. "See you guys on Monday!"

She snatched up her hoodie from the ground, then jogged to where Bellamy was waiting. "Hey, big brother," she greeted whilst climbing into the car.

Bellamy put the car into gear and pulled back out onto the road. "So how was it?"

"Told some Greek myths." She felt satisfied when his face perked into a smile. "I'm the life of the party."

"Well that's good, I guess. I don't know how I feel about you being the life of a party."

"Nothing bad happened. We were just eating ice cream and playing on the playground."

"It's not you I don't trust."

A slight rush of anger filled Octavia's stomach. "Jasper and Monty are good guys."

Bellamy's fists tightened on the steering wheel and his body tensed against his seat belt. "I don't know them, O, so I can't know that for sure."

"If you trust me, then why can't you trust that I'm making a good decision?"

"Because I know how some guys can be, O. I've hung out with people like that before and I don't like the idea of my little—"

"—please stop." Octavia slammed her fist against her lap. "I know you're just trying to protect me, but I can take care of myself."

Bellamy's tone remained calm even though his body was more tense than she had ever seen before. "You're still just a kid, Octavia."

"I'm only a year and a half younger, alright, Bellamy? I'm not some helpless little fifth grader who doesn't have friends on the playground anymore. I can take care of my damned self."

This time, Bellamy growled and his eyes flashed. "I can't demand that you respect me, but at least you could pretend you do."

Octavia gritted her teeth. "Fine, then. How was your student council meeting on Monday?"

She was still seething, and everything about her tone was sarcastic. At this point, she couldn't care less.

"It was fine, thanks for asking." Bellamy was just as pissed as she was. She could tell not only by the body language, but also by the fact that he almost bypassed the street that led into their subdivision. "I'm stuck being co-president with Clarke."

"Good," Octavia snarled. "Maybe she can teach you some manners."

"I'm pretty sure that she and Wells have enough etiquette for everyone," he snapped back. He pulled the car to a stop in their driveway and ripped the keys from the ignition.

"News flash, dipshit," Octavia climbed out of the car, "Clarke and Wells broke up." She watched as Bellamy's jaw slacked, then dropped.

She didn't wait for him to respond before slamming the car door in his face and then locking herself in her bedroom.

chapter 7

[dnpgays]

Cact us

Pairing: Dan Howell & Phil Lester

Summary: Space!dan gets a new neighbour who just happens to be a cute boy with a love for plants.

Word count: 11k

Genre: Fluff

Authors note: wow actual content? shit man

Read on Ao3 

Dan looked up at the stars that glimmered and lit up the dark never ending universe. The moon was full, it was the best thing ever in Dan’s opinion. It would be up there in most people’s opinion. It became a routine for Dan to sit on the roof until at least 12 am every night. Well, maybe except when the weather was horrible, but Dan always found beauty in the sky whether it was clear or not. Or even the rain splatter on the ground.

He heard shuffles from the neighbours house. Someone had apparently moved in earlier that day. The last people that lived there was an old couple, but when the man passed away and his poor wife was moved into a nursery home after they’d been married to him for 46 years. Dan had never really talked to them, but they seemed lovely.

Dan fished up his phone from his pocket. The bright screen informed him that it was 11 pm. He didn’t question why his new neighbour was out though, because he, himself was sat on the roof with his gaze up at the stars like a freak.

He averted his gaze up to the sky again and rested his head on the cold, hard tiles.A creaky door could be heard and Dan sat up to see who bothered him. There was someone in the greenhouse that the old couple had abounded.

It was too dark for Dan to see who the person was, but luckily for his curiosity, the person turned on a light. A single light bulb was hung from the ceiling in a rather aesthetic way. Dan had pictured a lady in her 40’s, but it was the quite opposite actually.

It was a guy who looked about 17 years old, just a year older than Dan who was 16. Ebony hair in addition to pink sweet lips. His royal blue hoodie was clearly over-sized because it covered almost his entire thighs, his hands were not to be seen. Dan smiled fondly at the new boy. The boy who looked so cute and excited as he started to clean out all leftovers from the past residents.

Dan found himself to not be bothered at all by this cute boy’s presence. Dan liked to look at the boy as he moved in and out of the greenhouse whilst humming at some song Dan didn’t recognise, though he couldn’t hear the hums when the boy was inside of the house.

After the greenhouse was fairly clean the boy turned around like he inspected his work before he smiled proudly. The boy looked down at his watch. The action got Dan curious, so he checked the time himself. It was 11:56 pm , Dan’s eyes widened. Time had gone by incredibly fast, he’d now spent 50 minutes of having his eyes glued at a stranger do gardening.

When Dan looked down again, the boy was gone. Perhaps it was weird for Dan to stare, but he didn’t give it much thought.  just put his foot on the crate that was placed perfectly to help him climb down from the roof. Luckily they only had one floor and a basement.

Dan entered his room through the window, he slid into his bed after he removed his pants and his jacket. He was very glad that he had the T-shirt he always slept in underneath, he’d also already brushed his teeth. It didn’t take long before he fell asleep.

The next morning Dan woke up to his little sister’s shouts directed at him. “Dan! Mom said that you’re gonna follow me over to the new neighbours!” Dan groaned and told her to shut up before actually he actually realised what she’d said. That could mean to talk to the plant boy which was both good and bad. Bad because Dan would totally mess it up, but good because he’d get to hear his voice, maybe even his name. Acquaintances is better than nothing right?

“Mom said that you had to, come on”, Dan’s 7 year old sister, Kayla demanded. She was fucking aggravating sometimes. Dan lifted his head to observe his sister in her baby blue caps with a neon pink dress which looked absolutely horrific together in Dan’s opinion.

“Okay, give me a second”, Dan answered with an eye roll. She told him to hurry up before she exited his room. Dan checked the notifications on his phone, (which was mainly videos from his favourite youtubers, some likes on his recent Instagram photo and one lonely note from tumblr) before he got up.

Dan put his earplugs in his ears and pressed play on his favourite playlist on Spotify before he walked into the hallway because obviously his room had to be the furthest away from the bathroom

She take my money when I’m in need Yeah she’s a trifling friend indeed Oh she’s a gold digger way over town.

That digs on me

Dan lip synced whilst he moved his head to the music. He ignored the glance from his mother as he slipped into the bathroom. He visibly cringed at his hair when he looked in the mirror, he immediately got out his hair brush to started to push it down. When it looked decent, he got a pair of black skinny jeans out of the drawer and put it on with only slight struggles.

“Dan, you’re so slow”, Kayla complained. Dan pulled on a black hoodie that fit his aesthetic before he brushed his teeth very quickly. He almost forgot to put on deodorant even. He took a final look in the mirror. When he opened the door he hadn’t expected his little sister to be standing right outside which lead to almost hitting her with the door.

“Fucking hell!” Dan cursed, which made his mom cough, she gave him a stern look. “Sorry”, Dan muttered as he took Kayla’s hand and started to drag her to the door. He put on his shoes before he helped Kayla put on her shoes. Then he opened the white door that leads out of their house. They both said goodbye to their mom before they left.

The cold winter air hit him in the face and the sun blinded him. It was nice though, they hadn’t really had nice weather in the UK for a while. Dan still preferred the cold nights and the moon’s reflection on the sea, he could spot from his spot on the roof.

“Dan! Look how pretty the flowers are!”, Kayla exclaimed in an amazed tone. Dan adverted his gaze from right in front of him to where his sister was obnoxiously pointing. The flowers weren’t on anyone’s property, but in front of a tiny park. “Can we please make flower crowns?” Kayla pleaded.

Dan looked at the time only to find out that it was 1:07 pm, still pretty early in his opinion. It wouldn’t hurt would it? “Sure”, Dan answered and chucked at his sister’s excitement. She’s the type of person who gets excited about everything. She had already started to run towards the dainty flowers, so Dan decided to follow. Perhaps he should try to make a flower crown himself? Better than to just sit and watch Kayla do it.

About 15 minutes later they both had a flower crown each. Kayla handed Dan her caps and placed the flower crown over her loose, long, blonde braids. She smiled up at Dan and he poked her pimple. She looked much better without the caps in Dan’s judgement. With her white converse, scratched up knees and the pink dress that was cut off right above her knees in addition to the flower crown she looked pretty good.

“Come on”, Dan said and took her small hand in his. They started to walk towards their new neighbours house. Dan could feel butterflies in his stomach as he thought about talking to the gorgeous boy from the night before.

“There’s two sons”, Kayla informed him. Dan gave her a questioning look in response. “Our new neighbours, they have two sons”, She explained further.

“Is that so?” Dan asked only slightly interested. Kayla nodded her head and started to walk faster, dragging Dan with her. He didn’t even question how she already knew who lived there, maybe he should just listen more to what people tell him. More cars were passed by than normal and Dan supposed there was something special that happened locally.

Kayla slightly skipped into the driveway without hesitation and Dan took a quick breath before he followed her. She stopped right in front of the door and turned around to face Dan. She mockingly checked her non-existent watch whilst Dan walked slowly towards her. The house was white and only a little bigger than Dan’s.

Once Dan was right in front of the door Kayla knocked. Her weak knuckles made way too little noise for anyone more than a meter away to hear, so Dan took it upon himself to knock again which earned a glare from Kayla. They heard footsteps from inside and Dan felt like he had a whole zoo in his stomach.

The door opened and the boy Dan had seen the day before stuck his head out before he smiled. He carefully opened the door completely. “Hello” The guy said enthusiastically. Dan could see him better now in the daylight, he wasn’t disappointed.

He had a white knitted sweater, which was just big enough for him to have sweater paws in addition to light grey sweatpants. His soft features were so much more beautiful close-up. Dan could see his pink, sweet lips and his milky skin perfectly. He could feel his ocean eyes on him.

“Hey! We’re your neighbours” Kayla said. The boy’s smile grew even more. “I’m Kayla” She informed and looked expectantly up at Dan.

