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katuschka · 6 months ago

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Olalla – Chapter Three

Josh Kiszka x female OC

8025 words

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction, intended for adult readers. Any resemblance to real persons is purely coincidental. Also, if you're under 18, go find some other entertainment elsewhere. Even though this chapter is still smut-free, the rest of the story won't be.

Warnings: angst, yearning, kissing, fluff, conflict and violent behaviour, alcohol consumption, slowburn, mental breakdown, LGBT themes, homophobia (World's not perfect and some people suck...not the main characters though, don't worry).

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What a wicked game you play, to make me feel this way What a wicked thing to do, to let me dream of you What a wicked thing to say, you never felt this way What a wicked thing to do, to make me dream of you

No, I don't wanna fall in love With you

Every once in a while, you experience something nice that somehow leaves a bitter aftertaste in your mouth. Just like when you’re watching a beautiful sunset, thinking about how trifling and unimportant our daily feuds and worries are in comparison to the macrocosm and its wonders. The moment feels so precious. …but the world keeps spinning and as soon as you turn around, you once again find yourself submerged in the stale waters of your petty life.

Not that she felt that her life was in any way stale. It was just that as soon as she closed the door behind him, the whole encounter seemed like a fever dream in retrospect. One she wished would continue, because during those few hours, everything felt so new, so out of ordinary, including the fact that it did not continue.

So, she tried to rationalize it and eventually concluded that she didn’t want more. This felt right…albeit weird, because it was simply different. He was different, and therefore dangerous.

Much more casual encounters often ended in fucking. It was her reality. The guys she willingly chose to spend time with were either not interested at all in the end, or didn’t want to let go. At least not until they got a taste of all of her. Either way, it ended up in relief. Rinse and repeat. Joshua’s touch remained imprinted on her skin like some sort of sensory tattoo, and it left her mind racing. The effect he had on her was pretty much unwelcome, the feelings that came with it were not particularly pleasant, but she involuntarily clung to them anyway.

His goodnight was definitive, and even though it didn’t feel like a rejection, it stayed outside her threshhold, just as he did. The night that followed was not good at all. The subconscious mind is a bitch. She spent it tossing and turning and waking up in between shallow dreams filled with images of his face just within reach, yet she couldn't bring herself to touch it. Before the actual dawn, she dreamed about them sitting on top of a mountain, watching the Sun rise. He was singing again.

Reality hit back when Agnieszka’s alarm clock rang at 4:30. Having fallen asleep long past midnight, and then again around two and three – because she couldn’t get the feeling of his lips on her cheek out of her head – she woke up with stinging eyes and a burning headache, with a long day ahead of her. She slowly dragged herself from the cozy bed to start preparing breakfast and snack-to-go packages for early hikers.

She usually enjoyed this. Morning chats over coffee were generally warmer and gave her the opportunity to talk to the guests about more than just how their day went and to connect with others on a more personal level, while sitting at the same table with them. They were a nuisance today. It wasn’t their fault. Just a group of young women in their early 20s and a nice couple getting ready for their last hike before going back home the next day. Definitely not an unpleasant company. Without admitting it to herself, or even consciously thinking about it, she just wished he’d be one of them.

He was probably still fast asleep when she left to do some early shopping before her daily chores. He was already gone when she came back. Visitors kept their keys, but they were asked to leave special hangers on their door handles when leaving, which proved useful in case they wanted to have their bathrooms cleaned or sheets changed. So, of course she checked his door. And then scolded herself for her unhealthy curiosity.

She almost forgot about him by midday, too immersed in cleaning vacated rooms and getting them ready for new arrivals. Fridays and Saturdays were the most hectic of the whole week, with people generally coming or leaving at weekends. Finally, after three pm, she could get some rest and enjoy her afternoon coffee (with just a drop of Bayleys) behind the reception desk, reading the book she abandoned the previous evening, with just a few interruptions that day.

At half past four, the bell above the main door chimed again and there he was, entering quietly, but turning to a full theatrical mode the moment he saw her. This guy must be fun at parties, no doubt about that. He spread out his arms and trotted like a musical actor right towards her in his brand new attire. “How do I look?” he asked while wiggling his eyebrows.

At first she thought her heart would jump out of her chest when she saw him for the first time since the previous night, but his easygoing, comical behaviour immediately made her relax. “Like a walking Columbia advertisement,” she laughed.

“Yeah, well, I normally prefer flannels, but the guy at the store said this is more appropriate. I hate polyester…unless it’s sparkly…but I’m willing to try this,” he shrugged – tugging at the fabric demonstratively – and leaned familiarly on the counter. “How was your day?”

