#and i replied again as soon as i woke up aka 10 am

[emmenai-kalliston]

it's just like in that Hozier song ^^ (please fuck me I want you so bad)

[gryffinslut]

Drinking games- Sirius Black x Reader

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XD-zmjnvIJg&feature=youtu.be

Song: Drinking games- Silver Sphere

warnings: underage drinking, angst, heartbreak, my writing, swearing, like one slut shaming word, vomit,mention of food, wee bit of smutty actions.

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

At the party tonight

You said you couldn't leave my sight

'Cause you don't seem to like

The way the boys say I have pretty eyes

Isn't that right?

So we go for a ride

You'll cry, say that I make it alright

Gryffindor won the match against Slytherin and you already knew there would be a huge party in the common room to celebrate. You and your friends were really looking forward to it as Gryffindor throws some of the best parties at Hogwarts. The one and only Sirius Black had invited you as his date. He was one of your closest friends but you always had a crush on him. But you guys were only going as friends.

He came to you about things that he wouldn’t even go to James and Remus about because he always thought they would make fun of him for it. He swears up and down that he doesn’t like you more then a friend but you always think differently. Why else would he go to you for everything? Not to mention you were his first kiss.

Despite him saying he didn’t like you more than a friend, he always got pissed when people would flirt with you. Anytime at a party he would keep an eye on you to make sure no guy flirted with you and when someone did, he would tell them off. That’s what made people believe that you guys were dating.

Before the party, he asked you if you guys could talk about something. He expressed to you that he got an owl from his mother saying really awful things to him like how she wished he was never born and shit like that. It broke your heart once Sirius started crying.

“ I can’t take it anymore,” He cried.

“Sirius stop. You know damn well you’re a much better person than her. She says that because she’s so stuck in her old ways. Who the hell is she? Nobody,” you said and went to hug him.

He melted into your hug. This is why he came to you about things like this. You always knew what to say at times like this.

“Everything will be okay bubs, I promise,” you whisper.

“Your hugs are the best, Y/n,” he giggled.

You dance with our friends

Shining, shining

Laughing with them like you

Weren't just crying to me

But you know what I see

When you're looking at me

I am reminded that we'll never be

As you were getting ready for the party, you had a lot of thoughts going through your head. Why did Sirius say he didn’t like you, but he was so protective over you? Why does he flirt with you if he doesn’t like you that way? Why did he come to you for everything? Why are you wasting your time chasing after him?

“Hey Y/n! You excited for the party tonight?” Marlene asked.

“Yes! You need to help me pick out an outfit,” you replied.

“How about a red dress?”

“I knew you were going to say that,” you smiled.

“Yeah so we can be matching!” Marlene exclaimed and you raised your eyebrow.

“Ugh and so you can try and impress Sirius,” she added.

Marlene and a few other people knew about your crush and they always thought you guys should get together. Sirius had his suspicions about it but never said anything.

Once the party had started, Sirius’ attitude changed, especially when he got some liquor in his system. He was laughing and dancing and acting completely different opposed to how he was acting 10 minutes ago. He was dancing with some random girl that you never even exchanged more than a hello to. It kind of pissed you off because Sirius always did this.

He would always act like a different person once he started drinking. He’s a player and you know that you’re wasting your time trying to be more than friends but it’s just difficult to just walk away from him.

Next thing you know, Sirius and that girl were snogging. The most you’ve seen him do is just flirt with them or touch them while he’s dancing. You turn your attention towards Lily, James, Remus and Marlene. Aka the only people who know how you truly feel about Sirius and they look at you with worried expressions.

“Y/n i’m really sorry about him. You know how he is when he drinks. He just flirts with any cute girl,” Marlene says.

“No don’t worry about me. Don’t let me ruin your night,” you reply. “Let’s do shots,” James suggests. “Yes please,” I exclaimed.

Everyone has had about 5 or 6 shots but you’ve had about 12 or 13. You were pissed by that point and you felt so bitter towards Sirius and you wanted to make him jealous. “Remmy come dance with me!” You shouted over the loud music and grabbed his hand with a bottle of Vodka in your hand. “Y/n you need to slow down,” Remus said.

“Nah i’m fine,” you lied. You started to grind against him and you felt his cock growing hard in his pants. You took a long swing of the bottle and went to kiss him. You knew Sirius was watching the whole time and that’s exactly what you wanted. Suddenly you felt a hand grab your wrist and being dragged towards the boy’s dorm.

I wanna know if you're not okay

But I get too attached to the things you say

You don't care if I get home safe

'Cause I'm just another player in your drinking game

I wanna know if you're not okay

But I get too attached to the things you say

You don't care if I get home safe

'Cause I'm just another player in your drinking game

Sirius was dragging you to the boy’s dorm by the arm. As you’re walking, you’re yelling at him to let you go but he doesn’t listen. He opens the door to his dorm and sits you on his bed.

“Sirius what the fuck are you doing?” you yell.

“What was that little stunt you were trying to pull with Remus, huh? Are you trying to get a rise out of me because I was snogging with that girl?” he snaps.

“I wasn’t trying to get a rise out of you. I was just having fun! And why can’t I dance with Remus but you can put your lips on any slag you want to? you sound like a hypocrite!” you yell.

“It’s different for me! I know what i’m doing, you don’t!” he spits back.

“I’m leaving. I’m going back to the party.”

“No you’re not”

“Yes I am. But before i leave, have you got anything else to say to make yourself like sound like the most daft bloke on the planet?” you questioned, clenching your fists. He stood in silence and glared at you.

You exit his dorm and go back to the party. Once you got back to common room, you go to where the fire whiskey is and down the rest of the bottle. You felt yourself getting dizzy and soon your vision goes black.

Why do I chase you like

The distant rush of a first line?

Why do I waste so much time

When I know you'll never be mine?

You woke up to the sun shining right in your eyes. Your eyes scan across the room and you see that Lily and Marlene are already awake. Suddenly, your head starts pounding and you get a bad feeling in your stomach. You get up and run straight to the bathroom and throw up all of the food and dark colored drinks you had the night before.

“Fuck,” you whispered to yourself.

You make your way back to your dorm and plop down on your bed.”Damn it why did you guys let me drink so much last night?” you groaned. “There was no stopping you honey, by your 15th shot, you passed out,” Lily says. “I think you were drinking your anger away,” Marlene adds and you groan again.

“Who brought me back up here?” you questioned. “Remus helped us carry you back up here,” Marlene replied. “ A real lad he is,” she added. “Oh my god Remus,” you groaned. You remembered what you did to him last night and he still helped you to your dorm. The embarrassment is haunting you now. “You should have seen his face, Y/n,” Marlene laughed.

You blushed. “Did Sirius ask about me?” you questioned. “I’m sorry love but he didn’t,” Lily replied. Your heart shattered. Even though you guys got into a fight, you thought the least he could do was check on you or ask one of them if you were okay. You didn’t know if you should feel pissed or sad.

Treat her right

Lying, lying

Like you weren't with me last night

Crying, throwing a fit

But you know what? That's it

I am better than this

And you say once we're sober we should just forget

You guys made your way to the great hall for breakfast and Lily and Marlene filling you in about what you didn’t remember about last night. You make your way to the table and sat next to Remus and avoiding eye contact with Sirius who was sitting next to the girl he was kissing last night.

“Remus, i’m really sorry about last night. I was really drunk and I didn’t know what I was doing,” you said.“I told you that last night but you didn’t listen to me,” Sirius chimes in. “Sorry I don’t recall your name being Remus,” you snapped. “Don’t worry about it love,” Remus replies.

As breakfast continues, all Sirius does is flirt with the girl and talks about how “good” his life is. You all know how much of a lie that is. His life is far from good. His family treats him terribly just because of the different views he has. It was all just an act. He’s such a liar. A liar and a player. But you still loved him.

Tomorrow when I wake up I know what you'll say

Say that you care but that it was a mistake

And I'll be so upset for the rest of my day

'Til you call me cutie and ask if we're drinking

'Til you call me cutie and ask if we're drinking

'Til you call me cutie and ask if we're drinking

The next party Gryffindor was throwing was tonight and you were debating if you wanted to go. Sirius and that girl were not together anymore and deep down you were thrilled.

As you and your friends got to the common room, Sirius looks at you with a sorrowful look. You decided that it was time to stop ignoring him and talk. “Siri, can I talk to you for a minute?” you ask. He nods and you guys walk into the hallway.

“I’m sorry for freaking out on you like that,” he says. “You were right about me. I’m a daft bloke and you have every reason to be pissed at me still and if you don’t want to be friends anymore I understand.”

“I’m sorry too. I should have never called you that. Or said anything about the girl you kissed. It wasn’t my place to tell you what-,” you were cut off by Sirius grabbing you by the waist and kissing you. You were shocked at first but kissed back. You both pulled back and you were a blushing mess. “It took you long enough to come around,” you giggled.

“So, are we drinking tonight, cutie?”

[sunarintoes]

Dear Whovever: [Kenma]

Synopsis: You and Kenma are both best friends and youtube gamers however you want to be more than just best friends so you decide to ‘man up’ one day and write a heart felt confession in a minecraft notebook before then putting it in Kenma’s personal chest.

WC: 3K

TW: slight swearing :)

[Episode one]

[recording in 3… 2… 1… start!] 

“Hey gamers, Kodzuken here with Tulip-but-make-it-yellow! I've done a few Minecraft videos with Tulip before, but thought I'll start a new series that will be posted every Monday.”

“It's called Minedays with Tulip and Kodzu”

“I- no, Tulip. I'm not sure what we’re gonna call it. But you guys will know- obviously since it's the title of this video.”

You whine and pout into the monitor, “Kodzu I think Minedays is a cute name.” 

Instead of replying Kenma rolls his eyes and hits you ingame. “Should we introduce the challenge and get it started?”

“Yeah that's a good idea!” 

“Well, it's about eleven am right now, we have until eleven pm to build a Minecraft house from a random topic,” he pauses and moves to the side to point to a sectioned spinwheel, “on this bad boy,” whacks the spinner, “we have eight different themes, in a sec I’ll spin it and whatever it lands on will be what we have to build.”

You let out a high pitched ‘hmm,’ “I feel bad for Kuroo and Hinata, they’re both going to have to edit twelve hours of footage down to 10 minutes!”

Kenma chuckles, “fifteen minutes actually.”

This time you roll your eyes. “Hurry up and spin it you fool! I want to get buildinggg” 

Smiling, Kenma moves back a bit and spins the wheel, after thirty seconds full of anticipation the wheel finally stops and its small arrow is pointing at- “Yes! Cottage core theme!” you yell out while Kenma groans. 

“Really? That's lame why couldn't we have ‘Lucifer’s Bedroom’?” 

You poke your tongue out to the monitor - which Kenma could see, after all, you are in a Discord call with him. “Don't be sad just because you're prancing in my turf…. Looooooser!”

Kenma playfully glares towards you, “You’re on! See you in twelve hours!”

Unfortunately, the difficulty of building a cottage core house in the woods - in survival mode, proved more difficult than planned. 

“We spawned in a desolate area huh? Barely any flowers!” you hear Kenma make a sound of agreement as you sink into your comfortable ‘gamer’ styled chair. 

“Don't tell me you've given up? Just because you can't find any flowers?” 

You scowl at his cocky tone however your mood does a one-eighty when you suddenly get a good idea. “Ok everyone! I know what I have to do! I'm going to restart in another place because this isn’t working!”

Kenma makes a sound of surprise, “you're restarting? It's been an hour already-”

“Yeah and we have, like... eleven more.” Kenma sighs in response, “better get a move on.”

For the most part, the two of you kept quiet - not wanting to let the other know how well you were doing. However one look at your phone only to see that your twitter has blown up, you decide to take a short break, after all it has been four hours of you sitting on your ass playing Minecraft. Once you open Twitter you're met with a barrage of tags and mentions - all of which screaming ‘KenYn’ and ‘Kodzutulip.’ You felt heat rise to your face, you - yes you, Ln Yn with the online alias Tulip-but-make-it-yellow, has a big, fat, humongous crush on your best friend and fellow youtuber - Kenma, aka Kodzuken aka the cutest guy in the world. To make it worse - or better, you couldn't really tell, was that many of your viewers shipped you with him - as did his viewers. 

You are of course, happy with this but you can’t help but wonder if Kenma feels the same way, does he feel weirded out by all this shipping content? Does he find it uncomfortable? Does he find it unsettling to be shipped with his in-real-life best friend?

“Hey Yn?” Kenma calls softly, “you've been looking at your phone for the past ten minutes and your face looks sad.”

You instantly look up to meet Kenma’s face and try to find the right words to say, “I… I’m just kinda tired and eventually got distracted!! Sorry Kenken!”

Kenma visibly cringes at the old nickname - the one you gave him in primary school, “if you say so… better get your head in the game though - my mansion looks epic.”

Your eyes narrow, “mansion? The theme is cottage core!” Kenma quietly chuckles in response, “a mansion can still have a fairy aesthetic, you should know that”

You huff in faux annoyance as you place your phone away and ‘get your head in the game’ just as he requested. “Be prepared to be crushed! I am the cottage core guardian!”

There are ten minutes left to your’s and Kenma’s excruciatingly long Minecraft challenge, your ass hurts from sitting on it for almost twelve straight hours - including bathroom breaks. When the buzzer rings the two of you step back from your respective buildings and make your way to the starting point - which had been marked by a stack of 20 or so dirt blocks. 

“Well that was twelve hours of eye straining torture,” you say as you stretch your arms. 

“You're tired already?”

“Kinda… I can't wait to go to sleep after this.”

“Weak, I’m playing Battlefield as soon as this is over.”

You roll your eyes and scoff, “this is why you look like a living corpse in the morning…”

Kenma looks you dead in the eyes and with a completely serious face he says, “yeah but you love it.”

You choke on your spit at his boldness, “y-yeah I guess.” 

If you were being honest, you were not the best at reading people and it was dark in Kenma’s gaming room, the only light coming from his three screen/monitor computer setup, but you think you see a light blush creep up to his cheeks. And you hate it, you hate when he says things that make your heart flutter, you hate it when he just sits there and the digital glow accentuates all of his delicate features, but what you hate most is yourself. You hate yourself because you have fallen in love with your best friend, you hate yourself because you know he doesn't like you back and you hate that you continuously give yourself a sense of false hope. 

“Yn… you want to stay up and game with me don’t you? ”

You sheepishly look to the side, ‘mayhaps.’

Kenma sighs looking at you with a soft face as he whispers “then I won’t play Battlefield and I’ll go to bed and so will you, ‘kay?”

You smile tiredly at him, “sounds like a deal.”

“We'll get back on at the same time tomorrow and we’ll do the final part of this video - the reveal. Until then.”

You smile and wave at the camera “cya soon~”

[recording over]

After your call with Kenma ended you got ready for bed but for some reason, no matter how tired you were, you just couldn't fall asleep - your mind was screaming obscene ideas that you couldn't help but contemplate. At first it was just wishful thinking but then came a thought that refused to leave, ‘confess.’ 

It was a tempting thought, but how? Surely you couldn't just say ‘hey Kenma I've liked you since high school lets date!’ yeah no, that was a horrible idea. Maybe if you confessed with some originality he would be more likely to accept but for now, you were going to do your best to go to sleep.

[Episode two]

[recording in 3… 2… 1… start!] 

In the morning you woke up feeling refreshed and excited for the day to come, Kenma had texted you and asked if you were feeling up to recording the reveal from last night and episode two today and of course you said yes. 

The video goes on without any troubles and soon you find yourself staring at the computer screen at eleven once again. 

“Remember to like, subscribe and comment below on who you think won this round.” Kenma’s voice is soothing - if you had to describe it you would say that it is silky like honey and smooth like dark chocolate; or maybe you would just say his voice is perfect. Kenma waves to the screen monitor, “hello? Earth to Yn! Are you dead or something? You look like a zombie.”

It takes a while to register, you weren’t really paying attention to the words he said as you were more interested in the way he sounded. You sit up and smile into the camera, “I'm awake… thanks for caring!”

He scoffs and swivels in his chair a bit, “I don't care about you, you're just my idiot best friend and flatmate.”

You playfully narrow your eyes, “well this idiot flatmate of yours helped you bake apple pie so you wouldn’t starve to death!”

“Hmmm, I guess. Well I'm going to head off. I'll see you later.”

You smile softly, “yeah I'll see you later, i'm just gonna stay on for a while.”

Kenma looks at you with an intrigued expression, “you're going to stay up longer? Better not be in this world, that's cheating. Want me to stay up with you?”

You roll your eyes and giggle, “it's all good I want to fix my house up in the other world. I'll see you tomorrow.”

He sighs, “if you say so.”

[recording over]

Your chair rolls back as you stretch, “maybe I should confess to him through a Minecraft journal…” you jump up. “Thats it! Thats a great way to confess! Its original and Kenma would appreciate it…. If he accepts my feelings that is…” 

You groan and slump back down into the chair, “maybe it’s best if I don't confess at all. No! I've wanted to do this for years! If he doesn't like me back it's all good! Maybe I just won't do this on a stream!”

You reach over to the bench and pull up your phone, “who to call, mmm ok let’s call Alisa I’m going to need some emotional support!”

“Hey gamers, Kodzu here in another Minecraft live stream, today we’re just in mine and Yn’s regular world and i'm going to build a house - a cottage to be specific,” he pauses and looks at the comment section; ‘no Yn isn't here right now, no Yn won't be joining this video, no I didnt know shes streaming at the moment, yes my favourite food is apple pie, yes I have a calico cat, no Yn is not my significant other, yes we are just friends.’ Kenma moves back and takes a breath, “wow you guys sure are interested in Yn huh? Maybe I should get them in more videos, might get more views that way,” he laughs a bit.

“Let's start off by heading to my base, I have the materials I’ll need there- oh uh what's this?” Kenma pauses as he stares at the foreign object, “I don't remember having a written book in my chest… maybe Yn went in here and put it in?”

Kenma stares at the book for a while before he opens it, only to be shocked. The comment section notices the blush on his face and continue to spam him with questions:

[kodzusbabe]: what's in that diary!!

