#and Jimmy is smitten like the other boys

[zappedbyzabka]

🤓🤓🤓🤓

[xblackreader]

SydCarmy Meets The Family <3

>>> The thought of Carmy being introduced to Sydney’s tons of Nigerian Aunties and Uncles is very humorous to me.

“And Here he is! I brought you my boyfriend, Carmen finally. So everyone leave me alone about it.” Sydney starts, once she has hugged everyone.

The ‘Please go easy on my white man’ is silent but they nod. Raising up to shake his hand and her littlest clingy cousin who greets her, stares him down like he’s an alien.

He sticks out like a blonde haired blue eyed sore thumb, but once he’s been greeted and given a general threatening message via all her uncles (in tight jeans and sandals, which lightens the threats) he is told to put down the things they brought in the kitchen.

“Nice firm handshake.” He hears an uncle comment as he leaves and he is elated. It’s small but it’s approval!

Once in the kitchen, the auntie’s crowd to greet him with hugs and get distracted seeing him for the first time, squeezing his muscles and touching his hair.

“Eh… nwa ocha ya di short mana sara mbara…”

“Ma o nwere big muscles!

“No! Yana min kyau! Cute!”

Carmy: “Uh, do… do they like me?”

Sydney: “Oh, they love you. They’re plotting to steal you away from me.”

“Big nose though…”

Carmy: “okay, that was in English.”

Her younger cousin, David, walks up to Carmen as he chops vegetables. Pulling a little stool over and standing at his side, wordlessly. He stares first at Carmen himself then the vegetables the white man cuts so effortlessly.

Little sticky fingers rise and reach for the knife and Carmen just laughs as he attempts to pry it from much larger stronger hands.

“Can I see?” David asks, confused on why his big cousin’s boyfriend thinks he’s so funny.

“Sorry man, this is a knife. Too heavy and way too sharp for you to use.”

David is heavily offended that he is being underestimated. “I can chop! I chop for Mama everyday!”

“David!” He heard said Mama begins to scold him, “Do we raise our voice at guests?” David begins to tear up.

“O- oh it’s not like that, Ms. Dian—.” Carmen inserts, David cut off from his whine.

“You can call me auntie, Sydney’s boyfriend.”

“Y- yes, ma’am. Auntie, He’s just asking if he can help me cut vegetables. I didn’t know he had experience.”

David’s mother melts immediately and confirms that yes, David does chop carrots and garlic for her. “Oh, David is very smart! Knows how to hold the knife properly and everything!”

So Carmen lets David help him ‘chop’ keeping a steady hand in his as the little boy is taught new techniques and tricks.

By day’s end, David is smitten with his new weird looking friend and makes it plain by crying when it’s time to part. Sydney is so proud that she lets him parade around as the new favorite cousin.

>> And Sydney meeting a couple other “less-than-woke” Berzattos? Older Italian people setting eyes on their introverted little nephew’s girlfriend?

“Che bellezza!” A drunk uncle of his screams almost immediately before Carmen can get her name out.

“Gambe piuttosto lunghe… You guys will have such cute babies!”

“Oh, mixed babies are the cutest!” Donna throws in.

“Ma…” Carmy warns.

“Oh, you’re so WOKE, Carmen. Chill out! She’s givin’ her a compliment!” His Uncle says before turning back to the game and Uncle Jimmy shoots her the most apologetic look he’s ever seen from him.

“Ya mother’s right, Carmen! See, my sista has the cutest little grandchildren! Remember little Joey, Carmen? He went and found himself a black girl too!”

Carmy: “Okay, Aunt Glo, thank you. Can we move o-”

“And they have just beautiful little caramel children! And their hair! Ugh! Ricci e belli!”

Sydney is just nodding and trying not to laugh at how mortified Carmy is. He looks over to her in apology, but none of these comments are particularly too inappropriate and they mean well.

“But she’s skinny…”

“Skin and bones! Let’s feed her— come with me, sweetheart!”

Sydney: “O-oh, uh…” but her hand is captured and she’s being yanked led into the kitchen to be fed by hand.

She tosses a help look to Carmy and he shrugs with a small smile.

“Hopefully this’ll make your hips wider… The Berzattos have large heads when they’re babies, unfortunately. Sorry.”

Carmy: “Ma! Cut the baby talk!”

Fin.

[rikosseen]

James Lee/DG x Reader: Touch

Anon request

DG is extremely good looking. He knows that above all things. Especially with the way his fans fawn over him. That, and because both his appearance, and self presentation account for a great percentage of his career. People are smitten by him. It’s the one asset he adores to show off. And, well, Diego has plenty to show off. He has an extraordinary talent for exceeding all that he sets his mind to. A prodigy, a genius, if you will. However, nothing had ever stuck with him, or gave him the contentment he had so desperately searched and longed for.

As his own expression matches your wide grin, he can’t help but pin the bane of his pride on not himself, but you. Yes, DG is quite honestly very humble. He’s someone with a significant other to cherish and smile up at.

The idol opens his arms, waiting for your body to slam into his.

“JIMMMMYY!!” you shout, running toward him.

DG’s mouth twitches at the ridiculous nickname, but he doesn’t budge until you snuggle your face into his chest. He gently strokes your hair, and rubs the trickle of sweat going down your neck.

“Did you see that?”

He responds by humming, and you tighten your grip on him, unable to contain the joy from winning yet another race. There’s just something so thrilling about him flaunting and betting on your success that makes you want to kick your feet.

“Let’s go grab some food,” you say, slapping his ass and skipping in front of him.

DG shakes his head, and takes out the keys to his bike from his pocket. You stop when you realise he’s not following behind you.

“HURRY UP!”

He slows down, grinning lazily. Is this guy for real? With a heavy huff, you walk back to link arms with him, and pinch the side of his stomach so that he moves. Diego mocks a hurt look, but you honestly doubt this man’s ability to get hurt.

No remorse for little rats like him.

.

.

After bantering about whether to use his bike or your car, and James begrudgingly standing in the middle of the parking lot like a 5 year old, you accept your defeat by sitting on his ride. Jimmy boy lets out an amused grunt at his childish success, and tugs you closer to him with a swift motion of his hands on your thighs.

Ugh.

You instantly fold at his touch, and lean onto him, basking in the scent of his cologne. God, this man. The things he does to you.

All night, all day for sure.

You squeeze him tighter, and slowly allow your hands to slip under his shirt. Oops. Although your clinginess to James wasn’t uncommon, the intimate action still catches him off guard, and he twitches under your touch. As he swerves right, you trace the outline of his abdomen, stopping just above the area where his hips dip. To which Jimmy Boy squirms at.

The man is clutching onto his bike handles for dear life as he makes another turn. His ears are red, and he’s excessively sweating underneath his helmet. One would think that it’d take so much more to fluster James Lee. But no. The man, although very charming, had never really had any contact with anyone like this. Save for head pats to Daniel Park, the only sort of touch he was accustomed to was that relating to violence.

It’s not like James was complaining either. He didn’t hate what you were doing. So, like the nonchalant king that he is, Diego Kang just grunts until the two of you reach a nice, cozy, restaurant.

[rutellingmeashrimpfriedthisrice]

MCYT Yuri Week Day One!

Prompt: Dance/Break

Ship: Gem(GeminiTay)/Pearl(Pearlescentmoon)

Series: Empires SMP (season 1)

Word Count: 806

@mcyt-yuri-week

Gem watched from afar the way Pearl swayed to the upbeat music around them, watching the other girl laugh while Sausage twirled until she was sure the brunette's cheeks would be sore. She took a deep breath, shoulders tensing as she stepped onto the dance floor for the first time since setting it up hours ago for the Rivendell Festival.

"Gem!" Pearl grinned, pausing to face her as she glanced down slightly at the shorter girl who's cheeks dusted pink at the sound of her own name. "Come dance with me." She said, not a request but also without force. An offer she was counting on Gem to accept.

So she did.

With a timid smile, Gem nodded and let Pearl grab hold of her hand, stumbling as she was suddenly tugged into the rhythm of the quick-paced tune coming from the jukebox not far away. Her nerves faded faster than expected, soon moving freely around as Pearl occasionally touched her hand or her shoulder to guide her into another dance move.

The wizard had been having so much fun she hadn't noticed the change of song until her eyes landed on the sunflower-clad girl before her, holding out a hand with a goofy smile that made Gem want to giggle and melt at the same time.

"You got one more dance in you?" Pearl asked quietly to not disturb the other couples already swaying. Gem glanced around nervously, noticing the closeness of Scott and Jimmy and the smitten look shared between Joel and Lizzie. She blushed, taking a deep, steadying breath before smiling back at Pearl and slowly placing her hand over the other girl's.

"For you? Of course." She answered, heart fluttering as Pearl blushed this time. She stepped closer, hovering her free hand nervously over her waist before gently resting it just as Pearl's hand moved to her shoulder.

It took a minute that felt like years before Gem felt relaxed enough to drop her tense shoulders and let out a breath she'd forgotten to release. Her gaze wandered up from where she'd been watching her feet to notice Pearl already looking her way, smiling sheepishly once she was caught.

"Having fun?" Pearl asked in a whisper, barely audible over the music for only Gem to hear.

Gem nodded. "Yeah." She said, a bit breathless from how pretty Pearl's eyes looked from up close. "You?"

Pearl smiled and shrugged. "Yeah, tonight's been great." She said.

"I'm sensing a but in there?"

"But it'd be better if it were just us two."

Gem's eyes widened just a fraction at that, and Pearl's cheeks turned scarlet when the redhead didn't say anything in response.

"I mean, what I mean is-" Pearl faked a cough and Gem couldn't stop the grin growing on her face. "I like having you around. You're good company, a good friend."

Gem let her eyes flit around the other leader's face before taking a half step to bring them close enough to touch, watching as the shadow from her hat blocked Pearl's face from the light. "I like being around you." She said softly, hoping with all her heart that she wasn't misreading the situation.

Pearl blinked a few times before grinning even wider than before. "You do?" She asked, earning a nod.

"I... I like you, Pearl." She finally said, voicing those thoughts she'd held for weeks, maybe months.

"I like you too." Pearl answered, holding Gem's hand just a bit tighter in her own.

"Erm," another voice broke the two out of their moment. "Having a good time, are we?" Scott smirked from over Jimmy's shoulder as the girls noticed everyone had stopped to look at them.

"Don't ruin this for me, elf boy." Gem retorted, the group sharing a laugh while Scott rolled his eyes. She looked back to Pearl and stretched onto her toes to finally kiss the girl she'd been thinking about for so long.

She pulled away, smiling from ear to ear at the way Pearl's eyes lit up from her kiss. She faintly registered some of her friends cheering or cooing in approval, but the only thing she could focus on was Pearl's dazzling smile and the new look in her eyes that she could already tell would never cease to make her heart race.

Pearl blinked from her daze to look around once again, still grinning wider than possible. "What are you lot standing around for? This is a party!" She cheered, nodding to Sausage who switched out the music disc for something upbeat again as Gem was happily pulled into another dance.

As Pearl spun her around for the sixth time, Gem found she was sure of two things:

This would always be the best night of her life, and she would definitely fall over if Pearl spun her one more time.

[bullet-prooflove]

🥺 first time headcanon. For our Chicago Med boys please?

And I hear that you’re having a birthday soon. I know what you’re favorite animal is but what’s your favorite flower/plant?

Lmao my 36th birthday would you believe. I am really digging peonys at the moment! And peace lily's for plants.

So I have already written a fic on this but to revise it, the two of you met when you were both helping Goodwin with the Chicago Med Christmas Toydrive. The two of you got roped into wrapping in the conference room. Both of you got a little tipsy off home made eggnog and ended up making love on the conference table amidst the wrapping paper and bows. Jimmy knew he was in love because he never does shit like that and you bring something out in him.

Ohh you make this baby work for it.

Initially he makes a pass at you and you turn him down. Your next convo has him leaving the table pissed but the third... he tells you about Harper and you tell him why you got into children's custody law. It's the first time he's been up front with anyone and he kinda likes it.

It's the fifth date when he eventually gets to undress you. By this time he's gotten to know you as a person, and he's falling in love. He's slow, the way he strips off your clothes, lingering kisses on your skin as he whispers tender words over your form. He makes love for the first time in years that night.

Connor Rhodes - You are friends that turn to lovers. You met in Molly's bonded over a tough day and you make each other laugh. You move in seperate circles but always end up in the same space, gravitating towards one another. It starts with little touches, a hand on the shoulder, palm on the lower back and hugs and it starts from there.

One night he invites you back to his apartment to test his top shelf booze and you end up in each other's personal space, clothes brushing and he asks you why have we never...

You kiss and it's all over for that two of you. He makes love to you on the couch because he can't stand not being able to touch you, or waiting any longer. You straddle his waist, hands in his hair tugging just a little and it blows his mind.

Throughout the duration of your friendship you have care of one another and even in bed you are still taking care of him.

Will falls in love with you the moment he sees you. When Jay introduces you as his colleague from Intelligence he is smitten almost immediately and the feeling is mutual. A couple of drinks later and the chemistry is flying. You end up going home with him that night. He's attentive in his love making, taking you apart and leaving you wrecked in his sheets. When you try to leave the next morning, he's already drawing you back into bed for round two and how can you resist

[puella-peanut]

Teenage tramp Daniel has the hots for handyman Kreese lmao. Thots?

Gorgeous, seventeen year old neighborhood tramp Daniel LaRusso is…mad. Big Mad to be exact. 

It’s all because his attempts at seducing the local, rugged, handsome neighborhood handyman have…fallen flat. Failed to lift off. Closed on opening night. Houston, we have a problem, and his name is John Kreese. 

Thing is, Daniel’s gone all out. Taken out all the big guns. Brought out the big, flashy, show-stopping numbers. He’s been coy, coquettish. An innocent and not-so-innocent tease. Sweet and shy. Sassy and spunky. A bonafide ingenue to the Lolita of the Valley, and all around the block and back again! 

Jeeze, he’s never worked this hard for a lay in his life!

See now—he’s worn his tiny band crop tops. His tiny tank-tops cut to show plump, caramel nipples. His even tinier, cut off jean-shorts that hardly leave anything to the imagination. 

He’s boosted himself up on the front of John’s battered Ford pickup, just to criss-cross those long, bare, coltish legs of his. Straddled (and stolen) ladders John’s been using while he works, to display parted, slender thighs. (And show off how limber he is. How…flexible.) Reached up to grab at nothing on his toes to show off a waist so small and trim that a pair of (large, callused, rough) masculine hands could span oh-so-easily. He’s bent himself over convenient surfaces—countertops, couches, tables, wobbly banisters and kiddie coloring tables for crying out loud!—to show off his sweet, juicy ass. The lush cheeks that spill out. The roundness of it all. 

He’s brushed up against John, sat touching him knee-to-knee, fallen across him “accidentally”, faked a sprained ankle in the hopes of a bridal-carry, and still—still goddammit!!—John hasn’t paid him any attention!! Not the slightest bit. 

