#and he gets her in a slipknot faster than she can even ask if the door is locked

[softquietsteadylove]

Can you do another spicy story with this AU but it's him tying her up instead. Like i need this to be SPICY like one of the spiciest, filthiest story you've ever made. I need the teasing, dirty talk, begging, maybe some overstimulation if you feel like it😅 Also I know being rough isn't Gilgamesh whole thing but I feel like for this Thena did something that set him off and brought something out of him maybe? I love you and all your work!

Thena keened as he tugged at the lace, making sure it was secure around her precious little wrists. He gave her backside a gentle pat. "Good, girl."

She whined faintly. Her teeth were dug into the plump of her lower lip, their fullness pushing against them.

"Easy," he growled, giving her a slightly firmer spank before moving around her. He hovered close, letting his eyes take in the exquisite feast that was his wife (to be). "Pink is a good colour on you, Princess."

She trembled before him, the pink he had just left on the round of her bum matching the pink in her cheeks now travelling down to her chest. Her breath heaved, forcing her breasts up and down in a hypnotising rhythm.

"And whose are you?"

"Yours," she gasped out as he rolled up his sleeves. He flexed his right hand, even slipped his engagement ring off. She eyed it as he approached her again.

"Good," he purred, holding up the ring. He toyed with it in his fingers a few times before pressing it to her lips. "Whose princess are you?"

"Yours," she panted, watching as he slipped his ring onto the other hand, freeing his right to be unburdened as he slipped it up her thigh.

"And whose," he paused, pressing his thumb at the right angle to open her just slightly. He ran his tongue over her, making her body tremor again. He held her other thigh steady, "is this?"

"All yours," she moaned as he pressed his tongue to her again. She wiggled against her binds, trying to press her hips to him. But he held her more solidly, commanding how far she was able to move and to what timing. "Please, Gil."

"Hm," he hummed directly against her clit. She made a positively guttural sound and he knew she had thrown her head back with pleasure. He let his tongue trace around the edges of her lips, testing out his territory. "Ask again."

"Please, baby, please," she whined, even trying to hook one of her legs around his shoulder, but he held her firmly. Her hips knocked against him.

"Ask nicely," he growled, even biting down on the firmness of her adductor longus (he needed anatomy knowledge for business, but pleasing his fiance was a pleasant bonus). He left reddish teeth marks, furthering the overall rouge of her pale skin sheened with sweat. He ran his palm over it, on his way to pushing two fingers into her, "like a good girl."

"Please, Tyrant King, please fuck me."

He buried his satisfaction in the crook of her thigh, right at the socket of her hip. He dragged his teeth over her soft skin there as he pumped his fingers mercilessly. Without his ring on, he could push up until his fingers met her pelvic bone.

"Gil!" Thena shrieked, but he kept moving. He had never gone so deep, so fast, so hard. He usually warmed her up more gently, even before they were joined. But he was powering on relentlessly. "Gil, Gil, fuck--it's too much!"

She came almost immediately, and he was pleased with the results. But he kept moving. He let his rhythm change slightly, pulling his fingers out just to his first knuckles each time. "Come on, Sweetness."

Her knees buckled but he held her up, still driving her towards her second orgasm in rapid succession.

"Fuck, Gil, I-I can't-!" She screamed again as she came a second time, her senses completely drowning in him. Her hips jerked as she squirted, her legs letting go of all semblance of strength.

He held her, not willing to let her fall to her knees no matter the agenda he had planned for them. Her whole body shook and her knees were twitching in a charming way. He rubbed her back as he helped her lean back against his desk. "Easy."

Thena panted, leaning as heavily as she could against her clasped fists between the desk edge and her bare back. Her lips attempted to form words, but all that happened were a series of kittenish sounds implying satisfaction.

Gil kept his chuckle to himself; he could relish in his ridiculous male pride later. He started at her ankle, pulling it up to rest it on his shoulder. "What a mess."

Thena gasped again, regaining her senses from the bottom up as he licked up the evidence of her bone-deep pleasure. "Gil?"

"It's okay, Princess," he whispered against her skin, trailing his tongue along her the way he would like a million dollar plate. He massaged the inside of her other thigh as he did. "I don't want to waste this."

Thena barely had the mind to breathe as he continued his journey up her thighs. He stopped just short of her core. Her hips quivered as he let himself puff a breath of warm air against her wetness. "M-More?"

"Is that a question?" he grinned against her skin, just below her bellybutton. He trailed his tongue over the scar leftover from when she'd had her procedure. She whined at him--she didn't like him paying it special attention. He gave her another light spank.

She yelped.

"Who's in control here," he rose from kneeling to look into her eyes again. She looked delirious, in a delicious kind of way. "Ice?"

"You are," she breathed, swaying on the spot as he moved closer. She let herself lean against him, her breasts finding refuge against his chest. She even tried to rise up onto her toes to kiss him. "You are."

If only it were always so easy.

He granted her a little kiss, although she tried to follow as he pulled back. "Ah-ah-ah, Ice--wait."

Her spine straightened at the command.

He undid the buttons of his shirt slowly, pulling it off with a sense of luxury he had denied her. She eyed him hungrily, some of his usual lionhearted Ice Queen emerging. He rolled his shoulders, showing off the tattoos covering his arms. She liked them.

She tried to move forward again, pulling faintly at her lace.

He undid his belt with a single hand, pulling it out and tossing it away with one motion. He inhaled as he pulled himself from his trousers. "This what you want?"

She nodded, still battling against remaining still and pulling forward.

He closed the distance, lessening her need to move in. He pressed her back towards the desk, even gripping her thigh to help her just high enough to lean back against it practically and comfortably. He dashed his eyes down between them.

The pink in her chest deepened, overtaking her like a rose blooming.

He kept his eyes focused as she obeyed his commands even without the words. She raised her leg further, showing her readiness to take him in. He held himself in position. "Good girl."

Thena moaned, literally dripping ready for him. "Please."

"Go on," he encouraged under his breath. He all but held still as she aligned them, trying to take in the head of him with only her hips to guide her. She whimpered as he finally slipped into her. "Good girl."

Thena moaned as she finally managed to slide him into her. She truly was wound up, her muscles undulating around him, at a loss after being teased so thoroughly.

"Move."

She met his eyes, although the lids of hers were heavy. Her pupils were blown, her eyes a dark, dark green. She started, as he asked, bouncing on his cock, pinned between him and a hard place.

"Good" he growled, moving back to whisper right in her ears. The closer angle let them move more easily. He kept his participation minimal, just enough for them to continue while she did the bulk of the work. "Just like that."

She whimpered, pulling at her binds again. "Gil, please."

He loved hearing that. He leaned forward. She used the friction of their naked fronts to appease her need to stimulate her breasts. He reached behind her, in a semblance of holding her like she liked, or even of undoing her restraints.

She let out another sound of pure pleasure as he yanked her back, exposing her to the open air again.

"Getting greedy, Ice," he chastised her before nipping at the shell of her ear. He left light but visible bite marks all along the delicate but brightly flushed part of her until he could trail down to her neck. He latched on there, pulling her thigh up higher until he could seat her on the desk. Only there could he truly complete his task. "Who's in control, here?"

"You are."

He pulled out of her completely, admiring how visibly she missed him, only to push in again in one clean stroke. They both shuddered. His throat clenched,

Thena hunched all the way forward, desperate to feel some part of him closer aside from just what connected them. "Gil!"

"That's it," he cooed as he started moving. This was a better angle. He let go of her high, locking her knee up around his arm as he gripped the edge of the desk. The heavy, bolted-to-the-floor desk, moaned from the pressure of their bodies writhing together.

Thena's gasps fluttered continually upward and outward. She moaned, higher and louder with every stroke. "Fuck, I'm gonna come again!"

That was certainly his goal. He wanted a mess of her. He wanted a complete feast of the woman he loved, piled on his desk like a cornucopia. He wanted to be able to lick up her melted remains off the varnished oak top.

"Fuck, please," she panted. She had unfurled her fists, angling her hands to hold her up against his pounding. Her buttocks were creating a mass around which their sweat and other fluids could collect in an incriminatingly round formation.

"Who do you come for?" he growled, determined to bring their current mood to its conclusion. He reached behind her again, tugging at the end of the lace around her wrists and pulling her back further. He eyed the enticing bounce of her breasts, offbeat from the slapping of their hips meeting.

"You, only you," she responded oh-so obediently. She was a fast learner, his Ice Queen. If she wanted to come, she would play his game. "It can only be you."

"Damn right," he snarled, pulling up on the edge of the desk until he heard the legs groaning in protest. He could hear - and see - the wetness running from between her legs and now over the edge of the desk. That vision would be with him for the rest of his life.

"Gil, Gil, oh fuck, right there, I-!" Thena stopped mid-sentence, if not mid-word. Her head went all the way back and her legs jerked up and in. Her toes splayed out and then curled in.

He threw himself against her, their hips creating the perfect crater for one another in their release. He could feel the mess they were making, and it was incredible. Only now did he let himself lean his weight down over her, their hearts beating wildly, but somehow alike. The weight of him helped her to stop shaking.

Thena's body was completely slick with sweat, now glowing, and tinged pink all over. Her usual pallor had given way, particularly from her chest upward. Some of her perfect blonde hair was even stuck to her cheeks in their heated tangle of bodies.

Gil grunted as he pulled himself from her. He was tired, and he couldn't imagine how she was feeling. He looked down as the evidence of them trailed after him and flowed freely from Thena. He reached for his suit jacket.

Thena flinched as he ran his handkerchief over her bare lips.

"Sorry," he whispered, being as gentle as he could knowing she was probably still on fire within her own nervous system.

Again, she tried to form words, but nothing came out.

Gil collected her into his arms, undoing her lace just as easily as he had tied it. Her arms hung limply by her sides as he pulled her against his chest. "Easy, Princess."

She mumbled something, but he couldn't make out what it was. He just patted her back, helping her off the desk so he could hold her properly. Her head was limp against his shoulder, as if she were barely conscious.

"Thena?" he cooed, hoping he hadn't taken it too far. He turned, carrying her to his office couch and pulling his shirt over her.

"Hm," she managed, just barely. But her completely dazed expression did feature a sated - and dare he say cute - little smile on her perfect lips.

"Nothing, sweetheart, I'll wake you later," he promised, pressing a gentle kiss to those lips as comfortably and freely as he would speak her name.

Thena seemed aware enough to accept the promise, snuggling against him as she gave in to her exhaustion.

Indeed, he would. He would let her rest, run a cool cloth over her body until she was refreshed, pull her dress back on for her. He would have her favourites delivered, and hand feed her, if that was what she wanted. They had both had their needs more than fulfilled, after all.

Although he had to admit, he liked being the one to tie her up this time. And despite his security in knowing that Thena had no interest in the new business associates all throwing themselves at her feet, begging and drooling like unfixed dogs, he liked asserting that fact. He liked hearing for himself that she was only his, that her body was only his as his was hers. And he liked having her beg for him, just a little bit.

[ravenadottir]

i really love your headcanons and i hope this hasn't been asked before but what abt the types of music or even specific artists u think the boys (or girls too!) would listen to? me personally i only have a few ideas but i always see bobby listening to 90s music... and i feel like gary might listen to a lot of rock

hi anon! thank you so much ❤️

now here’s the thing. i don’t know a lot of european music. barely know british artists that aren’t dead, with the exception of arctic monkeys. so if you guys know artists that sound like the ones i’m citing, fantastic, ‘cause i don’t know them  😬 😬 😬

you know, i think about the year they were born, and relevate that about their preferences. and you know, i’m there with you. i think i mentioned a couple of times about bobby and the 90′s hip hop/r&b. so much of that happening on his music collection. i headcanon a poster of tupac on his living room, in his original apartment. girls like lil kim and eve being the women he had crushes, before he had his punk phase and fell for girls like joan jett and lita ford, and was listening to sum 41. maybe even some old 1960′s reggae too. but i don’t see it happening as much as the others. it’s more of a family thing. in his favorite punk bands i included dead kennedys, blink 182, sum 41, bad religion, and i stand by it.

definitely loads of rock for gary, for sure! no doubt in my mind that’s his style and i think he’s still in the “i don’t like anything else” phase. for him, i headcanon arctic monkeys, hard rock like ‘black stone cherry’, ‘halestorm’ and others of that type. when i think about gary i think about hard rock bands from the late 90′s and early 2000′s like blink 182, goofy green day and sum 41. i wanna include 80′s horny rock. you know the ones! every guy flipping their hair to talk about an ass, a girl, sex, or all of them combined has a special place in his playlist. not the bands’ whole discography, but those specific songs, like ‘cherry pie’.

chelsea loves ariana grande. that’s just... there’s pink, high pitch, plumes, 90′s aesthetic, ‘thank u next’. i reckon chelsea goes for pop like ed sheeran, and pop girls like ari and... who else is pop? i’m not quite sure.

lottie might dress in black and be a sorceress, but i don’t think she digs nothing too dark. when i think about her, i see dorothy’s ‘wicked ones’ song. but that’s as heavy as she goes. maybe something like ‘the pretty reckless’, but i reckon that’s her limit. nothing like ariana grande i don’t think, but maybe unexpected pop for sure. lottie looks to me like the kind of girl that listens to “this year’s hits” and is alright about it.

noah is all about the 80′s rock and honestly? when i think about noah vibing to something, ‘ain’t no sunshine’ comes to mind. bill withers really did something with those lyrics, and i know ‘toto’ has a special place in noah’s heart, but that’s the energy i feel belongs to book boy. i’m not the most versed in this field, but ‘ben e. king’, b.b king, luther allison. all that jazz vibe but with lots of heartbreak. anything that sounds like the 80′s romantic rock is also in his playlist. ooh, and ‘queen’. no one changes my mind about noah vibing to queen and even goofing around about it.

kassam. on his story, a year ago, i wrote down metal, among other things. this boys gives me the vibe of lots of heavy music influencing his own. initially i said metallica, and i stand by that, but also, i would love to see kassam casually vibing to ‘papa roach’. and i have to include other dj’s, like nina kraviz, his crush, and others like ‘the chemical brothers’ and ‘daft punk’. older more experiencied dj’s, and some experimental new ones.

carl. a freaking wild card! carl can be the type that listens to heavy death metal or go for smooth jazz all day, every day. if i’m honest, i think he goes for heavy things. it seems he puts out his stress into getting deaf while listening to music, but i could be wrong. he really is a wild card. and if i have to guess something, i would say he’s ecletic. he’s not headbanging in concerts, but he’s listening to heavy stuff while working on something complicated, awkwardly mouthing the lyrics. and when he wants to chill, calm genres are his thing, like blues.

lucas. hard rock from any decade. he has mad respect for those bands from the 80′s but can enjoy a modern version that homages the older ones. highlights include ac/dc, led zepellin, mötley crüe, scorpions, kiss. his revolting times include linkin park (no one can convince me lucas wasn’t the type) and slipknot. he’s kinda over slipknot now, but had a hard time with chester’s death.

henrik. I HATE TO BE THAT PERSON, but he does like reggae. i would like to think he keeps it traditional and not ‘hm hm chaka hm hm chaka”. so bob marley, peter tosh, bunny waiter. henrik might vibe to almost everything that is fun or tranquil. he has a genre for every mood. he’s also a headbanger, DON’T AT ME. he must be. i want him to be! pop is part of the repertoire too. but you know, artists like beyonce and bruno mars.

priya. r&b mainly. lots of 90′s r&b and rap, girls that paved the way to new female rappers and the ones who paved the way back for newsies, like nicki minaj. priya has mad respect for her. and i would like to think she likes horny rap like thee stallion. digs cardi b, that’s canon, and playful ones like doja cat too. has the biggest crush on bruno mars and definitely likes cheeky guys because of him. 

ibrahim. mainly horny r&b from late 90′s and early 2000′s. like every pony, usher, thong and more! i can see ibrahim dancing to a lot of the 90′s hip hop, like run dmc. if he digs dr. dre, busta and lil’ wayne i’ll be falling for him faster than he can say ‘beaver!’.

marisol. latin music. reggaeton before it was mainstream. old ballads like luis miguel, alejandro sanz and julio iglesias. she probably grew up in a house where her mother and aunties loved those men singing romantic songs to the crowd. she started dancing at an young age, so the ballroom songs from the time: 2003. ricky martin, christina aguilera. (don’t quote me on this, but i was doing ballroom dance and there was a lot of those weird remixes involving pop singers, and those were the main ones. don’t tell anyone about it tho).

[overthere-in-neverland]

Hey i was wondering if you could do one where the readers band is on tour with all time low and at night she sings herself to sleep and jack listens to her and starts developing a crush on her? You can change it up a bit so it doesn’t suck but thanks :)

AN Hey guys! Sorry it’s been three years since I’ve posted lmao. I think I’m slowly coming back to these. For one thing I’m at my job, and I work graveyard so I’m bored as hell. For another, I really miss creative writing. I’ll update you on my life if you want next time I visit this, but other than that, hello! I won’t be updating the halloween imagines for the time being, especially since I’m trying to come back to this. I know I had one  (1) request to update the side blog fanfics I had going on, but as for now, I’m going to try to do it one at a time. @ my motivation? Where r u (and im so sorry i cannot sleep i cannot dream tonighttttt) Anyways! Also I just realized that it was Creeper who were atl’s opening band on the european mainland tour for lyr and now im emo all over again. The text conversation is in the story already, I just felt the need to make it for you lol

Your POV

I knew we were going on tour with All Time Low. Our manager knew we were going on tour with All Time Low. My bandmates knew we were going on tour with All Time Low. We all were well aware, and now the fans were too. But holy shit, is it surreal. Starting from nothing, playing a max of ten people, then going to 1,000 cap rooms, oh my god is it fucking incredible. Not to mention All Time Low have been my heroes for as long as I can remember.

I’m in a pop punk band, and I play the bass. I’m not quite a singer, but I can do back up. I have three other bandmates. One sings, her name is Maria, one plays guitar, that’s Drew. And we have Allison on drums. Altogether we’re pretty badass.

