#and jack ofc is both better and worse; will is only considered a person as long as hes useful

[fung-fungus]

the way jack is like “he’s fine” when will, sick as a dog, shot a man outside of alana’s house at ass o’ clock is ASTOUNDING

like ik jack’s always terrible and overworks will but why does it take hannibal urging jack to do something?

why did no one but hannibal notice will was sick and not doing well AND did something about it?

ik it’s an obvious running theme about the ablism in how people besides hannibal treat will (yes even beverly) but god every time i find a new instance of it or a new angle i fly in to rage

[springday-aus]

Enemies to Lovers!AU with Xiaojun

—

Group: NCT [+ WayV]

Member: Xiaojun / Xiao Dejun

Genre: fluff, comedy, romance 

Type: Bulletpoint AU 

Word Count: approx. 2.4k

so, you’re Xiaojun’s enemy (he thinks of it more of his number one attacker tho)

it wasn’t hard considering he’s always on fight or flight mode and considering his friend group….

fight mode is always activated

(ง’̀-‘́)ง

so it started when you became friends with Ten

the guy is so sociable, so you were bound to meet him and his other friends someday

but jesus christ, there were soooo many of them

it was a party; he threw a literal party of just him and his friends

and then there were others who turned it into a rave (i.e. Hendery, Yangyang, Chenle and Donghyuk)

anyways, you got to mingle and make so many new friends

it was going really well

until Xiaojun entered the picture

things went well with him too, until you made a joke that didn’t exactly land with him

but it landed well with the others

Lucas: “who in their right mind would like mint chocolate”

Xiaojun: “but I like mint chocolate”

You: “then you’re not in your right mind lmao”

YangYang: “I mean, is Xiaojun ever in his right mind tho”

everyone laughs

except for one person

Xiaojun stood up, staring you down for a hot second, before trying to argue back

in which YangYang was the main responder

you didn’t really think much of it, laughing away with the others

but, to him, you just declared war that day

it shouldn’t have bothered him as much as it did

but it did

so, from then on, things just got rockier

bc he started picking fights with you over the littlest things or he would argue with your points no matter what

you didn’t really think much of it bc he was also being picked on everyone else and you were like

every man for themselves huh

it wasn’t until he personally attacked you

it happened on Halloween

and he made an underhanded comment about how he’d look better in anything compared to you

so you made a “friendly” bet

but then you lost

bc Xiaojun looked better in the Jasmine costume than you and he def knew it too

and when he smirked at you

the grudge had been built

that’s probably when the mutual enemy status circulated around your friends

although, if they’re being honest, it’s so entertaining

especially since most of them like to gang up on Xiaojun too

and because of that unity, it’s only made things worse

from what the others can tell

you two don’t hate each other, but you def don’t get along

it ranges to food (e.g. mint chocolate chip incident that NO ONE lets go)

Lucas: “mint choco ain’t shit”

You: “retweet”

Xiaojun: “the attacks”

YangYang: “we cannot trust a man who eats bread with fucking lao gan ma”

You: “you eat what with bread?”

Xiaojun: “shut up. all of you.”

to activities

cue you two fighting about what movie to watch

Xiaojun: “Titanic is a classic!!!”

You: “it’s a joke, there was rOOM ON THE FUCKING DOOR”

Xiaojun: “IT’S ROMANTIC. HE SACRIFICED HIMSELF SO SHE CAN LIVE.”

You: “THAT’S NOT ROMANTIC. THAT’S SUICIDAL, DUMBASS.”

this feud is def bc you’re both petty as fuck

the bickering is nonstop

but, if the nct boys are being honest

they’re lowkey confused bc Xiaojun is supposed to have a really high emotional tolerance

he doesn’t even yell this much at YangYang or Ten

(excluding that one time he hit YangYang with that pillow very hard)

but he does blow off his top when it comes to you

which is sus to a lot of the boys

whenever someone does ask him tho

he just kind of……………

mumbles underneath his breath and then moves onto something else

meanwhile, Yuta: “isn’t he always like that?”

Kun: “who wants to tell him”

lmao, I’m kidding

kind of

anyways, you two are really just going at it

what changes?

you have to go to the dentist and get your molars removed

which means someone has to take you and go pick you up

obviously, Ten was going to do that, considering you two were the closest

so he dropped you off and you had your surgery

so what happened?

welp, your buddy Ten forgot he had a prior engagement and, hence, was unable to pick you up

cue him spamming the groupchat

and Lucas exposing Xiaojun

Lucas: Xiaojun isn’t doing anything Xiaojun: you don’t know that Lucas: I do tho, go pick up (Y/N) Ten: I’ll buy you anything from that green tea cafe you like for a week Xiaojun: deal.

so he came to pick you up, both willingly and unwillingly

and you……. you were more than a hot mess 

you were just a mess 

you basically were just blacked out that entire time after they gave you the laughing gas and completed the surgery

so you remembered absolutely nothing.

your roommate: “this is what you get for doing drugs”

You: “IT WAS PURELY FOR MEDICINAL USE”

You: “IT’S NOT LIKE I DID CRACK”

either way, your roommate let you know of the situation, taking note of how your enemy had to take you home

which

again

no recollection

your roommate: “he’s fucking hot tho”

You: “ugh, I know”

but that’s also when you decided

Ten is a dead man :)

Ten: “I’M SORRY”

You: “YOU BETTER FUCKING BE”

Ten: “I KNOW”

Ten: “............................................but………………………………….”

Ten: “maybeyoushouldalsothankhimfortakingcareofyou”

You: “sorry not sorry, I’m contemplating murder rn”

Hendery: “what do you call a murder against a friend?”

Kun: “don’t”

Ten:

You:

Hendery: “it’s a homie-cide”

You and Ten: “NOT NOW”

anyways

you knew he was right

so after you calmed down, you went to Xiaojun’s place (thanks to Ten), with some sweets to thank him

Lucas opened the door, let you in, and left to go to the gym with Sicheng

Xiaojun came out of his room, a couple of minutes after, disheveled from his nap

and when he saw you in his living room couch, his eyes widened, darting around to avoid looking at you

You: “hi”

Xiaojun: “hello”

You: “why do you look so scared? I’m not gonna jump you”

he stays quiet, the blush becoming more apparent on his cheeks

You: “Ten told me you took me home after my surgery, so…………………… thanks”

Xiaojun: “he bribed me with pastries”

You: yeah, sounds about right

You: “still”

You: “um, I didn’t know what you would like, so I brought some sweets you can just go through”

Xiaojun: “thanks”

it’s silent for another moment and you consider bolting out from the apartment, Wizards of Waverly Place, Harper-style: “see ya in p.e.!” kind of a thing

but he speaks up once more

Xiaojun: “are you feeling okay now?”

You: “uh, yeah, my jaw still kind of hurts”

You: “but I have meds they prescribed to me for the next month or so”

he decides to stop beating the bush: 

Xiaojun: “so do you remember what happened yesterday?”

You: “to be completely honest, no”

Xiaojun: “you… did a lot of things”

You: “what do you mean I did a lot of things”

Xiaojun: “you also said a lot of things too”

You: “..... are these things recorded?”

Xiaojun: “maybe”

Xiaojun: “some”

You: “dELETET HEM”

you actually considered tackling him, but deemed as too Yang-Yang-like

You: “what did I say”

Xiaojun: “I didn’t realize you thought I was handsome”

You: “wait what?”

Xiaojun: “you said, you had a crush on my ‘fine ass’”

You: “you know what? I think I’m gonna pull a Jack and commit suicide, goodbye”

Xiaojun: “ah, ah, ah, you said like, which is… present tense”

You: “semantics”

Xiaojun: “but did you like me at some point?”

You: “does it matter?”

