#and finally Macy Pick

[lady-hibiscus]

for the seven people always liking my lifesteal kpop au posts, thank you (pt. 3)

pt. 1 | pt. 2

[flash-from-the-past]

Personal Shopper 5

[poguehearted77]

Wild Child

summary: after being sent away to boarding school for being a wild child you're finally back and celebrating your return in the only way you see fit.

smut: pool party, ragers, drug use (alcohol, vapes n weed), size kink, Rafe is cocky, mentions of old flings, manhandling, hot tubs, they do it on her parents' bed, rough sex, step-mom slander, reader is such a flirt n a tease, curvy reader, dom! rafe, bratty! reader, skinny dipping, mentions of body shots, choking, spanking (like once).

The morning sun was ascending high into the sky when you finally managed to get yourself out of your king-sized bed, fit for someone of your status and your parents' financial standing.

Your socked feet took padded steps towards your window where you overlooked the hills of figure eight. This was the first time you'd looked out your bedroom window in years. With a deep inhale a soft smile etched its way across your lips. You were finally home, and you had the house all to yourself. Or so you thought.

Your ears pick up on muffled indistinct chatter that managed to travel from the kitchen, down the halls up the elaborate staircase and into your room. Quickly, you headed for the source of the voices and were disappointed to see your dad and his wife plaything, Maria, conversing over coffee at the kitchen island.

"I thought you said the Jet leaves at dawn? What are you guys still doing here?" You try not to sound too curious, arms crossing naturally with your inquiry. With a clearing of his throat, your dad speaks up, "You only just came back two nights ago. Maria and I just don't think it's the right time to leave you alone for the weekend."

You scoff, "Why? You still don't trust me after what happened last time? Get over it, I'm twenty-one now, you can trust me." As you walked over to the fridge for a glass of water, you heard a muted exchange of ideas behind you.

"You can't expect us to forget about all the damage you caused. We still haven't found anyone to repair my crystal vases." You take a long sip, trying to swallow your toxic thoughts with the water.

She thinks she can just waltz up and down the house with that huge ring on her finger and think that her opinion carries any value to you.

You took a deep breath and plastered on a fake smile, pitching your voice to become as sweet as honey.

"I can never apologize enough for what I did back then, but how will I ever earn your trust if you don't give me the chance." Your doe eyes land on your father, specifically his weakened composure.

You're about to break him, you can see it.

He exhales, all the air escaping through his nostrils.

Broken.

He glances down at his watch, "Fine, but if you throw another party so help me god Y/n you'll never see grass again." You play it cool, thanking him with a simple hug and completely disregarding Maria before you make your way back upstairs.

It's as though a weight had been lifted off your chest. You needed them out of the house, you'd been planning this party since you got back and made sure all the guests knew to keep it on the down low, just until they were gone.

The hours fly by, and you hardly keep track of time as you and some of your long-time friends set up the house for the party that you shouldn't be hosting, but you're Y/n Sinclair. Parties are your thing.

"Macy, you let the people in, kay? I'm gonna go get changed." The sun was beginning to set and the music was already blasting, vibrating over the marble floors of the house. Every lyric was punctuated with a shaking of the speakers that could be felt even outside.

The neighbours hated to see you coming.

You know your dad's jet was en route to Fiji and he wouldn't be able to reach you until he landed which wasn't for another six hours at minimum but by then the damage will be long done and far too late to stop.

You make your way up the stairs, the bass thumping through the house and vibrating beneath your feet. As you step into your room, your reflection catches your eye, excitement sparking in your gaze.

With a quick flick of your wrist, you reach for the strappy black and red two-piece, slipping it on, the cool fabric hugging every curve just right. Each strap crisscrosses elegantly, bold yet balanced, making you smile at how perfectly it all came together.

Next, you grab the sheer cover-up, wrapping it loosely around your waist so it drapes with a hint of movement, a playful edge that sways with you. You run your fingers through your curls, scrunching them gently to bring out their bounce, each coil framing your face in soft waves. Reaching for your lip gloss, you swipe it carefully over your lips, catching the light with a glossy shine.

One last look, and you’re ready, your heart beating in rhythm with the music below. The speakers are already blaring, the energy practically calling you back down. You step out with a final tousle of your curls, ready to join the night.

The energy crackles through the backyard as you make your way to the top of the outdoor staircase. The sun has slipped beneath the horizon, casting a dusky glow over the massive pool below, illuminated by floating lights that shimmer across the water.

The bar is buzzing with people grabbing drinks, and in the corner, the foam pit is already filling up, laughter and splashes mixing with the heavy beat of the music.

A neon sign hangs across from the bar, glowing boldly against the evening sky: The Queen of Kildare is Back. You grin, amused at the sight of it knowing it was 100% Macy's doing, and take a step down. Conversations hush, replaced by the roaring blast of excitement as heads turn your way. Hundreds of people, from familiar faces to those you only vaguely recognize from your past in Figure Eight, pause and look up, anticipation brimming in their eyes.

As you descend, your cover-up billows behind you, revealing the bold lines of your black and red two-piece. The crowd’s reaction is instant, erupting into cheers, whistles, and applause that echo across the yard.

"Y/n! Y/n! Y/n" They chant and you laugh. Every step closer to the party, you feel the atmosphere thicken, charged with that infectious blend of excitement and admiration. By the time you reach the bottom, someone’s already handing you a drink, while friends rush over to pull you in for hugs and greetings, their voices nearly drowned out by the music and shouts.

"Y/n Sinclair, s'Been a while."

There's a voice all too familiar addressing you from behind, prompting you to pivot to come face to face with a much taller Rafe than your brain could recall.

"Rafe Cameron. Long time no see." He goes in for the hug, your arms reaching over his broadened shoulders while his longer ones wrap around your waist before pulling back. He not so subtly checked you out, his tongue darting out over his lips briefly as he took you in and you did the same.

The buzzed hair sharpens his features, you think. Making his eyes seem darker, more intense, as they focus on you. His open linen shirt falls loosely over his frame, giving glimpses of his toned chest and the subtle gleam of a thin chain resting against his skin.

The shirt flutters with the breeze, barely hanging on his shoulders, hinting at the strong lines of his arms and drawing your eyes down to his relaxed, dark swim trunks.

He’s saying something, leaning slightly toward you, and his voice cuts smoothly through the bass of the party. Your eyes wander back up to his face, catching the faint smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth as if he knows he’s caught your attention.

"You look good, too good. How long's it been?" It's hard for you to think with the heat of his gaze on you, but you don't falter, never surrendering to this never-ending game between the two of you.

"About 3 years." He hums, the way he looks at you, casual yet purposeful, makes your pulse quicken, and suddenly, every sound around you fades, leaving only the warmth of his presence and the way he looks right at you, but you remind yourself to focus.

Rafe looks around the scene, eyes lingering over the wet t-shirt contest and then the game of chicken being held in the pool while others lounged on the various floaties or indulged in ungodly amounts of alcohol at the bar. As he does so, the pungent scent of weed drafts across your nostrils.

"Your old man know you're hostin' tonight?" You had to laugh, "Oh please, like he would ever let me have any kind of fun while he's in town. He and the skank are in Fiji."

The slight smirk that etches over his perfect lips taunts you. "So the house is yours?" He leans in, a little closer, closing the gap between you. "Until he comes back and banishes me again," You place a confident hand against his chest, pushing him away, "But for now, I'm here to party, and you should be too."

With that said you walk away from him, letting your hips sway with seduction radiating with each step. Rafe lets his thumb and fingers stroke over his jaw, feeling the weight of the pressure you'd just applied.

God, it was good to have you back.

The party raged on, slowly approaching its peak, body shots were going on at the bar, girls were doing lines in the bathrooms and the guys had insisted on a drunk game of volleyball in the pool.

Rafe took a break from the events of the party and watched from the sidelines on the couch, taking another hit of the vape that someone had passed to him, he's not sure he can remember who, and it wasn't relevant anyway.

The only person he had his sights set on is you. Watching you have the time of your life with your friends on the platform in the middle of the pool. Your little group, clearly intoxicated danced carefree while you'd begun to put your hands on the ground and throw your ass in circles.

Rafe choked, sitting up, some smoke coming through his nostrils at the interrupted airflow. He leaves his shirt behind on the couch with the abandoned vape, just as he heads for the pool topped hands him a beer which Rafe accepts before he gets in.

Maintaining a straight face as his body acclimatizes to the cool water he's almost immediately swarmed and roped into a round of whatever the current pool game was.

His icy gaze looks up to the center of the pool where you once were but are now nowhere to be found. "Looking for someone?" Your voice was mocking and he was grinning before he even turned around.

"I am actually." With little ripples in the water, he steps towards you maintaining a respectful distance that was driving you insane. "I was looking for someone to join me at the bar," He puts on a convincing facade but you roll your eyes, feigning innocence.

"Let me know if you find her," He slowly steps towards you and step back, "Don't play dumb with me, Y/n." Your plush lips form a gut-wrenching pout, "What do you mean?" Another step forward, another one back. The cycle repeats itself until he has you backed up against the edge of the pool.

Rafe’s hands find your waist, and before you can react, he’s lifting you effortlessly, placing you on the edge of the pool. You're reeling at the slutty display of his sheer strength.

Your legs dangle, brushing against his chest, and he steps closer, slotting himself right between them. His hands rest on either side of you, his arms framing you in as he looks up with that sly grin, every bit as teasing as you are.

“Always out here playin' games, aren’t you?” he murmurs, his voice low, a quiet rasp just for you. “Gotta say, I respect it—always sticking it to your old man, doing your own thing.” He leans in, his gaze drifting down to your lips before meeting your eyes again. “Not many people around here have the guts for that.”

You scoff lightly, though your heart skips as his gaze lingers on you, intense and challenging. “Oh, please,” you tease, rolling your eyes. “Since when do you care about any of this?”

A quiet laugh slips from him as his fingers trace slow, deliberate circles along your thigh. “You think I haven’t been paying attention to you all these years?” he murmurs, leaning closer, his breath warm against your neck.

“You might’ve been gone a while, but don't think I forgot all those nights we had our fun.” His words hang heavy between you as he pulls back slightly. Now his hand rests on your waist, his voice dropping lower.

He tilts his head, studying you with that familiar glint of mischief. “Now that you're back, I think we should relive some of our traditions, for old time's sake,” he says, leaning in until his lips brush against your jaw, light and teasing, close enough to make your pulse race. He pauses, his thumb skimming your cheek, his lips hovering just above yours, waiting. “But don’t act like you don’t want this as much as I do.”

Before you can snap back, his mouth claims yours, the kiss charged with all the years of pent-up tension and that all-too-familiar heat. His hands slide up to cradle your face as you wrap your legs around him, pulling him even closer. The kiss deepens, and when he finally pulls back just enough to catch his breath, he watches you with a smug, knowing grin.

“There it is,” he murmurs, his voice a low rumble against your lips, his thumb tracing your jaw as if memorizing every inch. “That look you get right before we make a mess of things. I knew it—you missed this just as much as I did.”

If only someone could recount how the two of found yourselves stumbling up the stairs towards your room, your soaked sheer cover-up left forgotten somewhere in the house after Rafe pulled it off of your frame.

"Shit-- Rafe," your teeth dug into the flesh of your bottom lip as you reached to open your bedroom door, horrified to see two other people had monopolized it. They hadn't even noticed the door was opened so you quickly closed it.

"What the fuck, I thought everyone knew my room was off limits." With a quick scan, you noticed items were hanging off almost all the guest rooms in the hall letting others know the room was occupied.

"Shit, there's nowhere else to go in here?" You think quickly on your feet before rushing off to get something before returning with a key in your grip.

Rafe pulls you close with a smirk as you clutch the key to your father’s room, the gleam in your eyes daring him to follow. “Breaking all the rules tonight, aren’t we?” he murmurs, his voice low and thick with approval. His hand slips around your waist as you unlock the door, both of you glancing down the hall to be sure no one’s watching.

You twist the handle and push open the door, and his hand slides down to squeeze your hip, pulling you against him. “I knew there was a reason I liked you,” he whispers against your ear, his lips grazing your skin, sending a thrill down your spine.

Once inside, you barely have a chance to lock the door before he has you pressed up against it. His lips are on yours, urgent and fierce, his hands roaming over your body with possessive ease. “Do you have any idea what you do to me?” he breathes between kisses, his fingers tracing the bare skin of your waist as he lifts your top, letting it fall to the floor. “Thought I’d forgotten?” you tease.

Rafe just about growls, dipping down to kiss along your collarbone, his hands sliding lower as he backs you towards the bed. His fingers hook under the waistband of your bottoms, tugging them down with a smirk that sends heat rushing through you.

Your heart races as you feel the cool, forbidden sheets beneath you, the thrill of defying every rule and having Rafe look at you like you’re the only thing he’s ever wanted. His hands slide up your thighs, lips trailing down your neck as he leans over you. “You know,” he murmurs, voice heavy with desire as he takes in the sight of you sprawled out before him, “I always knew you were trouble. Guess that’s why I can’t stay away.”

With a smirk, he leans in, his lips brushing over yours as his hands explore, both of you savouring the thrill of being tangled up in each other once again.

"Look at these perfect fuckin' tits." He curses, big hands cupping your breasts, kneading them and rolling your nipples between his index and thumb. Your back arches slightly with a gasp, chest pressing up into him and he laughs.

"Still so sensitive here, angel? Some things never change." He reminisces and you roll your eyes, "Fuck off, Rafe." With the blink of an eye, his much larger frame was caging you in from above, his bulging biceps giving him an erotic juxtaposition in comparison to your head.

Balancing himself on one arm he slinks his palm around the expanse of your throat with a weighted pressure. "Been gone so long you forgot your manners? Mm? That's fine, I'll be sure to fuck some sense back into you."

Your eyes flutter shut at his filthy words as you feel his hand move and begin to work you between your legs. "Your pussy's fuckin' soaked--shit." He hisses, gaze hungry and his body acts on his thoughts faster than you can register.

A particularly loud moan slips from you as you feel his tongue skillfully lap over your folds, splitting you open as the warmth of his tongue protrudes into your core. "Yes, fuck! Please, don't stop Rafe." You moan, one hand reaching down to hold him by the hair and it hits you that he'd shaved it all off.

You let out a frustrated gruff, both hands fisting the sheets while you're forced to feel the vibrations of his sick laugh running through you at your dramatics. Even the tip of his nose had been covered in your slick, your juices running down his chin as he ate you out like a man starved.

He wouldn't be surprised if they could hear you from outside, but he knows everyone is far too high, too drunk or both to hear you. It wasn't long before your legs were beginning to shake and came with his name falling from your lips over and over like a prayer.

Taking deep breaths to recover from debatedly the best orgasm you've ever experienced, Rafe walked over to the far wall, out of sight, doing something you couldn't see before returning.

Without speaking he scoops you up into his arms, bridal style, another shameless display of his strength but it would be a lie to say it didn't drive you crazy. "What-what are you doing?" Your questions are ignored until he approaches the bubbling hot tub.

A wicked smirk curls across his lips as he eases you onto your feet in the warm water, his hands lingering on your waist, keeping you close. He gazes at you with that knowing glint, the steam rising around you both.

“Feels nice, doesn’t it?” he murmurs, his eyes trailing down your figure, unapologetic. His fingers skim over your sides, sending a shiver through you that’s from anything but the water.

“Are you really just gonna stand there?” you call, feeling the thrill of his attention but wanting to turn the tables, your voice laced with playful challenge.

“Oh, don’t worry,” he chuckles, unfastening his swim trunks and letting them fall to the side with a carefree grin. “I plan on joining you,” he says, slipping into the water and closing the distance between you two with smooth, unhurried steps. You take a hard swallow at his size, you don't remember him being this big.

He was going to destroy you.

You raise an eyebrow, matching his smirk. “Pretty bold of you, Rafe,” you say, your voice teasing as he wraps an arm around your waist, pulling you flush against him. “Just like old times, hmm?”

“Better than old times,” he murmurs, dipping his head so his lips graze your ear, his voice a low rumble. “Because now, nothing is stopping us.” He punctuates his sentence by pressing his body up against your back, elevating you a bit so your torso leans over the edge of the tub, granting him easy access to you.

"Fuck, can't believe your ass got even more fucking perfect since last time." His hand raises and comes back down with a loud spank that pulls a sinful moan from your throat. "Rafe, stop teasing." You whine, arching your back and pressing back against him.

His composure already weekend, he decided to let you get away with it this time before he lined up the swollen head of his thick cock with your entrance, "Better grab onto something." That's the last thing you hear before you're being impaled on his dick, your upper half immediately falls forward, and he stills, giving you a second.

You're breathless, it feels like his cock was taking up all the room in your lungs. Some water had splashed over the ledge but that was the least of your worries. Your mind was hazy and focused on Rafe's grunts that escaped him with every snap of his hips.

"Wish you could see how hot you look right now. The Sinclair wild child knows how to take big dick like a champ." His words run straight through you like electricity, fanning the flames of the burning heat that was beginning to form in your belly.

"Shit--This pussy was fuckin' made for me, y'know that?" You moan at his possessive statement. You can only nod, your body had gone limp long ago as he drilled into you. "R-rafe! I'm-" As if you weren't close enough, his fingers begin to rub over your clit aggressively and you jolt with a shriek.

"Oh- fuck, don't stop! Fuck! I'm gonna cum! Please, Rafe." You beg, over and over, arms hanging onto the edge of the tub for dear life as more water splashes around you.

"Wait for me, hold it until I say you can come." You're chewing your lip raw, desperately trying to hold yourself back as he wrecks you from the inside out, his moans getting more frequent, a little more airy and breathless as he tumbled toward his edge of pleasure.

"Cum with me, Angel." Your body spasms as you finish together and he leans his weight against your back, his laboured breathing fanning your ear as you come down from your high.

"Not bad, princess." You couldn't respond and Rafe took note of this, carefully holding you up with one final smug remark, "Hope I didn't wear out the queen of Kildare."

[harrywavycurly]

Handle With Care: Sunshine and Citrus

Masterlist: Here

CW: Language, miscommunication, jealousy Harry and one brief mention of your ex and angst like hella angst.

Tag List: @gmikaelson @ell0ra-br3kk3r @tulips4harry @mellamolayla @mads3502 @empathyroad @idk199o @sassamanda77 @maudie-duan @macy-tpwk @namoreno @coralferrio1 @stylesftcher @mema10 @cherryloveshs @umadirectioner @styleswithaseaview @sunflower-tia @fangirl509east @howling-wolf97 @outofthisworl-d @triski73

A/N: There’s only one more part left in this mini series and I am so sorry in advance but just know this does have a happy ending so just hold on okay? 😅

Summary: Harry is on a mission to show you he’s not an asshole but little does he know you’re also on a mission of your own✨📦

Harry feels all the knowledge he has about flowers, as little as it may be begin to slip away as he stares at the multiple bouquet options that are in little black bins right in front of him. For the life of him he can’t seem to remember the color of the flowers he ruined when he ran into you coming off the elevator almost a week ago, so he’s struggling to even know where to start in his efforts to replace them. He chews on his bottom lip as he scans his options for the third time, his eyes landing on an arrangement that has different hues of orange and yellow tulips with the smallest bit of red from a few roses tucked in as well.

A small smile slowly spreads across his face as he reaches for it because it reminds him of all the colors of a sun and if anyone deserves to have a bouquet of flowers that look like the sun it’s you. The girl who smells like pure sunshine and flowers rolled into the perfect mixture with a hint of something fruity, a smell Harry found himself missing so much he even went as far as trying to recreate it with candles and an odd room spray he found at a home decor store and while he likes the way they smell, nothing compares to the real thing.

“Thank fuck you finally picked something we’ve been here for ten bloody minutes staring at flowers like a pair of weirdos.” Niall’s statement of annoyance snaps Harry out of his thoughts as he rolls his eyes at Niall rant, having momentarily forgot he was even standing next to him the whole time he was staring at the bouquet options.

“Why are you even here?” Harry asks as he heads towards the checkout counter so he can get the flowers wrapped up in paper with some string.

“Because we both know you’ll somehow manage to ruin this whole thing if you do it alone.” Niall states as he looks at the roses next to the checkout counter while Harry just lets out a scoff as he places his bouquet on the counter for the nice woman to ring up.

“I’m more than capable of picking flowers for someone you tw-”

“You’re like an overgrown toddler Harry. Always making a mess of things that should be simple especially when it comes to her.” Niall cuts him off making Harry’s cheeks get warm at his words that even though they may be true doesn’t make them hurt any less. But when Niall looks over and sees Harry just rubbing his lips together he lets out a sigh and gives him a harsh pat on the back. “But don’t worry H m’not gonna let you fuck it up this time.” Niall says trying to reassure him as Harry smiles at the woman as she hands him the bouquet that’s been beautifully wrapped in white paper and some ribbon that’s tied in a nice bow.

“Good luck honey. I’m sure she’ll love them.” Harry feels his face get warm at the woman’s kind words and all he can offer in return is a tight lipped smile and a nod before he turns around and heads out of the store with Niall following behind him.

“Why won’t you just let me give you her number so you can better arrange this whole thing?” Niall asks as the two of them begin to walk the short distance back to Harry’s apartment complex.

“I already told you why.”

“Okay yeah but what if-”

“I don’t want to hear any what ifs okay? I want to get her number myself because I want to make sure she actually wants me to have it and that’s the end of it. We both know if I just text her she’s way too nice to tell me to fuck off so I’ll never know if she wanted me to have her number or not.”

“I get all that Harry I really do. But what if she’s out of town for a week and you leave these on her door and they’re ruined by-”

“Niall.” Harry stops walking so he can turn to face his friend who is usually always trying to look out for him but in this moment he’s not doing much besides annoying him. “I don’t care if she’s out of town for a month the point is she will see that I tried and that’s all I really care about right now. I need her to see I’m not an asshole.” He explains with a sigh as he runs his hand that’s not holding the flowers through his hair. Niall just nods and turns his head in the direction of Harry’s complex.

“You gonna leave a note with the flowers or just drop them off like a secret admirer?” Niall questions with a raise of his brow as he looks back at Harry.

“Fuck no I’m not just dropping them off are you insane?I’m not letting some random asshole take credit for my flowers.” Harry answers making Niall laugh as the two of them start walking again.

You rub your lips together and try to fight off the nerves that are beginning to creep back up as you stand in front of Harry’s apartment door, the pep talk you gave yourself in the elevator long forgotten as you rethink your whole plan. But before you can give yourself anymore time to possibly back up and turn to head back down the hallway to the elevators you raise your hand up and knock on the door. Not trying to be nosey or be seen as a creep to anyone that might glance out of their peepholes or come out of their front doors, you just stand there and do your best to listen for footsteps or any signs that someone is home but after a solid two minutes of silence you come to the conclusion no one is going to answer.

The sigh that you let out if a mixture of relief and also disappointment, having texted Niall asking for Harry’s apartment number so you could try to talk to him about the other night when he showed up at your door talking about zaps and a party but ended with you accidentally hurting his feelings. As you turn to make your way towards the elevators you begin trying to work through what exactly he was talking about when he mentioned feeling a weird static like shock every time you touch him but you’re certain that if something like that was happening to him then you’d have to feel it as well and yet you haven’t, not even once. But most importantly you begin to wonder why you can’t seem to just let the whole thing go, why you can’t just forget about the tall tattooed man who’s been nothing but mean to you since you met him minus the one time he showed you an ounce of kindness when he was drunk standing in your door at one in the morning.

“Why does he have to be so cute?” You mumble to yourself as you step into the elevator. “Like really cute.” You add with a sigh as the doors close and you press the number for your floor. All of a sudden you feel annoyed with yourself for letting Harry’s looks get in the way of the fact he’s not nice nor does he seem to be interested in you, because even when he knocked on your door to invite you to his party he only did it on Niall’s behalf and hours after the party even started meaning he didn’t really want you there.