I had heard in the industry that Jack was a bit of a flirt. Having Drew in our band, we didn’t think much of it. Granted, Maria was engaged, and Allison’s gay, so it’s not like either of them were available. But I knew of Jack’s wiles, so I knew to stay on my toes. We were touring in Europe around the mainland for Last young Renegade, All Time Low’s new album, and it was my band’s first time being in Europe, so we were stoked. We were up at like 8 am, exploring around the city. Though trying to fall asleep is critical, especially jet-lagged. I don’t know about most things, but what I do know is anytime I go anywhere, even if it’s in the same time zone, I’m always jet-lagged. Maybe I’m just always tired?

So we arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark, the first stop on our European tour, and we meet the guys at their bus, and I’m a little star struck. Alex Gaskarth and his iconic hair. I’m not saying I’m in the fandom, but Alex’s brown hair is nothing short of iconic. Especially when it’s longer. Huge throwback to Timebomb era, and hooo boy. That was an era to be alive. Alex was wiping down the table in his bus, muttering about these “good for nothing men, who can’t even pick up after themselves.” Jack is behind him opening the fridge, then opening the cupboards, then opening the fridge, then opening the pantry, I smiled a bit at that. Zack and Rian weren’t anywhere to be found, at least from what I could see, staring down the bus’s hallway. We were to be dragging behind them in our small little van pulling a trailer. Drew coughed, and Alex looked up. “Guys!” he smiled, throwing away his wipe. “You’re here!”

Jack looked over from his rampant searching of food and smiled at us as well. I felt my face grow hot, but tried to brush it off like I was alright. I kicked my other food and looked down at the ground to try and forget I existed for a bit. I noticed Maria smiling at me, probably knowing exactly what was going on. She knew that Jack has always been a celebrity crush of mine since 2008. “What’s up,” he said to us, nodding in our direction.

“We’re in GutterPunk,” Drew responded, usually taking initiative. “Nice to meet you guys. We’ll be on tour with you throughout the mainland.”

“Sweet!” Alex smiled, and came over to us, probably intending to shake our hands. “What’ll you be riding around?”

“We kind of don’t really know yet? We have to go pick up the rental van and trailer soon. We just wanted to meet you guys.”

“Well I’m Alex,” he said gesturing to himself. “And that fiend over there is Jack.” Jack paused from his cupboard raid and waved, then went back to it. “Hope to enjoy your guys’ music and energy out there.”

“Stoked, dude.” Drew shook his hand, and turned to walk away, out of the bus. We were all standing in his way. So he had nowhere to go.

“I’ve been a fan since middle school!” Allison told him, also shaking his hand. “Y/N and I have always dreamed of touring with you guys. It’s been a dream, really. You’re a huge inspiration! At least half of it. Tre Cool has always been my biggest, but don’t sweat it. He’s a fucking god on drums.”

“Here here!” came a voice in the back.

“That’s Rian,” Alex chuckled. “He always makes himself known at any mention of Green Day.”

I thought I had seen Jack peak over at us when Allison mentioned my name, but then again, it was all happening so fast, I didn’t have any idea as to what was going on. I tucked my hair behind my ears and introduced myself to Alex. We talked a bit before we had to go to the rental agency and get our modes of transportation. It was to be about a month in the van with these guys, tightly packed. Thank god we weren’t a ska band.

After a couple days on tour in Europe, I was getting my bearings. I started to get a feel of how it would be like throughout the month. It was a show every night for a couple days, then we’d have one or two days off. Our van broke down the fifth day, and we were ready to call it quits, me being on the verge of tears, and Allison kicking the wheel of our shitty van rental. Alex graciously offered to let us stay in their bus, but we all refused, trying desperately to figure out another way to travel. He insisted.

“Are you sure this is okay?” Maria asked him as we gathered our stuff in their bus

“Oh, it’s fine!” Alex waved us off. “You’ll just stay with us. It’s not fair that we get this huge ass bus for four of us and you guys all have to share that tiny van. Make sure you get your money back though, because that’s bullshit. Jesus Christ, man. I told Fueled that we should’ve just shared a tour bus but they’re all about ‘separating bands’ or whatever. Why we ever signed to this record label I’ll never know.”

“It was your idea,” Zack chimed in. We all laughed. “Well it was! After going to Hopeless, twice, Alex wanted to branch out. Which we all agreed to anyway. It was funny though, because he complained about it every chance he got.”

“I’m well aware of that. But Fueled by Ramen seems to forget that we were once small too! Power to the little people!”

We all laughed again and gathered in their bus to prepare for the next night which was to be a day off. I was nervous, because this meant that Jack would be just down the hall, if you can even call it that, from me. It reached 1 am that night after the show, and we had all gathered in our beds to try and sleep so we could get out and do fun things around France.

I always used to sing myself to sleep to calm my nerves, and after about an hour of tossing and turning, it seemed like that was my only option if I wanted to sleep. I started off by humming softly, in case I would wake anyone up. After about ten minutes of that, and no sounds of stirs happened, I sang quietly. First was Lullabies, which is my go to song to sing when I need to sleep. Something about the line “Sing me to sleep, I’ll see you in my dreams” makes me feel at peace. After I finished with that, I heard the quiet patter of feet. I stopped for a bit, to wait to see if it came again, and when it didn’t I started again. Snuff by Slipknot is another one that calms me down, and I sang that, but right at the bridge I heard the patter again. I drew back the curtain, and saw Jack standing there. He looked scared to see me notice him, and promptly turned back towards his bed, and didn’t look back at me.

I frowned but pulled the covers up. I guess he doesn’t actually want to get to know me. I closed my eyes to try for the.. Was it the fourth time? Third time? I lost count. But I tried once more to sleep. Then I heard the pang next to me of a text message.

I promise I wasn’t trying to listen to you sing.

It was from Jack. We had all exchanged numbers at the beginning of the tour. My thumbs danced over my screen as I thought of what to say.

Don’t worry about it

I just heard it and then i couldn’t stop

It’s fine, jack. Really

Your voice is really pretty tho Can we talk tomorrow? I have something I need to tell you

What could he possibly need to tell me? I was freaking out. And now I can’t sleep even more. Fuck. This was going to be a long night.

I mean I’m awake right now

I can’t really say it right now

Well, what the fuck does that mean? I sigh and then turn around and face the wall. The bus was moving, but I felt like my stomach was moving ten thousand times faster. Him talking to me like this is the first real conversation he’s had with me. Most of the time he avoids me. Whatever it is, I guess I can wait. I prepared for a long sleepless night after that.

When I woke up, everyone was bustling about, getting ready for the day off. “Jack! Y/N!” Rian called down to us. I guess neither of us had gotten up. “We’re going out to breakfast!”

I moaned in recognition, and heard nothing from Jack, so I assumed he had gone with them. I threw my covers off and went straight to the bathroom. When I got out, I saw a tall lanky man with bed head staring at me.

“Uh. Hello.” I said stupidly.

“Hey, uh. About last night.”

“It’s fine if you don’t want to say anything. I get it. I’m a backup singer for a reason.”

“No that’s not it! Um.” He stopped talking to look down at his feet. “Look. I know this is weird. Especially since I hardly know you. But, I’ve actually been following your band for a while. And dude, you’re like insanely hot. And then I find out you’re a good person too? Last night, hearing your singing it made me realize.. Fuck, this is so stupid. It made me realize I’m in love with you.” With the last uttering of  those words, he looked up at me. “Sorry.��

“Are you fucking serious?” I raised my eyebrows, completely awestruck. Jack Barakat, the celebrity crush of my teen years was telling me he was in love with me? When it looked like he in fact, was not kidding, I immediately blushed and looked away. “Dude. I’ve been in love with you since I was like 14.”

A smile lit up his face as he started talking really fast, rambling. “Oh my god! Really? Holy shit okay, so like we can go get breakfast with the others, or we can go get breakfast by ourselves, we could walk down the Seine, we are in France after all. Holy fu-”

I started laughing, but grabbed his hand with mine, since he was waving it all around. “Slow down there, I can barely keep up. Let’s go get breakfast first, and talk this out. You’ve basically been avoiding me since I got here.”

“Well yeah, I didn’t really know how to strike up a conversation.”

I chuckled. “This is weird, huh?”

“So weird.” He nodded in agreement. I realized I was still holding his hand, but I didn’t let go. Instead we walked off the bus, headed towards the cafe for breakfast. My heart was in my throat but this felt right. After the initial break of the ice, he wouldn’t shut up, but I loved hearing his voice. He could talk for hours on end if he really wanted to.

[barb-aricyawp]

if you're feeling inspired for it, torture tuesday + wanda + hydra + 9?

This is just about the sweetest way to ask for this. I’m sure I can whip up something for Wanda and a leash for you. I threw Pietro in there too.

trigger warnings: choking, humiliation, forced exercise

They hurt her so that Pietro will comply with the experiments. And they do it so he can watch her struggle. 

That’s always the worst part. Being watched. Her brother’s eyes on her. Sensing his sympathy pour off him in miserable waves. 

Pietro is the worst part. The leash comes in second.

Even Wanda has to admit that it’s a good strategy. While she’s dangling by the throat–choking and scrambling to ease the pressure around her trachea–her brother is on the treadmill. Running. Sprinting.

Today they’re testing his endurance. And Wanda’s.

They’ve ramped up the speed so high Pietro’s legs are a pale blur below him. He’s fighting to keep up, entire body straining. But his eyes are on Wanda’s bluing face.

“She doesn’t look so good, does she?” Herr Strucker says to Pietro. 

He’s the one holding the other end of the leash, and he raises Wanda higher in the air as he speaks. Her toes lift off the ground and her entire weight crushes against her throat.

Wanda tries not to splutter, but can’t help the ghastly coarse rasp of her inhales. The way they sound scraped through her windpipe. Her lungs feel shriveled inside her.

“Fifteen more miles, Pietro,” Strucker continues. “Aren’t twins supposed to protect each other? Are you protecting her?”

Wanda can’t bear the look on Pietro’s face. Her eyes roll back into their sockets, tucked away and flickering. She searches herself for that prickle of magic, but can’t find it. 

She doesn’t fight for air anymore; there’s no point.

“Maybe I should strap this leash to that treadmill. See if Wanda can run any faster than you.”

With a yelp, Pietro hits the hundred mile mark. Wanda knows because Strucker laughs and abruptly drops her to the floor.

The leash was fastened in a slipknot around her bare throat. And that slipknot is snagged on the rough strap of the leash. Wanda’s fingers dig under the clench of the knot around her throat, gasping for air once she gets it loose.

Loose is all she can manage though, and the leash is still wrapped around her neck when Strucker gives a tug to his end of it. 

Even a brief tug throbs hot and stinging through the bruise, so she’s quick to comply. She springs to her feet immediately. Time to go again.

She smiles at Pietro, a sad waver over her lips. “Think you can keep running, brother?”

Pietro shrugs. “I’m running now, aren’t I?”

[winterverses]

Walking Wounded - Chapter Eighty-One

Warning: Violence.

The door slid open again far faster than Kirk had expected. When Loche had said a matter of hours, he’d assumed that meant more than one or two. One look at Anne’s face told him all he needed to know; something was very wrong. Well, he’d half-expected it. Things like this never ran smoothly. Her eyes told him just as clearly that the situation wasn’t unrecoverable. She would have been calmer if there were no options left.

“I would ask what little plot the two of you hatched, but it’s not going to matter in a few moments,” Loche said. His fingers were lightly encircling Anne’s arm, just about where the bruising from the break was. “I should have given you longer to speak. Perhaps you’d have come up with something that didn’t depend on your poker face. My little brute is a decent enough liar, although that’s to be expected. Creatures of artifice, some of it pleasant, some not. You, on the other hand, are the proverbial open book. Even now you think you have a chance to salvage your situation. What you expect yourself to be capable of while chained to a wall, light-years away from any potential rescue, I cannot possibly know. Nor do I care. At least you can rest easy knowing that you may have been the one man my savage girl did not gladly throw to the wolves to save her own skin. See how she regrets what she’s about to do?”

Loche squeezed lightly at Anne’s arm, bringing her to a halt well within arms’ reach of him. A spasm of pain twisted her mouth, but beyond that, she didn’t falter. Maybe she was still that sure on her feet even injured, or maybe she just knew that stumbling would end up even worse for her. Whatever the reason, she stood as tall as she could, chin lifted high, as dignified as a queen despite all the bruises and grime. 

“Nothing to say? I would have thought you’d at least be flattered,” Loche said. That disgusting little smile of his never wavered.

“Your delusions aren’t that great a compliment,” Kirk said. He wished he knew how to play this. Should he be trying to talk Loche down, or should he be provoking him? He wished Anne hadn’t kept him in the dark… but seeing how easily Loche had known something was up, he had to admit that it was probably for the best that he didn’t know the plan from this point on. He knew his poker face was better than Loche thought, but Anne was on another level. She was giving nothing away, not even to him. All he saw was fear… and struggle.

Maybe that was all that was there, but he doubted it. It couldn’t be. It wouldn’t make sense. He knew her too well for that.

“I told you I knew her better than you did. And I do. Isn’t that right?” Loche’s fingers tightened infinitesimally around Anne’s arm once again. While she stood rigid, fighting off the pain, he continued to speak, his lips brushing her ear. “Either way, you’re going to kill him. If you make me force you, I will make it slow. Understood?” 

“Yes, Loche,” she said quickly, uncertainty flitting through her eyes.

That wasn’t what worried him. No, the unnerving thing was the way her eyes flooded with an awful, depthless apology as she lifted her good hand. Unsurprisingly, it held a knife that gleamed wickedly in the uncertain light.

What had gone wrong? If something had, how would she even tell him without jeopardizing her own chances of survival? Well, if this was it, better to let her know. “It’s all right. One of us should get out of this, at least.” Kirk gave her a little grin, even though he somehow didn’t feel that great right then. She smiled in answer, a twitch of the lips, as if she couldn’t help but respond. 

“Tell me you love me,” Loche murmured, his hand tightening again on her broken arm, his dark eyes riveted to her face as if he were searching for something beyond her passive compliance.

Anne closed her eyes against the pain, but no more. “I love you,” she said tonelessly. Disgusted, Loche squeezed her arm harder, his avid eyes on her face. She turned her head to look at him in spite of the pain, her lips white, her eyes huge, that elegant neck of hers taut. “I lo--”

Kirk felt the blood drain from his head so fast it left him dizzy. “Anne, no!”

The knife flicked up and across that taut, elegant neck, and a red deluge gushed down her body, saturating that torn grey dress, too vivid against her ice-white skin. Loche looked stunned, slowly lifting his hand, then suddenly slapping it over her neck as if he could stem the flow. “You bitch,” Loche said unbelievingly as she sagged in his arms. “My son-- you bitch!”

Kirk felt himself straining at the chains and then suddenly came back to himself. Any more pressure and that one weak link could snap. He’d need it if he could make things play out the way he wanted. Loche was pressing ineffectually at her neck, trying to pinch the vein shut, making a mess of things. “Let me go. Let me go!” Loche scowled harder. Good. He wasn’t so busy that he didn’t hear. “She’ll die if you don’t let me go,” Kirk yelled.

“If she dies, it’ll be what she deserves,” Loche snarled, his hands nevertheless trying to stem that red tide.

“Then say goodbye to your only chance for a son,” Kirk said.

Loche’s gaze rose to his. Kirk could almost see his thoughts scrambling for traction. “If I let you go, you’ll attack me,” Loche said warily, wanting to believe he was wrong, wanting to believe he still had that chance.

“No. I swear it. Can’t you see you’re already losing her?” Kirk cried. The thought of it was too much to stand.

Anne’s eyes fluttered open, but he kept his fixed on Loche. To his credit, Loche made up his mind quickly, laying Anne down on the floor and pulling a small metal oblong from his pocket. Touching the cuffs with it didn’t open them-- they also needed his thumbprint before they would open. Kirk didn’t waste time posturing; he yanked at his shirt, tearing it, keeping an eye on the pipe lying nearby as he leaned over Anne, blocking Loche’s view. As he’d hoped, her eyes went from glassy and half closed to alert, almost frantically asking him what he was doing. She had guts, he had to give her that. He tried not to show his relief as he made a pad of half his torn shirt and pressed it hard against the side of her neck. If he could have spoken, he would have told her to trust him-- and maybe he didn’t have to, because she let her eyes slide closed.

No blood on her lips. She hadn’t cut deeply enough to nick her airway. She was still conscious, which she wouldn’t have been if she’d gotten the carotid. He ignored Loche’s demands, shifting her so that he could place a knee on the side of her neck while he tore the rest of his shirt into strips for a quick field dressing. She’d gone for the jugular, either knowing or hoping that it was entirely possible to survive it with quick action, and if it was very quick action, to remain conscious long enough to be useful. Maybe.

A hand on his shoulder, fingers digging in hard, yanked him back out of his racing thoughts. “I didn’t let you go so you could strangle her,” Loche snarled.

“She’s fine. It needs that much pressure or the artery doesn’t stay closed.” Artery, not vein-- Kirk didn’t want Loche to find out that the wound wasn’t as bad as it looked. He didn’t try to explain further, just finishing with the wide, long strips of cloth instead and sliding them under her neck, making a kind of slipknot. Carefully, he moved back, immediately replacing his knee with a hand and tightening the knot as much as he dared. The cloth pad was already soaked through. She’d probably just gotten the one vein. Probably. He hoped. That was as much as he could do, however-- he couldn’t risk Loche getting antsy and starting a fight directly over Anne’s body. “All right. I’m going to move back and put one of my arms up so you can chain me again.”

Wisely, Loche kept his mouth shut until after he’d snapped the cuff around Kirk’s wrist. “Do they teach noble uselessness at Starfleet, or is that just you?” Loche asked, leaning down to get the second shackle.

He never had a chance. Throwing his entire weight against that one weak link, Kirk felt it snap, his fist landing behind Loche’s ear with enough force that he thought he might have broken a finger. Loche crumpled to the floor, unconscious, or at the very least dazed, and Kirk scooped Anne up, making for the Sorte’s bridge.

Her eyes popped open before he could juggle her enough to put pressure on her neck as he ran. “Hands on your neck, tiger,” he said. “Keep pressing on that thing. You could still bleed out if we’re not careful.”

She obeyed, maybe not as quickly as he might like, but he figured he’d be a bit sluggish too if he’d lost that much blood all at once. Pressing the hand that still held the knife against her wound, she said, “James Tiberius Kirk, if you could have gotten out of those chains anytime--”

As perverse as it was, he couldn’t help laughing. Maybe the relief was getting to him, although scolding him wasn’t exactly the most normal reaction either. At least her voice was steady enough, if weak. “Nope. Just the one. But it was enough, he was down last I checked.”