“Um.. Hi, I’m D-Dan” He inhaled deeply “Dan Howell” He said quietly. He coughed before he continued. “We just um.. wanted to w-welcome you” Dan cursed himself for not being able to talk properly and pressed his nails into the wrist of his left hand which was still had a hold on Kayla’s cap.

“Thank you, I’m Phil Lester” He smiled before he looked down at Kayla. “I love your flower crown Kayla, it’s so cute” He complimented which made Kayla beam. She straightened the purple and yellow crown before she looked down at her other crown.

“We made two, you can have one?” She offered before she looked back up at him. Phil accepted and keeled for Kayla to put it on top of his head. It took everything for Dan to not to throw himself over Phil right there and then because he was completely sure that Phil with a flower crown was the prettiest thing on the entire earth.

“I love it, what do you think Dan?” He giggled. Dan just kept quiet because how do you speak when the most beautiful man with the most adorable giggle says your name in the softest way. He just nodded as he smiled awkwardly. Phil leaned on the door with elbow on the handle with his head rested in his hand.

Dan looked past Phil and inside the house, it was pretty empty with many boxes and bags. Phil saw where Dan looked which made him cringe. “It’s really boring and messy right now” Phil sighed, like it was something to be ashamed of that they weren’t completely done furnishing after they’d moved in the day before.

“We should probably go now,” Dan mumbled. Kayla frowned, but took his hand as a sign that she was ready to go either way. They both said goodbye to Phil almost embarrassingly at the same time.

“Goodbye, thank you for the flower crown” Answered Phil and smiled brightly. Dan had to stop himself from staring at him for too long. Kayla told him that it was no problem and started to walk away with Dan right behind her.

“He was awesome!” Kayla exclaimed when they were in their own driveway.

“Yeah, he was” Dan answered dreamily and looked up at the sky. He thought about Phil’s smile, his blue eyes and how the fact that he’d do willingly let Kayla put the flower crown on top of his head was adorable. When Dan realised that he’d slowed down his pace quite a bit and that his sister was gone, probably, hopefully inside their house he blushed.

He walked around with a stranger in mind, that was just strange, even for Dan. He couldn’t help it though. He cringed of how cheesy his thoughts were. Phil was the kind of guy that everyone would either date or be friends with. His smile makes you wanna smile and he’s tall, but at the same time small body, made you want to embrace him and protect him.

Dan opened the door to his house and was greeted by his mom. He put Kayla’s cap on the table and ran a hand through his hair. “Daniel, can you be any slower?” She teased. Dan kicked off his shoes and hurried into the kitchen where he smelled pancakes.

“I suppose if I really tried” Dan replied sarcastically. Kayla was sat by the wooden table with a dirty plate and a satisfied grin on her face. “You couldn’t wait two minutes until I came” Dan questioned annoyed. He really didn’t care, but he knew that if it was Kayla who’d came home late, he’d never get to eat before she was there.

“Oh come on Dan, she was hungry” His mom informed which made Dan roll his eyes. “Plus, we have your favourite” She said cheerfully and tousled his hair. He wasn’t stupid enough to not know that it was in fact, Kayla who’d begged her for pancakes.

They ate and had a conversation about boring stuff that Dan didn’t take a big part in. He hated small talk. It’d been much better before Kayla came into the picture. He wished she’d never entered their lives, but it was too late, he was attached and would never want to lose her at that point.

4 years ago, Dan’s dad had died of a drug overdose and his mother had reacted by coming home drunk almost every night for 8 months. After that she’d slowly, but surely started to drink less and become more herself. All the alcohol and the days she’d taken off work, which made them lose a lot of money, not that they had much before.

After a year Dan supposed she just needed something to fill the hole in her heart, which made her adopt Kayla from Somalia. Dan had tried to protest, but it didn’t work. Kayla costed them money, his mom got even even more frustrated and she started to drink again. Dan had to look after Kayla all the time because their mom was never home. He was still 13 mind you. When their mom started to get her shit together their relationship was stronger than ever and neither of them had the heart to give Kayla back. It still happened that their mom came home drunk or high times to times, but it was rare.

“I’m gonna go up to my room” Dan stated and picked up his plate. He covered it in soap and started to wash it with a cloth.

“That’s okay, I can take it” His mom said and stood up with her own plate. Normally Dan would refuse, but today he just really wanted to get to his room and be alone. He thanked his mom and rushed out of the kitchen after he dried his wet hands. He was about to enter his room when he saw someone in the neighbours garden.

It was Phil and a boy who looked a couple years younger. Dan remembered that Kayla said that they were two sons and assumed that the other son was him. There was also a girl who stood with her head on Phil’s shoulder. Dan felt jealous and instantly disliked towards the girl. The younger boy played soccer, whilst Phil and the girl watched. They looked like they had a good time, even the girl despise how tired she looked.

Dan continued to walk into his room. He wished his family could be all perfect and happy. His dad tried to get him to play sports and Dan used to tell his friends how much he hated his dad for that. You don’t really notice how much someone means to you until they’re gone. It wasn’t like he didn’t support him when Dan had played piano or won over him in mario kart. Dan knew now how good of a father he really was, even though he had small flaws, but it was too late.

Dan sat down on his bed with his laptop. He had a message from his best friend Chris. It a question about their homework of course. He never missed a class, but that didn’t mean that he ever actually paid attention. He’d been lucky and shared the majority of his classes with his best friend, but it came with a couple disadvantages.

Chris: Hi, where we allowed to write about whatever we wanted to in literature?

Dan: What are you talking about? We’re currently learning about Shakespare you walnut

Chris: Harassment

Dan rolled his eyes and shut his computer. He got his canvas from under his bed. He’s barley started to paint a star constellation before he got too tired the other day. He normally pained when he was outside at night, but sometimes when he got bored he just googled a picture. He got up his white, purple, dark blue and black painting. He shared his favourite brushes with Kayla and since they were not in their usual place he supposed that she’d taken them. He was too lazy to go out of his room again so he settled for the slightly shittier brushes.

An hour later he had a complete drawing of Aquila. He wasn’t completely satisfied, but he didn’t really care. It wasn’t like he was going to do anything with them. He’d drawn digital drawings before and put them on tumblr or taken an aesthetic picture with the canvas or his painting book and done the same, but that was just something he did sometimes when he was extra proud. He had a couple paintings hanging on his walls as well, including his own star sign Gemini.

He started a new to paint of something he’d read a lot about recently, black holes. Or at least what they think black holes looks like. It fascinated him, but he always had to take a break from when he read about it because of the headaches he got.

Suddenly he heard rain spatter on his window. Luckily it didn’t seem like it was too much so he just continued to paint whilst he listened to sign of the times by Harry Styles. The rain and the song sounded absolutely beautiful together and he got a boost of creativity. He saw his phone light up and he wanted to ignore it because he didn’t want to get out of his ‘zone’, but his curiosity got the best of him.

Chris: I’m bored talk to me

Dan: I’m busy painting you dickhole

He put down his phone and started to paint again. He and Chris were always playfully arguing and hated each other, but he didn’t know what he’d do without him and PJ. Chris responded after just 30 seconds.

Chris: My feelings :(

Dan: Go talk to PJ or smth

Dan’s friends knew that sometimes he needed some time alone. They had gladly listened to him when he explained 'the spoon theory’ by Christine Miserandino. If only Chris would’ve paid that much attention in class. They were the best friends you could ever wish for though. Dan used to be a loser with no friends, but when he became friends with Chris and PJ he learned to not take other’s shit. He wasn’t exactly popular though, not that he ever wanted to be.

Dan remembered that he’d gotten 20 pounds from his grandma when she visited the week before and decided to get some snacks at the closest gas station. He moved the books that he’d hidden his money behind. He knew his sister all too well.

“Mom, I’m gonna go to the gas station, I’ll be back soon!” Dan shouted before he got his jacket shoes. His jacket was waterproof because of the weather and had small planets on his left chest. His shoes were completely black with small stars dotted on the sides. He’d started to wear space stuff because he really liked space, but before he knew it his whole wardrobe was full of space. His friends called him a space freak and nerd all the time. It was like an inside joke though.

“Okay, see you later!” His mom called back. Dan checked his reflection in the mirror before he went outside. It was now rain pouring down from the sky and it was much colder than when they’d gone outside a couple hours earlier. Dan loved the cold rain against his bare skin. He looked over to the neighbours house that he had to walk past to get to the gas station. Phil, the young boy and the girl were still there.

They all played basketball this time. All of them had a hoodie that protected most of their hair from the rain. Phil was piggybacking the girl and they looked like they had very much fun. Dan still felt the jealousy in his stomach, but Phil’s bright smile and his laughter kind of made up for it. Dan fought a smile that tried to form on his lips. It looked weird to walk around with a smile on your lips for no reason. Dan found that sad, why can’t people walk around smiling brightly if they’re happy?

He started walking on the pavement. His flat shoes made a loud sound when he stepped on the asphalt. He got wetter and wetter for every second. His hair was sticking to his face and some hair even got in his eyes. Dan was in the middle of wondering if the government were going into people’s houses to steal socks and umbrellas for their lizard homes when he heard his name being called. He looked awkwardly to all sorts of directions before realising it was Phil who was staring straight at him with a smile plastered on his face. Dan waved and smiled at him and he made a waving motion with his index finger as a sign for Dan to come over.

Dan walked the last 20 meters before he was standing right in front of Phil’s house, right in front of Phil. He was seeing his beautiful figure once again perfectly. His hair was wet and sticking to his face too, but he was wearing a sweatshirt which covered his hair. “Do you always wear oversized sweaters in different colours?” Dan questioned playfully.

“Hi, I’m Jessica Lester. I’m Phil’s cousin” Dan heard from his side, it was the girl that Dan had thought was Phil’s girlfriend. It felt like a hundred weights had been lifted off Dan’s chest. “Phil’s a bit of a pussy sometimes” She said and laughed, which earned a punch from Phil. She pouted and held a hand over where Phil had punched her.