“Busy and boring at the same time. I should be the one asking that question. Have you seen or done anything interesting today? I mean, apart from becoming one of us,” she finished the sentence with a quasi-sultry whisper and dared to lean in closer to him. The truth was that the dark tight-fitting crewneck accentuated his lean and firm figure in a way that made her feel a bit uneasy. That man wasn’t just ��quite attractive”, he was sexy! Humour and banter was her usual way of dealing with unwelcome butterflies in her stomach. And it worked, because they both giggled before he answered.

“Nothing much, just wandering around. I didn’t dare venture far before breaking in these,” he demonstratively lifted one leg to show her his right trekking boot. “Besides, I don’t know it here. I tried to follow some folks, but the path turned to a steep and stony one pretty soon and my feet hurt like hell after just a couple miles and…”

“Wait a minute,” she started rummaging under the counter. “I forgot to give you these. Here are some maps and leaflets with touristic tracks. Stick to those if you don't want to be chased by a bear. Also, it’s a national park, so you just have to anyway. Also, tomorrow’s going to rain all day, so you might want to visit the Tatra Museum.”

“Oh, bummer. The whole day?” The meaning of everything he said was amplified tenfold by his wild gesticulations and body language. It was like watching a silent actor, except he wasn’t silent at all. “Thank you so much for these? Any recs for a good place to eat? I tried the one right at the end of the street yesterday. It was good, but I’d like to try something more local.”

She reached behind her for some more leaflets and handed him a couple. “There are a few nearby. We serve dinner to our guests as well, but you need to preorder it at least a day in advance…but that’s usually just a plain, home-cooked meal, nothing fancy.”

“But that sounds fantastic! I’m pre-ordering dinner for tomorrow then,” he beamed, and added hopefully: “Care to join me today?” “I can’t, I need to go help with the dinner in about an hour and then I have some more things to do in the evening.” His face fell with a silent oh and for a brief moment she actually did hate her job. Was he asking her on a date? It certainly felt that way. Maybe he just didn’t want to be alone. It didn’t really matter. He wanted her to say yes and she didn’t want to say no, and even if it meant just two people eating together, it would be just fine. He lingered awkwardly for a short while before he wished her a pleasant evening, hoping to see her again soon. She didn’t want to let him go just yet, not just like that… “Joshua, wait!”

“yes…?” he turned back to her with his arms flailing around like a marionette.

“My dad throws a garden party for our guests every Sunday evening...if the weather allows, that is. His grilled pork chops are delicious,” she tried to sound as casual as possible to hide the fact that she really wanted him to join them. “I…ummm…am supposed to invite everyone,” she added.

“That sounds great, but…I don’t really eat pork…or meat in general.” He looked almost sorry that he didn’t.

“Oh! Well, there’s always mom’s redcurrant pie, and some grilled vegetables, too…” Pathetic.

“Lovely! I'll be there.” And with a beaming smile, he disappeared upstairs.

The next day started as blue-ish gray when she woke up and soon turned to just gray. Breakfast didn’t need to be served before seven, as half of the people were leaving that day and the other half simply weren’t in a rush. Some even cancelled, preferring to go have fancier pancakes with ice-cream and forest fruit in some café nearby. Heavy rain was drumming on the roof and terraces, and the clouds were hanging low, turning the surrounding hills into a haunting, misty landscape.

It was a lazy, sleepy day. A perfect day for a massage, or to go to the sauna…if you were staying in one of the fancier lodgings. The residents of Willa Eulalia were mostly bored, with just TV or board games to pass time.

Nothing really changed much for Agnieszka. If anything, Saturday proved to be even more hectic, because mother wasn’t feeling well. So, the usual routine consisting of vacuuming, changing the sheets and cleaning the toilets turned to be even more tiresome, as she had to do it all by herself.

The house went almost completely silent after lunch. It was already almost two pm when she finally reached the attic to make the room opposite to Joshua’s ready for a new visitor. She didn’t have much time left; new guests would start coming shortly.

It looked like he was still in his room, possibly having a nap. The rain only intensified after lunch and it was fairly easy to get drowsy here, right under the roof. She turned on the vacuum cleaner on the lowest setting and proceeded to do what she was supposed to, while fighting off obsessive thoughts about getting drowsy with him…

She was almost done when she heard some disturbance coming from the other room. It sounded like him arguing with someone. Honouring the house’s number one rule “privacy first”, she collected all her things and aimed to leave the attic as quickly as possible. Not quickly enough, though, because his sudden loud “I don’t fucking care,” followed by something hitting the wall, stopped her in her tracks. It was followed by even more incoherent yelling. “Something was not his fault and some Sam should do something instead, and someone was advised to suck his dick (Figuratively speaking – she hoped, half amused.), otherwise she couldn’t make sense of the one-sided argument. The call ended and she was finally about to descend the stairs, when he suddenly opened the door, making her jump. She shot him a terrified look and his own expression wasn’t much different. “Sorry for the noise,” he finally mumbled. “...I…need some fresh air.” With that, he ran past her down the stairs.