“Good. I thought for sure you were going to throw the whole thing.” He felt her starting to shiver.

“Keep it together, Anne. We’re not out of the woods yet.”

“I don’t exactly have a choice,” she said. At least he could feel her tension telling him she wasn’t letting up on the pressure. “Jim, you might still have to kill him.”

“Why the hell am I running to the bridge then? I could’ve killed him there,” he said, slowing.

“We don’t have time for it. The atmosphere vent is already started. I don’t know if I did something wrong or if it’s just automatic, but it started. We have to either get the bridge blast doors closed, or find a working escape pod.”

Suddenly he was running full-out. “Shit. If we don’t get the bridge doors closed, that’s going to give him however long with the phasers potentially working...”

Surprisingly, Anne laughed. It was weak, but at least it was humor. “Well, Plan A, blast doors. Plan B, escape pod.”

“I’ll handle the doors. You find a working pod. How long do we have?”

“I don’t know. Minutes.” Anne’s shivering increased. “I don’t know how useful I’m going to be…”

“I need you, tiger. You have to keep it together.” If he couldn’t depend on her, he’d have to do it all himself. That made getting those doors closed an even bigger priority.

They burst into the bridge, Kirk running for the bank of escape pods along the side. Carefully, he deposited Anne near them, checking her over as he did. Her arm was swollen, her eyes glassy and her face still icy pale. “Can you handle it?” he asked. She didn’t look like she could.

“I’ll try,” she said, very obviously trying to marshal her wits. She moved toward the bank of pods, looking at the computer there.

That had to be enough. Kirk ran to the door controls, trying to find the override that would shut them all. Damn Orion controls-- they were laid out in such an unfamiliar design that he kept going over the same things by accident. It took far longer than he would have liked to find the emergency section, and once he did, the damn gravity gave out again, leaving him floating above the console. Swearing softly, Kirk brought himself down, punching in the sequence for closing the blast doors.

Like a wolf on the trail of a wounded deer, Loche rushed through the blast doors just before they closed. Kirk glanced over at Anne. She was clinging to the computer console, using her broken arm to put whatever pressure she could muster on her neck, hopefully figuring out which of the pods was in working condition. “We’ve got company,” Kirk called, and she glanced over her shoulder, confirming that she’d heard him.

Good. It was up to him now, a reasonably fair fight. Loche bounded off one of the bulkheads, flying towards him, the broken pipe in his hands. Freefall fights were awful. Every time you hit something, you rebounded. Kirk pushed himself away from Loche’s trajectory, wrapping the length of chain from his cuff around his fist. It would have to do as a weapon. Anne’s knife was too far away, and he’d rather she had it anyway. Shoving himself off a wall, he tackled Loche, one hand seeking for the man’s skull so he could punch him. They bounced off the floor, rising into the air, and Loche pulled back the pipe, jabbing Kirk in the ribs with the jagged broken end.

Shrug it off. It couldn’t be that deep. Kirk shoved Loche away, sending himself backward into another bulkhead. Adrenaline blotted out the pain. Pushing away from the wall, he moved to the side and up, shoving off the ceiling as he caught where Loche’s new trajectory was taking him. A moment later they were grappling again, Loche’s arm trapped against Kirk’s side, the pipe useless for the moment. One shot, two, and Loche’s lips were burst and bleeding where the chain around Kirk’s fist had torn the skin. It didn’t make him look any less dangerous-- the murderous hatred in Loche’s eyes was too intense.

Loche’s hand snapped out, and Kirk barely blocked a punch that would have caught him in the throat. Knocking it harmlessly to the side, however, took his attention off the pipe-- and Loche switched hands with it behind Kirk’s back, swinging it left-handed at Kirk’s head. Maybe that was what he’d been after all along. Kirk let go of Loche’s other arm, kicking him in the stomach to send the strike wild as they shot away from each other again. 

He had to get rid of that pipe somehow. The reach gave Loche an advantage. Rebounding off a bank of computers, Kirk realized that Loche had ended up dangerously close to Anne. She wouldn’t stand a chance in her state. Kirk wasn’t sure she would be able to get away-- she hung in mid-air, her hand still pressed to her throat, her body limp and her hair drifting like she had been drowned, obscuring her face. He couldn’t see whether she was even conscious anymore. Without thinking about it, Kirk had already pushed off, shooting toward Loche, intercepting him before he could make his way to Anne, catching him in the stomach with a shoulder and sending them flying towards the viewscreen at the opposite end of the room. That pipe came down on his back, a glancing blow.

Loche’s legs caught on one of the consoles, and Kirk barely manage to grab on to Loche in time-- instead of losing his grip, he was flipped up over Loche, the sudden trajectory change a little dizzying. It made his aching side scream, but Kirk managed to turn around mid-flight, using his momentum to pull the both of them into a nauseating spin that left him behind Loche.

He couldn’t let him get away. Not this time. Wrapping his legs around Loche’s waist, Kirk grabbed Loche’s arm and yanked it backward, his other hand gripping the pipe, trying to wrest it away as they whirled toward the viewscreen. Loche’s other hand scrabbled at his leg, digging in, trying to find purchase.

Gravity suddenly returned, and with it, the ship started creaking alarmingly. Kirk and Loche landed hard, Loche on the bottom, and Kirk kneeling on his back. A roar of air behind the blast doors confirmed that the venting was happening, but as it did, the creaking and groaning increased. “Structural integrity,” Kirk gasped, still yanking on the pipe. “Without the air pressure, this thing’s gonna tear itself apart!

He knew it. This piece of shit ship was going to kill them all. Through gritted teeth, Loche snarled, “All I need to do is keep you busy.”

Kirk twisted the pipe sharply in one direction, then the other, Loche losing his grip enough that Kirk tore the pipe from his hands. “Anne?” he called.

No answer. 

No time for it. Throwing the pipe across the room, he held Loche down and threw a punch with his chained fist. The ship shuddered as his knuckles slammed the back of Loche’s head, as if his punch had further destabilized the structure. Unthinking, he held Loche down, punching again and again, until Loche stopped moving. He couldn’t tell if Loche was out or just stunned.

No time for it. He could hear the wail of metal being torn apart beyond those doors. He didn’t care if Loche was alive or dead-- he needed to get to those escape pods.

Anne was slumped over the console as if she’d fallen on it when the gravity came back, her good hand still pressed to her neck, still holding the knife. “Anne. Anne. Wake up, tiger,” Kirk said, lifting her chin and patting her face.

Her eyes fluttered open. “Jim. I found a working one. It’s meant for one person but we should fit. Alpha six, on the end there.”

The shriek of metal from beyond the doors was starting to become imminently alarming. It wouldn’t take long for the bridge itself to start tearing apart. “Is it ready to go?” he asked, and Anne nodded. “Come on,” he said, reaching under her good arm to help her to her feet.

The floor began to buckle alarmingly as he rushed Anne over to the pod. Getting her in was no big deal, but just as Kirk was about to step in, Loche tackled him, pinning him against the wall. The mad darkness in Loche’s eyes flared, consuming what was left of the man's sanity. Kirk got off a couple of body shots, but it was as if Loche didn’t even feel them. “I will see you both dead before you take what’s mine,” Loche snarled. 

Kirk felt a presence at his side-- Anne had stepped out of the pod, head high, arms at her sides, relaxed and seemingly at ease. “Loche,” she said, her clear, strong voice drawing Loche’s attention. Incredibly, she managed a defiant, contemptuous smirk. “Every time I said I loved you, I was lying.”

Even more incredibly, that obvious truth hit home in a way Kirk couldn't quite understand. Loche’s lip curled in disgust, his focus entirely on Anne for that moment, actually reaching toward her to grab her by the throat.

She let him. She even stepped into it.

There was no time for Kirk to pick his shot. He could see the buckling floor starting to crack. Dropping his hand to the knife hilt Anne had gotten close enough to hand him, he rammed the blade home, under the rib cage and up, hoping it reached the heart. Either way, Loche wasn’t going to interfere anymore. Limbs suddenly weakening, Loche lost his grip on Anne and staggered back, blood pouring out of the wound.

Kicking Loche away, Kirk again helped Anne into the pod, this time following her. It was a tight squeeze, but it would have to do. The pod doors shut, and immediately they felt the pressure of liftoff, the stars suddenly surrounding them. With a little maneuvering, Kirk was able to get at the control panel, while Anne kept the pressure on her neck.

“Shit,” Kirk said softly. “We’ve only got three hours of full air-- less because there’s two of us. He ran the calculations in his head. “I can decrease the amount of oxygen in the mix to buy us some more time, but if I do, we run the risk of passing out.” He looked down at Anne. “And if we pass out, no one’s keeping pressure on your neck.”

Anne’s eyes were dazed as she tried to follow this. “Can’t we hail someone?”

“We’ve got emergency signaling going, but I can’t contact anyone in specific.” Kirk punched a few more buttons. “We’re a few hours away from Yorktown. I can use the thrusters to head us in that direction, but… it’s not a ship. We would never get there on our own, not without warp capability. Not with this air supply.”

Anne sighed, her eyes fluttering closed. “Is there any way to give the power from the thrusters to the emergency signal?”

“Yeah. The thrusters are pointless. I’ll check if I can divert power and amplify the emergency signal somehow.” He sighed. “Damn. I wish Scotty was here. This is his thing, not mine.”

“Once you’re done, turn the air down as low as we can go,” Anne said.

”If we pass out--” Kirk started.

“We’ll just have to get that bandage as tight as possible and hope it’s enough,” Anne said. “Tear my dress. We can use it to make a tighter dressing.”

“Let me just get the thruster power diverted first,” he said. The close quarters made it hard to punch in the commands, but eventually he settled Anne against his chest and worked around her. It was a good thing she was so small. If he had been with Claudia, this would never have worked. After a long silence while he tried to rework the thrusters, he said, “I wish you hadn’t done that.”

Anne seemed to swim back to awareness, shifting gently against him. She knew exactly what he meant. “I couldn’t think of anything else. He thought I’d do anything to survive.”

“I know.” Kirk finished the programming. “I just wish… I wish it hadn’t been necessary. At least you knew what you were doing.”

Anne’s voice was tinged with horror and regret when she replied. “I had practice,” she said.

He carefully wrapped his arms around her, holding her without aggravating any of her wounds. “It’s all right, gorgeous. We’ll get back and get everything fixed up.” He paused. “Everything.”

“I’m not going to think about it,” Anne said. “If I do, I‘ll start crying, and that’s the last thing we need.” She pressed her cheek against his bare chest, then touched his arm. “Better get that dress torn up. Being unconscious sounds great right about now.”

He had to agree. It would probably be better than waiting. “I’ll see what I can do.”

With time to do it properly, the bandage was much more useful. It did restrict Anne’s breathing a little, but that was better than the alternative. Kirk wasn’t quite sure it was enough-- from what he understood, what the pressure did was keep the edges of the cut vein together so that most blood could flow normally. Anne knew a little more about it than he did, and she said it would work. Probably.

“Now we just need to be found,” Kirk said once Anne was settled against him. His arm was around her shoulders, pressing her against him in hopes that it would help with her neck. He’d already programmed the air to slip down from 20% oxygen to 12%-- probably enough to knock them both out in their weakened state. If he’d wanted, he could have cranked it down to 10%, but that felt like a bad move when Anne had lost so much blood. It wasn’t worth it. It wouldn’t gain them that much more time.

“We did all we could,” Anne murmured. Between her injuries and the lowering oxygen, he could tell she was starting to fade out.

For a moment, Kirk felt like he should say something, tell her how much he cared. He started, and then all the reasons not to say it rushed in, choking the words off. She was almost passing out anyway. Would she remember? If they weren’t found, it wouldn’t matter. Even if they were found, it still wouldn’t matter. Would it? Or would it just be one more bit of pressure, forcing her toward a future that she didn’t want?

No. It would be too much. If she knew, she knew, and if she didn’t, he wouldn’t push it on her.

The falling oxygen was starting to make him dizzy, a little euphoric. In the end he just said, “We did good, gorgeous. It’s up to the Enterprise now.”

If she replied, he didn’t hear it.

[queen-scribbles]

Routines

@pillarspromptsweekly fill 81: Novice. For this one, I borrowed a couple of @risualto‘s OCs, Gjeorun and Ilaine, who have been wanting to learn how to knit from Charity for a while now, but we had to wait until after the wedding. ;D

It was surprisingly easy to return to routine. Charity had been a little worried the whirlwind of wedding planning and novelty of her honeymoon would make it  seem... too mundane. But it was almost a relief to come home, back to her house, her gardens, her cat.  Sparrow was miffed enough at her being gone she ignored Charity(but not Edér, furry little traitor) for three whole days after they got back. Sunshine more than made up for the cat’s reticence, however, spending those three days glued to Charity’s side, tail wagging furiously whenever she so much as looked at him. Weeding took twice as long when she kept stopping to cave to soulful brown ‘I missed you’ eyes and scratch under a doggy chin.

Aside from earning pet forgiveness, the new routine of married life was also surprisingly easy to pick up. It helped, she knew, that they were both early risers. They were almost always up at the same time and ate breakfast together(he usually cooked) before Edér left for work. Now that planning the wedding didn’t dominate every spare moment of her life, Charity got back her favorite(well, second favorite; cuddling Edér was still first) hobby. That sweater for Edér wasn’t going to finish itself. And once she’d refreshed her memory after so long without picking up the needles, she was able to make good on a promise. One that also gave her something else to do between weeding, so two birds, one stone.

-o-o-

The knock on her door betrayed the visitors’ excitement even before Charity opened it and was almost knocked over by a pair of enthusiastic round the waist hugs. 

“Hullo Miss Charity!” the hug-givers chorused.

“Hello, you two,” she laughed, managing to hug one of them as she braced the other against the wall to keep her balance.

“Gjeorun, Ilaine, Hylea’s sake, don’t injure the poor woman before she’s had a chance to teach you anything!” Despite Bethyn’s admonishing tone, there was a smile in her eyes as she shook her head.

“Oh, I don’t mind,” Charity assured her. “Sunshine’s getting big enough, he can do worse to me.”

“Thank you, but they do need to remember their manners,” Bethyn said with a loving-yet-meaningful look at her children. Both stepped half a pace back, clasped their hands behind them, and contritely mumbled, “Sorry, Miss Charity.”

“We’re just excited you’re gonna teach us knittin’,” Ilaine added, lisping around a perilously loose tooth.

“What I can remember of it,” Charity said wryly, winking at the girl and ruffling her brother’s hair. “I’m a bit rusty.”

“And they’re not going to care,” Bethyn assured her for the third time since she’d broached the subject and Charity had agreed. She rested a hand each on the shoulder of both children. “They’re just happy to learn, and learn from you.”

“I’m flattered,” Charity smiled. “Does mid-afternoon work for you to come get them?”

“Oh, more than,” Bethyn nodded. “It might be Meryna or Dannith who gets ‘em, but that’s perfectly agreeable. If you don’t mind havin’ ‘em that long?”

“Not at all. They’re good kids.” Charity winked at Ilaine and Gjeorun. “And that’ll give us plenty of time to practice.”

“Alright, then.” Bethyn kissed each of her children atop the head in turn. “You two behave yourselves and listen to Miss Charity, alright?”

“Yes’m!” Gjeorun was slightly faster and louder than his sister this time, rocking up on the balls of his feet in his impatience. With one last smile and wave, Bethyn departed to take care of her business for the day.

Charity gestured toward the dining room. “Alright, you two, let’s get started.”

Ilaine and Gjeorun eagerly followed her to the table, where she’d set up--aside from her own ongoing project--two pairs of knitting needles, and two skeins of yarn, one cheery yellow and one soft lilac.

“What color’s mine?” Ilaine asked, tucking her hair back behind her ears.

“That’s something to work out with your brother, I think.” Charity scooched their chairs in once they were seated. 

“I think Gjeorun should get yellow ‘cause it matches his hair,” Ilaine said. She picked up the needles and fiddled with them.

Charity looked at Gjeorun. “Is that alright with you?”

He nodded, reaching for the yellow yarn. “Yeah. Purple is ‘Laine’s fav’rite color, anyway. An’ I like yellow.”

“Okay, if we have that settled, let me show you how to get started.” Charity reached over and unwound a fair bit of yarn from both skeins. “Even before you figure out how to hold the needles” --a smile at Ilaine--”you need a slipknot in the end of the yarn to anchor it to the needle.”

“Oh, I know how to do that!” Gjeorun said cheerfully. “I learnt back in the city.” And, sure enough, despite the yarn likely being skinnier than what he learned on, he had slipknots tied for both him and Ilaine in just a few deft  moves.

“Very good,” Charity said, smiling when he beamed at the praise. “And now....” She picked up a spare set of needles and ball of dark red yarn too small to use for anything else. She quickly tied a slipknot of her own and slid it on the needle. “Here’s how you cast on.”

Gjeorun’s nose wrinkled and Ilaine’s ears dipped downward as they concentrated on following her movements. Both of them got it with very little trouble, and Charity showed them how to do a knit stitch for the first row. A few of the stitches were lumpy or loose, but on the whole, they were doing well.

“Now, before we move on,” she began, smiling inwardly at how much she echoed Peycg at her own first knitting lesson, “do you want to just practice today, get the hang of it, or actually start working on something?”

“If we just practice, won’t that waste yarn?” Ilaine asked.

Charity shook her head. “I can just unravel and re-roll it for you to use later.”

“Then I just wanna practice for now,” Ilaine lisped, looking relieved. 

“I wanna make a scarf!” Gjeorun said, clacking the needles together impatiently.

“Good choice,” Charity laughed. “That’s the first thing I made when I was learning. It’s not too difficult, and you get something useful when you’re done.”

He kicked his feet and grinned. “Didja make it for Mayor Teylecg?”

She laughed again at the sheer confidence shining in his eyes. “I did indeed. Hopefully yours will turn out better than that sorry thing.”

“But he still wears it, right?” Ilaine piped up.