Xiaojun: “yeah, it kind of does”

Xiaojun: “bc even tho we bicker, it’s, like, our thing”

Xiaojun: “plus, you’re kind of cute when you’re threatening to rip off my eyebrows”

You: “I did what?”

Xiaojun: “it’s no different from how you treat me now”

You: “I thought it’s because you don’t like me”

he just kind of shrugs, rubbing his neck rather sheepishly

Xiaojun: “you’ve seen my friends; arguing is our way of showing our affections”

You: “so, you’re saying this is your way of telling me you like me?”

Xiaojun: “I mean………“

Xiaojun: “are you saying you like me?”

You: “are you saying you like me?” 

*cue another argument about who likes who*

eventually, he found a way to shut you up

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

cut to Lucas and Sicheng coming back from the gym to you and Xiaojun making out on the couch

Lucas: “NASTY”

Sicheng: “what did we…. miss?”

Ten somewhere: I fucking called it.

anyways

you both decided to date that day

and you two still bicker an insane amount, which includes you nitpicking Xiaojun’s tastes to Xiaojun refusing to delete those videos of you under the laughing gas despite your threats

but, the only difference is, your arguments can end with a kiss

and it always freaks out the guys whenever you do

Donghyuk: “I’m too young to be seeing this monstrosity”

Mark: “ngl, this is nice for them—they’ve stopped arguing”

YangYang: “I weirdly prefer them arguing over them with those sappy eyes tho”

You: “we can hear you”

Chenle: “but when have we ever cared?”

You: “I’m gonna beat your ‘01 liner ass istg—”

Xiaojun: “calm”

oh, you know what’s fun about your relationship?

you two can’t agree on some stuff right?

so whenever you have to decide something, say a movie or dinner, you two just heads-or-tails it

(there’s also this cute app where you put your options on a wheel and let that decide—the amount of times you’ve used that on your dates…… anyways)

most of the time, on these dates, you seem more like an old married couple and it’s super cute

it’s bc you’re already used to your worse sides coming out—the really petty ones, the screaming ones, the ugly ones

ofc these aren’t from serious arguments that occur

(remember folks, it isn’t healthy for you and your partner to always be fighting)

but when serious arguments do occur, you both take time to sit down and talk face-to-face

it’s hard to get into actual arguments with him, especially since he really is understanding and tries to pay attention to the smaller details

Xiaojun: “I like learning more about you”

You: “you can’t just say that kind of shit to me”

like, yeah, he’ll debate with you all night about why he needs to read the words of his book out loud but, by the end of the day, you’ll lay your head in his lap and listen to his voice as you fall asleep

speaking of which, you love listening to him sing to you

he gets a bit embarrassed sometimes about it, but seeing you smile so brightly at him makes him forget about it

because even tho you two bicker about little things, in the end, it just makes you two laugh at one another and how ridiculous you’re being

I almost forgot, so Ten thinks of him pairing you two off right?

so, whenever he does something annoying to either of you, he’ll constantly bring it up

Ten: “I guess this is how you two treat me, your personal cupid—”

Xiaojun: “yes, yes, we are grateful for you”

You: “but it would be nice if you would stop making those annoying sounds”

Ten: “what annoying sounds?”

YangYang: “that’s just you talking”

okay, no, but yeah—the nct boys are glad this rivalry is over because it was really just…. stupid to the core

but also bc you two look super sweet together and seeing you two making each other happy rather than annoyed is adorable

but just bc you two got together doesn’t mean the pettiness isn’t still there

You: “what type of freak sleeps with their eyes opened?”

Xiaojun: “I’m sleeping next to you, of course I need to keep both eyes open”

You: “RUDE”

Xiaojun: “and yet here we are”

You: “son of a bitch”

Xiaojun: “YOUR son of a bitch”

You: “eh, I’ll take it” 

[eagles-translated]

I’ve been getting a few asks about the storylines in season 2 and I haven’t had the time to respond to them all yet, so I’m making this post and answering all of them at the same time. Thanks to @elliephunk80​ for giving me this idea! 💛🌞

Contains spoilers up till episode 7 of season 2.

I’ll be dividing this couples-wise, since most of my questions seem to be based around the relationships in the new season! They are:

Felicia & Jack Elias & Klara Ludde & Amie Elias & Amie (saving the best for last ofc)

Felicia & Jack

Starting off with Felicia and Jack, which I’m honestly not too crazy about. I definitely like the addition of Jack as a character, but I’m not entirely sure this relationship is a good fit.

In my honest opinion I feel like these two are sort of an odd couple and it hasn’t been addressed by anybody except Elias, who brought up the topic of Jack being Felicia’s old babysitter and how it reminded him of a “sleazy porno”. I wouldn’t go that far, but from what we know there’s a pretty big age gap considering Felicia still isn’t 18 yet and Jack seems to be in his mid-20s. 

And I also just don’t see them having that much in common besides them having known each other in the past and both being good-looking people. It just seems sort of strange, and I don’t get what they see in each other for them to be a real couple. It started out as just a hook-up when Felicia was both drunk and high, and it seems to still be more focused on appearances rather than them actually being in love.

I’m also sort of fearful for Felicia. We know she’s in a really vulnerable state right now - still not being over Ludde, having lost her best friend, her parents divorcing, and being back on drugs.

I still don’t know if Jack really is cheating on Felicia with Olivia (the girl that texted him) but I would say he is. Jack is incredibly confident and charming, which makes him able to easily lie and manipulate people. We know he’s not an entirely good person since he’s already lied to Elias about now knowing that Mats would bring him back to Eagles. I wouldn’t be surprised if he really did hook up with Olivia and ended up being a really good liar.

The fact is that not only did he deny it but he then shamed Felicia for blaming him and causing a scene, ultimately shifting the focus in the argument to her and making Felicia feel bad that she even confronted him in the first place. Jack says that maybe they shouldn’t even be together, which causes Felicia to backtrack and apologize. It’s actually pretty impressive how Jack was able to spin that around to blame Felicia and make her apologize. But it’s not a healthy relationship - there’s this toxicity, the age gap, and I just have a bad feeling all around about how it will end. I really don’t want Felicia to spiral even further down.

As for the fight in the season 2 trailer, that could very well be Jack and Elias! Elias is incredibly protective of his sister and if Jack did indeed cheat on her and it came out that would be a pretty plausible reason for them fighting.

This is a very blurry and low quality picture, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was them. In fact, I can’t see who else it would be. At the time of the trailer releasing I was unsure of who it could be since we hadn’t yet seen Jack in any scenes and how he would fit into the story, but now I’m like 90% sure it’s him.

Elias & Klara

Moving onto Elias and Klara, the unexpected couple of the season. They actually have pretty good chemistry in my opinion, even if they’re not really my preferred pairing.

This might be an unpopular opinion, but we have to consider how much time has passed since that incident. It’s been three months since Klara posted that video and it’s been, what, almost five since she filmed it? I know Felicia is still incredibly hurt but the fact is that three months is actually a pretty long time when you actually think about it. You can’t stay mad at someone forever for something they did, and Elias said himself that he doesn’t blame Klara for what she did. She wasn’t the one who cheated on her boyfriend/betrayed her best friend, and it’s pretty clear that Klara holds some regret to the way she posted the video.

Might be getting sidetracked here, but I’m actually not mad at Ludde and Amie anymore either. They’ve apologized and apologized for three months straight (maybe Ludde more than Amie, but still) and there’s just not that much you can do when the person you hurt doesn’t even want to listen or talk to you. Eventually, you just kind of move on. I honestly feel like Felicia was really annoying when she threw food at Amie and told her to be quiet. Like, yes, we get that they both hurt her but the way Felicia acted and the fact that she couldn’t just be the bigger person bothered me and made me sympathize with her less.