“Am not,” He said and looked challenging up at her. She just chuckled and ruffled his hair. “Jessica, this is Dan- our neighbour” Phil explained and pointed over to Dan’s house. Phil looked back at Dan again. “No, I wear other stuff, but it’s cold” He answered to the question Dan had almost forgotten that he ever asked.

“That’s okay, I l-like it” Dan said quietly which earned a blush from Phil. Jessica put two fingers in her mouth and pretend like she retched before she walked away. “I’m going to the gas station” Dan paused and inhaled before he continued. “- and I wondered if you wanted to join, maybe? I understand if you don’t want to. Like you barely know me” Dan rambled

Phil giggled and nodded his head eagerly. “Wait a minute,” he said before running inside of the house and exiting with an umbrella. Then he waved to the others before he looked expectantly at Dan. He just stood there awkwardly in response. “I don’t know where it is” Phil reminded him and Dan blushed as he started to walk. Phil followed just by his side so his umbrella covered Dan too.

“Tell me about yourself then” Dan said, genuinely curious about Phil. He was also a fan of Phil’s voice. In one way it was deep, but then it would go very light and it was always soft. Dan found himself wanting to hear Phil’s morning voice, his voice when he was scared, his voice when he was really happy. He wanted to hear Phil’s voice whispering things in his ear.

“Well, I’m 17 and I just moved from Manchester to here. The two people with me with back there” He pointed behind him with his thumb. “-was my cousin Jessica who’s from Canada and my little brother Eric. Jessica is going back to Canada tomorrow though” Phil informed and frowned when he said that last part. From what Dan had seen the two seemed close and Canada and England was a great distance apart. “You?”. Dan looked questioningly at Phil. “Tell me something about yourself” He explained.

“Well, I’m 16 and I’ve always lived here,” Dan said bluntly. He tried to think about other stuff, but he couldn’t recall anything. He was a tad bit different than the majority people at his school, but he wasn’t going to introduce himself with, 'Hi, I’m Dan, I’m obsessed with space, I have crippling depression also I have a thing for dicks’, so he just left it at that.

“Is Kayla your sister?” Phil questioned. Dan turned to look at him, they made eye contact and held it for a while before Dan slowly nodded before he shifted his gaze to in front of him again. The rain was making loud noise as it hit the umbrella, some weak raindrops hit them in the face because of the small wind. “She’s cute” Phil complimented.

“She is,” Dan agreed. They arrived at the small gas station a few moments after walking in silence for a while. It was a mix of awkward and comfortable silence, Dan was mostly busy trying to think of things to say. They walked under the roof in front of the station and Phil took down his wet umbrella.

Phil started to walk in, Dan follows right behind. When Dan got in only a few seconds after Phil, he was standing by some flowers in a corner. Dan walked up to him. “Calla Lily” He said once he noticed Dan. Phil looked up at him. “They symbolise magnificence and beauty” He said whilst looking straight into Dan’s eyes.

“Which flowers are those” Dan asked as he pointed over to some white flowers in the middle of a nicely put together bouquet.

“Those are called star of Bethlehem and they symbolise hope” Phil answered and softly touched the petals of the small flowers.

“You know a lot about flowers?” Dan said more like a question than a statement. He could see the passion and love for flowers in Phil’s eyes. The same he’d seen from a distance the first time Dan had watched him in the greenhouse. It was really true what people say, people do look the best when they’re talking about something they love.

“Yeah, they are so beautiful though. I didn’t even learn the name and meaning to like every flower or plant on purpose, I just looked them up, now they’re all glued to my brain” Phil explained. Then he looked over at Dan, he was surprised when he saw that he actually looked interested so he continued. “My grandma and I used to plant flowers together, so when she died and I had to look up flowers for her funeral, I just kinda fell down a hole"Phil said as he smiled sadly.

"Oh, I’m sorry about your grandma” Dan said. He never knew how to respond to stuff like that. It was always so awkward, the brunette felt bad for Phil, and every other person who has or will ever tell him sad stuff.

“Well, at least something good came out of it” Phil said, he inhaled before smiling again. Dan admired his optimism. This guy seemed so down to earth whilst still making Dan feel like he was so small, like Phil was some type of God.

“Yeah” Dan responded. Phil turned around and started to walk towards the section with candy. Dan followed right behind as Phil picked up two ice creams . “What do you need two ice creams for when it’s raining outside and well, you’re one person?” Dan questioned once he was close enough.

“Ice cream is always good despite the weather. The other one is for you” Phil answered whilst he was still not looking up at Dan. He turned to go straight to the checkout before Dan could protest. He just followed shyly. Phil turned around and handed Dan one of the ice creams. “I hope you like chocolate” He smiled.

“You really didn’t have to do that” Dan said truthfully. He was the one that had invited Phil plus, they had just moved out so Dan assumed that they shouldn’t just throw money around. He shouldn’t either, but Phil was worth it.

“Shut up” Phil responded, he began to walk towards the exit.

“Isn’t it too cold to eat ice cream outside?” Dan questioned, he was not moving, at least not before Phil turned to glare at him with his head tilted slightly to the side. When they went outside Dan was surprised to find out that there was almost no rain pouring from the clouds, but the wind made his hair stand straight up. Dan put a hand on his hair to keep it down and playfully shoved Phil who was laughing at him. He envied Phil’s hair which look perfect.

They sat down on a bench right outside the gas station and started to eat their ice cream. Dan looked over at Phil. Studied his features closely. Phil looked back at him, which made Dan move his gaze to his shoes. He had been caught. Phil just laughed though.

Dan finished his ice cream fast enough and looked over at Phil, who had much left. “Jesus Phil hurry up” He groaned.

Phil playfully pouted. “Aren’t you enjoying your time here with me Dan?” He questioned. Dan just scoffed, of course he was, but he couldn’t stare at Phil for an entirety. Even though he’d like to. All of a sudden they heard a phone ring. Phil fished up his iPhone and groaned.

“Hi mom” pause. “We’ve only been here for like 40 minutes or something.” Pause. “Okay, sure. Bye” Phil put his phone back in his pocket again and sat down next to Dan. A little closer than they had originally.

“My mom is on her way home from the city and she would pick me up on her way home now” He frowned and looked Dan in the eyes which made Dan’s breath hitch. Goddamn Phil. “I’m sure she would drive you too” He added.

Dan was just about to say yes to the offer, but when he gave it more thought an awkward car ride with some dude he just met’s mother didn’t seem very tempting. “I’ll walk, I like to walk anyway” Dan said and smiled up at Phil who’d just stood up.

Phil handed Dan his umbrella. “Just in case it starts to rain” He explained. Dan was just about to protest when Phil continued. “You can give it back to me at my birthday tomorrow 5'o clock.” He gave Dan a quick hug. Dan completely melted in his arms as he wished that the hug would never end. He jumped when he heard a car horn from behind Phil. Phil pulled back and waved at his mother in the car. “It’s just a few, I don’t have enough friends to have a proper party”, he said before turning around and climbing into the car.

Dan hated how smooth Phil was whilst he was just as awkward he’d even been. Actually, even more, because he’d never properly felt like that about anyone. That thought scared him. He got up his headphones and played some music. He almost crashed with an old lady on her way out of the station. She was out of the way before Dan could apologise so he just started to walk again.

When Dan arrived at his home it was 18:30 and his leg hurt after he’d fell. It was completely that biker’s fault. He sighed and opened google. 'How do you know if you’re in love?’ he typed in and pressed enter. He scrolled a little before he found a random forum where someone had asked the same.

Dan read through the answers they’d gotten. 'You get hella butterflies in your stomach and when they’re gone, it’s like you’re lost idek it sounds cheesy.’ That was kind of how Dan felt. He felt nervous, but exited in a completely unique way, everything except Phil seemed boring.

'You always feel protected when you’re around them, but at the same time so vulnerable. You just want to spend the rest of your life with them and talk to them all the time’ Another answer said. Dan could relate to all of this, it was scary in all honesty. He didn’t know Phil. Phil could be a serial killer for all he knew. Dan wanted nothing more than to get to know him further though.

He looked at himself in the mirror as he thought about it. He thought about him and Phil together as a couple, he thought about himself having a crush on his neighbour, he thought about himself being in love with his neighbour. It was a little too much for him. He’d even contemplated being aro before.

He shook his head before looking out the window. It was starting to get dark, the rain had completely stopped. Dan got his galaxy backpack to fill it with his sketchbook, his phone charger, a power bank, his pens and 0,5 l rabina. Then he proceeded to climb out of his window to go up on the roof.

He could see Phil in the greenhouse again, filling it with various plants. Dan must admit he was pretty impressed over the older boy. The way he so carefully put all the plants in its place. Dan felt that stupid warmth over his whole body and those damned butterflies in his stomach. “Damn you Phil Lester” Dan whispered.

He watched Phil for a few moments before he started to sketch the scenery. Dan got tired of drawing the scenery, or rather, he inched to draw the boy next door. He refused, he was up there to get his head away from all the Phil bullshit, but it wouldn’t hurt to take inspiration from his eyes would it?

Dan ended up with a mess of a drawing. It was blue, green and yellow. Stars were dotted randomly around the canvas. Dan picked up his thinnest brush to paint the word 'limerence’ all over it. He added a few strokes of some other colours before he looked down at the older boy again. He smiled adoringly at him as he small danced around with his headphones. “Ethereal” He whispered to himself before he lay down to watch the stars.

Dan laid down like normal whilst listening to Phil’s gardening and occasional humming. When Phil went inside about 10 pm he put in his earplugs though. He suddenly remembered that there was a total solar eclipse the day after the next day. He smiled brightly at the thought. It was something that only happened every 18 months on average.