The whole encounter troubled her, but she didn’t have much time to ponder over it, as she already had to hurry back to the reception to resume her afternoon duties, noticing him on the veranda on her way there.

She couldn’t stop thinking about it though. The lobby was connected with the back veranda by a wide, transverse corridor, so when she leaned forward a bit, she could easily see him from her place behind the counter. He was still standing there, leaning against the balustrade with his arms outstretched and his head bent down. It triggered her inner caretaker. She couldn’t just leave him there like that, so she poured some fresh water in the electric kettle behind the counter and rummaged through her little box of teabags.

“Hey, I made you some tea,” she approached him with the steaming mug and placed it carefully on the balustrade next to him. He looked at it and smiled weakly. “Thanks, Sheldon.”

She laughed at the reference but he didn’t reciprocate, so she continued warily: “The ghost called again? “No, that was my twin brother this time.”

“You sounded a bit agitated. I thought…”

“Olalla, I really, really don’t want to be rude, but when I said I needed fresh air, I really meant I needed to be alone.”

She was taken aback by that and her eyes widened at him. “I’m sorry, I…”

“Thanks for the tea,” he sighed and left, leaving her alone with her thoughts again. Slightly shaken this time.

He disappeared for the rest of the day.

He didn’t come to dinner that evening either.

She stayed on the veranda for a few more minutes after he left, drinking the tea she made for him and watching fat raindrops splashing on the stony path leading to the fireside. She was mad at herself for letting him occupy her mind the way he did those past few days. For the first time in years, she allowed someone to get under her skin, and for what. Now it stung, and it would eventually get worse if she continued with this nonsense. Rinse and repeat. So, she just shrugged it off with an annoyed huff and put her walls back up, just like she always did. The path from hurt to pissed off to indifferent was a short and safe one.

And then, just like a gift from above, the bell at the front door chimed and she hurried back to greet three young and carefree handsome men who were waiting for her at the reception desk.

She knew them. They were their frequent guests, one of them being also her regular hook-up. She had been looking forward to seeing him and his radiant smile again, but then nearly forgot they were coming. It was a welcome distraction now, the only downside being her sister Maya who was also arriving the next day to spend a week…and Maya hated him.

Agnieszka knew very well why. Maya hated fuckboys and Bartek was the epitome of that. Pretty and vain and often notoriously bad-tempered when challenged, which meant he hated her sister back with passion. However, that never stopped Agnieszka from welcoming him with open arms, because he always gave her what she wanted and he never wanted more. He was one of her wolves. So screw tomorrow, she needed some comfort now. As soon as she finished her daily tasks and he freshened up and got comfortable in his rented room after the long ride from Poznan, he joined her in her quarters for one of their regular “movie nights”. They hardly ever finished watching any.

She found no comfort in his touch that night, though. After snuggling closer to him on the couch, she felt nothing. His thieving hands and intrusive tongue started to annoy her after a while. The excuse of being maybe a bit too tired was a lame one. It was not a complete lie and he knew she worked hard, but he seemed annoyed all the same. After she literally invited him to join her, she couldn’t really blame him, so she just slid on her knees on the floor and gave him head instead.

There was something strangely calming about giving head and gagging on a cock. Those brief moments of not being in control made her feel like she could control everything else.. When it was finally over and she rested her head in his once again clothed lap, feeling his fingers scratching her scalp affectionately (but not too much), she felt calm at last. They were both half asleep when they heard a knock. Agnieszka slowly scrambled up on her feet, excused herself and opened the door to find Joshua standing there.

“Hey,” he bounced on the balls of his heels with a tentative smile and his eyebrows furrowed. “I feel like I should apologize for being such an ass earlier. And…I’m making some mint tea and I thought, maybe you’d like some, too? Just to reciprocate your kindness, you know?” he nodded towards the common kitchen in the hall.

Agnieszka bit her lip to stop her from smiling back. Not that he didn’t deserve it, she just didn’t feel worthy of giving it. She had her own kitchen unit in her apartment, so this was just a nice, albeit awkward gesture and they both knew it. He just didn’t want to approach her completely empty handed.

“It’s ok.”

“No, it’s not, and I really am sorry.”

“It’s fine, Joshua. I’m basically just a maid and I had no right to bother you when you were clearly upset by…whatever’s going on in your life. It’s not like we’re friends.”