[Kenmastan]: hahAAAHHA LOOK HE’S SO RED IN THE FACE

[piefacecutie]: ^^ omg you're so right @/Kenmastan hes so cute 💓

[Kenmaxyn]: I hope it's a confession!

[ynhater]: @/Kenmaxyn from who? Cause I didn't do it and I'd be the only one for Kenma oppAr

[kennismaken]: I hope it’s Yn! They’d be such a cute couple

[applepudding]: umm? Kodzu! Why did he get up and leave??

[ynhater]: babe come back!

[Kenmaxyn]: OMG MAYBE IT WAS YN !!!!

After your late night call with Alisa, you decided it would be best to just do it and then ignore Kenma for the day - well, not ignore him per se, just simply decline all his Discord calls and Facetime calls so you could put off being rejected a little while longer. You woke up with a throbbing headache that you could only blame yourself for, after all you are the dumbass who stayed up until God knows when just to write a heartfelt confession. Eventually the angst of waiting for a message from Kenma overwhelmed you and here you are now; streaming Overwatch to get your mind off of a certain someone.

“Ah no! Cant believe that stupid Hanzo got me! What a pain!” you frown at the screen and let out a sigh, “the round is over… bummer. Well while we wait an eternity for the next round I guess I should answer some of your questions… oh? I didn't know Kenma was streaming, no I’m not dating him… “ you feel your heart sink as you read the next comment; “what do you mean Kenma ran away after reading a book? Was he unhappy?”

The next moments felt like a blur, your heart was heavy and you felt tears well up in your eyes and somehow you missed the sound of someone breaking into your apartment and then your bedroom. Within a second you feel someone wrap their arms around you from behind, your body tenses up but immediately relaxes when you recognise the perpetrators scent; sweet yet salty, like caramel toffee.

“Kenma! W-what are you doing?”

“I like you too… I have for so long.”

Your eyes widen and it doesn't take too long for a smile to appear on your face, “I'm so glad to hear that.”

You feel him smile into your neck as his embrace tightens, “finish up your livestream so we can talk please.” 

“You don't need to tell me twice!”

It is eleven at night once again, but this time you’re not sitting alone in your gaming chair, instead you're sitting on Kenma’s lap - in his gaming chair as he slowly runs his hands through your hair and softly kisses your neck.

“So everyone’s pretty much freaking out over us huh?” you hum in response, “we’ve been officially together for what? Five hours?”

“Correct you are.”

You smile and hold up your phone while you continue to cuddle into him, “smile baby, I want the whole world to know that you're my player two.”

[Bonus - the love letter]

Dear Kenma,

This must be so strange - finding a journal in your chest. 

I have wanted to tell you this for quite a while and I guess I have never found the write words to say; or the right way to for that matter,

But I love you

I have loved you since our first year at Nekoma

It's been a while hasn’t it?

I'm sorry if this inconveniences you, makes you uncomfortable or makes you never want to see me again; 

Just let me continue for a little while longer because I need to get this off of my mind.

I love your smile - especially the rare one where you really smile, where your eyes crinkle and your cheeks begin to hurt 

I love your voice - it’s smooth and silky, like honey being spread across bread

I love your scent - it reminds me of salted caramel,  I can never get enough 

I love your mind - the way it works to make me laugh, make me calm and all else

I love your lips - not necessarily in a sexual way, but more so in the way you talk and speak, they move softly and slowly in a way only your lips could move in.

I love your body - how although you're hunched most of the time you still possess a fine elegance in the way you move. How at times it reminds me of a graceful swan floating down a lake. 

I love your hands - they are so pretty and dainty and soft, I want to hold them all day and all night

And most of all;

I love you

I love you in your entire

I could go ahead and pick the parts I love most and least but then you would no longer be you

I love you in your entire

Flaws and all

I know this may not be the most romantic, especially considering you’re reading this through Minecraft and I've never done this before but I had to let you know

Love 

Yn

Taglist: [open] @ladyrenart

note: sooo this is another style that i tried and i have mixed feelings about it :) also if you can’t tell,,, i’ve never written a love letter before :’)

[sharperthewriter]

Chapter 4 of Possible-y Utah

Chapter 4 - Final Day

(May 25, 2006, 6am)

The sun began to rise over the city of Middleton. Rays began to creep through the windows of Kim's room. She woke up and rubbed her eyes.

"Yes!" she exclaimed in triumph, "Final day of junior year is here!"

Kim got ready for school. That day, she was wearing baggy dark-denim Club Banana overalls over her green croptop shirt. She hooked up both straps and had the bottom hems rolled up. To finish the look, she had on giant gold hoop earrings, minimal makeup, a simple CB heart charm bracelet, and white sneakers. Her hair was in a ponytail.

"Hey, Mom and Dad! I'm going off to school!" she exclaimed. "I got my new scooter all ready to pick up Ron!"

Both James and Ann were in their work outfits.

"OK, Kimmie-cub. Don't forget to put on your helmet!" James insisted.

"And remember..." Ann added while sipping her coffee. "Safety first!"

"I won't! And I'm glad we bought an extra helmet for Ron." Kim said, grabbing the second helmet and her backpack.

"Ron! Hurry up!" Kim insisted to her BFBF. She parked her scooter at the Stoppable house.

"I'm coming, KP! Just as soon as I put my shoes on!" Ron said while putting on his sneakers. Rufus scurried out of the door.

"Thank you! I just don't want to be late for school!" Kim replied, handing Ron his helmet, "Nothing is more humiliating than getting detention on the last day of school!"

Ron buckled on his helmet and Rufus also put on a little helmet of his.

"Hold on tight, Ron!"

"You got it, KP!" Ron said, holding his girlfriend around his arms and feeling the denim of her overalls.

Kim zoomed off from the house on the scooter.

(7:45am)

The readerboard sign in front of Middleton High said, "Summer is here...so please read!"

Kim parked her scooter in the student parking lot.

"That should do the trick, Ron." she replied in getting off the scooter and removing her helmet.

"Yeah, KP, next time, we're going to try and get our full drivers license!" Ron said, also getting off the scooter.

"I wouldn't exactly worry about myself getting the license." Kim snickered, darting her eyes to Ron.

"Hey, I shall get through 'Barkin's Course of Death' this time!" Ron insisted.

"And not wreck the student driver car...again?" Kim asked. "Insurance is not going to cover the damages this time around."

"The twentieth time is the charm! Mark my words, I am gonna get my license!" Ron vowed.

The two of them came up to Kim's locker, which was located in D-Hall, aka the science wing of the school.

Kim then opened it. Wade came onscreen in the built-in monitor.

"Hey Kim! Glad that today is the last day of school?" the tech genius asked.

"Oh yeah, number 11 is going to be in the books for a few hours!" Kim replied, "Not unlike you, of course."

"Who breezed by grades 10-12 before my own eighth birthday!" Wade boasted.

"And I'm just...you know...getting by with C's." Ron nervously chuckled, brushing his hand against his hair.

"It feels a little strange, though, Wade." Kim said, "Ever since Drakken's Diablo plot, I've only had three take-over-the-world plots (one each by Dementor, Monkey Fist, and DNAmy) and foiled them all. Maybe the villains have finally given up evil."

"I wouldn't put it past them, Kim." Wade said, "You may never know when a plot or a kidnapping of a scientist would come up."

"We'll keep an eye on things, Wade." Kim replied, "Right now, though, I only have one final exam to get through first."

Then a familiar snarky voice came from behind.

"Well, if it isn't Farmer Possible and her farm-hand!" she taunted.

"Bonnie, I do not have time for your lame puns just because I wear a pair of overalls!" Kim impatiently muttered.

Bonnie, as it turned out, was wearing a pink croptop and baggy carpenter denim jeans that was showing off half her Club Banana yellow boxers. The back pockets were on her thighs. They were held up only with a loose CB belt. She completed the outfit with white sneakers, giant hoop earrings and a CB hat that she was wearing sideways.

"You know, Bonnie..." Kim continued, "...you really do look like a fool with your pants on the ground!"

"It's the latest fashion trend for mean girls like me!" Bonnie flaunted.

"And totally sick and wrong!" Ron complained.

"Bonnie, I would love to criticize your poor decision on how to basically wear pants..." Kim muttered, slamming her locker door, "...but I got an exam to take!"

"Whatever, Possible." Bonnie scoffed, "I will tell you something after you take your lousy exam!"

"Fine, Rockwaller!" Kim snarled back.

With that, Kim and Ron both left Bonnie behind to go to the World History class for her final exam to take. Ron had one more in Geometry.

(3 hours later)

Kim and Ron were now sitting in study hall after taking their last exams.

"Did you think I did well, KP?" Ron asked. He had taken geometry for his last exam.

"I'd say you'd barely pass, Ron." Kim explained, "Remember our study night together?"

"Yeah...wasn't that the night that you put a blanket on me because I was sleeping my head on your dad's desk?" Ron questioned.

"It was. You look so cute sleeping like that!" Kim replied.

"Awww...thanks, Kim!" Ron smiled at her GF's words.

"Ugh...why do you two have to be so mushy?!" Bonnie asked dismissively. She was sitting on her CB boxers and the back pockets of her baggy jeans were on her thighs. The bottoms were scrunched up on her shoes.

"Because we are a couple, Rockwaller, that's why!" Kim muttered at her rival.

"I'll make a sweet bet with you, Possible." Bonnie said, "I'll bet you $50 that you will not last one summer with Stoppable as BF material!"

Kim, sensing her hyper-competitive nature, agreed.

"What are going to be the terms?"

"If I win the bet and you break up with Stoppable, I promise that will not bully you anymore during cheer practice in senior year." Bonnie said of the terms if she came out on top. "And, on top of that, you will have to give your cheer captainship to me AND you will have to scrub the toilets of the locker rooms.

"And if I win, you will have to mop the entire gym floor! And your dad will have to drop the indecent exposure charge against Ron!" Kim decreed.

"Don't blame me if he got his boxers accidentally snagged by briar patches!" Bonnie countered. "But I will honor your bet...IF you win."

"You are so on, Rockwaller!" Kim exclaimed, fire raging in her eyes that was as red as her hair.

Ron looked at her in worry, "KP...you're putting a lot on the line here!"

Kim scoffed at what he said.

"Ron, don't worry! We'll still be tight by the beginning of senior year! Bonnie will definitely lose!"

Barkin then entered the room.

"Okay, people, since Miss Carol is not here because she overslept, smashing her alarm clock with a cartoonishly-giant hammer the night before, I will be taking over this study hall." he proclaimed. "Since all of you students are done with your exams, we are going to sit quietly for the next 45 minutes until the class is dismissed."

The clock then began to move its hands slowly and then fastly as if it had been hours.

"Clock's busted again..." Barkin muttered, tapping it on its side and adjusting it to the correct time: 11:19am.

Kim could only hope that the last 45-minutes of her junior year would fly by.

(12 noon)

The final bell finally rang, signaling the end of the junior year.

All of the students in study hall began to cheer and throw their papers in the air to celebrate. But just before they could exit the classroom, Barkin then got in the way of the door. The cheering subsided for now.

"Uh...Mr. B? I thought we were dismissed." Ron insisted.

"Stoppable, do you not remember that the bell does not dismiss the class, I do?" Barkin muttered. After a tense 30 seconds between the two, Barkin stepped aside.

"Okay, you're dismissed!" Barkin sighed, opening the door. The cheering resumed from the students.

Both Kim and Ron got out of Middleton High now that their Junior year was in the books. To celebrate, Kim decided to unhook the right strap of her overalls so that the strap dangled behind her back but kept the left strap up.

"So what can we do to celebrate now that we have 88 days of freedom?" Kim asked. "You know...as BF and GF!"

"KP, if you know me, I'm thinking along the lines of JP Bearymore's!" Ron replied with a smile, putting his hand on his girlfriend's shoulder. "Their new multi-level go-kart track just opened up and it's badical!"

"Mmm...hmm!" Kim smiled, "Maybe a movie afterwards? The newest installment of the John Glond superspy series is already out! And you know how much I love the spy thriller!"

"You're totally, on, KP!" Ron said, grinning.

[ubernoxa]

Chapter 14: A First Date

A Guns N’ Roses FanFic

Chapter 14:

Delilah stood in the kitchen chopping up peppers for lunch. She originally was going to make breakfast, but as it was 1pm when she woke up in Duff’s arms she decided on lunch instead.

“Do you always make the guys food?” Delilah laughed at Drew’s question.

“I’ve made the past couple. It honestly all comes down to who is here at the time...and awake,” Drew jotted down some notes as Delilah spoke.

“Sorry if I’m asking too many questions,” Delilah looked into Drew’s soft eyes and smiled.

“No, you’re fine. It’s nice having someone to talk to,” Delilah added looking up on the clock.

“Do you all usually get up in the afternoon?”

“No usually I’m up by 10 in the morning at the latest. Last night Duff and I were up late,” Delilah smiled as she finished chopping up the peppers.

“Up late?”

“No no no, not like that,” Delilah quickly corrected herself earning a laugh from Drew

“Ohh please do tell Del,” Mags said walking into the room with a blanket wrapped around her.

“We just stayed up late, talking and stuff,”

“Stuff,” Mags cocked an eyebrow at Delilah’s comment.

“Fine we cuddled and made out,” Delilah’s cheeks turned red as she mumbled and immediately went back to cooking.

“Alright mister next big journalist, do you have your story?” Mags teased trying to grab his journal.

Delilah focused on assembling the sandwiches as fast as she could in order to get out of the room. To say she felt awkward in the room while Mags flirted with the writer was an understatement.

“I think I might have something,” he replied tapping his journal.

“Can I ask you some questions too? I was quizzing Delilah earlier and I think she is too nice to tell me to get lost,” Drew added opening up his journal again and pulling out a pen.

“Well you are 100% correct, Delilah is probably the nicest out of all of us,” Mags added.

“Speaking on that, how did you two meet?” They two girls gave off a different vibe. It was more of a question on how Delilah, who seemed sweet and very straight and narrow met Mags and the band.

“A bar, and then we hung out back stage. Now we’re roommates. Feels like it was only a week ago,” Delilah snorted at Mag’s comment as she grabbed a sandwich and left the room to go sit on the couch.

“Hey Delly,” Delilah smiled as Duff joined her on the couch.

“Hey Duffles,” Delilah smiled as she passed her sandwich.

Duff places it down on the table and stood up, Delilah quickly following him.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and she wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Are you free tonight?” His voice was no louder than a whisper.

“Yeah, why?” One of the few perks of leaving everything she once knew behind.

“Be here at 8, it’s about time I took you on a date,” He played with Delilah’s hair as he spoke sending the butterflies that were in Delilah’s stomach into total chaos. Maybe Duff did like her, Delilah thought to herself as she watched Duff twirl her hair.

Without hesitation, he bent down and kissed her. What started out slow quickly sped up as he guided her to lay down on the couch. A loud moan filled the room as Duff climbed on top of Delilah, and it drove him crazy. He wanted her. No he didn’t want her, he needed her. Despite the noise that would lead the two of them to get caught, they kept going. Neither of them cared. The more Delilah pulled his hair the hungrier he became. It was an endless cycle that was only stopped when Slash yelled across the hall, “Get a damn room. No one wants to see ya fuck.”

Delilah felt her face flash red and Duff shot Slash a look before chasing after him. Delilah grabbed her sandwich and headed back to the kitchen.

“Good morning Izzy,” Delilah said as she noticed him eating a sandwich at their sad excuse of a table.

“Sounds like you are having a better morning then me,” he noted before grabbing another bite of his sandwich.

“Hey, shut it,” Delilah snapped at Izzy who just laughed.

“You know Delilah you’re not that threatening,” Axl added with a smirk on his face that mimicked Izzy’s.

“No, but that’s my job,” Duff walked into the kitchen now, a smirk on his face as he wrapped his arm around Delilah’s waist causing her to subconsciously lean into him.

——————-

“So he asked you on an actual date?” Mags asked while they drove back to her place.

“Yeah,” Delilah couldn’t wipe the stupid smile off of her face.

“What are you going to wear?” Mags asked causing panic to grow over Delilah.

“I uhhh..I,” Delilah had only ever been on one other first date, but this date wasn’t setup by her parents. This one she actually cared about.

“Let’s go shopping then. I would lend you my clothes, but it’s special occasions like these that you should buy a new dress for. I know a second hand store that’ll have something that you will hopefully like,” Mags smiled as she quickly switch lanes.

It was only a 10 minute drive to the small resale shop. The moment they walked in Mags grabbed a small shopping basket and followed Delilah.

“My treat,” Mags said as she began to browse the dresses section.

“Oh I couldn’t,” before Delilah could continued Mags interrupter her, “oh yes you could. You’re my new roommate, so why not. Plus I’ve never gotten you a birthday present before, and you’ve had what 18 birthdays is it now? I’ve missed 18 of them.” Mags dramatically tossed her head back earning a giggle from Delilah.

“Fine, but I owe you one. Remember that,” Delilah pulled out a floral dress.

Mags shook her head no and replied, “if you keep making food for all the guys and visitors in that hell of an apartment, we are the ones who will owe you.”

“Did I miss anything last night once Duff and I left?” Delilah asked as she moved into another section.

Mags froze in her tracks, but quickly collected herself. “Nothing much. Continued to drink, talked, and Axl almost got into a fight.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Delilah laughed as she pulled out another dress and immediately put it back. To gaudy for her taste.

“Sometimes I worry about him, all of them actually. Like for instance is Izzy okay? He never seems to hang out with the guys at night,” Mags could feel her heart warm, not only at Delilah’s words but the concern in her voice. Part of her also wondered when someone would tell Delilah that Izzy sold drugs.

“You’re not alone, welcome to the club. We call ourselves the mother’s of Guns N’ Roses. We meet Sundays at 10 AM aka the only time when Guns N’ Roses is sleeping and not spreading chaos and making stupid decisions,” the girls laughter fill the room as the continued to shop.

They wandered up and down the aisles looking for something, anything that would work, but they were not lucky. That is until Mags stumbled across a white dress on the return rack outside the dressing room. She quickly snatched it off the rack. It was a thin dress perfect for the hot summers. She smiled at the small blue flowers that covered the dress. It was perfect.