“He doesn’t like you. So we are letting him go.” You say with a firm tone, you nod at your reflection in the elevator door just before it opens up on your floor. “He doesn’t-” you are about to repeat your new mantra but the words get stuck in your throat as you look down the hallway and see Harry bending down to leave a bouquet of flowers on the welcome mat outside your front door while Niall stands off to the side with his back against the wall.

“Jesus Harry you writin’her a damn novel? Just sign the card and let’s go. I’m hungry.” You hear Niall’s voice from down the hall and you instantly look around for a place to hide so neither of them see you, deciding you don’t really know if you’re ready to be face to face with Harry yet since just a few moments ago you were ready to swear him off and now he’s suddenly leaving you flowers.

“Oh fuck off you’re always hungry.” You hear Harry’s voice snap at his bestfriend and you feel your cheeks get warm at how deep it is but you don’t have time to wonder if he’s always sounded like that or not because you then hear them begin to walk towards the elevators because Niall’s keys he keeps on his belt loop begin to jingle with each step. Quickly you dart into the stairwell and thank your lucky stars they don’t opt to get in some cardio and choose to use the elevator instead.

“You think she’ll like them?”

“I mean yeah why wouldn’t she?”

“Because I don’t know? What if that’s the kind of flowers she hates? Or what if she’s allergic to them or-”

“What happened to not wanting to hear any what ifs?”

“You’re such a twat.” You cover your mouth with both hands to stop yourself from letting out a laugh at Harry’s choice of insult and to keep yourself from audibly awing as he voices his worries about if you’ll like the flowers he picked for you.

“Yeah yeah whatever at least m’not in-” You don’t get to hear the rest of Niall’s sentence due to the very obnoxious sound of the elevator doors opening. You chance a glance through the small window on the door to the stairs and let out a sigh of relief when you see the doors to the elevator have closed and the arrow shows they are heading down.

“Just because he left flowers doesn’t mean he likes you.” You repeat over and over again in your head as you quietly exit the stairwell and begin to slowly walk down the hallway towards your front door.

“Love, Harry.” You whisper to yourself as you hold the card from the bouquet of tulips and roses that are in a yellow and white polka dotted vase on your kitchen counter.

It’s safe to say you’ve been staring at the flowers and the card that was tucked inside them ever since you picked them up off your welcome mat two days ago. It’s also safe to say you have been doing everything humanly possible to not run into Harry since then because you just don’t know what you’d say to him. You’re trying to figure out what exactly it all means, because if you wouldn’t have heard Niall complain about how long it was taking Harry to write the card you never would’ve thought something so sweet could be written by him, the man that usually is extremely short and snarky towards you.

“Tried to pick some that reminded me of you. Hope you like them and they make you smile. I really like it when you smile.” You read aloud hoping that saying the words out loud and not just in your head it’ll help you uncover the secret message that you feel is hidden somewhere within the three simple sentences. “He likes it when I smile?” You question while placing the card down next to the vase.

“Doesn’t mean he likes you.” You remind yourself as you turn to go into the living room, ready to get comfortable on your couch and decide what you want for dinner before starting a movie. Right before you sit down you hear three loud knocks on your front door making you raise a brow because you don’t have plans with anyone tonight and you haven’t ordered anything to be delivered. When you get to your door you look through the peephole and you feel your eyes go wide at who you see standing on the other side.

Harry tries not to let the idea that you’re avoiding him enter in his mind as stands outside your door after his second round of knocks. He thought you moving into the same complex as him would make it easier for him to run into you but he’s quickly learned that’s just not true. Much to his disappointment he hasn’t even gotten a whiff of your floral and sunshine scent in the elevators and he finds that extremely odd because usually it lingers long after you’ve left the room. So naturally that has him convinced that you just haven’t left your apartment recently or you haven’t been home, but when he sees the flowers he left on your doorstep two days ago are gone he knows you’ve at least been home in the last forty eight hours. When he reaches up to knock one more time before giving up he hears what sound like locks being undone so he takes a small step back to give you some space once you open the door.

Now Harry swears he’s not one to really believe in the whole love at first sight thing, thinks it’s silly and probably just a really hearty dose of lust getting mixed up with love. But something about the way your eyes almost get a whole shade brighter when they meet his has his knees wanting to give out and his mouth to hang open as he tries to come up with something, anything to say since he is the one who knocked on your door after all. He finally feels a brief moment of clarity when your eyes break away from his and travel down to the box in his hands.

“Uh hi Harry what-what are you doing here?” He hates how unsure of yourself you are as you cross your arms over your middle as you stand in front of him in a pair of bike shorts and a pink and purple tye dye shirt. He knows it’s his fault that you don’t know how to act around him, he’s the one who can’t seem to get it together around you but that’s also the whole reason he’s here.

“I got these for you.” You look down at his hands as he holds the box out for you and that’s when you get a good look at the picture and label on it, it’s a dish ware set that looks like the ones he broke when he dropped your box. “Sorry if they aren’t the exact same as the ones you had I looked everywhere for-”

“You didn’t have to do that.” Harry feels the corners of his mouth fall a bit at your words, he absolutely did have to do this because he’s the reason you don’t have plates and bowls but he knows you’re just trying to be nice per usual.

“We both know it’s the least I could do.” He counters making you just rub your lips together as you take the box from him.

“But you didn’t do anything right? Nothing happened?” You repeat the same words he snapped at you with when you confronted him after you watched him drop your box, but to his surprise there’s a smile on your face as if you’re teasing him.

“You know that’s the uhm-only box I’ve ever dropped.” He admits with warm cheeks making you quirk a brow at him as if you don’t believe him. “Really out of all the moves I’ve done over the years your box of dishes is the only casualty I’ve ever had. I had a perfect track record.” He explains making you let out a light chuckle as you shake your head.

“Sorry I ruined that for you.” You apologize as you look down at his feet that are once again covered by his scuffed brown boots.

“You didn’t ruin anything.” It’s the way he says it that has you swallowing nervously as you dare to look up at him and you almost have to take a step back at the intensity of his stare. “I’m sor-”

“It’s okay.” You don’t want to hear him apologize right now because you’re not sure you’d be able to keep yourself together if he does it while he continues to look at you as if you hung the moon and all the stars. Harry just runs a hand through his hair as he nods his head but he doesn’t turn to leave like you assumed he would, instead he takes a small step towards you and reaches out to gently tuck a strand of hair behind your ear.

“I uhm-sorry I just you had-a hair.” He stumbles over his words as if his tongue doesn’t know how to help him form proper sentences. Meanwhile the spot on your cheek his knuckles lightly skimmed when he brushed the hair behind your ear feels as if it was stung by a bee but without the pain, leaving behind a warmth and slight tingling feeling.

“Are you okay?” Harry asks a few moments later when concern replaces his earlier embarrassment, he bends his knees a bit so he’s eye level with you as you stare off into space with wide eyes and pink cheeks. You don’t know how to answer him, because inside you feel all warm and tingly but your mind is cloudy as if it’s stuck in a fog and can’t find its way out leaving you unable to do much besides just stand there staring at him.

“Uh-uhm I think-” Before you can finish your sentence Harry is grabbing the box just before it hits the ground having slipped out of your hands in your dazed state. “Thank-thank y-you.” Normally Harry would be flattered at someone getting so tongue tied around him but in this moment all he’s feeling is worried as he looks you over and realizes something isn’t quite right.

“Let’s get you off your feet okay? You look like you’re about to pass out on me.” Harry takes your small nod as his permission to softly put his free hand that’s not holding your box of plates on your shoulder so he can quickly maneuver around you and walk into your apartment. He rushes over and places the box on your counter, only briefly catching a glimpse of the flowers he left for you sitting near your sink in a vase before he’s back at the door standing behind you.

“Sorry it’s uhm just me.” He whispers when you flinch at his touch as he places his hands on both your shoulders so he can help you turn around so you’re now facing inside your apartment with him close behind you. “Let’s go to the couch okay love?” He suggests before he takes a step so he’s now by your side and kicking your front door closed with his foot, his eyes don’t leave your face as he drops his hands from your shoulders so he can wrap an arm around your middle so he can help you walk since he can tell your legs seem a bit wobbly.

You feel like you’re floating as Harry practically drags you to your couch, a trail of warmth and tingles left everywhere his hand touches you in the process. Right now it’s your hip he has a firm grip on and it’s sending the tingling sensation right down to your knee almost making you take Harry and yourself out but luckily he manages to get you to the couch before that happens. Your heart is beating so fast you think it’s going to explode as Harry sits on the edge of your coffee table right in front of you so he can get a good look at you.

“Are you okay? Do you need-”

“Why-why’d you get me-me the flowers?” Your words are rushed and jumbled but Harry understands you because you watch him turn and look towards your kitchen where they are sitting on your counter.

“I just want to fix what I broke.” He answers when he turns back to look at you, he wishes so badly he could have an inside look at what’s going on in your mind because the way you’re staring at him has him thinking you’re about three seconds away from kicking him out or you’re about to start crying and in this moment he’s not sure how well he’d handle either option.

“They remind me of sunshine.” You whisper as you place a hand on your chest and try to help clam yourself down a bit. Harry feels a grin take over his face as you tell him the exact reason why he picked that arrangement in the first place.

“They reminded me of you.”

“Sunshine?”

“Yeah.”

“What does that mean?” You question making Harry let out a deep breath as he tries to ready himself to explain evening to you.

“From the moment you opened your apartment door I haven’t been able to get you out of my head and a massive reason for that is because you smell just like sunshine and flowers and-”

“It’s called sun washed citrus.” You correct him making him quirk a brow. “It’s my body wash. It’s called sun washed citrus not sunshine and flowers.” Your words are less mumbled as you begin to gain a little bit more control of yourself. Harry chuckles and nods as you blink at him a few times and he’s honestly not even sure you’re really understanding what he’s saying but that doesn’t stop him from continuing on.

“I was mean to you and I’m sorry. I swear I’m never like that-I’m a nice guy but I think I just knew you were too good or too nice for me from the first time you smiled at me.” You watch him slowly place a hand on your knee and you feel grateful that you’re already sitting down because it sends a tingling jolt down to your toes. “I didn’t want to hurt your feelings or make you upset and I’m sorry that’s all I’ve seemed to do but I think I realized the real reason I just can’t get my shit-”

“Stuff.” You interject making him laugh as he gives your knee a little squeeze.

“Sorry. I know why I can’t get my stuff together around you and it’s because I uhm-well I uh I really like you and it’s got me all messed up.” Harry tries to focus on how much lighter he feels after admitting he likes you, as if the weight that’s been holding him down ever since his party has been lifted off his chest. But he also can’t stop himself from trying to get a sense of how you’re feeling about the words he just let slip out, and right now he really can’t tell because you’re just staring at him with big eyes and a blank expression on your face.

It’s not until Harry removes his hand that’s on your knee so he can use it to run through his hair that you begin to feel the fog lifting from your mind allowing you to think more clearly. You try to register everything he just said to you, the fact he likes you and how he really seems to enjoy how you smell but you can’t make sense of how his feelings for you had him acting like a complete jerk. So with a clear head and a full control of your limbs you push off the couch making Harry quickly stand up and hold his hands out for you to grab just incase your knees give out of your legs feel wobbly still.

“I don’t think you really like me Harry.” Of all the things Harry was prepared to hear you say that sentence wasn’t on the list. He gets a sinking feeling in his gut as he watches you look down at the floor. “You don’t treat the people you like the way you treated me. Thank you for the flowers and the plates that was very nice and-”

“I’m sorry I’m-I’m so sorry for everything I did and said to you I never wanted to hurt you I just-”

“But you did.” When you look up from the floor Harry feels like he’s been punched in the gut, your eyes are glossy and the very tip of your nose is turning a light shade of pink as you sniffle a few times. “I know you’re sorry and I do forgive you for everything but I don’t think you did all of that because of how much you like me. We aren’t in junior high anymore Harry we aren’t mean to the people we have crushes on.” Your words hit him right in the chest as you move away from him and towards your kitchen.

“I’ve seen glimpses of the nice guy you say you usually are but then you just turn right back into this jerk and I’ve already dated a guy who treated me like dirt and it didn’t end well so I’m-I’m ending this before it even starts to save us both the trouble because you’ll just get bored with me while I’ll probably fall in love with you and it’s not fair so you-you should just go.” You cross your arms over your chest and let out a shaky breath as you try your hardest to keep yourself held together, but Harry can see very clearly that you’re moments away from a breakdown and he hates knowing that it’s because of him and the way he’s made you think he’s exactly like your shitty ex boyfriend.

“I swear I’m nothing like him.” He tries to get you to look at him as he takes a step towards you but you just shake your head and take a step backwards until your back is hitting the edge of the counter.

“Then why do you act so much like him?” Harry feels like the wind just got knocked out of him as you stare at him right in the eyes and break his heart piece by piece with every word that comes out of your mouth. He doesn’t try to argue with you because there’s nothing to argue about, you’re right he’s been acting exactly like your ex he just didn’t realize it until now.

“Can I try to explain why I’ve been acting that way? I know it doesn’t make sense right now but I swear there’s just something about you that has me-”

“Please just go Harry I can’t-can’t do this right now.” Your voice is low and watery making Harry feel sick to his stomach at the thought of you shedding even a single tear because of him but he can’t do anything about it since you no longer want him in your space. He lowers his head and lets out a long sigh before he starts to head for your front door.

“I know you felt it.” You turn your head and find Harry already looking at you from where he’s standing by your front door. “I don’t know what it felt like to you but I know you felt something when I touched you and that’s why you looked like you could pass out. So I know you at least feel something for me.” You feel your heart sink to your stomach as he runs a hand over his face to try to distract from the sound of his own sniffles. “If you ever change your mind and want to maybe start over you know where to find me.” With that Harry opens your front door and steps out into the hallway, quietly closing it behind him leaving you alone in your apartment with nothing but your thoughts.

Harry does his best to hold himself together until he makes it to his apartment, only letting out a few shaky breaths and some sniffles in the elevator. When he finally closes his apartment door he can’t hold back anymore as he sinks to the floor with his back up against it. He brings his hands up to his face as he lets out the first of many tears he knows are coming, he swears he’s had his heart broken before but the feeling he has now is as if someone reached inside of him and ripped the entire organ out of his body and replaced it with a black hole. He didn’t see it ending like this with you especially since it ended before it even began, he didn’t imagine for a moment that you’d want nothing to do with him but he can’t blame you because he brought all of this upon himself with how he treated you.

“God I’m a fucking idiot.” He mumbles between sobs as he thinks back to how he really thought some flowers and plates would magically fix everything and have you jump into his arms and want to be with him the same way he wants to be with you. In a moment of pure selfishness he allows himself to cling to the small shred of hope that maybe in time you’ll want to start over with him, you’ll let him show you the man he really is and the story of the two of you can get the happy ending he so desperately wants. So even though he knows it’s probably just going to end up hurting him, he lets a tiny smile form on his face as he tells himself that you just need time and then you’ll come around because you felt it, you felt the zap just like he did and that has to mean something.

[dailydoseofsluttythoughts]

~♡Brat♡~

"Nemiiii, I wan' that one!... Pleaseeee..?" You flashed your big doe eyes at him, pointing at the bright pink juicy track suit you had yet to acquire.

You had been meaning to buy one for quite a while now but could never find one in the color you want, unfortunately.

"No. The jacket alone is $113, baby, an' you haven't quite been on your best behavior today" He replied, never breaking his gaze away from the Jordans he was looking at. He was referring to the 8 bags he was already holding. (Even though you had repeatedly told him you could pay if he didn't want to).

Your arms flopped down at your sides in defeat, the bangles and bracelets on your wrists clinking together as you pouted up at your fiance.

You felt the familiar sting of tears well up in your eyes at the denial. You really wanted it. And you'd be damned if you weren't gonna get it by the end of the day.

You smirked as an idea popped into your head, and stepped closer to Sanemi. Your left hand came up to grab at his right biscep and your right hand moved to lay on his chest.

Your tan wedges added a good few inches to your height, making it easier for you to reach and whisper into his ear. "Oh really? So there's nothing I can do to change your mind, huh?... Bumer, I was thinking some time on my knees might do the trick" You knew you had him wrapped around your well-manicured finger by the way his eyes shifted slightly to towards you in contemplation.

He grunts under his breath, "Your on, princess. You make me cum an' it's all yours baby, " He leaned closer to you as he spoke.

You smiled up at him, your glossy lips shining and your sickeningly sweet Victoria's Secret perfume intoxicating him. His head was getting foggy at just the thought of your plump lips slickly wrapped around his already hardening cock.

You led him out of the store, looping your arm in his as you shut your brain off and let him lead you to the family bathroom in Macy's. Good thing it was a Wednesday and there wasn't many people here at the mall.

You and Nemi liked coming here on Wednesday's because you had worked at this mall in your teen years and knew that Tuesday was the day that all of the restock items came into the stores, and nobody's comes to the mall on Wednesday, so you get first picks at all the good stuff.

The two of you had already been to Victoria's Secret, and bought some new sets fro special occasions, Zumiez to get Nemi some new pants, - there was a sale - and to get you some new beanies. You had also spent almost $200 at Spencer's, buying brand new 'adult' toys to try out later. You had also stopped at Forever 21 to get a new dress for you and Nemi's date night on Saturday.

But for now here you were in a family bathroom that was, surprisingly clean. Nemi sat down on the closed toilet seat, after unbottoning his pants and shrugging off his jacket and tossing it on the floor in front of him, leaving him in a white wife-beater.

"Kneel on that. Now." His voice was stern and dominating. The lowness of it combing over your body, almost forcing you to kneel down in front of him.

"Well? Get to it slut... Don' tell me your backing out now, after allat talk earlier" His crystal white grin was sinister, but nonetheless put you into a deadly trance.

He didn't wait any longer and pulled out his raging hard-on. He wasn't the longest you had seen, - you had never really liked them too long - but his girth. My god, you could go on for days about how perfectly his thickness fit inside your holes.

You knew you had to be leaking at this point. You could feel the sticky wettness on your thighs. His dick was leaking at the tip, giving away how excited he actually was right now.

You breathed in deep, inhaling the heavy scent of his musk. It made your vision hazy and clouded your brain. Your head with filled with non stop thoughts of his cock.

Finally, you leaned forward and gripped the base with your small, manicured hands. Your gaze never left his as you left small kitten licks up and down the sides of his manhood, tracing the prominent veins lining his shaft.

Your mouth came back up to the top, tongue trailing along the bottom, where he had the thickest vien out of all of them, your pink tinted lip-gloss leaving kiss marks along his thickness.

You popped his tip into your mouth and sucked slightly. "Oh fuuuck, that's good, baby" He grunted out, in between heavy sighs.

His reaction pleased the hell out of you, motivating more movement from your tongue as you sunk further down his dick. You pulled back up and hollowed your mouth around him, creating a stronger suction than before.

His hips stuttered and lifted towards your hot mouth. "Shit!" He murmured under his breath as one of his large hands came to the back of your head, pushing you down on his cock as he fucked into your throat harshly. "Bet you like this don' you, baby?" You answered by humming out a muffled 'mhmm'.

"Course you do, your my good girl, after all. M'perfect baby. You belong to me. Nobody else can do what I do, huh? I've ruined you, haven't I?" His voice got more coarse and his hips sped up their pace. You could tell he was close. He always talks like this when his on the brink of coming.

You reached up to the hem of your strapless bubble-gum-pink dress and pulled it down, letting your plump breast fall from their confines. The silver of your pierced nipples shining in the harsh bathroom lighting.

Letting go of him, you grabbed both of your breasts and lifted yourself up into your knees, wrapping them around him as you continued to suckle on his tip.

"Holy shit! M'gonna cum princess, g'na cum down that pretty throat then m'gunna take you home and fuck that perfect little pussy" His pants were getting faster and faster as he chased his release.

You gazed back up at him through tears and subtle lash extensions. You hollowed out your cheeks and sucked harder, simultaneously moving your tongue around his tip and sliding your tits up and down his shaft.

"Holy fucking- shit baby, so fuck- so fucking good" His breathing was speeding up and shallowing out. You could tell he was about to cum, so you kept to what you were doing until you heard him suck in a quick breath and felt his hips stuttering.

His warm fluids flowing down your throat, so hot you thought it might be boiling. His hand came down unto the back of your head and his cock pushed to the back of your mouth, sending his cum further down your throat, giving you no choice but to swallow.

As you pulled off and caught your breath he spoke, "fuck baby, keep sucking me off like that and I'll buy you whatever the fuck you want"

You smirked, and wiped the corner of your mouth while standing up. Grabbing the straps of your dress you readjusted yourself, before turning to Sanemi. "Maybe I will then" you turned to the mirror in the bathroom. And reapplied your cherry lip-gloss.

He shrugged his pants and underwear back up and came behind you to rub your hips with his much larger hands.

You finished touching your face back up and turned to meet his lips in a soft kiss. You practically melted into him as his arms circled around your waist.

He pulled away and grabbed your hand, lacing your fingers together, and walking you out of the bathroom.

"Let's go get you that track suit, sweet girl"

[mp0625]

Hiiii hope u are okay 🥰 could ya write something about Vince where reader (his gf) gets hurt. She was supposed to be at the game but instead was in the hospital. Him being worried when he couldn’t find her in the stands. Whatever comes to your mind :)

Sushi

Taglist. Masterlist.

Vince Dunn x reader

Anon Request: Hiiii hope u are okay 🥰 could ya write something about Vince where reader (his gf) gets hurt. She was supposed to be at the game but instead was in the hospital. Him being worried when he couldn’t find her in the stands. Whatever comes to your mind :)

A/N: I’m doing pretty good. Damn I forgot how much I like Vince!! I’m still taking requests for Vince Dunn or any players/Drivers!

TW: Angst, Car Cr*sh

“Hey baby, sorry I’m running late. The meeting ran late at work again.” Sighing while you walk to the car.

“It’s ok, you’ll get here when you get here. Be careful driving, there was lots of traffic coming into the arena.” He said with concern in his voice

“I will, I promise. Love you Babe!! I’ll be in my normal seat and should be there by the anthem.” You said with a smile in your voice.

“Love you too, baby.” “Hey, one more thing, can we go get sushi after we, you know what?” He asked quizzically with a laugh at the end.

“Definitely! That sounds delicious.” “See you at the game.” You said as you hung up.

As you were pulling out of the parking garage of your office building, a car blew through a stop sign. T boning your car. Causing your car to flip on to its side. Witnesses come running calling 911 and seeing if they can help.

As he stepped onto the for warm up and he didn’t see you he thought, “She hasn’t made it in yet, but I know she’ll be in for the anthem and opening face off.”

As Vince went back down the tunnel he still did not see you and that was starting to concern him but to calm his nerves he told himself that you were probably getting a snack.

When he came back onto the ice for puck drop. He looks to where you normally are sitting, and he doesn’t see you. “Where is Y/N at?? She’s probably in the bathroom. Hopefully she’ll be back for opening faceoff.” He thinks to help calm his nerves.

When he got that goal against Bobrovsky he looked to see his good luck charm in the stands and you still were not there. He thought maybe you were in the bathroom again.

When the game was over, with the kraken winning he didn’t feel the elation or the happiness that the rest of the team or the fans were feeling. He was very concerned about you. As he went into the dressing room he got his phone out of his bag seeing all of the calls he got from your phone. Listening to one of the voicemails. “Hello this is nurse Macy from Kindred Hospital Seattle, I’m calling to let you know that Y/N has been in a wreck and you were in her phone as her emergency contact. Please call us back to this number and we can give you some more information about her condition.” Vince almost dropped his phone in shock.