All Daniel has gotten in return is: ‘Hey, you’re in my way.’ To, ‘Put some clothes on, Prima Donna, it’s January, and your sneezing is unhygienic.’ And even a, ‘Join the Service, kid. That’ll whip some sense into you.’

Ugh. 

Ugh. Ugh. Ughhhh. 

…Why, by this time with his other conquests, he’d gotten railed twice over! All stupid, annoying, teenage boys; simple schoolboy, after-school flings to pass the time. Like that total brain-dead bimbo Johnny, or violent karate bad-boy Mike. To foreign exchange student Chozen, followed by future sociopath Dutch. A real slick wannabe named Ponytail got him next, then sweet preacher’s boy Bobby. Jimmy and Tommy had tag teamed him after, and then finally that dorky piano nerd, rich-boy Twig (he’d gotten real maid service, a night in a mansion, and breakfast in bed for that one!). Between all of them, Daniel had gotten laid in six months more than some people did in an entire year! Lifetime even! Yeah, yeah, the lays themselves didn’t rank too high on the scale of one to ten (some far lower than others!)—but a fucking was a fucking, and he had been sixteen and desperately horny. Besides it had been summer, and California had made it too hot to be too fussy. 

…Except that now he is, because there is something about this Kreese that gets him all hot and bothered. Something about those sinewy, hairy, muscular arms. That solid, sturdy body. The heavy booted footsteps. The worn jeans and faded flannel. The fluffy, sandy hair (and matching, coarse stubble). The hairy, broad, hard chest. The squareness of his jaw, the strapping height. The surprising brightness of his blue eyes. The sudden, rare smiles. The fact that he is older, is an adult. A full grown man. That he can do anything to Daniel, and, smitten boy that he is, he’d let him. 

Yeah, Daniel wants him like one would want a cool drink on a hot day. He has it bad. But things have to get worse before they get better, right? And all fevers must run their course. 

And boy, what a fever this is!

(And may he never recover!)

…

Meanwhile, our John has indeed been stoic in the little tease’s presence—but, thing is, the moment he’s alone, tucked away safe in his bed or in the shower or even that one time in his kitchen for fuck’s sake—John has spent nearly every spare minute in his day jacking off furiously. Getting his sheets, tiles—even kitchen countertop—all sticky with jizz like he was fifteen again, and had seen a pair of breasts for the first time in a dirty magazine. (But those thoughts of his former teenage fantasies have nothing on the centerfold that is LaRusso.)

And, damn it, he spends far too much of his day dreaming about that full, red mouth. The glossy, floppy hair. Those long-lashed big brown eyes. The perky brown nipples, the slightest swell of the soft chest on that tiny, fragile body. The endless, shapely legs. The endless, tan skin. The endless smoothness of it. The curve of that plump ass. The bounce it had, the little tormenting jiggle when the boy walked with a spring in his step. The sweet little puckered cunt hidden between those slim thighs. How it would drip and spill and gush out all that John has to give the little shit. Is dying to. 

Oh, John’s got a calendar counting down the days until the boy is legal, until he’s all of eighteen and the law can’t save him—and then John’s gonna fuck him into submission, rail him into obedience. Pound that tight, juicy, boypussy raw until LaRusso can’t think for how good John’s giving it to him. 

And then he’s gonna make the little shit his, because fuck it all—the little Italian brat has made him fall for his charms big time.

Only a matter of time kid, John thinks later, watching the boy work his bag of tricks with a stoic, calm expression. Though he all but grins (inwardly) when the boy fumes in frustration at his non-reaction.

Just you wait, Prima Donna, John promises.

You’re mine. 

[snuggerudism]

Can we get a Jimmy blurb where he’s so whipped and smitten with his girl that the other dudes on the team tease him for it, but he doesn’t care cause he’s just so in love with her<333

you feel his eyes on you at the bar, and you let out a giggle as you make your way over to him, immediately wrapping your arms around his neck as his hands snake around your waist.

“miss me already?” you look up at him, as he pulls you impossibly closer to him. he swoops down to meet your lips in a kiss, letting his tongue move into your mouth.

“so much.” he comes up for air, before kissing you again.

“get a room,” ryan sticks his tongue out at you and jimmy, and you feel jimmys hand move from your waist, likely flipping the boy off. “you’re in public, my god.” he fake mocks you two.

“you’re just jealous you don’t have a hot girlfriend,” his lips detach from yours, and you let out a whine but he pulls you into his chest before you can let out a word. “i love you.” he looks down at you.

“i love you more.” you giggle.

“not possible baby.”

[sashkapi]

What are your OTPs from other shows besides kindall? (especially love/hate ones)

(Forgive me im so slow)

Oh my here u go >:D

Love/hate ones:

Jimmy and Cindy (The adventures of Jimmy Neutron: boy genius)

This one kinda started it all. Their rivalry was funny and I kinda felt bad for Cindy because she is genuinely smart but what is it if your opponent is a genius  Also hey, blonde and bitchy, my type :) Won't say a lot about this one tho because with all my love for them - there's nothing much I can tell you if you watched the show

Manny and Zoe (El tigre: the adventures of Manny Rivera)

Ok, this one is weird because as a kid I just loved Zoe so much (Her Black Cuervo design, like c'mON LOOK SHES PURPLE) but also liked Manny and Frida together Idk, fandom skewed me later to Manny and Frida but hey, hero-boy/villain-girl dynamic is fun too and I still remember fondly how Manny was immediately smitten by her in "Enter the Cuervo" (Apparently Zoe would end up with Django and honestly? That pair is pure aesthetic, good for them good for them) (Also I'm so mad that I watched this show dubbed because I didn't know english at the time like THEY TOOK ALL CHARM. NO ACCENT, NO SPANISH WORDS IN CHARACTERS SPEECH AND SOME NAMES WERE TRANSLATED IN THE LAMEST WAY POSSIBLE)

Helga and Arnold (Hey Arnold) (can you tell I am a nickelodeon kid yet?)

Ok, this one is more of the one sided love/hate on Helga's side but if you watched the show then you know that she went all in with both love and hate.  Seriously, Helga is such an interesting character. She is amazing and I love her (another bitchy blonde to love yay) Can't say much from Arnold's side. He was oblivious to her crush for the most of the show. He is a kind and understanding boy so jgkkdjgkh I just really wanted Helga to be happy 🥺

Anya and Damian (Spy x Family)

New one and also kinda one sided on Damian's side  Listen These two?

Just plain funny

Anya punching him in the face and Damian falling for her for that? Hilarious Anya being oblivious to his crush despite being an esper because Damian is in denial? Amazing. Good stuff.  They are just so cute and funny, look at them!!!

Catra and Adora (She-ra and the princesses of power)

Ok, I wouldn't consider myself a catradora shipper anymore but God, their dynamic in the first seasons is everything. Like darn, they had drama. Actual enemies to lovers and THE TENSION

Aaaaand season 5 destroyed it all. (Spoilers for she ra ahead)

Some people dropped the ship after season 4 finale because Catra would rather destroy the world than let Adora win, but for me it was THE THING I LOVED LIKE YES, MORE DRAMA, MORE CONFLICT, NOW CATRA MUST TRY REAL HARD TO GET ON ADORAS GOOD SIDE AND THAT MEANS CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, I WONDER HOW IT WILL GO and they just??? Kinda forgive her??? I'm sorry, yes, Catra purring on Adora's lap? Sweet. The kiss was also dramatic. But it all felt so undeserved I guess it's because of the limited time the writers had. But damn, introducing a bigger threat in Hordak Prime and kinda handwaving her crimes isn't a redemption for Catra.  But again. First seasons? Good ass dynamic. 10/10

Knuckles and Rouge (Sonic the hedgehog franchise)

THIS ONE IS  AH NICE If you followed my kbsd art then you probably know that I also love Sonic (lil guy doing cool stuff - my weakness) Wouldn't call knuxouge love/hate ship at this point that much tho. They started as this but now they are more of a flirts-a-lot/flusters-a-lot type of pair. Also, we don't talk about "dumb" arc SEGA was putting Knux in 2010's Anyway funni echidna and funni bat my beloveds

Non love/hate

Sanford and Deimos (Madness Combat)

Ok, so the series is about violence, fighting, and bloodshed, right? And then I saw these two in 0.5 episodes and my brain went "OK, but what if they kiss?" And I spend 2021 rotating these two in my head. Violently. (The way Deimos doesn't attack Sanford in "dedmos adventure" still makes me sad from time to time)

Dr. Fox and Hawkodile (Unikitty!)

I was in a weird place of mind when I was obsessed with this show. Looking back at it - its really silly.  I'm gonna be honest, the biggest reason I loved this ship is because it's a big warrior type of guy having a huge crush on a nerd girl and being really silly about it. After a few episodes with this topic I got kinda tired of it tho. 

Still, they are cute.

I might be forgetting some but honestly, if I was to list every ship I enjoy - we'll be here forever This also kinda made me realize that I haven't seen any proper love\hate pairs in recent media. Might be just me tho.

[bisexualmultifandommess]

Time for The Karate Kid himself!!!

DANIEL LARUSSO!!

Warning to those who find it uncomfortable or are a minor there’s some adult themes in this post.

My boy is bisexual and he’s proud of it.

Daniel doesn’t really buy into toxic masculinity and gender norms he literally doesn’t care. If you think he’s weird for being emotional or not being what society thinks is the typical man than he will think you’re an idiot.

It’s clear that he is very attracted to blonde people (Johnny and Ali). The first time he saw Ali he was obviously smitten but I definitely think he was attracted to Johnny when he first saw him and was still attracted to him but obviously upset after he hurt him.

I’ve said that the rest of Cobra Kai (Bobby, Dutch, Tommy and Jimmy) were attracted to him too so I think that Daniel also found Bobby and Jimmy attractive but didn’t mention anything because they were all annoying him.

He felt conflicted about liking Johnny but also finding him irritating. He is proud of his sexuality but wasn’t too sure how Johnny would feel about someone being Queer let alone being attracted to him. He kept it quiet.

The first person he properly told was his mum. She was very supportive of him but also upset that she might’ve made him think he couldn’t tell her. He reassured her that it wasn’t that he just needed time. Lucille is always ready to defend her son from bigots.

Mr Miyagi had figured it out from the way Daniel looked at Ali and Johnny and noticed it was sometimes similar. He didn’t say anything until Daniel felt comfortable enough to tell him because he didn’t want to assume or pressure him.

Daniel definitely has a thing for strong and independent people and can’t help but feel connected to people when they challenge him.

He was really in love with Kumiko and I think even though lawrusso is my main ship they were the best of Daniel’s canon ships. They had a real connection and I think they brought out the best in each other.

Daniel was definitely attracted to Chozen even though he didn’t want to admit it when younger because he didn’t like him.

Daniel had a small crush on Silver before everything about him was revealed and Silver used this to his advantage to manipulate Daniel. Daniel was heartbroken for a number of reasons the day he found out it was all a lie.

He dated and hooked up with some guys once he got a little older and though he didn’t realise they all had a similar appearance to Johnny. Daniel was in denial about that and didn’t notice.

His relationship with Amanda was good and they loved each other but eventually drifted apart. Once he was divorced he started to develop feelings for Johnny again. I think he was very conflicted about his feelings for Johnny even once they were both older because they’d both changed a lot and had some much more problems to deal with.

I like to think that eventually they both get to a point where they can explore their feelings and attraction towards each other.

Daniel is very open with his kids about his sexuality and has always explained to them what it means. Sam once she got older bought him a pride flag and he found it cute that his daughter got him it so he keeps it in his office at work.

I think when it comes to his partners in bed whether they’re a man or a woman he isn’t the dominant type. He spends so much time in his normal everyday life trying to control things and feel organised that in bed he likes others to have a little control. It’s this way with Johnny the first time they sleep together and Johnny is really surprised that Daniel lets him take the lead when he’s usually so wound up.

He was quite happy the first time he referred to Johnny as his boyfriend because after so much conflict in their history together they were finally together.

He nearly cried when Johnny was the first one to say “I love you”.

Demetri confided in him about being Queer and Daniel was able to talk to him about it. He understood how scary it could be being Queer and the feelings you can have for someone. He felt good about being able to understand and help his students.

Miyagi Fang took him and Johnny to a pride parade which he really enjoyed. He’d been to a few before but being their with so many people he loves was amazing for him.

Just want to say this for all my fellow Lawrusso shippers but Daniel and Johnny definitely make out at least ten times a day. I mean they definitely only stop when they know someone is around. Their students and their friends find them annoying because they’re obsessed with each other and the only upside is in their obsession they no longer try to kill each other too but sometimes on days where their flirting and making out is too insufferable they almost think it was better when they obsessed over winning against each other.

They’re in love.

[thepinkwriterr]

Capricorn Season Chapter Twenty-Two 

Sorry for the little lapse in posting. I’ve been busy with school and life. I recently became a Muslim and I’ve been filling my time with learning about Islam and Arabic! But now I have a few chapters to post. Enjoy 

Table of Contents

Word Count: 6k

It was on the days they woke up together that Robert sang the best. When a day began with staring lovingly into the expanses of her blue eyes, he felt like God was on his side. With her he shined.

"Goodmorning," she said in a low voice. It was too early for loud moves or sudden words. Sun poured in through every open airplane window, ensuring to catch their tired eyes.

And her beauty was an understatement. She was a flowery treasure chest, more gold than you could ever imagine being found inside. He admired who he was when she was around.

"Goodmorning," he returned with a wispy smile, turning uncomfortably in his tiny seat.

- They were a mass of blonde curls under the blinding San Diego sun. They looked like twins-- two sides of the same coin. Perhaps their similarities were what drew them into one another.

They walked together with locked hands. They passed through throngs of people with the group, taking in the sights of the stuffy airport.

Gwen looked at the couple and tapped Jimmy on the shoulder to draw his attention. "Look at them, they're so smitten." He rolled his eyes at this, intent on getting through the airport.

"You should enjoy the sun! You won't get much of it when we return to England." Her words were a taunt. He didn't want to enjoy the sun, he wanted to go to bed.

He felt like a raisin in the sun. He was ground under the wheels of the Earth, becoming a cloud of pulpy dust by the oppressive heat. He was an English boy, pale and fragile to temperature changes.

"Yeah, Jimmy, enjoy the sun!" Bonzo mocked her, putting on a terrible valley girl accent.

"There isn't any sun to enjoy. We're inside," he grumbled.   They were finally through airport check-in and were headed to their cars. Bonzo, Robert, and Lorelei would be in one, Jonesy, Gwen, and Jimmy in another. Gwen didn't want to be separated from her new best friend but was content to dote on Jimmy in the meantime.

"After you, Lord and Lady." Jonesy held the door open and put on a regal tone.

"Thank, my good sir." She smiled as she slid into the car.

When the door shut the black car lurched forward and began a 45-minute drive to the hotel. This was the reality of touring, not a glamorous display of royalty, but rather, a series of menial tasks and tiring travel. "How are you enjoying the sights, my love?" Robert asked.

"Oh, they're great! I love San Diego." They were gazing into one another's eyes, lost in the vast seascapes of correlating blue.