“Hey, Del!” Magmas raised the small dress into the air earning a smile from her. She checked the price and thanked God it was only a couple of dollars.

“Go try this on while I go find some shoes,” Mags handed her the dress, but Delilah quickly protested.

“It’s the least I can do,”

“The least you’re could do it nothing,” Delilah replied before Mags shoved her into the dressing room.

“Shoe size?”

Delilah sighed at Mag’s words. Delilah sensed that Mags was stubborn, but now she learned how correct she was about Mag’s stubbornness. “Seven”

Was part of Mags vicariously living through Delilah right now? Yes.

Did Mags wish she had a friend who helped her prepare for her first date? Yes.

But most of all, Mags knew the storm that Delilah was running from. She would do anything to help the girl, her friend.

She browsed the shoe collection only to find a couple of shoes that could work. Her eyes immediately darted to the pair of blue strapped heels, perfect.

Within no time they bought the clothes and drove back to Mags apartment.

“You say you have a roommate, but I have never actually seen her,” Delilah said strolling into the bathroom to take a shower.

“Trust me it’s better off that way,” Mags joked back, well at least partly joked.

———————-

“Duff come on man, you’re gonna use up all of the hot water,” Steven whined while pounding on the bathroom door.

“If you keep pounding on the door, it might actually break open,” Izzy groaned from the kitchen eating some leftovers.

“Maybe that’s what I want,” A wicked smile crossed his face.

“If you need help, go get Axl. It’s kinda his forte,” Izzy chuckled as he went back to eating.

“What’s my forte? What the fuck is going on out here,” Axl screamed over Steven pounding on the door.

“Duff is probably preparing for his date with Del,” Slash said while continuing to strum his guitar on the couch.

“Huh, he actually did it,” Axl said under his breathe. Slash heard what Axl said loud and clear, but chose to ignore it. He didn’t feel like dealing with Axl’s wrath.

The water turned off and Steven’s pounding stopped.

It only took a couple of minutes for Duff to put on his eye liner and ‘style’ his hair. As Duff left the bathroom he was welcomed into the hallway with a series of whistles and cat calls from his band mates.

“Ohh Duffy, ohhhh Duuuuffffyyyy,” Slash screamed from the couch, Axl soon joining him. Duff slammed the door to his shared bedroom as he dug through his clothing trying to block out his band mates screaming and laughter.

Delilah stood outside the door to his apartment, frozen. She was a couple minutes early. Should she knock. Should she stand out here and wait. What if he was waiting on the other side? What is he was just now getting in the shower?

Delilah took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

“It’s unlocked Del, you can come it,” Delilah smiled at the sound of Izzy’s voice. She quickly opened the door to see Axl, Steven, Izzy, and Slash relaxing on the floor and couch.

“Hey,” Delilah walked in now feeling the nerves growing in her stomach.

She was welcomed by a bunch of heys and immediately felt awkward. They were all staring at her, were they waiting for her to come by? Did they know about the date?

Slash scooted over on the couch making room for Delilah, she thanked him and quickly sat down.

“So where are y’all going?” Axl asked, more curious than anything.

“I have no idea,” Delilah replied now mindlessly fidgeting with the hem of her dress. So they did not about the date.

“Well do us a favor and don’t eat all of whatever Duff cooked for your dinner. It smelled amazing,” Izzy joked .

“Hmm so a picnic is involved,” Delilah said under her breath. She didn’t know he could cook.

“Do you guys know anything?” Delilah asked curious to hear any more potential hints.

“Besides the fact that he has a bag with a blanket and food in it, we know absolutely nothing,” Steven added.

That’s when Duff walked in. He saw Delilah sitting on the old couch smiling and talking with his band mates. He watched as Steven made a stupid joke and they all laughed. She looked at home amongst them.

Duff walked into the room and immediately made eye contact with her and smiled. She looked gorgeous. Both of them remained frozen in time as their the butterflies grew larger in their stomachs.

“Nice hat,” Duff interrupted Steven’s story commenting on the hat he gave Delilah the night before which she currently wore.

“Thanks,” Delilah felt her cheeks go instantly red. Why was she so nervous? It was just Duff. They had spent so many other nights before with each other and talking till the sun came up. This was different thought, this was a first date. Delilah wasn’t a fool, she saw the girls at the party last night. He could have had anyone of those groupies, but he chose her. Why?

“Hey, you ready to go?” Duff grabbed the basket and held out his hand to Delilah. The white flowered dress flowed angelicly behind her as she stood up and walked towards him.

She would be lying if she said she didn’t lose her breath the moment their eyes met. He wore black leather pants with a white puffy shirt that was partially unbuttoned. She gladly took his hand and then they left the apartment.

“Fuck, wait here,” the two of them didn’t even make it down a flight of stairs when Duff put the basket down and ran back up the stairs and into the apartment.

“Back so soon?”

“Run outa stamina already?”

“Dude, you okay?”

We’re amongst some of the things his band mates asked him as he ran into the apartment to grab his leather jacket. No, not for him, but for Delilah just Incase she got cold.

[bennymiles]

The year is 2019

An era of antiquity. The first ferret wars and the TUAEG oppression of OGPosting niblings took place. Unkle Adams was at the pinnacle of his power. Having decimated the entire ferret nation of Utah in retaliation for orchestrating penguin attacks on Unk and his queen Babema, only one ferret survived - Colby the Ferret. But Colby was a prophetic ferret. He knew that Unkle Adams had enemies who could destroy the entire planet. During the same timeline, the precious lore items and artifacts were stolen away from Unk's unrequited OGposting niblings, who were forced to live a life of destitution. Despite the suffering inflicted by Unkle Adams upon all niblings, his delusional narcissism, hedonistic tendencies for going on raw benders and a tempestuous feet sniffing addiction, Colby believed Unkle Adams could defeat two of the planet's biggest threats: the dreaded white supremacists Cleetus and Tom MacDonald.

Cleetus is the little brother of Unkle Adams, both being the sons of the same goblin father who sold their souls to the goblin gods for a lifetime supply of free Tim Hortons stepped tea served with a side of infamous goblin delicacy, the Pæ Wørtër™. They grew up in Regina, the goblin province of Saskatchewan. It is often believed that Cleetus was self-indoctrinated into white supremacy when he was at least a million seconds old. They were best buddies growing up, sodomizing every wives they could. This brotherhood seemed eternal until something eerie happened in 2017

Cleetus was punished by Unkle Adams for doing 10 KKK shows in an hour and burning all of his omelettes, causing an egg crisis throughout Regina. When Cleetus found out that Unkle Adams had written the prophecy to "Change the World" and "Die One Day", by collaborating with his special minority friends, Cleetus felt betrayed. Also, in his "At Least A Million" memoir, Unkle Adams accused Cleetus of being a white supremacist and told his loyal follwers to understand that it was NOT him that caused the genocide of the Australian aboriginals. Cleetus vowed revenge on Unkle Adams. He began plotting the entire takeover of earth and establishing it as a single universal white ethnostate.

Fast forward to 2030. At the top of the huge monolithic tower of what used to be the headquarters of The Unkle Adams Entertainment Group in Regina, sits Cleetus and Tom MacDonald. Being enthroned as the corporate rulers of the entire white planet ethnostate now under "The Hangover Corporation", they annihilated everybody except the loyal supporters of Tom, the truest whiteboys who were oppressed by the libtards for centuries. Only a handful of niblings and Colby managed to survive by escaping earth using the magic kangaROOS light-up flying shoes. They decided to take refuge in Mars. When they landed there, the surface was moist and red. They slowly began to sink under it but were saved and held under captivity by the local Martian police. When they were interrogated, the cop called the administrator of the Martian regime to check out the niblings. When the administrator approached the door of the prison cell, the niblings heard something familiar. The guards were singing an historic song about being original. When the administrator finally arrived, the niblings were dead shocked. Silence ensued for five minutes because the administrator was none other than the Nephilim lord Thomas James Arelis Carpenter aka TJAC, who escaped earth before the niblings. In this short time, TJAC managed to not only colonize mars, but also turned all Martians into his slaves, now called the #tjacarmy

TJAC stared at them with an evil sadistic grin and repeatedly started saying "Unkle Adams" while performing pull-ups on the prison cell top bar. When Colby reminded him that Cleetus and Tom MacDonald were ruling the earth, TJAC was filled with rage. He led all the niblings into his secret dungeon, where he showed them a cryogenic tank. The niblings were shocked to see Unkle Adams in it. TJAC told them that he had been waiting for them to come so that the #tjacarmy can launch an attack on The Hangover Corporation. Unkle Adams was finally defrosted. When he woke up, he was mumbling incoherently about feeling inspired. He became appalled by the presence of fellow niblings at first but understood everything later. Unkle Adams offered them help but only if he gets to smell Babema's feet. TJAC told Unk that he forgot to save Babema but instead, he saved Jared Robinson, unfreezing him. Unk was more than happy to smell Jared's feet and thus, the fight to save planet earth began.

The time had come to strike. The #tjacarmy launched an earth invasion and began to attack HOGC target sites in full force but were instantly destroyed by Tom's air force. Unk wore his nibling's precious kangaROOS lightup shoes, ate the highly nutritious Nephilim beef lasagna soup and went to battle with Tom's airforce. He destroyed all the aircrafts in mid-air and landed on the roof of the monolith. When Cleetus came to fight him, Unk suddently pondered the techniques of Mistress Miranda and managed to torture Cleetus' cock and balls so hard that he fell dow the tower and died. Tom MacDonald was enraged. But before Tom could do anything, Unkle Adams showed all the HOG worshippers the album artwork of "If I Was Black", which proved that Tom MacDonald was a fraud. When his true colors were revealed, Tom said that he was a social experiment conducted by Harvard. The HOG worshippers were so hurt that they dispersed and were reduced to crystal meth, along with Tom. Unkle Adams then took the mic and started rapping "This is for my nation, this is innovation This is demonstration of the dedication, I can put in place when I am feelin’ patient, I torch beats like the burners on my space sh..."- before he could continue, Jared interrupted Unk and told him that he needs to record a new song, since his rap was ages old. Jared managed to milk out at least a million dollars from Unk and increased his debt to $1,227,000. The new track is called Original 69. As soon as Unk finished rapping the verses of his new song, a bald vegan demon ascended from hell and gave the song a NOT GOOD rating. Tears rolled down Unk's cheeks as he started running away. "Hey Adam, where are you going?" asked Nichole. "Vietnam. I have been drafted" replied Unkle Adams, never to be seen again.

[curvesandcorners]

SLOVENIA

Slovenia 5/12/19 – 5/19/19 Republika Slovenija. The country is about the size of New Jersey but ever since I first visited in 2006, it left a big impression on me and I have always wanted to return. And especially with a bicycle. After a trip to Norway didn’t pan out I had committed myself to the idea of another bicycle trip and after a short think, Slovenia was it. Quite a bit of flight itinerary option analysis later, I had a free flight via American Airlines miles to Venice. I had about a month to plan out the trip so wasn’t too stressed. Then work got crazy, then I ended up in LA for the week before the trip, and then all of a sudden I was leaving the next day and I still had a route to plan and accommodations to book. That all somehow comes together no matter how unprepared I am and it would this time as well. So a long flight to Madrid, a short flight to Venice, and a 2 hour train ride later I was at the border town of Gorizia, Italy where I had the day before booked a hotel for the start and end of the trip. The hotel room turned into a bike shop and I re-assembled the Rick Jones that night and would leave the travel case with the hotel for the week. The following morning I pedaled across the border to Nova Gorica in Slovenia and started on my clockwise loop around western Slovenia.

The first day was grey and a little wet, which would prove to be a theme for the trip, but the riding started out pretty good, riding over one Italian hill before unknowingly crossing the official border at some unmarked spot and onto a bunch of small Slovenian farm roads.

Just before the town of Plave I hit a ripper of a descent and satisfied myself with my brakes ability to stop me, and then the Soca River first came into view. I had been waiting to see this river for 13 years, and it did not disappoint with amazingly clear turquoise blue water.

My route for the day would follow small roads along the Soca River valley, hitting small towns, and transitioning between perfect pavement, gravel, and jeep track. The weather shifted from threatening to very threatening but luckily never rained more than a spitting.  But what the weather lacked in rain it made up for in gusting wind, and blowing the wrong direction. I stopped for a picnic of leftover pizza from the night before, and though I was exhausted from the travels and jetlag, and despite the wind, made it to the town of Bovec to check in to the friendly hostel I booked. A good meal of trout, in the somewhat humorous and cartoonish Bovec style, and a couple glasses of local wine and I was out like a light.

The next morning my body still wanted to wake up on NY time so I got a late start but when I got intel on the route I had planned I found out my intended one-way foray up to the Mangart Saddle was not going to be possible as the road was closed because of snow. I thought about trying it out anyway, but it is a one way road 30 miles out and back, with 5000’ of climbing, and I’d have to return right back to where I started in order to continue on the overall route. So it was not hard to decide to skip that part and I now had a short 20 mile day. This worked out swimmingly as these 20 miles were stunning and provided reason to stop and take photos almost every 50 feet. The wind was back and working against me and I cursed not following the general advice of doing this route in counter-clockwise direction.  I took a wrong turn somewhere and then coming back for a ½ mile with the wind sent me sailing along at 30 mph without a pedal stroke. The Soca cut through a limestone gorge and my path followed more small roads and easy mountain bike trails, with a few river crossings over these lovely bridges.

The mountains I had been pedaling towards started getting closer and closer and pretty soon I found myself at my destination of the Koča pri izviru Soče mountain hut.

The hut is part of the Planinska Zveza Slovenije aka the Alpine Association of Slovenia and I had become a card carrying member the day before my trip, which meant I could sleep in the hut dormitory for a friendly 10 euro fee. It was early so I went on a rainy hike for the afternoon and I was glad I had packed my non-cycling shoes as the hike had me scaling some vertical faces before finding the source of the Soca river, a fissure in the mountain with a bottomless blue hole. The host of the hut fixed me up nicely with a wild mushroom stew, a delicious cottage cheese struklji, and a glass of wine. I climbed up the ladder into the loft dormitory and tucked in with my kindle for a good night of rest.

On the morning of Day 3 I breakfasted with my host again and discussed my cycling plans. She did not like my plan to continue up and over the Vrsic pass. The same snow that had closed the Mangart Saddle had apparently unofficially closed the road over Vrsic, unless your vehicle was equipped with snow chains. My bike was not. She called a hut-friend up on the mountain who confirmed her fears and told me I should not make an attempt. The detour was just not an option I would consider and I had been daydreaming about this pass for weeks so I thanked them both for their worry, but I’d be going up, and walking the bike if I needed to. As I stepped outside in the morning it was cold and grey again but I started pedaling and immediately climbing. Not 30 minutes later I was blessed with bright blue sunny skies that came out of nowhere and I knew I had made the right decision. The Vrsic Pass road is a military road built by Russian prisoners of war during World War I and has 50 numbered hairpin switchbacks, 26 going up on Trenta side and 24 (cobblestoned!) descending on the Kranska Gora side. The road was also absolutely stunning and a pleasure cycling up. The feeling was incredible. I looked behind me to see the valley from where I had just came, the sharp bends of the road getting smaller and smaller as I climbed higher and higher, and the surrounding mountains getting closer and closer and just could not believe this was reality.

Somewhere around switchback 20 or so, I was nearly at the summit and the warnings came true. The temperature plummeted and the road surface was covered with a few inches of snow over a sheet of ice. I ran into an older Austrian couple I had spoken with the day before in their SUV as they were turning around because their vehicle couldn’t make it up the road. Despite the snow we shared this moment of excitement because of the beauty of the mountain peaks and the encouraging sunshine.  They asked how it was cycling in the snow and I replied “it doesn’t matter. it’s beautiful” to which they replied in charming Austrian accents “IT IS SO BYOOTTEEEFULLLL”.  I pedaled when I could and pushed the bike when I couldn’t and put on all my layers and both pairs of gloves and made my way across the 4 or 5 km of snow covered summit. A well placed hut provided a hot tea to warm myself back up before making the descent. The north side has cobblestones on each of the 24 hairpins which was not ideal for a bicycle moving way too fast, but maybe that extra caution kept me from flying off the road and off the mountain. In any case, the descent was over before I knew it and I paused at Lake Jasna to admire the morning’s accomplishment.

From here I would enjoy 25 miles of picture perfect solitary riding along a tiny perfectly paved road/path through the Triglavski National Park, all the way to Lake Bled.

And somehow this cycling utopia of a road provided me with my only puncture of the trip.

A quick lunch in Bled and a lap around the lake and I continued on my way. After a few km I turned off the paved road and onto a mountain bike trail and started on the 2nd big climb for the day. A much smaller one at 580 m, but a much harder one thanks to the dirt and varying 8 – 15% grade.

But the top would reward me well with this alpine meadow and a view the whole way down the other side of the mountain to Bohinjsko Jezero.

I was further rewarded with freshly paved and absolutely perfect tarmac which allowed me let the bike sing down the swoopy descent. There were a few shouts of excitement as I was having so much fun and my bike felt so good. A few minutes later I was down at the lake (Bohinjsko Jezero).

A quick pedal to look around town and then I had a 5 or 6 km ride back up into the woods to another Alpine Association hut where I planned to stay. I approached a closed looking hut but was happy to see there was a woman doing some work around the back. But unluckily she informed the hut was closed until the weekend. The day was too good to let this setback annoy me so I quickly turned around and another trip back down to town and I managed to find a lovely little hotel lodge to call home for the night with an excellent “Foksner” burger and great selection of Slovenian craft beers. I toasted to an unforgettable day on the bike and was drunk in one pint and asleep in two. The next morning I woke up high on the euphoria of such a good previous day. I didn’t have any epic alpine passes planned for the day but overall it was the biggest day of the trip I had planned. I looked out the window and saw a miserably grey sky and rain pouring down. I checked the forecast and it did not look good.