When trying to redial your phone number his fingers slipped multiple times and almost called Matty Beniers who was across the dressing room. When he finally was able to call your number it picked on the second ring. “Hello”

“Y/N”

“Sir, is this Vince?”

“Yes”

“Mr. Vince, This is nurse Macy, Y/N was involved in a T bone accident her car flipped onto its side. She seems to be OK other than a few broken bones right now she is asleep.”

“Oh thank everything! She is ok.” He said with a big sigh of relief. “Can I come see her?”

“Yes, you can.” “See you soon.” She said hanging up.

Vince breathes a sigh of relief knowing what happened, but is very concerned about what happened to you. He quickly showers and gets dressed to go see you.

The thing that wakes you up thinking it was a nurse coming to check your vitals. But instead it was Vince holding a box.

“Hi, I brought sushi!” He said with a smile.

Taglist: @studioreader @honethatty12 @slafgoalskybaby @swissboyhisch @topguncultleader @wondershells @cixrosie

If anything looks wrong or is messed up please let me know my tumblr was fighting me to post this. It looks ok to me, but I might have missed something.

[ilovebuckers5]

⁺˚⋆｡°✩needy✩°｡⋆˚⁺

kate martin x fem!reader

themes :

-fluff (if you squint your eyes)

-smut☺️

warnings :

-sexual content

-18+

it was the night that kate and her team would come back from the away game they had two days ago. me and kate weren't always in touch 24/7 while she was away which was actual hell for the both of us. we would only call once or twice a day and could only text a little bit throughout the trip. i spent most of my time taking care of our dog, macy. going on walks more than usual, going to dog parks things like that. since i didn't have my human version of a golden retriever i spent most of my time with our border collie.

every time i got a call from kate i would drop everything to answer. i would jump into my bed and kick my feet while she rambled on about how good she did and i of course would praise her since i watch all the games on tv. words can't even describe how much i need to hear her voice.

this away game was to indiana and kate claimed that there weren't many views she found enticing but she still sent me as many sky pictures as she could. she always try's to share wherever she's going with me. she's caring like that.

i got a call from kate this morning saying that she's finishing her packing. she even facetimed so that she could show me how organized her suitcase was. (it was not organized at all.) we called all the way until she had to get back on the road to get to the airport. the second she got in the car i heard taylor swift playing from the car speakers. enchanted to be specific.

"is that my favorite?" i squeal as i here the beginning of my favorite song ever.

"i forced them to play it baby" kate whispered back into her phone. "alright hun we are headed to the airport now i'll text you once i'm on the plane. i love you"

"i love you too" the words leave my mouth while an immediate feeling of loneliness lingered on my tongue. i hung up the phone and rolled over to see macy sitting next to me with her tongue out. she quickly got riled up as i poked at her floppy tongue.

we played around the apartment for a little while before i sat down to catch my breath. the amount of times i picked up my phone to check if kate texted or called was uncountable. i set my phone down after seeing that she hadn't reached out yet.

my eyes began to get heavier and as i was about to fall asleep i heard macy whining from across the apartment. without hesitation, i stood up and rushed over to where macy was which happened to be in me and kate's room. there my dog was rummaging through a small pile of kate's sweatshirts. i crouched down to the floor to pick up one of the jackets. i remembered that before kate left she asked me to wash this exact pile so thank you macy for reminding me.

after washing the sweatshirts i couldn't help but slip on one of them. it was my favorite after all. a tan-ish fleece sweater that felt perfect around my body. once the laundry was done i took the sweater and began hanging the others up in kate's closet.

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

a couple hours had passed and kate already sent me a couple texts letting me know where she was and how she's doing. i was still in the sweater, cuddled up on the couch watching friends with macys head under my elbow. it honestly seemed like macy was more interested in the show than i was. i couldn't get kate out of my head. everytime my phone vibrated i would jump up to grab it off of my charger and see if my girlfriend texted me.

most away games are somewhat like this but this one felt different. as if the girls were out of state for more than a couple days. this felt like weeks without my girl. and let's just say that my attachment issues have gotten worse and worse everytime kate left.

after a couple more episodes of friends i finally got a text from kate saying that she was getting off the plane in 1 hour then it would be a 2 hour drive. that meant that it was time to make dinner. before kate even left i decided on making lobster bisque for the first time. it just felt right.

before i started cooking i obviously had to play music so i turned my cooking playlist which is literally just taylor swift songs but who cares. i threw on a pale yellow apron and began to get my ingredients out.

the actual time it took to cook the meal was only around a hour but i had to run to the store to get heavy cream. along with the bisque i made some asparagus and prepared a couple drinks.

by the time i finsihed setting everything up on our table, i got the text from kate saying she was only 15 minutes away. for finishing touches i lit a candle and put on noah kahan to play in the backround.

just before kate pulled into the drive way i rushed to my room and switched into some light blue lingerie. i put my shorts on along with that same tan sweater. i came out of the room just in time to catch kate as she walked in.

the first thing i saw when my girlfriend walked through the door was the largest smile ever. my body immediately latched onto kate's chest wrapping my legs around her hips and wrapping my arms around her back. the sound of her laughter in real life was like the biggest breath of fresh air going through my lungs.

i dug my nose into the crook between her neck and shoulder. her chin rested on my back and i felt her laughs run down my spine sending even more serotonin through my veins.

"i missed you so much" my voice was muffled under her skin but by her squeezing me tighter i knew she still heard me.

"i did too princess" kate's hands moved down to under my thighs to lift me off of her.

i flailed my hand to the right to show her the dinner i had set up for us. her hands went over her mouth to cover her absolute awe. she giggled against her palm and pulled me into another hug placing a sloppy kiss on my lips.

"you did this for me?" she said as she made her way to the dining table. i nodded back eagerly while swaying my hips back and forth.

there were so many things we talked about during dinner it's hard to list it all. half of the conversations were me telling her how good she did during her game and that i was thinking about her the entire time she was gone. i noticed her beginning to blush when the lace bra strap peeked through her own sweater.

"i just noticed are you....wearing my sweater?" laughed followed out of her mouth after she swallowed a spoonful of the food.

"yes. yes i am" i said confidently while holding my chin in the air.

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

after dinner was finished we decided to go back to our room to watch a movie. we decided on watching my favorite, lady bird. once the movie started playing i could feel kates hand wandering up my shorts closer and closer to my panties. before anything else happened she lifted my leg on top of hers and left it to rest there for almost halfway through the movie.

throughout the movie i could still feel her fingers teasing with the hem of my (her) sweater and pulling at the drawstring of my shorts. small whines left my mouth everytime i felt her warm hands against my bare skin. a soft shudder left my mouth when her hand finally wrapped around the back of my hips, pulling me ontop of her lap. the movie was out of the picture now.

kate leaned against the headboard as i straddled her hips. her hands had a strong grip on my waist once i found a good position to sit in. without speaking i inched my lips closer towards kate's and gently pressed a few kisses against her lips.

the kiss began to deepen as kate's hands moved between my ass and thighs. i felt her fingernails dig into my soft skin causing me to gasp against her mouth. she slowly shoved her tongue through my lips and intertwined it with my own tongue.

as the kiss got sloppier i began to grind my hips against kate's jeans. the rough material peeked through my thin shorts just enough to send soft moans up my throat. kate's grip on my waist for tighter ad she moved me at a faster pace against her.

i moved my lips down to her jawline, taking my time to kiss every inch of her. my lips left a trail of saliva as i made my way down to the collar of her jacket.

"take this off for me baby" i whispered to kate, letting my lips graze over her ear.

without hesitation she tore her jacket off along with the tank top underneath, leaving her in a just a black nika sports bra and her jeans.

i continued kissing down to her chest, leaving dark marks across her collarbones and neck. kate let out a whine once i began to suck on the sweet spot at her chest.

"baby please...." kate groaned out.

her voice became louder as i made my way down to her abs still making sure to leave kisses in as many places as i could.

once i reached her belt i didn't wait any longer. i couldn't. i unbuckled her belt while kissing around her hips. kate lifted her hips up enough for me to slide her jeans off and toss them to the floor. i pushed myself back up to her lips, placing kisses on and around her lips as i slowly took of her boxers. one last kiss was pressed against her lips before i moved back down to her thighs.

i got a grip on her lower thighs and pulled her to the edge of the bed so that she was sitting up. just to tease her, i left a trail of kisses all the way from her knees to her bare pussy.

as i got closer i used one of my hands to gently spread her legs enough for me to fit my mouth against her cunt. i slowly circled my tongue around her clit, taking my time just how kate likes.

her hands quickly were tangled in my hair as i sped up my pace. my lips molded around kate's clit, sucking in all of her. eventually i felt kates hips buck against my face making a smirk grow on my lips.

"fuck" she tried to stay quiet but covering her mouth with her hand or a pillow.

my tongue lapped through her folds quickly causing kate to let out groans that couldn't be muffled. i continued sucking around her pussy until her thighs were wrapped around my ears making it harder to hear her beautiful voice. i didn't mind though.

"fuck right there" i heard her moan out.

kate's heels slightly lifted up off of the floor once i forced my tongue deeper in her. i finally curled my tongue in just the right place to make her cum on my lips. her thighs loosened their grip revealing her screaming my name.

i pulled my mouth off of her cunt and moved back up her lips. kate's hands were still entangled in my hair but eventually moved back to my hips. i crawled ontop of kate's lap back into a straddling position. our lips continued to melt together while i gently began grinding down on her hips again. she pulled away for a second to push her self back against the headboard again.

once we were back at our first position, kate wrapped her hand around my back scooting my closet to her chest. i felt her fingers fiddling with the sweater that i had on. without saying a word i took of the sweater revealing the light blue bra i had put on for her before she got here.

her hands immediately gravitated to my tits massaging them in a circular motion through the lace. she surprisingly did not ask to take my bra off so she began to move her hands closer to my thighs that were still covered in a pair of shorts.

"may i?" kate teased at the edge of my shorts.

i nodded enough for her to slip off my shorts and throw them in a pile across the room. now that i was left in only my matching bra and panties kate placed her hand right against my clothed pussy. she used three of her fingers to apply pressure against my entire cunt.

a loud whine left my mouth followed by strings of curse words. kate took this as a sign to slip off my soaked panties and toss them away from us.

"my turn then right?" kate cocked her head to the side right before dipping two fingers in my sopping wet entrance. her fingers began pumping in and out at a slower pace. it just wasn't enough for me. i started to move my hips enough to ride her fingers sending an electric feeling through my skin.

my head tilted back at kate hit my g spot. a couple tears began to fall down my face now that kate started speeding up her fingers. she slowly inserted a third finger causing my back to arch.

i tried my best to not look into kate's eyes knowing that she was probably smirking at how much noise i was making.

soon enough kate drove her fingers deep enough to make me cum for the first time. i road out my orgasm and began to work at my next one. i looked into kate's eyes for a split second triggering her to press her lips against mine. since her hands were busy fucking me and holding moving my hips at a steady pace, i moved my hands up to her jawline twisting her head to fit her nose right next to mine. like a puzzle piece.

fuck i missed this.

[mysecretlittlelibrary]

All Things End

Pairing: Moonknight trio x Reader

Word Count: 3.6k

Warnings: I mean none specifically it's just a generally minorly sad fic lol

Genre: angst & kinda fluff

Summary: Finding out your boyfriend's secret drastically changes the dynamic of your relationship; "And all things end // All that we intend is scrawled in sand // Or slips right through our hands" - Hozier

***

The first time you met Steven was coincidence, a happenstance, courtesy of one of your friends- kind of. They share an apartment building and after visiting her you ran into the anxious history buff in the elevator, or he ran into you. You were already in the elevator, your friend Macy lives on the floor above his, and when it opened for him to get on he walked in without looking up from the papers in his hand and crashed right into you because of course you didn't react quick enough when he came careening in. His papers scattered and he jumped back so far a cat would be jealous.

"Going down?" You asked him lightheartedly, holding the door open button for him.

"Oh bullocks! I- I'm so sorry, I'll take the next one."

"Nonsense, half your papers are in here. Plus it's just me in the elevator. Afraid I'll bite?"

"No!" He shook his head so frantically you'd thought it might fly off.

"Well then get in. We can ride down together and you can pick up whatever it is that had you too enraptured to look up."

"I'm sorry. Again I- I hadn't meant to-" Steven had scrambled to grab his papers as the elevator door closed.

"Hey I get it. When the reading is good it can really take you to another world. No hard feelings." You chuckled. He offered an awkward half laugh in response before silence fell over you.

"Are you new here?" He asked after a moment.

"What?"

"Are you new? In the apartment building, I mean. I don't mean to pry I've just never seen you around before is all."

"Right well that's probably because I don't live here actually, I'm just visiting a friend. She lives above you."

"Oh." He frowned and you couldn't help but tease him a bit at the way he deflated.

"Why? Were you hoping to see me more often?" You winked.

"No!" He'd almost sounded indignant when he answered and then his eyes widened as if he realized what he said only after the fact. "Not- not that I'm opposed to seeing you more often it's just that well- we just met. I have no idea who you are so I can't really say I'm hoping for anything yet. A-again it's not that I'm particularly opposed to seeing you again or anything." He was rambling. You thought it was cute.

"Shame. I'd certainly be happy to catch a glimpse of you next time I'm around." You winked at him as the elevator finally reached the lobby of the building. He'd been too stunned to respond as you got out of the lift. "See you soon 7th floor." You'd tossed over your shoulder as a goodbye and left him to his own devices.

It would be a while before you saw him again, a month or so before you happened to catch him again. This time on your way up. He's coming out of the elevator as you're waiting for it.

"Ah, you're paying attention this time!" You joke.

"Oh! It's you again." He blinks at you. The two of you swap places, him getting out of the elevator while you get in it. You press the button for your friend's floor.

"Yes. Hi, mister 7th floor. Bye, mister 7th floor." You smile as the doors close. When you reach your friend's apartment you can't help but ask her about him.

"What do you know about the other people in your building?" You ask her.

"Ask whatever question you actually want an answer to." Macy chuckles.

"There's a guy who lives on the floor below you. Curly brown hair, olive skin, brown eyes, about this tall I'm guessing but he hunches over, he's super anxious although that could just be me making him nervous." You rattle off descriptors.

"If you're talking about who I think you're talking about no it's not you, he's always that nervous, at least every time I've seen him. I call him squirrely. I dunno much about him though, not even his name actually, he's quiet and minds his business, seems nice though. He's polite at least." Macy shrugs. "Why do you ask?" Her eyes narrow with a curious smirk on her lips.

"I've run into him a couple of times. He's- curious, so I was just gathering intel."

"Gathering intel? Stay away from him y/n you'll break the poor boy." She laughs.

"I'm not gonna break him!"

"Not on purpose but he's not the type you usually go for, I don't think he can handle you."

"Well, he's been holding up as well as he needs to so far." You say.

"Don't tell me you've already taken a liking to him."

"I dunno if I'd go that far yet we've only spoken twice but he is cute." You shrug.

"I mean- try if you must babes." She muses.

And try you did. Eventually. It was slow going before you even decided to head down that road. You ran into him a few more times first with a teasing line or two each time and ultimately after a series of 'see you around 7th floor's he gave you his name and so you asked him to dinner.

Your first date had been expectedly awkward. Steven was so nervous he rambled through most of your meal which, from anyone else would seem so unattractively self-obsessed you'd have blocked them before you even left the restaurant, but from Steven, it was somehow so charming to see him so animated. Maybe because you know it's a nerves thing and not indifference to subjects other than his own interests.

Several dates later Steven, to your surprise, asks you to be his girlfriend. You're still not sure where the confidence to initiate that next step came from, you always thought you'd be the one asking him to go steady if it got that far, which it did but he made the move. It was a bit rushed and awkward in the way Steven usually is but it worked for him.

"Y/n." He'd been walking you home from a date and stopped you at your apartment building before you could go inside.

"Yes, Steven?"

"We've been seeing each other for some time now and well I've really had fun getting to know you and all so I was wondering, I thought that perhaps at this point you'd consider making it official. With me. I mean only if you'd like to it's not necessary. What we've got going on is good too. I'm okay with-"

"Steven you're rambling." You'd had to stop yourself from giggling at his frantic sentences avoiding your eyes.

"Right. I'm just trying to ask... would you like to be my girlfriend?"

"I would love to." You'd smiled at him and kissed him faster than he could process. He was easy to fall in love with. Charming even through his perpetual awkwardness, caring, funny, and one of the smartest people you know. Everything felt, right when it came to him. You didn't have to question things with him. He made things easy, so easy it was strange to even consider that things would go wrong.

When you woke up in his bed this morning and realized he wasn't beside you, it was more than a little strange. First of all, you know he doesn't work today, it was his selling point in turning your date last night into a sleepover. There's no note and the stillness of his apartment makes it obvious he's not in the bathroom or in the kitchen or anywhere. It's still early too. You turn over possibilities in your head as you shuffle to the bathroom to brush your teeth and wash your face. Just as you complete those tasks and exit the bathroom having put on your moisturizer, you hear the door to the apartment unlock and swing open.

"You're back." You say.

"Yeah hey." The word sounds- wrong. As though, despite your eyes recognizing the man before you, your ears are hearing a stranger's voice.

"Steven?" You frown and he freezes immediately. It's as if he didn't even realize it was you he spoke to. There's a pause, it's only a moment or two but it feels so tense it might as well have lasted several minutes.

"Hello, love, I didn't know you'd still be here." He smiles awkwardly. Something still sounds off about his voice, the accent feels forced, and his tone is awkward in a way that even for Steven is out of place.

"You didn't know I'd still be here? That's- not exactly the greeting I expected." You scoff, crossing your arms. "Where did you go before 9 A.M. on a Saturday? And what is going on with your voice?" You ask. He's still again. It's like you can see a loading screen on his face before he speaks.

"I- uh well," his head tilts suddenly and he clears his throat. "I've been feeling a bit of an itch in my throat and wanted to slip out for some medication, perhaps surprise you by making breakfast even but it appears I didn't return quick enough. I'm sorry, and good morning by the way my darling." Steven's voice sounds better when he speaks again and he walks over to you to wrap his arms around your waist.

"You didn't mention an itch yesterday." You point out.

"I didn't want it to ruin our evening. No need to worry love it's nothing some tea can't cure." He smiles.

"Well, then I'll make you some tea."

"Nonsense, you're-"

"I'm your girlfriend of almost a year, I think there's no problem with making you tea, even if this is." You chuckle.

"Alright, if you insist. Thank you my darling." He smiles at you. Like I said, he makes things so easy. It would be strange to think something was wrong here. Right? You don't want to press the issue but there's a gnawing in the back of your mind that something is not quite right.

A girlfriend?! You've kept a girlfriend from me all this time?! How the hell did you even pull that off? The voice in Steven's head is angrily yelling at him in the reflection of the bathroom mirror.

"You had a wife once upon a time Marc. I think I'm allowed to date." Steven rolls his eyes, he's whispering though- so as to not alert you of the back and forth.

The problem isn't you dating Steven, the problem is I didn't know about her! And she doesn't know about us! What exactly is your plan huh to keep her in the dark forever?!

"You're overreacting."

You have to tell her or it'll ruin whatever thing you've got going on with her.

"No!" Steven shouts on accident, and you gasp at the sound of his voice.

"Steven honey are you okay?" You call looking at the bathroom door from the kitchen.

"Fine, love! Just- uh- dropped something!" He cringes at the not even remotely convincing lie.

Trust me Steven- it's the secrets and the lies that fucked things up with the wife you so conveniently mentioned earlier

"I'm not telling her Marc, none of this is her business. It's hardly mine even. Leave her out of it." With that order, Steven stomps out of the bathroom, taking a moment to calm himself before joining you in the kitchen.

You obviously didn't know it at the time, but that morning could probably be marked as the beginning of the end. After it, you started to notice weird things about Steven's behavior. Sometimes he'd leave suddenly with some half-assed excuse or you'll catch him talking quietly to himself and you can tell he's more tired these days but you don't bring it up. As strange as it all is you want to give Steven the benefit of the doubt. He's never given you a reason not to trust him.

You: Hey Steven, I left something at your place, gonna stop by to get it later tonight.

At this point, you and Steven have keys to each other's apartments so you shoot him a text before you leave work about something you left at his that you need to pick up. You'd gone over to his yesterday after work at his behest and ended up forgetting a flash drive when you left. When you get to Steven's you knock on the door a couple of times but when he doesn't answer you let yourself in. You just need to grab your drive and you'll be out as soon as you find it anyway. The apartment is empty when you walk in and you quickly find the flash drive sitting on the floor by the couch where you'd tossed your workbag the night before upon arrival. When you bend down to reach for it though, you hear a sound from somewhere in the apartment. You startle, you know Steven's not home so you scramble for a makeshift weapon, you think someone is breaking in. You grab one of the many books Steven leaves littered around his apartment and crouch behind the couch, out of sight of the window where you heard the sound come from. The window slides open quickly and you hear the intruder scramble through it, into the apartment. You don't give yourself too much time to think about it as you hurl the book at the stranger who immediately lets out a curse when the hardcover collides with his body. You're not sure where though, you ducked back behind the couch too quickly to see it land.

"Who's there!? I'm not in the mood to kill you but I will if I have to. Just so you know." His voice rings out in the small studio. You grab another book from the coffee table as silently as you can and prepare to chuck it when he inevitably finds you behind the couch. You poke your head around the side of the furniture to try and get a look at him. He's in some sort of costume, a greyish-white full body outfit that looks like it's made of mummy wrappings, and a hooded cape. If not for the fact that he's currently breaking into your boyfriend's apartment you might think it's cool, but under the circumstances, it seems silly and wrong for the situation. Like going to a funeral in a wedding dress, or the beach in a snowsuit. So wrapped up in your internal mocking you miss the moment when he sees you until he says so.

"Shit it's you." He says and you pop up fully because that sounds like recognition though you can't see him you definitely don't recognize the voice.

"Do you know me?" You ask, book in hand still ready to throw it at him if necessary. He holds up his hands in front of him as you watch the suit dissipate before your eyes and reveal your boyfriend, but not. It's his face for sure, you'd know it anywhere, but you'd heard him talk and that was not your boyfriend's voice coming from that body. Not to mention his demeanor is different, even in his placating defensive stance you can tell the man in front of you carries himself differently.

"It's just me. Steven." He says carefully. The voice you hear is so distinctly American coming from your very British boyfriend's mouth.

"Bullshit. I don't know what you are but you are not my boyfriend. What have you done to him?" Your hold on the book in your hand tightens as you prepare yourself to chuck it at the imposter's head.

"Nothing! I swear." He says with a small shake of his head.  "Dammit Steven, where are you?" He grits out so quietly you don't quite catch the words.

"And I'm supposed to believe you?! You snuck into his apartment and you sound nothing like him. I'm pretty sure this is how the bodysnatchers movie works. Except you're really shitty at pretending to be him."

"I'm not a body snatcher." He scoffs.

"Right I'll just take your word for it." You roll your eyes. There's silence for a couple of moments and then something changes in the man's face.

"Darling... put the book down we- need to talk." This time when he talks it sounds exactly like you know Steven to sound. This only further freaks you out at this point and you hurl the book at him, immediately picking up another. He dodges the book you threw, just barely "Y/n!" He takes a step towards you but you hold up a hand.

"Stay. There. I don't know what is going on but if you come any closer I will scream so loud this entire building will call the police."

"Love I would never hurt you."

"How can I possibly know that? Why did you just sound like a different person? What was that... costume? Who- what are you? Is everything you've told me a lie?!"