He continued thinking about the moon (and a certain figurative star). When it was 11:30 he decided to go inside, it was much earlier than usual, but to be honest, he just couldn’t wait to see Phil the next day. He laid down in bed with a smile plastered on his lips. He strongly believed that love at first sight wasn’t possible, but just because the ship isn’t completely underwater doesn’t mean that it’s not a problem when it’s sinking. Sinking into the depths of a certain neighbours smile and his eyes.

 The next morning the brunette woke up at 10 am. He laid in bed for twenty minutes before he finally decided to get up. He didn’t bother to put on pants mainly because he really needed to pee, so he just walked out of his room in a T-shirt. That wasn’t unusual, what was unusual though was that they had a guest. A strange man sat in the room accompanied by Kayla and their mom. They were laughing and drinking something hot.  

Dan rushed to the bathroom. Luckily he had a pair of jeans that were fairly clean so he just put those on after he’d peed. The black skinny jeans and his black t-shirt made him look like he was going to a funeral which wasn’t his moms favourite thing, but he figured that she couldn’t complain since she hadn’t told him about a visitor.

He went to the doorway and looked his family. The house seemed warmer than usual and he wasn’t even sure if he meant the actual temperature or just the atmosphere. “Hey Daniel” His mom greeted when she noticed him in the doorway. “This is John” She introduced the man next to her.

“Good morning mom” He answered before he turned to John. “Hi, I’m Dan nice to meet you” He smiled polity. Kayla didn’t even notice that he had entered, because she was engrossed in drawing. She showed John her drawing excitingly and he laughed at something she whispered to him. It was ages since things had been so happy in their house and Dan took an instant liking to whoever that John guy was for that reason.

He got some cereal from the kitchen. He rolled his eyes when he realised that the milk wasn’t in the fridge, but rather on the counter. “Kayla remember to put in the milk!” He yelled to his sister. She groaned in response. The hot milk made the cereal taste bad, so after a couple spoons Dan decided that he was better without. He washed the bowl and wiped his wet fingers on a town next to the sink.

Just when he was about to escape to his room he heard his moms easily recognisable steps behind him so he turned. “I’m sorry for not warning you about that” She said with an apologetic smile and pointed to the living room behind her with her thumb.

“No, it’s fine, don’t worry” Dan answered and looked over her shoulder. “Who is he?” He quizzed. His mom visibly tensed up and sighed. Laughter and banter could be heard from behind them as the sun shines through the open windows. Dan had goosebumps because of the cold, but was enjoying the fresh air.

“It’s a guy I met on an app a couple weeks ago. I know it’s a bit weird, but he was in the area so I decided why not invite him over for some coffee?” She informed. Right after Dan’s dad had died the thought of his mother finding a new man had terrified him, but now it excited him. Dan voiced his feelings and got a hug in response.

When Dan was in his room, he took the opportunity to catch up on his favourite youtubers. He loaded the subscriptions tab and saw that Chris had uploaded a video with PJ called kickthestickz. He clicked on the video and his best friends’ faces appeared on the screen. It was a sketch kind off mocking their shippers and the fan fiction writers. Dan took very offence to the video as he was a kickthestickz shipper himself. So he opened a new tab and typed in 'kickthestickz smut’ into the search bar. When he’s found a fairly disturbing one he copied it and sent it to their group-chat. He got a response right way.

Chris: Ew wtf Dan

PJ: I will personally come over there and strangle u

He snickered before continuing binge watching YouTube videos and a random show on Netflix. Suddenly it was 4 pm and Dan decided that it was time for him to get ready. He replaced his eclipse T-shirt with a white button-up. He decided to keep his black jeans because they could be worn pretty much everywhere with anything. Phil had said that it wasn’t a “proper party”.

He went into the bathroom. On his way he realised that he neither his mom nor Kayla was home. He couldn’t recall them telling him about leaving anytime, but it wasn’t rare, so the brunette didn’t really pay it much thought as he started brushing his teeth. The butterflies in his stomach were going crazy when he thought of the party.

He finished brushing his teeth and wiped off all the toothpaste around his mouth with his sleeve. The sound of the washing machine and some children yelling outside filled the silence as he was staring at himself in the mirror. His slightly bloodshot eyes with bags under them staring right back at him. He kind of liked his eyes, but he admired how people like Phil’s eyes change colour depending on the lighting.

Just when he thought he was ready, he remembered that he hadn’t bought a present. He cursed silently to himself before he got an idea. He rushed to his room and got out a box from under his bed. He removed the cover and got out a painting of a sunrise. It was detailed with sunbeams and an orange tint. Then he picked up another painting of an explosion in space. It was a dark blue background with a blight blue explosion plus stars dotted around.

He looked frantically around after wrapping paper without success so he took a brown paper bad and hoped that it was enough. He put the two paintings inside the bag carefully. Outside the bag he wrote 'to Phil, thank you for inviting me and happy birthday! From Dan’ and drew some flowers quickly, noting in his head that he should draw plants for Phil sometime. He wanted to write something a bit more quirky, but after all they’d just had 2 conversations and he didn’t want to be rude.

He didn’t think it was a good present, he wasn’t that self obsessed, but he didn’t really have many options. It was 4:45 when he was done with that. Phil never said if they were going to eat at his, but just in case not Dan took an apple. Yogurt wasn’t tempting considering that he still had the minty toothpaste taste in his mouth. Not the apple either, but it was the better alternative.

Dan took on his jacket and shoes before taking a step outside with the gift in his hand. The grass outside his house was covered in a thin layer of frost, but the sun was shining brightly. When he looked over to Phil’s house he saw just what he’d seen the other days except now there was another grey cheap-looking car in their driveway. He started to walk towards the ebony haired boys house whilst he took in the fresh air and let the sun warm his little amount of exposed skin.

He took the few steps hesitantly up to Phil’s driveway. When he reached the door, he noticed that they luckily had gotten a doorbell. The doorbell made a soft clinging noise, but presumably loud enough for anyone in the house to hear. Dan nervously counted 15 seconds before the door opened. He was greeted with Phil’s bright smile which both calmed him down and made things worse.

“Happy birthday!” Dan exclaimed, and was taken aback by Phil eho wrapped his arms around him. He soon enough thawed in Phil’s embrace. Phil pulled back after a couple seconds and Dan tried his hardest to hide his disappointment. “Here I brought you something,” He said and handed the black-haired boy the bag with the paintings.

Phil had a pink dad-cap placed on his head, showing just the fringe and the front of his short sides. He noticed that he had one pretty red rose earring in his left ear. His lips looked extra pink except it didn’t look like he had any makeup on. He looked extremely calm and looking at him calmed Dan instantly. Often when Dan saw attractive boys he would feel lust, Phil was still hot, but at that moment he just wanted to softly kiss the boy and to melt in his arms.

“Thank you Dan, but my birthday isn’t before January, I’m just celebrating it now because Jessica is here,” Phil said and moved so he was standing with his back touching the door and his hand motioning for him to enter their still mess of a house. Dan was surprised to see how far they’d come though. “We’ll be in the living room, we’re almost done there” Phil said nicely. Dan followed him into the light themed room.

The walls were white and there were two colourful sheer chairs. The couch looked modern with a light grey shade fabric. The black table right in front of the sofa was covered in a big pizza. In the sofa Jessica and another guy Dan had never seen before were sat chatting about something clearly funny.

Jessica looked up from the boy and met Dan’s gaze. “Hi Dan” She greeted cheerfully.

“Hello Jessica” Dan responded shyly. Jessica had her long ginger hair in two space buns in addition to makeup that did a poor job at hiding her freckles. She had a white plain dress with a red rose on a pocket that was placed on her left chest. It was pretty clear that she was related to Phil. The boy by her side had tan skin with brown hair and brown eyes. He had a black button-up with black jeans and his wrists were covered in some bracelets.

“This is my boyfriend Brendan” Jessica informed him. Dan introduced himself to the brunette. Brendan offered him a warm smile before he shuffled a little closer to Jessica and put his arm lazily around her waist.

“Do you like veggie pizza? I’m vegetarian, so- um” Phil asked seemingly ashamed. Dan wasn’t that surprised, Phil seemed like he cared about animals (or generally just everything) very much. Dan had even considered it himself, but he didn’t have the willpower to stop eating the meat he loved so much. He just nodded in response to the question.

Phil patted his shoulder and went to sit down next to Brendan. Dan followed him like a lost puppy and sat down beside him. Luckily the sofa wasn’t the biggest, he enjoyed the closeness. The shoulder touching and the heat radiating from the ebony haired boy. The birthday boy took a piece of the pizza and motioned for the others to do the same. Phil moaned at the first bite, which sent shivers down Dan’s spine. “I’ll just cheekily open the presents now whilst we eat” Phil said with a grin.

“You’re so damn impatient, I swear you’re a child” Jessica chuckled. Phil hit her playfully in the arm before standing up and getting two presents. One of them being from Dan. He could feel his hands getting clammy and his heart beating faster than it already was. Luckily Phil began to open the other one first. It was neatly wrapped in turquoise wrapping paper. It looked gorgeous next to Dan’s dull brown bag.

Phil opened the gift carefully. The first thing he picked up was a small plastic card. “A gift card to the flower store” He giggled. “Thank you”

“There’s one more thing” Jessica said like he didn’t already know. Phil picked up the next item. It was a black T-shirt with some thick, slight lighter shade of black stripes going vertically. It was intentionally oversized. He hated it when he bought a shirt and it was too big. It always exposed too much of his neck. If Phil’s expression was anything to go by, it looked like he quite liked it.

“Try it on” Brendan demanded excitedly. The boy didn’t object and unexpectedly pulled his blue sweater over his head. Dan totally understood and respected that some people were more open than others. He’d never had a problem with that, but when it’s your crush it’s kind of a problem. Dan let his eyes wander over the boy’s chest. He tried not to, he really did. He observed the small soft-looking hairs and his broad shoulders.