I reviewed my planned route and saw I had quite a bit of climbing and a lot of it was on mtb trails. This just did not sound fun in 40 degrees and rain all day so I decided to call an audible and re-routed myself to a more direct route on mostly pavement. This cut the day down to a more manageable 95 km. The rain never stopped aside from one hour of respite, and it was indeed cold, but I layered up, put some house music on my Bluetooth speaker on my handlebars, and got into a groove with my cadence and pedaled instinctively. It was great and miserable at the same time. The route would take me along some beautiful roads and some average ones, and eventually I reached my somewhat arbitrarily selected destination of Trojane.

From Trojane I had picked out another Alpine hut for my accommodation. This was about 10 km outside of town and seemed doable from my review of the maps. My confidence was shaken though, by the previous day’s surprise closed hut. I continued out of town towards the woods and the hut. I got to the last remnants of a village before entering the woods and saw a woman outside and asked if she had any idea if it would be open or not. She didn’t speak a lick of English but grabbed her son who did and he knew the hut and was fairly confident it was only open on weekends so would be closed. I knew that would be a pretty terrible thing to trudge up to this hut only to come right back down, all in the cold pouring rain, at the end of a long day, and I also really liked the idea of a hot shower at that point (no showers at the Alpine huts) so I accepted defeat and headed back to Trojane for a hot tea and to figure out accommodation for the night. I met Melita in the Trojane café and we made friends and she was thrilled that I chose Slovenia for my cycling trip. We took a photo on her ancient digital camera. I took advantage of the wifi and successfully booked another cheap room at the wonderfully Soviet-esque meets mid-century modern Hotel Trojane. The hot shower made it worth every single euro (not that many!) and I cranked the heat and used my bike as a drying rack to try to dry off my thoroughly soaked clothing.

After an excellent night’s rest, I had an easy route planned from Trojane to Ljubljana for two day’s in the city. But I wanted more bikes so I planned a big epic murderous ride up to the Austrian border, across three mountain passes, and then back down to Ljubljana. Then I checked on road closure conditions and two of the passes were closed because of snow so I settled for something in the middle with one mountain pass. But before that I had to go see Hut Dom dr. Franca Goloba na Čemšeniški planini, which was supposed to be my destination the night before. I headed back out of town, passed the woman and son whom I had spoken to the day before, and then started to climb up into the woods. I soon realized I had very much made the right choice as the roads up to the hut went from

to

to

And they got stupid steep. But eventually, after a couple miles that felt like an a couple hundred, I came to the hut.

What an amazing place. The host was there doing some sprucing up and though she spoke no English I was at least able to confirm she was there the night before. I didn’t regret my decision but I sure was glad I still came to see the hut. The view off the mountain and across the valley below was breathtaking and the grounds of the hut were charming as possible. Picnic tables covered in snow with the sun shining and an incredible view meant I had to enjoy a morning beer.

I enjoyed my beer and went back in the direction I had came but took another trail I thought might be more bike and less hike. It was not. But it eventually spit me out onto another dirt road which was a very fast way back down off the mountain.

I passed through Trojane one last time, grabbed a few snacks, and then quickly turned off the pavement and onto a forest road which was one of my favorite sections of the whole trip. I had the whole forest to myself and enjoyed beautiful and tranquil dirt roads in great shape as I climbed up and down the undulating hills. This heavenly dirt road brought me to another secondary paved road, a small mountain pass, and through a few small villages. I made a friend, enjoyed the rolling hills and perfect pavement, and soon found myself at the base of the Trobelkski Vrh climb. At 460 meters the climb was not insignificant but with grade hovering around 15% it was a worthy challenge, especially on my loaded bike. Luckily it rewarded my effort with another set of amazing views of my surroundings.

At the summit I turned onto a paved main road and had a thrilling 7 mile long descent back down to the Kamnik River. The asphalt was freshly laid and I raced a Subaru WRX down the hairpin turns. Towards the bottom there was a section of road work and the roadworkers were working on laying more of that sweet glass smooth asphalt. I yelled as I passed :chef kissing fingers: “IT’S BYOOTIFULLL” pointing the asphalt and they loved the appreciation and cheered me on with a round of ALLEZ ALLEZ ALLEZ. It was a great moment and made my already ear to ear smile stretch even bigger. I followed my route on into Ljubljana and easily found my hotel and settled in for two days of espresso, beer, and great food. Ljubljana is a lovely little European gem. The River Ljubljanica runs right through it with beautiful buildings and cafes running along it. The food is good, the beer is good and cheap and plentiful, the good espresso is really good, and everyone seems to be happy and friendly. It was a lovely little rest off the bike for two days.

After two days of relaxing, eating, and drinking, it was time to get back on the bike. I called ahead this time to make sure the Alpine hut was open and promised the host I would be there by late afternoon. Then I loaded all my belongings back onto the Rick Jones and headed west out of the city.

After 25 km of flat, boring riding I turned onto a dirt road and climbed a few hundred feet. Then another stretch of flat riding before I started up a really great 400 meter climb to the village of Podkraj. It started to rain along the way which put a bit of a damper on the long and fast descent, especially the -17% portion. I managed that ok but wished for disc brakes and cursed my luddite-ness. I entered into Slovenian wine country and cycled up and down and alongside numerous vineyards.

And then shortly after the village of Dolenje I was gingerly descending around a series of hairpin turns and all of a sudden I was on the pavement with a painful thud. I’m not sure what happened but my tire slipped out from under me as I was making my way around the curve, even though I was doing so really slowly. I crawled off the road and lay out in the grass moaning and groaning. I checked my bike and had to push the brake lever back into position and do my best to re-align the bent derailleur hanger. As I was laying there a car or two passed by, veeerryyyy very slowly and both checked to see that I was ok. A couple came cycling by on mountain bikes in the opposite direction as me and stopped to check on me and we chatted for a while. They were locals and told me everyone knows that road and especially that turn are dangerous and extremely slick.

Once I collected myself I had no choice but to continue on. From there I had 25 km to get to my hut. Luckily my bike worked well enough, even without perfect shifting. The rain started to come down hard with about 20 km to go so I gritted my teeth and pushed on, up into the woods again. The last 8 km or so were really gorgeous but there was no time for photos with the rain so I pressed ahead, anxious to make it to the hut and looking forward to a hot meal and a drink. Some time around 4 pm I got to the Hut Stjenkova koča na Trstelju and looked forward to drying off and going to sleep very early.

As I entered dripping wet I saw two men and a beautiful but terrifying German Shepherd. Then a third man bolted up from behind a table. He was the host, Bostjan, and I had just woken him up from his afternoon nap. “YOU! NEW YORK!?” he yelled out and I confirmed. He commanded I sit down and placed a beer in front of me straight away. From there it would turn into absolutely the most fun night of the trip. Bostjan, and his friends Dragan the casino craps dealer and Miha the former motocross champion of Yugoslavia and the beautiful blue-blooded lineage purebred German Shepherd called Siri welcomed me into their Saturday night party. The beer flowed non-stop, I fortified myself mid-way with a hearty stew, and then again with a late night pancetta party, Bostjan brought out home-made grappa from his fellow communist (“NO, SOCIALIST”) comrades, Dragan brought out his homegrown Slovenian mountain kishkish, we toasted to Tito’s portrait multiple times, and some time around 1 am we had drunken 20 L of Laško beer and the keg was kicked. I couldn’t have asked for a better last night in Slovenia. I will never forget those guys and the fun time we shared.

I woke up the next morning in a haze and hurting just as much from the crash the day before as from the drinking.  Bostjan stumbled to the kitchen and prepared me a breakfast of scrambled eggs with beer, along with more pancetta and then I had a short last day to finish out the trip and return to Gorizia.

I was able to enjoy the mountain roads without so much rain this time and after a quick 50 km I was back in Italy and the whole town was closed since it was Sunday. I checked back into the hotel I had started the trip at, went through the tedious process of disassembling and packing my bike back into the s&s case, wandered aimlessly on foot until I eventually found something open ending up back at the same pizza place I had visited 7 days previous (very good pizza!), and got a night of rest before waking up early for the long travel journey of a train to Venezia, bus to the airport, 13 hour flight to Philadelphia, 6 hour layover which worked out perfectly for a happy hour reunion with friends, and then a one hour flight back to LaGuardia where I and thousands of other people would deal with the hell that is LaGuardia construction and transportation. At 2 am I walked back in the door of my Brooklyn apartment, dropped all my things at the front door, and collapsed into bed for a few quick hours of sleep before waking up for work and re-entrance into the real world.

Before I sign off, what sort of bike nerd would I be if I didn’t nerd out on my bike and gear selected for the trip. I wanted this to be a non-camping inn-to-inn or hut-to-hut in this case tour to keep the bike relatively lightweight and make the riding more fun. My Rick Jones has served me well for 7 years now and did not fail on this trip.

-Even with the front rando bag, frame bag, and saddle bag adding on about 15 or so lbs, the bike was spry and handles like a dream.

-Braking is, well…its as good as you can expect from cantilevers I suppose. Pretty decent when dry and alarmingly inadequate when wet, which happened to be most of the trip.

-I refreshed the drivetrain a couple months ago with new 11 speed Ultegra which proved as reliable as expected. I changed out the compact gearing for 46/30 sub-compact chainrings mounted onto my White Industries VBC cranks and really appreciated that choice at many times throughout the trip, both going up the alpine passes in the 30 tooth and cruising along on the flats and downhills in the 46. 

-The way-too-complicated electrical system, yes electrical system, consists of the SonDelux dynamo hub powering an IQ-X front headlight, as well as a taillight, and a Sinewave Revolution usb charger. The setup got complicated when I had to make it demountable for packing into the S&S case with quick-disconnects all over the place. One ripped out as I was taking the bike apart, requiring a last minute solder and leaving me not all that confident in the system holding up to the travel and the trip. But it turned out to not be an issue and worked the entire time and survived the disassembly and trip home with no problems or re-soldering required. 

-Tire selection was the do-it-all goldilocks of a tire Compass aka Rene Herse Bon Jon Pass 700c x 35 mm. Everything is tubeless compatible but I ran tubes due to the packing wheels tightly into a suitcase a little smaller than the wheels are round. Aside from that sudden crash which probably can’t be blamed on the tire, they were great and gave me the road and gravel performance I wanted, while still being able to handle some rough stuff when the route turned more towards mtb trail. 

-Navigation was handled with my Hammerhead Karoo which is enormous but works very well and a great tool for touring and especially good when re-routing on the fly becomes necessary. Between my trip to Oaxaca in December and this trip to Slovenia, I have confidence in the Hammerhead to get me wherever I want to go. 

-Bags consisted of a Swift Ozette rando bag out front, a Porcelain Rocket frame bag, and an Oveja Negra saddle bag. It looks like a generous amount of storage but it fills up pretty quickly and I needed all the space they provided for this trip. -Inside the bags I packed: (1) pair bibs + jersey + socks (rotated daily between the set I was wearing), an insulated Rapha gilet, a Search & State rain jacket, arm warmers, knee warmers, toe covers, a pair of full finger riding gloves, a pair of glove liners, and a merino wool neck gaiter. I was very glad to have every last piece of riding gear that I did as the temps and constant rain necessitated wearing everything on several occasions. I treated myself to the luxury of a pair of pants, a pair of shorts, a t-shirt, and a light wool sweater. Being able to change into dry normal clothes and the end of each long, wet day was a treat. And the most luxurious item packed was a pair of sneakers, which although they took up more than half the saddle bag they were also a god-send at the end of the day when I just wanted to take off the cycling shoes and for the couple of short hikes and the two days spent walking Ljubljana. Add in my Fuji XT1, a Kindle, a Bluetooth speaker, a headlamp, two water bottles, phone/wallet/passport, framepump, two tubes, tools, and a daily supply of snacks and that was the bike packed. I was happy with everything packed, and there was not a single item I regretted lugging around by bicycle for a few hundred km.

If anyone has actually read this far. Thank you for reading and now go visit Slovenia. Tell them I sent you and say hello. I am already scheming on a return trip next year with cycling and fly fishing combined.

Nasvidenje!

[hymn2000]

Called To Be A Rock - Frostiron feat. Spiderson AU fanfic - C28

Previous chapters: 1  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 2122 23 24 25 26 27

Comments/reviews/questions welcome as always

Overall Desc.:  Peter is staying with Tony and Loki one summer while his aunt is away working/travelling.

Chapter Desc.: Tony isn’t happy about being proved wrong. Peter bounces back in time for the anniversary. 

Ship(s) involved: Tony x Loki aka Frostiron

Verse: Personal AU

Ongoing Warnings/themes/cw mentions: domestic, hurt/comfort, family dynamic, Tony in Dad Mode, holiday stuff, mild illness

Chapter 28 - Whispered Notes

-

Peter fell asleep for a while, but woke up again at around 2am. He felt hot and dizzy, and sick. Truly, dreadfully sick. He took a series of slow, deep breaths. He could feel the warm weight of Loki’s arm round him. He whined quietly, rolling onto his front.

“Peter? Are you awake?”

Peter whined again. His stomach was gurgling painfully. Loki turned the lamp on and sat up, helping Peter to sit and lean against him. He handed Peter the bowl. Peter closed his eyes, breathing deeply.

“There’s no benefit in trying to hold it back” Loki said. “If you need to be sick, just be sick” 

Peter bent his head, gripping the bowl with both hands. He felt awful. The nausea was rising in his throat by the second. He coughed, and Loki rubbed his back - and that was all it took. He was badly sick. It was horrible, but it did make him feel just a little bit better. 

“Loki? Are you alright?” A voice sounded, and the bedroom door opened. Tony looked surprised. “Oh”

Loki glared at him. “I told you so”

Tony drooped. “You silly kid”

He came over to the bed, giving Peter’s shoulder a squeeze.

“I told you this would happen” Loki said. “And you didn��t listen. And now here we are! This is your doing”

“Oh Loki, can’t we leave the bitching till later?” 

Loki didn’t look happy. “Make yourself useful and sort the bowl while I get the kid settled”

Tony did as he was asked. Loki wiped Peter’s mouth and gave him a drink.

“How are you feeling?”

“Not great”

“Didn’t think so” he took the glass from him. “Here, lie down now”

Peter did so. He was tired. Sleep sounded like a good idea. He cuddled up with the pig while Loki stroked his hair, and he soon fell asleep. Tony came back into the room and set the clean bowl down by the bed.

“Is he asleep?”

Loki nodded, not looking at him.

“You don’t really blame me for this, do you?”

Loki looked up. “You know what, I do blame you, as it so happens. I told you this would happen, and you didn’t listen. I must have said it fifty times or more: let the kid have free reign of all those sweets, give in every time he asks for something, and he’ll end up making himself sick. And here we are: a sick kid. After you insisted he’d be fine. Go away, Tony”

“I thought you said you wouldn’t look after him”

“He came to me, what was I supposed to do? Tell him to go and deal with it himself?”

“Loki, you’re being ridiculous”

Loki nodded. “Oh yeah sure, turn it on me, that’s fine. Sorry, I forgot that everything is always my fault. I’ll remember next time”

“Oh Loki, give it a rest! Look, I can take care of the kid if you want”

“He wanted me”

Tony climbed into bed beside Peter. “Fine, if you’re going to be silly, I’m going to stay in here with him too. That alright with you?”

Loki lay down and turned his back on him.

- 

Peter was feeling a lot better in the morning. He was still feeling a bit shaky and ropey, but he no longer felt sick. Loki was still asleep, but Tony was awake now.

"Hey kiddo. How are you feeling?" 

"Better" Peter nodded. "I'm sorry" 

"Come on kiddo, let's get you back to your own room" 

"What time is it?" 

Tony checked his watch. "Nearly ten o' clock" 

"Oh. I think I'll get up now then" 

"Ok. Let's go downstairs then. Let Loki sleep"

- 

Peter sat sipping his tea and nibbling his buttered toast while Tony made himself a coffee. He seemed angry. 

"Mr Stark?" Peter said nervously. "Am I in trouble?" 

Tony turned to him. "No, but I think I am. I hate it when Loki proves me wrong. He's very good at rubbing it in, always has been" 

Peter set his mug down. "I didn't mean for anyone to get angry. I was just hungry last night. I guess I went overboard. I think it was the pudding that did it" 

Tony looked at him. "Not the Cartmel one?" 

Peter nodded. 

Tony sighed. "Well, you are going to be in trouble when Loki finds out about that"

"I didn't really think..." 

"Maybe we should start limiting your intake of sweets now" Tony said. "We don't need a repeat of last night" 

"I don't think I'll ever be able to eat sticky toffee pudding again after that" Peter said. "I won't go overboard again" 

"I'll make sure of it" 

"Aww, you're not really gonna start limiting my sweets, are you?" 

"Damn right I am! As much as I don't want to give Loki the satisfaction, he was definitely right about this one. You've had your freedom, and look where it got you. No, you can still have sweets, but only when I say so" 

"But-" 

"But nothing. Now, I've tidied up the mess you made last night, but only because you've been poorly. Let's try to be sensible for a while, ok?" 

Peter had no choice but to agree. 

- 

They took it easy that day. Tony thought going out in the car ran the risk of Peter being sick again, and decided it was better to stay in. Tony was happy with that. He settled Peter down in front of the telly with a bottle of water, and as it was another warm day, he went and sat out in the garden with his book. 

Peter was feeling fed up. Loki had come downstairs and as predicted, he'd been pretty annoyed that Peter had stolen his pudding, and he'd given him a smack. It hadn't really hurt, so he just got annoyed instead of upset, and Tony told both of them off for starting an argument. It wasn't a great start to the day. Loki had made himself a drink and went back to his room, and Peter stayed on the sofa watching daytime telly.

- 

Peter fell asleep for a bit. When he woke up, he turned the telly off and went out to the garden. He was surprised to find Loki curled up on the bench with Tony, considering their argument earlier on. They both smiled when they saw him.

"Hey kiddo, we were just talking about you" Tony said. "Why don't you go for a walk around the village with Loki?" 

"Umm..." 

"Fresh air will do you good" Loki said, giving Tony a quick kiss and standing up. "Get your shoes on" 

He seemed to be in a much better mood, so Peter agreed. 

- 

The fresh air did make Peter feel better. He stopped feeling quite so ropey as they walked along. They stopped and sat down by the water by the bridge, leaning up against the bank. Loki had held Peter's hand for most of the walk down, and he was happy now, sat watching the gentle flow of the water and listening to it's gentle sound. 