Back to the question - I feel like Elias and Klara make a lot of sense and Klara seems to be becoming a better person when she’s with him. She’s not a complete monster. She’s just a teenage girl with a complicated living situation and probably some jealousy issues. Don’t get me wrong, I hated her back in season 1 for being so nasty, but she’s honestly improving as a person.

I agree. I kind of miss Sara but I like that she doesn’t really hang out with Klara as much anymore. I actually wish that Klara would’ve become more ostracized from her school friends to emphasize how alone she is, but she seems to still be pretty popular so that was kind of disappointing. I thought the fall-out of her posting the video would be worse, but I guess not.

Anyway, I like that they’re taking a disliked character and making her into a better person. Feels like it’s been done a few times before, but I still appreciate them doing it. I hated s1 Klara for being so one-dimensional, but s2 Klara is well on her way to being a pretty good and nuanced character.

First off, I appreciate you too! 💛 But I think I actually disagree a little on the whole Klara thing - yeah, she didn’t really “pay” for what she did, but she’s still aware that what she did was wrong and could’ve been done a whole lot better than posting a video for everybody to see.

If Elias likes her and they’re happy together, I don’t see why they wouldn’t work! I don’t want them to be endgame, but so far I’ve liked seeing them together because they have really good chemistry and they seem to understand each other. 

Ludde & Amie

Ludde and Amie have kind of grown closer this season, not only because they worked on the demo together but also because they both hurt Felicia. I think they’re both feeling really lonely but they’ve bonded as friends. Notice that I said friends and not as a couple, which I’ll explain down below.

So as we know, Amie kissed Ludde in episode 6 when he was in the hospital after having been injured during the hockey game against Karlskrona. She immediately seemed to regret having done that and ran out without an explanation, leaving Ludde alone and confused.

I honestly don’t think Amie has any romantic feelings towards Ludde. I think she might mistake her feelings for a crush or something, when in reality she’s just lonely and appreciates Ludde always being there for her and giving her compliments on her musical ability. Ludde was complimenting Amie at the hospital, saying she was amazing, and I think Amie was just really touched by that and maybe wanted to thank him somehow, and ended up kissing him. And then she freaked out and left because oh my god did she really just kiss Ludde. It was an uncomfortable and awkward situation and that’s probably why she ran out.

However, I really believe that if she had just stayed to explain and apologize, Ludde would understand and they could’ve just laughed it off. But this is a drama show so of course that wouldn’t happen! 

Do I think the writers are making them into a couple? No, definitely not. They know that season 1 was sort of predictable and cliché, so they’re making season 2 as different as possible by including these unexpected pairings such as Klara & Elias and Amie & Ludde. But Amie and Ludde won’t ever be a couple, because Ludde is still very much hung up on Felicia. I don’t see them as a couple either - yes, they have music in common, but they work way better as friends than in a relationship.

I think the kiss was written to 1) be unexpected and throw us off, 2) ensure the viewers that Ludde is still in love with Felicia despite spending so much time with Amie, and 3) to show that Amie is feeling really lonely after having lost her best friend. 

I feel like Amie is getting just as much screentime as she did in season 1, though! She’s got a storyline with Ludde and she’s definitely still a main character. Personally I’m really enjoying the way they’ve divided the time this season.

In the first season, Felicia got way too much screentime and I know they did that to show how many things she went through, but because of the short 20-minute episodes that didn’t leave enough time for everybody else. This time around, it seems more fair and like we’re getting more variety in the storylines. With this change, Elias has also gotten more screentime which I love (because he’s my favorite character, duh) and I feel like if Amie got more screentime than she’s already getting, it would sort of disrupt the whole “balance”.

It’s always difficult to make sure that the characters are all getting enough time to develop their storylines so I can understand your frustration. It’s especially difficult with so few episodes.

Unrelated topic, but an example of this would be Mats and Petra. They’ve both had a few scenes in season 2 but at this point, when we’re seven episodes in and they haven’t been in a single scene together, it sort of feels like the writers forgot about their past relationship. It seemed like the writers were going somewhere with them in S01E07 - Road trip, but maybe that was just to parallel Elias and Amie’s relationship? Bringing us to the next and final subject -

Elias & Amie

Man, these two are SO incredibly popular despite having only shared a few scenes in season 1. And don’t be scared if you think the writers forgot about them, because if you saw the Q&A with Stefan H. Lindén who is both the creator and one of the producers of the show he had some really interesting things to say about them.

He emphasized that the writers know how much the fans want to see them together and that they did have plans for Amie and Elias in the future, just that it might take some time because of how the character dynamics are right now after the fall-out of the Halloween incident (and the fact that Elias is currently in a relationship with Klara).

This is totally a valid opinion too! They’re two vastly different characters and while that’s probably the reason they’re such a popular pairing, it could also be a little off-putting to some people since they don’t really seem to have anything in common. In fact, Amie has a lot more in common with Ludde, but I’d actually argue that her chemistry is better with Elias.

I think we should wait until we get more scenes of them interacting though, however long that may be. 

All in all, I just wanted to express how excited I was to see the scene in the hospital and how excited Elias was to see Amie (and even complimenting her hair aaaa). He expressed that Amie and Ludde did mess up, but he doesn’t seem upset or mad at Amie at all which was a relief. He just got so adorable around her and I’m really impatient to see them together haha but I have total faith in the writers!

To finish this off, there’s still 3 episodes left so anything could happen. It’s really exciting to see what will happen with Amie in Stockholm and with Ludde having turned himself in to the police, and I absolutely can’t wait for the next episode!

[thcllslnrd]

Midnight, The Stars and You

So I was watching Doctor Sleep again yesterday with my mom, since she didn’t get to see it when it came out, and of course I got feels about Danny and Abra’s niece/uncle relationship so kjsdfhkd ofc I wrote a lil smth for it 

Also this movies been out since like...November 2019?? So I probably don’t need to say it, but spoilers for all of Doctor Sleep and The Shining!!

Summary: Abra’s been doing okay after the night at The Overlook hotel with Rose and her Uncle Dan, but she still has some questions after she keeps hearing a certain song.

Sometimes Abra could still hear the music.

See the flames from The Overlook, the burning wood collapsing over the piles of snow surrounding the hotel.

The smell of ash still stung in her nose, as if she was stuck standing there and watching it burn forever on a loop. The ash in her hair, the sirens from police cars starting to ring louder and louder as she just watched.

What else was she supposed to do?

She knew it was for the better of everyone. What happened to Rose, the hotel...to her Uncle Dan. But that doesn’t mean it still didn’t keep her up at night, plague her dreams day and night, sometimes worse than others.

Sometimes she had days where it was all she could think about. It wasn’t scary anymore, not after knowing what good it did to let that hotel fall, to let the spirits in the hotel eat Rose alive, to get Uncle Dan back to his mother after all those years of waiting and waiting.

But she never remembered hearing the song when it all went down.

Sometimes it played when she wasn’t thinking, doing her homework or washing the dishes after dinner, and she would catch herself eventually.

Midnight, with the stars and you… Midnight and a Rendez-vous

She never heard it that night. Not when Rose was in her mind, not when they were both in Uncle Dan’s mind, not even in room 237. She assumed it had something to do with all that though, something she didn’t know everything about.

She first heard it trapping the old lady in the bathtub of her own home, like an echo of her spirit.

She locked the old woman up in a chest, eventually creating a trail of chests, like in the maze from Uncle Dan’s mind. It was the only way she knew how to keep control of all the Overlook spirits that followed her, but the song came with all of them, not only from the woman in 237. The bartender, the old caretaker from the 1920s, the twins.