Only a few seconds later the new T-shirt was loosely hanging over his chush’s body. It looked very good on him. Though Brendan beat him to voice that opinion. The comment made Phil beam. “Thank you” Phil responded shyly. The look he gave the guy made Dan jealous and he hoped that he got flustered by the compliment rather than the person it came from. “And now from Dan” Phil’s expression changed from shy to a smirk in just a moment.

The brunette chuckled and informed Phil that it was a bad last minute gift. The only response he got was a dismissive hand gesture. Phil read the note on the bag out loud, which made him smile up at Dan. “Well, thank you for coming” He said with his head tilted a little. He looked down at the bag again. “The rose is beautiful” He complimented, at least sounding genuine. His slim fingers gently opened the decorated bag. Dan studied his expressing as he held a breath.

It was a pleasant surprise when Phil’s eyes lit up. The corner of his lips twitched as he grabbed the top of one of the canvases. He pulled it slowly out like he was teasing Dan, who was trying to calm his nerves. Phil’s little smile turned into a big and bright one when he finally took a look at the sunrise painted on the 10 x 15 cm canvas. “Did you paint this?” He asked with a glint in his eyes. The brunette nodded shyly.

“Oh my god Dan, I love it!” The boy exclaimed, he excitedly pulled out the other painting. His mouth opened as he looked up at Dan again. He placed the gifts carefully on the ground before hurrying to where his neighbour was sat. He embraced him with his hands on Dan’s hips, Dan was caught off guard, but placed his hands around Phil’s neck. If he wasn’t caught off guard then, he sure was when Phil sat down beside him without letting go, with his left leg around Dan. “I love it so much” He informed Dan with the sweetest of voices. Then he pulled back, and looked his friend in the eyes for a few seconds.

Dan felt heat storming to his cheeks. “Thank you,” he said as he ducked his head. The butterflies in his tummy were now impossible to ignore. When Phil looked at him, he felt this strange pang in his chest. Like someone just shot him with a water gun. The jet being very strong, of course. The birthday boy picked up a pizza piece and started biting down on it.

The conversation went easily when Dan forgot his anxious thoughts, he learned loads of new stuff about the boy. Including his full name (which Dan had teased him about, but Phil got his revenge once Dan mentioned his full name), who his old friend used to be, when his birthday was and even heard a story about his ex-boyfriend at some point. All the, probably useless information clung to his brain even though he was really bad at listening. Apparently everything about Phil was stupidly sticking to his brain.

Dan looked out of the window, his eyes widened when he saw that the sun was just minuets from down. The problem with that was that he had been dying to see the total eclipse for so long and he was planning on staying on the roof all night and watch as it happened the next day. He didn’t want to miss it because of some stupid crush. The fact that he was even considering it told him how much he liked the boy though. “Er- I have to go” He spoke up in the middle of Brendan’s sentence.

All three looked up at him with small frowns on their faces, but Phil looked extra disappointed. It made Dan feel bad, it was his birthday after all. “I’ll follow you to the door” Phil announced. That was just normal manners, but a weird manner. Dan knew very well how to get out of a house himself, though spending more time (despite it just being seconds)with his crush was not something he’d object to. Phil got up and started following Dan once he was on his feet. By the time they’d reached the door the sun was almost completely gone. “Can I ask why you had to leave all of a sudden?” He suddenly asks shyly.

Dan hesitates before sighing deeply. “It’s kinda weird really” He admits. “Like nerdy?” He continued more like a question than anything else. Phil furrowed his brows whilst giving Dan a questioning look. “I- well- uh-” He stutters wondering if there’s any way to make it sound cool. “Basically, there’s an eclipse tomorrow. I love space and was planning on staying awake to watch the stars and then the sun set and eh- stuff. I really don’t wanna miss it” He blurts out. He internally cringed at how he worded the sentence, definitely not cool.

“Can I join you?” Phil asks quietly. The most shy Dan had ever seen him actually. He contemplates it. Watching the pretty miracle with someone who was a pretty miracle himself. Both on the inside and outside. He wasn’t opposed to that. Another side-effect Phil had on him was that he actually felt lonely when he was without the ebony-haired boy. Usually he preferred to be alone.

Dan didn’t respond. At least not with words, he just grabbed his neighbours hand, and dragged him with him. He did something between speed-walking and running as they both giggled, he ignored Phil’s questions. Only focusing on where his feet landed next, on his hand that was intertwined with Phil’s and on the beautiful sky. He forgot his dad, he forgot money, he forgot unfinished school work. It was like feeling the butterflies in his stomach fly to make a beautiful mix of colours. Like a cheesy Disney film. He felt the cool air on his face and his feet hurt a little from banging against the hard ground.

They quickly arrived outside Dan’s house and the brunette lead him to the crate. “Follow me Lester” he demanded with a assuring smile. He then started to climb up easily, like he’d done everyday-ish for 4 years. He looked down at Phil, who was biting his lip nervously. Dan held out a helping hand, which he gladly accepted. The boy hesitantly stepped up on the crate. That was easy enough, but Dan still felt his grip on his hand getting tighter and heard his breath getting shaky. “Are you scared of heights?” He questioned.

Phil just pursed his lips as he looked at the roof with a stubborn look. Then he reached up and gripped the edge, but instead of dragging himself up like you’d expect, he just sighed in defeat. “Kinda”, he then admitted shamefully. Dan just smiled kindly at him though, he jumped down again to help his new friend. The sun was not to be seen anymore, and the stars were all around them.

“I’ve gotcha Philip” Dan said with a hand on his shoulder once he was down on the crate. The use of his full name earned him a shove from Phil (not hard though, because even though Phil hated his full name he didn’t want Dan to fall off). Dan decided fuck it as he moved behind Phil and placed his hands softly on his hips. Phil tensed up a moment in shock, before melting in Dan’s grip. “Come on,” He encouraged.

Phil drew a deep breath as he stretched up his arms again to grip the edge. When he’d done that he started to drag himself up. He let out a squeak, but was soon enough on the dark red tiles which forced Dan to let go of his hand. The brunette followed him quickly. When he was up, he shuffled close to Phil, who placed his head on his shoulder. They looked up at the darkness of the night sky. Dan’s heart completely stopped when Phil intertwined their fingers together.

“When’s it gonna happen and how long will it take?” Phil questioned after turning his head up to watch the moon again. Dan noticed from his voice that he was shivering. Of course he was, he’d left his jacket at home. Pretty boy dressed in a big t-shirt as pitch black as the night that surrounded him a cold December night. He would’ve gotten him a jacket or something, but for his own selfish reasons be decided to rather place a protective hand around him. So he did just that.

“Well, the totality will only last about 7,5 minuets, and I don’t know when it’s happen. We'l see.” He answered.

“Can you tell me about it” Phil asked seemingly genuinely interested as he pointed to the moon.

Dan smiled as he started to explain. “Basically around every 18th month the moon covers the sun when it passes by. The reason this doesn’t happen every month is because the moons course is tilted 5 °. You probably know that the sun is bigger than the moon right? If so then you might wonder how the moon can possibly cover the entire sun? Well the sun is 400 times bigger than the moon, but the sun is 400 times further away which makes it look like they’re the same size for us. It will go completely dark, just like now” He paused and pointed at the dark sky. “But when the moon is too far away from the earth in it’s orbit it doesn’t cover the whole sun,  we get an annular eclipse.

When the total eclipse occur it’s more likely to hit the part of the earth that’s covered in water, so this is very rare. People travel from everywhere to see this. Every year the moon moves a little bit away from the earth which means that in the future total solar eclipses will be instinct. My mom got me a pair of special sun glasses that makes me able to look at the sun and the eclipse,  you can’t look at it without them because it can seriously damage your eyes.” He realised how much he was babbling and got a little flustered.

When he looked down at Phil though, he didn’t seem bored, actually he seemed fascinated. He slowly moved his gaze up to the sky again and there they sat. In total silence, a comfortable one. Listening to each others breathing. “Do you sit here often” Phil asked eventually.

“Yeah, It’s my escapism” He answered. Phil nodded sheepishly and started playing with their fingers. “Do you want to listen to some music?” Dan then questioned. In repose he got a enthusiastic nod. He picked up his phone and played some music from his acoustic playlist. He didn’t really feel like it was the right time to play Kanye West or something like that. The soft sound of Ed Sheeran’s voice and guitar escaped the speakers.

“I’m gonna fall asleep at some point” Phil warned. Then his colourful eyes adverted to the edge of the roof. “Or fall down”. A chuckle escaped from both of their lips as Dan tightened his grip around him. Phil fidgeted with Dan’s shirt subconsciously. He smelled like mint and flowers, something Dan could not get enough of. Suddenly they heard the sound of a phone, Dan recognised it as his own notification sound. Phil sat up with the intention of letting Dan lose.

Mom: Hey honey, where are you?

Dan: on the roof with phil, our neighbour.

he didn’t get a response after that, so soon enough his head was on top of Phil’s chest. They laid like that, with Phil’s fingers toying with Dan’s hair for a while, until they heard the front door open. It sounded loud in the silent night. They sat up and closely watched what was presumably Dan’s mother. They could confirm that it was in fact her when she got closer. She had a cheesy picnic basket in her right hand.

“Hey boys”. They greeted her back. Phi,l and Dan’s mom introduced themselves to each other. “Nice to meet you, I brought you some food and other necessaries because I don’t expect you, especially not Dan to be down before the eclipse.” She chuckled. Dan thanked god that she decided to not comment on the small distance between them, as that is a very typical thing for her to do. Not that Dan came noticeably close to boys often. She just left with a sweet smile.

“I like your mom” Phil commented. Dan made a hum sound in agreement before laying down at the cold, hard tiles again. “Kisses or cuddles?” Phil questioned randomly, which made Dan blush. He’d said it so casually, like that was something normal to discuss. When Dan gave it more though, he realised that it was maybe normal for friends to talk about. Phil started to giggle when he saw Dan’s flustered state.