"Hey, Mr Loki?" Peter said, leaning against him and resting his head on his shoulder. "Can I ask you something serious?" 

"Go ahead" 

"Are you and Mr Stark having a baby?" 

Loki was surprised. "I'm sorry?" 

"I won't tell anyone. I mean, I've seen you looking at all that baby stuff, and I heard you asking that lady with the nice giraffe pram where she got it, so I've just kinda connected the dots, y’know? But I'll stay quiet. I understand that you probably want to keep it secret right now, especially with the press and stuff"

"Peter. Peter, sweetheart, no. No, you've got the wrong end of the stick. We're not having a baby" 

"Are you sure? You're not lying so I won't tell anyone?" 

"Of course I'm sure! And no, I'm not lying. Tony and I aren't having a baby" 

Peter swallowed. "But you do want one? Don't you think you and Mr Stark would make cute kids?" 

"I think you're missing a fundamental part of biology there" 

"Well, three person babies are a thing now, y’know. I read about them online. They use both mens’ DNA in the surrogate parent, and that way it's biologically everyone's" 

"We're not having a baby" 

"You like babies though. Don't you want one?" 

Loki nodded slightly. "I try not to think about it" 

"What do you mean?" 

Loki was quiet for a while, watching the water. Peter was just starting to think he wasn't going to reply when he spoke: 

"About eighteen months ago, I got really broody. I mean, to the extent where I was making nursery mood boards and bookmarking pages from parenting websites. I know, ridiculous. It was pretty bad" 

Peter could feel his heart beating harder. "Did you ever tell Mr Stark?" 

Loki nodded slowly. "It took me quite a while to pluck up the courage to do so. You know when you get really anxious, and you can feel your heart beating in your throat? It was like that. But I just came out with it, said I wanted a baby... He said no" 

Peter's heart thumped harder still. "He'd make such a good dad though"

"I know" he was starting to feel choked up. "I knew it was going to be a no as soon as I'd said it. I tried to show him what I had on my laptop but he barely glanced at it" 

"Did you get upset?" 

Loki pressed his lips together for a moment. "I wanted it so much. It hurt so badly, being told no. I tried to deny it at first, tried bargaining with him. I said if he just offered financial support, I'd do everything else. I was serious too. But Tony said it wasn't fair to bring a child into a house where only one person wanted it. I didn't want to hear him. He had to grab hold of me and make me listen. I remember being able to feel my pulse under his fingers while he looked me in the eye and told me the answer was no. I lost it a little bit. Tony just held me. I never expected it to hurt that much-" 

He reached up and wiped his eyes with the heel of his hands, and it was only then that Peter realised he was crying. 

"H-hey, please don't cry! I'm sorry, I never meant to upset you!" he threw himself at Loki and hugged him tight. "It's ok" 

Loki held him close. "I'm sorry. I came to terms with it a long time ago. But I do still get upset about it sometimes" 

"It's ok. You're ok" 

Loki swallowed hard. "It was stupid of me to think I'd be a good parent anyway. I mean, I haven't got a good example to go off. My birth father left me for dead, and the less said about the man who took me, the better. I can barely look after myself. What hope would I have at raising a baby? Tony had a lot of valid reasons for saying no. Maybe it's just as well we're not in the position to have a one" 

Peter held him tighter, fighting back his own tears. "For what it's worth, I think you'd be a great dad" 

Loki smiled tearfully. "Thank you" 

Peter pulled back and kissed him hard. "Please don't cry. I hate it when you're upset" 

Loki took a deep breath and wiped his eyes again. "There. I'm not crying any more" 

"Good" Peter nodded. "I'm sorry I ate your pudding" 

"I'm sorry I hit you" 

"Sorry I kept you up last night" 

"Don't be. You needed looking after" 

Peter shrugged. "Mr Stark said he's gonna limit my sweets now" 

"Probably for the best" he kissed him on the nose. "Now, can I ask you something serious?" 

"Sure?" 

"Do you think you could occupy yourself for an hour or two tomorrow night? Like, just explore the village a bit?”

Peter quirked an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Well. It is our anniversary tomorrow, after all”

“Oh!” Peter felt himself blushing as the realisation hit him. “Oh yeah. Um. Ok. Sure”

“Thank you” 

Peter rested his forehead against Loki’s chest, sighing sadly. Loki misunderstood the reason for his sigh.

“Still feeling poorly? Maybe we should head back now”

Peter flopped against him properly. “I’m fine here”

-

Eventually they did return to the house. It was early evening, and Tony was busy in the kitchen. 

“Hey darlings. Nice walk?”

Loki nodded, noting the change in his voice. “Have you been drinking, my dear?”

“Well, I may have had a couple of glasses” he admitted. 

Loki hugged him from behind, resting his chin on his shoulder. “Are you going to tell me what my present is now~?”

“Certainly not! You’ll have to wait until the morning”

“Spoilsport” he kissed him on the cheek. “Can we go back to the waterfall tomorrow?”

“Of course. I don’t feel like going anywhere busy. Although, I was thinking about that pub we went to in Penrith. You liked that. Maybe we could have something to eat there tomorrow?”

“If you’d like to, my darling” he went to kiss his cheek again, but Tony turned his head so he caught him on the lips.

Loki laughed, turning him round and pulling him close for a proper kiss. Peter shifted awkwardly. He didn’t feel like hanging about while they were sucking face, so he went upstairs to his room. He pulled the box out from under his bed, having another good look at Loki’s present. He felt he’d done quite well keeping it secret. He hoped he’d like it.

-

Peter went to bed early that night. Tony had fixed him a light tea, which was all well and good, but he’d slapped Peter’s hand away when he went to get something sweet afterwards. They bickered about it, and Loki got annoyed and told him he had to learn to do as he was told. It put him in a sour mood. Tony ruffled his hair and told him he’d better stick with savoury stuff for a while. Tony and Loki curled up together on the sofa together to watch a film. Peter couldn’t help feeling horrendously jealous as he watched Tony kissing Loki’s face and stroking his hair and holding him close, and seeing the look of total adoration in Loki’s eyes as he looked at Tony. Peter said he was tired and wanted an early night, and they said goodnight and let him go, not really paying attention to him. Peter had flopped on his bed and grumbled to himself until he fell asleep.

-

Peter burst into Tony’s room in the morning.

“HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!”

Loki and Tony laughed at him. They’d been up for a while now, already fed and washed and dressed, but still lounging in bed. Peter climbed up onto Tony’s side of the bed, struggling with the large white box he was carrying.

“Happy anniversary!”

“Thanks kiddo” Tony ruffled his hair. “Now, I think I know what’s in that box~”

Peter nodded eagerly. “Yep! Now we finally get to open it!” he pushed the box over to Loki. “This is for you! Mr Stark paid, but I chose everything! Well, I had a bit of help, but it’s mostly me!”

“Aww, sweetheart, you didn’t have to get me anything!”

“Well, I did anyway, so you’d better open it!”

Loki sat up. He looked at Tony, who grinned at him. He pushed the lid back from the box, and found a load of smaller parcels inside, all different sizes and shapes. He reached for the biggest first, but Peter grabbed it and pulled it out of his reach.

“No, you gotta do this one last! Here, I’ll tell you what order to open everything”

Loki laughed and decided to humour him. “Direct away, my dear”

Peter did, and Loki obeyed. Tony and Peter exchanged thrilled, proud looks as they watched Loki discover a pair of suit trousers, a white button up shirt, and and amazing black fitted blazer.

“I haven’t had a new suit in ages” Loki said, rubbing the stitching of the blazer’s lapel with his thumb. 

“It’s nice, right?” Peter grinned. “Here, open this one next. And then this one-”

He lined the remaining parcels up in the order he wanted them to be opened. These were quite a lot smaller, and Loki was intrigued. He picked up the first one, and opened it to find an enamel pin of Betty Boop in her signature red dress. He laughed slightly, set it down carefully, and moved on. He uncovered a pair of white socks, a bright red tie and pocket square, a thin white belt, and a beautiful pair of scarlet satin cufflinks. 

He spent a long time looking at everything, so deeply touched and flattered that he couldn’t speak. He felt he could cry. Tony touched his cheek gently.

“You’ve gone all pink~”

“...I don’t know what to say”

“Here, you can open this one now!” Peter said.

Loki carefully put his presents in a neat pile, and took the last box from Peter. He pulled off the wrapping paper and found a shoebox. He glanced up for a moment. He lifted the lid from the shoebox, and was greeted by a pair of leather crocodile print shoes, red and shining - and his mind raced back to that day looking in the shop window with Peter. It felt like years ago. He looked at the shoes, and covered his face with his hands.

Tony laughed. “Come here, you soppy git”

He put an arm round his shoulders and hugged him tight. Loki let his hands drop, and he picked up one shoe, running his fingers over the leather. He looked up at Peter through watering eyes, but when he went to speak, he could only laugh. Tony laughed too.

“S-so, do you like them?” 

Loki held an arm out to Peter, pulling him into the hug and kissing his cheek hard. He managed to recover his voice just enough to say thank you, and promptly burst out laughing again, burying his face in Peter’s neck. 

“You appear to have broken him” Tony said, squeezing them both. “Well, at least now you know what you’re going to be wearing today”

Loki lifted his head, let go of Peter, and all but launched himself at Tony, kissing him roughly. Tony was all too happy to return it, pulling him closer still. Tony pulled back for a moment.

“Go and have breakfast, kiddo. We’re gonna get Loki into his new gear”

-

Peter waited anxiously in the kitchen, tapping his fingers on the table. He heard footsteps, and his face lit up when he saw Loki and Tony. He jumped up from his seat, rushing over to them.

“Look at you!” he laughed. “You look amazing!” 

He looked him over, making him turn round so he could see him from all angles, thrilled to bits to see how well his outfit concept had come together. 

“Oh wow, we’ve gotta take pictures of this!” Peter said, taking his phone out. “Come on, you gotta pose for me!”

Loki laughed, and so did Tony. He gave Loki a nudge.

“Better to stand somewhere brighter” he said. “We need better lighting if you’re going into modelling mode. 

“I don’t know. It’s not really my thing”

Tony and Peter badgered him, pushing him into better lighting, over by the deep windowsill. Loki shuffled in his crocodile shoes, not quite looking at them.

“This is silly”

“You look great! I want pics of this. Ned’s gonna love it!” Peter held his phone up, adjusting the camera. “Please! Pose”

Loki rubbed the back of his neck nervously, raising his head and looking over at them. 

“Hold that pose!”

Peter got excited, and Loki acted like he wasn’t enjoying the attention. Tony took on the role of director, making him stand this way and that, hold his head a little higher, hook his thumb in his belt. He prompted him to utilise the windowsill itself, offering him suggestions which may have been unnecessary:- it soon became clear that Loki knew exactly what he was doing. Tony had used him as a model a lot in the past, although not always in such chaste ways. He relished the excited look on Peter’s face. 

“You’re so good at this!” 

Peter grinned, rather thinking Loki should go professional. He looked amazing.

-

Tony plugged his music player in when they got into the car. 

“Darling, do we have to?”

“Hey, I’ve got a whole load of your music on here” Tony said, clicking into a playlist titled ‘Lolly’. “And I know just the song to listen to, given the circumstances”

Loki was sat up front for a change, and he looked at Tony skeptically. Tony grinned at him, scrolling through the songs and selecting one. Loki gave him a look as the song started playing, and Peter sat up straight.

“I know this one!” he said. “It’s Crocodile Shoes!”

“That’s right, kiddo”

Loki looked down at his own crocodile shoes. They were so different to all his other shoes, and he adored them. He smiled to himself. He felt every bit as good as he looked. 

-

They went to Penrith. Peter was happy to play third wheel while Loki and Tony stayed hand in hand, talking quietly together. They revisited the pub they’d discovered a few days prior and enjoyed a meal there. From there it was back in the car, and they went onwards for another walk round Aira Force. Peter took the opportunity to get his phone camera out again, succeeding in taking many good pictures of his subjects and surroundings. 

Upon their return to the house, Loki was starting to slow down, obviously pretty tired. Peter said he was going for a walk round the village, and left him alone with Tony.

-

Peter returned to the holiday home just under two hours later. The house was quiet, and upon venturing upstairs, he found Tony’s bedroom door ajar, with no tie on the handle. Still, Peter knocked on the door before entering.

“Hey, kiddo” Tony said gently.

Loki was fast asleep in his arms, wearing just his silky dressing gown. Tony was also in his dressing gown.

“It’s raining” Peter said dumbly, at a loss of anything else to say.

“I noticed” Tony said, running his fingers through Loki’s hair. “I’m sure it will clear up later. How was your walk?”

Peter shrugged slightly. “It was ok. There’s a cute little gift shop in the village. I had a little look in there. I read about the bridge and then just sat by the water for a bit. It was nice. Until it started raining”

“As I said, it’ll stop” his voice was soft. 

Peter nodded, looking at Loki. “Is he ok?”

“Just tired” he carefully lay Loki down properly, and slipped out of bed, tying his dressing gown. “Hey, why don’t we spend a little time together while he’s sleeping? Go downstairs. I’ll get dressed and join you in a minute”

-

Loki stopped in the doorway of the living room.

“Aww, now isn’t this lovely~?”

Peter and Tony were cuddled up on the sofa together, and they looked up at him.

“Hey gorgeous. Are you joining us?” 

“I’m not sure there’s room”

“There is” Tony said, sitting up and pulling Peter onto his lap. He patted the sofa beside him. “Come on”

Loki sat down and snuggled up against his side, wrapping his arms round both of them and resting his head on Tony’s shoulder. 

“I love you”

Tony kissed him. “I love you too”

Loki closed his eyes. “Can we go for a walk? I know it’s getting on a bit now, but I’d enjoy it”

“Of course, darling. Where do you want to go?”

Loki shrugged slightly. “Oh, just down to the water and back. It’s still warm and bright out there”

“Why don’t you go and get dressed then? Get that lovely new suit back on. I’ll get mine on again too” 

Loki nodded, lifting his head and giving Tony a kiss. He liked that idea. Sometimes it was good to get all dressed up.

-

The evening sun was hot, but a cool breeze swept through the village, keeping it from being too warm. The three walked down to the bridge, standing for a moment and watching the flow of the water. Loki had photographed it many times, but since he’d left the camera at the house this time, he could simply enjoy the moment without thinking about shot composure. 

They went down to the waters edge. Despite the weather, they were the only people there, and this suited them just fine. Tony watched Loki and Peter. They were deep in conversation. Peter was smiling up at Loki, and Loki had his arm round his shoulders. Tony followed two steps behind, watching them, listening to them talking, to the sounds of the stones under their feet and the rush of the water beside them. Loki looked so beautiful, so happy. The black, white, and red colour scheme suited him better than Tony had expected. He moved with such decorum. His new cufflinks caught the sun and glittered in the light - and so did his eyes. Tony put his hand in his pocket, gripping the contents in the palm of his hand so tight that it dug into his skin. He couldn’t take his eyes off Loki. His heart was thumping just watching him.

-

Tony stayed at Loki’s side as they started the walk back to the house. Loki was chatting and smiling, joking with Peter and being generally affectionate with him. He stopped for a moment, laughing, pushing his hair back with his fingers. Tony stared at him, at the way he stood so perfectly poised, at the happy gleam in his deep eyes, at the genuine smile on his face. He listened to the sound of his voice, to the affection and care in his words. He watched how he interacted with Peter, how he looked at the kid - and how he looked at him. Tony closed his mouth, and opened it again.

“I really love you”

Loki stopped mid-sentence to look at him. “Well, I love you too”

“No, I mean I really, really, truly, love you” Tony said, stopping a foot in front of him. “I love you so much. You’re the most incredible person I know. You’re clever and kind and beautiful. You’re my best friend. You’re my everything”

Peter took another step back, very nearly falling into the road. No one noticed. Loki had his eyes glued on his boyfriend. He didn’t know what to say.

“Tony...”

Tony took Loki’s hand in both of his, kissing his knuckles. “I’m so lucky to have you. What ever did I do to deserve you?”

“What ever did I do to deserve you?” Loki said, squeezing Tony’s hand. “You’ve always done your best by me. I don’t know what I’d do without you. I love you”

“I love you too. I love you so much. I love this, this life we’ve built together. I want always to be with you” 

He reached into his pocket, keeping hold of Loki’s hand with his left one, and he knelt before him, bringing the little black velvet box out of his pocket. His heart was thumping so hard it hurt, and he could feel his pulse in his ears. He saw Loki’s eyes widen. He saw the somewhat puzzled look on his face. He took a deep breath, a choked feeling rising in his throat. He could feel himself shaking. The edges of his vision seemed blurry. It was like he was only capable of seeing who he was looking up at.

“Lolly, you mean everything to me. I want to prove to you just how much I love you. Loki” he pushed the ring box open with his thumb. “Will you marry me?”

*

[starlight-seeker]

ALL OF THEM ~~~~~~~

1: The last person you kissed screams they love you, you say…It really depends who the person Is lol, I haven’t kissed anyone in a long time and the last person wasn’t so great so I would kindly reject them ://

2: Did you get to sleep in today?

FUCK YES I SLEPT UNTIL 1:30 PM

3: You never know what you got until you lose it?

It throws a lot into perspective. There’s a lot people take for granted and once you loose it you don’t realize until it’s gone and you can’t get it back.

4: Do you have siblings?

An older brother whose 9 years apart from me named Chris.

5: How many kids do you want?

2 probably, both more likely adopted.

6: Who was the last person you held hands with?

Collin Aka Literal-Trashlord.

7: Did you stand on your tippy-toes for your last kiss?

Nah, person was shorter than me lmao.

8: Do you think if you died, the last person you kissed would care?

Who knows. I don’t really care weirdly enough lol.

9: Last person to talk on the phone?

My mother.

10: Did anyone watch you the last time you kissed someone?

No.

11: When’s your birthday?

June 3rd.

12: Remember the first time you kissed the last person you kissed?

Not really, I kind of blocked the memory out lmao.

13: What kind of phone do you have?

Iphone S7

14: Are you wearing jeans, shorts, sweatpants, or pajama pants?