He sighed and nodded solemnly. “I really hoped that we would be. I…anyway, I went to this store today. They sell crystals and stuff, and this kinda reminded me of your eyes. Please, keep it.” He took her hand, palm up, and placed a small malachite pendant in it. “Good night to you, Olalla…” He bowed his head down and was about to leave when a loud “kto to jest” made it snap back up to see a man suddenly standing in the doorway right next to her, his hand squeezing her shoulder almost possessively. Bartek looked first at Josh, then at the piece of stone in her hand and his eyebrows shot up. He was athletic and broad shouldered and, being taller by at least 5 inches, he towered over Joshua menacingly.

He was also shirtless, with the waistband sitting dangerously low on his hips. That, together with Olalla’s sheer bathrobe, told him everything he needed to know.

“Oh, I see I’m interrupting…again, my apologies Olalla.” Bartek didn’t even wait for him to leave; he slammed the door shut right in his face. The bang made Agnieszka jump.

“Who the fuck was that, Olalla!?”

“No one. Just a guest.” He had no right to do that, and she should have been angry, but his sudden shift in mood made her defensively meek.

“Guests don’t come knocking on your door this late to give you trinkets unless they want much more than just room service. I thought one at a time was your rule,” he raised his voice and slammed his fist against the door. “Guests don’t call you Olalla!”

“Bart! Stop overreacting! He just…”

“Is that why you’re so frigid today? Bitch…”

He grabbed the rest of his discarded clothes from the couch and before Agnieszka could even react, threw the door open again and stormed out. She started after him, only to watch him pass bewildered Joshua, who really was making tea in the common hallway kitchen. Bartek stopped in his tracks and hissed in broken English, gesturing back at her: “Already you can go back, Frodo. The dirty whore is your now.”

With that, he disappeared down the stairs and left them standing there in silence. He with a jug kettle in his hand, frozen in motion; she clutching the door frame for dear life. From the look on his face, she could tell that he had overheard them arguing too, though he thankfully couldn’t understand a single word of it, though he must have gotten the general idea. They watched each other with wide eyes for a few long seconds, until hers welled with tears.

He could see hurt and shame and panic in them. “Olalla,” he whispered and slowly made his way towards her, but she quickly closed the door shut, crouched down and, overwhelmed with all the emotions from the past few days, started crying in earnest. She tried to suppress her sobs so that he wouldn’t hear her as soon as she heard soft knocks again. This time, she didn’t open. The whole house fell quiet again after a while. She slowly got back on her feet and unclenched her fists.

A warm piece of polished malachite was burning a hole in her palm.

The clouds finally dissipated during the night and the inhabitants of Willa Eulalia were once again greeted by a clear, pinkish sky on the eastern horizon, the Sun painting the whole mountain range orange. Most of the people left early, so after 7 am, only families with young kids were still in their rooms or on their balconies, enjoying the breakfast as well as the fragrant air after yesterday’s rain, already warmed by the sun.

Agnieszka had lulled herself to sleep the previous night with a little help of a significant amount of vodka and not even the fresh breeze was of much help in easing the consequent nausea.

She suffered through the morning, thanking god that both Bartek and Joshua were gone, hopefully for the whole day. It was just a postponement of her torture, but it was welcome all the same.

Her younger sister Maya arrived shortly after lunch, and – seeing both her mother and her sister looked like they might fall asleep on the spot – she quickly took over their duties. Agnieszka excused herself and climbed in her bed, wishing to disappear. Maya tried to get her back on her feet a few times during the afternoon, but failed miserably. It was already past 8 pm when she arrived again. Agnieszka could hear that the garden party had already started outside her window, and she just wished Maya would understand that she didn’t want to join them. Apparently not…

“There’s a gentleman asking if you would join us.”

“Tell Bart he can fuck off.”

“Pfff,” Maya scoffed. “I already did. That fucker and his idiot buddies went out anyway, probably to the World’s End. And by ‘gentleman’ I mean a real gentleman. Though he’s a bit of a weirdo.”

Agnieszka suddenly had a huge lump in her throat, but didn’t say anything, so Maya continued: “He also told me what happened.”

“He did what?”

“I was at the reception about an hour ago when the German lady from room 9 made a complaint about a noise yesterday evening,” Maya started to explain while she was rummaging in her sister’s wardrobe. She was obviously determined to drag Agnieszka out of her room and into the garden by sheer force, if necessary. “I obviously didn’t know what she was talking about, because my sister doesn’t tell me anything anymore. Duh! That’s when he walked in, overheard us, said it was his fault and apologized to her. Then he explained to me what really happened,” she finished and threw black yoga pants and a fluffy powder-pink pullover on Agnieszka’s bed.