"No. I am Steven Grant, your boyfriend of almost a year. I work at a museum gift shop. This is my apartment. I have... something called dissociative identity disorder. It means... my mind is fractured in a way. So while I am Steven Grant your boyfriend there is another- consciousness that shares my body. His name is Marc Spector and the uh, costume is his. He does... work for an Egyptian deity when I'm not working or with you. You've met Marc before actually. Months ago when you spent the night and I told you I was sick."

"Work?" You ask.

"Some would probably label him a vigilante of sorts." Steven shrugs.

"Oh." You say.

"Oh? That's all you have to say?" He frowns.

"You've been lying to me for months Steven be glad all I have to say right now is 'oh'." You say.

"I haven't-"

"A lie by omission is still a lie. If I hadn't come here to get my flash drive you would never have told me." You mutter. "I- I need to think. I'll call you." You say turning and leaving the apartment before he can say anything else.

The dissociative identity disorder part of all this you think you're processing very well. That's something you can make sense of, something you already know of and can research. This, part time vigilante business though you- struggle to wrap your head around. Steven doesn't hear from you for a week and it's rough. Marc tries to be there for him as best he can but the anxieties of you never speaking to him again are quite unbearable. Meanwhile you go to work. Like nothing is wrong, you go in every morning and leave every evening, trying to hold onto the things that aren't affected by the information constantly swirling in your subconscious, even when you aren't actively trying to come to terms with it. Steven is entitled to his privacy. He doesn't owe you every detail of everything that goes on in his life, it's not that. You've been together a year and- it hurts to think he still doesn't trust you. That's where your head is. Why else would he keep these things secret for so long?

Before another full week passes Steven has worried himself into an absolute state. Not eating or sleeping through the night he looks even more disheveled than usual. Marc can't stand it anymore and without Steven realizing it has marched the body to your apartment. At least if Steven saw your face maybe- maybe it would ease him slightly, even if you weren't ready to speak to him. The frantic knocking at your apartment door startles you as you sit on the couch. When you glance through the spyhole and see Steven with his messed up hair and tired, sad eyes your heart aches a tiny bit. You open the door with a confused frown on your face.

"What are you doing here Steven?" The words aren't harsh, in fact, they're almost quiet.

"I know you- said you'd call but I can't. I can't keep sitting with all the ways I screwed things up, wondering if you're ever going to speak to me, contemplating just how much you hate me, and- just tell me what to do and I'll do it. How do I fix things between us? I can't stand not speaking to you, not seeing you, not knowing if we'll ever be okay again." His words are frantic and the sentences almost feel jumbled with how fast he's speaking but you hear every desperation filled word.

"I don't hate you, Steven." You say flatly.

"How do I fix this? What do I do to make you love me again?" He asks.

"Do you trust me, Steven? At all?" You ask instead of offering an answer.

"More than anyone I've ever known." He answers so immediately it's almost enough for you to believe it.

"Yet, you keep these secrets that... say otherwise."

"I have no more secrets and- it wasn't just mine. Marc- he doesn't trust easily and he doesn't know you I couldn't- I didn't want to, expose him that way no matter how much I trust you it wasn't just about me. Please, you have to know I didn't do any of this to hurt you. I love you more than anything, you are my world. I can't lose you." Steven says and the look in his eyes makes you look away from him. You can't tell him what you're thinking really, that when people say something is forever either way it ends, so instead you say what will bring him comfort.

"You haven't lost me." You tell him. You don't think he has. You don't want this to be the end. So, you pull him into your apartment and his arms wrap around you so tightly you can hardly breathe. You let him hold you like that on your couch, as if he knows you'll slip through his hands if he lets go. You stay there listening to his heart beating in his chest, feeling the comfort of his arms, the heat of his body against yours, and you let yourself sink into those feelings. Eventually, his breathing evens out and you swear he's fallen asleep and in the quiet of your apartment, you murmur your thoughts out loud. "We didn't get this right but we did our best, and we will again." You say to yourself and you know, deep in your heart even if you can't tell him tonight. You know that all things end.

And just knowing that everything will end should not change our plans, when we begin again.

***

[glitteringsunshine]

Pairing : Leroy Jethro Gibbs x Reader Wife.

Situation: You tease Gibbs all the day , sending him sexy texts. What happens when you get home from work?

“ Good Morning kids” I said .

“ Good morning Mom” my twins chirped.

“ Good morning darling” Jethro says kissing me.

“ Good morning to you too Mr Gibbs” I giggled.

“ Ohh get a room you two” our son said.

“ Stop it silly” our daughter smacked her brother.

“ Look Dad made his special muffins for you.” “He kept an entire special batch for you . He won’t let us touch them.” Our kids continued.

“ You know that’s why I love your father. Well that and other reasons” I winked , making him blush.

“ Okay kids, my mom and dad are gonna pick you up from school and you all can drive to Stillwater to Jackson’s place.”“ Your Dad and I will join in tomorrow for the weekend. Love you.” I said kissing their foreheads.

“ Forgetting something my love.” Jethro says.

“ How can I ever forget you handsome” I said as we kiss.

“ Mum and Dad are making out” my son laughed.

This time Jethro and I both smacked him.

“ Ouch guys” he laughed rubbing his head. “ Ohh , Mum Dad , our debate team made the finals.”

“ Atta boy , Atta girl” we said messing with their hair.

“ Ahh I just did my hair” our daughter giggled.

“ They show their love this way” our son chuckled.

“ Ohh mum” my daughter continued. “ I was thinking of writing about some cheap and environment friendly alternatives to expensive cosmetics and make up for the school paper. Will you take me to the mall next week? I would like to do a piece on affordable clothing. Maybe we can go to Target and Macy’s ? They are having a clearance sale. Zara too. I would like to do a take on fall winter collection, specially on rocking rich jewel tones .”

“And she lost me there.” Jethro laughed. “ That’s why I asked Mum to take me” she laughed. “Mum's style rocks. She even makes your hoodies look hot.”

“ Hey my hoodies are perfect” Jethro complained.

“ You are not really the most stylish guy Dad” my daughter said. “ But you do pull of what you wear.”

“ That’s because he is so handsome silly, and charming too” My son laughed. “ He managed to sweep Mum off her feet”.

“ That he did” I said hugging Jethro as the kids joined in for a group hug.

“ OK Daddy will drop you off to school. Bye kids.”

“ I will pick you up from work too.” Jethro said walking me to the door.

“ Ohh watch out for some messages I send you Jethro.” I said naughtier winking at him before joining the Msec in her motorcade.

…

I have been sending naughty messages to Jethro the entire day. When he came to pick me up from work, he smiled, the kind of you have been teasing me all day and you will pay for it now smile.

As we pulled in to our garage, and got out of the car, Jethro slammed me against the car , kissing me.

“ You my dear have been driving me crazy today. You are gonna pay for it now he said.”

“ Well I am your little slut, your whore, and I have been naughty. Why don’t you teach me a lesson” I giggled.

“ You remember your safewords darling?”

“ Yes”

“Good, now kneel you little slut”.

He unzipped his pants as I took his hard cock in my mouth. He did not go gentle. He started fucking my face, exactly like I wanted him. I wanted to go rough on me. I loved to have my mouth full with his cock.

To be honest , our sex life is the perfect mixture of vanilla and kinky. I jokingly call it neopolitan ice-cream. There is vanilla , and there is the kinkier strawberry and chocolate.

He held my face bobbing it up and down as he fucked my face. I flicked my tongue trying to take him all in.

“ Oh Y/N Oh Y/N” he moaned in pleasure grunting out my name as I eagerly sucked on the precum oozing out of him. He was close I could feel it. He increased his thrusts and shot his load into me. I swallowed every bit of it proudly. He pulled me up, gently kissing me, Licking the cum that had drooled from my lips.

He sat on the hood of the car and bend me on his knees, kneading my ass before spanking me. I felt his hard on beneath me. I was dripping. He lingered me, rubbing my clit and pumping his fingers in and out of my pussy. He build the pleasure in me ,suddenly stopping when I was just on the edge.

“ Darling ? What do you want ?”

“ To fucking cum Jethro”

“ You won’t get your way with that attitude my little where. Ask me nicely”

“ Ohh Jethro, my Darling. Please, please let me cum” I pouted and batted my eyelids making mu perfect puppy dog face.

He pushed his fingers deep, making me cum . As I came down from the euphoria of the climax, he bend me against the hood of the car entering me from behind. He moved with strong hard thrusts. I could feel my pleasure vibrating through my entire body. This was reflected in his voice and moans and grunts of pleasure.

“ Yeah baby take it like a good girl. Take it like a good little slut.” “ Ohh wow Y/N. Like that just Iike that.”

It wasn’t long before I came on his cock. He didn’t slow down but rather paced up his thrusts. He kneaded my breasts and puzzled at my neck. As he shot his load deep in me , I climaxed again , my pussy wall clenching his cock.

He pulled out , turning me around to kiss me.

“ Wow .” I said, catching my breath .

“ Don’t think I am done with you yet baby” he chuckled. He picked me up and carried me to the couch. He sat me down on it before going down on me. I came over and over on his tongue. He then pulled me on to his lap. I straddled him , rubbing myself against his hardness. “ Ride me” he said. I moved my hips to adjust his cock against my pussy before entering him. He thrusted hard and deep, while sucking my nipples. He bit me down my neck and breasts and kissed me. I knew that will leave hickeys and I gotta have to wear turtlenecks the entire weekend , but at that moment I didn’t mind. The sensations of his Dick hitting all the right spots and his tongue on my books was driving me crazy. As he slipped a finger in my asshole , I was reached my climax.

“ Ohh ohh ohh Jethro, like that , just like that . Yeah baby. Ohh fuck , fuck ,Ahhh ohhh. “

I was glad Jethro was holding me. My legs felt like jelly. He was arching his hips into me.

“ Baby I am going to cum again .” I said.

“ I am close too” he said. “ Together then?”

He moved a few more times inside me.

“ Baby, Now he said” .

“ At his command I came on his cock. He started shooting his cum inside me in loads.

“ Ohh Baby , Y/N , you have been so good. I love you so much.” He said panting. He was still inside me and semi hard.

“ Ohh Jethro. Thank you . Thank you so much. I love you”

[heygerald]

Falling Without A Harness - Chapter 5

AU where Tom Ryder is still an asshole, just not a psychotic one. When he has good news, but no one to share it with, Parker invites him along to her brother's birthday party. A moment of weakness, or a moment for him to prove he's more than just his Hollywood ego?

read the story here: prev / next

"—and Jody said she was going to wear something simple, maybe jeans and a t-shirt, but I'm not really sure I want to match that vibe or go for something a little more, you know, fun. Maybe I could finally break out the bucket hat tonight," Colt's voice droned on from the phone tucked indelicately into the crevice of her neck and shoulder. Parker was only half listening, as was the usual when it came to her brother's incessant rambling about anything related to the pretty blonde camerawoman, and while he talked, she made work of slowly peeling strips of painters tape from the freshly painted wall. The ball in her hand was nicely sized by this point of the conversation. "So, anyway... uh, wait, what was the point?"

"Was there a point?" she mused aloud. "I stopped listening when you started talking about some pony she rode once at her twelfth birthday party."

She heard him snap his fingers. "Right—the birthday party."

"Hers or yours?"

"Mine! Listen, I know that you all put a lot of work into planning this shindig—"

"Shindig? God, you're old!"

"—but I would really appreciate if you told me what to expect tonight. Just a hint will do. I'm not trying to show up wearing dress shoes to a disco if you know what I mean."

Parker stuck another piece of tape onto the ever-growing ball with a blithe snort. "I never know what you mean."

"Park," he whined, much like a child, and not the thirty-something year old man that he was. Was this year number thirty-seven or thirty-eight? She should probably figure that out before putting candles on his cake. "Come onnnnnn. Just tell me. Just a hint!"

"And ruin the surprise? No way, Jose."

"But it's my birthday surprise! You can spoil it for me. I mean, realistically, no one would blame you if, maybe, you accidentally let the surprise slip. It'd be expected coming from you, actually."

She frowned. "What do you mean it would be expected coming from me?"

"Well, you know, you can't keep a secret to save your life."

Parker tossed the ball of tape into the trash and picked up the broom with an indignant scoff. "Excuse me, I am a very good secret keeper."

A long winded and high-pitched whine followed, and she winced at the volume of it. Parker switched the phone to her other ear, certain that between her brother and Melissa she had permanent hearing damage.

"Oh, so now all of the sudden you're a locked vault!" he blathered on. "Where was this dedication to silence when I got sick at Macy Lindwigs wedding and you spent the entire evening telling everyone you could find?"

An image of Macy Lindwig, dressed to the nines in a beautiful handmade wedding dress, staring in horror as her brother puked in an azalea bush three minutes before the ceremony started came to mind.

"Oh, I totally forgot about that," she snickered, the memory almost too sweet to ignore now that it had been brought back up. "You ruined her heels that night, you know. What was I supposed to do? Not tell everyone?"

"For starters. Or, at the very least, you could have refrained from blabbing about it at Christmas," he muttered petulantly. "Grandma never looked at me the same way again. She still won't let me near her rose garden."

"Cause and effect," Parker chirped. "You drank one too many tequila shots the night before, and thus, you have to suffer the fate of Grandma judging you every Christmas Eve."

"Miami Vice premiered the night before!" he argued, shouting, in what she suspected was a deranged manner. Parker hoped he was somewhere public; perhaps a grocery store or laundromat. "Just another example of how you can't keep a secret for the life of you, not even when your brother's good name is at stake. Your only true sibling, might I add."

"And here I thought I was an orphan found in a box."

She could hear Colt kicking something, palm clasped over the speaker as he whined, before he was back. "You're worse than Judas, you know. You ruin lives just for the fun of it, no silver needed."

"Are you offering silver?"

A cough. "Uh, I mean, I'm a little tight on silver at the moment. I think I have a free sub from Publix somewhere around here."

"A coupon. Wow. So generous."

"It's a punch card, and those aren't easy to fill out, you know," he huffed indignantly, obviously put out that Parker wasn't going to accept his lackluster offer. "What if I say pretty please?"

"Ha! Nice try. I happen to like Jody, so even if I wanted to tell you what we're doing tonight—which I don't—I'm not going to. She was really excited to help me plan this year."

Some spluttering followed her resolution, before he was kicking something again. Apparently, whatever he kicked was harder than he thought, however, and the next moment her brother was wheezing in pain.

"Jesus, take it easy, alright? You're going to need your toes for tonight."

In a breathless voice, he weaseled, "tonight at...?"

But Parker was no novice when it came to keeping secrets from her brother, and so she didn't fall for the trick. "Ha, nice try," she snorted while stooping to sweep her pile of dust and paint chips off the ground. Shades of green and white stained her hands, but she didn't bother to clean them off. It would be a pointless endeavor, after all, considering what they had planned for Colt's birthday party later that evening. "I'm trying to stay on Jody's good side."

"Both of her sides are good sides," was his immediate response, something wistful coloring his tone. "She's gorgeous. If you haven't noticed."

"Trust me," Parker deadpanned with a blithe glance at her own disheveled appearance, "I've noticed."

"Do you think I should bring her flowers?"

"To your birthday party?"

"Girls like flowers. Plus, she's planning the whole thing."

"I helped!"

"I'm not bringing you flowers to my birthday party, Park. It's not about you, you know."

"Right, of course, how could I have forgotten?" she deadpanned. However, despite his disinterest in showing her any gratitude, Parker smiled at the concept that there was a man out in this world so infatuated by a woman, that he not only spent all his time talking about her, but he also wanted to bring her flowers for no good reason. If only she could find someone like that who wasn't her brother. Wishes and wants, she supposed. "As nice of a thought as that is, don't bring her flowers tonight. They'll end up wilted by the time she gets back home from the party. If they aren't totally trashed first, that is."

His tone pitched higher, eagerly. "Trashed? Why would they be trashed? Are we doing some floral vandalism tonight? Oh!" Colt cried, hands clapping together. "Are we going to a wreck-it room? I've always wanted to do something like that. You know, somewhere that wasn't on a set, anyway, where I'm being beat up for a living with props."

Parker covered the speaker of her phone to curse at herself. While she hadn't ruined the surprise, Colt was like a dog with a hambone, and was not likely to let it go anytime soon.

She cleared her throat and attempted indifference. "Not even close," she said, but it didn't sound super convincing, and with an exasperated huff, she threw her hands up. "Jesus, Colt, you're going to get me into trouble! Just chill out. Jody should be picking you up soon, anyway."

"Picking me up soon for...?"

Colt's whining was interrupted by the tinkle of the front bell, and as she switched her phone back to her right ear, Parker took a moment to scoop up the paint-splattered tarp sprawled across the floor.

Melissa had been on to something with her suggestion to repaint the store, and while they had only gotten the walls finished over the past two and a half weeks, the mossy green color with gold accented picture frames really gave some life back to her shop. It still had that musty smell, as well as a pair of flickering lightbulbs from the janky electrical sockets, but they were definitely taking a step in the right direction. The color made everything feel cozier, and once they coated the bookshelves with shades of blue and yellow and replaced the overhead fluorescents with something warmer, she thought it might look like an entirely new store for the price of a few gallons of paint.

Not to mention the color stood out from the recent tan and brown trend that had swept across Hollywood hills. Win, win.

"Ugh! Stop trying to spoil your own surprise and let it happen, alright? You're going to love it," she pacified half-heartedly while booting a stool out of the way. Too deep of a breath had the smell of laquear and paint fumes killing off some braincells, and Parker dropped the tarp along with the rest of the paint materials with a cross-eyed huff. "Plus, it was all Jody's idea, so if you hate it, I would keep that to your..."

Parker paused halfway up the aisle.

On the far end of it, a brown and black colored dog sat patiently wagging its tail at her. Its tongue was sticking out of the side of its mouth, but despite Elon Musk's predictions about the existence of intelligent life in the galaxy, she was pretty sure that the local population of Hollywood mutts had yet to grow opposable thumbs capable of opening a door.

She blinked at it.

"Er, listen," she muttered into the phone, gaze darting past the dog, but not seeing its owner. "I have to go. There's a dog situation that I need to take care of."

"A dog? I've been asking you for years to get a dog, and now you finally decide to get one on my birthday! That's so totally fu—"

Parker hung up before he could complain any further, and slowly tucked her phone into the back pocket of her jeans. The dog barked at her, as if excited to finally have her attention.

"Er—hi. Did you—how did you get in here?" she asked.

It responded by tilting its head to a ninety-degree angle. She stared, waiting, as if the language barrier would suddenly disappear.

Unsurprisingly, it didn't. The dog barked a second time.

"I don't have any treats on me," she said again, not sure else what to say, but certainly feeling like she should say something. It trotted towards her, and though it seemed friendly at first, when it stuck its head into her crotch to take too deep a sniff for comfort, Parker jumped backwards. "Ah—fuck! Buy a girl dinner first, huh?"

She sidestepped the dog, hands splayed out in front of her like she was a robbery victim, and did her best to avoid being felt up as the dog followed her towards the storefront. It nosed her rear end, and Parker let out an undignified squeak.

"Jesus! I know the humane society is underfunded and all, but this is a little ridiculous, don't you think?" she asked it.

The dog darted in front of her, nose going right back for the crotch, and Parker just barely managed to leap onto Melissa's sunken reading chair when an increasingly familiar head of blonde hair stepped out from behind one of the bookshelves.

"Talon, Jean Claude," he said, and as though the dog hadn't just been harassing her, it plopped down onto the floor right beside him. Dog and owner blinked at her in bemusement. "Don't seriously tell me that you're afraid of dogs."

Parker shot him a disgruntled glare in response, but Tom didn't seem to mind the heat packed behind it. Instead, he smirked at her, crossed one arm over the other, and languidly leaned back against the front counter.

It was obvious he was laughing at her, and not with her, and Parker added it to the list of all the things she couldn't stand about Tom Ryder. Worse though, she couldn't help but subconsciously smooth a hand over her hair, because where Jody was effortlessly gorgeous, Parker required quite a bit of effort not to look awful. And right now, with paint-stained pants, a half-assed pair of dutch braids, and miscolored converse, she was certainly not showing him her good side.

If she even had one, that is.

"I should have known you would have a pervy dog," she said while looking down her nose at him. Literally, too, considering she was still standing on the chair. Parker flushed a bright red at the realization and none-too-glamorously clambered down onto her feet. "And French, too. I think that's stereotyping, Ryder."

Despite the distrustful look she shot the dog, he seemed a whole lot less pervy and rabid now that she knew he had an owner, and when she approached it, its tail flapped back and forth excitedly.

"Insulting an entire country?" Tom harrumphed as she started to scratch the dog between its ears. "Maybe you should sit through PR training with me next time Gail hosts a session."

She blew a bland raspberry as she read the dog's name tag.

Jean Claude. Huh. Cute.

He let out a low whine when she hit a particularly sensitive spot, and in delight, he rolled onto his back with half-lidded eyes.

"Is this the one you were talking to the other day, or do you have any other expat mutts that I should know about? I can only be felt up so many times before I file a harassment complaint."

"Jean Claude isn't a mutt," he corrected her, disdain at the very idea of owning a mutt. Parker supposed adopting a kennel-dog was likely below him, being a superstar and what not. "He's an Australian Kelpie, pure-bred, and he certainly wasn't fucking cheap. His parents are award winning cattle dogs in the Australian circuit."

"That's an award category?"

"Hmph. Laugh all you want, but I'd bet he's better trained than you are. He's even trained to attack someone in the balls on command."

"So am I," she sassed while making kissy faces at Jean Claude. "Oh, he's cute. Yes, you are. Yes, you are," she cooed.

He ate it right up, tail flapping in every direction, and when she spared Tom a glance, she could feel the jealousy rolling off him that someone else was getting more attention. Dog or not. Parker snickered.

"Sorry you're stuck with this one," she added, jerking a thumb over her shoulder to gesture in Tom's general area. "But trust me, you're way cuter, and probably lower maintenance than he is."

Tom cleared his throat. "Are you done?"

"Jealous?"

"Of a dog?" he deadpanned, rolling his eyes beneath a pair of expensive Ray Bans—not at all disproving the theory—and Parker smiled at her private joke. "Hardly."

She leaned closer to Jean Claude, and spoke in a stage whisper, "I think he's jealous."

And—yup—that seemed to do it.

Tom pushed off the counter with a sharp huff, unamused by her teasing, and make a command in French. Jean Claude bounded onto his feet, trotted to where Tom was, and curled up between his legs.

Parker stood and planted her hands onto her hips. "Real mature."

"I can always show you his attack command," Tom threatened. "I doubt you'll find him as adorable when he attacks you. It's always a hit at parties, watching someone get their balls bitten off."

"I think I'm missing a critical component for that trick to work," she pointed out with a dry smile. "But, anyway, what are you doing here? If you came to return my books, they're yours, considering how much you paid for them the other day."

He shrugged. "Maybe I want my change."

"You came all the way here, through traffic, to get your change?" she echoed, clearly disbelieving his piss poor excuse. Under her stare, Tom shuffled uncomfortably on his feet. "Hm. I thought I was supposed to be the penny pincher between the two of us."

"Maybe it's not the money I care about. It's the principle of the whole thing."

"Ha! You expect me to believe that you have principles?"

Tom huffed, but she caught the crooked upturn of his mouth. Still, he played the victim—always acting, this one. "You're right. I don't just deserve change. I should get a full refund, considering how awful your book recommendations were. Not to mention the books practically fell apart when I touched them. Clearly, you sell cheap products."

"Clearly," she muttered, while flipping the sign on the front door from OPEN to CLOSED. There wasn't much going on outside, anyway, and she doubted she would be missing any customers by taking the day off early.

"You want to tell me what you're really doing here? Because we both know you liked my recommendations," she said matter-of-factly, moving to the cash register now. She had made a few sales throughout the day, more than a typical Friday, and so she carefully began stacking her receipts. "I mean, who wouldn't? Those are good books I gave you. Contact is in my top ten."