“He does,” Charity nodded. “Because he is a very nice man. Alright, Ilaine, if you’re not makin’ something particular, you don’t hafta worry as much about keeping your rows even, but Gjeorun, you need to count the stitches in that first row so you can keep track and make all your rows just as wide.”

He nodded. “Got it.”

The two children set to work, tongues sticking out in concentration, and Charity picked up the sweater to work on, regularly glancing at her pupils to ensure things were going well.

-o-o-

Things went well for the first couple hours, and then Gjeorun started dropping stitches, and Ilaine pulled a couple rows too tight. Both were getting flustered and frustrated, so Charity made an executive decision.

“We need a break,” she declared, setting aside her own project. “It’s time for lunch, anyway.”

Both looked relieved to have an excuse to stop without ‘quitting’. They didn’t dilly dally over lunch, but they didn’t rush, either. After a sufficient break to calm frustrated nerves, Charity showed Gjeorun how to fix dropped stitches, and undid Ilaine’s puckered rows so she could try again.

The next couple hours passed swiftly, and before they knew it, Meryna was knocking on the door to collect her younger siblings. Charity sent them home with the needles and yarn so they could keep practicing if they wanted, and assured them they could come back every couple days for more lessons, provided it was alright with their parents.

-o-o-

This became part of Charity’s routine over the next month; Gjeorun and Ilaine came over every Mecwynsdag and Rytlingsdag for knitting lessons. Both proved to be fast learners, despite a few struggles. (”Only natural,” she promised them, getting Edér’s scarf from the mudroom to show them it hadn’t been easy for her, either.) She taught them how to purl, how to change colors so you could do stripes, how to switch between stitches in the same project(that one had mixed success).

She grinned right along with Gjeorun when he finished his sunny yellow scarf--less lumpy than her first attempt, even--and promptly gave it to his mother. “It’ll looke pretty with your hair, Mom!” She encouraged Ilaine through the doll-sized shawl she decided to make as her first project, which--thanks to copious practice--turned out very well.

And she got more than a little choked up on the day they showed up fpr lessons hiding their hands behind their backs only to reveal thank you presents almost as soon as they walked in the house.

Gjeorun had made her a green and white striped scarf and Ilaine gave her a doll wrapped in a very familiar lilac shawl under dark red hair.

“Thank you so much!” Charity said, kneeling to hug them both with a gift in each hand. “Gjeorun, this is my very favorite shade of green, and Ilaine, she’s such a pretty doll, are you sure you want to give her to me?”

Ilaine smiled bashfully and nodded. “I have other dolls, an’ her hair reminded me of you. ‘M not ready t’ make anything bigger yet.”

“Well, thank you, I’ll take very good care of her,” Charity promised with a smile.

“Look how straight I got the stripes!” Gjeorun piped up. He ducked out of the hug and pushed the scarf closer.

“I saw,” Charity laughed. “Very impressive for your first time.” Only a few of the stripes were noticeably crooked or wider than the rest. “I can’t wait until it’s cold enough for me to use it.” She carefully set both present on the pass-through to the kitchen. “Are you two ready to start?”

“Yes!” they chorused, scrambling for the table.

Charity couldn’t help smiling again as she joined them. She very much liked her new routine.

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

(I do think it’s kinda funny the first post-wedding Ederity fic doesn’t have any Edér. Whoops. I’m sure they’ll get back to their fluff in no time ;D)

[oatmealaddiction]

We’re on a Boat

The sun hung low on the horizon, warm and round as a Summerday peach. Watching it balance itself on the tips of the waves calmed Fenris a little. He’d been on edge since he boarded Isabela’s boat, disliking the ways the salt-worn boards creaked under his feet, and the constant rolling sensation in his stomach. From day one it’d been impossible to scrub the salt off his skin, and the boat itself stank of bird shit and brine. The stench alone was enough to make him gag, but he’d made up his mind on the first day not to give Isabela the pleasure of watching him be seasick. She’d never let him live it down if he threw up on her deck. It had been a struggle with some definite close calls. 

Evenings like this though, where the waves had calmed and the haze from the sun dulled and a gentle sea breeze cooled the humid hair a little...this was good. Isabela didn’t seem to agree though. She’d been pacing in circles on the deck for almost an hour, talking loudly and more rapidly than she did when she was actually relaxed. “...Get itchy when the winds go still like this, ugh my skin is just crawling.”

“There’s wind,” said Fenris. “Not the hurricane forces usually propelling us around out here, but wind.”

“Not enough to get this ship going anywhere. I can see the sharks circling.” “Stop calling this thing a ship,” said Fenris. “It’s a dinghy with a sail.” “Don’t say that, you’ll hurt her confidence!” Isabela replied, feigning offense. She leaned over and patted the side of the boat. “Shh, don’t listen to him, you’re perfect.”

Given the chaos they’d left Kirkwall in, Isabela never had secured a true boat, but with the old gang scattered to the wind she was no longer content to be landbound. She’d won an old fishing vessel in a rigged hand of Wicked Grace, and Fenris had scared off the losing party. Now they were somewhere on the Waking Sea, skirting the ends of the coastland and headed toward the Amaranthine, looking for slaver ships to commandeer.

The voyage had been infinitely less enjoyable than Isabela had boasted, due in no small part to what had been left behind in Kirkwall. There was so much they wouldn’t say, couldn’t allow themselves to think about; Anders, the Chantry, Hawke. Rather than escaping these troubles, they seemed to instead hover on the top of the water, blinking at them with their reflections. Isabela made her thousandth lap of the deck, before groaning and falling flat on her back, pouting up at the sky. “Blighted fucking winds. Be faster if I just got out and pushed.”

Fenris let out a long belabored sigh as he tore himself away from the beautiful view. “Where are you eager to get to anyway? We stocked up on supplies a day or so ago.” “Fenris, Fenris, Fenris…” Isabela tsked, “It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey. And this leg of the journey is unbearably dull.”

“Would you prefer it if a sea beast tried to eat us right now?” Fenris asked sarcastically. He knocked his fist against the wooden railing as he did so, just in case he was inviting some sort of weird unnatural calamity. Wouldn’t be the first time.

“Something,” Isabela sighed. “I didn’t realize how spoiled for adventure we were with…” she cut herself off, then rolled over onto her belly and grinned up at Fenris. “Let’s do something fun,” she said.

“I’m still nursing rope burns and splinters from the last time we had fun,” Fenris said, his libido stirring in spite of himself. He pushed down the desire to slip out of his trousers and go lie down with Bela on the deck, and instead tried to broach the actual problem they were dealing with. “Do you want to talk about it?” he asked. “About what?” Isabela said. “Look if you’re that worried about splinters I’ll let you top this time—” “About Kirkwall,” said Fenris. “You miss them too, don’t you?” Isabela went silent, and for a moment the only sound was the dull crashing of the waves. “Ha!” Isabela laughed. “Miss them,” she rolled over again, scoffing despite the fact she couldn’t hold his gaze. “You make friends, you leave friends, you move on. Granted I’ve never had a friendship break up on account of one of them turning into an abomination and blasting a chantry open, but it’s all life…” her voice grew softer, more wistful. “What matters is that you don’t trap yourself in the past, that you keep looking forward. You should know that better than any of us.”

Ouch. Fenris frowned, disliking Isabela’s subtle implication that Kirkwall had any relation at all to his former life in Tevinter.

“Still, nine years,” he said. “That’s a long time though.” “I guess,” said Isabela.

“Longer than I’ve known any of my other friends,” he said. “If I had any before Hawke and Varric, and you.”

Isabela jumped up. “All right, you know what. No, I don’t want to talk about this.”

Fenris shrugged. “Fair enough,” he said.

“Well, good then,” said Isabela. “Good,” he responded.

“Fine!” she snapped, and marched over to the other side of the boat, beginning the work of lighting the few glass lanterns that lit the deck at night.

She was thinking about what had happened now, he knew that at least.

Satisfied he’d pissed off his one and only shipmate, Fenris turned back to the view. The sun had submerged some, now a dome rather than a sphere. The color had paled from a warm orange to a cool pink, shooting streaks across the sky. Fenris wasn’t a novice to the ocean. He’d sailed with Danarius from Minrathous to the Seheron countless times. He spent hours on the docks, listening to Qunari sailors talk different kinds of slipknots and the best price for fish, watching ship after ship dock, each carrying some new sordid soul to Tevinter. He’d always been so focused on those occasions, always so intent to learn something new, desperate for any small escape from the hell that was his life in those days. Now, perhaps for the first time in his life, there was no urgency or desperation. He was free, without even Hawke to guide him. It was terrifying. He wondered what she’d make of this sunset. He could see her clear as day in his head, standing precariously close to the edge of a cliff on the wounded coast, her hair a black flag against the sky, her blue-eyes focused out on the horizon, her lips in that eternal half-smile that wasn’t the least bit happy. She was so soft in the light, so different than usual...

“She’d love this…” he mumbled to himself.

“What’d you say?” Isabela asked, seemingly forgetting she’d been pouting.

“Hawke,” he clarified. “She’d love this view, wouldn’t she?” Isabela didn’t respond, so Fenris kept talking. “Remember how she’d just stop walking sometimes on the coast to take in the view. It wasn’t even good.”

Isabela snorted. “Well she’s Ferelden. You ever been to Lothering? Everything there looks like ass. Anders used to get like that too, all starry-eyed when we’d get close to the ocean.”

“Did he?” Fenris said, his expression souring somewhat. “Oh yeah,” said Isabela. “All that time in the Deep Roads, could you blame him. I mean the ocean trumps anything else you’ll find in Thedas…Both of them would get these big wide-eyed expressions—” she put her hands out, trying to describe it, and the unadulterated love in her eyes broke through, and it wasn’t for the ocean. It was oddly sincere. Isabela sighed, her arms going slack. “Look, of course I miss them Fenris. But I’m no good with nostalgia. It messes with you, you know?”

“No,” said Fenris. “I don’t.” Nostalgia was utterly alien to him. There’d been nothing in his life to feel nostalgic for until now.

“You get caught up in old memories and feelings and it makes everything else around you dull,” Isabela sighs. “Food loses its taste, the sea loses its salt, and you get sick. Not here Fenris, not on my ship.” “Boat.”

“Whatever,” Isabela snapped.

The sun was only a sliver on the horizon now, just a small white line. It bobbed for a moment and then sunk below the waves. Isabela leaned on the railing, her arms crossed. The tips of her fingers just barely brushed against Fenris’s bicep. He scooted over slightly, allowing her to hold on. “I wish…” she sighed. “Me too,” he agreed.

The first signs of stars began to emerge in the sky, barely visible as the sky darkened. Isabela took a breath. “All right, come on.” She smacked him on the ass roughly and pulled him over to the deck’s fish-hatch. “Let’s get dinner cooking. We have fish, fish, and fish, and…I think maybe one crab?” “Fish sounds good.”

“It does, doesn’t it?”

She laughed and shoved him, and the two passed the night in good humor, licking the meat off skinny sharp bones, and tracing constellations, Isabela taking pleasure in inventing new dirty ones. The wind picked up, and the nostalgia passed.

[psalexanzondria]

Human Cullen? Paul x Cullen!Reader

Fandom: Twilight

Pairing: Paul x Cullen!Reader

Word Count: 10,000 on the dot

Requested: No.

Warnings: Cussing, Mentions of attempted homicide, abuse. (It’s kind of dark in some places guys)

AN: Too all my loyal readers and followers. Thank you. Enjoy your present for hitting 211 followers!

 Sitting on the porch, the rain falls through the trees around the house, inside my family is discussing the “Not-Quite-A-Request-But-Not-Quite-An-Order” they’ve gotten via Bella, about me from Sam. I managed to escape outside, because after asking if my opinion on the matter was a hand, I was told it was not, and Jasper noticed my anger faster, thanks to his ability, and managed to distract them so that I could make my escape. Tucking my blonde locks with blue tips behind my ear, I take a deep breath of the crisp Forks air, my blue eyes trailing over the line of the forest, before letting out a sigh, knowing that Alice and Edward would be able to stop me before I made one step of the wood of the porch. “’Ro?” Rosalie calls from behind me, I turn to see her sticking her head out the front door, hand on the handle, and I let out a sigh, seeing the perturbed look on her face.

 “Coming.” I sigh, pressing off the banister to turn on my peep toe shoes, stalking back inside as gracefully as I can, though I know that compared to a family of vampires, I’m probably as graceful as a duck waddling across a broken bridge, or a duck trying to waddle in quicksand. Even in style, I can’t compare to them, even though Alice and Rosalie dress me, but compared to everyone in my family, it’s like I’m wearing a trashbag with a duct-tape belt, and shoes made of old mildew newspapers. Walking into the living room, I notice that the entire room is practically split it two, Carlisle, Esme, Alice, and Bella are on one side of the room, Edward, Jasper, Emmett, and Rosalie are on the other side of the room, causing me to stumble to a stop in surprise. It’s rare to see Edward and Bella openly opposing, let alone Alice and Jasper. “Okay, what is going on here?”

 “They’re sending you to stay with those... mongrels.” Rosalie snarls.

 “For a few days,” Carlisle is quick to explain when my head snaps over to look at him, aghast at the idea. “to keep the peace, Sam wants to make sure you’re truly human, and he wishes to see how living with us for most of your life has affected you.”

 “Do I not get a say in this? I am almost 18 years old!” I shout in annoyance, causing Carlisle to sigh, and Esme steps up to set a gentle hand on my arm.

 “Aurora, my little lily, listen... We are worried about your safety, that is why we must send you to them. If you care about us, your family, you will go.” Esme says carefully, her warm tawny orbs drawn to mine.

 “I-” I bite my lip. “Yes mamma.” I finally relent.

 “That’s my good figlia (daughter).” Esme grasps my chin lovingly, before pressing a kiss to my cheek. “Now, be a good ragazza (girl) and go pack, Bella will be dropping you off in twenty minutes.” I sigh as I tromp upstairs to my room, grabbing a random bag from my closest, and throwing a bunch of my usual clothes into it, along with a fancy dress or two, and two pairs of shoes with my change of sweat pants and tank top. Next, my laptop, then a few notebooks and pencils, my phone charge, computer charger, my wallet full of money and identification cards, before I finally zip the duffel bag up. Sticking my phone in my pocket, I grab my MP3 player and headphones, blasting my slipknot as I put on my headphones, I sling my bag over my shoulder, and stomp down stairs, giving quick good byes before, I climb into Bella’s rattling death trap. I glare out the window the entire way towards the Reservation, watching the green and brown of the trees pass me by, before very long, we’re pulling up outside an old house. It’s an all brown two story house with a porch and a screen door that leads directly into the kitchen, the smell of baked goods waft out as I slam the screeching door of Bella’s truck shut, and four of the seven boys, including Jacob Black, and two girls all come piling out of the house.

 “Bella!” One woman, with scars along the right side of her face, greets my brother’s girlfriend with a warm hug, and a half smile half grimace, the skin around her scars tugs firm, making my nerves in my stomach tighten even more about this.

 “Hey Emily.” Bella gives the woman, Emily, a hug in return, before they turn towards me. “This is Aurora Hale.”

 “So,” Emily smiles at me. “You’re the Cullens’ special girl?”

 “Something like that.” I answer with a shrug, my headphones hanging loose around my neck.

 “It’s nice to meet you,” Emily says, holding out her hand for me, which I shake as the guys and other girl continue to observe me from the side.

 “Hey brat.”

 “Jake.” I answer shortly. “I’m older than you.”

 “Still shorter.”

 “Almost everyone is.” I answer, and he smiles at me, stepping forward to wrap me in a hug, surprising his packmates.

 “So this is Quil and Embry, Seth and his sister Leah.” Jacob introduces, pointing to each one, and I offer my hand to them each, Leah only sneers, and smacks my hand away causing me to raise an eyebrow, setting my jaw as I glare at her, crossing my arms as I cock a hip.

 “Pah-lease, hon, I grew up with three vampire women, I can throw shade better than any other person by now.” I state, causing her to gape at me a bit. Quil and Embry burst out laughing, shutting up only when Leah glares at them, then turns on her heels, stomping off through the woods, and Jake sighs.

 “You’ll get used to that real quick.” He states, causing me to roll my eyes.

 “Why don’t you come inside, and have a snack. Bella, staying?” Emily offers as starts up the steps to the door. “Sam, Jared, and Paul will be back soon.”

 “Nah, I think I’ll head back. Gotta cook Charlie dinner, otherwise he’ll order a pizza again.” Bella answers.

 “See ya, Bella.” The boys all call, running inside.

 “Bye Bella, come back soon.” Emily calls, and Jacob walks over to her as I watch them for a second, before starting into the house. “So, Aurora-”

 “Ro.” I interrupt, purely by habit.

 “What?” Emily asks, tilting her head at me as she lifts some flour from the bag on the counter, and sprinkles it across the table.

 “Ro. Aurora is such a girly name, everyone just calls me Ro.” I explain as she lifts some rising dough from the bowl on the counter, and slams it down onto the table where the flour was.

 “Alright, so Ro, do you like chocolate or blueberry?” Emily asks.

 “I beg your pardon?” I tilt my head at her, watching her start to pummel the dough on the table.

 “Chocolate chip, or blueberry pancakes? For the morning.” Emily asks.

 “Oh, uh... even though I love them, I’m allergic to blueberries.”

 “Is that why it looks like you have a smurf blended up in your hair?” Some jerk demands from the door, causing me to turn in time to see a taller guy walking past the guy in the door, smacking him upside the head.

 “Don’t be an ass, Paul.” The man walks over to Emily as a third guy comes in the door, smacking the guy, Paul, upside the head as well, and Paul turns to swing on him, then smirks like it’s a joke. “So,” I jump at the booming voice, turning back to the man who has his arms wrapped around Emily’s waist. “you’re a Cullen? I’m Sam.”

 “Great, another leech lover.” I hear Paul groan.

 “I’m a Hale, actually. Aurora, just call me Ro.” I explain.

 “Cullen or Hale, you’re a leech lover, ain’t ya.” Paul demands.

 “Ain’t is not a word, for one, and two I’m not a fan of my family being referred to as ‘Leeches’ because they are no more leeches than you all are, giant puppy dogs.” I retort just as sharply.

 “Oh-ho.” Quil laughs from the living room as I turn to look at Paul, who is leaning against a counter now.