"We've only been here an hour. And most of that time was spent in the airport." Bonzo's voice was a harsh reality, an end to their gushy romance.

"We've been doing our own sightseeing." Robert was the ever-charming romantic, always saving an awkward moment. He was graceful and practiced in wooing women, knowing exactly what to say to make a girl swoon. This is exactly what Lorelei did. Her face flushed pink, and she smiled wide. "That's my favorite one." He leaned in to kiss her.

"Oh, Jesus fucking Christ," Bonzo groaned, "I'm not listening to this for 45 minutes. I'll jump out the fucking car into the street." The three were doing sightseeing of their own in the other car. They leaned down, peering out of the windows to catch a glimpse of the water below.

"San Diego is California's beach city. They also have the largest number of small farms in America." Jonesy read from a laminate brochure he found in the airport lobby. It was titled San Diego: The Sights You Will Sea." This corny joke caught his attention, and he pulled it off the shelf to save him from death via boredom.

"Still not as nice as San Francisco. That's my favorite place in this whole state," Gwen spoke. Memories of her childhood and adolescence flooded her mind. Scenes of '50s America were fresh and lovely, the world never looked so innocent and beautiful.

"Did you grow up there?" Jonesy asked.

"Oh, yeah, it was really nice. I've never been to San Diego, though." "So how can you know if San Francisco is better?" He asked.

"Because it's the best city in the world. Nothing could top it." She wore her title of Californian with pride.

"You've clearly never had a fresh croissant in Paris," Jimmy said with a coy smile on his face.

"Okay, maybe it's not the best city in the world, but definitely in America."

Jonesy frowned, "I hated San Fransico. Too many people."

"I agree," Jimmy chimed in, "too many homeless people."

Gwen rolled her eyes.

-

"I just love the sun here. It warms me and brings out the color in my eyes." Lorelei was smiling with a dreamy look in her eyes. Every inch of her was filled with bliss.

Their hands had found each other and rested together on the seat of the car. Bonzo refrained from groaning at the sight of their love. He was getting sick of everyone. The next tour would be without all the romance, he hoped.

"How is Jason, Bonz?" Robert changed the subject to keep the mood light.

"He's doing wonderfully! I'm already teaching him how to play. He has a little kit and everything. It really fills my heart with joy to see him banging away."

His voice was lighter than she'd had ever heard. His face was flushed with a glow of happiness, filled with total glee.

"You have a child?" She asked.

"Yeah, his name is Jason. He's four. He's the love of my life." "That's so sweet. You must've been young when you had him. You don't look old enough to have a child." "I had him when I was 18. It kills me to be away from him." He was still beaming at the thought of his family, despite the sadness that he felt. It wasn't easy for any of them to leave their families.

It was easier for Jimmy, who was more interested in furthering his career than settling down. Of course, it wasn't on purpose that any of them had children so young. But Jimmy was careful. He had a plan in life and knew having a child was not in that plan. Not for the time being, at least. "That warms my heart. Robert, do you have any children?" She asked. This conversation was now going sour, and he had to do something to change the subject. Reminiscing and thinking of family were something they all did, but not to the women they brought on tour.

"Yeah, Robert, do you have any children?" Bonzo was smiling at him. It may have seemed innocent on the surface, but Robert knew what his true intention was. It wasn't an extension of glee for his well-being, it was a challenge. He was an ape bearing his teeth, ready for the slaughter. Robert was a spiritual man, he believed in a plethora of God's. He never knew if he was in their good graces or not, not attending mass or any kind of church. He didn't even pray. But on this day, he knew somebody or something was looking out for him. Before the silence got too thick, filling with awkward hesitance, the car stopped abruptly. It slammed them against the seats, their heads banging into the vinyl. He'd never been so happy to have a headache. "Jesus, what was that?" Bonzo peered out the window.

"Must be traffic." Robert shrugged, turning back to Lorelei. She was worried, wearing an expression of deep concern. He came to her rescue and calmed her nerves. He was a knight, clad in heavy chainmail and brandished a shield. He stroked her cheek and her hair, whispering sweet nothings in her ear while Bonzo investigated. He got out of the car and could now see that the traffic was heavy, the highway at a dead stop. He went back to the door and looked into the window before getting in. Robert and Lorelei were attached at the mouth, engaging in a makeup session.

How disgusting, he thought.

With a groan, he flung open the other car door and pushed Jonesy over so he could scoot in. "Those two are playing tonsil tennis. I couldn't take it, so I'm crawling in with you." He said as he sat next to his friend. "Welcome to the party!" Gwen handed him a neatly wrapped joint that was already lit. Small streams of smoke billowed from the end and he blew a breath out the window.

"Perhaps being stuck in traffic was not the best place to do this," Jimmy remarked.

"Oh c'mon, don't be such a square. Have you taken a hit from this yet?" "No, he hasn't!" Gwen said.

"Here, take this." Bonzo held it up to his mouth. Jimmy retracted his head, throwing it back into the vinyl headrest of the seat.

"No, I don't want it." His lips were pursed, and he was shaking his head in an attempt to get the drummer off of him.

"I'm not stopping until you take a hit!" He cried. Jonesy and Gwen were laughing at the scene, watching Jimmy be tortured with the threat of a good time.

"You may not realize this because he's jovial now that you're around, but he's really a serious guy. There's not much funny business with him. If there's work to be done, he doesn't mess around." Jonesy leaned into her and spoke directly into the shell of her ear. The two men continued to fight.

It escalated into Jimmy screaming. "I don't want it!" It was the loudest Gwen had ever heard him be.

"Yes, you do!" Bonzo screamed back.

"No!" "Yes!"

Jimmy grabbed a fistful of Bonzo hair and pushed him back, causing the joint to fall onto the floor of the car. "Oh, shit!" Jonesy hurried to pick it up before it burned a hole in the carpet.

"What the fuck is going on back there?" Peter rolled the divider down to speak to the group. "Bonzo, what the hell are you doing in here?" When no one answered he barked again, asking what was going on. They all scrambled to answer, speaking at once. "Jesus Christ, stop your bloody yammering. I don't want to hear any more yelling!" He was gruff as usual.

"Or he'll turn this goddamn car around!" Gwen jested, causing them all to laugh. Even Peter was chortling, cutting the sound off with the rolling of the divider.

"Seriously, man, take a hit," Bonzo spoke once more when their laughing stopped.

"You are impossible," Jimmy rolled his eyes but took the joint from his fingers. It was a nub now, barely able to pass from one hand to the other.

"Let me get that before you put it out," Gwen spoke, awaiting the white gift. "Can you hold it for me? I don't want to burn my fingers." She spoke in a small voice.

"Of course." He smiled so sweetly it melted her heart, just as she did his. Jonesy thought it was sweet watching them like this. For some odd reason, seeing Jimmy in love was endearing. Perhaps his best features shone when in the presence of love, or she just brought out the best in him. He held the joint in place while she inhaled, his hand resting on the cleft in her chin. This was one of his favorite features of her face. He enjoyed pressing his lips to the fissure or placing the side of his index finger in the slit.

"Thank you, Princess Pagey." She spoke the vile words so sweetly. His face broke into a light blush of pink as he looked at his friends, mortified.

Bonzo's belly danced with a deep laugh. The corners of his mouth were turned up in a display of complete elation, his skin wrinkling and cracking. His laugh was thunderous and great. It bounced off the walls of the car.

"Princess Pagey! Oh, man, that's a good one!" Bonzo wiped a genuine tear from the corner of his eye.

"Does anyone want this before I put it out?" She asked, holding the roach up.

"Yeah, let me get another one." She passed it to Jonesy who took one last large puff and then handed it to Bonzo. He took a hit and then tossed it out the window.

"That's littering, Mr. Bonham," John spoke in an exaggerated posh accent, sounding almost like Jimmy.

"Oh, my mistake, Mr. Jones. I wouldn't want to desecrate this beautiful city."

"It's the city of beaches, I'll have you know." He continued with the accent.

"It's about to be the city of roaches if we keep this up!" Bonzo's voice raised in volume once more, filling the car with his laughter. He was a loud man, meant to be seen and heard. Aside from the obvious, his almost violent drumming, he was a screamer. He chose to speak loudly with a passion, whether or not he was angry. The falling out between Bonzo and Gwen had been slightly resolved. They resigned to being friendly once more. It was understood that they had different ideologies and should keep them out of the conversation. With three weeks left of the tour, there was no point in pissing your pants over something so meaningless, that being a disagreement or hurt feelings. There wasn't room for either of those things on tour. It was music and fun, and if neither of those was happening, you were asleep. "I've got to get back to my car. I don't want the love birds to get lonely." In an instant he was gone, leaving the three once again. When he reached the car Lorelei and Robert were no longer kissing. He thanked the heavens and got in.

"The traitor returns." "I had to leave. You guys were eating each other. I wasn't going to subject myself to that. It's a pain worse than death!" They didn't laugh at his joke.

"Traffic is letting up. Fasten your belts." Richard spoke above their chattering.

The rest of the ride was smooth. Traffic was lighter, thankfully. Peter could feel the steam coming from his ears as his foot danced on the gas pedal. As he drove, he went over the list of things he needed to do. Book flights for the next three shows, return the rented car before the flight in two days and call Atlantic. He wandered around his responsibilities for the remainder of the ride.

-

They'd finally arrived. The hotel was an oasis.

"Oh, God, my back hurts!" Bonzo was out of the car and yelling already. Robert and Lorelei were close behind, hands interlocked. Jimmy and Gwen were less showy in their relationship, content to walk next to each other.

"Mine too. I'm glad I can lay down for a little bit before the show." Said Jimmy.

"I can rub it for you if you'd like." They were speaking low as they walked into the hotel. This was a small display of love that only the two could witness. Their entourage trailed behind them, meandering on the pavement.

When they were finally safe in their hotel room they settled into the fresh sheets. "It's not even my own bed, but I don't care. I am just happy to be out of that car and not in a plane."

He agreed with her and then turned to face her. His eyes fell on her and trailed along the gentle curve of her spine. He placed his hands on her delicate skin and rubbed small circles. She was so beautiful, much more so than she ever imagined, he thought. She had entranced him from the moment he gained knowledge of her. That feeling hadn't left him, not for a second since he'd known her.

She looked at him now, turning to see the familiar expression on his face. He was deep in thought. His brows pressed together, creating a crease like the gutter of a book. He was vast and complex as words on a page, much like the wrinkle in his brow. She wondered what he was thinking. He was a mystery, one begging to be solved. She wanted to wiggle her way into his brain and absorb all the knowledge, be a part of the inner workings of his mind. She didn't have to speculate for much longer. He spoke once more.

"You know, it's funny, I feel like the more I get to know you, the less I learn." His soft voice was large in the hotel room, filling the space with his warm lilt. She was silent, pleading with her eyes for him to continue. "I'm opening myself up to you, trying my best to take my shoes off and open my doors. I don't feel that from you."

"I know, I'm sorry. I'm so scared to let my walls down, scared to let you in fully. I've been burned, and I don't want that again. So I try to lock myself up, but you always wriggle your way back in. It's like I can't help but let myself soften when I'm with you."

"So start telling me things."

"Like what? What do you want to know about me?" She almost wanted to giggle. They'd known each other for what felt like forever at this point. But he was right, he didn't know much about her. She kept it all under lock and key. It was inaccessible to even herself at times.

"Everything. I want you to tell me everything."

"Well, that's a pretty broad topic."

"Getting you to talk is like pulling bloody teeth," He broke his concentration with an airy laugh, "Start with your love life. That's not hard, right?"

"I'm afraid."

He groaned. "Why? What could you have to be afraid of?"

"I'm afraid you'll judge me. I don't have the most normal past."

"What could I possibly judge you about?"

"Okay, I'm just gonna be honest," she sighed hesitantly, "I've dated women in the past."

"Well, there's nothing wrong with that. As a matter of fact, I've been with men before. So I guess that's something we're both being honest about."

"You're bisexual?"

"I guess you could say that." They sat together for a moment, their faces burning. It wasn't common to meet someone who was so open about it. But they found solace in each other's omission. Jimmy broke their silence, his voice now slightly shaken, "You're avoiding the question. Tell me about your love life. What's your past like?"

"I've told you about Dominic."

"No, you've mentioned him, and then I was verbally accosted by him in the most polite of manners. I haven't a clue what happened."

After a hefty sigh, she gave in. In a painful recalling, she told the story of a tumultuous young couple. Two people who weren't meant for each other falling as if they were fated, lovers. Tears brimmed in her eyes, scalding her ducts as they threatened to take presence. The dull aching in her chest began to drum, mimicking the pattern she thought she had quieted years ago. But it was still present as if it had never stopped. The galloping beat of torment ravaged her, sending a wave of agony down her spine.

Her mind wandered over the last moments she shared with Dom. "Okay, I guess I should start from the beginning. We had been dating for almost two years and things had started to fall apart. He didn't seem to care anymore. I don't know if he was firm in the idea that he had me or if he didn't want to be with me. But I was still in it. I wanted him more than anything, I was doing everything I could think of to make him love me and stay with me. But it didn't seem to be working, and I could feel it. I didn't want to admit it, but it was true. I had an art gallery coming up. It was the first time my work was going to be shown in a real gallery and I was so excited. It was part of a larger exhibit, but I had a few pieces being shown. He was going on a trip with his friends to explore Africa. He was really into Pan-Africanism and wanted to see all of the countries that had recently won their independence. I was supportive, I understood why he wanted to go. I even wished I could go, but I would've never asked. It was a month-long trip where he and four other friends went to Niger, Chad, Cameroon, and Egypt. He was going to get back the day before my event but promised he would go. The night of the show began, and I was so excited. I wore a pretty dress, did my hair and makeup, and bought some nice new shoes. And he didn't show up. I spent the entire gallery waiting for him and by the time it was over I realized he wasn't coming."

"Oh, hey, Gwen." Dominic lay in bed, a blanket pulled up to meet his chin.

"Um, hey. Did you forget something?" Anger painted her features.

"What?" He asked.

"You are unbelievable!" She cracked, anger spilling out all over the room like gushing water from splintered vases. She was yelling, something she didn't do often. "You missed my gallery!"

He was unphased, a dazed look on his dark features. "You don't have anything to say for yourself?" She asked.

"I was jetlagged. I totally forgot about your gallery, sorry."

"Are you really sorry or are you just saying that? Because you don't seem sorry at all." "I mean, I am, but there's nothing I can do about it now." "You could've just been there! I don't know why it's so hard for you to care. I care so much about everything you have going on. Even your stupid trip!" "My trip wasn't stupid. It was the most important four weeks of my life!" "I don't care! Oh my God, I don't care. Can you just shut up about yourself for five seconds?" "If that's how you're going to be, then you need to leave." "Fine. But if you let me leave then I'm done. I'm not coming back." "You're gonna end a two-year relationship over an art gallery?" "It's not just about the gallery. It's about everything. It's about the fact that you're not even here. Even when you're with me I don't have you. You know I was knocking for twenty minutes? I had to get someone else to let me in the building. You're just in your own little world that I'm not a part of. It's like I have to beg you to love me, to even see me." She was exploding now, a mess of tears and anger falling from her eyes and draining down her alabaster face.