“Er- I like both, but um- if I don’t really like the person it’s better to- um cuddle” He stuttered out. Phil laid down beside him whilst giggling. “Shut up” Dan said and hid his face in his hands. The laughter died down, and Phil softly removed the hands from his neighbours face.

“Would you like to kiss me?” He said with eyes wandering to Dan’s lips before going up to meet his eyes again. All signs told Dan that Phil was serious, and that he didn’t say it because he just wanted to know. That could be him being naive, but you only live once. When you have a possible chance of kissing a boy that you’re dare I say in love with, you should at least try. So he nodded. Phil smiled and awkwardly snuffled to in front of Dan, trying not to fall down.

Dan’s pulse was raising like wild, his hands were sweaty and gross. He tried to wipe them on his pants without it really helping that much. Anxious thoughts went around in his head without any reason to actually be there. Because there was a big chance that Phil liked him back. Phil smiled at him, those pink lips that Dan was allowed to kiss. “Would you like to kiss me?” He questioned back. The smile on Phil’s lips grew significantly in a fond way. Like the thing you done when a child makes you shitty art, but it’s still cute and they want to give it to you. But also like the way you look at someone when they’re your whole world. Phil felt like he was Dan’s whole world at least, even though he’d only lived on that world for a couple days.

Dan’s thoughts were cut of by soft lips on his. An arm around his waist as he held Phil’s shirt in a fist. It was filled with lust and love, a weird combination that he wanted more of. Something about the way Phil held him close was angelic. Wonderful, captivating, mesmerising. It felt like there was an explosion of colours, sweet pastel colours. Dan closed his eyes tightly and pressed his lips harder against Phil’s. Just wanting more, just wanting to be closer, to intertwine and completely melt into each other.

Phil returned the heat. He started to nibble on Dan’s lower lip, who opened his mouth to give access in response.  Tongues started to explore the other’s mouths, hands to explore the other’s bodies and breaths to mesh with each other. Phil mumbled something about Dan being beautiful, but he didn’t quite catch it because he was so busy thinking about everything, but at the same time nothing. All his senses were focused on the feeling of Phil.

They pulled back for air, foreheads pressed against each other. Phil had Dan’s hand in his and fidgeted nervously with it. “So…” He mumbled, a start of a sentence Dan had a feeling that he wouldn’t finish. Not that he felt an extreme want to talk about it himself. There was still the possibility that the boy in front of him didn’t like him. Just kissed boys because that’s what he did. Or, maybe he just wanted to kiss Dan, nothing more. All these thoughts circled in Dan’s mind and he didn’t even consider the idea that the other might want more. Well it did pop up into mind, but he suppressed it because he didn’t want to have high expectations. His thoughts were interrupted by Phil’s voice.

“I never understood how to ask someone to be your boyfriend without sounding like a 13 year old asking their crush out”

[pomegranateseedsonskulls]

Impossible love pt. 3

Word count: 1,992 Rating: pg-13 because of language Pt. 1 PT.2 A/N: I'm on mobile so I'll add the links later. "Where the hell were you last night?" Karma asks. I smirk, I knew she got the information from Jazi because she wasn't here today so that must have meant Jazi told Karma over text. "You don't wanna know," I answer and chuckle a little. Karma nudges my shoulder. "Who did you fuck?" She whispered in my ear. "Nobody you know," I smirk. "Oh really? Was it Peter?" She asks as she raises an eyebrow. "No, why would you even think that?" I blush loudly. "Whatever you say," she smirks and I give her an evil glare. "I have training tonight, so I won't be able to text tonight," I state trying to change the topic. "Oh okay. The bell is gonna ring soon so I'm gonna head to biology," she says and I nod, then she leaves and I slam my locker and there Peter is. I jump a little. "Stalker much?" I ask and he realized that he scared me. "Sorry, your friend just saw me so I assumed you saw me, anyway, why did I come over here?" "I don't know. You tell me," I say to him. "Oh yeah, are you going to training tonight?" "Yes, I'll be staying the night too, my uncle decided that his business trip needed to be one day longer," I comment. "Oh awesome. Aunt May will freak if I stay one more night so I'll be leaving afterwards," he replies. "Awesome. I'll see you there. I have to go to my classes," I leave. All of my classes seem slow today. Maybe I was just dreading this training because I am sore. My back, my shoulders and my calves are super sore. As the day dragged on the training got closer a d I got more anxious. I don't want to do it but I still got nervous. Finally the day ended and Nat was in a nice, black, car. She rolled down the window when she saw me. "Hey could you help me find someone I'm looking for. She's a little too energetic and a superhero," she jokes around and I shake my head then get in the passenger seat. "Oh come on, I think I'm funny," she chuckles. "Well I don't think so, I mean you try too hard, it's like dad jokes but worse and not in a good way," I admit," like someone says "what time is it," and you say "time for you to get a watch," see that's funny." "No, that's just annoying," she replies and I give her a skeptical look. We leave the parking lot and I sit in silence. "Why do you do the things you do? I mean no regular teenager would even think about saving the world," she asks and I smile. "Because I know what it's like when no one is there to help and it is important to be what you want in the world. I was given the opportunity and I took. I learned from my and other people's mistakes," I explain. "When have you needed someone and no one was there?" "Most of my life. I'm very independent because I have to be, not because I want to be. If it was my choice I'd have someone there who would take half of my load. I had a friend, his name was Mike. He told me that when you have no one else in the world that you still have yourself. Even if it's just a shadow or a reflection of yourself you still have you." "Wow, that was optimistically pessimistic." "Yeah, well it's true, that's why I learned that I can't lean on anyone, but I will let others lean on me." "Ah, well we are almost here," she states and I see the tower. I smirk a little and then sigh. "What's the sigh for?" She asks as she raises an eyebrow. "I'm sore. I normally don't do this much training,"  I admit. "Oh," she parks and looks at me and smiles," well, welcome to being an avenger," then she gets out of the car like a supermodel and I get a tad bit jealous. I akward get out of the car and pull my backpack with me. We get into the first floor and she swipes her identification card, I haven't gotten mine yet. She gets off a few floors below me and I get off around floor 30. I go to the bedrooms and start on my homework. After about an hour I get up and change. I have tight, black running pants and an overlarge white shirt that you can kind of see through so my black sports bra shows. I go down into the training room and there was no one in there. I get onto the blue exercise mat and I start doing some karate moves and my warm up. I am practicing my roundhouse kick routine when Steve and Bucky come in. I stop practicing and realize it's been an hour and a half since I finished my warm up, I am extremely sweaty and my white shirt sticks to me. I walk off the mat and go to my water bottle. I get a swig of water and Steve looks at me. "How long have you been practicing?" He asks. "About an hour and a half. I've improved on some of my moves," I state proudly. "Are you able to go against anyone because I don't want to overwork you, I know sparring with someone can be overwhelming, especially after an hour and a half or training." "Yeah, I feel like I could move a mountain right now so of course." I smile and I walk over to them. Bucky has been silent this whole time," so who am I gonna fight?" "Peter because he is your size," he answers. "Oh, I'm guessing I'll be fighting him a lot," I guess. "Yup," he replies. "But that's not fair. I have much more practice from hand to hand combat and I'll beat him," I state because it was unfair for Peter. "You'll be good for him. Don't worry," Steve assures. "Fine." I cross my arm then Peter came through the door," speak of the devil," I mutter and look at him grumpily. Even though my body was still feeling the surge of energy from my workout I stretched. Steve and Bucky fought for 30 minutes which gave me time to cool down from my workout and warm up for the sparring session I was about to do. When Steve finished he motioned for us to get on. I stood nervously in front of Peter, scared that I was going to hurt him but also anxious about the fight. I needed someone just one on one without any powers, just a nice sparring session without being in a life or death situation. I brought my hands up and waited. I let him get the first punch but he didn't take it so I went for his head. He blocked it and we fought from there. It was all really just a blur. I would kick and he would hit back. Somehow he ended up halfway up the wall, like both hands and feet holding himself up and I was close and personal. I was going to punch him and I pulled back the punch when Steve yelled. "That's enough, I think both of you need a break," he yelled and I backed off. Im breathing heavily and extremely sweaty. I walk off the mat without saying anything to Peter. I walk to the bench and stretch for the final time. After a 5 minute cool down I walk to the showers. I take a long, hot shower, I know I'm supposed to take a cold shower but I hate those. I finally stop when all the I can see too much steam but I also knew someone else was taking a shower because I can hear the water. I got distracted by my own thoughts so I don't know who. I dried myself quickly and threw on clothes. I wore black pants that hug my defined legs, sports bra and a baggy hoodie that I stole from one of my friends. It still smells like them after many washes. I snuck out and headed to my bedroom where I closed myself off from the world. I went onto Pinterest and Tumblr for a while, not really doing anything and I wrote a little and I changed my position so many different times that I lost count after 12. Currently my feet were on the bed and my back was on the ground. I knew that it wouldn't last long because my arm started to get tired and then my door opened. My hoodie was riding up on my stomach so it was exposed. I looked up and saw that it was Peter. I got up quickly and realized that my hair is probably a mess, and I look like crap. "FRIDAY can't you warn me please," I yell at the air. "Oh sorry, I didn't mean to barge in. I just wanted to say goodbye. You seemed a little mad at me, I just wanted to see if I did anything wrong," he states and looks at me with those eyes and I realized I have been a jerk lately. "You didn't do anything. It's just one of my off moods. Your aunt is probably worried sick about you. You should go home," I reply to him. "O-oh yeah. You're probably right, well hopefully I'll see you tomorrow," he waves and leaves. There wasn't anything going on tomorrow, my uncle is coming back so I'll have to talk to him. I was still standing so I fell onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. I closed my eyes and passed out. I woke to mummering, it was quiet but outside my door. I pretend to be asleep so I can overhear the conversation. "I'm not doing it. I don't want to get punched in the face. I don't know how she sleeps," Tony's voice comments. "Fine but if she's mad at me I'm gonna blame it on you. She hasn't eaten since yesterday probably," Steve replies and walks into the room. "Hey, it's time to wake up," Steve says and I open one eye and look at him," I know it's late but you need to eat." "Okay just give me like, uh, two minutes. I'll be down," I mumble and roll over. I hear them leave and I get up. I fix my hair and check the time. It's almost 9, I run down the stairs and see most of the avengers at the table. Nat has her leg in Clint's seat and and Clint has his leg on her seat. They all looked tired. The only avenger not there is Thor and he has an excuse. I sat at the empty chair near the end of the table next to Tony and Bucky. I sat quietly and ate in silence. Finally, Tony finished his food and put his glass of water on the table loudly and cleared his throat. "Alright, we have made a decision," he calls out loudly and many people look confused," this one," he comments while pointing at me," is now, officially," he emphasized officially," an avenger, card and all." Suddenly a yellow envelope is in front of me with a bow on top. I open it and there is some paperwork, an ID card and a congratulations card. I read it and it was the cheesiest card I have ever read. I smiled and got out of my seat then hugged Tony. "Thank you, thank.you," I cried out. He awkwardly patted my arm. "No problem kid," he replied and then I proceeded to hug every avenger in the room. I started filling out the paperwork and finished quickly. I am officially an avenger.