There was a missing puzzle piece to all of this somewhere that made everything make sense in the end.

So Abra did the only thing she knew she could do after months of listening and questioning.

“Uncle Dan? ...Are you awake?” The younger girl sat at the foot of her bed, eyes closed, legs crossed, shining as loud as she could.

From what she understood, it took no effort for her to be heard, the way she Shined.

“I’m always awake for you, Abs.” She opened her eyes, hearing his voice, not his Shine.

There he was, standing by her window. It’s where he always showed. He did like to move around though, sit on the floor, sit on the bed next to her when she couldn’t sleep, brain too busy thinking about Overlook, the Knots.

It helped to have someone who understood what happened by her side, and he knew how helpful it would’ve been if he had someone like himself at Abra’s age.

“Hey, Uncle Dan. How have you been doing?”

“I’m doing pretty good, actually. How about you? Usually, I come to you first, not that I don’t mind seeing my favorite niece a little extra.”

“I’m doing...good, all things considered.” Abra smiled warmly, switching the position of her legs and getting comfortable.

She wasn’t sure how to ask all this, if it was a sensitive topic for Uncle Dan, or if he even had the answers she was looking for, but there couldn’t be any harm in asking. It wasn’t like her mom had any answers for her, or she had any other Shiners to go to.

“I do have a question, though. I’ve been noticing something about the spirits, just the Overlook spirits, as I’ve been retrapping them.”

Your eyes held a message tender, saying "I surrender all my love to you"

Her Uncle Dan joined her now, sitting on the corner of her bed. He knew there were still some things she didn’t know, didn’t have time to learn or understand before he dragged her and Rose in with him.

“What’s going on, Abs?”

She was quiet for a moment, looking at the wall in front of her, remembering the way they used to talk back and forth before they actually met, before the Knots, before the Overlook.

“Do you, or... did you ever hear this song? It’s like...like this old jass song, and every time one of the spirits follows me or gets close, I hear it. I don’t know why its there or what it means, but sometimes I feel like it’s on a constant loop. I always hear it from the spirits, but sometimes I think of it on my own too, and it’s this continuous background noise I have playing in my head.”

Uncle Dan immediately knew what his niece was talking about when she brought it up. The song that he linked to all the things he used to see when he was just a kid, when his dad was spiraling at the Overlook, when he started seeing and hearing more than usual.

“...Yeah, I know the song.”

Midnight brought us sweet romance… I know all my whole life through

He started humming quietly, not remembering the words well enough, but the music a steady lullaby in his head.

Abra nodded upon hearing her uncle repeat the music back to her.

“Where does it come from? It’s the hotel, isn’t it?”

Now her Uncle Dan nodded, following with an explanation. He’d need to go slow, get this all out properly in a way she’d understand. She was a big girl though, it wasn’t going to be a hard task.

“Yeah, it is,” He sighed quietly before starting from the beginning. “Back when I was a little kid, when my dad took the job as caretaker of the Overlook, is when I found out more about my Shine. I had no idea what it was or why I had it. I actually thought it was some sort of imaginary friend because that’s what my mom, Wendy, called it. I called it Tony and everything.

“But on our first day at the hotel, I met an older man who worked as head of the kitchen, Dick Hollarann. He knew as soon as I got there that I had a Shine, and he sat me down and helped it make sense to me. I still didn’t really get it because I was young and didn’t understand how something like that could be real, but looking back now it makes a lot of sense. He explained how we see things more than the average person, the way we get visions and can predict things, or can see things that happened a long time ago, and how everyone’s Shine is different. But...he also warned me.

“He told me about the Overlook, about how it had a ‘certain Shine’. I didn’t understand what he meant until about a month and a half down the road. My father, Jack, was a writer, he started to...lose himself a little more every day. Would lash out at my mother, grow violent, wouldn’t sleep, wouldn’t make a lot of sense when he spoke about certain things. Do you remember that night when the hotel possessed me? When I wasn’t me?”

Abra just nodded, listening to her uncle tell of his past.

“I think it was the hotel slowly consuming him. It never felt like him after so long, after I had to escape through the hotel window and run away from him. My mother and I eventually escaped, and my father died out there in the cold. I didn’t know for sure until I came back that night, but I always felt that he become a spirit of the hotel. Like everyone else who died from madness there. Dick actually died in the hotel too. I learned that a few weeks later when he came to visit me like I do with you, but he was never at the hotel’s mercy anyway.

“I never actually heard the song until sometime after too, when I started locking the spirits up myself, but I think it’s the hotel. There was a big ballroom with a bar that I used to play in, had plenty of room for me to ride around on my little tricycle, so maybe something happened there. Maybe that’s where it all started, maybe that’s where it comes from, or that’s where the madness started from, but I don’t know for certain. I’m okay with not knowing for sure now, but I know that’s where it stems from. It’s all connected to the hotel.”

That...that made sense to Abra. The Overlook had always been bad news, years and years before her Uncle Dan took her there and burned it down, but now that the spirits where left for her, it was going to always be apart of her.

“How long did you have to deal with the spirits? Have to listen to the song?”

I'll be remembering you, whatever else I do

Her Uncle Dan placed a hand on her back, smiling. “I was much younger than you, so it took me a few years to get everything locked up, but we both know how strong you are, Abs. It’ll take you no time at all to trap the Overlook guests and any other harmful spirits that come your way. The music, however...it stuck with me for a very long time. The hotel’s gone now, so maybe it won’t stay as long for you, but it took me a long time before I could ever stop listening to it. It’s a piece of you Abra, but I promise it can do no harm to you.”

Abra smiled at her uncle, nodding along slowly again. She had no idea how much had happened before she got there with Uncle Dan and Rose, but it made all the more sense. Walking down the halls and around the lobby of the hotel was enough of a scare. The old caretaker, the blood pouring out of the elevators. She couldn’t say that she’s ever seen Jack Torrence though, but if he’s apart of the Overlook, his time will come one day.

Besides, the song never did sound so bad anyway.

“Thanks, Uncle Dan. Everything makes a little more sense now.”

“No problem, kiddo. You deserve to know about it, the way you’re picking up after everything now. I can only do so much here, but I never mind a little talking.”

“I don’t mind a little cleaning up, either.” Abra smiled, standing up after her uncle did. It was late, her open windows letting starlight fall in through the room. Danny did notice the alarm clock on her nightstand, glowing a bright red 10:47 pm.

“If you’ve got any other questions or just wanna talk, you can always call, but I think we should call it for tonight. Six o’clock rolls around early.”

Abra just laughed at her Uncle Dan before taking a few steps forward, leaning up and wrapping him in a hug.

“...I love you, Uncle Dan.” Her voice was a bit muffled, her face pressed against his chest in the embrace, but the words were unmistakable.

Danny smiled to himself, placing a hand on her back and hugging her in return.

“I love you too, Abra.”

Eventually Abra pulled away from her uncle, climbing into bed and turning off the lamp on her nightstand. The man waited for his niece to bury herself under the covers and get comfortable, knowing she’d need the sleep for school tomorrow. He walked back to the window and leaned against the wall, smiling back at his niece.

Midnight, with the stars and you…

“Shine on, Abra Stone… Shine on.”

[viktcrr-alt]

MAXENCE DANET FAUVAL / NONBINARY — don’t look now, but is that viktor samuels i see? the 24 year old visual arts student is in their senior year and he/they are a rochester alum. i hear they can be observant, ingenious, reticent and dependent, so maybe keep that in mind. i bet he/they will make a name for themselves living in garcia row. ( james. 20. est. she/they. )

LAST INTRO WOOOO !! u know what to mf DO !!