Rn I’m wearing my work pants 😩

15: Are you a different person now than you were 5 years ago?

God I hope so, I wasn’t in a great place mentally then lmao.

16: What were you doing at 4 am?

LMAO THATS LOADED. LATELY MY GAY ASS HAS BEEN FINDING MURDER MYSTERIES AND BUZZFEED VIDEOS WHILE TEXTING FRIENDS AS THEY SLEEP.

17: Would you rather write a paper or give a speech?

Paper definitely.

18: Are you lying to yourself about something?

Probably. 👀🗡

19: Last night you felt…?

Fine mostly, tired and a bit sore.

20: What’s something you cannot wait for?

To be able to go stargazing with someone close to me as well as get my life together hopefully and travel.

21: Ever told your parents you were going somewhere but when somewhere different?

I think so. I haven’t done that to my biological mom at least 😂

22: How many hours of sleep did you get last night?

Uh…7 and a half hrs?? I went to bed at 5:35 and woke up at 1:30 pm.

23: Are you a morning or night person?

Definitely a night owl. Morning person Rarely.

24: What did you get your last bruise from?

I banged into my friends counter like a dumbass. That or I was doing a price check and hit into something.

25: Do you reply to all of your texts?

Mostly though i forget to reply sometimes oof.

26: Your phone is ringing. It’s the person you fell hardest for. What do you do?

Talk to them casually, times passed and we’re still close beyond reason. ❤️

27: Did your last kiss take place in/on a bed?

No. I don’t really care about it 😤

28: Anyone you would like to get things straight with?

Yeah, a few people honestly. Some I was extremely close to.

29: How many months until your birthday?

12

30: Favorite thing to eat with peanut butter?

Celery or Apple slices.

31: Did you like this past summer?

It was good. So yeah I can’t complain.

32: What were you doing before you got on the computer?

Working and hanging out with friends.

33: Your ex is sitting next to you, with their new partner. What do you do?

Big oof. Honestly make the best of it?? Really no reason to get upset at this point.

34: What is the last thing you said out loud?

“Get fucked, Steve.” (We were playin Yahtzee with an Ai)

35: Your mood summed into one word?

O O F.

36: Are you doing anything else besides taking this survey?

playing Yahtzee with friends and an Ai Whose kicking all our asses.

37: What are your initials?

K. C. M.

38: Are you a happy person?

Generally though I do struggle with depression but no big deal.

39: Do you still talk to the person you liked 4 months ago?

Yeah, we’re still close friends.

40: Where do you want to live when your older?

I want to travel around, but I would love somewhere quiet with mountains where I can see stars almost every night.

41: Have you had your birthday this year?

Yes. We went to a trampoline park and got absolutely lit jumping around. 👀🔥

42: What did you do yesterday?

I worked 2:00 to 6:30 as a Cashier otherwise I went home and chilled out 😎

43: What will you be doing tomorrow?

Thankfully I have a day off tomorrow. So I’m probably gonna chill out and continue with ideas for a comic I might post soon.

44: How late did you stay up last night?

Until 5:35 AM.

45: Is there anyone you would do anything for?

Yeah definitely. I would drop everything for a select handful of people. Honestly I’d help anyone if I could.

46: Is it hard to make you laugh?

No omg. I laugh literally at anything unless I’m in a weird funk.

47: Do you believe ex’s can be just friends?

Yes, I’m still alright with one ex. But honestly work it out and hopefully things will be alright. Especially if its a mutual breakup things should be alright even if they’re awkward for a while.

48: Do you think any of your exes will eventually want to be with you again?

Lmao nah. I doubt it.

49: How many people have you had feelings for in the year of 2012?

BRUH YOU ACT LIKE I REMEMBER

50: Do you wish your ex was dead?

Never wish that on somebody.

51: Have you ever dyed your hair?

Yes I had it dyed Teal once.

52: Would ever take back someone that cheated?

I doubt it. I’d have issues trusting them.

53: Was New Year’s Even enjoyable?

This year shockingly was.

54: Bet you’re missing someone right now?

Yeah, I miss my family a lot. I don’t really get to see them. I got to see my mom today and I was really happy. ❤️

55: How would your parents react if you got a tattoo?

My mom probably wouldn’t like it at first but grow to like it knowing her, she wants to get a butterfly tattoo on her wrist.

56: Sleep on your back or stomach?

Stomach and side mostly. I can’t really get comfy on my back :((

57: If you could move away, no questions asked, where would it be ?

Somewhere nice and fun. Probably star lit and mountain filled but still some hustle and bussle.

58: What would you change about your life right now?

Living situation, I love living with my best friend but sometimes I miss living with my mom?? Idk.

59: Has anything upset you in the past week?

Yeah a handful of personal things. But I feel alright now.

60: Are you on the phone?

Yes

61: Today, would you rather go forward a week or back?

Probably back, I’d rather redo a few days than skip and loose out.

62: Would you take $40,000 or a brand new car?

Probably 40,000 so I can give some and help others.

63: Have you ever talked to someone when they were high?

OH YEAH THATS AN EXPERIENCE

64: Ever cried while you were on the phone with someone?

A few times, mostly when I’m stressed out or the situation is really tough.

65: Have you ever copied someone elses homework?

Yes. Especially when I forgot it and my friend came in clutch.

66: Are you the type of person who likes to be out or at home?

I’m a mix. There’s days I love to be out others inside and relaxing.

67: Do you automatically check your phone when you wake up?

It’s my alarm clock so sadly.

68: Have you ever stayed up all night on the phone?

Sadly, yes.

69: Could you use some sleep right now?

Probably like 20 + hrs. One good ass nap.

70: Are you going to have a baby by the time you’re 18?

Looks at age. Uhm 😂😂😂

71: Does it bother you when someone hides things from you?

Yeah. I’d rather the person come to me than hide it and talk shit. Even if it hurts I’d rather know and fix the situation.

72: What’s your favorite color?

I love deep reds but I also like blues and purples.

73: Have you ever slept in the same room with someone you liked?

Yes a few times

74: Have you ever been looking for something and it was already in your hand?

LMAO YES. i was looking for my wallet once and panicked but i was holding it.

75: Do you get annoyed easily?

Depending on the situation but when the questions dumb as hell or argument yes.

76: If someone liked you, would you want them to tell you?

Yeah. I’d rather know so I don’t accidentally break their heart. I’d rather know so I can confront the situation though still I’d be extremely flattered.

77: Do you have a person of the opposite sex that you can tell everything to?

Yes.

78: Does anyone call you babe?

Yeah a handful of people.

79: How many people of the opposite sex do you fully trust?

A lot ????

80: What do you prefer, relationship or one night stand?

Relationship. Never had a one nighter lol.

81: What color hoodie did you wear last?

Dark purple with writing on it from my college 😂

82: Is there someone who meant alot to you at one point, and isn’t around anymore?

Yeah. Someone I really did trust and love. They did some shitty stuff and I had to break the friendship off but even now I find myself checking in on them now and again even though the answer is always the same or really cold.

[moresoandmox-blog]

Moreso & Mox’s Big Adventure

Hello lovely readers! (who are probably just our moms at this point but we love our moms so that’s fine) Welcome to our shiny new blog where two strong feelers discuss all the things we feel strongly about. But first let’s travel back to the day when two complete strangers became forever friends aka the day Moreso & Mox met aka the best day ever! I (Mox) had fallen asleep ridiculously early (read before 7 pm) on Saturday and woke up in the middle of the night to a group Facebook message from a dear friend asking if anyone would be interested in using her extra ticket & taking her new roommate to the Braves game on Sunday. I’m not a fan of baseball but Needtobreathe was performing after the game and the ticket was free so I was definitely interested. But, it had been hours since my friend had shared that message and it was still the middle of the night so I figured there was no way the ticket hadn’t been claimed. I sent a message letting my friend know I was interested if the ticket was still available, knowing no one would see the message until the morning. Almost immediately the roommate replied that the ticket was available and we made plans to meet the next day. Even though spending the day with a stranger and having to drive her around is so far out of my introvert comfort zone it may as well be Pluto, I was committed because I needed an adventure. I am so glad I committed. Moreso and I hit it off right away. Since neither of us are baseball fans, we spent the entire game talking about all the things we loved and learning all we have in common, which is a whole lot. The game was actually good - the Braves won. The concert was better. And we got along so well that we ran errands together after the game. A week later, we were housemates and by the time I moved out 6 weeks later, we were the best of friends. Now, we’ve had a number of adventures together and are planning more. What are some of the things we mutually love and bond over? Well, there’s Jesus, strong tea, proper biscuits, New Girl, The Originals, all the Halloween things, our dear friends who just got married, our dear friends who are about to get married, full body pajamas that look like mystical animals, Harry Potter, Hamilton . . . to name a few. Then there’s our deep love and passionate feelings for the U.K. and Ireland, which deserves it’s own paragraph. Greetings and salutations, dear reader! Moreso here, coming at you from the entryway of the Providence Rhode Island Airport. Initially I was excited to have a near 10 hour layover here on my way to Dublin but apparently Providence totally shuts down on Sundays, so no PV Donuts for me. (Boo hoo) Instead, I get to write to you all while I wait for the Norwegian Air check-in desk to open for me in a short four hours! (You have no idea how much I’m anticipating stuffing my face with something that isn’t bread or burnt coffee.) Okay, so to bounce off -as well as say ‘yes’ and ‘amen!’ to- all of what Mox has already said, this friendship is one for the books- or the blogs I guess you could say. I did a lot of praying for solid friendships with people who really truly got me as I transitioned into a brand new city last year and man, straight out of the gate with this one! We get on like tea and biscuits, chicken and waffles, jam and clotted cream (you get the picture). Anyway, Mox and I have already had some grand adventures locally. We narrowly escaped a murderer seconds before he broke into the cabin we were trapped in to kill us all! Okay, so it was an escape room that was made from the cabin Hopper and Eleven lived in in Stranger Things S2, but it was intense! We have gone to see The Nightmare Before Christmas accompanied by the symphony orchestra, put on our own three-man-production of Hamilton the Musical (and we KILLED it, might I add!), fallen in love with The Greatest Showman and Black Panther at movie theaters that cost $10 and have unlimited candy, popcorn and soda, been stranded on the highway mere feet from our exit with a AAA driver who just couldn’t find us, wandered Conyers in search of Original vampires and discovering delicious food at small Irish pubs instead. But now, I believe, comes our greatest adventure yet! Ireland and the UK... (Mox again) My love for the U.K. started when I was small. Blame it on Disney's the Sword on the Stone and my voracious love for reading. My degree in English Literature only fueled the fire. I travelled to England for the first time in April 2013. It was everything I dreamed and I left wanting more. Within a year, I had a clear calling to return to England as a missionary.  My second trip to England was in November 2016 to build connections with a church outside of Manchester city. It was a magical three weeks and I got to know many amazing and kind people (so many kiddos with British accents! My heart!). I left with a heart full of love and hope. Now God is calling me back to the UK for the third time! Moreso has already left and I will follow behind her on the 15th. (Ah! That's so soon!) We’ll start off with her friends in Northern Ireland but from there things get foggy. I hope to reconnect with my church family outside of Manchester and I feel like God is calling me to Scotland but as of right now, I don't know what that looks like. All I know for sure is I'm flying back to the States Memorial Day weekend. This has truly been a leap of faith for me. I'll get into all the details of this spiritual adventure in a later post but God has promised that He wants to use this trip to show me how much He loves me and to show me missional opportunities and that it will be full of wonder. It's scary and overwhelming and super exciting! And I get to share it with one of my favorite people!

[serinity-love-child]

Me: hey here is my first chapter for my book guys:

The title is called:

The New Friend

Hey, I just want to let everyone know that this is my first book I do not own any of the Fairy Tail characters in this book. I Do Not Own Any of the Fairy Tail Pictures, Videos or Soundtracks. Please understand that this story just popped into my head and I had to write it down. I really hope that you enjoy it as much as I do. This will be the only time I interrupt this story so I want to be clear. That I don't own any of this even though it is my version of NaLu stories I want NO credits.

Thank you any other questions please post in the comments and I will reply when I see them. I should also like to tell you that this book contains violence and sexual graphics features do not read unless you are at least 15 years or older and you must have parental permission. Also, I have to say that all of this work belongs to Hiro Mashima as he is one of my favorite Authors!!! Okay, I can't find any good pics to use so those of you that know how to do it I would appreciate the drawings as it's not letting me. I would also like to say PLEASE DO NOT USE THE CHARACTER THAT I MADE: CLAIRA DRAGNEEL unless you ask for permission first. Thank you.

It was summertime at the Heartfilia's mansion, July 6th x 777 and young Lucy was playing with her doll Gazella. She was happily playing, her mother Layla was in the kitchen making her favorite snack, and her father Jude was in his study working hard on paperwork that needed to be done.

"Lucy, I got your favorite snack done, why don't you come inside? Layla said.

"Okay mom, I'm coming!" Lucy said with excitement.

Lucy loved her ice cream with banana slices and chocolate. When Lucy ran into the kitchen carrying Gazella, she noticed that her mother looked worried about something and that Mrs. Stelleto was not there so she asked, " mom, what is the matter and where is Mrs. Stelleto?"

Layla looked at her daughter's beautiful face and said: " nothing is wrong sweetheart and Mrs. Stelleto is running an errand for me."

"Oh," Lucy said as she devoured her ice cream.

Layla then said to Lucy " How about we take a nap? You will have friends coming over."Layla suggested.

This made Lucy very happy and she couldn't wait to see others her age so she agreed to take a nap.

While Layla laid on her bed she thought ' I wonder what is keeping Mrs. Stelleto? Did she find Aquarius's key yet?'

Layla was very worried and could not sleep so she got up and went to her own study. Giving a sigh she knew that without Aquarius's key that she would have to summon all of her power to open the gate of time she was saddened at the thought.

It had to be tonight just after midnight she was after all a celestial wizard.

Lucy woke up excited, she could not wait until tonight. I wonder how mom will get these kids to come over' she thought to herself and went to find her mother. 'Father is too busy working' and she missed the old times when her father would join them for supper.

Lucy found her mother in her study reading a book she caught the title upon a starry night and looked at her mom and said: "That is one of my favorite books!"

Layla glanced up at her daughter and smiled then said it was one of her favorites as well.

After reading for several hours Layla glanced at the clock and noticed that it was 10:30 pm and she began to worry more 'where on earth is Mrs. Stelleto? Has she found Aquarius yet? Oh boy I'm going to have to sacrifice myself' she thought as she looked at her beautiful daughter, Layla sat at her desk while Lucy was distracted and began to write a letter... this is what Layla wrote:

To my dear daughter, Lucy

I'm sorry that I'm no longer around for you, know that I will always be with you no matter what happens. I pray that you have found your friends and that you have found the one you are to marry, I know your father will try to force you into a marriage that is not for you. The one that is supposed to be with you will probably be your best friend and teammate and that is good he will be the one to protect you no matter what...

I would also like to tell you that like me you are a celestial wizard. I will leave you Aquarius's key she will help you on your journey through life. Be kind to her.

You will always be my princess.

Love,

Your mother

Lady Layla Heartfilia

After Layla had finished the letter, she stuck it into a white envelope with Lucy's name on the front. Layla glanced at the clock again which read 11:00 pm and there was still no sign of Mrs. Stelleto, Layla sighed.

Lucy had gone to her room to play with Gazella she was so excited that she was going to have new friends to play with soon.

' oh, where is Mrs. Stelleto is she having issues with getting Aquarius? We really should have the key by now and time is growing close' Layla thought.

Then her husband Jude knocked on her study door. "Layla dear may I come in?" He asked.

"Of course dear," Layla replied.

As Jude entered the room, he smiled and said: "Dear, I just wanted to tell you that I will be turning in for the night, it's been a long day filing those papers."

"Okay, sweetheart, I will join you in an hour or so I still have a few things to do," Layla said.

Giving Layla a kiss Jude left the bedroom.

Layla kept an eye on the time at exactly 12:01 am Layla used all of her strength to summon her power to make the door of time open. Five small bright lights floated out of the gate making Layla back up then they shot out in five different ways.

Then a younger version of Layla stepped out of the door with a young girl attached to her skirt. The young girl had Salmon colored hair, onyx-colored eyes, a red and golden dress and a sash from her right shoulder to her left hip, she was around Lucy's age.

Layla stared for a moment. "Oh, how rude of me, my name is Anna Heartfilia and this is Princess Claira Dragneel." Anna proclaimed.

Layla smiled.

"Thank you, Layla, for doing this it must have been really rough on you," Anna said.

"Claira, Lucy is upstairs in her room it's the second door on the right why not go say hello and play for a bit?" Layla said.

Claira smiled and left the room to leave Anna and Layla to talk.

"I should tell you about Claira," Anna said.

Layla was puzzled. "Is there anything wrong with her?"

"No, but her twin brother is Natsu Dragneel, they are both Dragon Slayers as they were raised by the dragon king Igneel, however, Claira has the second ability, she is a time wizard and can go back and even to the future," Anna explained.

"That is very interesting," said Layla.

Then Layla began to feel dizzy and started to collapse, Anna caught her before she fell and was really worried. "You overdid it just to bring us here. Anna whispered.

Just then Mrs. Stelleto ran into the room "I have the key Lady Layla..." Mrs. Stelleto froze as she saw Anna holding and unconscious Layla...

"LAYLA," Mrs. Stelleto yelled. "Why could you not wait for me to return?" Mrs. Stelleto covered her face and began to cry.

"Do you have somewhere I could lay her down?" Anna asked.

Mrs. Stelleto nodded her head and said: "there is a bedroom just down this hall."

Anna carried Layla to the bedroom and laid her on the bed while Mrs. Stelleto sat in the nearby chair and waited for Layla to awake.