“It wasn’t his fault,” Agnieszka mumbled into the pillow.

“Now you’re finally talking! Yeah, no shit. I figured. The poor guy obviously got dragged into your mess. And yet he still wants to see you. Seriously, who is he? And why is your face suddenly red like a baboon's ass? Is there a legitimate reason why Bart behaved like a total jerk this time?” she wiggled her eyebrows at Agnieszka theatrically.

Agnieszka gave her an annoyed look. “I don’t even know who he is. And we just talked a few times. And…yeah, just talking. We spent an evening talking and then he kissed my cheek goodnight and that’s it.” She rummaged in her pocket and showed Maya the green pendant. “He also gave me this yesterday. Said it reminded him of my eyes. That was before Bart’s temper tantrum. I can’t go there, Maya. It’s better if I stay away from him, for the sake of his own wellbeing.”

“Wow. Interesting! So you’re saying the two of you are treating each other like real human beings? Didn’t know you had it in you. He’s sweet though, no surprise there. I think he likes you. His smile reminds me of…”

“Don’t!”

Maya knew she overstepped. But she wouldn’t budge. Instead, she sat on the bed and started stroking Agnieszka’s hair.

“Olalla, baby, stop shying away from people. Just go. Spend another evening talking. In spite of what you think, it will do you good. Besides, you invited him, and he’s there. It’d be rude not to show up.”

She could spot him immediately when she set foot in the garden. He was sitting on a piece of log by the fireplace, facing her. He was deep in conversation with some other guests, but as soon as he saw her, he gave her a radiant smile. His face was enchanting in the firelight, sparks dancing around it like fireflies. On her way to him, she stopped just briefly by the long table to grab a glass of wine.

“Hey…” She still felt uncertain and a little ashamed when she reached him. “I…didn’t have an opportunity to thank you for this,” she continued, while toying with the pendant and looking down at him bashfully.

“Good evening, Olalla,” he beamed and gestured to an empty spot to his left. “Please sit.”

“You had the opportunity,” he added as soon as she sat down. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. Your reaction was more than understandable. But I’m glad you’re here now.”

“You must think low of me.”

“I think highly of you! You’re a hard worker, you obviously love nature and those carrot cupcakes are delicious! Maya told me you baked them this morning even though you weren’t feeling well. So,” he cleared his throat and giggled. “Now we both apologized to each other, I’m gonna need your advice.”

“What advice?” It was Maya, the nosy brat who just couldn’t miss an opportunity to stick that nose into anything that didn’t concern at all.

He was taken aback for just a millisecond before he resumed his quick babbling again. The fact that he was now forced to turn his head from side to side gave him also the opportunity to start gesticulating wildly, which he clearly enjoyed.

“So, I decided to go for a proper, all day hike today. But apart from the fact that I absolutely don’t know where to go – I was never good at reading maps – there were sooo many people everywhere! Which was a good thing, in a way, because I didn’t get lost. BUT…”

“Where did you go?” Maya interrupted him. The two of them were like two peas in a pod.

“Kash…kashp…dammit! How do you guys do that? My tongue, ouch!”

Agnieszka finally laughed, for the first time that day. “Kasprowy Wierch?”

He nodded eagerly. “Yea! That’s the one! Nice place, don’t get me wrong, but my god! It was crowded up there.”

“Of course, it’s Sunday, and you chose the only place with a cable car,” she explained, as both she and Maya laughed.

“Well now I feel like a complete moron,” he responded to that in a cheerful tone and even wilder gesticulation.

“So, what advice do you need, Joshua?”

“Well, I was thinking…since you said that you work as a guide occasionally…that you would just go with me? I’d love to see some more secluded places and I can’t go alone – you said that yourself – and I wouldn’t even know where to go, so…please?” He grinned, batting his eyelashes at her.

“But that’s mostly for families or older couples or…”

“But that’s a wonderful idea!” Maya interrupted her. “You should definitely go.”

“I have work to do,” Agnieszka spat back.

“Bullshit. I’m here until Wednesday, I can do that. And tomorrow’s going to be even more beautiful than today, according to the forecast.”

“Perfect! Olalla, pleeeeeease,” he turned to her. “Hey, you have nothing to drink,” he gestured to her already empty glass and took it from her. “Lemme refill it while you’ll decide to say yes.”

“Hey, who’s the guest here?”

He gave her an “oh, come on” look, took her glass and excused himself.

“What are you doing?” Agnieszka hissed at Maya as soon as the coast was clear.

“It’s been a long time since you looked so radiant. You’ve been miserable for way too long. Enjoy life for once. You like him! And he obviously likes you,” Maya said, nodding towards the long table. Agnieszka looked up too and they watched him shooting glances back at them.