 “Is that so, Princess? You’re still human, I’m amazed you’re so comfortable living with those blood sucking parasites, that you call “family”.” Paul states, simply observing the apple he’s picked up, before I snort.

 “What would you know of family? Packs, aren’t “families” they’re just a bunch of people running together like a bunch of pigheaded jocks.” I state.

 “Oh, because being family with monsters is so much better?” Paul demands, causing me to clench my face, my blood boiling as I drop my duffel-bag, crossing the floor in three strides as I rip my sleeve off my arm, and shove my wrist in his face.

 “YOU WANT MONSTERS, TRY MEETING THE PEOPLE THAT GAVE BIRTH TO ME, THAT TRIED SLITTING MY WRISTS BECAUSE ADOPTION WAS JUST OUT OF THE QUESTION! ESME AND CARLISLE SAVED MY LIFE, SO IF YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT MONSTERS, I CAN SHOW YOU MONSTERS!”I scream at the top of my lungs, pulling away to cover the pale silver lines on my wrists as I pant for breath. “You know nothing about my family.” I cross the room, grabbing my bag as I realize that there is a stunned silence in the air. “What?!” I demand, causing Sam to clear his throat, and every hurriedly goes back to what they were doing.

 “I still don’t trust you, Princess.” Paul spits.

 “You know what?” I turn to glare at him, meet his eyes, and his eyes widen as I sneer at him. “Why don’t you go fuck yourself, you pansy ass, roided out, little mama’s boy!” I snarl, suddenly I notice that he’s shaking, anger rolling off him in visible waves, and I let out a snort. “Maybe you should go jump in a lake, and cool off, hothead.” With that, I look at Emily. “Where’s my room?”

 “Uh...” She’s staring at Sam, who is watching Paul. “Upstairs, third door from the left.” She answers, causing me to nod as I start towards the stairs. Getting to the top step, all I hear is “Paul you better not shift in my kitchen!” before I smirk victoriously, and prance off to my bedroom as I hear the kitchen door slam shut. Walking over to my window, I pull back the curtains to see Sam, Jared, and Jacob are pushing Paul off the steps, he is shaking and shaking, and he looks up at my room, meeting my eyes once more, and suddenly his head snaps away as he doubles over, skin and shorts and shoes go flying as a giant Gray Wolf stands just where Paul was moments ago. His head is thrown back as he howls, my heart skips a beat at the beautiful sound, and as his wolf looks at me, a sad look in it’s eyes, I shut the drapes, falling onto my bed.

 “Way to go, Ro. Managed to piss off someone you weren’t supposed to. Probably put the treaty in danger too. Greeeaat. Putz.”

 The very next day, early in the morning, I quickly go for a jog, then come back, shower, and get dressed for the day, making my way downstairs before any else is up still. Sitting on the bay window bench, I tug the sleeves of my black turtleneck down past my wrists, watching the morning rain outside the window, my damp curls draped over one shoulder. Tugging my cat beanie further down on my head, I lean my head back on the wall my back is presses against, hugging my arms to my chest, and let out a deep sigh. “What the fuck is that on your head?” I jump, whirling around to nail Paul with a glare.

 “It’s called a beanie, it keeps my head warm.”

 “You so smear smurf in your hair, and pull a cat over your head?”

 “Can’t you go five minutes without being a complete an utter asshole?”

 “No, I can’t. It’s my nature. You’ll get used to it.” I let out a snort at that.

 “No, I won’t.” I answer, turning back to look out the window. “Won’t be here that long.” I mutter to myself.

 “What’s with the tragic trapped princess mojo?” Paul demands, dropping onto the couch with the remote in hand. “You didn’t have to come here.”

 “For your information,” I start, turning my torso to look at him. “I like looking out at the window. It’s not a luxury I had the first 9 years of my life, and secondly of all, it’s your alpha’s fault that I’m here in the first place!”

 “Oh please, cry me a river. Where else were you gonna be? In the Bahama's, getting a tan?” Paul snorts.

 “No, smartass. I was going to use my spring break to help the refugees in Africa. I booked a plane ticket, I got vaccinated, and everything. It all got ruined because Bella opened her big mouth about me living with the Cullens, and you guys flipped!” Paul stares at me in surprise. “Now, I have to move my Africa trip to Fall Break, and my Fall Break plans to my Winter Break, and my Winter Break plans to Spring Break. You guys have ruined a year’s planning in the process!” I snarl, turning back to the window.

 “What were you gonna do for your other breaks?” Paul asks carefully.

 “What do you care?” I snarl.

 “That’s a good question.” He answers, silence hangs over us for a few more minutes, he continues to flick through the channels, before I sigh, and rip my beanie off.

 “Missionary work is Siberia was the plans for Fall Break. Summer, I have to go to summer school, because I have a job at the library, otherwise I’d go then. Winter, I was going to work in Haiti with the Hurricane victims, and Spring was going to be more Missionary work.” I explain carefully, looking at my interlocked fingers, picking at the purple paint on my pinky finger with my thumbnail.

 “Holy fuck. Paul, your imprint’s a saint!” My head snaps up to look at the three boys standing in the door as Paul’s eyes widen, and his fists clench.

 “His what?!” I demand.

 “You didn’t tell her man?” Jacob demands, his hand falling from Quil’s mouth, letting me know that he’s the one who spoke first.

 “In case you morons can’t tell, we don’t get along!” Paul snarls as he climbs to his feet.

 “You... imprinted on me?!” I bellow, causing Paul’s head to snap over to me, eyes full of worry at the panic in my voice. “I signed up for... a few days! Hell, I didn’t even sign up for that, my parents did. Not... for the rest of my life! An imprint?!” I stand from the bench, my fingers gripping my roots as I take rapid short breathes, my world is swirling and colors are spinning and twining together. “I mean, I can’t hardly think for myself in terms of a relationship, because I’ve never been in one, and now suddenly I find that you,” I gesture blindly towards Paul and the other three boys. “are my soulmate?! I can’t- I can’t- I can’t breath!” I manage to force out, my knees finally give out, and there is a pair of warm arms catching me before my head collides with the floor.

 “Deep breathes. In through your nose, out through your mouth.” Someone coaches, their voice is muffle by the fog in my ears, but I obey as best as I can, the combination of coaching my breathing and the warmth of their person holding me helps. “That’s it, in through your nose, out through your mouth, deep breathes Ro.” I realize that it’s Jacob.

 “Call. Carlisle.” I wheeze out, causing him to nod, grabbing my cellphone from my pocket, and dial the number that says dad. “Tell him. My Panic Attacks. Are Back.” I manage to struggle the words out between breathes, and Jacob nods.

 “Doctor Cullen, it’s Jacob Black.” Jacob pauses. “No, yeah, there’s a problem. Ro just had a panic attack.” Another pause. “Well, you see, Paul imprinted on her-”

 “He did what?!”I can hear Edward from the other line, causing Jacob to flinch, gritting his teeth.

 “Anyway, she found out, and she’s panicking.” Jacob pauses, then pats me on the back. “Yeah doc. Okay. Bye.” He hangs up, shifting as I take deep breathes, wheezing them out. “Quil get me some warm water in a glass, Jared grab me as soft a blanket as you can find. Ro, head between your knees, keep breathing.” He instructs, and I move with my head between my knees taking deep breathes. “That’s it, good job.” Jacob says, then I notice his body jostling with sharp movements, like his gesturing wildly.

 “No.” Paul answers.

 “Get you ass over here Paul. You’re presence alone will help, you don’t even have to touch her.” Jacob demands, causing Paul to sigh, and I feel a bigger, warmer hand encompass the small of my back as Jacob forces me to drink the warm water that Quil brings, and Paul wraps the soft blanket around me as I continue to try regulating my breathing. Before I realize it, my chest is rising and falling in sync with Paul’s, as though I’ve matched up our breathing unconsciously. My eyelids flutter weakly as I fall against his chest, my panic attack taking more out of me then I thought, but he stiffens under my head, causing me to jolt away once more.

 “S-Sorry.” I stammer out, only for him to reach out, yanking my head back into place on his chest.

 “Sleep, you’re up way to fucking early, and had too much shit going on.”

 “I don’t wanna,” I let out a yawn. “sleep. Only rest.”

 “Whatever, just go ahead.”

 “See, I knew you weren’t always,” I let another yawn. “an asshole.” With that, my eyes flutter shut once again, and I fall asleep against his chest.

 “You’re in so deep, and it’s just the first day.” I head someone say with a pathetic excuse for a whisper.

 “Shut up, you’ll wake her up.” Paul answers.

 “Face it. You’ve imprinted on a leech lover.” The woman retorts.

 “A badass saint leech lover. She spends her breaks volunteering in place like Africa and Haiti.” Jared responds.

 “Lie.”

 “How would you know?”

 “How would you?” Leah counters.

 “Easy, check her scent. Underneath the bleach of leech.” Paul answers, causing the room to go silent, then there is a huff of defeat.

 “So? She’s still a leech lover.” Leah answers.

 “So will you be,” I let out a yawn, slowly sitting up. “one day.” I state causing everyone to go silent as I rub my eyes.

 “Sleep well?” Paul asks, causing me to smile sleepily at him.

 “Can I cuddle with your wolf form?” I answer, causing everyone to laugh, even Leah. “Cause if you’re this comfy as a human, I want a bed made of your pelts.” I answer with another sleepy smile, causing Paul to chuckle, sitting up.

 “Sorry sweet cheeks, but the pelt’s off the table. Maybe I could get you Jacob’s.”

 “Deal!” That draws more echoes of laughter, before Leah finally speaks up.

 “What did you mean?”

 “Hmm?”

 “About me being a leech lover someday?”

 “Oh! Nothing!” I sing, stretching my arms and fingers out to my toes, causing her to grunt as she realizes that is all she is going to get, and she stomps out of the room in anger, the boys all laughing after her.

 “Are you really feeling better?” Paul asks, causing me to tilt my head at him, giving a firm nod.

 “I’m fine. Thanks for the headrest.” I answer, clambering to my feet, and I start into the kitchen to get something to eat.

 “Fucking Princess.” i hear Paul mutter from the living room, but I pretend I didn’t.

 “Did you want something to eat, Pauly?” I call teasingly, his face blanches as the guys burst out laughing and cackling while I steal the last slice of pizza from the box on the table, chewing on the very end of it as Paul climbs to his feet, stumbling over the blanket as he cusses and curses, and as he stops before me, I sway from side to side, batting my eyelashes innocently. “I didn’t do anything, I just woke up.” i state, taking a large bite out of the very tip of the pizza, then drop the rest into his hand. “Enjoy.” With that, I disappear out the back door as the guys hoot and holler in laughter.

 Stalking downstairs later that night, I’ve changed my clothes as I enter the kitchen, tugging my leather into place as Emily and Sam look up along with Paul, Jacob, and Embry, and I pull on my fingerless leather gloves. “Where are you goin?” Paul asks.

 “Not that it’s any of your business, but I called some friends, and we’re going to dinner and movies in Port Angeles.” I answer, there’s a honk outside, and the sound of shouting over rock music.

 “Bitch, hurry up already, before I have to come in a get yooou!” Vanessa calls, causing Marylinn to laugh too.

 “I’m coming slut.” I call out the door.

 “Oh, they sound lovely.” Emily states.

 “They’re my only friends, okay? Nobody else in this Podunk town talks to me, causing I’m one of the precious “Cullens.” Meh.” I shake my head.

 “Hey, Ro, we’re gonna miss the movie!” Marylinn calls, honking again.

 “I’m coming, Mary!” I answer. “Anyway, I know where the spare key is, Em showed me. Don’t wait up!” I throw up the rock on sign, and dash out the door, into the black BMW, and Marylinn backs out the clearing, start down the road as Vanessa and I sit on the top of the backseats, howling to the moon, before burst into laughter. It’s nearly midnight by the time I slide the key from the fern, and unlock the door to Sam and Emily’s house, sneaking inside so as not to wake them, turning I freeze when I see Sam, Paul, Seth, Jared, Jacob, Quil, and Embry all in the living room, wide awake, playing video games.

 “Hey, how was your night out?” Sam calls from the couch.

 “Fine? Why isn’t someone on patrol?” I ask.

 “Leah wanted to solo, just left, Seth’s about to go too.” Sam answers, jerking the remote as I walk past towards the stares. “Freeze!” I freeze with one step nearly on the bottom step. “Backtrack over here.” I obey. “Breath.” I breath on him. “No alcohol... no cigarettes... good.”

 “I’m not a moron. I don’t have vices.” I snap, and walk towards the stairs once more, there is a choir of good nights, which I wave off before I head upstairs, falling into bed.

 Day four, I get up, go for a jog, shower, and get dressed for the day in one of my dresses, stepping down the stairs as I shrug my vest on, I swing into the kitchen, only to stop at the sight of Emily serving half asleep boys half cooked hashbrowns. “Am I the only one that got any sleep last night?” I ask, taking the pan and spatula from Emily, having her sit down as I scoop up the food from their plates and throw together a quick hash to cook down on the stove.

 “Yeah, cause not all of us need extra beauty rest.” Paul answers sharply.

 “When do you ever get beauty rest, Pauly?” Embry taunts.

 “I’ll pummel you when I’ve have breakfast and coffee.” Paul answers.

 “Hey, Embry, brutto è brutto in ogni lingua Tu, amico mio, sei brutto.” I state.

 “What?” Embry shakes his head in confusion as I dish out the hash.

 “Ugly is ugly in every language. You, my friend, are ugly.” I answer, causing the guys to manage a barely weak chuckle, causing me to frown. Emily slumps onto the table, face first. “What happened last night?” I finally ask.

 “Rogue vamp. A red head, she was here when you and your family left, she’s been leading us on a chase ever since.” Sam answers, entering the room bright eyed and bushy-tailed.

 “You drank the last of the coffee made, didn’t you?” I demand, glaring at him in playful accusation.

 “Nope, just naturally this awake. Anyway, we chased her all the way to the Canadian border last night, not the first time we’ve done that.” Sam explains, I pull the coffee pot off the stove, pour the last of the inky black liquid into coffee mugs of various sizes and colors.

 “Carry your wife to bed, there is no reason for her to be awake.” I order Sam, causing him to grin at me, shrugging as I set the mugs before the boys, saving Paul’s for last.

 “Just pour mine in my ear.” Paul groans playfully.

 “Aw, that’s not the spirit of coffee in the morning.” I set the coffee before him on the table, then drop into his lap with all of my weight, causing him to groan in discomfort alone. “You need all this energy and all this spirit, cause I agreed to go on a trial date with your today, remember? To try and make this imprint thing work.”

 “Oh yeah.” He groans. “Can’t we wait until another day?”

 “Canceling on our first date, for shame. I don’t think my father will approve of me dating you.” I shake my head with the most playfully fake pout and furrowed eyebrows are I can, crossing my arms over my chest. “Come on, Pauly!” I finally cry. “Where you’re sense of adventure? Your spontaneity? Wake up!” I shake him roughly as the other boys start to chuckle at or antics. He pretends to snore, his head falls against my chest, and I scoff, shoving his head away roughly as I stand up again. “So help me, dogboy, you’re not the only one with a mean streak, I will tickle you.” I threaten playfully.

 “Oh no! Not the dreaded tickling! Whatever shall I do?” Paul gasps, before he jumps up, picking me up like a sack of potatoes, and spins me around as I squeal, beating on his bad.

 “Pumme down! Pumme down! This isn’t funny, Paul!” I scream, the boys at burst out laughing. “You bunch of fakers!” I screech, causing more laughter as Sam and Emily join us in the kitchen.

 “Please be careful of my cabinets!” Emily calls over the laughter and my screams of “Pumme down, or Imma puke!” because Paul knows I’m faking going to be sick.

 “Pumme DOWN!” I scream yanking at his ear, causing him to flinch, dropping me on my feet as he glares with a pout. “Now maybe you’ll listen.” I state, brush the skirt of my dress off.

 “Nice polka dot underwear, Ro. Could see em through your leggings.” Jacob states, causing me to squeak, my hands flying to my but as my face burns in embarrassment, and I turn on my heel, dashing back upstairs to change, hearing Paul snarl at Jacob on the way.

 Rocking on my heels, I look around the movie theater in curiosity, and Paul chuckles as he reaches over, grabbing one of my swinging hands, and gently rubs circles across my palm. I smile at I look over at him, a cold chill causes me to shutter as the AC kicks on, and his brow furrows before he twirls me around, pulling me into his embrace as I laugh. Cuddling my head into his warmth, I practically purring, nuzzling him as he chuckles again, resting his chin on my head, he only lifts me off the ground as he shuffles into the theater as the doors open, a few people who are watching, laugh before he deposits me in the seat beside his, and sits down as he grabs my hand. After we finish Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, he takes me to a small diner a few blocks away, watching me as he and I order our various meals. “You’ve never been to Seattle?” Paul asks.

 “No, Alice has this shopping thing where, if I want to get new clothes, even a simple pair of running shoes, she drags me to Paris, or Milan. She’s only even been lenient with Bella, but since I’ve been with them since I was ten, I’ve gotten used to it.”

 “Thats eight years?”

 “Yeah, we’ve always moved around after two years, so I never really got many friends, or ya know, boyfriends.” I let out a nervous laugh. “Moving around a lot kinda makes it hard to get close to people. Oh!” My head snaps up. “But, I’m not complaining- we’ve been here longer than anywhere else because of Bella, and I love it here. The weather is comfortable, and the people are nice, and I actually have friends.” I explain as Paul leans on his hand, watching me as I look down at my hands, a bit of a sad smile on my face. “I’ve enjoyed our time here so much, I was sad when we had to leave because Edward freaked out. I missed the small town, but then we came back!”

 “Do you ever let anyone see the truth?” He asks, causing my head to snap up, and he frowns. “You’re lonely, it’s okay to say it. You wish that you’d be able to stay where you’ve been, but you haven’t been able to. You’re happy with your family, but you’re sad too.” He reaches out, placing his hand over my own.

 “I-” The waitress comes over, setting our plates of food down, I notice her eyeing our hands, causing me to blush, drawing my hands away from his to tuck in my lap, and she smirks as she shoots Paul a wink, sauntering off with her hips swinging in exaggeration. “I’m not sad, and I’m not lonely.” I counter, causing him to sigh, shaking his head as he picks up his roll, biting into it. “I mean, so what if I was? It’s not about me, it’s about them- they’re my family. It’s about their protection, in turn they worry about my protection just as much.”