"That's not true. We just went out last week." He rebutted. Fireworks of impossible anger erupted behind her eyes.

"That was a going-away party for one of your friends, that wasn't a date! I was only there so you didn't go alone. I am your convenience, your routine, I'm not your girlfriend." "If that's you feel, then you should leave."

A new low had begun, a possibility she hadn't thought of. He would want to end things. He didn't want to put the work in to even accept responsibility. It was a dead end.

"You're not even going to fight for this? You're just going to throw in the towel?" He shrugged, looking into her wild eyes. They were glistening with the threat of tears, scalding, and fat. "Fine."

Her heels thudded against the floor and stomped out of his apartment. The door slammed shut with a heavy thud. When she was alone the tears escaped. They pushed onto her cheeks, streaming down her soft skin. It was a scene of youthful pain, the first cut. A panicked breath caught in her throat, a weight on her chest. She was hyperventilating now, the memories of abandonment flooding her mind. Now she was alone, shut out in front of his sealed door. Just like that, it was all over. There was no constellation prize or closing statement, just pain. What stung the most was that she didn't have items to collect from his apartment. There was no trace of her in his life. But he coated every inch of her small apartment. The paint from his palette was the tint that covered her eyes, rose-colored glasses of his love. She saw everything with his hues, a strip of his preferred shade in every wall of her brain.

Jimmy looked at her, seeing the pain echoing on her face. It was still haunting her. The ghosts of her past lived inside the cavernous heart that occupied her chest. "I'm sorry, love, that sounds awful. I understand why seeing him again made you so upset. He sounds like a wanker."

His slang made her giggle, a strained laugh filled with a bittersweet pain. "It's no matter now. It's all over, been many years. I suppose I'm a fool for even stressing over it." She dismissed her feelings, pushing tears off the sides of her face.

"No, no, you're not. Your first love isn't something that ever goes away. The pain stays forever, in some capacity." His hand rested atop hers, playing with the flesh that coated her frame.

"You know what the worst part of all of this was?" "What?" "I bought him that stupid ticket for his trip." This made him laugh and she joined in, a sorrowful sound of wheezing. He looked at her again, seeing the pain melting slightly. It was like glittering snow, shrinking under the loving touch of the sun. "At least I have you now. Someone who I feel really cares for me. Even if it took a while for that to happen." "Nonsense. I've always cared for you." "No, the trusting." She said. "You didn't trust me?" "Not totally, not for months." When his face stood still, twisted in pain, she elaborated. "You must understand, you are a Rockstar who asked me out and basically moved me in on the first date. I thought for the first few months that this was a fleeting fling." She spoke nervously, playing with the ring enveloping his index finger.

"I guess I can understand that. I was afraid for a long time to really speak to you about how I felt. I thought you wouldn't reciprocate. I was afraid of losing you. But I see now that it was in vain. We are deeply entranced with one another; I can see it in your eyes. You feel the same way I do, and we share a deep connection." He danced around the words he truly wanted to speak. He was lying, telling a half-truth.

He was still afraid, honestly, too scared to jump off the ledge. When he'd brought up his feelings of love in the past, it wasn't always met with enthusiasm. He'd also used promises of his love to get what he wanted, something he was trying to avoid now.

"Yeah, you're right. I'm not scared to be honest with you anymore. I see that you welcome it with open arms, you embrace me, no matter what I have to say."

Love made liars of everyone, specifically the two lying together now. She was terrified of him, clinging desperately to the walls that separated her heart from his harsh mouth. He could say the words that would tear her down at any point, could wave her off and tell her it meant nothing in a matter of seconds. It is a heavy hand that can wipe away the hard-wrought foundation away in seconds. She was blind to his delicate and light fingers, the way the lithe mechanisms worked away at her heartstrings in the gentlest of manners. He wasn't the man to crush her, he wouldn't dream of it. They were two lovers speaking endlessly of their feelings, one scared to be brazen, and one too blind to see the capacity at which the other would go to avoid true intimacy.

Now they lay down for bed. The sun had set, and the moon was showing, paintings murals on the walls of the hotel room. The scene that lies in their room was an image of love. The couple lay in bed, creating an air of trust as they talked. Their usual topic of conversation was thrown, and she delved into her feelings.

"I still don't really know what I want to do. Each day is an exploration of a dark path for me. But one thing I know for certain is that I was supposed to meet you. We were fated. That day I wasn't even supposed to be there. Allison was going to be your photographer, but she called in sick. And the moment I met you I saw everything. I saw our future, our love. I'm so happy every day that I have you." Her words were low in the dim of the night, being absorbed by his skin due to their proximity. Their lips twisted into matching smiles, mirroring their contentedness for one another. It was there, in a hotel room in San Diego, that something changed. Their hearts had opened, totally vulnerable with clear skin that exposed the delicate and vital workings of their minds. They talked in length about childhood, aspirations, traumas, and other life-altering occurrences. The two reached a new understanding, delving deep into their psychologies and producing a profound and unknown intimacy. "I feel like this is what I've been waiting for. I've spent my whole life in bated breath, searching for something. I hadn't known quite what it was until I found you. You are a key that's opened all my doors, pushed all my windows open. You're a smoke in my lungs, one that is wholly cleansing and alluring." He spoke words of affirmation now, toying with the ends of her hair. His eyes glistened with intense lust, one not intended for matters of the flesh. His fixation was on her figure, the gentle curve of her waist connecting with her hip, a smooth and righteous sight. This did not mean he was longing to consume her body. The desperate flicker in his eyes, set on her skin, was an effect of his need for closeness. He wanted to feel her skin under the calloused pads of his fingertips, to be enraptured in the scent of her. An orgasm was the least of his concerns at this moment. He was content to touch her. She too wanted desperately to hold him. A spell of love was put over them, causing her to pull him in close. He was first facing her, lips dangerously close, but she encouraged him to turn over. Finally, he pressed himself against her, their bodies in perfect contour as they molded together. The expanse of his spine dug into her commodious chest as he took note of the feeling of her. The swell of her chest was soft and fleshy like sweet, summer fruit. His longing to touch her vanished when he felt her deft fingertips in his hair, massaging his scalp. His eyes rolled in his head at her calming touch. He was almost asleep in an instant. As she explored every inch of his crown his frame grew smaller in her arms. He was shrinking under her touch, morphing into the child he described. She imagined him sitting at the breakfast table, munching away at toast and guzzling tea, just as he had delineated earlier. A maternal instinct grew in her. She was now watching over the man she lied with, protecting him from the fallacies that plagued his mind, ones that had been developed over a lifetime of undue criticism. Her mind raced over the picture he had painted of a demure boy, latched to his mother's side, one who closed his eyes and shook his head at any chaos or change. He told her of his propensity to hide. He found a spot everywhere he went to tuck himself into, shielding his sensitive heart and prying eyes. She imagined now that she was holding that boy, bringing him impossibly close to the beating spot in her chest. His eyes were still shut, having fluttered closed the moment he felt the heat of her body against him. A gentle hum built in the back of his throat when her hands found his neck, massaging away at the tense muscles. He was melting completely under her touch. His lips cracked open, a sigh escaping. This caused a laugh to ripple from her, disrupting her attack on his worries. He could feel them burning off now, steaming as they flew from him. When her tired hands stilled, he turned over, gaze resting on her reposeful face. Her eyes were still ragged and red, stained with tears. The beauty that danced on her features was not understated, still present even in the stale sadness. Traces of the tantrum existed but threatened her splendor not. A quiet production began, a duet that neither rehearsed. He reversed their roles, now cradling her tired frame in his arms. His hands explored her body, drawing patterns over the fabric of her clothing. It was soft, a gentle plea for closeness. Tears pricked in her eyes, foreboding and terrifying her as they threatened to release. A sniffle built in her, echoing through the quiet room. This caught his attention, causing him to pull her impossibly close. He petted her hair and kissed each inch of her that he could reach. The tears scalded her face, cascading in a stream of sadistic madness. His thumbs wiped these tears, washing her pain and drinking as it drained from her pores. She felt peaceful in his grasp. He held a paternal grip on her, slowing rocking as she wept. His patience was fatherly, soft, and affirming in the way only belonging to a man totally in love. In this protective hold, relaxation befell her, rest finally finding her. His hands tangled in her hair, even long after she fell into a sleep. He stayed up for half the night, leaning over her and listening to the steady composition of her breathing. A feeling fell over him, shaking him. Never before had he felt so completely at home in a person, naked and eased under her gaze. He was drowning in love, lungs wetted by her treacly tongue.

Taglist:

@anothercanyonlady​ , @jonesyjonesyjonesy​   @paginate54 , @seventieswhore , @jimmypages , @jimmys-zeppelin​ , @jimmysdragonsuit13    

[the-army-brat-and-the-nerd]

Favorite Clois romantic scenes of all time in any media?

Thankyou so much for that question: and-I'm extremely sorry for the delay!

Please bear with me here, as this is going to be a long one! (And they aren't in any particular order, so here goes)

SUPERMAN MOVIES(1978-1987)

1. Fortress Scene(Superman-2)

The movie is my favorite one in the whole series, mainly coz we got to see a lot of Clois. And the fortress date, following which Clark decided to give up his powers, and that "Just say you love me" was so surreal and it happens to be one of my first live-action impressions on Clois. You get the picture- it is still fresh in my mind!

2. First Flight( Superman-1)

It is a scene which I love watching frequently- especially because it gives me a magical  outlook on their relationship which is, in more than one way, extremely unique.

LOIS & CLARK TNAOS (1993-1997)

1. "I've loved you since the beginning...and I'll love you till the end." (3 x 22)

This scene was everything. The quote was everything. The angst was everything. And I'm pretty sure I'm going bonkers right now. Oh and special mention to the “I’ll keep this (the ring) safe as I keep my love for you”

2. "Lois if I ever lost you, I'd be losing myself....I'm right here."(4 x 14)

It is one of those moments which awes me to no end. They couldn't get any more cheesier if they tried. No matter how twisty the plot gets or how insane the story goes, these two till the very end have found their way back to each other. They are seriously couple goals.

3. "Falling in love with you has been so easy, I don't know why I fought it for so long." (4 x 03)

This is undoubtedly my favorite live action wedding of all time, not just because of the amazing portrayal but also because of the intriguing vows. Superman, the most powerful being on the planet-looking so in love and Lois Lane, the most feared reporter on two planets- smitten. What more could we ask for?

4. " Lois- everyone is watching....who cares?"(3 x 08)

One of the scenes which successfully makes me smile every single time I watch it. They didn’t even seem to care they are surrounded by a bunch of top reporters or the fact that Jimmy took a snap of them making out in the middle of the newsroom.(Though I hope Olsen escaped mad dog Lane’s wrath afterwards!)  Reasons to state that they fit like a jigsaw puzzle: Meek Farmboy Kent and Exhibitionist Lane.

SMALLVILLE (2001-2011)

1. "I love you" (10 x 04)

It's the scene which made me fall for them all over again. The defining moment. The dance. The step-on-the-toe maneuver. Clark initiating it, not that it was much of a confession. Lois looking adorably shy all of a sudden. Hovering in the air without either of their knowledge. Both at peace. It was too beautiful for words. But then again, homecoming was a blessing bestowed upon us Cloisers.

2. "Lois, I died when you left." (9 x 09)

Another bomb in the list of the sweetest things Clark Kent ever told Lois Lane, and it just gives me the best of goosebumps. I've got to admit it was the craziest episode in the whole series- from giving away his signal watch then the "I did it for you.", the "I thought I lost you forever", the "Take my life, let her live." to the "I wish we had more time" and the "What if I never see you again...you will!" God! Too much for me to handle.

3. " We can make this work...oh boy can we?" (10 x 18)

One of my favorite underrated scenes. The real picture behind "You are not my weakness, you are my strength." (Ugh and what's with those heart eyes?)

4. "Clark!" (9 x 21)

No words for this. The crossfire ending a.k.a the first real kiss would be my favorite one but this was just epic. The way he pulls her towards him, the way she determinedly keeps her eyes shut the entire time, and then the realization. (Btw Way to go, Clarkie!)

DCAU (1992-)

1. “I love you, Lois Lane- until the end of time.” (All Star Superman)

The movie gave us such fascinating Clois moments, but this one just stands out every time...Clark Kent is such a great sap, and we love him for it!

2. Daily Planet (Death of Superman)

One of the scenes where we get to see earth girl Lois manhandling a Kryptonian God and not less, in the Daily Planet copy room. It simply doesn't matter even if it is in the animated realm, coz their chemistry is undeniable. And I also love that part in the movie where we watch Lois opening Clark’s note: “My last secret: I love you.”

SUPERMAN RETURNS (2006)

Flight Scene

I may not have been a huge enthusiast of the movie in general, but I happen to always root for Clois flight sessions, so this whole moment is something I genuinely find myself enjoying a lot.

DCEU (2013-)

1. “I love you...You are my world” (Batman vs Superman)

Somebody kill me first- I’m not even going to bother explaining how much this one affected me- it was that good. The one scene which broke my heart so much..that one scene which turns me into an emotional mess and the one scene which I would never grow accustomed to. The tender look he’s giving her, memorizing every inch of the face he would possibly never see- the whole thing was too damn perfect. And heartbreaking.

2. Clois Reunion (Zack Snyder’s Justice League)

Another of those adorable scenes. Even though Clark is experiencing that back-from-the-dead amnesia here, I’m talking about the invulnerable man of steel who took down the entire justice league, floating above threateningly, with rage-filled red hot eyes, transforming to a confused boy in Lane’s embrace. Yup- it is true love, folks!

3. The hug (Man of Steel)

Their comfort hug in the middle of Metropolis ruins. No words, indeed!

ARROWVERSE (2012-)

1. “You are my first thought of the day and my last thought at night”  (Superman & Lois: 1 x 04)

Clark Kent arranging a candlelight dinner date. Lois radiating so much of happiness, it was infectious. The quote - ”My time with you....it’s what gets me through everything else” above all. Total domestic bliss we yearn to see

2. A Brief Reminiscence between Cataclysmic Events (Superman & Lois: 1 x 11)

Among all the others, this particular episode just stands out. It was an epitome of perfection. The brief glimpse into their epic love story didn’t seem rushed and was totally on point. The first meeting, the partnership, the priceless teamwork at the Daily planet, that walk in the street with wide grins and coffee cups(so them), their evolution from friends to lovers, the identity reveal, that beautifully shot proposal, the marriage, the honeymoon, the “I’m yours babe-for better or for worse!”, the “I want a girl”- and so, to sum it all up: every single moment was legendary.