“It’s irresponsible,” Agnieszka hissed back. “He’s leaving by the end of the month.”

“Yeah yeah, totally out of your character,” Maya responded sarcastically. “Since when does this bother you? And what exactly do you expect to happen? Just go have some fun. Two friends enjoying a hike.”

She planned a beautiful hike. Secluded, just as he wished. Away from selfie hunters. The whole trek was on the Slovakian side of the mountains, but that wasn’t an issue. They would start right at the border and cross the whole mountain range from north to south, taking the bus back to the starting place. It was a physically demanding, long trek, with almost no shelters along the road and no escape routes. That’s why not many people ventured there, even though the first half was undoubtedly one of the most beautiful places here. Joshua was beyond excited.

They agreed to meet by her car at half past six the next morning. She would take care of all the necessities. All Joshua had to do was to show up on time with a backpack and some spare clothes. He failed miserably.

At quarter to seven, she finally decided to knock on his door. “Joshua, come on! We need to leave NOW if you don’t want me to change the plan.” A moment later she heard a loud “oh fuck!” and some scrambling noise. “COMING!”

“Coming,” he breathed out when he finally opened the door, shirtless again, still in his sleeking sweatpants and with a literal nest on the top of his head. “I’m sooo sorry! Gimme ten minutes. Ten minutes max!”

“I’ll be waiting by my car,” she rolled her eyes and sighed.

He finally showed up after another 25 minutes, overflowing with joy and…

“What’s that?” she pointed at his face.

“Sunglasses,” he shrugged with a beaming smile.

“You call this sunglasses?”

“I’m a diva! Deal with it,” he responded affectedly and threw his backpack on the backseat.

It was almost eight when they finally set off. The track was an easy one for the first ten kilometres, with just a slight ascent. It was – however – breathtaking from the very start, with the whole amphitheatre of jagged peaks opening up before them in the distance. Joshua was taking pictures the whole time. He was also talking the whole time, stopping only when the pathway became very steep all of the sudden.

They surmounted a few levels and finally decided to take a break by a beautiful mountain lake.

It was almost noon, but there were still barely any clouds in the sky and it was getting really hot, even at this altitude. Agnieszka wiped the sweat off her brow and splashed her bare arms with some cold water, while Joshua stripped from his shirt and jumped on a large stone sticking out of the water. He was now standing there with his arms outstretched and his head tilted back. She watched him in amusement, shielding her eyes with her hand. “If you want to go on like this, you’ll definitely need to apply more sunscreen.”

“What? Are you saying that pink wouldn’t suit me? I beg to differ, my lady!” He turned towards her in some sort of clumsy pirouette and nearly lost his balance, flailing his arms and leg around in an attempt to stay dry. “Watch it!” She laughed, but was also already rummaging in her backpack. “And no. I’m serious. Come here.” He jumped back and she handed him her bottle.

“Hmmm, coconut ice cream,” he sniffed at the healthy amount of lotion he just poured on his palm and started rubbing it in the skin on his arms and chest. “I was delicious before, but now I’m going to be practically irresistible.” Agnieszka was just taking a sip out of her bottle and his cheekiness made her cough.

“What, you don’t think so?” He wiggled his eyebrows on her. “I might need help with the back,” he added.

“I’d rather not answer that question. Come sit,” she motioned to the flat stone in front of her.

He turned his back on her and sat between her legs, throwing his messy braid over his shoulder. It was adorned with silver dreadlock beads today and she couldn’t help but smile at his unashamed quirkiness. “Why don’t you wanna answer that question?” he asked with a low voice when she started applying the sunscreen between his shoulder blades.

She took a deep breath through her nose and squeezed her eyes shut for a second. This close, she could smell his own musky scent under the overpowering aroma of the sunscreen, and it made her dizzy. She watched tiny droplets of sweat running down his sides from under his armpits. Running her hands over his lower back, she involuntarily imagined the same thing in a completely different scenario. She really wanted this to be just two friends on a trip, just as Maya said, but his delicate, yet manly form and his direct, spontaneous personality made it almost impossibly hard. She just couldn’t get the feral thoughts out of her head, no matter how hard she tried. “You don’t need coconuts, Joshua,” she muttered under her breath.

He…giggled? This man was either completely unaware of his power or too comfortable with it. Either way, she just wanted to push him in that water. She was sure it would make a hiss.

She squeezed more lotion in her palm and started rubbing his shoulders. “You’re a bit tense here.”

“Yeah, my lower neck’s been hurting lately. I haven’t had much exercise in a while,” he sighed.