TW DEATH, HEAVY GRIEF, OVERDOSE / DRUG ADDICTION, HOSPITALIZATION, HYPERSEXUALITY, RELIGION MENTIONS, MENTAL ILLNESS

a e s t h e t i c s

old tvs and their static, worn tapes, horror movie screams, spilled ink, a sculptor’s hands, clay-stained, chicken scratch handwriting, messy notes, messy hair, scoffs and eye-rolls, bruised knuckles, sore throats, funeral homes and a crying preacher, shattered ceramics, knife fights, high ledges, vertically-striped pants, red lights, the moon shrouded in clouds, cigarette butts.

general info !!

full name: viktor phillip samuels

nickname(s): icky vicky :/

b.o.d. - jan 2nd

label(s): the black hole, the crepehanger, the impious, the opaque, the tempest, etc.

height: 6′0″

hometown: rochester, new york

sexuality: uuuhhh god … probably pan tbh

pinterest

stats

biography !!

okay so … born and raised in rochester, new york to the well known samuels family. preacher father, a mother, a twin sister born 15 minutes before him - aka tatiana samuels, who died back in january.

kinda … grew up as a really awkward, quiet kid? like … just didn’t really interact with other kids super well, preferred being alone and like … digging up bugs in the dirt. only friend was like … his own sister.

grew out of this as they got older, instead sort of … becoming a bit of a dick? to compensate for years of awkwardness? will bite the hand that feeds him. was a full on nuisance by middle school. tatiana was not, at least, noticeably.

has always been a fan of darker materials, y’know - grim and creepy, morbid shit. big fan of tim burton ever since he was a kid, which isn’t … a good look for a preacher’s son, but he’s never really felt ~in~ with the rest of his family, anyway.

drew disturbing pictures as a kid probably tbh that prompted one or two or five phone calls home 2 assure everything was fine.

has always been really … good at art, in general - from drawing to painting to playing with clay, that’s always been viktor’s Thing.

aNyWaYs. being tatiana’s twin brother was kinda hard sometimes. tatiana and him were near opposites besides their same mean-spirited trait. she was better in the public than he was, but viktor was arguably more talented than tatiana. they both loved each other deeply and found each other as competition for their parents’ attention - a rivalry, of sorts.

high school is when viktor really started to act out - started extreme, like losing his virginity in their church and vandalism around the neighborhoods. faked being possessed in the middle of sunday service. almost had an exorcism performed on him, probably.

the only redeemable trait was like … his sheer talent with art. was in a 3d art AP course, specialized in sculpting - could pretty much create anything he wanted with enough dedication.

because his parents would be focused on disciplining him for his antics, tatiana could sneak away and get away with stuff easier. so like, y’know, that’s on the bright-side of things.

never been particularly motivated to do much - wasn’t planning on attending lockwood but his parents kinda … did and sent in his application for him b/c they were Not on board with him Wasting Away (wanted him out of the house asap)

actually pretty smart !! just doesn’t like … want to apply himself ever. double majoring in english and visual arts because they’re like … two of his only interests :/ plus he wants to write and illustrate his own series of children books with a style similar to tim burton’s

he’d been experimenting since high school but college is where he really started to like … crack down on himself and figure himself out. was out as pan & nonbinary by his sophomore year of college, just … not to his family, necessarily. thinks tatiana always knew, but didn’t … really use it against him, blessedly enough

always felt like the whole twin - connection thing was … both wack and also not-wack? sometimes it felt believable but sometimes he had no idea what was going on in tatiana’s head. but he felt oddly transparent to her, always - like he was predictable to no one but her.

( TW DEATH, GRIEF, OVERDOSE / HOSPITALIZATION BEYOND THIS POINT )

but when tatiana disappeared - it was like, like viktor knew. the moment she had been kidnapped - felt something deeply wrong in his gut. and when tatiana died - viktor felt something cut so severely in him. he knew, he always knew exactly when. he couldn’t put his finger on how - but he knew. even when everybody else held out hope for her to be found - he knew.

went on a bender around the same time, had always struggled w/ drug addiction but it got worse the longer tatiana went without being found.

( also struggled heavily with his mental health, too ?? has manic and depressive episodes. will fixate on a sculpting project for six months and then purposely knock it off the table and destroy it in the matter of seconds once it’s finished for. no fucking reason. impulse spends A Lot. )

when her body was found, viktor went off the rails. ended up overdosing and being hospitalized where he spent the next like … however long months … until they deemed him better.

has been back since the beginning of fall semester in an attempt to finish his senior year - mostly out of his parents’ insistence that he did, because he very much did not want to. 

is still dealing with a lot of trauma & grief, which was only amplified with dean lockwood’s death - causing him to spiral and be unpredictable with his mental health. some days are good, and some days are very bad.

personality !!

the human embodiment of a gremlin, fed after midnight. a goblin, if u will. one of those cats with a narrow head and big ass ears. that’s him.

b i g horror & halloween enthusiast. loves the old campy horror movies. probably has an abundance of masks from different movies. dresses like a grimy millennial beetlejuice more than he should. love those vertically striped pants!

fashion alternates between e-boy (would b tik tok famous if he were like … 17), millennial beetlejuice, and like … goth in a crop top and sweatpants. big fan of crop tops. big fan of sweatpants.

he can be fucking mean. petty, aggressive, instigator. will literally spit in ur face or no reason. kind of person who’ll stick his gum into other ppl’s hair. other than that he’s like … pretty okay. he’s not always mean, he’s just a dick like … 70% of the time lmao

i mean yeah okay he’ll call someone a stinky bitch for no reason except He Feels Like It And Believes It. it’s fine he’s fine, we’re fine.

despite the fact tht he’s probably getting into fights whenever - considers himself 2 be a lover n not a fighter but that’s just because he Fucks a lot. kind of uses it like a coping mechanism, like he���s this big fancy carnival show that’s like ‘come one, come all! fuck the dead girl’s twin brother!’ may have a problem w/ hypersexuality but it’s nothing he’s fully. aware of.

the preacher’s whore son, basically

like i said he’s pan & nb, switches between he and they pronouns but like … he has such a fragile grip on his identity that u could call him ‘dog-faced bitch’ and he’d turn like hey wassup :)

vastly impulsive, like i’ve mentioned … destroys his own creations 4 the fun of it, spends all his money on useless shit, will cheat on someone bc he feels like it. screams into the night sky frequently, like a cat in heat.

i mean he also creates useless shit for no reason too. spent six months sculpting a hollowed out tree the size of him and then took a sledgehammer to it.

dramatic fuck. used to play the organ at the church like … when no one was looking after him and service was about to start. just these creepy as melodies. would do the same thing at home on his keyboard w/ the organ setting whenever he got grounded until his parents took away his keyboard sadjfkg

won’t talk about his time away b/c it’s not rly anybody’s business but ofc nothing is sacred to the watershed app, y’know, nothing’s private.

still like - he absolutely refuses to talk about tatiana’s death and like, his mental health or his addiction (he’s fallen back into it tbh but it hasn’t gotten bad again … yet) or like … anything involving his own emotions

will literally just change the topic! abruptly, no warning, asks about the jonas brothers instead.

that being said he’s obsessed with tatiana’s death. tatiana was very much a rock for him, kinda dependent on her in a way? just … being there, y’know, kept him grounded.

so he obv became a shepherd bc he wants to know Everything there is abt the app, wants to be deep inside it, wanted to know Who Exactly Killed Tatiana and like … not saying he wants 2 commit murder but :/ yknow. he’s very upset.

emotionally unavailable while also like crying twice a day.

will tell you straight up what he wants from you, no bullshit, no beating around the bush - just blunt. if he wants to just fuck, nothing else, then that’s that. if he feels deviation he’ll ghost in like. less than a second. kinda awful like that! feels no shame.

but like … also is emotional ?? as shit ?? it’s confusing. he’ll cry on a whim and then flip u off if u try to console him or like. ask him anything. will bite you.

he goes to therapy but he generally fucks around and wastes most of the time until the therapist threatens to like … idk what therapists r allowed to threaten. to send him off to another therapist? idk.

likes being intimidating but like … not with his body or nothing ‘cos he’s a TWIG, but like … uses his love for horror n creepy shit to his advantage. has an abundance of fake blood. has channeled the energy of jack nicholson and used it on tatiana’s boyfriends before.