3. The Reunion (Superman & Lois: 1 x 12)

The “Hey you” and “Hey yourself”, Jon and Jordan sporting identical grins (showing that they are the biggest fans when it comes to their parents’ love life),  that kiss with the Kansas sun in the background. It was sensational

4. “Told you you’d catch me?” (Supergirl: Elseworlds)

One of the cutest moments I’ve witnessed. The sequence which previously follows up to Clark telling her not to adventurously climb the barn ladder as it was rusty, her telling him with conviction that he’d be there to catch her, and then throwing those words on his lovingly concerned face when he does, on a later occasion. And those contagious dimpled smiles.

DC COMICS

I won’t be able to wind up in this century if I start now on this area. So, you can check this and this one out for some of my favorite comic moments.

Any ways, thankyou again for the ask!

[akire-echo]

Stranger Things-It’s Simply a Henderson Thing

Chapter 1

(Henderson!Reader. Reader is female presenting.This fic will go through the events of season 1,2, and 4. Eventually will be a Eddie Fic. Planning an episode/chapter each week. Enjoy)

Dustin had already gone off on his bike for school that morning, so he didn’t need a ride. Though you’d offered many a time before, knowing he was getting teased at school, he always refused.

This morning was no different when you promised to stare them down and scare them. He laughed, just like a kid, and it had made you smile.

Until he giggled out that you weren’t that scary, to which you feigned hurt and clutched at your heart dramatically.

“Seriously, no one thinks you are scary, fruit-stripe.” He teased more.

You had to laugh at that. Either he was referring to your hair or to your habit of using the temporary tattoos from fruit stripe gum. If he was talking about your hair, you didn’t much care. You liked the colourful streaks on your otherwise ordinary head. It made you feel good and the colour was always well maintained. And if he was talking about the tattoos, well, he had you there. It was just a little bit of fun putting those little zebras on your skin.

“You wound me, you little twerp.” You joked.”Not even my style looks dangerous?”

You gestured to your outfit. An older Fleetwood Mac shirt paired with tight black jeans and converse.

“It’s not! Whatcha gonna do about it?” He asked.

You held up your hands like they were claws.

“Did I ever tell you the tale of Jimmy Crow? The boy who laughed so hard and smiled so weird that his face stayed that way?” You challenged.

“No!” He tried to run but you caught him, tickling your fingers into his side.

He cried uncle as you giggled maniacally.

After he did a proper tap-out and agreed you were indeed scary, you let him go.

He caught his breath before saying,“Even though you sometimes look scary on the outside, I know you’re not on the inside.”

You smiled at your baby brother.

So wise for someone so young.

“Yeah yeah, don’t go telling anyone that.” You smiled, ruffling his hair before he had a the chance to don his infamous cap.

“Now get going or you’ll never make it to Lucas or Mike’s before school.”

He seemed to realize the time and bolted out the door; making you shake your head. As for you, it was time for another day at Hawkins High.

You rode in on your motorcycle, beating most of the traffic. Your mother had begged you to get a car with your money because it was more sensible. You, however, wanted the freedom of the open road without the confinement of a large vehicle. There was more control in it.

Plus, some of the other high school kids thought it made you look dangerous or cool.

You weren’t all that cool though, not really. You only had a small group of friends.

Speaking of your friends, you caught up with them reaching Nancy’s locker.

“Let me take one guess.” You strolled up to them, just catching Barb in a dreamily mocking tone saying something about making out a few times with someone.

“He’s got great hair?”You questioned, teasing your brunette friend with a bump of your elbow.

Nancy blushed.

“She is refusing to admit it.” Barb sighed, teasingly.

You chuckled.

“She’s going to be so cool now, it’s ridiculous.” Barb commented at you.

Nancy denied it.

“Better not stop hanging out with us when you get super popular.” You put air quotes over the last two words.

“And swear to god if you start hanging with Tommy H and Carol l-“ Barb began.

“Gross.” Nancy and you said in unison.

Nancy kept denying it, but as she spoke, she couldn’t help the look on her face. She was so smitten with Steve “the hair” Harrington.

“Okay, I’m telling you both, it was a one-time…two-time thing.”

Nancy pulled out a note from her locker.

“You were saying?” Barb teased.

You just went.”Oooo.”

The three of you laughed a little.

Then you realized the time.

“Gonna be late for history.” You said.”Have fun with Steve.” You winked at Nancy and laughed on your way.

[scaryscarecrows]

Hello! Just popping in to say all your recent short fics are giving me life. Frank trying to buy time like "aww no we're sooo sorry but our boy gets cranky past his bedtime and so he took out the backbone of your entire organization :')" and Antoine 'my curls make me look like an actual cherub' Drouot undercover in a club AND the boys playing monopoly? The CHAOS. Smitten with the idea that Antoine and Jason just hang out on the balcony and whine about being out of the game. I love them so much.

Jason: Un-banning Monopoly was a mistake.

Jimmy: No, no, it was great.

Antoine: It was absolutely a mistake.

Riley: You would say that, Poor One.

Antoine: -.- So what happened is that I had THE unluckiest first roll. Every bad card, I got. 'Go to jail', 'pay school fees', 'pay speeding ticket', 'pay other players', la-la-la. So I went down pretty much immediately--

Jason: And took me with you!

Antoine: I had one brown. Trent had the other one. He got my shit-such as it was-and it was early, and he built on the browns.

Jason: MY DEATH WAS YOUR FAULT.

Antoine: Well, I went to smoke, because screw these people, and the boss. He, uh.

Jason: I LANDED ON THE HOTEL-LADEN BROWNS AND FUCKING WENT DOWN.

Antoine: Yeah. It wasn't pretty.

Jason: So I figured that cigarettes were better for my health than that bullshit game and left them to it, and then they decided to form teams.

Jimmy: But Mr. 'I have a monopoly and the rest of you only have two random properties each' didn't wanna get on a team.

Trent: I WAS WINNING.

Jimmy: And then you hit our greens.

Riley: Our beautiful greens.

Mark: We tried to invite him in. He wouldn't do it.

Trent: My pride was on the line!

Frank: And then your cash was on the line.

Trent: You wouldn't trade!

Mark: We tried.

Trent: Once! One time!

Frank: Get while the gettin's good, son.

Jimmy: We killed him. And then we went to proper war. Sewed discord, made cutthroat deals.

Riley: And then I fucked Jimmy over in the end and won it all.

Jimmy: Resent and remember, my friend. I'll get you later.

[linasobsessions]

Oblivious {Tim Stützle}

Request: Request for Timmy stuzle, where you come to ottowa for the first time and meet his team mates. You overhear brady and josh talking to tim about you and that they can see why he is so in love with you. They help tim plan a date so he can ask you to be his gf

Word count:954

Warnings: a lot of pining?, oblivious Timmy

You and Tim had been friends since forever. Starting out as neighbours you soon became attached to the hip. Over the years you did your best to support him as much as you could. That included being at every single one of his games and helping him practice as much as you can. You knew he had great potential and when he told you he was signing in for the NHL draft you were incredibly proud, as he was drafted to the Ottawa Senators even more so. You were overjoyed but it couldn't make up for the fact that you would miss him while he was away. You were staying at home, going to university and working to pay off rent and tuition while he was living across the pond, living his dream.

Tim, as much as he was over the moon, felt the same. It would be hard being away from you, with the time difference. But he knew you would make it work.

All throughout the season you stayed in close contact, texting all the time and facetiming as much as you could. Because of that you had met his roommate, Brady, while you facetimed. He was nice and you could tell from that short encounter that Tim would be in good hands.

Brady, on the other side of the world couldn't believe his ears as he was told that you were just Tim's best friend. And not his girlfriend. He looked at Tim as if he had seen a ghost, completely caught of guard by what he just learnt.

"So, you're telling me she's been by your side ever since you kids, without ever complaining. You talk all the time. She wears your jersey whenever you had and have a game. And she stays up to watch your games?"

Tim nodded. For him this was completely normal. You had always been like this, his biggest supporter.

"Dude, that's girlfriend stuff. All these things are girlfriend things! Why can't you see that?"

His words made Tim blush. Having you as his girlfriend was something he had wanted for a while now. Over the course of the years he had fallen in love with you, but since he didn't want to ruin the friendship you had, he kept it under wraps, never telling anyone about it. But Brady could see right through his blush. He began smirking at the German as if he had figured out the meaning of life.

"Jimmy! You like her, don't you? Awww little Jimmy is in love."

Tim's blush deepened as he grumbled a 'shut up'. But he couldn't deny that Brady was right. He was head over heels for his best friend.

---

A couple of months later you were visiting Tim in Ottawa for the first time. You were incredibly excited to see your best friend again but as he picked you up from the airport you could feel the butterflies in your stomach from the feeling of being back in his arms.

Tim let you stay in his room and after you had met both Brady and Josh, for real this time, you were setting up your things in his room. As you went back to the living you heard Tim talk with the boys. Just as you were about to enter the room you heard your name. You didn't want to listen in on their conversation, but you couldn't help yourself. So you stayed behind the wall.

"So. This is the infamous (Y/N), huh?"

"Yes, Josh. You wanna say anything?"

You heard Brady snickering. Were they laughing about you?

"Oh nothing. Just that you two are completely smitten for each other. When are you going to tell her?"

"Well-"

You didn't want to hear more and you entered the room with a 'are you guys hungry too? I'm starving'. You didn't miss the looks Josh and Brady shared as Tim jumped up from the couch and pulled you into the kitchen to get something to eat. What you would not know is that the three would make a plan for Tim to ask you out while you were in Ottawa.

---

It was your second to last night in Ottawa before going back home. Since Tim had a game tomorrow night he had suggested to have dinner together. You both dressed nicely as you went out. Before leaving, Brady and Josh had seen you two from their place on the couch, calling after you to 'not have too much fun'. You ignored them as you made your way to the restaurant.

The whole night was just like every time you went out. But at the same time it wasn't. You were blushing much more than normal and sometime during the night Tim had reached out to hold your hand over the table. As you were waiting for your desert Tim cleared his throat making you look up at him.

"So.. I-... I have to confess something."

Since you heard what he and the boys had talked about you felt a blush creep up on your neck and cheeks. Tim, nervous for his confession, blushed as well.

"(Y/N).. I am in love with you. I have been for a while now. And I realized that I want more of this than friendship. I want to be your partner, your everything. Please, if you feel the same, give this, us, a chance."

Your gaze softened and a big smile set on your face. You had waited a long time for this. You reached out over the table, cupping his cheek and caressing it.

"Timmy. How could you think I wouldn't feel the same? I have for years. So yes, I want to give this a chance."

[keanureevesisbae]

Mister Cavill, your dog is kinda fat - Epilogue

Summary: Veterinarian Olivia Tran has zero time for bullshit. After becoming a mom at age twenty three, the one thing she wants is a good life for her daughter Vanessa. Her ex didn’t want anything to do with her nor the baby and she decided that man are officially banned out of her life. But then she meets Henry Cavill at her clinic and her ban slowly starts to crumble apart. Henry on the other hand is looking for one thing: a family. And when he meets Olivia Tran, he finds just that.

Henry Cavill x Olivia Tran (ofc)

Warnings: None

Wordcount: 4.1k

A/N: This will be Vanessa’s pov

Masterlist // Previous chapter //

9 years later

Name: Vanessa Tran-Cavill

Subject: English

Teacher: Mrs. Allen

Grade: 100/100 — Vanessa, you are such a talented writer. You raised the bar for every other essay I’m going to read in my entire career left as an English teacher. You have such a wonderful role model in your life. Please cherish your family for the rest of your life!

The one who taught me everything - an essay about Olivia Tran-Cavill, the greatest inspiration for me.

I was raised by the toughest woman alive. I know that a lot of kids say that about their mom, but allow me to explain why Olivia Tran-Cavill is the toughest woman I know in my life.

Her boyfriend left her when she told him she was pregnant with me, her own family (meaning her parents and her two brothers) practically disowned her, and on top of that she just started a job as a freshly minted veterinarian.

If I were in her shoes, I’d be terrified, struck by multiple breakdowns on a daily basis, but not my mom. She raised me all by herself, barely having a break or a moment of her own. I was her number one priority. She told me to be kind, to be honest and polite: personality traits that provide me with the best today and for all the days to come in the future.

There was only one thing that I desperately wanted and that was a family. I wanted a dad like the kids in my class. I wanted grandparents. I wanted aunts and uncles. I wanted to have little siblings, because I knew that I would be a great big sister.

Unfortunately that wasn’t in the stars for me and my mom told me that. It takes a brave woman to say to her young child: ‘Your real dad doesn’t want you. Your grandparents kicked me out the second they found out I was pregnant with you. Your uncles never spoke to me again.’

It hurt obviously. There were people walking around here that shared DNA with me, that were family, but they made it pretty clear that they didn’t want me nor my mother. To this day they still haven’t reached out and they honestly don’t know what they are missing out on. At least, that is what my mom always tells me.

But my mom always told me that family wasn’t all about sharing DNA, it was about finding people that you want in your life. You can choose who your family is.

Despite that wonderful piece of advice that I definitely took to heart, I continued to make her a drawing every single day. My mom and I inside our house and outside there is a man with a dog, waiting to be allowed into our life.

Waiting to become a dad.

My dad.

One day my mom was on call and had to go to the clinic at night. She took me with her and that’s the day we met Henry and his dog Kal. Little did we all know that at that exact moment, our lives drastically changed.

Henry was more of a dad in the first hour that I had met him, then my real dad was in my entire life. For the first time in life, I had a dad figure. A man who cared not only about me, but also about my mom.

Being with Henry never drastically changed my mom. She was still the bad ass mom I always had, but it did softened her up. It made her relaxed. Henry gave her what she deserved all those years of raising me by herself. Letting someone take care of her too. There is only so much a six year old could give back to a powerhouse like her mom, but there is so much more a man like Henry Cavill can give her.

He provided us with a family. A grandma, a granddad and four lovely uncles.

And for that I have to thank my mom. She allowed Henry into her life, thus into my life and gave us six amazing Cavill family members, who cared about us and loved us up to this day.

Now, I admire her every single day. The way she takes care of not only me, but also my three sisters, is something I feel like I can never live up to. Whenever some of us walk into the room, her face lights up and she drops everything to give us her full attention.

And for that I am so incredibly thankful. She taught me so much. How to love, how to catch more flies with honey than with vinegar and she taught me that it is okay to be scared, but that it should never stop you from pursuing what you want to achieve.

I know my mom was scared when she got pregnant and was dropped by all the people she thought she could trust and rely on, but it never stopped her from pursuing what she wanted: to be a great mother and an excellent veterinarian. Knowing that, I’m going to try to be the best version of myself, though I know damn well that I can never be as amazing as her.

For me, my mom is the most influential person in my life and I wouldn’t trade her for anything in the world.

≫≫≪≪

With my freshly graded essay, I walk towards my locker. This is such a great way to end the week. I worked my ass off on this essay and the fact that mrs. Allen gave me the full hundred out of hundred points is unbelievable. She never gives people higher than ninety points probably. I feel like I’m the first student in her entire career to score the highest grade possible.