“Here?” She pressed both thumbs in his higher trapeze muscles and he let out an involuntary moan. They both chose to act as if he hadn’t.

“So…you exercise? What exactly do you do?

“Yoga, mostly. Some light weights, too. I need to keep fit because of…work.”

“Work, huh? You told me quite a lot about your family, but I still don’t know what your job is.” He looked like one of those contemporary circus acrobatic dancers – she contemplated half-jokingly – but that probably wasn’t the case. He was too clumsy.

It took him a while to respond. “A secret agent,” he finally let out. “And unfortunately, now I have to kill you.” That made her slap his shoulder in amusement. “Ok, ok, I work as a costume mannequin. It’s an extremely important job. They pay well, too.”

Sighing exasperatedly, she pinched his side, making him squirm and squeak. He was keeping something from her, but she had learned not to pry. “Ok, done.” She wiped the rest of the lotion on her things and he shifted and sat next to her, still laughing, until she handed him a water bottle. “Now drink. I haven’t seen you drink much and I don’t want you to collapse on the road. You’re tiny, but I still couldn’t carry you all the way down.” Everytine she felt vulnerable, she resorted to this strategy of making clear that she was in charge of the situation, could take care of herself and should take care of others…or whatever. It was her way to weed out the toxic people. Some guys would be mortally offended by such a treatment. Joshua? He just saluted her with a “yes, ma’am” and obeyed.

They sat in silence for a while, only an occasional hawk screech or an intelligible chatter of two girls sitting further up breaking the zen-like piece of the place. “Thank you,” she finally spoke, toying with the malachite pendant hanging around her neck.

He looked at her with amusement. “You already did.”

“No, I mean for not treating me like…what were the words he used? Oh yeah, a dirty whore. Which I guess I am. But you’re not judging me. So, thank you.”

He rested his face on his fist and looked at her. “Why should I be judging you? People need human touch. That’s completely normal.”

“Some more than others, I suppose. I’m just pathetic.”

“I think you’re just lonely,” he said, toying with the water bottle absentmindedly.

“I’m not,” she huffed.

“Are you sure?”

She didn’t respond, silently watching the ripples on the lake. The idea of being lonely was one she willingly chose not to entertain a long time ago. She had her people. She had sex. She had this. She was ok.

His palm that gently cupped her face brought her from her reverie. His fingers slid down to the nape of her neck while his thumb continued to caress her cheek. She instinctively leaned into the touch with her eyes closed and when she opened them again, she saw him watching her intently.

Her heart started beating wildly. “What are you doing,” she whispered. He just shook his head and bit his lip before he moved even closer and closed the gap between them. She could feel his plump lips on hers and her whole body twitched in shock, making him break the contact.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, his eyelids drooping, but she grabbed his face in her own shaking hands and pressed her parted lips to his again in silent plea. The tip of his tongue brushed against her upper lip, inviting her own to touch him. Their mouths finally fully connected in a soft, deep and sensual kiss that made them both feel completely light-headed. None of them wanted this to end and they continued for at least a minute, swallowing each other’s shaky exhales. At last he broke the kiss and pressed his forehead to hers. “What is this? she whispered again.

“I don’t know… and I don’t care, to be honest,” he mumbled, finally opening his eyes as they broke the contact entirely. She didn’t know where to look, didn’t even know how to process her own thoughts, so she just checked her Garmin matter-of-factly, only to see how late it already was. “We should get moving.”

“I don’t think I can,” he giggled in embarrassment. “Just…give me a minute.” She nodded weakly in acknowledgement and got up to re-pack their things.

They resumed their way up the steep and stony path in complete silence save for their laboured breath until they reached another levelled post-glacial terrace with yet another alpine lake right under the narrow saddle that divided the northern set of valleys from the southern mountain range. They were now approximately in the middle of their journey and the route was getting slightly more exposed. At one point, they had to traverse a narrow ledge above the lake. It was the first passage with safety chains they had to cross that day, and by far the easiest one, as she assured him, which only made him nervous.

They took a short break before ascending to refresh themselves when they reached the crossing and had two ways to choose from, both leading to their final destination. The one to the left was fit for more seasoned adventurers, and – based on the people coming and going – that included also kids in their early teens or older women, so it could be done. She knew it could, she had gone there a few times before. But, seeing him watch the narrow and jagged depression between two peaks in the distance warily, Agnieszka finally decided on the path leading right up to the more easily accessible saddle. It proved to be a wise choice just a short while after. Watching him struggle while descending on the other side, clawing the chains with terror in his eyes, was fun. Him falling or panicking in the middle of the ascent wouldn’t be.

He even misstepped eventually when they were descending down a set of cramps onto another ledge. His foot slid down the last iron bar clumsily and his bare back collided with her chest, nearly knocking them both down.