 “So, you what? Fake being happy? That’s not healthy.” Paul states as I shrug, spearing a piece of steak that I cut, and popping it into my mouth.

 “It’s not the same as being fake happy. I’m really happy most of the time, but sometimes I just...” I sigh, and drop my fork to my plate with a clatter, dropping my head into my hands. “It’s just that I want to be a kid again, when I know I’m not. Everything was so much simpler after Carlisle and Esme first adopted me.”

 “Why don’t you tell me about it?”

 “You want to hear about my tragic past?” I snort, causing him to shake his head.

 “It’s a part of you. I want to know you.” He answers, causing me to shrug, and I take a deep breath. “I guess it was pretty scarring, what your parents did.” At his words I flinch, my hand goes to my scarred arms, the bangles around my wrists covering the pale silver lines. “Bad choice of words, I’m sorry.”

 “N-No, it’s fine.” I stammer out the lie, I move the bangles up and down my wrist as he frowns. “I was little, almost 4 when they did them... It’s strange, I healed almost as quickly as they did it, so they kept doing it.”

 “You healed?”

 “Yeah, I mean, I’ve always been a fast healer- I never understood it. Carlisle said it’s possible that one of my ancestors was a supernatural being of some kind, which left a trace of magic in my blood, and that’s why I heal so quickly, but I don’t know.” I shrug, taking a bite of my mashed potatoes. “Well, after a while, they’d stopped trying to kill me, and just locked me in the basement, there was one small window that was really high up- I used to get fed through it by one of the neighbor kids. That’s how I stayed alive, food and water once a day from her, and my biological parents caught her one day, she finally told her parents, and they called the cops. Took three days for the police to get there, when they did, the had to break down this wall my parents built over the basement door, and by then I was suffering from serious dehydration and serious undernourishment.”

 “My god.” Paul breaths.

 “After I got out of the hospital, I was put in foster care, and hopped from home to home for almost a year. Nobody wanted a child as broken as I was, but then Carlisle had found me- he’d been reading the newspaper, and came across my story, and told Esme. They immediately came to get me.” I shrug, sawing at my steak with my knife. “It took me a long time to get used to them, I mean... i always expected them to send me back to the system, so I acted out. I skipped school, Rosalie would find me and skip with me. I’d break things, they’d just replace them. I’d have panic attacks, and I’d lock myself in my room, Carlisle prescribed anxiety pills and they’d simply try three times to talk to me, before leaving me be. Anything I did to pull away, they’d counter it with something to get closer. I was broken, and they fixed me.”

 “My god, Ro...” Paul shakes his head, standing up he crosses the table, and before I can ask what he’s doing, he seals his lips over my own, causing my eyes to widen as I freeze. He coaxes me to kiss him back, his tongue tracing my bottom lip, my eyes flutter closed as I reach up, twisting my hand into his hair, and kiss him back as best as I can. He chuckles as he pulls back, smiling at me as he strokes my flaming hot cheek, his eyes are swirling with worry, with lust, with emotions that I have no names for as he squats down before me, stroking my cheek as I carefully extract my hand from his hair, covering his hand on my cheek with my own. “You’re amazing, you’re strong, you- I understand you so much better now.”

 “Paul, I-”

 “Excuse me?” We look up as our waitress hovers nearby. “We’ve had some complaints about you two, your public displays of affection are making some of our customers very uncomfortable.” She states, causing me to look around, seeing the area is practically deserted, save for two more couples, one of which is practically clinging to each other, the other is a man with a woman literally in his lap, and they’re kissing.

 “Seriously?” I demand. “Is it in your policy to be a complete and utter bitch and liar, to try and break up couples?” I stand up as Paul watches me, the waitress cocks an eyebrow at me as she crosses her arms over her check. “You’re what, 40? Why don’t you find someone your own age, Betty off your rocker. He’s 19, and I’m 18, I have a better chance with him that you do with any man at this point. I’m sorry you don’t have enough self respect to try having a relationship with a man your own age, but you need to leave people be when you know they’re on a date.”

 “Excuse me, is there a problem?” A balding man in a tweed suit comes over.

 “Yeah, there is.” I answer. “Your waitress here is jealous over a relationship that my boyfriend and I have, so she’s treating us, or I should say me, like complete an utter shit. She’s a liar and a flirt, and I’m telling your right now, I’ve had three bites of food, and I’m not paying because of her.”

 “But- I- Miss, I-” The man stammers.

 “Listen here you little twit.” The waitress pokes my chest as hard as she can, I stumble back. “You think you can talk down to whoever you want,” She pokes me in the chest again. “you’re an immature little twat, a spoiled brat who needs a good spanking, huh Princess.” She snaps, poking me again, and I slap her hand way.

 “Don’t touch me, Grandma, and don’t call me Princess. That’s his nickname for me.” I snarl at her.

 “Liddy, please don’t make this worse.” The manager begs.

 “No, I won’t let her talk to me that way, and you’re the boss, she needs to show a little respect.”

 “You’re a moron if you think I’ll ever respect someone dumber than a lamppost.” I answer. “You’re going off about our public displays of affection, when that couple over there is practically humping each other in the booth, and the other couple as kissing every other minute. Excuse me for enjoy my first kiss with my boyfriend.” She flushes with anger.

 “You are a little bitch.” She snaps, causing me to grit me teeth, and swing my arm back, landing a punch to her nose, she falls to the ground as I glare at her boss.

 “Your service sucks, and you’re lucky I don’t report your ass for hiring whores.” I answer, turning on my heels to see Paul watching me in awe. “Paul, come on.” I start out the door, and he follows behind, once we’re outside he bursts out in astonished laughter.

 “Baby, that was fucking amazing.” He says, causing me to blush, he wraps his arm around my waist, and pulls me against him. “You’re fucking amazing, I swear.” He says, causing me to smile as my cheeks burn even worse, and he leans down, capturing my lips in another gentle kiss.

 “We should go back to Sam and Emily’s.” I state, causing him to grimace as he pulls back.

 "Yeah, it’s getting late.” He answers, sorry for the crappy end to our date.

 “Date’s not over until we’re back.” I answer, causing him to smile.

 “Oh yeah, so I’m your boyfriend?” He asks.

 “I was trying to make a point.” I lie, causing him to chuckle, leaning in for another kiss, which I lean into with a hum, and he chuckles, I realize why when I feel his hand on my ass. “Paul!”

 “Ro!” He mocks with a teasing grin, causing me to shake my head, shoving him with all my strength, which just makes him stumble, and chuckle. “I’m sorry, I have a hand with a mind of it’s own.” He teases as I shake my head, smiling at him.

 “Lets get going.” I state, causing him to chuckle as I start towards the car, he catches up in no time, wrapping an arm around my waist, and I lean into his warm touch.

 “You’re so amazing, babe.”

 “Thanks Paul. I know.” I tease, causing me to chuckle again, shaking his head as he opens the passenger door, allowing me to slide into the seat.

 “You’re also impossibly difficult.” He states, leaning in to peck me on the lips, before closing the door, before he rounds to the driver’s side , climbing in, and starts back towards Forks, and the Rez, talking and laughing the entire way, his hand never leaving mine.

 On day 9 of my stay on the Rez, I’ve fallen into a pattern of waking before the sun, going on a jog, coming back to shower, and get dressed. Tromping down the stairs, I enter the kitchen to get a quick meal of milk and a muffin left over form yesterday, before I enter the living room to fall onto the bay window bench, looking outside as I wait. It’s a total of five minutes, before the screen door in the kitchen slams shut, and I’m engulfed in a deep, burning hot hug, a chin lands on my shoulder. “Morning babe.” Paul whispers, pressing a gentle kiss to my neck, causing a shutter to slink down my back, and he chuckles.

 “Morning Paul.” I answer, turning my head to kiss him on the lips. “Patrol run late?”

 “Nope, I woke up early.” He answers as he joins me on the bench, pulling me into his lap as he sits with his back to the wall, him knees making a warm wall on either side of me, and his chest is against my back, our fingers intertwining. “How’d you sleep?”

 “Fine, I was woke up by some howling though.” He chuckles, pressing his lips to the back of my head as we watch the sunrise. We stay like that, even after Sam and Emily wake up, after Emily starts making breakfast, and even after the rest of the pack come over. Paul’s chin is resting on my shoulder as we watch the rain come and go, the animals scattering around the area out front, and everything else that he’s never taken the time to enjoy before.

 “You guys are awfully cuddly over there.” Jacob calls from the couch, I flip him off without even looking, causing the boys to all laugh. “Emily, Ro flipped me off!” Jacob whines like a little kid.

 “You probably did something to deserve it.” Emily calls from the kitchen, causing Jacob to make an insulted sound, and all of the boys to start roaring with laughter.

 “Hey,” I look up at Paul, who smiles down at me. “how about we get out of here?” He says, causing me fore blink.

 “Where?”

 “You’ll see.” He answers coyly, causing me to nod as we stand, and he grabs my hand, pulling me through the house to his truck before the boys can get up to follow. After I slide up into his passenger seat, and he’s in the driver’s seat, he pulls something from the glove box, causing me to observe the black bandanna in his hand. “Let me put this on you.” He says, causing me to swallow thickly, then nod as I turn around, he slips it into place over my eyes, before taking my hand, placing a kiss on the palm he links his fingers through mine, and starts the truck. It’s quiet as we drive, save for the rattle of the truck, or the occasional murmur of “It’s okay, I promise we’re almost there.”, and after what feels like an eternity of darkness and rattle, we stop. “Hold on.” Is all he says, before he long he opens the door, his hands on my waist as he lifts me from the truck, guiding me towards our destination as my hands are blindly outstretched before me.

 “Paul?” I ask, causing him to chuckle as he takes off my blindfold, and I blink at the abrupt change in light, looking up at the house before me. “Wh-Why are we here?!” I squeak, looking at my boyfriend.

 “I thought it was time.” He answers, causing me to swallow thickly, and nod, taking his hand as I open the front door.

 “Mamma? Papà?” I call out, leading Paul up the stairs towards the living room.

 “Aurora?” Carlisle enters the living room, Esme on his arm, they blink in surprise as I come to a stop before them, Paul’s hand clasped between my own.

 “Ah, my little ragazza!” Esme chirps, stepping forward to hug me, she takes my face between her hands, and presses a kiss to my forehead. “Welcome home.” My stomach drops at that word for a second.

 “I didn’t believe it, to be honest.” Edward says, entering the room from the office, his eyes on Paul, who is hovering barely a foot from me.

 “Ah, mamma and Papà . Paul wanted to formally meet you both, as...” I clear my throat. “my boyfriend.” I state, causing Esme’s mouth to fall open in surprise, and Carlisle’s eyes widen.

 “So quickly?” Carlisle asks.

 “Edward and Bella were together in Edward’s mind three days after they met.” Rosalie answers, walking down the stairs, she crosses to my side in a flash, sweeping me into a tight hug. “I’ve missed you.”

 “I’ve missed you too.” I answer, hugging her back, before she steps back, looking at Paul’s face, her lip curls in distaste, before she clears her throat, and holds out her hand to him.

 “A pleasure to meet you formally, Paul.” She says in a polite tone, he nods as he takes her hand.

 “Likewise.” Rosalie yanks him close, glaring into his eyes.

 “You hurt her, and I will hunt you down like the dog you are.” She growls.

 “If I hurt her, I will willing throw myself to the ground at your feet.” He promises, causing my throat to constrict, Rosalie smiles brighter than I’ve ever seen, and they finally let go of each others hands.

 “If... this is what you truly want, Aurora, we will accept him.” Carlisle says carefully, before holding his hand out to Paul, I notice Alice twirling in from the tree that branched from the forest, to the house. Jasper is slowly following after, and Emmett enters from the back, most likely just finished hunting. “Welcome to the family, Paul.”

 “Whoa! What?!” Emmett booms, glaring at Paul as I shoot Edward and Carlisle an accusatory glare.

 “Aurora is Paul’s imprint.” Edward explains to Emmett, only instead of the calm that had settled over everyone, suddenly my siblings implode, save for Edward.

 “WHAT?!”

 “Jesus Edward, tact much?” I snarl, causing him to smirk at everyone starts to yell, and protest, though Esme shakes her head in disbelief at my siblings, after fifteen minutes of being scolded for something I had no control over, and Paul sitting beside me with his hand on my back, taking the brunt of the attack, I clench my fist. “That is enough! Holy shit!” My family falls silent in shock, I never curse around them. “I am so sick of this fucking rivalry. So my mate, in vampire terms, is a wolf? So. Fucking. What? Edward’s is a human! What does it matter that I’ve been imprinted on? What happened to, “as long as it makes me happy?” huh? That’s all you guys ever say when I want to do something. When I dyed the tips of my hair blue. Or I pierced my ears. Or, hell, when I got a tattoo!”

 “You have a tattoo?” Paul asks, causing me to shoot him a scowl. “Right, not the point.” He leans forward to whisper in my ear. “Tattoos are sexy.” I blush as I shove him, and my family watches us.

 “Look, Paul is who. I. Want. If you guys can’t accept him, and that I want him in my life, then... I guess I’ll just have to move in with Sam and Emily.” Everyone gasps, and I cross my arms over my chest, raising an eyebrow. “I’m 18, I can legal move out. So, those are my terms. Accept Paul, or I leave this family.”

 “You... feel that strongly about this?” Jasper asks in surprise.

 “I can’t explain it. It’s like how he Imprinted on me, and how you have mates... I can’t stand the thought of never being with him, I love you guys, but...” I look at Paul, taking his hand. “I care for Paul like I could never have imagined.”

 “You’ve... Marked.” I look over at Carlisle, confusion evident. “I was doing research into your biological lineage, your parent’s parent’s parents, they were Fae. Fae blood skips a few generations when families of human and Fae interbreed, you were third generation of half-human half-Fae, that’s why your parents were trying to kill you. You were born in a bundle of lights, they panicked, thinking you were a monster, that’s why they were trying to kill you. That’s why you healed no matter what they did, Fae are immortal, and because you’re half-human, you bleed and that’s it, eventually you’ll stop aging as well.”

 “But... what is Marked?” Paul asks.

 “Mated. Imprinted.” Carlisle answers. “Fae Mark when they find their soulmates, it’s rare for it to be human, but her parents and grandparents both marked humans. The fact that it’s a wolf is strange, because Fae are more commonly Marked by other Fae.”

 “So... I’m Fae?” I ask.

 “Yes, that’s why your hair is so light, and you are so pale, and why your eyes are so blue. Fae have always been people of light, eyes as blue are yours, are the sign. All Fae have blue eyes like yours.” Carlisle answers. “You’re wings will come in, on your 22nd birthday, and you will be able to withdraw and sheath them in your back, between the hollow of your spine.”

 “I-Paul, catch.” I stammer out, before everything wobbles and I fall backwards, everything going black before I hit the ground.

 <Paul POV>

 “I-Paul,” I turn to see Ro’s face turn ashen. “catch.” She faints as soon as the words leave her mouth, as she goes down, I catch her as fast as I can, sweeping her into my arms as I look up, seeing her family all looking like they’re about the dash forward to catch her.

 “I think that was an information overload with the wings.” I state, carrying her over to the couch, and carefully deposit her onto it, caressing her face as Carlisle steps forward.

 “Paul,” I look up at him. “she’s in no danger, ever. As Fae, she’s in no danger from the Volturi, or any Vampire in general. That is why she was able to live her life with us. Her blood has no appeal to us.” He explains, and I look back at my light haired imprint passes out on the couch. “However, she will need protection if she wishes to do what she wants. There are hundreds of thousands of various other supernatural creatures out there, we can not protect her in the sun.” I realize why they were so willing to let her go to Sam and Emily’s now.

 “You want her to give up on her dreams of helping people?” I demand, my fist clenching. “That’s all she ever wants, Carlisle. She wants to give others the chance you gave her, to save those that she can. You want to rip that away from her?”

 “No,” Esme speaks, coming forward. “that’s never something we want to do. We love her, and we know you are in love with her, you could travel together, you could protect her.” She explains, causing me to relax, looking back at Aurora, then back to the vampires that raised her, her family.

 “I’ll leave it up to her. I’ll never take away her choices.” I answer.

 “That’s all we ask.” Esme answers.

 “Ugh,” Aurora groans, shifting as she sits up, gripping her head. “my head. What were we talking about?” She murmurs, causing me to smile, kneeling down to reach out to stroke her cheek.

 “You. Remember?” I ask.

 <Aurora POV>

 “You. Remember?” Paul asks, looking into my eyes, memories flash behind my eyes, and I swallow thickly as I nod.

 “Yes, I remember.” I nod again, leaning into the touch of his hand, enjoying the warmth that engulfs my face from his touch. “So,” I look back at Carlisle and Esme, the rest of my family seems to have cleared the room once I fainted. “I’m a fairy... I guess all the best supernaturals sparkle.” I joke, causing Paul to chuckle. “Don’t worry, you’re still one of my favorite.” I say to him, causing him to smile.

 “You’re one of my favorites too.” He answers, helping me to my feet, and he keeps his arm around me waist to keep me upright. “Why don’t we head back now?”

 “Yeah, I think we’ve had enough excitement for one day.” I answer, Esme smiles as she carefully hugs me, then Carlisle walks up, placing a kiss on my forehead.

 “We’ll see you after next week, alright?” Esme asks, causing me to nod.

 “Alright, I’ll see you mamma and Papà.” I bid them as Paul escorts me to the door, and out the the truck. Once inside the truck, and on the road again, I look at him with a smile, and he raises an eyebrow at me. “Thank you, Paul... It means so much to me that you wanted to meet them formally. I know that it took a lot for you to do that, and I’m so sorry that the news of the imprint was received like that.”

 “It’s alright. I’m glad you didn’t change your mannerisms around them, it’s really hot when you yell like that.” Paul answers cheekily, causing me to duck my head, my cheeks burning once again. “Besides, I need them to like me, considering we’re soulmates, and I love you.” I blink at the words he just said, gaping as he grins at me.

 “I-I love you too.”

 ~9 years later~

 Gasping on the hospital bed, Paul caresses my sweaty face with one hand, the other is crushed between my grip. “Almost there honey, I promise you’re almost done.” He murmurs, kissing my hand.