‘There she is.’ I look up to see Trey walking up to me, already undoing his tie. He always tells me that he hates that thing with a passion and while I suggest he uses a clip on tie (like half the school does), he keeps on wearing the regular one. I think it’s so he can continue to bitch about it. ‘You’re going to Jimmy’s party tonight, right?’

I shake my head. ‘I’m sorry, Trey, I can’t. I have plans with my family.’

‘The entire family?’ he asks, as he leans against the row of lockers besides mine.

‘Yes, the entire family.’

‘And there is absolutely no change at all that you can ditch them?’

I can’t stop my chuckle. Usually I go out on Friday, especially if Trey invites me, but right now I really can’t go. ‘It’s important,’ I say to him. I see him fake pouting, causing me to roll my eyes. ‘Come on, don’t pout. Jimmy has parties every two weeks. I’ll be at the next one.’

Trey grins. ‘I’ll hold you to that, V. Tell your mom I said hi and also say that to your dad, because I’m afraid he’ll kick my ass next time he sees me. Oh, and say hi to your sisters, will you?’

A few weeks ago Trey came over to my place, because we were going to do algebra homework together (and because we wanted to spend time together). Dad was ready to embarrass the shit out of me (I think he has been waiting for this moment since he adopted me to be honest—he seemed to well prepared), but mom swooped right in and Trey felt instantly at ease. Ever since then, he asks me how she is doing when I see him at school.

I know it’s tough for Trey. He wasn’t raised with a mother, since she passed away during his birth, but her three brothers raised him. He loves them dearly and because of that, he can handle my dad’s antics just fine. However it’s nice for him to have a motherly figure in his life, since his uncles never dated (they would get along well with my uncles) and my mom is the right person for that.

After that algebra homework moment we had, he has been coming over a lot more often and just a few days ago, I saw him giving my mom a hug. When I asked her about it, she told me that he always likes it when he is here and it turns out, that he told her all about growing up with only his uncles and how she feels like a mom figure to him. I like how he is welcomed into my family. My sisters are absolutely smitten with him and they love it when I bring him over, since they wished I was a boy, so they could have a brother.

It’s always nice to know that your sisters love you for who you are.

‘You know, you can come over too,’ I say, not wanting Trey to leave. ‘If you want to of course.’

‘Are you sure?’ he asks, but he already has a telling smile on his face. ‘I just don’t want to intrude an important event.’

‘You won’t,’ I laugh. ‘It’s been ten years since my dad officially adopted me. We’re going to celebrate at my grandparents’ place. My uncles will be there, my aunt, nephews and my sisters.’

Trey smiles. ‘Well, if you invite me.’

I close my locker and say: ‘We are going to celebrate this whole weekend, but you can only stay today if you want to, so you won’t miss Jimmy’s party.’

‘I don’t really care about Jimmy’s party,’ Trey admits. ‘I only wanted to spend time with you.’

It’s obvious that we have a crush on each other, it’s just that I’m afraid of committing. He doesn’t seem to mind though, that pull my hand back when he wants to hold it and that we haven’t kissed, though we’ve been on a few dates.

‘So,’ Trey says as we walk out of the school, ‘your dad adopted you ten years ago.’

I nod. ‘Yeah, he made me an official Cavill from that day. If I’m being completely honest, I never thought I’d have a dad. I always thought that it was going to be me, my mom and my pleads for a dad. For such a long time I thought it was enough, though deep down I wanted a dad, but sometimes it’s just not meant for everyone, right?’

Trey nods. ‘Right.’

‘I still remember the day we met him and Kal,’ I say. ‘And I just knew that I wanted that man as my father. I was six and though I need saw my mom with a man, I just knew that they were meant for each other, you know. We were standing around the examination table, because Kal was sick and I thought to myself that this was the man that not only I wanted in my life, but my mom needed as well.’

Trey’s fingers brush against mine and I hold onto his hand, for the first time in the weeks that we are circling around each other.

I think back to the times where it was just my mom and I. She was so strong for all those years of raising me, telling me the painful truth about my biological dad, my grandparents and uncles from her side of the family, arranging all different sorts of shifts at the animal clinic and bringing me to work when necessary.

I admire my mother and the way she carefully picked out a man that was worthy of becoming my dad, of adopting me and giving me his last name. I had been Vanessa Tran for so many years, but becoming Vanessa Tran-Cavill, had been such a blessing and for the first time in seven years, I had a dad, someone who cared about me.

Someone who loved me.

And right now, I have seen how much he loved my mom, me and my sisters. I admired the way dad took care of us, while still having an acting career. He played in seven movies since I met him and five of those were being filmed here in the UK, since he didn’t want to leave us for too long.

He posts about us on Instagram sometimes, but always disables the comments. A lot of people know that I’m his daughter, but they mostly find out when we’ve known each other for a while.

Trey and I get out of the bus, but I stop him, before we walk off to my grandparents’ house. ‘I just want to prepare you. I have four nosey uncles and a granddad who just starts to talk, not knowing when to stop.’

‘It’s nothing I can’t handle,’ he laughs. ‘Remember, I grew up with three uncles and their friends. This will be peanuts.’

I smile. ‘Yeah, you’re right.’ I squeeze his hand. ‘Trey, before we go into the backyard, I have to admit something.’

‘I like you too,’ he says. ‘And I don’t mind taking it slow.’

My eyes widen. ‘How did you know I was going to say that?’

‘You’re predictable, Tran.’ Trey smiles and I roll my eyes. ‘It’s honestly no big deal. I really like you and your family and though I feel comfortable enough to go at my pace, I don’t want to force you into stuff.’ He gives me a squeeze back in my hand. ‘Your pace and no one else’s.’ He pulls me to him and wraps me up in a tight hug. I feel his chin on top of my head and I let out a sigh, before I close my eyes, nuzzling my face in his chest. This feels nice, I could get used to this.

I pull back a little, to carefully press a kiss on his jaw. ‘Come on, let’s go,’ I say, pulling him with me to the gate at the back of the yard. Together we walk into the backyard and I see everyone is already there. Uncles Piers, Niki and Charlie are standing near the barbecue, as my nine year old sister Elodie is poking Charlie in his sides. Belle has wrapped her arms around uncle Simon’s neck, giving him tons of kisses. Belle’s two year old son Hugh is trying to kick the ball, but he misses and falls flat on his bum. He waddles over to Belle, who is currently expecting another boy in four months.

My five year old sisters Chloe and Heather are the first to notice me. ‘Vanessa!’ they scream in unison, rushing towards me and wrapping their arms around my waist. ‘We missed you.’

‘I missed you guys too,’ I chuckle.

‘And you brought Trey!’ Chloe notices, jumping in his arms. ‘You are staying here for the barbecue?’

‘Of course,’ Trey says with a smile. ‘I wouldn’t miss it for the world, munchkin.’

Everyone looks up and gives me hugs and introduce themselves to Trey if they haven’t met him already. Grandpa Colin gives me a big hug and slips fifty pounds not only in my hand, but also in Trey’s hand. ‘So you can take her out on a date, young man,’ he tells Trey.

When we walk over to my parents, Trey says: ‘Damn, I get fifty pounds for showing up here. Should I tell your grandad when my birthday is?’

‘Don’t,’ I say sternly, pinching his side.

Kal licks my hand and I scratch him on top of his head. He is not fat anymore (as if my mother would allow that). He is also not as active as he used to be when I met him, but he is still the most loyal and biggest sweetheart in the world, always taking care of me and my sisters.

My mom holds out her arms and Trey doesn’t hesitate for a minute to be engulfed in her arms. Dad wraps his arms around my waist and bumps his nose against my cheek. Elodie, Chloe and Heather often wonder why we do that, but it’s our thing and it’ll always be our thing. ‘There you are, sunshine,’ he says.

‘It’s a special day today,’ I say. ‘You have any regrets?’

He scoffs. ‘Are you kidding me? As if I could have regrets.’

‘You still have the receipt?’

He laughs. ‘Like I would ever use that.’ He gives me a kiss on my cheek and says: ‘You brought your boyfriend with you, I see.’

Normally I’d protest against his antics, but now… I actually don’t mind. I quite like it actually. I like the idea of Trey being my boyfriend. ‘Well, yeah.’

Dad gives me a big kiss, before he places me on my feet again. Trey wipes his hands clean on his jeans, before he extends his hand to my dad. I don’t quite know what happens after that, because mom pulls me into a hug. Though I’m seventeen now and my mom is reaching the forty already, she barely aged.

It’s admirable, really. After she gave birth to Elodie and she lost that much blood, it was the scariest experience in my life. I thought, with the way everyone was looking at each other when dad called, my mom would die. It took her six months to recover and I helped out the best I could, but I knew that asking for another sibling too soon, wouldn’t help. Four years after she had Elodie, she became pregnant with twins and after that she did not want more kids. Ideally she wanted three, I remember her saying that to dad, but now she had four and though she loved it, it was enough.

‘How was school?’ mom asks.

‘It was great. I got my English essay back.’

‘Oh really? How did you do?’

‘I’ll tell you in a minute.’

Mom tilts her head when she looks at Henry and Trey, who seem to hit it off actually. ‘You chose a good one,’ she tells me. ‘So proud of you, sweetheart.’ Mom wraps her arm around my waist and gives me a kiss. ‘Oh no, mom!’ she yells to grandma Marianne. ‘Wait, don’t carry everything.’ Mom rushes off to the kitchen and I can’t hide my smile.

I’m happy that all these people are my family. From the looks of Trey, he actually is a bit nervous. I walk up to him and my dad and wrap my arm around his hips. He is tense, but wraps his arm around my shoulders. ‘You’re not bugging him, are you, dad?’

‘No, of course not,’ he says, but I cock my eyebrow, causing him to say: ‘Just asking him what he will do with that fifty pound your grandpa gave him.’

Of course my dad noticed that.

He excuses himself, walking up to the barbecue, lifting up Elodie in the process. I look up at Trey and I ask: ‘I thought you said this would be peanuts?’

‘It will be peanuts,’ he tells me. ‘Just have to warm up a bit.’ He smiles, pearly white teeth framed by his full lips. ‘This definitely helps.’

‘Okay, love birds,’ uncle Niki yells, ‘come on. We’re getting ready to eat.���

I feel a blush creep up on my cheeks, but despite that, I still chuckle. He laces his fingers through mine, as we walk to the big table in the backyard under the parasol. ‘I just want to say one thing,’ grandma Marianne says, ‘and that is that I want to thank my son for overfeeding his dog, so he met the greatest veterinarian of all times, who—together with her oldest daughter—brought so much joy and happiness into the family.’

‘Mom, it has been ten years!’ dad says. ‘Please, let it go. I’m not overfeeding Kal anymore.’

It has been an ongoing joke, every time my dad gives Kal a little snack, at least one of the entire Cavill Clan says something along the lines of that we have to hide the other snacks.

‘But anyways,’ grandma says, ‘I am so happy that now we are this big and happy family. It’s all I really wanted.’

Everyone takes a deep breath, because we all realize that it could’ve gone so differently. I clear my throat and say: ‘I got my English essay back and got myself a hundred out of a hundred points.’

‘Shut up!’ uncle Piers says. ‘You got a perfect score? When was the last time something like that happened with us?’

‘None of you boys ever got a perfect score,’ grandpa Colin says. He sometimes can’t remember how to use the remote, what my sisters or my name is, but this he knows.

‘Anyways,’ I say, ‘it does have something to do with what happened ten years ago. I mean, becoming officially a Cavill has been the greatest thing ever. I watched my life do a complete one eighty and though I have to thank my dad for that, there is one woman who absolutely changed my life and is such a wonderful role model for not only me, but also my sisters, that I decided to write my essay about my mom.’

Mom’s eyes widen, before she scrunches up her nose. ‘Why?’

This is such a typical reaction from her, so I cannot stop my laugh. ‘Because mom, you are amazing. Everything that I have, started with you. Everything I understand, I do, I think about, is because of the way you took care of me and raised me. I know that I tell you this a lot, but mom, I love you so so much and everything you did for me, it’s so admirable. I owe so much to you.’

Mom clears her throat. ‘Oh sweetie,’ she mumbles. ‘You don’t owe me anything.’

‘You did so well, mom,’ I whisper. ‘I’m so lucky to have been raised by you.’

She grabs my hand and gives me a loving squeeze. ‘Sweetheart, could you come with me for a second?’

The two of us walk inside of the house, as we hear conversation strike up behind us. The second we are out of sight, she wraps her arms around me. This is what she always does, not wanting to cry in front of the other Cavills, always going to a secluded place. ‘I love you, Vanessa,’ she whispers. ‘I think I’ve done a pretty good job with you.’

I can’t help but laugh. ‘You did an excellent job, mom. You are honestly the biggest power house I’ve ever met.’

‘Could you imagine what would’ve happened if Belle was able to baby sit you?’ mom asks. ‘Because you, my love, charmed yourself a way into your father’s heart.’

I chuckle. ‘I kinda did, didn’t I?’

Mom smiles, as she holds tightly onto my hands. ‘I know you always thank me for giving you the family you always wanted, but remember: if you weren’t so instantly in love with your dad, I don’t know if I had given it a shot to be honest.’

That is such a weird thought, I think to myself. I always stop myself when I want to think about the ‘what ifs’ and my entire family never really brought it up. Maybe when I was younger, but never with me. But what if indeed I were to stay over at Belle’s place, I would’ve never known that Henry was there probably. Imagine the life that we would’ve had. Maybe I had given my biological father Wesley a chance and then I didn’t have my three wonderful sisters.

‘What are you two doing here? Poor Trey is being questioned by Niki, Charlie and grandpa and the old man is not holding back.’ My dad walks in and though he has reached the ripe age of forty eight, he is still the tall and bulked up man that I met in the examination room. He is still the man that loved me like I was his own.

‘Just thanking my daughter for being such a lovely girl, who charmed her way into your heart.’

‘Oh, you sure did,’ dad says with a smile. ‘My lovely sunshine, I love you so much and I can’t believe it’s been more than ten years since I met you and your mom.’ He wraps his arms around us and says: ‘Though I still feel the fear of Kal vomiting on the carpet with blood, I am so grateful that you picked up and the other clinics didn’t.’ He presses a kiss on my mom’s forehead.

‘Dad, when did you realize you were in love with mom?’

‘Well, I told myself that I shouldn’t have a crush on someone that I barely knew,’ dad says, ‘but I can tell you that deep down in my heart I knew that this beautiful woman stole my heart the second she said the seven words that I’ll never forget. Mister Cavill, your dog is kinda fat.’

≫≫≪≪

Bonus instagram posts:

Elodie and Vanessa

Elodie with Olivia

Pregnant with twins!

Pre teen Vanessa showing Henry that he is an actual boomer

Chloe and Heather

Vanessa as a teenager

Elodie as a teenager

Chloe and Heather as teenagers

A/N: soooo this is the end of this wonderful story, though I wish this would go on forever. Thank you so much to all the people who have been reading this, leaving lovely comments. Thanks to this story I gained so many new followers. I never expected it to blow up like this haha. Not to self promote but will do anyway, but please check out my other works if you haven’t already (and if you want to of course, I’m not going to force you to read my other fics) and of course I’ll be back with other fun projects, that I obviously will announce like usual 🤗

[inthedayswhenlandswerefew]

Eccentricity [Chapter 6: You Know You Got Me In The Palm Of Your Hand]

Series Summary: Joe Mazzello is a nice guy with a weird family. A VERY weird family. They have a secret, and you have a choice to make. Potentially a better love story than Twilight.