Tom leaned on the counter. "Books I bought."

She waved him off, stack of receipts in hand, as she locked the lower cabinet. Tom could complain all he wanted, but she did know that he liked her book recommendations. He had finished them all within a week, when he likely should have been spending more attention devoted to practicing for his audition. Granted, it was a sci-fi movie he was auditioning for, but—

She startled.

"Oh, duh!" Parker sprung to her full height with a curious look. "Did you get the part?"

Tom smirked.

It wasn't bashful or pleasant or soft like authors typically described their tall, dark, and handsome characters, but it was so very him that she hardly minded it. In fact, Parker sort of liked it. It crinkled the soft lines by his eyes, loosened the tension in his shoulders, and made him look younger. Nicer. Cuter.

"Of course I did," he sassed. "I told you I was going to get it."

She ignored his blatant peacocking to punch him in the shoulder. The action seemed to shock him, and Tom clutched the spot with his other hand—as if she had done some real damage—while Parker grinned. "Holy shit, that's great! I mean, sure, you were a shoo-in or whatever, but this is a big deal. Right? It's a big deal? You must be jumping off the walls right now!"

Tom gave a bemused huff, eyes darting over the length of her face, and nodded. "Biggest movie I've gotten yet," he said. "My first sci-fi film too, so, that's going to get my name out there even more than it was. I mean, if I thought I was well known before... after this, everyone will know who Tom Ryder is."

"That's awesome!"

Tom rolled his eyes at her enthusiasm, clearly not buying into it, and though Parker was so excited on his behalf, Tom seemed like he was fighting off indifference to the news. "Yeah, well, a role's a role, you know."

"Well, yeah," she hedged, waving a hand at him, "but this is your first sci-fi role, and it was one that you even told me you wanted to get. You must be at least a little excited for it. Sci-fi is so interesting, I bet filming it is gonna be a ton of fun."

"Sure," he echoed dryly. His smirk had returned, and though she wouldn't necessarily classify what his face was doing now as a smile, it was certainly close. "Fun. That's what I'm aiming for in my career: fun."

"Oh, please," she clucked her tongue at him, receipts shoved hastily into their folder. "You can be a huge movie star and still have fun doing it. I mean, isn't that the point? Doing something you love and all that. I'd imagine it's going to be a whole new experience for you, stepping into a sci-fi set."

He hemmed, mouth twisting between a smile and a frown. "I guess."

He didn't sound all that convinced. In fact, when Parker thought about it, she seemed to be far more excited about the role than he did. She tilted her head at him suspiciously. "Alright, well... what are you doing to celebrate?" she asked. "A vacation? Buying yourself a new car? Oooh—Legoland?"

He furrowed his brows at her in surprised. "Legoland?"

"It's what I would do," she shrugged. "Probably, anyway. I've never been because the tickets just don't seem worth the price, but if I had just landed a giant role in a giant blockbuster, I think buying a ticket would be the least of my worries. You could probably even write it off on your taxes."

He blinked at her. "Poor people are so sad to me."

She stuck her tongue out at him, and took delight in the way that he huffed in amusement. "Well? Come on—make me jealous—what are you doing?"

Tom shrugged. "Gail's throwing a big party next week to announce the role. She always does that. Invites her producer friends and talent agents and that sort of stuff. There'll probably be some sort of attraction, singers or a zebra or something."

"Casual," she snorted.

"She has a weird thing for exotic animals, I don't know."

"Seems like it. But that's what she's doing, what are you doing?" she needled further. "I mean, I assumed you would do a big party with your friends before then. You know—cops get called, party crashers—the whole scene."

Tom hesitated to answer, and when he did, he didn't sound all that much like himself. "Well, I can't really do that—she controls when I make go public with the news—has the whole timeline figured out, and manages all the press for it. She doesn't let me tell people ahead of time."

"I'm people."

He rolled his eyes. "You're a nobody," he said. Not to be mean; no, Tom was very clear in his words when he intended to be mean. Instead, he had said it nonchalantly, as if it was a universal truth that everyone understood. And, in all honesty, Parker got it. "I mean, who are you going to tell that would care, you know?"

"Okay, ouch," she muttered still, before barreling on. "Don't you have any non-work friends that you can go get drinks with?"

"All my friends are work friends."

"What about people that don't know Gail?"

Tom huffed and waved a hand at her. "That's the same thing, you know. She introduced me to everyone I know in the industry. Other than some set hands, we have the same circle."

Parker sank onto her heels, feeling slighted on his behalf, but knowing that she didn't really have a right to. Surely, Tom Ryder would have stood up to Gail if he didn't like her hands-on, helicopter parent approach to managing his life. And clearly their work relationship was beneficial to them both. He certainly didn't need a nobody like her feeling sorry for him.

And yet, she did.

Because, as she listened to him talk, it felt like he had to give up everything just to be a somebody in Hollywood. And while it might have been the norm for him, it was absolutely not the norm for everybody.

Did he even realize that?

"Fuck that," Parker said before she could think better of it, emotions getting the better of her. Colt always joked that she had a bleeding heart, but she had never thought there was anything wrong with that. "Come hang out with me, then."

Tom arched a brow at her, mouth parted dumbly. "...what?"

She shrugged, feeling a little like a specimen beneath a microscope, and struggled to explain herself. "I mean, you just said that Gail doesn't want you telling anybody that matters, and I only hang out with people that don't matter in the grand scheme of Hollywood politics. I'm getting ready to head to Colt's birthday party after this, and if you're not doing anything else, you may as well come with me. It won't be a celebration for you, obviously, but... it'll be fun."

He blinked at her slowly, surprise written in the fine lines of his face.

"We're not going to murder you," she huffed indignantly.

"I—I never hang out with Colt or those guys."

"Yeah, for good reason. They all sort of hate you for being an asshole on set to them. Like, all the time. I wouldn't want to hang out with you outside of work either, if I was them."

He scowled. "Oh, well, when you put it like that," he huffed. "Obviously, they're not going to want me to come. And, I may be an asshole, but I try not to gatecrash birthday parties."

She waved his concern away with a paint-stained hand. "First off, you won't be gatecrashing, I'm literally extending an invite. And secondly, they only hate you because you're a prick on set. What better way to prove that you're not a prick, by coming to Colt's birthday party, and—you know—actually being nice for once. Just don't be a dickwad. Or an asshole. Or any sort of thing that you usually are on a normal day."

"I think the saying is 'always be yourself'," he deadpanned.

"That absolutely doesn't apply here."

"Smartass."

Parker nudged him in the shoulder with an exasperated look. "Come on! What else are you going to do? Do some irresponsible spending and buy everyone a round of drinks. I bet they'll think differently of you after everybody is a few beers in."

Tom didn't seem too convinced with her logic. "Crashing his birthday party doesn't seem the best way to get on Colt's good side. I didn't even know it was his birthday."

"Now you do," she shrugged, as if it wasn't a big deal. And—well—her brother was probably going to bitch about Tom's presence at the party, but Parker also believed that after a few shots of liquor, everyone would get over the issue fairly quick. Not to mention the party itself was designed for stress relief. Bringing Tom may actually make the night. With a conniving wiggle of her brows, Parker tried again. "I know for a fact that there's room for one more. Jody and I planned the whole thing together, and if she's allowed a plus-one, so am I. Jean Claude can even come. Colt loves dogs."

Tom seemed to sway a little further with her reasoning, and with a slow nod, he finally agreed. He certainly didn't look happy about it though.

Parker punched the air. Oh, Colt is going to love this.

"Awesome! Give me a minute to lock up, and then we can go."

"Fine," he huffed, not too unlike that of a sulky toddler. "But I'm driving."

Parker smiled. Her car was a piece of shit that barely worked on a good day. She was going to insist he drive in the first place. Plus, now, she could get really drunk.

"Fine by me," was all she said, not eager to give away that piece of information just yet. "Just promise me you won't be an asshole. I won't be able to keep my reputation of favorite sister if you ruin the night."

"I'm not going to ruin the night," he snarked with a petulant glare. Parker shrugged, grabbing her things, as he asked, "...wait, I thought you were his only sister?"

"Exactly. Now, come on, I want to get there before they start assigning teams."

The bell rang as she stepped outside, Jean Claude trotting with her, and Tom hesitated for a brief moment before what she said caught up to him.

"Wait," he called, jogging after her. "What do you mean teams?"

---

Tom's presence did not go unnoticed. In fact, it had taken a mere three minutes before Jody was elbowing her to the side, a stern, disbelieving look furrowing her brows. She had let it go in a huff, however, when Parker pointed out that Tom had promised to be on his best behavior, as well as promised to buy the first round of drinks once the game was over.

That had been a lie, of course, but she supposed she could deal with that tantrum later.

Colt, on the other hand, hadn't been so easily placated, and as the twenty odd players stood in a circle, listening to the instructor drone on about safety, he weaseled next to her with a glare.

"I can't believe you brought Ryder," he hissed for the third time that night, hot breath on her face. She would have shoved him away if the instructor hadn't already reprimanded then twice for being distracting. "I mean, seriously Park, I can't stand the guy."

"Oh, really? I couldn't tell."

"Really!"

"Well, I'm sorry," she shrugged, although the apology was half-hearted at best, and Colt seemed to know this as he narrowed his eyes at her irritably. She huffed. "What was I supposed to do? Leave him behind?"

"Yes," Colt whisper-yelled. Dan glanced over his shoulder at the pair, and in perfect Seavers' sibling unison, they plastered fake smiles onto their faces with a friendly wave. He shook his head at them, but likely didn't think they were worth whatever trouble they caused, and faced forward once more. "That's exactly what you should have done!"

"It's not that easy," she argued, hissing as well. "He looked so sad! Like a little abandoned puppy dog that had just been kicked. It was a moment of weakness!"

"Oh, really?" Colt drawled. Together, they glanced over at Tom to find him ignoring everyone in the group with his head stuck in his phone. When a fly buzzed too close, he swatted at it with an icy glare. "That? You couldn't say no to that?"

"I said I was sorry!"

Parker's voice hitched higher than she intended, and the instructor paused in his speech to glare at the duo. She gave him a weak smile in return, mouthing, a guilty, sorry!

The man only got two words back into his speech, however, before Colt started whining again.

"Look, I'm totally stoked about the surprise party, okay? You did a stand-up job on it and the guest list. So how could you fuck it all up so close to the finish line?"

"What the hell does that even mean?" she asked in bewilderment. Parker shook her head. "Seriously, you need to update your sayings."

"Update my—?" Colt bit off a groan, pinching the bridge of his nose to take a long, overdrawn breath. "Why was he even at your bookstore? Since when did you two become friends? What happened to the whole—asshole, asshole, asshole—bit you had going on?"

"I still think he's an asshole," she shot back. But, well, when she caught Tom's gaze across the grass, she faltered. Did she think he was an asshole at his core? Or had he simply become someone she was beginning to understand—a dog that lashed out when someone got too close? Parker rubbed circles into her temple. "And we're not friends. And, even if we were, you have no one to blame but yourself."

"Myself?" he echoed in disbelief. "What do I have to do with this?"

"You're the one that gave him my phone number."

Colt snorted, shaking his head at her. "Fat chance of that," he said. Parker, thinking he was joking at first, fell silent when he caught the look in his eye. But, if Colt hadn't given Tom her phone number, then who had? she wondered, mentally counting down the list of people it could have possibly been.

Bigger fish to fry, she reminded herself when the list made her go cross-eyed.

"Whatever. We're not friends or buddies or whatever you think we are, so you can stop worrying about that."

Colt snorted. "Oh, sure you're not. He just happens to hang out around your bookshop and you share recommendations and, oh yeah! You bring him as a plus-one to my birthday party!"

Parker scowled. "I made the guest list, I think I have a right to bring someone along with."

"Sure, someone. Not Jaws over there."

She frowned at him, thrown off by the random insult. "Jaws?" she echoed, crinkling her nose distastefully. "What does a shark have to do with this?"

Colt sighed. "No, not the shark, the James Bond villain."

"That's a stupid name for a villain."

"I didn't write the damn thing."

"Okay, well, maybe he has the arrogance of a James Bond villain, but at least pick one from this century."

"Silva?"

"Nah. Whose the the one with the weird eye?"

Colt hummed thoughtfully, gaze darting over towards Tom. "Le Chiffre?"

Parker snapped her fingers and pointed at him. "That one!"

"Yeah, alright, I'll give you that," he conceded, nodding. "He does give off Bond villain vibes with the sunglasses and hair-do."

"Right? Oh you should have seen these glasses he was wearing last time. They were huge, and yellow tinted; like Tony Stark would wear. They were so ridiculous."

Colt snickered for a moment, enjoying mocking Tom with his sister, before realizing that he was currently mad at her. He threw his head back with a subtle groan. "Stop doing that! I'm still mad at you!"

Parker gave her brother a blithe look. "I think you're looking at this all wrong."

"Wrong? What other way should I look at it?" he snarked. "With my eyes closed?"

Resisting the urge to smack him, Parker instead gestured to their instructor, the paintball gun in his hand, and then towards Tom. "You literally get the chance to chase down and shoot, Tom Ryder, bane of your existence or whatever. Shoot him. Think about all the welts and whining and, maybe, if you're lucky, the tears you can get out of this experience. Legally. Without getting fired or arrested. What's better than that, huh? It's your very own personal rage room."

Colt considered all of that silently. He swept his gaze from the large pile of paintball guns set off to the side, to the acres of arena in front of them with inflatable obstacles, and then to his blonde alter-ego sulking at the edge of the group.

He slung an arm around Parker's shoulder with the boyish grin. "Have I ever told you how much I love you?"

Parker snorted, amused by his mood swings. "Not nearly enough. It's all Jody this, and Jody that anymore."

Jody, having finished listening to the instructor's demonstration, peered around Colt's shoulder to blink at the siblings. "What about me?"

Colt and Parker shared a silent look.

"Nothing," she said, whilst he cooed, "just talking about how pretty you are."

Jody blushed a bright rouge instantly, and Colt obviously took pleasure in that when he slung his other arm around her shoulder. Taking a deep breath, he let out a happy sigh. "My two ladies. Paintball. The smell of tears and blood on the horizon. What better way to spend a birthday?"

Parker glanced at Jody, expecting her to roll her eyes, but the camerawoman instead just smiled with something soft in her eyes.

Parker responded by wiggling out of Colt's reach. "Ew, blegh, that's disgusting. They say cooties are contagious you know."

"What on Earth are cooties?" Jody asked.

"An STD," Colt replied, only half joking, and though Jody appeared mildly disturbed by his joke, Parker had known her brother long enough to appreciate his odd ball sense of humor. "And they're not contagious if you have a shot."

Jody, not wanting to know if he was serious or not, let it go as the group slowly filed forward to get their guns, face masks, and coveralls. They followed shortly after, snickering like kids the entire way through.

In the end, Colt and Jody both got white, while Parker and Tom were given black ones.

Karma, she supposed, is that she wouldn't be able to shoot the asshole after all.

"Somehow, this is a step up for your usual clothes," said asshole chirped, pinching the baggy material hanging at her waist between his forefinger and thumb. Parker swatted him away, only for Jean Claude to bark at her. "Easy, you want to get taken down before the game even starts?"

"Please, you're lucky we're on the same team," Parker teased. He didn't seem to buy it if the blithe look he shot her was anything to go by, and she huffed at him. "I bet I could have gotten the first hit on you if we weren't on the same team. I have mad skills at paintball, Ryder. Seal Team Six type stuff., you don't even know."

Tom rolled his eyes at the same time that Colt reappeared, face mask propped on the top of his head, looking just a tad too comfortable in his onesie. Jody and Dan flanked him, and Parker didn't like their smiles one bit.

"What?" she asked.

"You suck at paintball," Colt egged. "Remember Tallahassee? You were covered in welts for weeks!"

Tom snorted, and Parker considered him the greater threat considering the fact he was standing closer to her than Colt was. She glared at him to state, "I'm not joking. I could literally take you out. Any of you," she added with a stern point of the finger sweeping through the group. "All of you!"

Not a single person believed her.

Tom went so far as to snicker at her. "I don't buy that. for a second. You're a total klutz."

She gasped. "Am not!"

Colt raised a hand. "Are too. Remember when you broke your ankle trying to play hopscotch?"

"Just—stay out of this!"

He did not, in fact, stay out of it. "What was it you said, Park? Cause and effect? You suck at sports, and the effect of that, is you're about to go down on the course."

She blew a rather wet raspberry at her brother. "Please, if you and Tom were on the same team, I would smoke both of you."

They bickered for a moment, amusing some, but boring Tom, and the A-lister broke up their argument with a long-weary sigh. "Oi! Whose to say either of you could get a shot on me?" he taunted.

The siblings turned to face him.

"Is that a challenge?" Parker asked, hands planted on her hips, whilst Colt raised his brows.

Tom shrugged, unconcerned.

"In fact, I bet I'll make it a whole round without getting shot once," Tom tacked on, ego puffing his chest out as he smirked at the group standing around. Dan rolled his eyes, while Jody coughed into her hand to hide an obvious laugh at his showboating. "I'm serious. First one to hit me gets five hundred dollars—"

Thwack! Thwack!

Tom gaped at his chest, now dotted with one yellow and one blue splatter. Parker and Colt stood in front of him, guns still smoking, and while his eyes widened in anger, the pair of siblings were more concerned with claiming the prize to notice.

"First!" Colt cried.

"What? No fucking way," Parker argued. She waved at the yellow paint splatter haphazardly, almost taking out Jody as she did so. "I was so first. Tom! Tell him!"

Tom, now even more unamused by their bickering, blinked in wide-eyed disbelief at them both. "Are you fucking serious?" he shouted. "The game didn't even start yet!"

"But you just said—"

"I meant during a match. Christ, Parker, we're on the same team," he blustered, attempting to wipe off the paint, but only managing to smear it further down his chest like a bad Jackson Pollock painting. "Fuck!"

Colt, sensing a blow-out was coming, swung his gun behind his back with a wide eyed, innocent look. "Hey man, it was all her," he started. "Totally uncool. And immature. And, really, if you need me to smack her around a little after this I totally can."

Tom glared at Colt, effectively shutting him up in seconds, before turning to Parker. Everyone watched in baited breath, nervous what he might do, and while Parker hadn't been on set long enough to know what his meltdowns looked like, the ones most familiar with Tom were left stunned by his reaction.

Or, really, how utterly tame this one was to the hundred others they had seen.

"Are you happy now?" he asked.

Parker hemmed and hawed for a moment before deciding that honesty was the best policy. "I mean, I'd be happier if you gave me my five hundred dollars."

"I'm not paying you shit."

"Oh, come on," she rolled her eyes, popping a hip as she did so. "It's not like you're cash poor or anything. You're just upset that I shot you."

Tom gaped at her in disbelief. "No shit!"

Parker, shifting her gun over her shoulder, waved the other at him blithely. "You'll get over it once the game starts. It's—heh—surprisingly therapeutic."

"Shooting me is therapeutic?"

She paused, caught up in her own statement. "Er, well, not you exactly. Just someone, in general, you know." Parker swallowed when Tom continued to stare at her. Awkwardly, she laughed. "Just... wait till you get out there, and you'll see."

Tom remained silent, blinking at her for a long, tense, moment before he rolled his eyes with a heavy sigh. And—

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

His gun went off before anyone could stop him, and Parker gaped at the trio of yellow paint that was now splattered across her chest. "Fucking ow!"

Tom smirked at her, blowing the muzzle of his gun for extra flare, before swinging it over his shoulder. "Huh. I guess you're right. I do feel better."

"Asshole!"

"Yeah, well, takes one to know one, right?" he snarked.

And—oh.

She could kill him. Really, seriously kill him.

But, well, the longer she stared at him and he stared at her, eyebrow cocked and a daring smirk in place, Parker realized above the hatred simmering in her chest, she felt something kindred and wanting flutter like butterflies. Something amused by the curve of his smirk, flushed by the scorching burn of his gaze, and—dare she think—understanding at the retaliatory strike. She had, afterall, shot first.

He had only lowered himself to her level; played by her rules.

And with a strong suspicion that Tom Ryder wasn't so much an asshole as he was just looking for someone to understand him, Parker's only response to that was to throw her head back and howl in laughter.

Despite this, no one else moved for a long moment, too busy darting their gazes between Parker and Tom in case they needed to intervene, but in an even more surprising turn of events, he laughed as well. Not so outright, and not nearly as loud, but he did. Prompted by his positive reaction, it wasn't long before Colt started to laugh, and then Jody, and then suddenly everyone was knelt at the waist in laughter.

It wasn't until their instructor honked a blow horn at them, none too amused with the pre-game warfare, that they calmed down. He honked the horn a second time at Parker and Tom, threatening to kick them out if they kept breaking the rules, and while they managed to stay straight-faced, the moment he turned his back on the group, they shared matching grins.

Maybe, she thought as they got into place, it hadn't been such a bad idea to bring him along.

And maybe, her brother thought at the exact same time, Parker and Tom being friends wasn't the end of the world.

[spookyscarydemonbabe]

I LOVE GARETH (he's so adorable)

How about the reader goes over to his house and he isn't there so they wait in his room for him. When he gets back, he sees the reader wearing his plaid jacket asleep in his bed...

A/N- This was so cute 🥹 i know i’m not taking fic requests rn but this was too fun to not want to make a fic out of 😍

Cozy

Genre-Fluff

Warnings- None :)

Tag List- @thatsthewaythechrissycrumbles @munsonology @aidansloth @esme-viridian @toomanyfandomsimfanvergent

(tag list is always open, let me know if you’d like to be added 🖤)

Word Count- 2.6k

You sighed and tapped your foot as you waited at his door, checking the watch on your wrist again just to see how long it’s been since you last rang the doorbell.

It wasn’t a rare occurrence for you to show up at Gareths place unannounced, it happened a lot more frequently than some may think. After living next door to each other all your lives you knew you were both welcome in each others homes whenever you liked. But for some reason this had been the only time where no one was home.

He knew you were coming over at this time. Hell, he’s the one that invited you over, so it was strange for him not to be there.

His car was still in the driveway, and after taking a quick peek into the garage you saw that his parents cars were no where to be found. Probably out with his sisters.

You groaned and rang the doorbell again, crossing your arms over your chest and turning to look down either end of the street, just checking to see if he had maybe gotten a ride from someone else. You knew he wouldn’t forget. He never did.

Every single time you came over, without a doubt you knew he would be fully prepared to see you. Whatever it was the two of you had planned, he always had some extras to keep you around longer.

Watching a new movie together? He would grab an extra one for the two of you to watch just in case you wanted to.

Listening to a new tape he got? It just so happens that he’s got a few new tapes, and you’re always down for a chill night.

Checking out a new spot in town? He just so happens to know about a few other local places for the two of you to go together.

He always loved spending time with you, and of course you loved spending time with him too.

With one final groan and a roll of the eyes, you were done with waiting. You walked over to the decorative plants on the porch and moved them aside, picking up the house key you knew they kept stored under there and using it to let yourself right in.

“Gare?!” You shouted out, hoping he had just been asleep in his room or occupied in the basement.

You slipped your shoes off at the door and shrugged when the only response you got was silence. Oh, well. He would be back any minute from wherever he was, you were sure of it.

As you climbed up the stairs you looked at all the family pictures plastered on the wall on the way up. Old school portraits, framed family drawings, a few professional shots of the whole family taken when Macy was still just a baby. At the very top step was your favorite.

One of the very first pictures of you and Gareth ever taken.

No more than maybe five or six years old, the both of you smiling with dirt and grass stains all over your clothes, each of you holding a little green frog in your hands. You remember how slimy they were. A quiet giggle left your lips seeing his adorable gap toothed smile. He lost two of his teeth that year. He was such a cute kid.