 “I can’t push anymore.” I shale my head.

 “One more push Ro,” Carlisle responds. “One more big push. I promise you’ll be able to rest.” I look at my dad, and nod, forcing myself to push. The world spots black and my ears fog, then the sound of a high pitch wail fills the room. “It’s girl!” Carlisle says.

 “You hear that, honey?” I let out a sweet laugh. “W-We have a little girl.” Paul smiles at me while I watch Rosalie take the baby to get her cleaned.

 “Alright, are you ready to continue?” Carlisle asks, causing me grip Paul’s hand, and nod.

 “I’m ready.” I rasp out. Five minutes later, the second baby is born, another wail accompanying the first.

 “A boy!” Carlisle cries, causing Paul to jolt, looking at his son in Carlisle’s arms. “You have a healthy baby boy.”

 “A boy and a girl.” Paul breathes, causing me to smile at him as he looks at me in adoration. “You’re amazing.” He breathes, leaning in to kiss my lips.

 “I hate you.” I joke weakly, causing him to smile as Carlisle swaddles the baby boy, and hands me him, while Rosalie swaddles the girl handing him to Paul, who looks at her with glassy eyes.

 “What’re you naming them?” Rosalie asks, knowing that we’d managed to hide the names from everyone, even Edward.

 “For the girl, we were thinking... Alisme Emily Rose Lahote.” I answer, looking up at her, venom fills eyes in place of the tears that will never be able to fall, a hand over her mouth. “For the boy, we were thinking... Samulisle Tobias Achak Lahote.”

 “Truly unique names.” Carlisle answers, causing me to beam at him.

 “They are unique children. Just as unique as Renesmee.” I answer, causing him to chuckle as I look over at Paul, who is cooing at our daughter.

 “My perfect little Alisme.” He whispers, causing me to smile, looking at our son in my arms.

 “Hello, Samulisle.” I murmur, rocking him in my arms as he stretches a bit, yawning as he flutters his blue eyes open at me, tears well in my eyes as I press my forehead to his. “My little cluster of lights, I love you so much.”

 “Does he-?” Carlisle asks as I nod to him. “Amazing.”

 “What?” Paul asks, standing with Alisme in his arms, he hands her to me, and takes our son, smiling at his blue eyes. “So you’re why we could see you guys.” He chuckles. “Hello my little Faewolf.” He smiles, rocking his son as I caress our daughters face.

 “Hello Alisme.” I murmur. “I love you so much.” I press a kiss to her forehead, and Paul smiles as he hands me Samulisle, and climbs into the bed behind me, his warmth engulfing me.

 “Can we coming yet? We’re dying out here!” Emmett booms, causing me to chuckle, nodding to Carlisle, who opens the door, and the pack of wolf and the coven of vampires all pile into the room, followed by a walking pile of stuffed animals and balloons, which are soon deposited onto the counter in the corner of the room, revealing Emmett.

 “They are already spoiled.” Nahuel chuckles, Leah elbows her imprint in the side, and he chuckles as he presses a kiss to her hair.

 “What’re their names?” Emily asks.

 “This is Alisme Emily Rose, and Samulisle Tobias Achak.” Paul answers, causing Emily to burst into tears, Sam chuckles as he holds her, his hand on her swollen stomach.

 “They’re beautiful names!” She sobs, causing me to smile sympathetically, knowing the hormones that are coursing through her body.

 “They truly are.” Alice answers, standing beside Jasper in the corner of the room. “Samulisle is the Fae?”

 “Yeah.”

 “I’m honored to be a name sake.” Sam speaks up.

 “As am I.” Esme chirps.

 “I’m just sorry we couldn’t include everyone, but I think we’d need about five more kids to so that.” I say, laughing a bit before I yawn.

 “Can I hold one?” Seth asks, causing me to smile at the lone wolf. I feel bad because, Seth and Embry were the last ones left without imprints, even Collin and Brady had imprinted, and up until last year, when Embry went away to College, he and Seth had a brother in binds thing going on, but now we’ve learned that Embry has imprinted on a girl, and is bringing her home when the graduate.

 “Sure Sethy.” I answer, he steps forward as I hand him Alisme, since she’s wide away right now, and he smiles as he lifts her into his arms, I watch him distinctly freeze, a now familiar look crosses the 24 year old’s face, having seen it happen to so many of the wolves before. “Aw, Sethy imprinted!” I cry happily, causing everyone to freeze, Paul growls under his breath, causing me to reach up, kissing him on the lips, and that causes him to calm down once again. I watch as Alisme latches onto Seth’s finger, cooing happily up at the melted pup.

 “I guess it was just a matter of time, Seth.” Leah says, smiling as she pets her brother’s head.

 “Yeah, I guess so.” He answers, keeping his eyes on Alisme like he’s afraid she’ll vanish.

 “Does someone want to hold Samulisle? I need to sleep.” I say with a soft yawn.

 “Oh, me!” Alice answers, dancing forth to pluck my son from my arms before I can say anything, or anyone else can butt in. I smile as I watch my families, the ones that once hated each other, that grew close thanks to Paul and I, but grew closer when Renesmee and Jacob imprinted, thinking to myself ‘Isn’t it funny? How love can change things? How it can even bridge to biggest of gaps? How it can fill even the deepest of holes?’ I look back at Paul, who smiles down at me. ‘All it takes, is one little push.'

“You know, it’s funny, who would’ve ever thought it. That I’d fall in love with the Human Cullen?” Paul rumbles in my ear. “I guess all we needed to come together, was one little push.” I burst into laughter, leaning up to kiss him passionately, nipping his lip as I pull away.

 “You, mister, need to stay out of my mind. Oh, I am serious too. Besides I am a proud Fae, who you calling Human Cullen?”

[jarmes]

JJBA Twisted Destiny Chapter 1 - Johana Joestar

Masterpost - Next Chapter

He strikes late at night. His target, a pretty young woman with brown curls, is walking home from class. He chuckles to himself as he thinks about what he’s about to do. Quickly, he moves from the bushes, drawing his knife and lunging at the woman.

She runs, screaming as loud as she can. He doesn’t mind; he expected her to run. She dashes for the nearest building, hoping to get away. That’s when she steps into his trap.

Her foot falls into a slipknot made thin string, so thin that she can barely make it out. She falls to the ground and feels a creature crawling on her back, creating more string and binding her limbs. Suddenly, she feels very, very tired. As she slips from consciousness she looks at her back, at the creature tying her up, and sees nothing.

He walks over to his trap and smiles. The creature abandons the woman and returns to its master, taking its place on his shoulder.

+++

Our story begins in the summer of 2011, in the City of London, on a swelteringly hot day. A young university freshman sits in the stuffy office of one of her professors, a small windowless room filled with bookshelves overflowing with old tomes. She wipes a few drops of sweat from her brow and regrets her decision to wear black. She’s been sitting in the office for ten minutes now, watching as her professor silently flips through an old history book. Then she notices it, an ice cold can of soda sitting on her professor's desk next to a tuna sandwich. Beads of condensation drip down from the can and plop on the professor's wooden desk.

The student glances at her professor, who is still enthralled by his book. Slowly, she reaches for the can of soda. The ruler moves faster than the eye can see, bursting through the air and striking the student in the hand the moment her finger touches the can. The student glances up at the man holding the ruler, her professor with an angry look on his face. “I do not recall giving you permission to touch my belongings, Miss Jonestar,” he says. “In fact, I recall instructing you to sit here quietly while I finished reading this passage, an instruction you seem incapable of following.”

“Joestar,” the student mutters.

“Excuse, me, I didn’t catch that,” the professor says. “Speak louder when you’re spoken to.”

“My name is Joestar, sir,” she says.

The professor rolls his eyes. “Oh, I’m so sorry,” he says, voice full of sarcasm. “Please forgive me for misremembering the stupid name of one of my countless students.”

The professor, an old man named Dr. Dre, is a tall, chubby man with horn-rimmed glasses. He wears a tweed jacket and a tie covered in the logo of his favorite soda brand. He has been a history teacher for thirty years now, a position he adores because it gives him a microcosm of power, a power that he enjoys abusing as much as possible, much to the dismay of his students.

He pulls the ruler back and discovers that Miss Joestar’s finger hasn’t moved from the soda can. She stares at him for a moment before slowly pulling her hand back. The professor rolls his eyes.

“You made me lose my place in my book, young lady,” the professor says with a scowl.

“I’m sorry,” Miss Joestar mutters.

“Now then, what was it that was so urgent that you felt the need to bother me during my lunch break?”

“Mr. Dre-”

“Dr. Dre.”

“Dr. Dre, I was hoping to talk to you about the recent exam.”

Dr. Dre scoffs. “Of course you are,” he says. “Every hour another one of my students comes here to complain about receiving a bad grade. It isn’t my fault that you children decided against showing up.”

“Sir, you changed the location of the test to a room on the other side of campus,” Miss Joestar says. “You also moved the time of the exam to six o’clock in the morning instead of noon. And you only notified us of this change two hours after the test ended.”

“Excuses, always with the excuses.”

“Sir, I was wondering if there was any way I could retake the exam, seeing as it is worth thirty percent of my grade.”

“Sucks to be you.”

Miss Joestar sighs. “I'm’ sorry to have wasted your time, sir,” she says before walking out of the office.

Professor Dre chuckles and grabs his soda. He pulls the tab and a torrent of soda bursts out, soaking his coat.

+++

The Joestars. This proud clan of British aristocrats immigrated to the United States in 1892 and became one of the wealthiest families in the country after earning fortunes in the oil and real estate markets. Using this wealth, they co-founded the Speedwagon Foundation, a top of the line medical research organization. Unbeknown to most people, the true purpose of the Foundation is the study and acquisition of supernatural phenomena.

For generations, the Joestars have dedicated themselves to this purpose, transforming themselves into honorable warriors dedicated to the protection of the world. But, after more than a century of battles, the family has begun to dwindle.

Johana Joestar was born in 1992 to Foundation President Joshua Joestar. Johana’s childhood was dedicated to preparing her for her destiny as head of the Speedwagon Foundation. From the moment she was born, she spent every waking moment studying history, science, and mythology, as well as training in martial arts, so that she could one day protect the world, like every Joestar that came before her.

Johana rejected this path and ran away from home at the age of fifteen. Three years later, she moved to her family’s country of origin and began studying history at Lonely Castle University in London. She wants nothing to do with her family. But, destiny is a fickle mistress, one that few can slip away from.

+++

Johana walks out of the class building. Her friend, a Japanese girl named Kan, is leaning against the doorway, strumming a guitar. “So, is Mr. Dre still a dick?” Kan asks.

“Unfortunately,” Johana replies.

“I had him my first semester. I remember one time, he gave us fifteen minutes to do a fifty-page test. One of the guys in my class actually started crying. Does he still drink that crappy knock-off soda, Sparite?”

Johana smiles. “Yeah,” she says. “Actually, I met with him during his lunch break, so he had a can with him. I shook it up while he wasn’t looking.”

Kan laughs. “You know, people say you’re an unfriendly jackass with absolutely no sense of humor, but you can be pretty clever when you want to,” she says.

“Who says that about me?” Johana asks.

Kan ignores Johana and places her guitar in its case. “I’m putting up flyers for the concert tonight, can you help me?” she asks.

Johana nods her head and Kan does a little victory dance. She runs off to the library to print off fliers, Johana following closely behind.

+++

Johana Joestar and Kan Nijimura met their first week of college. Both freshman new to the country, the duo bonded and quickly formed an ironclad friendship in spite of their different hobbies and temperaments. Kan is boisterous, energetic, and quick to make friends. She has bleach blonde hair cut into a mohawk that hangs down over half of her head. On this hot summer day, she wears black jeans, a gold belt, a t-shirt with an infinity sign and a diagram of the evolution of man printed on it, black heels, a pair of spike covered bracelets, and a denim jacket. The left arm of her jacket has been ripped off, showing a variety of rock band tattoos.

Johana, on the other hand, dresses plainly, wearing a tank top, skirt, tights, and boots, all black. Her dark blue hair is pulled into a bun and a pair of glasses sit on her nose. She’s the quiet, studious girl who always sits in the corner of a room while Kan is the girl who yells out the answer before the teacher can even call her name.

As she chases after Kan, Johana flashes back to the night they met. She was walking home from class, late at night, when she saw a man in a ski mask following Kan, holding a knife in his hand. At first, she turned her head away and continued on her way, not wanting to get involved. Then she heard Kan scream.

She moved without thinking, dropping her books and running to save Kan. Johana jumped into action and kicked the man in the face. He dropped the knife and ran away while Johana tended to Kan.

Kan was fine, she’d screamed before the man could do anything. In fact, instead of being terrified like Johana had expected, Kan was starstruck. “You saved my life!” she said.

Johana blushed. “Well, I don’t know about that,” she mumbled.

“That was so cool! You came out of nowhere and beat the shit out of that guy! It was like something out of a kung fu movie.”

From that day onward, the two were inseparable. They ate together, they studied together, they even started living together during their spring semester. Johana taught Kan self-defense and Kan introduced Johana to her favorite bands. For the first time since she ran away from home, Johana had a friend.

+++

“I think tonight’s show is going to be really good. We managed to borrow a small stage and some equipment from the music department, so it’s going to be like a real show!” Kan says while she and Johana wait for the flyers to finish printing.

“Show’s at eight thirty on the quad, right?” Johana asks.

Kan nods her head. For five months now, she has been the bass guitarist of a rock band she co-founded called Lifeless December. “Are you coming?” Kan asks.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Johana says.

They pay for the flyers, handing handfuls of change to a library employee with buck teeth who gives them a dirty look, and leave the library to go get lunch. As they walk through the college campus, they come across something rather odd.

A large white cocoon, as tall as Johana, sits by the doorway to one of the dormitories. “What’s this?” Kan asks while reaching her hand out to touch the cocoon.

Johana slaps her hand away. “What?” Kan says.

“Don’t touch it, it looks weird,” Johana replies.

“Okay, I won’t touch it. That doesn’t answer my question though. What is this thing?”

“It’s probably just a modern art exhibit or something. Best to leave it alone.”

As the duo walk away, Johana glances over her shoulders at the cocoon and feels an aura of menace that chills her to her bones. She knows that, whatever the cocoon is, it is evil, and she wants nothing to do with it.

When she walks into the school cafeteria, she sees something incredibly bizarre. A young man with blonde hair balancing with one foot on the back of a chair and the other folded over his waist. The young man wears a tight black tank top that shows off his toned body, dark green pants covered in white stars, a striped scarf covered in hearts, and a black beanie covered in four-leaf clovers. In his left hand, he holds a green banana. He taps it with his right hand and the skin of the banana turns yellow. He peels the banana and takes a bite.

“What’s that guy’s deal?” Kan asks.

Johana doesn’t say anything. She knows exactly what the guy’s deal is. It’s been years since the two saw each other last, but she’d recognize that dumbass smile anywhere. And, even if she couldn’t, she’d still recognize the star-shaped birthmark on the man’s left shoulder.

The man notices Johana and smiles. He does a backflip off the chair and walks over to Johana. “Cousin!” he says, arms spread for a hug.

Johana groans.

[thubprint]

We get what we get

Normally I tell stories through videos, but not this one. Holding up a video camera can put distance between you and the experience, and this time I chose to be a part of the experience, 100%. This is the story of my second trip to Cuba. It's a clumsy romance.

My first visit to Cuba was chaotic. I didn't know the culture, the laws, or where to go to meet people, but by the end of it I had made some new friends including two ladies whom I promised I would see again soon. I only had contact with one of them, but I still prepared gifts to bring both of them on my return. (I'll use the pseudonyms 'Halo' and 'Luna', simply because I haven't asked their permission to publish any of this). I wasn't planning on 'playing the field', this was more like emotional security, like a backup plan. The truth is I had only known each of them for 3 days before leaving the first time and sometimes things are not what they seem. After only a few emails between Luna and myself I had revealed how much I regretted not kissing her on my last night there after we had spent hours dancing and holding hands, and she started using phrases like "I love you baby". Because of previous experiences this development seemed suspiciously rapid to me, and I was apprehensive. Maybe she does this kind of thing a lot? I took a defensive stance, and prepared for multiple scenarios. 

I was committed to following through however. If there was even a chance that love was waiting across the ocean, I was going to find out.

The weeks leading up to departure were stressful but I managed to publish videos while producing two weeks of pre-scheduled content, created gifts and mixtapes for friends in Cuba, saved up some money for the trip and paid my rent. I really thought I would make some kind of videos while there, but the night I arrived with no plan, no place to stay and very little understanding of spanish, things happened faster than I was able to arm a camera.

After being delivered by taxi to Prado St. and Malecon in Habana Viejo I thought I would simply find a wifi area, locate a hostel for the evening and settle down there for the night, then go see who I found first the next morning. I wasn't dragging my suitcase more than five minutes when I saw Luna. She was facing the other direction and wearing a red dress. I had tried to imagine this moment and what I would say but even If I had memorized lines I would have instantly forgotten them. She turned as she heard me walk up to her. We shared a smiling disbelief for the shortest eternity and then she leapt up into my arms - the long hug. Hearts connected. My suspicions about an ulterior motive melted away.

She helped me find a Casa Particulare to stay at. I had thought I might find a place for two days and look around to find a really pretty one for the rest of my trip, but I didn't end up spending enough time at home to care. I left my stuff there and gave her some of the presents I brought for her (purple and green air jordans and a pair of adidas 3/4 joggers) and we picked up right where we left off three months ago, walking alongside the ocean holding hands and smoking. We shared our first kiss that night, and I realized I was a fool for doubting this girl's heart. She had meant every word.

The next morning my hosts prepared me breakfast and I went to find Halo. I knew where she lived so I went there with the rollerblades I had  brought for her. Hers were stolen a few months back and she missed them a lot. I had thought maybe I could just leave them there for her but... she was home. She was also extremely excited to see me and I was happy too, but not quite the same way. We went rollerblading together until it started to rain, and we took shelter in a stairwell beside my Casa. I ran up to collect the rest of the gifts I had brought for her, some clothing, headphones and an mp3 player I had put a custom hip hop mix on.