( also a big fan of sfx makeup, has dabbled in it)

probably chases kids with a chainsaw (w/o the like … chain … or w/e … so it’s not actually Dangerous) around halloween

he’s generally never doing good, both mental health wise and morally.

would probably steal candy from a baby for the fun of it.

i don’t know if there’s a good to him, deep down, and i don’t know if he sees any issues with himself either !! nothing really breaks through to him anymore, the only person who ever really made him stop and Think about his actions was tatiana.

kinda introverted, recluse type who doesn’t rly like most people or going out, but he’ll go to parties if it means he’ll be high as shit.

pretty observant. likes to analyze people even though he’s probably not … fully right.

wanted connections !!

he lives alone currently but like … ex - roommates where viktor was just. a nightmare to live with.

feel like a lot of enemies is also a possibility !! viktor’s messy.

people that like … knew tatiana. dated tatiana, even, and viktor would pretty much try to intimidate / scare them at any given chance :/

close friends of tatiana too

people who hated tatiana but liked viktor. people who hated viktor but liked tatiana

people who take pity on him and he Hates it viciously and vocally.

a band of hooligan gremlin kids who do drugs and fuck shit up around town like they’re edgy teenagers even though they’re all early to mid 20s.

the girl he lost his virginity 2 in high school lmao … a distant memory

fellow rochester locals, from church or school or whatever

exes from the past !! good terms and bad terms, but i love bad terms a whole lot mainly b/c viktor’s a jackass.

don’t know if he’s soft towards anybody but we can try. we can Try.

friends, old friends, new friends, bad friends, good friends, close friends, frenemies, etc. etc. all of it

hookups !! so many hookups. fwbs, one night stands, whatever.

uuhhhh god. i don’t know. im so sleepy rn. people in the same major or similar majors.

maybe a ride or die.

people he’s a bad influence on / an enabler towards / all around toxic for them / each other.

people he’s fought !! people who’ve seen him get into random fights and were like ‘uh wtf’

fellow shepherds !!

literally anything im not picky.

[andinewton]

Healing the Hurt - Avengers Redemption Series - Part Two - Chapter 38

Characters: Bucky Barnes, Amelia Richards (OFC), pretty much everyone from the MCU appears at some point!

Pairings: Bucky x Amelia (ofc)

Warnings:  Chronic pain, physical disability, implied smut, eventual smut, swearing, fertility issues, pregnancy, angst with a happy ending, Stark has a heart.

Word Count:  151372 (complete with additional epilogues added)

Summary: 
Everything is going well at Avengers Tower, Bucky is integrating into the team slowly but surely; he longs for his confidence back but knows it's going to be a long road, never more than when he meets the new secretary at his doctor's office.

Amelia Richards is a career SHIELD agent, recruited straight out of college into the "company" but now she finds herself passed around from department to department, her latest position as a secretary at Avengers Tower proving monotonous compared to her former life, but when James "Bucky" Barnes walks into her office one Friday evening everything changes…

Join Bucky as he rediscovers parts of himself he had thought long lost with someone who considered herself broken for a long time, helping one another heal in more ways than one…

Master List

Chapter 38

Summary:  Tony offers casual therapy sessions, Sam rocks his own inner mother hen, Bucky finally gets his dance, and unlocking the files begins.

Tony lugged one of the two computer towers through the door of his lab. He had forgotten technology had come on so fast that just ten years ago this lump had been the norm. No biggie, he could hook it up to any of his tech for Amelia and himself to work on, but damn, he forgot how heavy these things were. ‘Backwards tech delivery for the whizz kid.’ He called as he saw Amelia seated at a desk, reading a file, her laptop beside her, the gear from the tower arriving before the rest of the team. ‘On your own?’ ‘Bucky’s gone for coffee.’ She explained as he put the computer tower on the desk. ‘Is that the first one from,’ she paused, ‘from the house?’ She said eventually. It hadn’t been her home for a long time, and it felt even less so since she found out she knew nothing about what her parents had actually been doing there.