[a-yato]

Grounded

Genre: Science Fiction

Word Count: 4,040

Pairing: N/A

Warnings: It’s looong

Summary: In a world where mysterious force fields pop up engulfing entire towns, humanity seems to be trapped. That is until two survivors, Kate and her former teacher, Mr. Jacks find a way to out smart the fields and escape.

Authors Note: This is something I wrote when I was fourteen, for a language arts course I had taken. The prompt of force fields was a prompt given to me from the class, though it took a rapid development for an eighth grade writing assignment ^^

 I take my mirror out and hold it under the force field again, wondering why it has to be like this. Whole towns engulfed by these mysterious blue fields, and they only thing needed to outsmart them was a piece of glass. My palms are sweaty with anticipation as I wait for Mr. Jacks to get here with the rest of the survivors, so we can finally leave this hell hole.

Looking behind Mr. Jacks I was confused. The only other person with him was his old rickety dog. My excitement dimmed as I asked the question, “Where is every one else?” Mr. Jacks just shook his head,

 “They didn't want to take the risk of disappearing like everyone else,” sighing, he sat on a near by rock for a moment. His dog came hobbling up to me, slobber edging out of his mouth. Not wanting to leave the others and not be able to find them again, I dug in to my pockets for my notebook.

“Well, I believe we should make a map. Though I haven't any paper on me,” I said, a thoughtful note in my voice.

Mr. Jacks just shook his head, staring down while looking deep with thought. Suddenly another thought occurred to me, “We don't have any food either,” sighing, I looked back at the field. With us we had an industrial pocket knife, a mirror, a backpack, and a water bottle halfway full. Mr. Jacks had also managed to convince the people back home to give him a water purification kit, but other than that there wasn't any food. Looking at the sun just making it's way through the sky, we set off.

Making our way through the city, it seemed empty and desolate. It was easy enough to find food, but the worry of disappearing was still strong through us. Walking silently, I started to wonder what our plan was. Every phone we tried had died weeks ago, and there wasn't any electricity. Though I couldn't see a force field, I wondered when we would see the next one. I knew we'd need a bigger mirror to get through this field, and we couldn't walk forever. Though I hated the idea of taking someone's car, I knew that we couldn't walk everywhere.

After looking around for five minutes, Mr. Jacks nodded at a green coloured minivan. Opening the door was easy enough, and Mr. Jacks Suggested that we take the back seats out, and search for a way to make cots. Finding bedding was easy enough, as there were cars everywhere with all different sorts of things in them. Afterward we went into a smaller building, and carried out a small wooden desk. It had enough drawers to fit our food, water, and even some maps that we had managed to scrounge from a subway station. Finally, after all of our work we were able to sit down.

The sky was nodding over the peak of the horizon, and we knew it would be night soon. I took a long swig of water and filled up the dogs dish with some as well, “Where do you think we should go,” I asked. Mr. Jacks furrowed his brows in thought, running a hand through his thinning hair.

Finally he spoke, “I think we should head to Washington, and see if they have any barricades there. This car doesn’t have much gas though, so we'll need to either cipher it here of see if there's a working gas station anywhere around here,” I nodded, though I didn't know how to cipher gas to another car. Laying down, I felt somewhat relieved and scared. And for the first time in weeks I got a good night’s sleep.

As I woke, I took a minute too look around and stretch. Finally I decided to wake up Mr. Jacks. Grumbling, he sat up. Before we left, I decided to go looking for clothes. Picking up a galaxy print backpack, I packed two other pairs of jeans, one pair of shorts, and three other t shirts and tank tops. I stuffed the rest of the clothes in the front pocket of my back pack.

On the road, we were both quite. The radio didn't work, but we didn't mind, it was nice to be somewhere in which the only noise wasn't a bunch of people whispering in panic. Soon we saw on the horizon, a gas station. It didn't seem like an intriguing discovery, but I noticed that as we neared the gas station, there seemed to be the edge of the field we were in. Mr. Jacks saw it to, and we both knew that we had a long journey in front of us. Pulling over at the gas station, Mr. Jacks started pumping gas, while I went in to get snacks, Mr. Jacks dog trailing behind me. Looking over at the candy bars I went to grab a KitKat, when suddenly a voice stopped me, “What do you think you're doing?”

My heart beat fast as I turned to face the voice. It was a tired, commanding voice. It's owner was around five feet tall, with pale skin contrasting to mine.

Their eyes were that of an ebony on the right side, and a hyacinth left eye. The colour of the actress Elizabeth Taylors eyes. The bags building under their eyes as deep and black as the night.

Their hair was a leather black mop of curls, not going any farther than their ears. With a lean build they wore a hoodie that faded from white to black, with what seemed to be an octopus tentacle pattern in white. The shirt they had on underneath it was dark purple a long-sleeved T-shirt. It seemed faded with age, as did the yellow logo it had in the center. The pants they wore were as black as anything, and looked to be skinny jeans. Their combat boots clashing with the rest of the dark colours, I'd never seen any in an aquamarine blue.

I didn't quite know what to say, as their demeanor was tense and unwelcoming.

Again came the words, “what do you think your doing?” I blinked, and stepped back. Finally I opened my mouth,

“Sorry I was just coming in to get supplies,” I only just managed to tumble out. Slowly I backed out towards the door.

Their voice was scratchy as they quipped back, “yeah I've always found KitKat's to be the most essential of nutrients.”

I didn't quite know what to do. Slowly, they moved towards the wall. I tensed, ready to sprint out, but relaxed as a light came on.

“There's a small generator over there, I've hooked it up to a series of lamps,” they drift off. I decided that it was safer for Mr. Jacks and I to leave, we didn't know this stranger and it was to much to risk anything bad happening.

“Well I'll just be going then...” I say, edging out toward the door. As I exited, I slowly walked toward the van. Mr. Jacks stood in front of it with a bewildered look on his face.

“Where's all of the food,” he shouted over at me. I made a motion with my hand to lower his voice, and finally made it to the van.

“There was someone in there, I think we should stop somewhere else, they didn't seem very welcoming,” I rushed out. Mr Jacks just shook his head.

“Now, I'm not going to deny that we all of the time in the world right now, but I want KitKat. Do they have any weapons?” I shook my head, I didn't see anything more than a few old looking lamps, and I wouldn't have called those very menacing.

“No I guess not, they didn't seem much older than me,” I looked down, it suddenly seemed idiotic of me to be so scared. We probably seemed like just another threat in this new world to them. Mr. Jacks caught on to my sudden guilt, and told me to get in the van. He turned and walked into the building. It took quite a while until I heard a door open and close, and out came Mr. Jacks with a broad smile. Behind him came the stranger, wearing a smirk on their face.

When he got to the van he opened the door, and out jumped his dog.

As my eyes adjusted to the sudden light he bellowed, “Kate, this is At! At's going to join us on our journey,” I internally groaned at the word “journey”.

At climbed in and sat down on the floor behind us cross legged. I could hear Mr. Jacks loading the generator into the back, but was brought back to reality when I felt a tap on my shoulder. Looking behind me I saw At holding out a KitKat in my direction. Slowly, I took it. Mr. Jacks dog came up to At, with the smell of chocolate in mind. At shook their head, and started petting the old thing.

“What's his name,” at called to no one in particular. It dawned on me that I never did bother to learn his name.

“Cisco,” called out Mr. Jacks. At hearing his name, the dogs head perked up. Cisco's Amber eyes twinkled in the spotted sunlight shining in through the windows. Getting in the van, Mr. Jacks started the engine.

“Well, we're off,” he said in a more chipper tone than usual. Driving down the road was silent, and looking out at the skies slowly starting to build up with dregs of grey almost put me to sleep. When the rain finally came, it was soft and slow, putting everyone at ease.

“I've always liked the rain...” At dragged out. Turning around, At was staring out the window.

“Do you know anything about the force fields, At?” I asked, hoping but knowing they probably didn't.

“I don’t…” He drags out.

“But actually I think I have a theory about it,” At started,

“Not much. but I've heard some wild conspiracies over the past couple of weeks from various idiots passing through,” they said.

We made small talk like that for the next hour and a half or so to come. Sometimes Mr. Jacks would have something to add in, sometimes he would just grunt. When the rain finally let up, we saw that it was close to evening.

“Well gang, I think we should make a pit stop and rest for the night,” Mr. Jacks announced. After we were all settled, Mr. Jacks broke out some Ramen and beef jerky. Carefully, we started a fire.