Chapter Title Is A Lyric From: Mean It by Lauv.

Chapter Warnings: Language, references to sex and violence, slavery in American history.

Other Chapters (And All My Writing) Available: HERE

Tagging: @queen-turtle-boiii​​​​​ @bramblesforbreakfast​​​​​​ @writerxinthedark​​ @maggieroseevans​​​​​​ @culturefiendtrashqueen​​​​​​ @imnotvibingveryguccimrstark​​​​​​ @escabell​​​​​​ @im-an-adult-ish​​​​​​ @someforeigntragedy​​​​​​ @imtheinvisiblequeen​​​​​​​​​​ @deacyblues​​​​​​ ​ @tensecondvacation​​​​​​​ @brianssixpence​​​​​​ @seven-seas-of-ham-on-rhye​​ @some-major-ishues​​ @haileymorelikestupid​​ @loveandbeloved29​​

Please yell at me if I forget to tag you! 💜

What The Fuck, Washington Animals Are Weird

I woke up in a bedroom drenched in a rainbow of darkness, shades of grey vacillating from charcoal to the wings of a mourning dove; indolent dawn rain pattered against the window. There were no glaring veins of sunlight spilling in through gaps in the curtains, no promise of dry invigorating heat, no whistle of vicious parched wind. Toto, we’re not in Phoenix anymore.

“Ugh,” I complained to the empty room, unraveling from a tangle of blankets patterned with cacti and pure white clouds and rust-orange suns.

I clicked off my iPhone alarm—I’d beaten it by two minutes; my circadian rhythm was finally conceding that this whole Pacific Time thing was permanent—and read my nine new texts from Joe.

3:12 a.m.: Hey it’s an emergency what’s the plural of octopus

3:13 a.m.: Rami is insisting that it is octopuses

3:14 a.m.: But it’s octopi, right? Right?? I just announced in front of everyone that it’s octopi

3:15 a.m.: Scarlett is verbally abusing me

3:18 a.m.: Oh you are probably asleep

3:21 a.m.: Update, according to the internet Rami is right and now I have to assume a new identity and move to Antarctica

3:25 a.m.: We can discuss logistics of the Antarctica relocation tomorrow

3:26 a.m.: Hope you like penguins

3:30 a.m.: Okay goodnight!! Don’t let the mythical creatures bite!!

“That man,” I murmured to myself, smiling.

I typed out: It’s definitely octopuses, you clown. Then I deleted ‘clown’ and replaced it with its Italian equivalent: pagliaccio. Text sent.

Joe responded almost instantly. I had to ask Lucy what pagliaccio meant and now she’s verbally abusing me too. Send help. See you at lunch. xx

Wait, two Xs? What did Xs mean?? Kisses???

Did Joseph Francis Mazzello, sexy undead Italian man, just send me multiple text kisses?

“You’re gonna give me an aneurism, Chicago boy,” I muttered at my phone as I slid it into the pocket of my flannel pajama pants. And then I glanced out the bedroom window into a tussle of rain and thick, caliginous fog.

Just a few feet beyond the misted glass, its leathery talons hooked around a branch of Charlie’s decades-old red alder tree, was an owl. But not just any owl. A hulking, spotlessly white owl.

“Oh, hey, you,” I whispered, leaning closer, pressing my palms against the cold window. My hands left transparent imprints in the condensation. “Hey, buddy. Aren’t you supposed to be sleeping? I sure wish I was. Did something wake you up? Did your idiot vampire boyfriend disturb you with a series of ridiculous texts?”

The owl just contemplated me with unnervingly vast, slick, engrossed eyes. And there was something else, too: those eyes were blood red.

“So you’re an albino owl, huh big guy? Good for you. You know, usually albino animals don’t last all that long in the wild. Because they’re really easy for predators and prey to spot. Or they get skin cancer. So congratulations on living to become the voluptuous, tremendously creepy creature that you are today. Job well done.”

The owl stared back at me unflinchingly, blinked, then resumed staring. Rainwater gathered in swelling beads like blood drops on its ivory-colored beak and talons.

“Well,” I noted, turning away and grabbing my shower towel off the back of the desk chair. “You don’t get that in Arizona.”

Thirty minutes later, I was bounding down the stairs two at a time to meet Charlie in the kitchen. He was browsing through his daily newspaper at the table, drinking coffee and nibbling messily on burnt triangles of toast. Crumbs littered his moustache.

“You didn’t tell me that living here came with the added benefit of freaky albino animal friends.”

Charlie crinkled his forehead at me. “Huh?”

“How was bowling with the dads last night?”

“Oh, awesome!” he exclaimed, folding up his newspaper and slapping it down on the table. “We bowled against the team from Mora and it came right down to the wire, but we caught them. Dr. Lee got a strike on his very last turn. He always seems to do that...he’ll be bowling hit or miss all night and then when it really matters he manages to pull a strike out of nowhere. He’s a beast.”

“He’s a pretty remarkable guy,” I agreed, rummaging through the cabinets for Pop-Tarts.

“He mentioned that you and his son were really hitting it off,” Charlie said, grinning. “Not the ragey blond one. The spindly annoying one. What’s his name again? Josh? Jimmy?”

“Joe.” I conjured up my best poker face of lofty indifference. It crumbled like a sandcastle beneath reckless, rushing footsteps.

“Ohhhh, I saw that!” Charlie said, pointing, delighted. “Check out that smile. My gorgeous, brilliant progeny has a crush. I knew it. I knew you wouldn’t be single for long up here. Alright, I’m ready. Bring on the grandchildren.”

“Shut up,” I pleaded good-naturedly.

“Relax, I have great news. According to Gwil, that Joe kid is pretty wild about you too.”

“Oh, is that what you old guys do between bowling turns? Betray your children’s deepest confidences? Matchmake them over nachos and chili cheese dogs?” Still, my curiosity was piqued. “What else did Dr. Lee say about Joe?”

“I think the exact word he used was...” Charlie reminisced, sipping his coffee, curls of steam pouring over the rim of the mug. “Smitten.”

Supernatural Pictionary

I turned the notebook to Joe so he could see; everyone else momentarily covered their eyes or looked away. Then Lucy started the timer on her iPhone. Thirty seconds.

“Go!” Lucy announced.

“I think it’s a boat,” Rami said, hesitantly, haltingly, squinting at Joe with great concentration.

“Do you?” Joe teased.

“Yeah. But I’m also getting something about a fish.”

“Maybe I’m trying to make you think it’s a fish because it’s actually a boat,” Joe replied flippantly.

Rami muttered: “Or you want me to think it’s a boat because it’s actually a fish.”

“Interesting.”

“Now you’re mentally singing Never Gonna Give You Up just to fuck with me.”

Joe gasped, pressing a palm to his chest. “That doesn’t sound like something I would do!”

Scarlett snickered, dunking her chicken tender in honey mustard, slurping Coke through a straw clenched between crimson-painted lips. “That sounds exactly like something you would do.”

“Fifteen seconds,” Lucy warned.

“Fish or boat, boat or fish...” Rami chanted, peering fixedly at Joe.

“Make a decision,” I taunted, hugging the notebook to my chest.

“I’m going with boat,” Rami decided.

“Final answer?” Lucy asked, then stopped the timer when Rami nodded.

“Loser!” Joe cackled victoriously, leaping out of his chair, waving his L-shaped fingers in the air. Calawah University students at nearby tables glanced over with wide, startled eyes, their beloved chicken tenders briefly forgotten. “How’s it feel to not win every round of a game, huh?! Loser!”

I flipped my notebook so Rami could see the extremely unskilled pencil sketch I’d drawn there: a smiling fish. “My condolences.”

“Damn.” Rami pulled a ten-dollar bill out of his wallet and slid it across the table to Joe. Joe snatched it up, tucked it into the waistline of his jeans like a stripper collecting money in her G-string, and slung his arm around my shoulders.

“We are the champions. Bask in our glory.”

Scarlett turned on her iPhone flashlight and waved it in slow arcs over her head. “Youuuuu are the champions, my friendssssss...”

From my usual lunch table, Jessica gazed at my esteemed place among the Lees with palpable envy, resting her chin in her hands. I had worked out a schedule that seemed fairly obvious given my extensive experience as a child of divorce: lunch with Jessica et al. one day, lunch with the Lees the next. I took a bite of the Chipotle veggie bowl that Joe had insisted on ordering for me and tossed Jessica a sympathetic wave. Get Ben’s Snapchat for me! she mouthed back. I harbored serious doubts that Benjamin August Hardy, former professional assassin, born in 1893, had a Snapchat.

Joe’s words from last week rolled around in my head; I could see him all over again, nodding to the enormous painting hung in Gwil’s upstairs office, telling me about those startling, ethereal figures who had initiated Ben into life as a vampire. They call themselves the Draghi. They collect dues from covens, offer protection, keep order, protect our secrets. But they also demand loyalty. They force people they want into service. They might try to make it seem like you have a choice, but you don’t. They destroy anyone who tries to resist them. And they feed on humans.

“This is so awesome,” Lucy sighed, elated. “We could never play Pictionary before, drawing something is way too much of a mental process, Rami always figured it out right away...”

But now they had a built-in blindfold, someone who could draw without Rami getting a peek into their thoughts, a fighting chance at hiding the truth from him...for thirty seconds, at least.

“Okay Benny Boy, you’re up.” Joe darted over to Ben’s side of the table and massaged his tense, muscular shoulders as Ben grimaced. “You got this. I believe in you. Baby Swan is gonna pitch you a home run.”

“I’ll pass,” Ben said.

“You can’t!” Lucy cried. “Ben, please? Rami got Scarlett’s, and then he didn’t get Joe’s...and I know he’s going to see though me immediately. You’re our only chance to tie things up and maybe beat him!”

“Traitor,” Rami told Lucy affectionately.

“Uhh...” Ben hesitated, glimpsing longingly at the doors that led outside to the grove of bigleaf maple trees. He was fidgeting restlessly with his vape pen.

“Come on, Benny!” Joe begged. “I’ll owe you. I’ll do anything.”

Ben perked up a little bit. “You’ll do my Calc 2 homework for a month?”

Joe groaned theatrically, but nodded. He was wearing a grey U Chicago hoodie today. “Fine. Okay. But you’re gonna have to learn that shit eventually, I can’t take the MCAT for you.”

“Deal.” Ben bumped his knuckles against Joe’s.

“Batter up,” Joe heralded in his best mock-umpire voice, grinning at me expectantly, drumming the table with his palms. “Go Baby Swan, go! What will she choose? Will she continue with the nautical theme? Will she change it up, maybe switch to beloved Chicago landmarks? Baseball or food? Will she invent a variety of pizza even more despicable than pineapple?”

“Hm.” I flipped to a fresh notebook page, scratched my temple with the eraser end of the pencil, then quickly sketched a picture for Ben. “Okay, I’m ready.” I showed the drawing to Ben while everyone else covered their eyes.

Ben shook his head, scowling. “You’ll have to try again. I have no idea what that is.”

“Really?!” I checked the picture again. Okay, it definitely didn’t belong in the Louvre or anything, but it was lifelike enough to be decipherable. “You don’t recognize it? At all?”

“No,” Ben replied flatly.

From behind his shielded eyes, Rami scanned through the images in Ben’s mind. He dropped his hands onto the table. “SpongeBob?!”

“Who...?” Ben ventured.

Everyone else looked too. “Oh yeah, that’s definitely SpongeBob,” Joe said, then chuckled. “Aww, Baby Swan, you even remembered his little necktie!”

“It’s so cute!” Lucy trilled.

Ben just stared at the picture, blinking, completely lost, increasingly morose. And now there was a new guest at the table; or maybe not a new one, maybe just a quiet one, something that perched on the ledge of every conversation and field of vision just waiting to tap its claws against the wall and make its presence known: that interminable reminder of Ben’s unconventional past life, of how incomparable his vampiric upbringing was to those of the rest of the Lee kids.

“Benny Boy, you’ve never seen SpongeBob?” Joe inquired gently. “No problem. We’ll have a marathon tonight. I have the entire series on DVD. Also several Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy action figures.”

Scarlett snorted. “This is why you’ve been single since Hoover was president.”

“I wasn’t single the whole time,” Joe corrected.

“Oh, really?” Not that I’m interested, my voice suggested. I was a total liar. I was super interested. Thank the great deity that Rami and Ben couldn’t read me like a restaurant menu. Today’s specials are Being In Love With Someone Wildly Inappropriate for $15.99, and also Lamenting My Own Lack Of Sexual Experience for $11.99. Oh, and clam chowder.

“He had a couple of...what would you call them?” Scarlett combed her elegant fingers through her voluminous blonde hair. “What’s the modern vernacular? Fuck buddies? Booty calls? Netflix and chill partners?”

My stomach lurched; I nonchalantly buried my fork in a mountain of guacamole and left it there. I kept my lips turned up into a smile like a mask. Of course he’s loved other people. Duh. He’s hot and immortal. Get over it. But that didn’t calm my pounding heartbeat at all, didn’t soothe that sudden and irrational melancholy.

“Whoa whoa whoa, okay, you’re making it sound way worse than it was,” Joe protested, glancing at me nervously.

Scarlett continued: “It wasn’t serious, whatever it was. None of them would have cared about your action figure collection or obsession with a city you haven’t lived in for fifty years. It wasn’t your personality they wanted. Thank god.”

Oh this is bad, I thought helplessly. How am I ever going to be able to compete with the memory of countless gorgeous vampire girlfriends?

“Uh, ScarJo, you’re single too.” And Joe’s nickname for her was strangely apt; Scarlett could pass for Scarlett Johansson’s younger, blonder, much hotter sister. And Scarlett Johansson, in case you’re somehow unaware, is already pretty fucking hot.

Scarlett flashed a grin. “Entirely by choice.”

“And much to Mercy’s eternal and profound concern,” Lucy told me. “She stages an intervention at least twice a month. Did I overhear one last week, Scarlett?”

“Oh jesus, yeah. I was like, ‘Mom, what the hell do I need a husband for? I have my own money. I can fix household appliances. I have a vibrator. I’m good to go.’”

Joe rocked back in his chair, howling. “You did not tell Mom that!”

“I did. She was so distraught. She just kind of pinched her eyes shut and shuddered and then went out back to feed the alpacas.”

“Scarlett, babe,” Rami managed between gales of laughter. “A vibrator isn’t going to keep you company for all of eternity. It’s not a suitable substitute for a life partner.”

“You’re right. It’s even better. It’ll never abandon or disappoint me. Assuming I keep the batteries fresh, of course.”

“Oh my god,” Lucy giggled into her hands.

“She’s not wrong,” I said, shrugging, sipping my Diet Coke.  