You finished your slow walk up the stairs and passed the other doors down to Gareths room, and surprisingly the door was still closed.

“Gare?” You said from behind the door, hoping he had just fallen asleep. After a moment of silence you shrugged and turned the handle, struggling to open his bedroom door.

You groaned as you shoved the door open with your shoulder, sneaking through the small space you managed to make between the door and the wall. His room was messier than you’ve ever seen it.

Clothes all over the floor, his bed was unmade and the blanket was tossed about and laying half on the floor, VHS tapes were littered in front of the TV and a few magazines were fallen over and spilling out of the box he kept under his bed. Boys were so gross.

You shut the door once more and kicked the piles of clothes around, trying to make yourself a clear path on his floor. There was no way he was planning on having you over with his room in this state, maybe he just lost track of time with whatever it was he was doing?

Either way, there was no way you were going to wait for him in this filth.

You started grabbing up piles of clothes in your arms and burying them into his hamper, making a little bit of space on his floor for you to walk around. You were able to make your way over to his stereo and looked through his tapes, searching for one to put on for some background noise while you picked up his mess. You smiled as you saw he was listening to one of the tapes you made for him and pressed rewind to start it over, pushing the play button and turning up the volume a bit.

No one would mind if no one was home.

You didn’t deep clean his room, you barely deep cleaned your own room at home, but just enough to where it wasn’t a pig sty. You didn’t know how he could function in a mess like this.

It was exhausting.

You had no idea how long it had been since you started putting away his tapes and laundry, but you eventually found your way over to cleaning off his bed, picking up a few shirts and tossing them towards the hamper like you had done with all the rest on his floor. You stopped when your hand felt the familiar flannel fabric under his blanket.

A smile spread across your lips when you pulled his vest out from under the blanket, a little wrinkled but otherwise in perfect condition. If he left it here that must mean he ran off the night before in a hurry to get to Eddie’s for a last minute sesh. He always overslept on those nights. As much as it needed a good wash, you saw nothing wrong with it.

A few wrinkles here and there, but no stains or tears, and it seemed to smell fine, thank god.

You had never once seen him without it within the last few months, it was almost like a security blanket for him. How was he possibly managing without it?

You went to go toss it into the hamper along with the other clothes, but as you saw it in your hand in your reflection of his standing mirror, you wondered what the big deal was.

He was obsessed with always keeping it in perfect condition, making sure nothing was out of place and every patch and pin on it had been in its spot for a reason.

You looked at it in your hands for a moment and glanced up at the mirror, taking a step towards it. How great could this vest really be?

You put your arms through the sleeves and adjusted it onto your body, smiling seeing it was a few sizes too big on your frame. It was comfortable, it was warm, and the fabric was so soft.

You took a deep breath, ready to pull it off of your body and toss it into the hamper, but there was something stopping you.

It felt so cozy, and though his room wasn’t freezing it was keeping you nice and warm. The fact that it smelled like him didn’t help much either. You were never able to notice how nice it was until now.

The mixture of his cologne on the front and the scent of his shampoo on the collar, mixed with his natural pheromones it was something so strange to you. Refreshing. Like a wave of calm washed over your body. It’s like he was there with you now, and you smiled at yourself in the mirror remembering his laugh.

You looked down at the red flannel on you, moving your hands up the seams and bringing in the collar to take a deep inhale. You missed him.

You lived next door to him all your life, and whenever he wasn’t there you missed him. Even now, standing in his bedroom that you’ve been in hundreds of times before, wearing the same vest you’ve seen him in for days on end, you were missing him. Hopefully he’d be home soon.

Another glance around his room from the reflection in the mirror made you remember the stereo. The tape you had playing had stopped at some point and you didn’t even notice. You went back to the stereo and flipped the tape to play the other side, sighing as you turned down the volume. It was now a comfortable background noise, and with the combination of his warm vest and the soft music, his bed was looking so much more comfortable than it ever had before…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I’m going to fucking murder you if you ever make me this late back to my own house ever again.” Gareth said to Eddie from the passenger seat of his van, his arms crossed over his chest.

“Easy,” Eddie replied back with a chuckle, “it’s only been an hour, you’ll be fine.”

“I won’t be fine!” Gareth shouted, “I told you i had this planned and i’ve never been this late to something, (y/n) might think i was kidnapped or something, my car is still in the driveway and no one else is home, my room is a fucking mess and i don’t want to come home and find police cars all over the place-“

“Calm down.” Eddie said to him sternly. He’d never seen Gareth so overwhelmed. “It’s no big deal, i’ll tell her it was my fault you were late. I’m fine with her thinking i’m the bad guy.”

Gareth rolled his eyes and looked out the window of the van, hoping they’d be home soon.

What was supposed to be another last minute band practice turned into an overnighter for him and the rest of the guys at Eddie’s place. Smoking, watching movies, listening to music, all the same stuff they’d normally do. Unfortunately, they managed to stay up until at least four in the morning and lost track of time when they went out for ‘breakfast’ at noon.

Gareth was supposed to be at his place nearly an hour ago and he was so upset with himself for being late. He just hoped you weren’t upset with him too.

He hated making you upset, all he wanted to do was be able to spend time with you and have fun with you, other than being with the guys it was his absolute favorite pastime.

You had always been so sweet and kind to him, you would play together as kids and were nearly joined at the hip every summer, and as the years went on he figured that every guy got the same feelings about their girl friends.

Every guy started wishing that their girl friends always held their hand whenever they walked together.

Every guy wanted to be able to comfort their girl friends and hold them close during all the scariest parts of horror movies.

Every guy would make countless amounts of mixtapes of all the songs that reminded them of their girl friends.

Every guy got jealous when their girl friends would go out on dates or get asked to dances by other guys.

Every guy would lay in bed every night just wishing their their girl friends could be laying beside them to snuggle and keep warm.

God, he could feel his palms get sweaty just thinking about you.

He quickly wiped them on his jeans, doing his best to get you off of his mind and get back to the matter at hand. He was trying his best to think of an excuse to give you as to why he was late but he knew you wouldn’t believe anything he told you. You knew him too well.

The best thing to do was to just deal with whatever you had coming to him.

Eddie quickly turned the corner and Gareth perked up as soon as he saw his house, getting himself ready to nearly jump out of Eddie’s van as he pulled up on the curb.

“I’ll tell her what happened, don’t worry about sticking around.” He unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the door.

“You sure?” Eddie called out after him, shrugging as he watched Gareth run up his front yard to his door, fumbling with the keys in his pocket as he put one into the lock and stepped inside.

Gareth shut the front door behind him, looking around the living room and kitchen for any sign of you. He knew his parents were taking his sisters over to their friends for a playdate, giving the two of you free rein of the house for almost the entire day. He was just hoping he had enough time to clean a little before rushing over to your place and apologizing like his life depended on it.

He quickly ran up the stairs and down the hall to his bedroom, and noticed that the door was slightly cracked open, he could hear one of his tapes being played from behind it.

He slowly opened his bedroom door, knowing that it had been completely closed when he left and stopped in his tracks when he saw you.

The lower half of your body was covered by his comforter, your top half was covered by his vest to keep you warm, your head resting peacefully on his pillow as the music played softly in the background. He looked around his room and saw that you had been nice enough to pick up a little for him, and he smiled as he quietly stepped inside. He made sure to be careful as the door creaked while he shut it, carefully stepping around on his hardwood floor in order not to wake you.

As strange as it was, all he could do was look at you.

You looked so serene, so peaceful. You used to have sleepovers when you were little but since the time has passed, you figured you were just too old for it. Not to mention your parents finding it inappropriate for two teenagers to be having sleepovers when they see each other constantly. But still, it was nice to see you like this again.

He could remember bits and pieces of your sleepovers when you were little but he always remembered how nice it was when you were sleeping. He always thought you looked beautiful, even when you were kids.

Gareth slowly walked over to the other side of the bed, carefully climbing in next to you and moving his body close to yours. He snuggled in, his arm carefully wrapping around your torso as the other pulled his comforter over your bodies. A smile slowly crept across his lips as he felt you gently back into him.

He held you close, keeping you warm beneath the blankets as he slowly closed his eyes.

You were never really able to relax like this.

Every time you saw each other there was always something planned, life gets in the way sometimes and it’s difficult to be able to enjoy doing nothing with someone you don’t see as often as you would like. And Gareth knows that too.

As much as he would love to be able to sit and talk with you, spend time with you, share fun memories with you, things like this were just as important.

He smiled when he felt your hand move over his as he held you.

Nothing was more important than this.

[acernusaurus]

Legends' Gifts For The Avalance Baby's First Birthday

I was thinking about this for fic reasons but it quickly evolved into its own thing. Let me know if you've got any other ideas.

Ray and Nora

They would give a useful invention and/or magical charm. I'm thinking something that would make parents' lives easier without being an untested, potentially dangerous device around an infant/toddler.

Kendra and/or Carter

Separate or together (I'm not really a fan of the comics direction) I think they would get the most normal gifts as the people who have been parents many times.

Mick

Crème brûlée torch. 'It's for food' is his only explanation when anyone questions it.

Jax

Custom made plastic throwing stars

(Curse AI for being evil and forcing me to Photoshop my own dang nonsense)

Nate and Zari

A set of funny/cute shirts. Stuff like: 'Future ninja', 'My favorite uncle is a Historian', gamer stuff, etc. And maybe something from the ancestors that they say every baby should have.

Behrad

I feel like he would write the baby a song as his gift. And when it ends up on his first album in his own time the kid can't tell anyone about it being hers.

Gary

I think he'd stick with simple: stuffed octopus. Or go way too wild and try to buy everything.

Wally

A trinket from his travels.

Zari

Mithra Merch. Zari doesn't even need to bring it from the future. She happens to know a certain influencer's passwords and promo codes and puts the baby on the list for a very large Dragon Girl fan package.

Charlie

Bass guitar. 100% stolen from someone famous.

Mona

A ton of kids books

Astra

Astra would waffle over what babies want for their birthday and then finally just settle on giving her money.

Spooner

Mushroom plush. It was supposed to be a joke but it becomes the kids main lovey because kids are delightfully unpredictable.

(I didn't expect to have a picture for this one but I stumbled across this while shopping and it was perfect)

Gwyn

Haunted doll (not intentionally). Zari lends Gwyn $50, which already freaks him out (inflation calculator says it's ~$900). And when he tries to go to the mall he walks into the Macy's (a name he recognizes) but enters through the underwear-section door and he instantly turns back around to walk out. Eventually he finds an antique store with this perfectly acceptable children's gift and she is 100% haunted but the ghost is chill.

(I cruised through the doll aisle at a thrift store to find one I liked for this)

Gideon

Gideon has only known one baby personally so I think she'd go with some hot 22nd century or historic toy that was Jonas' favorite as a baby. Or she'd pick the toy with the best reviews at the exact time of the birthday.

[ladybelladonna76]

Voila, Dakota's Misty Summer, Part I

Dakota Harding, Ms Harding to her pupils was an okay teacher, not the best but certainly not the worst. A fourth year teacher she was starting to become jaded with how little she could achieve within in her classroom. Sure she helped the students she could and cajoled those that she couldn't. She was loved by some of her class and hated by others, but for the most part she was just another obstacle to be overcome for these young adults about to head out into the world.

It was the end of another year and one more class was graduating ready to start the next step on leaving their own paths into adulthood. As always she recieved a bunch of presents from those graduating and she gathered them up and put them in a bag to take home and look at later. 

Getting home Dakota settled down for a quiet evening, she started with the main event, the unpacking of her class's gifts.

"Nice! Target, Starbucks, Macy's", the middle class parents always defaulted to gift cards, "a couple of mugs to be put in the cupboard with the dozen others ages been given over the years", she snickered, "Best teacher ever! Wow Stacey's parents do not know their daughter at all!", she continued to sort through them until the various knickknacks and gift cards were all sorted, laid out haphazardly on her coffee table. "Nice haul" she smiled, "better than last year" and started tidying up, she folded up the bag she'd used when one more unnoticed card fell out, she opened it up, reading the front,  "Hmmm, what's this, Voila, a gift card for $200", she was impressed, flattered, "wow that's a lot, I wonder what Voila sells, and who'd give me a gift like this", she looked inside the card and read the inscription, "from JT" she was incredulous, "this must be a mistake, he hates me, I had him in detention most weeks and almost got him expelled a couple of times", reading on, "I know I wasn't your favourite student Ms D, heck I'm pretty sure I was your arch nemesis at times but you've been my teacher since I was a freshman and you were the best teacher I had, so I hope this makes up for it. I guess I was trouble mostly because I wanted to get your attention, and spend more time with you whilst we were still together at school, you were always my favorite Ms D.", 

Dakota was taken aback, flustered even. She would never have expected this from Jack. Jack Taylor was always trouble.

He came from a wealthy family and he knew no matter what he did he always had Daddy's money to back him up. As she thought about it even though he was rich and spoilt his life must be hard, he never saw his Dad, he was always traveling and his mom was too busy being the wife of a wealthy man to pay much attention to her son. The only place he must get any attention must be here at school, of course his behavior was a cry for help and she'd missed it. She got misty eyed and a little choked up, "I'm sorry Jack I never knew" she mouthed almost silently to no one.

The rest of the night went as planned, the gifts sat on the coffee table mostly forgotten, except for a single box of candy that she picked at periodically. Dakota later ate some microwaved noodles and binged three episodes of Stranger Things, she was watching it for the fifth time, it was comfort TV. Eventually the day caught up with her and she felt her eyes growing heavy, rather than sleep on the couch again Dakota turned off her TV before crawling to her cold lonely bed in her quiet empty one bedroom apartment.

The next few weeks were what she'd come to expect from the long summer months, they were boring with nothing to do and no where to go, Dakota drifted, she went out a couple of times with friends, saw family, read a couple of books but really she did nothing of consequence. Finally cleaning her house in a burst of energy to block out the overpowering monotony she came across Jack's forgotten gift card again and decided on the spur of the moment to find out what exactly Voila did.

Grabbing her laptop she did a quick internet search and discovered that Voila was a beauty salon on the wealthy side of town! She smiled and laughed in exasperation, "Oh it could have been such a nice thought Jack, it was so expensive, but it was just a way for you to get one more dig in about my appearance", memories of Jack poking fun of her in front of the rest of the class about how she should act like a young woman not an old crone ready to go to nursing home flashed in her mind. She thought about giving the card to someone or just throwing it away but instead Dakota laughed in defiance, "Fuck you JT, I'm using this and then I'll never have to think about or see you ever again!"

She called the salon's number on the card the next day and arranged for an appointment through the rather rude and impatient receptionist, she was given an appointment for the next week, apparently she was lucky, there's been an opening, appointments were normally scheduled months in advance. Dakota was eager to use the gift card and forget Jack or the present had ever existed, move on with the rest of her life.

Walking up to the salon on the day of her appointment Dakota felt instant regret at not giving the card away.

Voila was a bustling high end salon in an exclusive part of town. Dakota stood watching the entrance from across the street trying to summon up the courage to enter, she watched the numerous clientele coming and going she knew this wasn't her kind of place at all, they were all glamorous women, some young, some old, all ostentatiously wealthy. Dakota didn't want to judge but they all looked like high maintenance trophy wives, she most certainly did not belong in a decadent place like this.

Dakota normally got her hair cut at a local salon. They did good straightforward work, she didn't need anything fancy, most importantly they were cheap and familiar. She'd been visiting her normal hairdresser ever since settling here after college, she was comfortable there. 

Taking one final deep breath and steeling herself Dakota walked quickly towards the salon door, she could see there was a gap in people coming and going, she decided, it was now or never. Looking around the salon as she walked through the door she knew immediately this really was an alien world. She could hear some kind of chart music playing in the background, it sounded familiar, she'd heard her students listening to it but she couldn't fully make out what it was. People were bustling around, there was so much happening, her senses were bombarded, disoriented. In this state of sensual overload she approached the front desk apologetically.

"Err, excuse me, I have an, um appointment", she tried to catch the receptionists attention

The intimidating receptionist looked her up and down making an obviously negative assessment.

"Name?"

The tone in this beautiful Amazon of a woman's voice and her withering stare unsettled Dakota even more, she gulped, "it's errm..."

"Oh spit it out, can't you see we're busy here?", her eyes narrowed, it felt like they were burrowing a hole in Dakota's head. 

"Ms D. Harding"

"Okay Misty I've got a Harding here, your stylist Raven will be out in a minute, take a seat"

Dakota tried to correct the receptionist but her words died in her throat as she was dismissed with a wave and a roll of the eyes. Dakota went over to the waiting area and flopped down into a big chair. She didn't belong in a place like this, she knew it, the receptionist knew it, everyone here knew it, she felt like the eyes of everyone were looking at her, judging her. She slouched back desperately hoping the soft chair would swallow her up so she could disappear from this horror show.

After what seemed like a long time Dakota heard a voice calling out insistently.

"Misty.....Misty.....", Dakota heard a brief exchange of words punctuated by a snicker, "her? Okay....there you are....Misty?", the voice was directed at her..."are you deaf darling or just catatonic..." realizing the voice has been calling for her she sat up straight and saw the intimidatingly perfect woman looking down at her questioningly.

Dakota couldn't get out her words she just sat up and stared

"So not deaf then, are you mute Misty or just stupid?"

Stunned Dakota bit her lip, "no", she gulped, she thought she should correct Raven's mistake,  "just a little nervous, sorry, the receptionist she err..."

"No need to be sorry," Raven cut her off before she could correct the error, "looking at you it's obviously your first time" her hands waved at Dakota to follow, "I do love a Voila virgin, come on Misty hurry up,  we've got a lot to do today", with that Raven marched back towards the back room, Dakota hurrying behind in her wake. She was so defeated and in a daze she decided that today she'd just have to be Misty, she didn't want to go through the rigmarole of trying to explain the mistake and be ignored again.

"Okay bitch, get in the chair and we'll get you started"

"I'm sorry" Dakota said outwardly offended by Raven's language. 

"Stop being so sorry, all my clients are Bitch to me, it's a sign of affection sweetie, you'll get used to it, you'll soon think of yourself as a Bitch too"

"I'm sure I won't, I can't afford this  extravagance regularly, this was a gift"

"Don't worry Misty you'll be back, my clients always become regulars, I have a certain magic about me, now let's get you started"

"Okay well I was thinking a trim and perhap some low li...."

"It's okay sweetie, the instructions were all on file with the gift card, just sit back and relax, I'll take it from here, I know what you need"

"Errm......okay Raven", Dakota wanted to protest but she knew it would have no effect, this woman was a force of nature. 

As Raven went to work Dakota felt a daze coming over her. Watching Raven's movements whilst working her magic was almost hypnotic, Raven chatted away and Dakota would respond and hold simple conversations with her but she couldn't seem to remember what they talked about only moments later. After what seemed like just a few minutes, but was in fact several hours, Raven span her to the look at her new hairstyle in the mirror.

"Some of my best work", Raven announced proudly to her, "So what do you think Bitch?"

Not even registering the word bitch, Dakota was transfixed by the beautiful woman staring across the salon at her.

Dakota's jaw relaxed and her mouth opened ever so slightly in awe of this baddie, she held up her hands to touch her hair in anxiety and the woman in the across the way did the same. The realization slowly dawned on her, this stunningly hot woman looking at her was her... she was looking at a reflection, this couldn't be real, this was some kind of a trick. There was no way she that young woman staring seductively from the mirror.

She registered the glasses and oversize jacket, she'd put them in this morning, they were definitely hers, but this must be an elaborate prank after all looking at this vision the clothes were where the similarities ended. This woman, this perfect vision of sexuality, looked like some kind of seductive trophy woman. Her lips painted in perfectly applied lipstick, makeup accentuating her seductive eyes, even her blouse was gone, she could see the top of the woman's bare chest and what looked like two incredible tits...no not tits, nice looking breasts, peeking out. Dakota's hand trembled as her hand moved to her chest, mirrored by the image opposite her, she found only skin and the woman in mirror's face dropped in shock. 

"The first time is shocking isn't it?" Raven observed, this wasn't the worst reaction she'd ever seen by far. 

"Oh my God, what have you done to me, I look like some 20 year old party bitch"

"You're welcome and it's 21 year old actually, and I told you at the beginning Misty, I have a certain magic about me", she winked, "so do you like the look?...I know your boyfriend will"

"I don't have a boyfriend you witch", a harsh tone crept in to Dakota's voice, "and my name is fucking Misty, not Misty"

"Okay, fucking Misty it is and as a 'witch' talking to my client I'll just let you know that I was just doing what it said on the order Bitch, take it up with Mr Taylor if you've got any complaints"

"I want a full refund" Dakota called after Raven who was walking obliviously towards the reception, "no can do sweetcheeks, Mr Taylor paid in advance and the $200 was my special fee, take it up with him", Dakota felt a sudden burning at the mention of Jack's name, her whole body flushed with anger?

Infuriated and defeated Dakota impotently stormed out of the salon, "Fuck you all" she cried causing a scene and slamming the door in a full on tantrum as she left. She could see people looking at her shocked by her behavior, ashamed a tear rolled down her cheek. Dakota didn't know what to do or where to go, she breathed slowly composing herself and made sure to straighten herself up, making sure her makeup wasn't smudged she examined herself in a shop window, "yep still looking good Bitch!", she paused momentarily wondering where that had came from. Just because she looked like trophy bitch didn't mean she was any different inside, she was still Dakota. Finding herself calm for a moment Dakota decided she needed somewhere to think, to plan out her next move, she wandered in to a nearby coffee shop she'd spotted deciding a hot drink would help calm her nerves. 

She walked in to the coffee shop and automatically without thinking walked straight up to the barista, jumping past a couple of people patiently waiting in line. Her resting bitch face glared at the other customers almost instinctually, as if she was challenging them to say anything, they looked away quietly. 

'They know their place', she thought. 

She walked up to the counter and without being asked just barked out her order at the meek pathetic looking barista 

"I'll have a venti 7 pump vanilla soy 12 scoop matcha 180 degree NO FOAM green tea latte", where had that come from she normally ordered a flat white, "make sure that temperature is right" she demanded, 'what's wrong with me? I must still be in shock she reasoned to herself'

"Name?", the barista asked

Dakota felt a momentary anxiety trigger inside her remembering the confusion earlier. 

"Misty", Dakota said automatically despite herself,  "M-I-S-T-Y!", she spelled out as if assuming the girl was dumb or would deliberately write it incorrectly to spite her, inwardly she was screaming, 'why am I being such a bitch and why can't I seem to dump that bitch moniker, although Misty does seems like more of a name for a bitch than Dakota and that is how I'm behaving right now. Get a hold of yourself, this is not who you are, be nice Dakota, it costs nothing.'

As she stood waiting for her drink the time seemed to be dragging, it seemed like it that little bitch was taking forever deliberately. Dakota, found herself tapping on the counter with her elegantly painted nails impatiently. Dakota looked up at the clock to see it had only actually been three minutes, she dismissed that, the clock must be broken, this wait felt like forever, impatience darkened her already irritated mind further. The drink finally arrived, Dakota took it before paying and took a tiny sip, she sighed and with dark stormy eyes she turned sardonically to the poor slight barista, a young girl of barely college age, 

"Really....you took all that time, making me wait and this is what you give me", her irritation was fast turning to anger, her voice gaining a strained tone,  "do I need to get someone more competent, perhaps not a fucking trainee to make this for me, this, whatever this you think this is, is disgusting" she passed it back dismissively, "make it again, but properly this time!", the barista intimidated by the forcefulness of Misty took the drink back sheepishly.