Though almost all of the sticks and logs we found were wet from the rain. Sat around the fire, we were all awfully quite.

“It'd be nice to have some music,” I said, speaking to no one in particular.

“There's a Jazz CD in the van if you want to jam with that,” Mr. Jacks said, feeling like he mastered the language of today. At and I both sighed.

“I have an Ipod I can hook up to the van if you want,” At mentioned. Mr. Jacks and I both nodded our heads, and At fished the device out of their pocket. After some grumbling and technical difficulties, the music finally came on. Playing an upbeat song I'd never heard before. Climbing out of the van, At offered their hand out to me.

“Don't you dance at all Kate,” At's raspy voice coerced me. I shook my head, At shrugged. Slogging out in the mud, At started to make an odd arm movement, and broke out in dance. Mr. Jacks burst out laughing over At's lack of beat.

“For someone who seems so cynical you sure aren't afraid to embarrass yourself,” I joked. At shrugged, and started bounding about. I was persuaded to dance that night, and even though none of us would spoke it out loud it, we felt like we were making the best of a bad situation.

“I call the cot!” I called out. At grumbled as he and Mr. Jacks were face to face next to the other piece of bedding.

“Well it seems one of us is going to have to sleep in a chair,” Mr. Jacks spoke out.

“And it won't be me,” both voices rang out at the same time. I found it funny, but the others were glaring at each other. Finally At got up and reclined the passenger chair back. I threw At a blanket.

“Fine, you both suite yourselves. At least I have a good view of the stars from here,” At yawned. I had to admit, the stars were bountiful tonight. It made me have a yearning for home, and how my family and I watched the stars every weekend when we went out camping. Even though I felt like crying, I smiled, and fell asleep with the happy memories of my family.

The next morning I was awoken with the smack of a pillow.

“Wake up princess, we're moving,” At shouted at me. I knew it was my turn to sit on the floor today. The sky this morning was a light blue, the air crisp. We drove for a couple of hours, making idle chatter and figuring out plans. It wasn't until after a couple of hours until I heard Mr. Jacks call out.

“We've reached the edge of the field!” He screamed. Looking out, I realized that we had. Taking out the mirror we brought, we walked to the edge of the barrier.

“And you're sure this works,” skepticism edging At's voice. I nodded, and positioned the mirror. Taking a look at my surroundings quickly. The road was empty, and we were far from the city. the grass was dead, and everything was muddy. Then it all disappeared, and I was blinded from the light of the mirror. For a split second, everything was still. Then however, I felt myself begin to pitch forward, and saw nothing but blackness. I heard the shouts of Mr. Jacks and At behind me, but everything soon dissipated, and I faded into the blackness.

When I awoke, I was laying on my back, still within the darkness. It was different this time though, because now I was starting to hear voices. At first I was hoping for it to be Mr. Jacks and At, bringing me back to consciousness. Then it came in to perspective, and it sounded like the monotone voice of a female.

Looking at the direction I assumed was up, I started to see stars. Except, they were getting bigger. But now I saw that instead of stars they were actually words. The words were what the female was reading.

“Player 1, Kate Atkinson,” I heard her say. She continued,

“level 2, lives down, 1. Times..” I heard her continue, reading all of my life accomplishments. It took me a while it sounded like something you'd hear at the end of a video game. Finally looking down, I gasped.

There in front of me was another version of me. From the limpid brunette hair hanging around my face, to my hazel eyes, everything. It seemed she was where the voice was coming from, though it sounded nothing like me.

I'd only been half paying attention to the stats being read but then I heard something that made me turn back to them, “Now beginning life 2,” and before I knew it I was back into the darkness.

When I woke up again this time, I was back in the plane. I heard the familiar bickering of my teammates, and the familiar noise that I had only just grown accustomed to being without. The feeling I had then was an incomprehensible amount of sadness, and I almost couldn't accept that it was all just a dream. Looking down at my feet, I lay back down. I lay down for a long time. Weeks seem to go by, and all I can do is lay there, accepting that there wasn't any real possibility of escaping.

No one seemed to notice, except for Mr. Jacks. Every day Mr. Jacks would come over and ask if there's anything I'd like to talk about. Everyday I'd tell him no.

It wasn't until around the third week until I gained the courage to go for a short walk, and when I did Cisco decided to go along, for the first time in a while I smiled, and scratched the dog behind the ears. Our walk was short, but it felt like I was getting back to a place of happiness.

Walking back, it was eerily quiet, not too many people. When I got back to the plane, I reached up into my shared compartment. Pulling a back pack down I looked at it. It had both the same look and fabric as the one I thought I picked up in my, “dream.” Looking over to my friend Cassy, I held the bag up.

“This yours?” I asked. She shook her head no. Opening it, I was shocked to see that it held the same clothes I had picked up back in the store in the city. My breath hitched in my throat. Taking the bag I started to usher myself back out of the plane. At the exit I saw Mr. Jacks.

“Where do you think you're going Kate?” He screamed as I ran out of the plane. Taking out the mirror I had stored in the front pocket I ran for the field. I knew I fell with the backpack on, but I never paid it much mind until now. After I had woken up all hope of ever leaving had become nonexistent. Now it was strong as ever, and it drove me. I'd never needed anything more in my life than this hope that I had now. As I approached the field I readied my mirror. Rushing my had to it, the mirror slipped through it, and I let out a cry of joy. Since I'd stopped so suddenly Mr. Jacks and Cisco ran right into me, and we tumbled on to the other side of the field. Both looked spazzed out for a moment, before Mr. Jacks just got up and brushed everything off. We talked out what we were going to do, and it went around the same as it did the last time we left the field.

Everything was the same. Getting the van, moving the desk, and even the gas station. I knew how to approach At a little better this time, and I made a better impression this time. Everything went the same as last time, and now I suggested a different rout. Mr. Jacks was a little confused, but complied anyway. Once again we reached the barrier again, and I looked at it closer.

I didn't see any differences on the other side, it all looked the same as the one we were on. At took the mirror, and opened the barrier. They leaned in a little too close for comfort, and before I knew it I was getting between them and the field. Of course this brought me to once again fall in, and to wake right back up again at the airport.

'Here we go again,” I thought to myself. Looking down at my shoes I took a breath. I felt like giving up again, but that hope I previously felt was still in me deep down somewhere. So I overcame the noise, the smells, and the odd looks from people, and grabbed my bag as well as Cisco and Mr. Jacks.

And our cycle repeated again.

And again.

And again.

I had just all but accepted it at this point. Every time I would try something different to see if there could be any other outcome, but I always ended up falling back in the field, and waking back up at the airport. After so many tries I just took it all in. You can only do the same thing for so long without getting bored though, as I found out. Every time I came back I tried to get to know everyone better.

I'd known Mr. Jacks since the beginning of the year, since I'd started lacrosse at the beginning of the school year. At however, was always very vague. From At's little mannerisms however I could see that they liked dogs and all sorts of other things. They couldn't sleep unless the blankets were underneath them, couldn't stand the smell of eggs, and that they didn't like the feelings of rings and bracelets.

One night I'd finally scrounged up the courage to ask At something that'd been on my mind forever, “At, what's your last name?” They looked at me, confused.

“At, I'm just At,” the tone of At's voice told me that that was the end of that question, and I guess I just had to get over it enough to forget about it. I guess I didn't mind though, it didn't really matter out here anymore. Looking down at my hands that night, I wondered if this cycle was always meant to go on. Would I just as surely fall down again tomorrow, and would I start over just as I had before? And god would that voice in my head just stop? It had been nagging at me the past couple of times I'd restarted, and I couldn't shake it.

If you were to listen to it more carefully, you'd hear that it sounded like more than one person. They sounded so familiar, but I just couldn't place who it was. With every spoken syllable, I heard the voices growing louder, it seemed like they were talking, some were screaming. I started to panic. My breath started catching in my chest, and now I was hyper ventilating. Tears streaked my face, and after a while of this nausea set in. I just couldn't get rid of the voices. Slowly shaking back and forth, I started to scream, and as I screamed the voices got louder and louder and louder.

I closed my eyes, and suddenly I saw a light. Taking in a deep breath I shot up.

Looking around me, I saw that I was in a bright room, and that I was laying down. Over me were some of my friends from the team, my parents and siblings, and Mr. Jacks. Many of them had looked to have been crying, and looking over at the doctor lurking in the corner I saw why. Apparently I'd been out for months, in some sort of coma. I'd only been about halfway through my lacrosse game when I apparently knocked heads with another girl. This had caused an extreme concussion, and I fell into a coma. Looking around, I realized that these were the voices I'd been hearing in my dreams.

My hearing was phasing in and out of definition, and I stared at the door way.

“Didn't you hear me Kate? You're not doing well,” I heard my doctor say. All I could do was nod, not fully taking in her words. I knew something had been found in me when I was tested in the ER, but I didn't care much to figure out what. I knew the doctor had previously said that people sometimes come out of their coma's right before they die, so I didn't make much of what ever else they had to say.

My family crowded in my room, and I'd already said everything that needed to be said to my friends. Mr. Jacks I allowed to stay, and even though I couldn't really register anything anyone said, I felt comforted by everyone's presence.

 Around the fifth day of my consciousness, things began to get fuzzy, and I didn't feel very well. I heard the faint muffle of crying, but there was nothing I could do about it. I didn't have any hope left now, but I didn't need it. I hoped that the others would find more of it than I did, because I felt strangely at peace now. Resting my head back on the pillow, looked out the window. Different passerby were on and about, but there was a certain black curly mop of hair that caught my eye. The hyacinth and black eye's caught my attention for a moment, and so did something else. On that oh so familiar face was a smile, a sad smile, but still more genuine than I'd ever seen on it before. I

Closing my eyes, I to smiled. I didn't know how to win the game. But honestly, I didn't need to.