And Joe peered over at me, surprised, intrigued, slowly raising his thin dark eyebrows. I winked back. Yeah, okay, I’ve never slept with someone. But that doesn’t mean I’ve never had an orgasm.

“Ah, loud thoughts! Loud thoughts! Joe, please!” Rami moaned, pressing his balled fists to his forehead.

Ben smirked. “There’s a color I’ve never seen from you before, Joe.”

“This family is the worst!” Joe exploded.

“I like that girl,” Scarlett decided, signaling to me with glossy maroon fingernails. “She can stay.”

Joe sighed, flustered, then shook it off as he turned to me. “You coming over tonight?”

“I can’t spend every night at your house petting alpacas, mob guy.”

“Yeah?” he asked, smiling, draping his arm around the back of my chair. “Why not?”

“Well, my tonight-specific reason is that I’m visiting a friend.”

“Cool. Your friends are my friends. Can I visit too?”

“You’re aware that you’re a legit stalker, right?” But actually, Archer was dying to meet Joe: the loud Lee, the approachable Lee, the Lee who I definitely liked more than a Tinder swipe could ever convey. This could work. “Offer to buy dinner and you can come.”

“I’m a walking Visa, baby.”

Ben stood, hauled on his backpack, gathered up his trash to throw away. “I need a smoke break before Chem. See you guys later.”

“Don’t forget!” Joe called after him. “SpongeBob marathon starts at 8! I’ll bring the Milk Duds!”

And when Ben disappeared through the doors, a solemn hush descended over the table.

“Poor guy,” Lucy said softly. The other Lees nodded.

And again, I recalled what Joe had told me in Gwil’s office, what he had said when I asked how Ben came to join the Lee family. He was assigned to us, to be the liaison to our coven. And Gwil saw something in him. Potential, suffering, unrealized decency, I don’t know. But Gwil worked on him for years, trying to convince Ben to leave the Draghi when his contract was up and come live with us. To give a peaceful life a try. And to be honest, Ben never seemed interested. But something must have resonated with him, because we opened the front door on October 15th, 2016 and he was sitting on the steps of our porch with a single suitcase, puffing on that fucking vape pen and watching the storm clouds roll in off the Pacific Ocean.

But why would they just let him leave? I had asked, tracing my fingertips over the uncanny and magnificent faces in that painting. Why would they let him live?

Because they know how valuable he is. And because they think they can get him back.

“I think he’s a good person,” I said, breaking the silence. “You know. Underneath the whole being raised to be a killing machine thing.”

��Yeah,” Rami replied, frowning thoughtfully. “Just try not to spend too much time alone with him.”

Car Jacks And Sneak Attacks

“Joe, this is Archer James Foxchild, my first-ever best friend.”

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you!” Joe said, shaking Archer’s oil-stained hand. “I understand you are really good at making mud pies and poking dead animals with sticks.”

Archer chuckled. “It’s true. We found a shark tooth down at La Push one time and I convinced Baby Swan here that it was from a sea monster. She had nightmares for months. Charlie called my dad over it and I got my Game Boy taken away.”

“No!” Joe gasped in horror. “Were you a Pokémon guy?”

“For sure.”

“Ruby or Sapphire?”

“Emerald.”

Joe grinned. “This dude knows what’s up.”

“And to think, my grandpa tried to tell me that you guys were freaks,” Archer replied.

“Well,” Joe conceded. “Not all of us.”  

“Maybe you two should start dating,” I said. “Don’t mind me. I’ll just sit in my Honda and eat my Taco Bell cheese quesadillas and Cinnamon Twists and try not to interrupt all the sex.”

“Yes, you brought Taco Bell,” Archer sighed euphorically. “Give me five minutes, I just gotta finish rotating these tires real quick.” He jogged to the other end of the garage, knelt beside a Ford Mustang that was propped up on a jack, and starting twisting off lug nuts with a tire iron.

“You have a nice place here,” Joe observed, strolling around the small garage with his hands in the front pocket of his U Chicago hoodie, eyeing the fractures in the concrete floor and the spidering cracks in the windows. “You have any investors?”

“Are you kidding?!” Archer replied from the Mustang. “No, man, it’s just me. I rent for now, but at some point I’ll buy my own shop. Once I’ve saved up enough. A great big one with shiny new equipment and no mice squeaking behind the walls.”

“What’s your cash flow like?”

“I’m netting around three grand a month after taxes.”

“Not bad!” Joe noted admiringly.

“Yeah. It’s a hustle, but I love it.”

“Hey, I don’t know if you’d be interested—and absolutely no pressure if you’re not, really—but I do a lot of work with start-ups and I’d love to help you get into your own shop. By this Christmas, preferably. If we can work out a deal.”

“Really?!” Archer peeked incredulously over the hood of the Mustang.

“Absolutely.”

Archer beamed at me. “This guy is willing to drop serious cash to look good in front of you. You should probably marry him. No prenup though.”

I held my pinky out towards Joe, grinning. “No more sad prenups.”

He laughed and hooked my pinky with his. “Bankrupt me, bitch.”

I heard the metallic clang of a lug nut hitting the concrete floor and rolling under the Mustang. “Come back here, you bastard,” Archer muttered, then dropped to his stomach and crawled beneath the car.

“Hey, kid, be careful,” I fretted, crossing my arms across my chest and taking a step closer.

“Relax, Baby Swan, I am a professional, changing a tire for me is like feeding a fish for you, so just chill and keep fantasizing about those Cinnamon Twists—”

There was a squeal of metal as the car jack collapsed and the Mustang came crashing down. In a fraction of a second—faster than I could see him moving, faster than I could loose a scream—Joe had soared across the garage, yanked Archer out from beneath the falling Mustang, and dragged him to the center of the room.

“Oh fuck,” Archer wheezed, his dark eyes huge and fascinated and horrified. “Grandpa was right.”

I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)

We rolled up to the Lee house in my 1999 Honda Accord just as I polished off the last of my Cinnamon Twists and Archer chewed, tentatively and dazedly, on a Cheesy Gordita Crunch. The sun was beginning to set in a clouded sky that perpetually threatened rain.

He asked Joe for the fifth time from the back seat: “But wait, seriously, no one is going to eat me, right? Because I’m too young to die. I haven’t taken enough vacations yet. I can’t die without seeing Hawaii. I want to swim with the sea turtles.”

“No, none of us have ever eaten people. Well, almost none of us. Maybe stay away from Ben.”

“I would like a little more exposition,” Archer replied, blanching.

“Hey, if you stay until 8, you guys can join us for the SpongeBob marathon!”

Gwil and Mercy were waiting on the front porch, thanks to Joe’s ‘hey I accidentally exposed myself as a paranormal being and now we have a new friend, plz don’t be mad okay love you see you soon!1!!’ text.

“Welcome, sweetheart!” Mercy fussed, enfolding Archer into her arms as soon as he stepped out of the Honda. “Would you like some hummingbird cake? I just baked it this morning. And maybe some sweet tea too. And some peanut butter cookies. And banana pudding.”

“Sure,” he responded, bewildered. This lady does not seem like a bloodsucking demon, that voice said. And he was absolutely right.

“I’ll fix you up a tray,” Mercy promised, and hurried into the house.

“We’re so very happy to have you, Mr. Foxchild.” Gwil shook Archer’s hand firmly. “We don’t get many visitors around here. I’m sure you understand why.”

“My grandpa always insisted that there was something off about you guys. Especially you, Dr. Lee. Said you shouldn’t still be around.”

“Yes, I imagine that would have been disconcerting for him. He must have remembered us from the 1940s...that’s the last time we settled down in Forks. It’s not often that someone recognizes us after so long, but it happens. It was just Mercy and me and Rami and Joe back then. And look how far we’ve come.” Gwil beamed warmly, then turned to Joe. “But really, son, you’re going to have to stop telling humans about us.”

“Hold up, I was not responsible for her!” Joe exclaimed, waving at me. “Take it up with Ben!”

The garage door rumbled open and Scarlett sauntered out, wiping her filthy hands with a rag. She halted abruptly, stood there in her high-waisted vintage jeans and black crop top and bare feet with maroon-colored toenails, tilted her head and pondered Archer with an innocent sort of curiosity that I hadn’t seen from her before.

“Wait,” Archer said, gaping. “Is that...is that an Aston Martin Vantage in there?!”

“You bet,” Scarlett replied. “You want to learn how to work on it?”

“Uh, hell to the yeah!” He trotted over and they vanished into the garage together.

“Huh,” Joe muttered, watching them. “She was nice to him. Very weird.” He whirled back to me. “Anyway, come on. I promised you an education in classic rock music. And I shall deliver.”

Joe’s bedroom was a chaotic jumble of economics textbooks and Chicago Cubs paraphernalia and U Chicago apparel and action figures and comic books and classic rock posters. There was a massive Italian flag tacked to the wall above his bed. But what caught my attention immediately was a life-sized cardboard cutout of Ben lurking in the corner by a bookshelf full of cassette tapes.

“How is there any possible logical explanation for that?” I asked, pointing.

“Oh, that! That was a joke. When Ben first showed up, he pretty much lived in his room and never came out. Gwil was worried. Mercy was heartbroken. So I made a cardboard cutout of him and would bring it to family activities and do this really deep and seductive Ben voice when I pretended to have conversations with him. It gave the whole situation some levity...and I think Ben secretly liked that we missed him enough to make an artificial version to fill the void.”

“So this bitchy, brooding, blood-craving Ben I met is actually a drastic improvement?”

“Oh, Baby Swan,” Joe confided, almost sadly. “You have no idea what he was like four years ago.”

“I’m glad he has you. All of you. That he has a chance to get better.”

“I think you might be good for him too. Seeing a human as a real person instead of a walking, talking Hi-C juice box. And you care about him, don’t you? Despite everything.”

“Of course. It’s not his fault they taught him to be a monster.”  

Joe just looked at me for a while, and then he cradled my face with one hand and grazed a thumb across my cheek “You’re never going to stop saying things that knock me into next week, are you?”

“Joe...” I hesitated, laying my hand over his. His skin was smooth and yielding yet strong, cool yet not unnaturally so. Refreshing. Safe. Fan-fucking-tastic. Oh noooooo. “Are we a thing?”

“Why? Do you want to be a thing?”

“Oh, uh, no, I was just wondering if we were.”

He stepped away, teasing me with a crooked smirk. “...So you don’t want to be a thing?”

“What would that entail?”

“Well...we’d be an official thing, you and me.” He shot finger guns at me, and then towards himself. “Which means you can’t be a thing with anyone else. And neither can I.”

“Ahhh, I see. So this thing is an exclusive thing.”

“Will you shut up and just admit that you’d totally be thrilled to be a thing with me?”

“Fine. Whatever. We’re a thing.”

“Nice.” He high-fived me.

“This is the most romantic moment of my life.”

“But wait, there’s more.” He went to the bookshelf, browsed through his cassette tape collection, found the one he wanted and popped it into a boombox that was probably older than I was. The frantic opening piano notes of I’d Do Anything For Love poured out.

“Meat Loaf,” I said in disbelief. “Really. This is the product of your superior taste in music. This is the culmination of over a century of musical experience. Meat Loaf.”

“The man is a genius!”

“This is all an elaborate joke about my vegetarianism, isn’t it?”

“No,” Joe mused. “But now that you mention it, I have yet another reason to force you to appreciate this song.” He took my hand in his, spun me around like a ballerina in a slow and careful circle, sang along—with extreme and dramatic enthusiasm—to the music.

“And I would do anything for love

I'd run right into hell and back

I would do anything for love

I'd never lie to you and that's a fact...”

“I don’t dance,” I cautioned him, laying a palm against his chest to catch my balance. That brisk, comforting scent of pine and snow and peppermint was everywhere. It feels like I can’t stand to be away from him. Like I’ll never get close enough. “I am terribly uncoordinated. I will step all over your feet. And I’m really not sure if I can trust you. You didn’t even know the plural form of octopus until like eighteen hours ago. You’re kind of a disaster. A, you know, uh, unexpectedly charming, unconventionally super cute, kind of bizarrely enchanting disaster.”

“Yeah,” Joe whispered, smiling, tilting up my chin, leaning in to kiss me. “I like you too.”

Cato

He came out of the oak trees like a ghost, pushing aside massive chandeliers of Spanish moss that blotted out the dusk sun, his expensive shoes sloshing in the marshy water that flooded the rice field. He was wearing a full suit, but no top hat; his hair was black and chin-length and wild around his face. And at first I thought he was a hallucination, a dream conjured by heat sickness or those first dreaded signs of malaria. He was unnervingly, uncommonly beautiful; beautiful like a hurricane, beautiful like lightning or an eclipse. But he was real. I straightened up as I watched him approach, my back aching in protest, a basket full of seedlings slung over my shoulder.

“Mr. Cato.”

His voice, clear and beckoning and twisted by an accent I’d never heard before, rang in my skull like church bells. He called me mister. This white man called me mister.

“Yes sir?” And I almost added: You want to be careful there, sir. The water moccasins like to hide among the tree roots, especially when the sun starts going down. But I had an inexplicable feeling that this man wasn’t afraid of things like snakes. Maybe the snakes should be afraid of him.

“Mr. Cato,” he said again, this time to himself, very quietly, tasting it.

I kept trying to look away, to disentangle my gaze from him like a hook out of a sturgeon’s mouth, because staring piercingly and astonished at a white man like that in the rice swamps of South Carolina in 1851 could get me beaten or the lash, could get my teeth pried right out of my jaw. But it didn’t seem to bother him. He grinned, hugely, all-knowingly, under prehistoric golden eyes like an alligator’s. He knew exactly what he was doing to me. And he was proud.

“Do you want to be free?” he asked, almost hissed, still grinning from the tree line.

What kind of question was that? Did a sandpiper want to fly? Did a coyote want dirt under its paws and flesh disappearing down its throat? But that wasn’t something you ever confessed aloud, not if you wanted your feet on the ground instead of swinging ten inches above it. But this man wasn’t a master, wasn’t an overseer. He wasn’t from the South. He didn’t carry a whip or a club to remind you of the rules of the world. He stood there tall and radiant in the shadows of the fading daylight like he was the one who wrote the rules to begin with; which meant that maybe he could change them. “Yes sir.”

“I can only take you,” the man warned. “No others. No family. No friends.”

“No trouble, sir,” I told him. “They sold my family. They hanged my friends.”

The man’s grin stretched wider under glinting eyes. His canine teeth were sharp, I realized: like a coyote’s, like a snake’s fangs. He held out his hand. “We are going to get along very well, you and I.”

I let the basket fall from my shoulder. I slogged through the mud and rows of wispy verdant rice plants to meet him in the shade of the oak trees. And there, for the first time in forever, a man with skin the color of bones looked me dead in the eye and shook my scarred hand.

“Welcome, Cato,” he whispered; and I was home.

He took my face in his cool palms, gingerly, reverently, like a lover. He touched his teeth to my throat. And every nerve ending in my body flooded with wildfire as he dragged me, screaming, into the depths of the forest.