"I'm sorry, I'll make it again, I...", she started to apologize

"Don't tell me you're sorry," Misty snapped, "just do your fucking job properly, it's not hard, ugh idiots"

Dakota couldn't believe what she was doing or just how satisfying it felt doing it. After the fourth attempt, with the barista looking more and more upset the drink was finally to Dakota's exasperated satisfaction

"About time, I assume this will be free"

The barista meekly nodded and retreated into the back room, Dakota thought she could hear muffled sobbing, she smirked as she strutted away from the counter pridefully.

"I'll be sure to leave a review", she called back maliciously, reveling in the pain she was causing the girl. 

"That was uncalled for and just mean", a woman's voice murmured from the expanding line, Dakota spun on her heel glaring accusingly at the line of people.

She started laughing at the sight of these pathetic examples of humanity, "Look sheeple if that moron did her job properly she wouldn't have caused that to happen to her, we all have to learn", she smirked hoping the voice would identify themselves, "in fact if that pathetic serf had any real sense about her she wouldn't be working at this awful job, she'd have someone to take of her and not end up serving me and you fucking robots, she gets what she deserves and what she deserves certainly doesn't include respect or compassion from me just because she can't do the simple job she's paid what she's worth to do".

'Wow', she felt her eyes roll a little backwards in pleasure, 'that was a rush, why does being mean make me feel so fucking horny',  Dakota thought biting her lip a little, 'is this what being Misty would feel like, this is terrible, I'm being so fucking bitchy, this is so wrong, I'm being a horrible person, but mmmmmm it feels so good', a damp patch started to form in her panties. 

She walked elegantly away from the murmuring line of people and sat down at a table by the window looking outside so she wouldn't have to remember she was in a room full of pathetic worthless bags of skin.  Looking out the window she started examining the people that passed by on the busy street. Dakota found herself openly sneering in disgust as each and every person she saw was found lacking in her mind in almost every criteria she now found found important.

Look at her rat's nest hair, why is he wearing a suit like that, where did she get those clothes, a garbage dump? Dakota was fast realizing that there was not one person in here worthy of Misty's precious time.

'Why did I come to this dump', she thought, "this isn't me at all" She shook her head trying to clear mind of cobwebs, to think clearly, '..or is it, I've always loved coffee shops" Dakota was fighting for her identity, 'No this bitchiness it isn't me, none of this is me, this is just an uncharacteristic moment, shock from my appointment' she held herself tightly, her hands feeling her soft delicate skin, the brush of her nails comforting her , 'maybe that wicked slut Raven drugged me and I'm still just sat hallucinating in her chair', of course that must be the answer. That made sense, this must just be some lucid fever dream, a momentary hallucination. Dakota rationalized if it's a just a dream then there's no guilt, this isn't me, there's no consequences to this. My subconscious is just running free let loose of my normal inhibitions, I should just play along and let go. A thought intruded, let's see where my subconscious is going with this, let Misty out, then we can enjoy this dream fully together, if it's just a dream let the bad girl play, she's always been just below the surface just waiting for you to let her out and have fun, that would be the nice supportive thing to do', she bit her lip seductively at the titillating idea of freedom swirling in her mind, 'Misty you want to come out and play a while whilst I dream?', she asked to only herself in her mind. 

With that mental choice Dakota's personality was suddenly overwhelmed by a new fully formed identity erupting out, finally freed from inside her. A raw passion awakened, a realization of power cascaded throughout her being, a tantalizing shiver of possibility shot up her spine and her nipples hardened against the fabric of her cheap jacket.

A perfect smile crept over her face,  'I'm over this place, where too now?', Misty wondered sipping her coffee, seeing the sleeve of her jacket as she raised the cup gave her a spark of inspiration, 'I'm done with this cheap costume, it's served it's purpose now I need a more appropriate outfit", Misty adjusted her jacket making sure her breasts were still on on display looking perfect so all these pigs would be aware of their inferiority. With a flourish she stood knocking over her barely touched drink to spill all over the table and floor, she actively ignored the mess leaving it for some peon to clean up.

Misty seemed to head on autopilot strutting along the street like a model on her own personal catwalk, her face daring anyone to get in the way of her parade of perfection. She could see the stares and hear the intakes of breath she was attracting as she seductively strutted towards her goal. 

She walked in to the fanciest boutique like she belonged there, this was a place Dakota didn't know existed, let alone would ever have considered shopping at. 

"I'm going to need some help" she announced upon entering the store looking coldly at the sales staff.

She looked at the three people who had stopped working and now stood staring up at her like startled deer. Her mind quickly sizing them up she selected by pointing at the most attractive girl, she knew the other two girls would be equally jealous of their colleague but a little relieved too, "You'll do for now", she subtly let the girl know she was replaceable, "I need a new wardrobe,  go get me somethings to try on, clothes that will dream me perfectly, you know what I want?"

"Yes of course, Miss erm?"

 "Misty darling", she looked in the mirror adjusting her hair and touching up her lip gloss.

"And I'm..", Misty immediately cut her off

"No thank you, I could not care less", superior bitchiness was so delicious, "now run along little girl and bring me something more", she waved down at her old oversized jacket, "suitable for a bad bitch like me out on the town", Misty loved ordering this peon around it made her nipples hard as diamonds, I'll be in the changing rooms, please don't make me wait too long, I hate to wait, I get so terribly impatient and bored"

The girl ran off frantically to bring Misty the stores hottest looks.

Misty walked towards the changing area and started stripping her clothes off as she went. The two remaining assistants scurried after her in a panic picking up what she dropped, the glasses, shoes, her skirt, and finally her jacket.

"Miss Misty what should we do with these?", the oldest of the assistants called after her, gasping at the customer's beautiful round ass.

"Throw them away or keep them, I don't really care, they're just not me anymore", Misty said with a dismissive tone.

The assistant followed behind Misty gathering up her discarded clothing as she went, when she came to Dakota's granny panties she looked around furtively to make sure she wasn't being watched then stuffed them in her dress for safe keeping.

Now competently naked in the changing area Misty took in her whole body's magnificence in the full length mirror for the first time. 

'Jack what have you done to me', she thought remembering her student who's gift has brought her to this moment, 'if you could see boring Dakota now you you wouldn't think she's some ugly crone anymore, mmm, I think I may need to go visit JT and apologize to him personally for not giving him the attention he needed when he was in Dakota's class'

She'd had an inkling when she first changed whilst boring Dakota was still in control that she was sexy, but fuck Misty could she that she was a magnificent sexy bitch who knew it. Her pride an arrogance pumped wicked nasty thoughts in to her mind, her hands massaged herself roaming around her naked body, exploring every inch, her plump soft lips, her graceful neck. Every light touch was a rhapsody in sensitivity sending tingles shooting throughout her consciousness. Her arms and legs were strong but elegantly sculpted like a dancer's, her ass full and round, she'd perfectly fill out any pants or leggings now. oh her beautiful breasts, her glorious fucking tits, they were at least a full C Cup, they were pert and firm to her touch, she accidentally grazed her erect nipple and it send a shock of pure pleasure to her beautiful glistening pussy, she could feel the heart emanating from her sex, she wanted so desperately to touch it to feel her pussy's lips, she could feel her then moistening with every naughty moment, before today she'd never have used the word pussy to describe her vagina, but it was undeniable, she had a pussy and it was a fucking gorgeous succulent one. Her finger edged closer towards her dripping eager cunt, feeling the heat she knew that she had to...

The retail assistant burst in to the dressing room carrying an armful of clothes desperate not to disappoint Misty. 

"Miss Misty, I got everyth...", the young girl stopped struck mute at the sight of the goddess before her.

"You really should have knocked", Misty said menacingly, "you left me waiting so long I got bored and needed to distract myself"

Misty looked the girl up and down assessing her coldly. She was a moderately good looking woman, after all, that's why she'd chosen her. 

"It seems to me that you that you took forever getting what I asked for, and then you rudely barged in here without knocking, you really are awful at this job, aren't you?"

"I'm so sorry Miss Misty, I can leave and come back when you're ready"

She pursed her lips in mock irritation, "My name is just Misty, I told you that already", Misty closed the space between them,  "that's your third offense", she smiled wickedly taking the girl's hand and squeezing, "How do  you propose making all this up to me?"

She placed the young woman's hand on her soft thigh, she felt the girl tense up, "I can either talk to your manager about this and tell them what you've done and probably get you fired, or you can help me relieve my frustration at your poor attention to customer satisfaction"

"Please Misty, I'd do anything", the girl has said the magic words and opened the door Misty smirked taking the girl's head in her hand and leaning in. Misty heard the girl's breath hitch involuntarily and she kissed her, Misty felt the girl's skin heat and her mouth open just enough to allow her tongue room to explore. 

Her tongue massaged and toyed with the girl, her hand explored the girls body finding a hardened nipple, she broke off and looked at the girls eyes noting her flushed cheeks and dilated pupils, 

"I like you", she saw the young woman beaming with pride at her approval, "now I could care less...tell me your name"

The girl eagerly blurted, "It's Vicki, Misty", her hands nervously massaged Misty's thigh, "I've never kissed..."

"There's lots of things you haven't done Vicki, let's get rid of one more of those today shall we", Misty rose and walked to the door, opening it fully exposing her glorious body to the store, "I'm going to be commandeering Vicki for a little while", she smirked, "she's going to be helping me, I do not want us to be disturbed", not waiting for a response she slammed the door and turned the lock.

Turning back she looked at her new pupil, "Now where were we Vicki?"

This was based on a prompt by David Bikerbat that struck me. This is the beginning of Dakota's summer break from school, I suspect she will have to confront JT and Raven and address what they did to her, Misty has unfinished business

[melancholicbutterflies]

a Papa Bear story

♡ PART III ♡

Summary: Your best friend invites you over for your first sleepover!

Tags/Warnings: protective!elvis, mentions of corporal punishment

Word Count: 2,858

YOU WERE SO excited. Finally, you'd been old enough to be allowed to take part in your very first sleepover! Your good friend Macy had invited you and, after a brief talk with your momma, plans were underway. After school on Friday, Macy's momma would pick you two up and you'd go to the mall for a bit to shop and walk around and have dinner, and then you'd go to their house to hang out. Macy said they had a whole slew of movies and it was really up to them; in their household things were laxer, and you couldn't wait. You loved your momma and step daddy but gosh, Elvis could be really strict and there didn't always seem to be a rhyme or reason why, at least in your young, early adolescent mind. Since the next day was Saturday, Macy's momma would drop you off sometime in the afternoon, so you could sleep in and just have a ball.

The only thing that concerned you some was your momma hadn't mentioned anything about Elvis knowing about your plans. He wasn't home, on a tour somewhere out west and had been for a few weeks now, and so he wouldn't have known right away anyhow, but usually he liked to be updated and would call frequently, insisting to speak to you. Ever since your conversations, and when you'd become a woman as he called it (you still didn't quite feel that way), he seemed to keep an even keener eye on you. It was not unusual for him to inquire about your who with and how you were spending your time, but not in any sort of way that made you think it was purely out of curiosity. There was always this undercurrent of if you said the wrong thing he'd be angry with you, and even in the few years you'd known him you just couldn't take him being upset with you for any reason.

Macy appeared to have a very different relationship with her daddy. He was often around because he worked a nine to five job, but she talked to him in a way that would have earned you a spanking for being 'disrespectful'. In fact, there seemed to be very few rules in her household, something that made you in awe of and somewhat frustrated. After all, why couldn't you get to do what you wanted whenever you wanted and how you'd like it?

Macy's momma waved to you from her minivan, smiling. She was leant up against it, smoking, as she waited for you two to finish up and walk over. "Great to see you, Y/N!" She brought you in for a hug, already feeling very familiar. Her affection was a nice change of pace from your momma who you loved but wasn't oft to show it so demonstrably as your daddy. She gave Macy the same treatment with an added zealous kiss on the crown of her head. "Feel like getting some ice cream on the way?" She asked, going around to the driver's side. "I know we probably shouldn't spoil our dinners, but, what the heck, I say?!"

"Yay!" Macy cried, and your eyes widened as you looked at her in excitement. "Could we really?" You asked.

"Sure, why not? It's Friday, and you girls are always working so hard in school. You deserve a treat!"

It was hot as Hades, and so the line was unexpectedly short. Not long after you were on your way to the mall with three single scoop ice cream cones in hand, and the windows down letting in some much needed breezy air. "Any shops you girls want to look at in particular?"

"Oh, well, there's this jewelry store I wanna look at. How about you, Y/N?"

"I didn't have any I thought of, I'd be happy to just walk around with you."

Macy turned you, suddenly mischievous. "Ooh, what if we run into some cute boys from school?"

You paused in licking your ice cream cone, unable to stop your glance from flicking between your friend her mom, who seemed preoccupied singing with the song on the radio. "Oh, I don't know."

"Why not? I heard Tommy comes here all the time." Tommy was a boy in your class that Macy really liked. You just thought he was annoying, but his friend was a lot nicer you thought. You just never tried anything because of the conversation you recalled with your step daddy. He'd been pretty clear about how he felt about boys.

"Y/N!" Macy moved a hand in front of your face to get your attention.

"Yeah, maybe. We're just there to have fun though."

The first shop you went into was the one that Macy was set on. It was sort of girly, but had jewelry and earrings for every kind of piercing you could put in your ear. "Look at me!" She cried, looking from the mirror to you in a whole set of costume jewelry.

"You look so cool," you agreed.

Later on you found a case of different sunglasses and tried those on, striking ridiculous poses to each other. Marcy's momma was always near but didn't supervise you closely. She was sitting on a bench outside one of the stores you were in thumbing through a magazine with Grace Kelly on it.

Macy's hand came on you suddenly and she leaned in to whisper in your ear, "don't look now, but I think that's Tommy and his friend over by the hot dog stand. I said don't look!"

"How am I supposed to see them?"

She sighed. "Well, fine, but just don't make it obvious. I don't want them to think we're some kind of creeps staring!"

You refrained from telling her that was exactly what you were right now, but did as she bade. Inconspicuously you saw his friend was the one you had a small crush on, Danny. They were both pretty oblivious, talking and laughing and carrying on in their own little bubble.

"Should I go up to them and say something?" Macy asked. "What do you think?"

"I don't know—"

"You're right, too forward. maybe we should pretend to walk in front of them and not see them, and they'll say something? Then it was their idea."

"I guess." You didnt want to come off as a stick in the mud, but you kept hearing your daddy's words in the back of your head. If he knew you were even thinking of talking to boys he'd be furious with you. And with your momma for allowing it to happen. As if it was her job to guard you. Again you felt some resentment creeping in: Macy didn't have to worry about any of that. It just wasn't fair.

Your inner dialogue was interrupted as Macy tugged on your arm insistently, "come on, let's pretend to walk by them. Tommy better say something," she grumbled. You didn't have any reason to fight her on it and decided to just play along. Macy was pretty demanding when she wanted to be.

The boys hadn't seen you at first, but when Macy made a show of stopping to tie her shoes in front of them they finally noticed you. "Hey, it's, um, Mary, right?" Tommy spoke first, glancing between the two of you. "Macy," she corrected, smiling wider than you'd ever seen her smile. "And you're Tommy, right?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"We have a bunch of classes together. Actually, we sit near each other in home ec. This is my friend, Y/N, she in our grade too."

"Hi," you greet shyly, trying not to look at Danny for too long. He was even cuter up close!

"Y/N," Danny said, "I remember you. You're the girl who's super good with numbers!" He seemed very impressed by this, and you were tickled that he noticed you, even if it was for something pretty nerdy.

"Thank you! And um, you're really good in English."

"Yeah, maybe we should tutor each other," he laughs. He doesn't realize you latch onto this, desperately hoping it could happen. You could see it now.

Tommy's digging his hands into his jean pockets, swaying back and forth on his heel. "Well, I reckon we should probably get going. Got a movie we're seein' tonight."

"Without your folks?" You asked.

The boys turned to look at each other and laughed. "Yeah, our folks trust us, you know."

No, you didn't, but you nodded like you did.

"It's a real scary one," Danny added. "'The Bloodening', it's called. Have you gals heard of it?"

"Woah, that's a real creepy one!" Macy said, and you mirrored her expression as if you had any idea of what they were talking about.

"Yeah, so we better get goin'. Nice to run into ya though. You girls take care all right?"

"We will!"

"Thanks!" You said.

Macy turned to you afterwards and giggled. "Why did you thank them?"

"I have no idea!" You laughed.

After eating some Chinese for dinner, Macy's momma drove you back to their place. They lived in a quiet neighborhood with a lot of similar looking houses next to each other. It wasn't as nice as Graceland, far from it, but for ordinary folk you think it was pretty nice.

The first thing you did was get changed into your PJs. Macy's were a little blander than yours, and for the first time you felt a little ashamed at how you looked.

"What is that?" She giggled, eyes racing up and down your bunny pajamas. "It's so..."

"So what?" You asked defensively. your daddy had picked it out special for you and you hadn't the heart to tell him it wasn't quite your style anymore but you'd be damned if you let someone else make fun of it, even your good friend.

"Well, you know. It's pretty cutesy, right? Why'd you pick out one like that?"

"All of my PJs are like this," you shrugged your shoulders, turning around to brush your teeth, which as you'd learn was a mistake since you'd dig into a bowl of candy and popcorn for the flick soon.

"What do you mean they're all like that? That?" She asked incredulously.

"Yeah. My daddy picked it out for me and he likes it so I... like it."

You were met with some silence and you glanced in the mirror at Macy who was looking at you a little strangely.

"What?"

"I don't know, Y/N, that's sort of weird."

"What, like your parents don't buy you clothes sometimes?"

"Yeah, when I was little little, not now. Well, once in a while mom will take me shopping but it's pretty much up to me what I wanna wear as long as it isn't too racy."

Your brows furrowed as you spit into the sink, washing your mouth out. Was it odd that your daddy still picked your clothes out for you? Macy getting to wear what she wanted was an entirely new concept to you, one you didn't think would be possible until you were at least eighteen and could make your own decisions. Was this what other girls your age were doing?

"Sorry, Y/N, I didn't mean to make you feel any type of way," Macy said, realizing your quiet must have signaled you were upset with her and feeling self-conscious.

"You didn't," you lied.

"Well, if I did, I'm sorry anyhow. I mean, we're all brought up different, I guess... I guesss if your daddy still wanted to pick out your clothes for you that ain't got anything to do with me. Just thought it was a bit weird is all."

"Yeah..."

"Come on, let's go watch that movie! It's an action one. You like that kind of stuff?"

"Oh, yeah!"

"Momma's bringing in some candy and popcorn for us. Guess I should have said that before you started brushing your teeth," she smiled.

You followed her out to the living room as she set the movie up. It was a much smaller screen than you were used to, and it took some finagling to get it the way you needed it to see properly. As the movie started you began ruminating on all that had transpired earlier in the day and it became hard to focus on the plot. Just how different was your life made out to be, you wondered, and was all of it really for the right reasons?

The next morning you woke early to the sound of hushed voices arguing. Glancing to your right, you saw Macy was knocked out cold, drool lining her pillow. The time, which was visible on the nightstand in between your respective beds, read '6:05AM'. Thinking this might have been Macy's dad, you nearly went back to bed but you caught sight of a familiar looking Cadillac parked diagonally on the driveway. If you looked closer you could see slight squeal marks. you'd seen the car enough times to not have any doubt in your mind who it belonged to.

Your step daddy Elvis was here.

Walking quiet as a church mouse around Macy and further still to the door, you cracked it open a smidge to listen in on the heated discussion, knowing you'd be able to hear from your position; Macy said she listened to her parents all the time as voices carried easily up the landing outside her bedroom.

"...You can't just burst in here like this, Elvis...." This was clearly Macy's momma talking. "Yes, I know who you are, but it's unreasonably early and... that's nice you don't care, but what I'm saying is it's just not right... okay, I accept your apology, but please don't...!"

There was a slight crash and the sound of heavy footsteps thudding up the stairs. When you looked up it was your step daddy, eyes burning and fists clenched at his side. He looked like he'd just come back from his tour, wearing fancier clothing than he usually did while home. When he took notice of you by the door, he deflated some, although the ire in his eyes never disappeared.

"Girl, you are in a lotta trouble. Wait till I get my hands on you!"

"Elvis, daddy, please don't! I'm having a lot of fun here! It's my first time!" You begged.

"Your first—" his mouth open and shut like a fish. "What in blue blazes are you talkin' about, honey?!"

"My first sleepover," you replied morosely. And your last, judging by how upset Macy's momma sounded. The normally calm and collected woman sounded angrier than you'd ever heard her. You could just see her forbidding her daughter from talking with you again. You couldn't lose your best friend because of your daddy's temper, you just couldn't!

Elvis let out a deep sigh and turned his head and eyes skyward, as if asking for some divine intervention. "God help me..." He muttered, seeing your eyes tearing up now; it made him feel somethin' awful.

Looking back down at you and kneeling on one knee, he said, "I didn't realize how important this was to you, cupcake. I just wish your momma would'a let me in on what was happenin'. And you," his anger flared to life again, "how many times we talk on the phone and you ain't mention no 'sleepover, Elvis'."

"It was only last minute," you said, looking down.

"Uh huh." It was obvious he didn't believe you. You didn't know it, but you always had a tell of avoiding eye contact when you were fibbing, and Elvis had learned that early on.

"I'm sorry, Daddy." You ran into his arms to hug him in hopes he would calm down and go easy on you. Your touch was always soothing to him, and you were learning to use it to your advantage.

"Can't you see Daddy was worried, baby? I come home to find you not in your bed and your momma sayin' you went off with some people I don't know, never met... gotta understand it from my point of view, honey," he pulled you to arm's reach to look you in the eye.

"Yes, Daddy, I get it."

"You will," he said, raising a brow, "that lil' tush a' yours, cute though it may be, is gonna be mighty red when I'm through with it. I need you to be honest with me, darlin', and if that's the only way I'm gonna get it through that thick skull then I will."

Your eyes widened. Surely he hadn't meant right here and now?

Chuckling lowly, he mused your hair. "Not right now, honey. Later. When we're back in Graceland."

"You mean I can stay?"

He eyed you up and down for a moment, considering. "Oh please, Daddy! I'll do anything to stay! Please let me!"

"When you due back home?" He asked, scratching his chin.

"Only a few hours. They said they'd take me back early afternoon. Or Momma was gonna pick me up."

He pursed his lips. "I'll pick you up."

"I can stay?"

"Yes, sweet thing, you can stay."

taglist: @everythingelvispresley @dkayfixates @animalloverthingsss @suspiciousmindsxo @iloveelvis @18lkpeters @doll-elvis @ccab @elvisalltheway1 @satninroses @dkayfixates @darkmoviesquotespizza @jaqueline19997 @louisejoy86 @myradiaz @velvetelvis @sillybookmarks @alllriseabove @livelaughelvis @blog777e

[phantom1111]

Not from around here

Homelander x female reader

Prologue ~

A loud beep startles me awake, groaning i turn to shut off my phone to stop the alarm, sitting up groggily in an attempt to wake myself up and yawning. I open up my phone and am greeted by 20+ missed messages and a few missed calls from my groupchat. Blinking in annoyance and still half-asleep i open the app up and lay back down.

Francis 🤑: Heyoo!!! We still hanging out tomorrow gang 😎😎

J-boss ⚡️: get this shit off my screen bro

Jack 💥: i mean if yall are down i got nothing planned this weekend

J-boss ⚡️: will there be bitches?

Izan 🧐: perchance…

Ian 🔥: GUYS WE SHOULD GO TRY THE NEW FLAVOR AT LITTLE CEASARS

Sandra 💋: shut up fatass… and im only going if y/n and carla are going 💁🏻‍♀️.

Carla 🧚🏻‍♂️: francis already asked our parents and they told him he can only go if i come with⚡️⚡️⚡️

Francis 🤑: i hate u

Jack 💥: i wouldnt take that man 😭

Izan 🧐: Y/N ANSWERRRR

Izan 🧐: wait all of you are going right?