‘Sam’s bringing the second one.’ Tony informed her. ‘How’re you holding up?’ ‘Great.’ She said sarcastically. ‘Not everyday you get grabbed by HYDRA and find out…so much.’ She decided on. ‘I’ll deal with it, but it’s... You think you know something your entire life.’ She shook her head. ‘Weird to think about it.’ ‘You ever want to talk you know where I am.’ He leant on the tower with arms folded. ‘I’ve had my share of family issues, lost my parents in similar circumstances, thanks to HYDRA, so if you ever want an unofficial therapy session I have some good whiskey we can drown ourselves in.’ She smiled at his effort to cheer her up and help. ‘Maybe without the whiskey.’ She suggested. ‘Whatever floats your boat. Now, want me to hook this up so you can work your magic on it?’ ‘I guess so.’ She closed the folder. She had been rereading the same paragraph for the last ten minutes and it just wasn’t sinking in. She had officially reached the saturation point when it came to the truth about their lives. Maybe something she was a natural at, like unlocking the secrets of a computer, would help her clear her head. Tony lifted the monitor to a raised desk in the centre of the room and put the tower underneath it, inserting a few plugs before booting it up. A floating screen came to life, showing an old operating system, and Amelia came to stand beside him, looking at the boot up screen as she put down her laptop. ‘Where’s your crutch?’ Tony looked at her, standing beside him, one hand on the desk. ‘Oh, against the wall.’ She nodded back behind the desk she had been seated to where it stood upside down for balance. ‘It’s not too far for me to go without.’ ‘But shouldn’t you be sore from the crash?’ He frowned at her. ‘That car flipped at least four times and you weren’t strapped in.’ ‘I don’t know what to tell you.’ She shrugged. ‘I’ve felt worse for doing less. Nerve damage is a weird thing and I have no idea what drugs they gave me at the hospital. It’s probably a waiting game for it to kick in properly.’ ‘Don’t knock it while it lasts, huh?’ ‘Yup.’ ‘I’ll grab you a chair.’ He went and got her a high backed office chair he knew went high enough she would be able to reach comfortably, then pulled himself a stool up next to it. ‘What do you think we’ll find?’ ‘At this point nothing will surprise me.’ She said as she sat in the chair and adjusted the height. ‘Don’t speak too soon.’ Tony warned her as they heard bickering coming from the corridor, turning towards the door to see Sam carrying two coffees and Bucky carrying the other tower. ‘Whatever, man, you’re going soft.’ Sam said as he approached the desk. ‘Worrying about someone isn’t going soft.’ Bucky argued as Tony showed him where to put the tower before crawling back under the desk and plugging it in, a second screen springing to life. ‘How you doing, Amelia?’ Sam asked as he put a cup in front of her. ‘Just how you like it.’ ‘Thanks, Sam, and I’m okay, thanks.’ ‘Don’t you go taking credit for the damn coffee.’ Bucky argued. ‘You only carried it.’ ‘Gotta take the praise where I can get it.’ Sam smirked at him. ‘And I carried that damn thing in from the jet, you literally took it when I stepped off the elevator.’ ‘God, you two are like kids.’ Tony complained as he sat back on his stool. ‘If you’re going to fight I’m going to kick you out of my lab.’ ‘Teasing, not fighting.’ Bucky pointed out. ‘If we were fighting he’d be unconscious already.’ ‘Big talk from the guy who paced like a caged cat when his girlfriend got swiped.’ ‘Enough!’ Amelia snapped. ‘I know this is normal for the two of you but I’m with Tony. Either shut up or get out, I am seriously done for the day when it comes to drama.’ ‘Sorry, sweetheart.’ Bucky said immediately and glared at Sam who quickly apologised himself. ‘So, what do you think you’ll find on the computers that time forgot?’ Sam asked as the first one finally hit a password screen. ‘At the rate the weird is at probably the coordinates for the lost city of Atlantis and the truth behind Area 51.’ Amelia replied as she flipped open her laptop before taking the cables Tony offered her. It was supposed to sound funny, and in her head it had, but her voice made it sound a mixture of hurt and shock, and Bucky stepped closer to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and pulling her close to kiss her temple, but Sam frowned, not liking what he had heard. ‘Amelia, hey, look at me?’ He moved in on her other side, turning her chair, making Bucky let her go as the back of the chair bumped his shoulder. ‘I have things to do, Sam.’ She spared him a glance but tried to turn back to the laptop which was awaiting her password. ‘Hey!’ He said sharply and snapped his fingers, and she turned back, wide eyed at how abrupt he had been. ‘What?’ She asked impatiently. ‘You have just had some serious mental and physical trauma. You need to take some down time.’ ‘I need to get into these computers.’ ‘Focus is good but don’t let this build up inside you, it’ll break you.’ He put his hands on the arms of the chair and made her look at him. ‘Trust me, I’ve been there, not the same, but close enough, and you need time. Throwing yourself into your work will only fix it for so long.’ She swallowed and he knew she had already considered this, that she realised what she was doing. ‘Let me start this unlocking program, Sam, let me feel like I’m doing something to help, because if I leave it too long…’ ‘You’ll feel like you’re not doing any good for anyone.’ He finished for her. ‘I do get it, but you get help as soon as you can.’ ‘I promise.’ She nodded. ‘Good, and you,’ he straightened and gave Bucky a stern look, ‘you make sure she does.’ ‘You’re getting bossy, Wilson. But yeah, okay.’ ‘Make sure she doesn’t stay jacked into The Matrix all day.’ Sam waved his finger a Tony who held his hands up in mock surrender. ‘What did I do?’ ‘You are a workaholic and a bad influence. Don’t coerce this girl into your working hours, which go from the sublime to the ridiculous.’ ‘No wonder I couldn’t adopt you, he already did.’ Tony looked at Amelia who managed a small smile. ‘I’m going to check back on you geniuses, and Barnes, in an hour. I expect you,’ he waved his finger at Amelia, ‘to be almost done, if not gone already.’ Amelia leant back towards Bucky. ‘What do I say to stop his nagging?’ ‘Say “yes, Sam”.’ ‘Yes, Sam.’ She repeated and Wilson rolled his eyes. ‘You’re a bad influence on her. Both of you.’ Sam gave up and went for the door. ‘Clock’s ticking, and I’m bringing Rogers back with me. One hour!’ ‘Better get moving, kid.’ Tony said as Bucky turned her chair back round to face the desk. ‘If he brings the mother hen we’ll all be in the shit.’ She let out a breath and flexed her fingers before tapping in her password and opening the relevant programs to pick apart her parents files. Twenty minutes in Tony excused himself and Amelia stretched. ‘I could do with a walk myself.’ She said to Bucky sitting in a chair beside her. ‘I’ll get your crutch.’ He smiled warmly and went to stand but she touched his arm with her hand. ‘I’m not going far, I don’t want to leave this unattended. Maybe you could just hold onto me, in case I need it?’ She asked hopefully. ‘You don’t even have to ask.’ He helped her down from the elevated chair, as her feet didn’t reach the floor, before offering her his arm. ‘In fact, I have a better idea.’ He took his phone from his pocket and scrolled through his playlists. Each of The Avengers had given him a playlist of their personal selection of essential songs, but Nat had gone the whole hog, providing him with a selection of playlists for every occasion, including working out, running, cooking and, weirdly, an extensive list of love songs, just in case. Turns out just in case could be right now. He hit play, having not listened to it, and set it just loud enough for them to hear. ‘One dance, minimum, every day.’ ‘I forgot that.’ She laughed softly. ‘I didn’t, and I won’t.’ He promised, pushing the chairs in, wrapping one arm around her waist then taking her hand and edging her into the space he had made. His hand spanned her ribcage, his forearm pressed against her back and his hand in hers held her carefully but she knew he had her, if she should need him. ‘Our date wasn’t exactly a success, was it?’ He asked, feeling the need to fill the relative silence with something. ‘Not really, although I did enjoy myself, up to a point.’ ‘I think I can figure out which point.’ He assured her. ‘You think we could try for another and not have it go to crap?’ ‘Maybe we should try something safer?’ ‘Safer than a restaurant full of SHIELD staff? Sounds like a tall order.’ He remarked. ‘No restaurants, at all. Let me cook for us and have a quiet night in. Just the two of us, no disruptions, no waiting staff, and no mentioning it to anyone else so we don’t have surprise interruptions.’ ‘That sounds like a pretty good idea, but I have one amendment.’ ‘No, Buck, I’m cooking for us, don’t even think about it!’ She squeezed his bicep to get his attention although it was so firm she wondered if he noticed. ‘Am I that predictable?’ He laughed. ‘A little. You still haven’t let me cook anything for you!’ ‘You’ve made me coffee, sweetheart, and that’s virtually a food group on its own.’ ‘It’s not the same.’ She let out a disappointed breath. ‘I want to do this, please?’ ‘Oh my God.’ He looked down at her, looking up at him through her lashes, and he didn’t want to argue. ‘You have me wrapped around your little finger, you know that?’ ‘That’s bullshit.’ She laughed and he was taken aback for a moment. ‘You rarely let me have my way.’ ‘I will let you have your way on this if you promise to let me help, if you need it.’ He took her arms and put them behind his neck, his own curving around her waist so they could dance closer together. ‘I promise, if I need help, you will be the first to know.’ ‘Good enough for me.’ He bowed his head and kissed her and she went up on her toes to meet him, her body resting against his snugly as one of his arms slid up her back, his fingers tangling in her hair. He deepened the kiss, his tongue stroking the edge of her lips and she opened them with a sigh, grazing his tongue with her own. He made a hungry noise in his throat as he tasted her, her fingers in his hair, her body against his, reminding him of a time when he was much more at home with this kind of thing, but she gave him hope, hope that she would be his completely and that he deserved the happiness he felt with her. She awoke things in him he had thought long lost. Amelia all but melted at Bucky’s touch, the appreciative noises he made making her feel wanted, not broken, and whole. She wanted him, she knew she did, but her body may not comply in the way she wanted. She wasn’t broken enough that it wouldn’t work but it would limit their activity, but Bucky didn’t seem to mind, he was happy to take things slow, and she realised it probably worked for both of them; a nice, gentle progression, but damn if he didn’t get her pulse racing. A beeping from the computer behind Bucky made them separate, and he looked down at her as they parted; her cheeks flushed, lips plump and moist with a small smile turning up the edges. He felt proud he could make her look like that, could find a way to make her look so contented after what she had been through. She leant to the side to look around him and her eyes went wide at the message on the screen. ‘Shit, it wants a retinal scan.’ He stepped aside as she went straight back to the desk, pulling herself into the chair, as he shut the music down on his phone and re-pocketed it. ‘Can you bypass something like that?’ ‘Really, no.’ She shook her head as she hit a few buttons on the laptop. ‘But they had my handprint on file, let’s hope they have my eye too.’ The light on her webcam lit up and a small box opened on the screen, allowing her to line her eye up correctly. ‘Wish me luck.’ She murmured as she stared straight ahead, trying not to blink as she was scanned, Bucky’s hand touching her back in a comforting gesture. It was only thirty seconds but it seemed so much longer and the scan ended, the message on the first screen disappearing before the background cleared to list programs and files on the desktop and Amelia sighed with relief. ‘Yes!’ She said excitedly and pulled him down by his shirt for a kiss. ‘I really wasn’t sure that would work.’ ‘For you to admit that is a big deal. You’re the genius after all.’ He smiled proudly at her. ‘Shush.’ She said dismissively. ‘All their files, they’re all here, dated and categorised.’ She said as she looked over the library she had opened, scrolling through it until she found one with her name on it. ‘Oh my God.’ She whispered. ‘You think it’s about you, or for you?’ He asked, watching her carefully. ‘I don’t think I want to know.’ ‘You don’t have to open it, doll.’ His hand rubbed her suddenly tense back muscles soothingly. ‘Not right now.’ ‘Yeah, I’m not.’ She scrolled past it, trying to ignore it. ‘I have to check for any encoded or hidden files.’ ‘Whatever you want to do.’ He checked the clock. ‘You have about half an hour before Sam and Stevie show up to kick us out.’ ‘I want to see what’s on here, it doesn’t feel right to let anyone else see it first.’ She looked up at him, her expression worried. ‘Does that make sense?’ ‘Perfect sense, darlin’. This belonged to your parents, you should get first crack at it, but if Sam has told Steve why he wants you off here then they won’t take no for an answer.’ ‘If we’re still here.’ She suggested as an idea struck her. ‘Can you find us somewhere we won’t be disturbed?’ ‘I guess so. What are you thinking?’ He frowned at her. ‘That we take it with us.’ She turned back to her laptop, her fingers flying over the keyboard, and in minutes she had everything from the two tower units backed up. She relocked the towers and picked up the laptop, turning to him. ‘Let’s go.’ He brought her her crutch and took the laptop from her, taking her other hand and leading her from the room. He had been to the compound a few times with Steve, and knew not only the layout but the places you were least likely to be disturbed without prior notice. One of those places was a cosy little living room Darcy had declared off limits for men, or more accurately, she had named the Girls Only, No Stinky Men Allowed, On Pain Of Death lounge. He knew most of the women of the team, Darcy included, were nowhere nearby, other than Natasha, and he was sure if he asked her Amelia could lock out their location through FRIDAY. The room was dimly lit with various sets of fairy lights and large piles of pillows on the many sofas, it was a cosy little woman cave he had so far been kept out of but was pleasantly surprised. The door had a lock and Amelia locked FRIDAY out of their location once they were settled on one of the overstuffed couches. ‘You want me here for this, sweetheart, because if you’d rather be alone…’ He started, letting the sentence hang in the air between them, and she faced him. For the first time she really let him see how worried this had her, how scared, and she didn’t need to answer. He wrapped his arm around her and puled her close into his side. ‘I’m not going anywhere, doll, not if you don’t want me to.’ ‘Thank you.’ She said quietly, opening the oldest file.