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

This Chapter and Book was created by: Melinda Schwemm aka. Claira Bartholomew

[brokenhayatim]

we might be dead tomorrow

[now playing the maze by manchester orchestra]

yesterday on a call, i had a moment of real possibility in having the decompression surgery. my neurologist last week said it was what she recommended and that chiari could be the cause of it all. so once i had it, they would most likely be gone, along with my headaches, then the meds i take would no longer be needed. it all hit me hard today and im feeling many emotions at this person who barely considered doing it for months. for god sake, i was in the hospital for it, a situation i never thought i would be in. (inshallah never again) 

you know some part of me loves being told i have a high pain tolerance, a big  part of me loves being poked with needles (!!) and loves looking at my mri’s. oh story time, the day my neurologist said something was different, aka wrong, i smiled in the chair and asked if i could look at it and went “ah cool!.” she gave me the wildest look but described all the brain anatomy stuffs to me. I told my therapist of this moment and he went “.oh...you were happy?” [types some notes on his computer] and i realized, normal people don’t do that and i probably said that badly with no shame. i wasn’t particular happy, but i was nowhere near sad or scared, i was excited. i think my dissociation makes me almost see everything as not mine. those aren’t my scans so i can be exhilarated and so curious about everything. or it could be that pain just isn’t something i worry or care for anymore. months later, i laughed bc something else being wrong with me, it’s almost fate. sometimes i wish i was terrified, but i didn’t care for it. i already had bad headaches, so what?

over these last few months though. it’s like i’ve made room in my home for it, i’ve become familiar with it, not so much comfortable, but so familiar that it doesn’t matter in the big picture. a secret: sometimes i feel really impressed and good when i tell of my imbalance issues, (vertigo), numbness in my limbs, the tinnitus and the nausea. sometimes..i wish i had more. i feel proud of myself when people have headaches, like i know the worst of that pain, and i’ve been through it. i don’t know if it’s because i want to be validated in having it or if it’s just how i am like that. i wish i could tell my sisters and everyone a whole list of symptoms, but all of them seem so useless and mediocre. i sometimes want that attention from just collapsing; but ironically, i hate being bothered and cared for with it. i found meaning in it all, i found a whole part of me within it all. i had headaches for 6 years before i, simply, told my general physician, and since then it’s been 5 (way too long of) mri’s and an EEG (that was certainly a moment). i wished, back then, i had seizures too. we called one of my pain symptoms “brain shocks” for years with that creative name and made it into this freeze “game”, and i just mentioned that two years ago in a visit. half of my identity is just on having headaches, of being in pain around people. and i’m stupidly fucking (sorry last day of ramadan) scared of losing that. i’ve taken more medications pills than i can count, and i know their purpose pridefully well. i’ve given advice based on that pain, i’ve helped someone with that pain. i’ll never be ready to lose that. i think of it and i imagine myself more empty. full of nothing.

the reason i’m writing this though wasn’t all that. i woke up and just felt this aching shame and sobbed, still am i can barely see, in my bed (so much snot). i’m so scared, more than anyone can possibly try to understand, of it all being gone. of never having to take a pill for this anymore (i still have dat mental illness so not those), or of never needing the knowledge of different types and locations of headaches. i’ve began to feel prideful in having a neurological condition. it makes me something, i have something i can tell. this is the thought that started the spiral. i feel something with this pain. what will happen when i can’t feel this anymore? what will i turn to next? what does the loss feel like? (is that corny or shallow bc it sounds so??) my therapist asked me ‘why i didn’t want to rid it?’ and i was like ‘i genuinely don’t know’ to which he replied ‘i think you do’ and i was all sIR i legit don’t know pls tell me. i made up this random guess and stuttered through it, it felt out of body almost, leaving my lips. what if getting rid of this physical pain forces me to submerge myself in my emotional pain and deal with that? i feel like i have none pls..me?? i’m chill sans the moments like this. (he also says my tether to pain is like penance, some kind of self punishment i feel i deserve..so lettuce chill bro). but the physical pain of headaches, the imbalance, the dizziness, even the numbness in my legs, i always feel something. it’s something i can remember in my head then move past. and when i remember it later, it’s intoxicatingly satisfying and i want it to happen again. i wish i collapsed or had to crawl to my room more often. i like..want to boast about it?? i remember that moment vividly being a ‘this is it’ one too. i was home alone crawling to my room bc my legs gave out and i needed my meds for my pounding headache, and i genuinely thought i was gonna die there on the floor. that moment of me hating and scared of it though is so fleeting, only lasting the day probs. and a part of me will always hate it. that’s normal. but that’s not strong enough to overcome me. it’s bittersweet.

“it’s not the same, but it’s similar to people losing their limbs, or injured so badly they’re forced to give up their career, or an addict quitting using drugs.” sure, but you can notice, you can see all that. this is all in my head.  unless you see my mri’s you would never even guess. it was why i wished my diagnosis was something with seizures, at least that’s something noticeably neurological that i can recognize myself. (am i a bad person? baby no doubt.) my old roommate once said she didn’t even know i had headaches often because i never complained or mentioned it. i would just go to the pantry and take my pill as you would with a cookie. and i’ll never be any other way, and i never was. i grew up closing the bathroom door when i threw up, washing my face after crying and walking back in the kitchen to my mom. i grew up missing moments of laughter and joy with my sisters to just lay in a dark room in pain, being checked on at the some time in the night. even to this day, i will sit in lectures when my head is pounding and i know i’ll throw up soon. anyways, my three sisters were talking about one of the other’s qualities and how amazed they are bc ‘they would never’. one of them had actually gone to class, and i softly mentioned how i am like that too, i think i’ve missed three classes in my four years (minus calc bc the class was more confusing than teaching myself). i said i’ve sat through night classes with headaches and with no meds for three hours and they were like mmm. i almost felt jealous that she always spoke of her small and big achievements, and i speak of none. no one even knew my major till this year. why, allah, why am like this? what made me too reserved and careless of myself? my education is the only thing that makes me feel worthy in the eyes of others...so mine, and i never even share it. it’s that, perfect on paper, that’s how i want to be. (because i know i’ll never be otherwise) i get up in a week of seclusion & sobbing and head off to class, sometimes i cry in class (iconic moments truly, your glasses hide wonders). last year i was sitting in this three hour class with excruciating (and i don’t use that lightly) pain in my head to the point where i had to cradle it with my hands and nearly bang it against the table from thrashing, i was in the middle of the room so i did a 10/10 job at playing it off. i never went to the bathroom or even home early...because i had another class after..which it persisted in. i had never felt that before in my entire life. another day, i silently cried like you wouldn’t believe in the bathroom stall (after uncharacteristically leaving the room) then wiped my tears, fixed my makeup and went right back into class. anyways does that even matter? am i even strong? i want to be so badly. for real this time, not this image. and i’m not. i’m barely enough as it is. 

odd tangent: i don’t care enough or at all about the people i should and i lie to make em feel good and feel better. i know people that love me would still, with this loss of pain, but i doubt myself, and i underestimate them yeah. i say 'them’ like i care what half the people in my life think or care about, it’s just noor and rose. i love rose but i don’t bring these things up, i don’t normally update and i don’t think i’ve ever opened up about my trauma enough for it to mean more than anything superficial. we have this beautiful relationship, yet i don’t find purpose in telling her if need not be, maybe one day. it’s different with noor. i babble all the damn time about everything and feel myself have no filter with these things. i mean, i mention noor to rose too, as if she’s a mutual friend. i care for them both. i love them both in different ways, both ways that are rare for me. rose wasn’t the first person i’ve met or cared about, but she was the first person i remember loving the way i do. i wish i could describe how i feel for noor simply, but i can’t. there was a long-while where she was more important to me than my family, even my sisters (i know, i was like uhmmm). i’ve written something, poem or prose, of almost everyone that was close to me aka 4 peeps (let’s not get wild here). and yet, i’ve written nothing of noor. i’ve written for her yes, but not of her. i tried and it’s arguably the hardest thing to do and i’m quite adequate at writing, if i do say so myself. i tried once in 2017, i stared at the screen for so long just backspacing bc nothing made sense. she’s my emotional support high school sweetheart that renders me powerless with my own words. (does that help?)

back to our scheduled program:  physical pain. it’s been maybe 10 years now that i’ve made a home for it. sometimes the lights go out when it gets bad, and sometimes i decorate with flowers when it excites me and brings something new. the house is probably the ugliest thing you’ve even had to lay your eyes upon, but it’s the best i got and it’s mine to come home to. i wouldn’t give her up without a fight. and i think that’s what my mind has been doing for so many months. trying to save my home, trying to keep every symptom of pain that i have. one day i’ll have to move out or i just die in here. both are changes i just can’t seem to make. i feel like i’m running out of time to sell it and move out, to do something and get rid of the pain. and, i feel like i’m making a mistake choosing to die in here, ignoring it and having it stay or get worse. if it gets worse, i’ll need help and the day i stop feeling like a burden to people, especially my family, let me know would ya. i don’t even often know how to ask for help if i wanted it - and then there’s being cared for that’s a nope to me. i can handle every moment of my pain from all my symptoms and condition, and yet i’m the weakest person in so much. i’m not a person that fears much, most times i find it impractical honestly. i reminded myself of that on my bedroom floor last year in february, during a moment of weakness. (also yes i use a lot of home analogies in writing ok) note: i’ve been mulling through this surgery decision for maybe a year on end now.

do i wish i was scared and worried to feel an ounce of normalcy? of course. but i’m not, i wasn’t even relieved with the diagnosis that day, went out and got pizza broo. even when i thought i was going insane. because what does it matter if it doesn’t change the pain? it’s kind of strange, but when i think of all this physical pain ( is it mental too idk??), i hear this voice in my head that smoothly and confidently says “gimme all you got.” i daydream of how much more i can take, what different things my brain and body can devise before i crack. and, obviously this voice personified does this...with finger guns.

[gokoulane]

Surprised?

Pertaining to a hypercritical life event, I am quite unsure about the availability of my time by the end of this month to write this blog post. So, trying to churn out something before I get super busy. Isn’t something better than nothing?

A quick recap from the last blog post in this trek series. We kick-started our journey from Chennai and landed on Dehra Dun via a flight. From there, we hired a cab to reach Rishikesh, our base camp.

Day 2: 28th July 2019

We woke up around 4 am as instructed. Being a habitual early riser, it wasn’t hard at all for me. In no time, we quickly packed our bags and lunch for the day. Then we had a quick huddle for instructions followed by flagging off the bus by 5 am. The route was quite scenic with the clouds passing over the mountains, the valleys and the rivers flowing through them. Believe me, there is nothing like the view of breaking of dawn over the mountains. And, that’s the kind of scene I adore a lot.

Flag Off

Caught In Action – Driver

Dawn Over The Mountains

Valley and the river

It was all fine until our driver stopped the bus out of nowhere. Initially, we thought he stopped for nature’s call. But was super shocked at what we saw a few feet away. It was a bus simar to ours met with an accident and about to plunge down the valley. The only thing that was holding the bus from falling down was a thick fiber optic cable and a stone beneath it. Luckily it was just the driver riding the bus empty who somehow managed to escape safely. Then I realized it’s not just the climate on the mountains that’s unpredictable, the roads too. It took almost an hour for the local authorities and workers to slightly widen the road allowing passage of vehicle in a direction at a time. In the meanwhile, we had bread-jam, biscuits, and juice that we packed in bulk from the base camp.

That one bus crash

After a couple of hours on the road, the driver stopped by a Dhaba. Damn, I wouldn’t have stuffed myself with bread-jam and biscuits if I would have been aware of such hot and yummy Parathas that I could get on the way. Again around 11 am, we took a brief stop for some tea. It was such a bliss to drink tea by the riverbank covered by mountains. OMG, the view was breathtaking and even made not so good tea feel worthwhile. Later we crossed the town of Karnaprayag and stopped for lunch around 1.30 pm. We munched on stale Chapathi and Bhindi (Ladies finger/Okra) that we packed from our base camp. Luckily, the nearby shop served some Maggi for rescue.

Hot Parathas on the making

Tea & the mountains

Packed lunch – stale Chapati

A scene worth the bad tea

Maggi to rescue

A yet another 4 hours of tiring continuous bus journey took us to our next camp Joshimath aka Jyotirmath by 6.30 pm. Luckily they served some hot Tea and Pakodas for relief as soon as we checked in. As we freshened up, around 8 pm, some hot Rotis and Potato Curry were served for dinner. After some 12 hours of continuous and tiring bus journey, all I needed was some good rest. I dozed off with a little excitement of trekking after a long gap the next day. That’s how a yet another awesome day came to an end.

One long bus ride

Chai & Pakoda

Day 3: 29th July 2019

Being an early riser, I woke up around 5 am as usual. As the dawn broke, I stood in a corner and rejoiced the view of clouds slowly moving over the mountains far away. Though it was a bit cold outside, the serenity of the environment brought peace and warmth to my soul. Narcissistically, I thanked my self for giving me such a blissful experience. Then came the hot Tea to add some warmth to the body too. While I was busy clicking some pics, our camp leader pointed to a nearby mountain and asked what do I see. After taking a closer look, I replied, it looks like a face. Then he corrected me saying, they call it the sleeping lady. Damn, how did I fail to notice, it did look like one.

Basil

A random plant

Magic of raindrops

The sleeping lady

Beautiful cloud formation

Least I knew, Joshimath is famous for its temples. It’s also home to one of the four Maths established by the Indian saint Adi Shankaracharya. As most of us were interested, we decided to visit a few temples before heading towards our next camp. As planned, we started at 7 am after breakfast. First, we visited the most famous Adi Shankaracharya’s Math (monastery) and the nearby Kalpavriksha (divine tree) where he worshiped. Then we visited the marvelous Narsingh temple.

Kalpavriksha

Devotion in motion

Adi Shankaracharya’s Math

One tall Shiva

Marvelous Narsingh temple

It was around 10 am when we got dropped at Govindghat, from where our trek would commence. For the ease of trek, we were given a couple of options. First, our bags could be ported directly to Ghangaria camp by Mules. Second, the initial 4 km of the route is motorable and could be covered by Jeep. Only after trekking the 1st 4 km, I realized that I failed to factor in an important aspect while considering the options, and that’s my fitness. By the time we reached the Pulna village (end of the motorable road), I was tired and dehydrated. While everyone else in our gang went ahead on their own phase, it was Nigilan who stuck with me accompanied me the whole route. After having our packed lunch at Pulna, to reach the camp alive, we decided to put our bags on the Mule and continue the trek. The next 6km wasn’t that difficult with moderate ups and downs. At the end of 10 km, we had Maggi and Tea in a shop along the fierce stream of water running down the mountains.

This is where the Trek starts

Route to Pulna

The gateway to the Valley

Trek Scenes

Silver thread hanging

Nigilan – The companion

Lunch of the day

Maggi to rescue

I must say, we literally crawled the final 4km. Blame the super steep stretch and exhausted us. It was the mutual pep talks and serenity of the mountains that motivated us all along the way. The sky was almost dark when we reached our camp at Ghangaria (10,000 ft) around 7 pm. Though our friends were worried about us being late, that didn’t stop them from playing a big prank on us. They almost made us believe that our bags were lost as the Mule fell on the way. After freshening up, we had our dinner and played some UNO. I dozed as my body screamed for some rest. That’s how a yet another awesome day came to an end.

Shameless Selfie

One steep route

Damn, 1 more Km

Finally !!!

To be continued …

Trip To Remember – The Valley Of Flowers Trek – Part 2 Surprised? Pertaining to a hypercritical life event, I am quite unsure about the availability of my time by the end of this month to write this blog post.

[sizzlingpenguincollector]

You and Me Against The World: Leavin on a Jet Plane

Middleton - Saturday Morning - Possible Residence.

Kim woke up Saturday morning feeling refreshed from a good nights sleep. However, her excitement only got to her when she realized that today was Saturday and tomorrow was Sunday. Tomorrow; she, Ron and Monique would be boarding a cruise ship known as the S.S Tipton for six months of schooling around the world. To say the least, Kim was super excited. Just think of all the amazing sites and places she'll get to see. Not to mention all the new people she'll get to meet and all the new things she'll get to learn while she's with her best girl friend and her best friend turned boyfriend. The only downfall was that Bonnie was going to be there too, but she didn't let that thought tamper her spirits. After all, the ship was big she might not even hardly see Bonnie except for in classes or around. So, it was gonna be pretty easy to ignore the spoiled rich brat. At least, that's what Kim was hoping anyway.

With that in mind, Kim begin to get ready for the day. She took a morning shower, brushed her hair and teeth. Even got dressed. Today she was wearing her simple green tan top, blue capris and white tennis-shoes. Heading downstairs she could smell breakfast being made by her mother or and father. Entering the kitchen, she found her parents and Ron already in the kitchen. To be honest, Kim wasn't even phased that Ron was already there before she was. In fact, she's known him her whole, so she would've been sad if he hadn't been there. Walking to the table she is greeted by everyone just as her mom puts breakfast on the table. They all sit down and begin to eat.

"So, what's the sea school I'm hearing about from Ronald?" Mr. Possible questioned as he raised an eyebrow at his daughter. "And how come I'm hearing it from him and not you?" Mr. Possible added feeling a little hurt that his own daughter didn't come and talk to him herself. He took a few bites of food and waited for her answer.

Kim smiles and says, "It's nothing to worry about daddy." Kim says sweetly and innocently to try and keep her father from yelling at her. "Its just a contest for school. Monique, Ron and I won and we get to board the S.S Tipton for six months and study aboard. Its this school program called Seven Seas High. They not only teach you about places and history as well as other subjects but you get to stop and various studied places and history and see it for yourself. I want to do this because its an amazing learning opportunity. Not just for me, but for all who's attending the school. Plus it will be good to have for college applications. Even better, I can keep my world saving going through the help of Wade. Its just such an awesome chance that I had to sign up and do it! Plus, we'll be back before graduation." Kim explained with a smile as the parents and Ron can clearly see and hear the excitement in her.

Mr. Possible smiles as his daughter's explanation and says calmly. "Very well. If Monique and Ron are going to be with you then I don't see why you can't go. As you said, its a great opportunity for you to learn and meet new people! And its good for college applications! Just as long as you promise to call in once to every two weeks with us so we know you're alive." Mr. Possible explained as he adds the last part with a serious face.

"Of course daddy! I will always call in and check in with you guys!" Kim smiles with excitement. "Thank you mom and dad, this really means a lot to me!" Kim finishes as she continues to eat her breakfast. Her parents smile and they eat as well...