As we sat watching the rain and talking, I wondered If I was making the right choice. The truth is though, life doesn't really have 'right' and 'wrong' choices, just choices. Halo is beautiful, cares deeply for her family and is driven to grow and make something of her life. She's in school to become a lawyer. For a lot of reasons, she might have been the 'smart' choice. I wasn't really thinking about any of those things though. I decided to follow my heart on this one. By which I mean the one who I laughed the most with, the one I was thinking about when I went to bed at night, and the one who took a risk trusting me with her feelings even though she didn't know me that well. I explained to Halo that I was seeing someone, and I was happy to see her again but we would simply be friends. The dissapointment was real, the rain appropriate.

At 2:00 I returned to Prado with the rest of the shoes I brought and easily found new owners for them. Luna was there and we went to a friend's place before heading to her mother's house. We bought a present for her mother on the way; it was meat. A big pork shoulder which sat uncovered and raw on the counter of a meat stand, with flies buzzing all over it. It's probably fine as long as its in the shade right? This stand also had pork rinds, and not the air-puffed from a sealed chip bag kind, more like all the bits and pieces of fat and skin from the cut meat, deep fried and salted and thrown in a plastic bucket on the counter. They were absolutely delicious.

Her mother's house was awesome. We stayed up late drinking and smoking, her mother kept serving coffee and juice, and there were more pork rinds made before dinner was served. The coffee is basically heavily sweetened espresso, and the juice is just fruit blended with water and the seeds strained out. It was a very happy place, and Luna's family is loud and fun. The next morning Luna's mother's boyfriend brought over a sack of mangoes from the tree in his yard, and I didn't know a mango could taste that good. Something about them ripening on the tree in the sun really kicks the flavour up!

If Luna and I wanted to have a sexy time however, this was not the best place for it. We shared a room with her grandmother who is saltier than the pork rinds. Plus when grandma needs help relieving herself in a bedpan in the middle of the night, that definetly kills any sexy mood that may have been around.

Luna and I did shower together, and that was dope. The word 'shower' might be a bit misleading. We just had a bucket of hot water and a cup to pour it with. It sure is nice to share that scenario with someone super hot, and soaping each other up is a memory I will hold close. The second time we showered the water was not hot which was kind of brutal, but it's a sacrifice I was happy to make in favor of some alone time.

After the second day there we returned to Prado so I could get some rest at my own place. Luna had noticed my temperature was getting really high, and I was starting to feel ill. We ran Into Halo when we got back who invited me to a party she was heading to, but I told her I needed to go home and rest. It sure is hard to watch her walk away though. She didn't even look back.

I was planning on going home, I really was. Then this dude came up to us and asked if we wanted to go to a party. I figured no, I was starting to feel really sick and I would have needed sleep even if i wasn't. "Only 2CUC for both of you! Drinks included!" The dude kept pressing. Luna clearly wanted to go, so the spirit of living for the moment won me over. "Have you got your passport?" Our new friend asked as we arrived at mi casa where I would quickly change. I told him I did not. "Oh, that's not good! You should always have your passport with you in Cuba!" Yeah, maybe. I didn't want to risk losing it, so whatever. I changed as quickly as possible (this was not that quickly) and the three of us headed to the bus. We arrived at a huge house with a gated yard crammed full of people. I handed our friend 10CUC but when he tried to get us in we were told the place was full and the booze was all gone. "I told you to be fast at your casa!" Well, I tried. He eventually got us in because there was a girl with us. Ain't nobody want no sausage fest. "Have your passport ready" he tells me. Um, wut? Why? "I told you to bring your passport!" No, you told me I should always have my passport. He starts talking the door guy into letting me in which eventually works, but not without the door guy looking down at me with the sternest expresson anyone has ever given anyone and saying; "No trouble from you, or we're going to have big problem. Understand?" Entiende. The party was pretty great. When we got there the music was Rage Against The Machine, Slipknot, System Of A Down and AFI, then suddenly the corpse-painted DJ switched to some kind of salsa music. An eclectic mix but we had a blast, We danced a ton, laughed a lot, and our friend kept showing up with rum and beer. As the night came to a close, Luna and I were going to go our separate ways but the buses were taking forever. I suggested she stay at my place, assuring her I had already asked if mi novia could stay over, and she accepted. 4:00 AM we stumble past the lady of the house who is sleeping on the couch and up the stairs to collapse on the bed. And I'm done.

The next two days were kind of a blur. We didn't wake up until a knock at the door at 1:00, thankfully breakfast was still waiting. I needed all the food I could find to keep up some strength because my fever got pretty high, around 39 degrees. We mostly spent two days being gross in bed, since she ended up sick as well. Thankfully she really likes video games and has a ton of them on her phone. NES emulators, GBA emulators, Five Nights At Freddy's 1-3 and Tekken 3. Getting sick on vacation is pretty crappy, but you could do a lot worse.

I wasnt feeling a lot better after those two days, but it was time to head back to her house for a gauntlet of birthday parties! Several days in a row. I can pretend to be an extrovert pretty well when the situation calls for it, but the next few days really wore me pretty thin. Thankfully they had enough medicine to keep me feeling okay, but the people and the music were loud, the house was small, and the single bed we were sharing was really uncomfortable. One of the birthdays was Luna's, (albeit a few days early) and I brought the rest of the gifts for her. These were a pair of bluetooth headphones and a bluetooth speaker (both rechargeable, both dumpster finds) and an mp3 player with an electronica mix I put together, as well as a big bag of M&Ms and sour patch kids. The candy was kind of a shot in the dark, but Cuba's candy game is weak so I was pretty confident it would be appreciated. Turns out she LOVES chocolate, so it was a good guess. I probably could have sold the headphones for a lot, but this was more fun. Her mom's house has a great view of the stars from the roof too and just as Luna is pointing this out to me, a shooting star flies over us. 

A goddamn shooting star.

I'm not telling what I wished for, and I didn't ask her.

I was seriously more done than I have ever been at this point though, which sucks because there is nowhere I'd rather be than around this lady when I'm feeling this crappy. She really takes care of her man. She even bought me a present! I guess in Cuba new clothes show up in heavy bags which get passed through different families before they end up in stores, and she sneakily bought me some new pairs of underwear. Which was perfect, because at this point my laundry plans have fallen apart and I really needed those! I couldn't stay any longer though, I was dead. We didn't actually leave until really late at night, and I explained that I just need some time alone to regenerate. It's 10:00 when I make it back to Prado, and I need medicine of my own and some food. The fever medicine was 2CUC, and I bought a pizza that I thought was going to be small because it was only 40CUP but it was actually way more than I could finish. Turns out street pizza is one of the things that is cheap in Cuba. So I brought that home with me along with some extra water and an orange soda. I noticed Luna had left her skateboard necklace in my room. 

My sleep was not great but at least when I woke up in a pool of sweat in the middle of the night I had a dry side of the bed to roll onto. I put on Luna's necklace in the morning, for no particular reason. When I was planning my errands for the day my friend Mario came by to see me, and he kept me company while I was running around. He was really helpful with the bus routes, and showed me this ice cream spot called Coppellia that takes up a whole city block. It was cheap too, 10CUP for way more ice cream than one person should eat! And I shouldn't have eaten it, because we had to run to catch our bus after and I felt an extra kind of gross now that I was bloated with ice cream.

We met up with Luna back at Prado and just wasted time skateboarding and chilling with friends. I still wasn't feeling the best but at least I had my own medication for the fever now. She thought it was super cute that I was wearing her necklace. Her actual birthday was the next day so when we were winding down for the night at my casa her phone was straight blowing up just as midnight arrived. She is so loved by so many people! It's easy to see why. She cares for her friends and treats them as family, she's really aware of how people are feeling and is always keeping people smiling and getting them moving and dancing. She brings so much energy to a group, it's a real joy to be near her.

I was starting to worry about her eating though, I realized I almost never see her eat anything unless we're at her mother's house for dinner. Maybe she was just being polite not wanting to eat my breakfast, but I would have been happier seeing her eat. Eating alone feels wierd when there are other people around not eating.

When we went out the next day to gather friends for her birthday we discovered one of her friends was getting married! We joined the wedding party, and I was amazed at the old building they were having the ceremony in. Another friend came from Vancouver to suprise her on her birthday, and brought her a brand new skate deck as a present. Those are not easy to find in Cuba! Luna kept saying how happy she was all day. It did seem like a great birthday. After collecting friends and meat and beer we hauled back to her mother's house to be loud and rowdy. Also picked up some cake on the way, another thing that can be cheap in cuba (4CUC).

Later on in the night though the smile faded from her face, so I asked her why. She was thinking about her father. Father's day was the next day and hers had died three years ago. Lung cancer. I'm not very good with these sorts of things but I was happy to be there with her even knowing there was nothing I could do. What do you do, when the person who keeps everyone's spirits up is feeling down? If there is a right answer I couldn't think of it at the time.

The next few days we just watched scary movies, skated with friends, ate pizza and tried not to get sunburned. It rained fairly often so that wasn't as hard as one might think. I never did make time to do laundry, the few windows of opportunity I had were rained out and nobody uses a clothes dryer there. Some might not agree with how I spent my limited time in a faraway land, perhaps they would see more value in taking photos of historic sites, riding horses through tobacco plantations or bartering in markets for handmade silver jewellery. I could have done any of those, but wandering the dirty streets of Habana holding hands with Luna seemed like more of a once in a lifetime opportunity to me. These two weeks might be all we ever get, and I think we both knew that.

As my time in Cuba drew short we joined some friends from Norway to spend a few days out on the beaches in Varadero. It was a bit more expensive than Habana but the beach was gorgeous. "Just like a windows screensaver", as Tuva put it. At the time I was a little annoyed to only have one small towel and have to share it between Luna and myself. As we lay together on the sand under the partial shade of a tree however, I looked up at the curves of her face and the sea salt on them which sparkled in the bright sun and knew I was looking at something beautiful I would never forget. Perhaps I wouldn't have seen it if I brought two towels! We all spent the night drinking beer and dancing on the sand, because of course Luna turns everything into a dance party.

When we went back I didn't have a casa because I was pretty much out of money, so we spent our last night together curled up at her house watching cartoons, playing xbox and eating cake and ice cream. We ate actual dinner too, she's a really good cook. (I don't know what it was but it had beef in it). Leaving the next day was not something I wanted to do at all. I almost missed my bus and wasn't sure I even cared. I didn't know what to expect from this trip but I wasn't prepared to fall for an amazing dream girl who totally loves me. We enjoy so many of the same things and did pretty well despite only having the most basic understanding of each other's languages. We come from such different worlds though, it's difficult to imagine what sort of a future we could hope for together. I have a whole life in Canada, and she is like a beautiful vibrant flower in a wild tropical garden. I can't simply pluck her from her native soil and take her somewhere else, she would not be the same without her family and friends and sun and food and music to nourish her heart and soul. Maybe these two enchanted weeks are all we get. I hope that isn't the case but relationships are like that. There are times with people that you just want to last forever but they never do, so it's important to make the most of the time you do have together.

I'm going to keep practicing skateboarding so if I do see Luna again, I'll be able to at least land an ollie.

Leave it better than you found it, and keep doing the thing.

[bluesdrummer420]

My Relationship With Love Chapter 2.

I've posted these kind of sort of short stories on a couple sites and you all seem to like it..so...here's another.

Chapter 2 in the tragedy that is my love life.

A few months go by after the sudden break up with Taylor and I still feel like shit BUT I do what all guys do, I bury it and keep my mind busy. Well, this chick from kind of another group that is friends with one of my friends girlfriend asks said girlfriends friend (still with me here? Hahah) about the, not kidding this is a direct quote, "weird lonely looking asshole that slams his head into lockers to scare the normies?" She said "from what Brian says that's his way of dealing with break ups...your guess is as good as mine, I think he needs to visit a padded cell for a while but that's just me."

Yeah it was kind of a way to deal but I got tired of people asking me about it so I did the next best thing I could think of, looking back probably not really a very good thought hahah, but this made her even more curious. She started hanging around our table, I sat down at the end..alone, they respected (and out of slight fear) my wish to be left the fuck alone. On, what would've been our 1 year anniversary, she skipped them and sat down on the other side of the table while I had my head down listening to Slipknot - (sic). I heard them slowly fade into silence as she walked past them.

I looked up with "fuck off or I'll give a new meaning to murder" eyes. She didn't budge, fuck..she grinned, I finally said "can I help you?" Here's another line I'll never forget. She said "yeah. You can tell the voices in your head to shut the fuck up and stop moping around over what I'm assuming was your first girlfriend." My eyebrow shot up and I couldn't help myself "how did you know I hear voices? Do they yell at you too? Do they yell you the same regurgitated babble bullshit that everyone else has said? The first is always the hardest but there will always be more and more heartbreak and blah dee fuckin blah. You have no fuckin clue. I can see it in your eyes that no one has talked to you like this before. No one has challenged your attitude with an attitude plus rage before. Do you really want to know what the voices tell me?" I'm standing at this point with her eyes wide and the color in her skin fading as she nods. I stand and lean in and whisper "the voices tell me to move the fuck on and forget about her but the fact that I was played by a bully bitch jock and his whore of a girlfriend is what stings the fuckin most. I hide myself away so I won't have a black out and wake up in a jail cell for murder." I lean back and continue "that's what they fuckin tell me. I sit back down and after about 30 seconds maybe longer she says "well....I'm glad." I look at her with slight confusion. "I'm glad you barely have control of your rage, after all.." she grins "..wheres the fun in it?" I slowly let out a grin as the bell rings.

2ed period class. Now things have changed a bit in my schedule since Taylor, I requested a bit if a change since I saw her in most of my classes so the guidance counselor helped me transfer into other classes now I only see her in gym, BUT I have the new chick, Kerstin, to keep me distracted...actually Kerstin is in most of my new classes.

Gym rolls around and I'm not looking forward to it. I change and head out as they're stretching. The teacher asks if I'll be joining the game or if it's the same old same old, I kind of grin and head for the track door, I hear her say "should've known." I open the door and start my walk around the track when I hear someone running behind me, I glance back and it's Taylor, she slows up and walks next to me then says "Look I'm sorry for what happened. I didn't know that you were serious if I did I would be told you what was going on, I know the jocks try to pick on you and I don't agree, but I want you to know that me and him are through. I'm not asking for a second chance but at the very least don't hate me." I stop and look at her. "How can I hate someone I actually fell for ,granted yeah I'm young, but I'm old school when it comes to this shit and you know it. You knew subconsciously that he was trying to fuck with me you just didn't want to believe it because.." I'm mocking at this point "..he's such a good guy that he'd never treat another like shit just because he can. Yeah no. I don't hate you I just fuckin hate that I love you." I start to walk towards the door as he comes in looking for her he sees her behind me with, what I was told later, her holding back tears. He gets pissy and speed walks to me, at this point I want him to fuck up in front of a crowd so I antagonize his a little, as a few students notice and get a teacher's attention. He grabs me by the shirt and yells "what the he'll did you do?!" I didn't respond but I had a slight grin on my face not because I hurt her, that's the last thing I wanted, but to push him to fuck up and hit me and it worked. He shoved me to the ground and as I got up he kicked me in the ribs. He went for another but I was faster. I grabbed his foot and twisted until he fell then I started wailing on him, I blacked out after 2 or 3 punches. I came out of it as 3 officers, 4 security guards, and 2 teachers were trying to pull me off of him with the entire class watching. I let up and let them drag me away after I saw what I did. I let years of bottled up rage out on something petty.

3 months of anger management and psychiatric help later I was cleared to finish out my year at that school, to answer a question or two..no, not a single bully picked on me and yes..he lived. I was driven to school by a sheriff, and yes he walked in with me as a precaution, he parked and we started for the doors. I could hear them talking from outside then a slow silence started when they noticed me and an officer walking in the first set of doors, I tired so hard not to grin hahah, the security guard hesitated to grab my bag so he could check it thinking that I might snap again so I took it off and handed it to him and walked though the metal detector. He handed me back my bag and leaned in to say "I hope you're feeling better because that was the worst thing I've seen and I used to be security at a prison." I look at him and say "I'd like to hear what you saw I'm curious about what happened and so is all 7 of the therapists that helped me in the nut house." He nodded and said "at lunch." I walked on. The crowd parted like I was Moses parting the Red Sea as I walked through to my table, again I was trying to to smile or grin.

The cop knew I was better but I asked him to keep his hand on his gun as we walked though just in case someone got a stupid idea, he wouldn't go for the cuffing me until we got to the table idea, I made it clear that I didn't want any interaction with most of them. We walked to my table and I turned to the cop and shook his hand and thanked him for the ride, he nodded with a grin and turned around and headed for the principal's office to hand in some paperwork for me. I sat down like nothing happened 3 months ago at the end of the table took out a book and began to read when I hear someone sit down, Kerstin. She hesitated but said "hey." I replied with a smile "hi, how have you been?"

Yes I know I'm mind fucking everyone but she should know I don't care as long as they leave me the fuck alone.

She looks at me with confusion and a little bit of fear so I lean in a little and say "look, I'm aware of what happened 3 months ago and yes I've gotten help for it. I don't really remember what all I did or why for that matter but the important thing is i got help and they will leave me alone. Did you happen to see any of it?" She nods. I look into her eyes "I'm sorry you had to see that." After probably 35 or 40 seconds she says "wait...you shouldn't be. He was a bully and you stepped up, granted you beat the living shit out of him but he kind of deserved it." She leaned in closer "I can't confirm 100% but I heard he would smack her for talking back.." she stops realizing that I hate with a fiery passion woman abusers and looks at me worried. I look at her and say "that I wouldn't doubt but of your worried I'd go look for him and give him another beating..I know exactly where it is..still in the ICU and I think he got enough of a beating if he did smack her around so don't worry and calm down...I'm not THAT fuckin crazy.." I grin "..i think."

Rest of the day goes as such...awkward looks in every class and the hallways, not one teacher calls on me, silence as I walk by, and not one bully even looks at me...the only downside is Taylor can't look at me without tearing up. I feel bad for that and I tired to talk to her but she just walked away. The next couple weeks is pretty much the same shit different day except Kerstin and I have started dating, and continued until I moved 3 years later, I think if I never moved my life would be SO much different but I would've never met the next woman in my life that I fell for harder than both of them combined.

Hope you enjoyed this one let me know if you what a chapter 3.