‘Has anyone seen Milly?’ Natasha asked, poking her head into the kitchen where Steve and Sam were preparing a meal, knowing both Bucky and Amelia hadn’t eaten properly in some time. ‘Milly?’ Sam asked in amusement, having not heard the pet name before. ‘She’s not in Tony’s lab?’ Steve frowned, knowing that was where he and Sam were heading once they had this last dish in the oven. ‘Nope, no sign of her.’ ‘Bucky?’ ‘I assume they’re together.’ Nat came into the room, her expression serious. ‘I really need to track her down. Something on her blood draw waved a red flag. Nothing dramatic but warrants further investigation, ASAP.’ ‘Sounds worrying.’ Steve wiped his hands as Sam took the dish to the oven. ‘Maybe, maybe it’s nothing, can’t be sure until we find her. The sample was a small one and there’s a small anomaly they need a bigger batch for.’ ‘I’ll help you find them.’ Steve offered. ‘FRIDAY can’t trace them?’ ‘Someone locked them out of the system. If I didn’t know better I’d say we were about to get a result on our bet, although a little later than we hoped.’ ‘As neither of them have a room that would mean you win.’ Sam nudged Steve. ‘I don’t care what they’re doing as long as they’re okay.’ ‘You might, if we interrupt something.’ Nat reminded him. ‘Okay, let’s track them down.’ Steve sighed, ignoring Natasha’s implication.

‘Excuse me, Agent Richards? Tin Man?’ FRIDAY’s accented voice came through Bucky’s phone as Amelia continued to read her parents’ research. ‘What is it, FRIDAY?’ Bucky asked quietly, not wanting to disturb her concentration. ‘I thought I should let you know that Captain Rogers, Ms Romanov and Mr Wilson are looking for you, and Agent Romanov is attempting to override your lockdown.’ ‘I’ll talk to him.’ Bucky replied, pulling up Steve’s number on his phone and pressing it to his ear. He thought for a second about getting up but Amelia was settled against him. He had his back against the corner of the couch with his feet up, and she was laid against his chest between his legs, her knees bent, laptop balanced against them as she read more research. The phone rang in his ear and Steve answered in seconds. ‘Punk, we’ll reappear when we’re ready.’ Amelia coughed a laugh at his immediate response but carried on reading. ‘You need to reappear sooner rather than later, jerk, Amelia’s needed in medical.’ ‘What?’ Bucky’s arm around her waist tightened protectively as though it would help protect her somehow. ‘They need another blood draw, nothing to worry about, but they want it sooner rather than later.’ ‘We’ll head down there in a while.’ Bucky told him. ‘Anything else?’ ‘Yeah, Sam says Amelia hadn’t better be working, she’s supposed to be resting.’ ‘I am resting.’ She could hear Steve clearly and Bucky switched it to speaker. ‘And this isn’t work, it’s close to genealogy, which is a hobby.’ ‘You don’t want to know what she said.’ Steve relayed to Sam. ‘She’s not calling it work.’ ‘Where the hell are they?’ Sam demanded. ‘Secret.’ Amelia replied, only half listening as she closed the file and skipped forward a couple, several months, as there were no real breakthroughs reported and she could always backtrack once she had something to go on. ‘Give me the phone.’ They heard Nat faintly before it came over as the main voice. ‘Milly, we need you to come down to medical now so they can start analysing your blood to clear up whatever anomaly it is they think they found. Once you’ve done that you can hide yourself away again and do what you need to.’ ‘Don’t tell her that, she needs some kind of…’ Sam’s voice went quiet as Nat shot him a look. ‘Come on, Milly. For me?’ Amelia sighed. ‘Meet us there in fifteen minutes.’ ‘Good girl.’ She hung up and Bucky put the phone away again. ‘How does Natasha manage to convince you that easily?’ He asked as he nuzzled into her hair. ‘I don’t want her mad at me. She’s scary.’ She turned her face to his and met his lips with her own. ‘And she’s been a good friend.’ ‘What about Sam? He’s just trying to be helpful.’ He said with a small smile. ‘By being bossy.’ She reminded him. ‘Nat asked nicely.’ ‘You’ll do anything you’re asked, if it’s nice enough?’ He narrowed his eyes, amused by the thought. ‘Within reason.’ She closed the laptop lid and laid it on the table before turning in his arms and snuggling into his chest. ‘How long will it take to get to medical?’ ‘Seven minutes, maybe.’ He said as he wrapped both arms around her, holding her close. ‘Good, that gives us eight minutes to cuddle.’ She sighed and he couldn’t argue. It felt pretty damn good.

Chapter 39