After eating breakfast Kim thanks her parents as she and Ron go up to her room. Besides, she and Ron were leaving tomorrow for the six months along with Monique and Bonnie, Kim had to make sure she was packed and ready to go. Once inside the room, Kim made sure to keep her door open (her father's rule) and began to pack. Ron hung out on the bed with Rufus and the three of them enjoyed their company.

"How much clothes did you pack Ron?" Kim questioned as she raised her eyebrow wondering what she should pack herself.

Smiling Ron adds, "My whole wardrobe. Were going to be gone for six months! I have no idea what I'm going to when for which day!" Ron finished with thought and realization.

Giggling Kim nods and replies, "Alright sounds good to me!" Kim finishes as she begin to pack her entire wardrobe as well.

It took a while for her to pack all her clothes. But once they were packed Kim was struggling to close one of her suitcases. Luckily though, Ron was able to help her with that and they got everything finished. This left Kim with almost five suitcases and her school supplies/laptop bag. Seeing this, Kim didn't realize she had that much clothes until now. Looking at the time, Kim saw it was around two pm and felt her stomach growl. Sure she eat breakfast, but that was around eight am. Besides, all that packing sure took most of her energy up.

Ron seeing the hungry look on his girlfriends face, smiled and says. "Shall we go to Bueno Nacho for one last lunch date?" Ron question with hope as he took felt his stomach growl.

Smiling Kim nods and says, "We shall! But first, can you pretty please help me move my suitcases downstairs so they are ready to go tomorrow?" Kim questions with hope as Ron nods in agreement.

Bueno Nacho

Kim and Ron sat at their usual table eating their food. Kim could notice her boyfriend's sad expression while she took a bite of her salad. "I'm really gonna miss the taste of cheese and the smell of seasoned beef for sure." Ron said, making Rufus cry as well.

"You won't..." Kim said with a smile. "I just looked on the SS Tipton's website and..."

Ron's face lit up in hope. "It has a Bueno Nacho on board?!" Ron asked happily.

"No." Kim said, causing Ron to frown again. "Two." Ron and Rufus's eyes went wide as not only did the cruise ship have a Bueno Nacho, it had two so they could eat their whenever they wanted. Rufus basically fainted in happiness.

"Two? With two Bueno Nachos, I could basically use one for myself and friends, and the other one to take you out on dates!" Ron said with a smile. Kim just smiled back and leaned in for a kiss that lasted about 6 seconds.

"Hey, there's the lucky couple." A familiar, friendly voice said.

"Oh, hey Felix." Kim greeted with a smile as their wheelchair friend came up to them.

"Staying frosty my man?" Ron asked.

"As always." Felix said with a smile. "So, you two pumped up for tomorrow?"

"As we'll ever be." Kim said before seeing Monique approach them.

"Hey guys. Make sure you're back at home tonight for the party." Monique said with a smile.

"What party?" Kim asked with an arched eyebrow.

"The going away party I'm throwing for all three of us! Your mom said it was alright." Monique explained.

"Oh, that's cool." Kim said. She then notice Bonnie walking into the restaurant. "Hello, B."

"Save your snarks for later, K. And let's just hope that we're not roommates this time." Bonnie said, remembering the time they shared a cabin at cheer camp.

"Believe me. That is the last thing I want." Kim said as she went back to eating her food.

Possible Residence-Saturday Night

It was crowded inside the Possible Household as a banner from the living room hung that read, 'Bon Voyage'. Kim, Ron, and Monique were just hanging around with their friends, making sure they shared proper goodbyes, knowing they won't see each other for six months.

"Well, I say this new start is going off great." Ron said with a smile. Kim smiled back before she noticed her twins brothers, Jim and Tim, aka the Tweebs, approach them.

"Hey Kim! We got you a going away gift!" Tim said with a smile as he and his brother held out two gift boxes.

"You too Ron! We hope you like them." Jim said as they handed out their gifts. Kim and Ron smiled at the rare show of compassion from her mischievous brothers as they opened their presents. Kim gasped as she opened her box to reveal a pair of her original mission outfit.

"How did you even find this?" Kim asked with a smile.

"Easy. eBay." Tim said.

"No way!" Ron gasped as he opened his box to reveal his original Mad Dog costume.

"For the other students so they know how cool you are." Jim said. "And as a promise...

"...we'll stay out of your room for six months." Tim finished. Kim then leaned down and hugged her brothers. The Tweebs then rushed off.

"That was nice of them. Don't you think, James?" Anne asked her husband as they approached Kim.

"They're our boys." James said with a grin.

"I'm actually gonna miss them." Kim said before hugging both her parents. "And I'll miss you guys too." After the hug ended, Kim then left to join Ron.

Drakken's Lair

Caribbean Sea

Inside the evil lair of Kim's arch foe, Dr. Drakken, the blue evil scientist was pacing back and forth, trying to come up with an evil plan. It's been weeks since he was able to come up with a diabolical scheme for world domination. Her assistant, Shego was getting annoyed with her boss's constant walking. "OK! It's been four hours! Have come up with anything evil yet?!" Shego asked, irritated.

"Shego, it's not like something on the television is gonna give us our next evil plot for world domination!" Drakken said. Suddenly, Drakken's TV showed a report of Kim Possible herself.

"Today on Middleton News at 10, teen hero Kim Possible will be leaving her own hometown for six months as part of a special program and will be studying on the SS Tipton." A female news reporter said. As soon as Drakken caught wind of it, he smiled evilly.

"Shego, I suddenly feel inspired." Drakken said. "With Kim Possible busy studying on a cruise ship, there won't be anyone to foil our big plans." Shego smiled back, actually liking what her boss was planning out so far.

"Keep going." Shego inisted.

"And I believe there's another famous person aboard that ship." Drakken said. Shego frowned as she realized that it was another kidnapping plan.

"Oh don't tell me. We're gonna hold the ship and that famous person hostage for a ransom." Shego said, rolling her eyes.

"Zip it! Anyway, everyone knows that Mr. Tipton of Tipton Industries is practically the richest man in America, and his daughter London Tipton is also loaded." Drakken said. "I'm pretty sure that Mr. Tipton would be willing to pay a large sum to make sure his precious daughter isn't hurt, along with the other people aboard his cruiseliner."

"Hmm...going aboard a cruise ship to hijack it and hold everyone onboard, including the rich heiress whose daddy owns the boat for a seriously large sum of money?" Shego asked. "Why not? I'm game. But, how do you suggest we get onboard?"

"I think we can shoot a free ride, courtesy of you know who." Drakken said with a nasty grin, glancing over at the news report of Kim.

Middleton Airport

Sunday

It was a pleasant Sunday morning as Kim, Ron, Monique, and Bonnie sat in the airport lobby, waiting for their flight to be called. The four teens could hardly sleep last night, excited over the potential adventures that awaited them. Their family members were also waiting with them as well, trying not to cry over the goodbyes they'll share soon. "This is gonna be a big adventure for you kids. You're not nervous?" Anne asked Kim.

"Mom, it's no big." Kim said, rolling her eyes playfully again. "But, I'll really miss you guys." She then turned to her cheer squad friend, Tara. "You think you can handle being cheer captain for six months?"

"Hey, you helped me through tough times. I think I can handle it." Tara said with a smile, earning her a hug from Kim.

"Big Brother Ron will miss you so much." Ron said while holding his little sister, Hana. His parents just smiled at the hug their son and daughter shared. Rufus just squeaked angrily, feeling jealous.

"Attention, boarding for Flight 222 from Middleton to New York is now boarding." An announcer said over the airport PA system.

"Well, this is it." Monique said. "Let's get going." Kim and Ron then shared one last hug with their families.

"See you in six months." Kim said with a smile before she and Ron let go.

"I'm going first! Out of the way, losers!" Bonnie said, pushing Kim, Ron, and Monique out of the way. She then walked through the metal detectors, only to set them off. "Stupid bracelets."

Kim and Monique couldn't help but crack a giggle at that. Then, Ron, Kim, and Monique walked through the security system, waving one last time to their family and friends. They then made their way to the boarding counter, unaware that Drakken and Shego were watching through the baggage terminal.

"OK, what's the plan?" Shego whispered.

"We sneak on board the plane, hide in the overhead compartment, then follow the snotty nose brats to the ship." Drakken said. Shego just rolled her eyes before following her boss.

The four teens then made their way to the front of the boarding counter. Rufus then popped up and showed his pass. "Hmm...first class." One of the flight attendants said.

The teens were shocked that Rufus was gonna be flying first class while they were gonna settle for coach. "First class?!" The four teens exclaimed in unison.

"How did you get a first class ticket?!" Ron asked his pet in disbelief.

"Sorry." Rufus squeaked, shrugging his shoulders.

"Right this way. You'll be seated in the VIP section." The flight attendant said.

"VIP?! You gotta be kidding me!" Bonnie exclaimed. "How is it possible that a naked mole rat is going first class, and we're going for stinking coach?!"

"Jealous much? Maybe you're not as fabulous as your hero London Tipton." Kim smirked as she handed her boarding pass.

"You tell her, girlfriend." Monique said with a smile, earning her a growl from Bonnie. Ron and Bonnie then boarded the plane. The four teens then found their seats while Rufus just sat in his first class seat and smiled, happy about the luxuries he was about to get.

"I can't believe we have to sit in coach. Why can't we just relax in first class with Rufus, or better yet take your Sloth so the school didn't have to spend money on our tickets?" Ron said as he put his luggage in the overhead compartment and took his seat next to Kim.

"There is a thing as being modest." Kim said with a smile before giving her guy a peck on the cheek. "Don't worry. It's only three hours. We'll be living in luxury in no time."

A few minutes later, the plane took off, on it's way to New York City. Rufus was looking over the first class menu and just smiled over his selections. He flipped through the yummy choices before the cheese platter caught his eye. "Cheese!" Rufus squeaked with delight as he made his selection.

"Have you made your selection, sir?" A flight attendant asked, to which Rufus nodded and handed his menu back to her.

Meanwhile, back in the uncomfortable coach section, Bonnie was trying to sleep when she was awoke by a small girl kicking her seat. "Hey kid! Will you quit kicking my seat?! I'm trying to sleep here!" Bonnie exclaimed.

"So?" The girl shot back, continuing to kick Bonnie's seat. Kim and Ron just watched from across, smiling widely.

"Well, there's one benefit in being assigned coach." Kim said with a giggle.

Back in first class, Rufus's cheese platter was brought to him. The naked mole at smiled as he dug into his food. It wasn't long until he was filled up. "Finished, sir?" The flight attendant asked. Rufus nodded. After his plate was collected, he sat back and simply relaxed.

Meanwhile, in the tight space of the overhead compartment, Drakken and Shego were pushing and shoving each other, clearly uncomfortable. "Next time we try to sneak on a plane, I'm picking the hiding spot!" Shego hissed.

"OK. I get it. But it'll be worth it soon. Once we're on board the SS Tipton, we'll simply blend into the crowd. Then, when they least expect it, we'll kidnap London Tipton, then stop the ship's engines, holding her and the entire ship hostage. And if Mr. Tipton doesn't comply in time or at all, KABOOM!" Drakken explained.

"Well, let's just hope the ship isn't as crowded as this baggage hold." Shego grunted as they waited for the plane to land.

[calorieworkouts]

CrossFit Ruined My Confidence and Sent Me to the Hospital. Here’s Why I Still Do It

Over the previous One Decade, the fitness market has actually played out a whole lot like a zombie flick. Somewhere in a remote edge of California, a health and fitness craze breaks out, contaminating exercise enthusiasts in a viral spread that starts with an unpleasant impulse but quickly comes to be an indivisible part of the host's life. It's been a years into the epidemic recognized as "CrossFit," and the daring holdouts face loss as the sector breaks down around them in a mess of kettlebells, calf-length socks, as well as bloody pull-up bars.

Of program, CrossFitters might see it differently.

CrossFit is a health and fitness method that methods useful activities-- every little thing from running to gymnastics and also Olympic-style weight-lifting-- carried out at high intensity (frequently indicating "as quickly as possible"). Over the previous years, it's grown from a handful of affiliated gyms in the UNITED STATE to nearly 8,000 throughout the globe.

I've been CrossFitting given that late 2011, and because time, it's constructed me up, busted me down, triggered me to vomit, started much more bodily treatment consultations than I could count on fingers as well as toes, and sent me to the cosmetic surgeon's table for wrist reconstruction. I've seen others tear muscular tissues, knock themselves out on pull-up bars, and also, yes, establish the feared condition rhabdomyolysis (" rhabdo" for brief, a problem in which the body encounters fast muscular tissue malfunction in reaction to anxiety). Despite all that, I still hit the fitness center four or 5 times a week for stomach-wrenching exercises. Here's why.

The Community

When I found CrossFit in late 2011, I was frantically browsing for social electrical outlets. I 'd recently graduated from college and transferred to New York. The city verified both a dream and a headache for a country kid from Kentucky. Though I rejected to confess, I was still reeling from the fatality of my mother's grandpa. In spite of some superb good friends and also coworkers bordering me, I felt lonelier compared to ever before before.

What very first convinced me to join a local "box" (vernacular in the neighborhood for a CrossFit affiliate, or health club) wasn't the guarantee of intense workouts and a fitter body, it was the feeling of area. At an introduction class at a neighboring CrossFit gym, I was a lot more captivated by the sociability, support, as well as kindness than any of the grueling exercises. Members were pushing themselves and also each various other to the verge, then switching contact number as well as making plans to head out on the town after they would certainly recuperated from the day's punishment.

Shared suffering, mutual suck, call it what you will certainly: Pressing yourself to the physical limitation with complete strangers could breed friendships quicker compared to almost anything else I have actually witnessed. CrossFitters get a bum rap for being a zealous, overly affordable team, but that's just partly real. For several in the community, competition starts and finishes with on your own, and every exercise is an opportunity to prove you can press on your own additionally and also much faster than the day previously. (An excellent example imagined above: Me after my very first 500 extra pound deadlift, finished with a lot of good friends viewing.) In CrossFit competitions, it's a typical website to see people finish their workouts and instantly shift from athletes to supporters, yelling support at those they're seemingly contending against-- also when's there's cash on the line.

Joining a CrossFit associate led to several of my toughest connections and also provided me access to good friends with various jobs, interests, and backgrounds. It's been a very useful way to locate common ground with all type of individuals, both inside as well as outside the box.

The Knowledge

I've experienced hurt in CrossFit workouts, including (at the very least) 2 sprained ankles, a drawn back, small hamstring splits, and joint impingements. In late April 2013, the day after a particularly hard and also arm-intensive collection of exercises, I woke up to an inflamed right wrist. When four months of bodily treatment as well as remainder showed futile, I undertook a wrist reconstruction in mid-August. (The picture to the right is of me in the healing space.) I'm only currently obtaining back right into my old workout program, relearning motions that used to appear like second nature.

But to condemn CrossFit for this or other injuries would be a mistake. As with all health and fitness endeavors, it depends on the specific professional athlete as well as his or her instructors to produce a safe setting that minimizes the threat of injury. My fellow CrossFitters had nudged me over and over again to take far better treatment of my joints by using wrist wraps, icing, and also taking more remainder days, guidance I routinely disregarded. I disregarded my body's indicators and also wound up experiencing hurt, something the CrossFit area warns against.

While CrossFitters love pushing the body to its limitations, the area is likewise obsessed with raising knowledge concerning our fantastic human machines. CrossFit's emphasis on flexibility and also recovery strategies has actually brought considerable focus to just what we do around workout, assisting to popularize every little thing from weightlifting shoes to self-myofascial release (aka foam rolling). CrossFit numbers like physiotherapist Kelly Starrett and also activity expert Carl Paoli have functioned to get people across the world more in song with their bodies. CrossFit's methodology highlights a recognition of just how the body functions, as well as the neighborhood has welcomed that pursuit of understanding as an integral component of their experience.

Of training course, CrossFit's emphasis on expanding our understanding of the body has also backfired. By taking wonderful pains to enlighten its coaches as well as athletes on problems like "rhabdo" (it's an essential component of the fundamental CrossFit qualification training course), CrossFit has swiftly as well as wrongly end up being marked as the primary reason for severe overtraining. Yes, I've observed a buddy create rhabdomyolysis while CrossFitting. I additionally understand people who have created it throughout football practices, "regular" strength training in an university health club, and even physical treatment sessions.

CrossFit is still a reasonably brand-new and creating health and fitness methodology, and it will certainly take time before instructors and professional athletes figure out the most safe means to train. Different CrossFit affiliates will certainly likewise vary in the encounter and also skill of their trains, making it a lot more important for individuals to be conscious of how their body replies to training. With their emphasis on expertise and also education and learning, the community is definitely off to a strong start.

The Fitness

I am not, neither will I ever before be, an elite CrossFit professional athlete. In the past, I hit the gym on a daily basis aiming to stay on par with a few of New york city City's elite professional athletes, my failing was a serious experience. I have actually been lucky enough to educate alongside several of CrossFit's leading professional athletes, from sharing reminders with numerous Gamings champions to adding a hill in Iceland with 10 of Europe's fittest males and women (it goes without saying, they beat me to the top). Practically every one of my normal training companions can smoke me on any type of offered WOD, as well as their performances as soon as irritated me when I contrasted it to my own, less-than-impressive results.

These days, however, I'm even more concerned with boosting my very own performance than contrasting it to somebody else's, as well as I'm fortunate to educate along with people who value that objective. CrossFit has actually certainly made me fitter and more powerful than I've ever been, and also the awareness that I'm improving each day is sufficient to solidify the sting of understanding I'll never win the CrossFit Games.

The human body has constraints, organic brakes that differ from someone to the next. Regardless of the intensity of competition, as well as a couple vocal, over-zealous individuals who show up every now and then, I have yet to see a solitary CrossFitter judge or be judged due to their health and fitness level. In my humble point of view, that's the solitary most effective consider getting rid of the stigmas still bordering the fitness industry.

The Takeaway

No two individuals's overviews on fitness are rather the very same, and also the CrossFit neighborhood is no exception. CrossFit damaged me down in means nothing else venture ever before has, yet to me its values has always been among self-discovery as well as enhancement, not failure as well as envy. And that's why I continuously do it.