Everyone: Yes!!

*10am*

You: hi guys im going

J-boss ⚡️: nonchalant ahh

You: im gonna stop you right there pal

I roll my eyes and throw my blanket off me, planting my feet onto the carpet floor beneath me. I walk over to my closet and rub the sleep out of my eyes, the only light serving me is the one coming from the sun seeping through my window.

After picking out a cute outfit i go and wash up, throwing on my clothes and looking myself in the mirror. I had chosen a black, lowcut longsleeve, tight shirt with a denim backless zip up high rise jumpsuit that flared at the ends i decide to finish off the outfit with a pair of black boots. I do a little twirl, satisfied with my smooth eyeliner and good outfit choice. Opening my phone back up to quickly text them that im ready and for someone to come pick me up.

I hear a knock at my front door and grab my black star shaped purse. “Bye mom!! Ill see you later love you!!” I call out and she reminds me to text her when im on my way back. I skip out the door and lock it behind me. “Sooo the mall right? Is everyone there yet” jack shrugs “i dunno everyone just said to hurry, also j-boss is in the backseat” i step into the passenger seat of his car and we head to the mall.

About 20 minutes later we pull up to the parking lot and walk into the macys, quickly spotting francis and carla talking to each other until they notice us “HEYYY Y/N” i wince at carla’s enthusiasm “heyy we should probably quiet down being out in public and all” she giggles and latches onto my arm. “Hey dont forget IM in charge of the card” francis snatches a card from carlas hand and they start bickering. I roll my eyes and sit down at a bench with jason and jack “hey when did Ian, Izan, and Sandra say when they were coming?”

As if on cue they walk into the macys, all arguing about who gets to ride shotgun next time. “Hi guys!! Looks like the whole gang is here right.. heh!” I playfully jab jack on the side waiting for everyone to laugh “good one right…!” Sandra cringes and only Izan laughs “if izan is the only one laughing thats a sign you should stop trying to be funny” I look over at jason with a glare.

*3 hours later*

“Ok i think thats enough shopping..” i look over at sandra and carla, all of us carrying multiple bags on each arm. “I should have let francis keep the card.. dads gonna KILL me” carla groans and we continue walking through the mall, or more like trudging along with all our bags. Until we finally catch a glimpse of all the boys in a vr video game store screaming “what the fuck are they doing??”

Sandra walks in and we see them all connected to the same game, their point of view projected on a giant screen. “I think its like a zombie apocalypse thing ive played this before” i sneak up behind ian and pinch his neck, he squeals and throws the headset off, turning to me with his fists raised ready to fight. I raise my hands in mock surrender and burst out laughing with sandra and carla, the boys take off their headsets to look at ian, bewildered, sending us into a further fit of laughter.

The store owner walks up to us and tells us to leave “whoops…” i let out a last laugh and wipe a tear from my eye. “Bro ian youre really getting butched around by y/n” they laugh at him and we walk out of the mall after buying ourselves a drink at one of the stands. I take a sip of my horchata and giggle. “Hey wait i gotta tie my laces!!” We turn to Francis who is far behind us and as i begin to walk towards him i feel the ground below me slip from my feet. I scream and feel myself plummet, my skin feeling as though its warping around me until i slam against a grassy surface.

I look up and groan, hearing the rest of my friends make noises of pain and confusion behind me. “What the hell..???” I sit up and look around, there seems to be a television crew but they look startled and start making their way towards us, along with a group of random bystanders. I try to stand up and i look around me, noticing we are in a completely different city “yo where the fuck are we??” I hear jason exclaim behind me. Ian points at the giant building in front of us “is that the fucking vought tower” i gasp and my jaw drops, the crowd around us getting larger and i notice some of them wearing vought merch “theres no way this is real right?” I turn to look at them trying to make sense of the situation.

A loud thud surprises me and the crowd breaks apart, now taking photos and turning their attention partly to the person. The figure gets closer and I realize its THE homelander.

————————————————————————

HII thank you to anyone who read this, I’ve never posted any kind of writing and i kind of just came up with this on a whim. I know it looks like WATTPAD writing 🫣 but please let me cook, by the time anyone is reading this i would have probably have published more parts so if you like it lucky you, if you don’t then im sorry for releasing more of this vermin onto earth 😭🙏🏾 (tips/ideas welcomed)

[flanaganfilm]

Hey Mike! First off, it makes me so happy to see you out there fighting with your writer friends to ensure they receive a decent living wage for the amazing work that they do.

As for my question, I would love to hear about some of the inspiration for making Before I Wake. It and Absentia were the last two of your films that I watched, and BIW just absolutely destroyed me. No other movie, including and especially a horror flick, has ever made me bawl like a baby like that. The entire tone of the film is so spot-on, and the climax of the nightmare monster “dissolving” from its evil form after being embraced…. To me that scene just perfectly encapsulates what it’s like to be a parent, and human; sometimes we just need someone to hold us and let us know things will be all right. We spend so much of our time making sure that our children feel loved and cared for, that sometimes we forget about ourselves. And you just fucking nailed it, my dude.

Like I said, I would LOVE to read any backstory or inspiration that you have for this film! It’s so beautiful and underrated.

On the WGA front, don't be too impressed with me - I mean, I'm a professional writer, I've been a member of the WGA since Absentia, so I'm out there fighting for myself as much as everyone else.

But on the Before I Wake front, you know I very rarely get asked to talk about this one, so I'm happy to... fair warning for another long post!

Before I Wake was originally titled Somnia, which is latin for "dreams." It was part of an unofficial trilogy of sorts, comprised of Absentia, Oculus and Somnia. All three of those movies were meant to work together as a thematic triptych.

Ultimately, Before I Wake was brutally sabotaged by its own studio, who drastically undermined it creatively and then destroyed any hope of a meaningful release. It remains a particularly heartbreaking chapter of my career... but a film I have and will always have tremendous affection for.

A lot of people think that Somnia was made after Hush and Ouija: Origin of Evil, just before Gerald's Game, but this is entirely incorrect. It was actually the second "real" movie I ever made, and was actually shot before Oculus was even released.

The basic premise of Somnia focused around a little boy whose dreams manifested physically in the world around him, and was an original concept I carried around for a few years before Oculus got picked up by Intrepid Pictures. In fact, I've talked about my first meeting at Intrepid, where I pitched a few ideas that were rejected... Somnia was the first one I pitched. Trevor Macy opted to pursue Oculus that day, but he ended up producing Somnia right after.

This unofficial "latin trilogy" seemed to fit together well. Absentia was a somber and bleak look at the loss of hope, Oculus was more thrilling dive into the labyrinth of past trauma, and Somnia was meant to take that loss and trauma and end the triptych on a note of hope and healing.

In fact, the script for Somnia was written before Oculus was greenlit. On the page, it was my favorite of the three. I was very taken with the story of little Cody and his personal boogeyman, and of the revelation at the end of the story... that with understanding, even the most monstrous of our fears can lose their destructive power.

Cody's birth mother had died of cancer, and he had seen her just before her death. That final image of her, as well as a misunderstanding about the pronunciation of the word "cancer" had led to the creation of a monster in his mind, who he called the "Canker Man"... a gaunt figure who took away people that he loved. When he finally learns the truth about his monster, and about his mother, he begins to understand it all... and the monster loses its awful powers as empathy and understanding take root.

While Absentia finished its festival rounds and Oculus inched its way toward production, Somnia was my first script taken out to market by my new agency. I had signed with APA just as Intrepid engaged me on Oculus, which was my first studio writing and directing job. Jeff Howard and I finished our first draft of Oculus and turned it in to Intrepid, and immediately turned around and started writing Somnia.

The script got some interesting attention. While some of the more mainstream horror companies balked at the emotional ending and preferred a story that was "more about a boy and his monster" than the emotional wrap-up we insisted on, others understood it right away.

Elijah Wood and his producing partner Daniel Noah sought me out when they read the script. We met for drinks in Venice and I was absolutely starstruck, and we've remained friends ever since.

Jada Pinkett Smith was another big fan of the script, which led to a surreal afternoon at her stunning home where we talked about the story at length and watched an early cut of Oculus in her home theater. Will Smith joined us toward the end of the meeting, and I had a difficult time speaking.

I've written before about the drama surrounding Oculus' premiere and eventual sale to Relativity Media, so I won't rehash that now, but as Oculus raced toward release, Trevor Macy at Intrepid made an offer to produce Somnia for Relativity and I eagerly accepted. My first "real" movie was going to be released wide in theaters, and the same studio was going to double-down on me - Somnia was greenlit by Relativity for a big domestic theatrical release. We'd pre-sell our foreign territories on this promise, and they eagerly snatched the movie up. This was my own Hollywood dream, coming to life.

It wouldn't work out that way. In fact, Somnia would turn out to be the first nightmare of my career.

It started well enough. We had filmed Oculus in Daphne, Alabama, taking advantage of an aggressive tax rebate. We would do the same with Somnia, bringing back a lot of my Oculus crew and shooting in and around Fairhope. We began shooting in the fall of 2013, less than a year after we'd wrapped Oculus.

We hit the ground running. Very little time had passed since we wrapped Oculus, and the movie hadn't come out yet, so at first it felt a lot like we were just picking up where we left off.

Bruce Larsen, who also carved the Oculus mirror, working on a prototype of the Canker Man.

We had casting challenges. I was still a relatively unproven director, my first studio film hadn't been released, and this was an ambitious script. After a lengthy search (driven by foreign pre-sales, a process I knew nothing about and now quite detest), Kate Bosworth signed on to play Jessie, and Thomas Jane - who I admired greatly from his recent work in The Mist - joined the production as Mark. (Funny story - Tom arrived with hair down his shoulders, and vehemently didn't want to cut it. That disagreement put us off on an awkward foot, and I ultimately conceded the point to him... though I do regret that now.)

The major discovery was 7 year-old Jacob Tremblay as Cody. Jake had only made one movie before this, he had a small role in The Smurfs 2. His self-tape audition came out of nowhere and we knew was a a phenomenal talent. Right after we wrapped, I got a call that he was being considered for a movie called Room, and we shared some footage to help him get the part (that movie would establish him as one of the biggest and most sought after child actors in the world... but we had him first.)

We were committed to practical effects wherever possible, and creating a striking suit for our monster. It all felt like it was going to work. But the shoot would prove to be much more challenging than we anticipated.

The shoot itself was challenging for the typical reasons. There was a little creative tension on set with particular actors, we didn't have enough money to pull off our more ambitious visual moments, and we were forced to remove several production days at the last minute, throwing our schedule into a bit of chaos.

But none of these issues were particularly unusual for a lower budget film, and while it was more challenging and frustrating than Oculus had been, overall the shoot was just fine. I felt that our third act was pretty drastically under budgeted, and what was scripted to be a deep dive into a child's imagination was stripped down to a few vines on the walls and some moths... but other than that, I don't really have much to complain about.

(Fun fact: it was also the first time I would work with Annabeth Gish. We were fast friends, and though she was only with us for a few days, I knew we'd end up working together again.)

We wrapped the movie, I got to editing, and all seemed fine. It was a unique story, much less horror-centric and much more of a fairy-tale. This was, of course, by design. There was a delicate vibe to the whole thing, anchored on Jacob's arresting performance, and a shadowy magic. It felt innocent, wondrous, and ultimately cathartic.

Then, Relativity got their first look at the cut, and the problems started in earnest.

We had been clear (and aligned, I'd thought) about what kind of movie this was. But almost immediately, despite these conversations, the studio began to push the film more and more toward being a traditional horror movie.

We had designed a practical monster in the Canker Man. Our creature was tactile, practical, and - we believed - appropriately simple. After all, it was meant to have come from the mind of a child.

The studio kicked hard, and the directive came down to try to make the monster "much scarier."

There wasn't a lot we could do; we'd shot what we'd shot, after all. The decision was made to take our footage of our practical monster and drastically alter it using visual effects.

The Canker Man would be digitally warped and molded into a skeletal, grinning creature. The visual effects artists would be using footage that wasn't captured with the intention of being altered that way, so a lot of the artifice would be obvious. He'd become a little rough around the edges. We told ourselves that this would be okay... it was a dream, after all.

Early camera tests of our practical Canker Man suit

The final VFX-enhanced monster This began to nudge our monster away from our core concept. While our practical suit would always need some help from VFX, this was now tilting into an area that strayed from the true identity of the creature.

Another major sticking point was the plot itself.

In the movie, Cody's adopted mother Jessie is shocked to find a physical manifestation of her deceased son, Sean, after Cody sees his picture. She then goes about trying to "rebuild" her dead son in the imagination of her new foster child, hoping to see and interact with him more... "I just want to hear his voice."

This morally questionable exploitation of Cody was, to put it mildly, the entire point of the story. Jessie goes too far, and when she finally resorts to drugging Cody to force him to sleep in the hopes of seeing her lost son, he is unable to wake up from a nightmare and her husband is killed.

Jessie spends the rest of the film clawing her way back to redemption, and having to atone for what she's done, all while finally focusing on Cody's past and healing instead of her own.

As a character, Jessie does things we do not agree with, and they have serious, permanent consequences. And the moral murkiness of this was, frankly, the point.

The studio was flinching hard. "It makes her unlikeable," they argued. There was a push to try to back off of this, and to pull the punch... sure, she could exploit him somewhat, but they wanted to pull it back. Kate Bosworth's performance began to be altered in the cutting room, flinching away from some of the more decisive choices in favor of a more watered-down, morally generic heroine.

This middle ground would prove to be ill-advised.

As we were battling over the edit, something else happened. Oculus was released in theaters in April 2014.

If the movie was a huge hit, it would mean I would likely win more of these arguments, and Somnia would be restored to something closer to my vision. If the movie bombed, the studio could (and likely would) run ramshot over Somnia, twisting it into a more generic studio horror story and jettisoning things they didn't quite understand.

Ultimately, the movie performed... moderately. It was kind of right in the middle. It wasn't a failure, but it wasn't a hit either. Both sides dug in. And suddenly, Somnia was being twisted into something between two tones.

Citing the "disappointing" performance of Oculus (which, frankly, did just fine), the studio insisted that we write and shoot some additional "scares". Among them was one of the worst studio notes I'd ever receive (well, at least until I started working for Netflix.)

The entire premise of the film was that, when Cody slept, his dreams would manifest physically. When he woke up, they would vanish. This was, to put it bluntly, our only rule.

The note came in: "We need a scare set piece to occur when he is awake."

Now, I can't understate how nonsensical this is. It defied the entire premise of the movie. Their rationale (such as it was) was that the audience wouldn't ever be frightened when Cody was awake, because they knew the monsters only came when he was asleep.

"Well yeah," I said. "That's why it's important that the movie isn't just about scares."

But they were insistent. If a monster showed up while Cody was awake, that would be "truly thrilling" and "catch the audience off-guard."

It was the equivalent of saying "the shark in Jaws only attacks people if they're in the water. We need an attack to occur on land." I mean, that would really catch the audience off-guard.

I had no idea how to address this note.

It was early in my career, I didn't have a theatrical hit under my belt, and I didn't have the ammunition to fight it. So I had to address it somehow, and it had to satisfy the studio, or else we may not get our theatrical release after all.

So I ended up writing a scene where Cody is wide awake, only to be attacked in his bed by the specter of a deceased bully (a previous victim of one of his dreams).

How the fuck were we going to make this make any sense? Well, we had to write a whole other scene - much earlier in the film - where a therapist explains the concept of "waking dreams." Jay Karnes (who was a lovely person and one hell of a good sport) had to randomly say "you know, some people can dream while they're awake" to Bosworth, desperately trying to set up this moment.

It doesn't quite work, to say the least. Cody looks under his bed, sits up, and is attacked by this eye-less specter. Then, he's dragged screaming under his bed, until the attack just... stops, for some reason.

We filmed it, and I thought it was the stupidest thing I'd ever shot (it wasn't, though - the stupidest thing I've ever shot remains the on-screen stalking and murder of a cat in the pilot of Midnight Mass, a truly braindead scene that Netflix insisted on adding.)

Along with this scene, which would become the crux of Relativity's trailer, we shot several other random scares that were peppered throughout the movie. Now, this wasn't enough to tip the film entirely into being a horror film... just enough to make it exist awkwardly in between two genres.

It got worse. The addition of all this new "horror" material made the film longer (go figure), so the directive came down to begin removing other elements to make room. Those elements were character development and context.

The cut began to get bumpy. The fairy-tale tone of most of our original footage was at odds with the overt horror tone the studio was insisting upon. Every time we tested one of these cuts, the audience was understandably confused... they really loved the concept, they really loved Jacob, and they all loved the ending revelation - but along the way, what was this movie? Was it a horror film? Was it a drama? A fantasy?

Even with this, our test screenings were actually pretty good. We were testing in the high sixties and seventies - which is, infuriatingly, right in that middle zone: not good enough to kill the studio interference, but not bad enough to let them take over.

So we kept fighting. And we kept cutting. And we kept testing. And with each screening, the studio forced it further and further into this no-man's land.

There were a few victories, though. Danny Elfman came on board to collaborate with the Newton Brothers on our score. Some of our non-horror sequences, like a scene involving Christmas-light butterflies, were being called out by our test audiences in the best ways. But the tug-of-war over the basic identity of the film was tipping decidedly toward the more horror-centric approach.

Finally, the studio came after the title. Somnia was too confusing, they said. Nobody knew what it meant. So, we added a scene where Jay Karnes - once again having to naturally sell force-fed exposition - literally defines the world "somnia" during a therapy scene (these therapy scenes were basically being used to spoon-feed material to the audience.)

That wasn't enough, though. The studio began workshopping other titles, and they landed on perhaps my most hated of all of the options: the ultra-generic Before I Wake, a title already used by a handful of low-budget thrillers over decades. We conceded after it was made clear that it wasn't really up to me in this case, and we limped into what I consider to be the worst title of my career.

With our new uneven tone, a new and "improved" monster, and a groan inducing title, they finally agreed to stop messing with the movie and honor their commitment to releasing it wide.

You tell yourself a lot of things in this business, and I told myself that the heart of the story - the revelation about where the concept of the Canker Man came from - was still intact, so all would be well. Viewers would be able to look past some of the bumps because the payoff was worth it.

But we didn't know what else was happening at Relativity.

They announced the release date for the film, posters started showing up in theaters, and we were anxiously awaiting our big wide theatrical release... when suddenly everything stopped.

We didn't know it yet, but Relativity Media was having huge financial problems. They were on the verge of bankruptcy, as a matter of fact, and though they weren't admitting it yet, internally they were in a state of absolute chaos.

Without warning or explanation, the studio moved us off our date. The movie wouldn't be released after all. We immediately knew something was very wrong, despite Ryan Kavanaugh's insistence that our date was "just a bad date," and that he'd moved the movie in order to make it "an even bigger success." No, this whole thing stunk. It stunk bad.

They set another date, and we watched and waited. But no trailers. No marketing. And then... that date was pushed as well. Again, they insisted everything was fine. But we knew. Something was deeply wrong with the company, and they were lying to us.

Some of this played out publicly. Kavanaugh and I got into a spat on Twitter when I suggested that the studio wasn't able to release the movie theatrically after all (I still don't regret saying this, and man oh man, was I proven right).

Meanwhile, our international distributors were scrambling. We'd sold a lot of international territories off the promise of our big theatrical release in North America, and they weren't going to wait forever. By the third time Relativity pushed our release date, the whole house of cards fell down, and various international territories started releasing the film haphazardly on whatever platforms they could.

There was no coordinated release strategy. Suddenly, the film was just available in Argentina, for example. Or it was On Demand in Russia. I remember being shocked when a German Blu-ray appeared on eBay without warning.

There was no rollout to critics, no coordination at all. Within a few weeks, it was pirated and available on torrent sites everywhere. And without a proper press rollout, the only reviews available were trickling in from these international markets, or random blogs in other countries. A slew of reviews - many of which were from obscure blogs in Russia and Turkey, not even written in English - hit Rotten Tomatoes. With no counterpoint from any credible critics, we debuted with a 30% rotten rating.

It would stay this way for years.

Relativity finally admitted the truth, declared bankruptcy, and went to court. Our movie was dragged down into the vortex with it. Our abysmal tomatometer score suggested that the movie wasn't released because it was bad, not because the studio had gone bankrupt. This assumption stuck to us like glue as the film languished in bankruptcy court.

Heartbroken, we turned our attention elsewhere. I would write and direct both Hush and Ouija: Origin of Evil before the whole distribution saga of Before I Wake was finally resolved.

In the years that followed, very little would be said about Before I Wake, and whatever was said was absolutely not positive... how bad must this movie be, after all, to be so unceremoniously pulled from the release? Some theaters just left the poster up, still saying "Coming Soon." I know of one theater in LA that had it up for over a year.

By the time Relativity finally settled their mess, and the film was unceremoniously given back to us with the most lackluster apology imaginable, and our chances of a domestic theatrical distribution were entirely obliterated. The film was already available online through piracy and a tiny handful of foreign blogs had defined our critical reception. No other studio would touch it.

We were able to arrange one screening of the film once it was unencumbered... we had a single showing at Fantastia in Montreal, a festival I adore. Instead of a huge worldwide theatrical release, the movie would play exactly one time, to one audience.

It was sold out, it played wonderfully, and it remains one of my favorite screenings of my career.

With Mitch Davis, Fantasia's artistic director, Kate Bosworth, and my wife Kate Siegel.

In the years that had passed since we shot Before I Wake, Kate Siegel and I had gotten married. At the premiere, and in the picture above, Kate was pregnant with our son.

We named him Cody, after the little boy in Somnia... the little boy whose dreams came true.

In 2016, Netflix acquired the North American rights to Before I Wake, and quietly dumped it on the service. There was no premiere, no rollout, no screeners sent to critics. One day it just appeared on the service without fanfare, as Netflix does to so many titles.

It didn't even appear on the New Releases tab.

A few critics found the movie on their own, and slowly some new reviews started to trickle out. Bloody Disgusting led the charge, discussing how the film had been wrongfully maligned over the years, and correcting identified it as a "haunted fairy tale" that was being handicapped by the expectations that it was a horror film.

Our tomatometer began to slowly rise. After some time, it tipped out of "rotten" into "fresh"... and today stands comfortably at 66%. Those early, malicious reviews are still there, the movie is still scarred by them... but despite Relativity (and eventually Netflix's) efforts to rebrand the movie as a straight horror film, most critics were able to see it for what it truly was.

Our audience was as well, for the most part. Some viewers yawning their way through the Netflix original horror feature section would find it, and get something maybe just a little more thoughtful than they were expecting. A few people reached out to me to talk about losing their own loved ones to cancer, or about how the sweeter elements of the story impacted them. I've always been grateful for that.

But ultimately, the movie was just brutalized by its studio. I've never again had so much damage inflicted on a project by a creative partner and supposed collaborator. And while Netflix did the bare minimum when it came to releasing the movie, I am still very grateful that that they even did that much... if it wasn't for Netflix picking it up, I think there's every chance Before I Wake would have never been made available at all.

I'm proud of the movie. It's not perfect, by any means - it was an ambitious sophomore effort and I had a lot to learn about a lot of things - but it has some beautiful ideas and some moments that really work. I see its flaws clearly, too, and while I tell myself some were out of my control (like the awkward scares forced on us by Relativity), others were most certainly entirely on me. Not everything works, and that's okay.

But man, Jacob Tremblay is phenomenal in this movie. And I absolutely adore the final ten minutes.

My son Cody is almost 7 now, exactly as old as Jacob was when he was cast to play his namesake. I hope Cody's dreams come true; that's why we named him what we named him.

Sometimes, our dreams don't come true quite how we might expect.

Hollywood is just kinda like that, I guess.