She caught him and steadied him and they laughed it off, but there was something strange about the whole situation. She felt an underlying tension between them after she released him and they genuinelly looked each other in the eye for the first time since the kiss. He brushed the back of his hand against her arm, trying to communicate something, until the people behind them gestured to them to move.

He led the way this time, jumping from stone to stone, high on endorphins, as if his knees were made of rubber. A wild chamois. Her own shins started to burn, the exhaustion of the past few days already taking its toll. He was unstoppable though, basking in the afternoon sun and once again taking pictures of everything around him, including her on a few occasions. Some things were still left unsaid and the more tired she felt with each passing hour, the more it troubled her. The events of the day made her simply wonder, but one specific feeling that started to rear its ugly head scared her.

It was half past six when they finally reached Stary Smokovec, both completely exhausted and thirsty, but happy they made it in time. The last bus to Lysa Polana was leaving at 7:05. They had just enough time to use the restroom at the electric train station and to buy some bottled water to relieve the headache.

Reaching the bus station, they found the girls they had previously met by the lake already waiting there. They took the other route at the crossing and were now also headed back to Lysa Polana. They were a nice and friendly couple, so when the bus arrived, Agnieszka and Joshue took the seat right behind them.

The sun was already low in the sky, covering the world outside in a warm hue and a fresh, lukewarm breeze was flowing through the open roof window. The sound of the moving machine made them drowsy and they watched the changing scenery in silence. It was suddenly so peaceful. One of the girls in front of them rested her head lovingly on the other one’s shoulder and Agnieszka wished to do the same, but just couldn’t muster enough courage to do so.

As if he read her mind, he took her hand and – just like the first night – started stroking her knuckles gently. She just smiled and looked in the distance. Whatever it was, she was now determined to enjoy every single minute of it. More people boarded the bus in Tatranska Lomnica and soon they were on their way again. The girls in front of them started kissing and Joshua watched them stealthily with the most heartwarming expression on his face she had seen so far. Suddenly, they heard the driver saying something with his voice raised and angry, while looking at them through the rear-view mirror.

The girls tensed and started whispering something to each other in Polish. Joshua looked confused. Agnieszka didn’t understand the driver at first but when he repeated those words she finally grasped the meaning behind them and gasped. He stopped the bus and opened the back door. Joshua turned his head to Agnieszka, looking positively alarmed now. “What is he saying?” She tried to translate it but her own words failed her. He got it, though. The guy wanted them out.

One of the girls tried to negotiate with the driver, but that made him even more visibly angry. He stood and made his way towards them. The whole bus was whispering by then, all eyes on the girls. “Do kelu, vypadnite uz, lesby zasrate!” he roared and grabbed one of the girls by the elbow, trying to push her out of the bus with force, if necessary. An older lady in the back shouted something at him, but he ignored her and continued with his speech about not wanting such filth inside his bus. Joshua clenched his jaw, stood up abruptly and went after the driver, only to be thrown back into his seat aggressively. Agnieszka didn’t even know that she started screaming. The whole situation escalated pretty quickly and resulted in the four of them being left standing by the side of the road.

The girls were the first to recover, one of them already tapping ferociously on the screen of her phone, while Agnieszka was still just standing there in disbelief and repeating “he can’t do this, he can’t do this” over and over again. Joshua sat on the grass, his elbows on his knees, clutching his head. He felt as if he was in a haze, watching her in slow motion having a heated conversation with the girls. He rubbed his temple and tried to calm down as she finally crouched down to him after a while.

“Joshua, are you ok?”

“Yes,” he whispered.

She placed a hand on his shoulder tentatively. “Are you sure? You look…”

“I am ok, Olalla. I’m ok…” but his shoulders started shaking and he lost it, startling her. She sat down next to him and pulled him in her arms in a vain attempt to soothe him. “Hey! Shhh, big boy. They’re fine. One of them just called a taxi from Poprad. But…it’s a long ride and neither of us have enough cash, so…do you, perchance, have some spare Euros? I’ll pay you back once we get back to Eulalia.”

That finally made him take a deep breath and calm down a bit. “Yeah…yes, I do. I’ll pay for the ride, don’t worry.”

“No, we’ll split the expense, I’ll just need…”

“Don’t argue, Olalla!” He was resolute. He also didn’t say a single word after that.

No one spoke during the ride back to Lysa Polana, only the radio disturbing the complete silence. The girls crammed themselves in the back seat while Joshua took the place next to the driver. Agnieszka was watching him from the back seat. They were both deep in thought and – while she couldn’t read his mind – her own was racing. It all made perfect sense all of the sudden. Still with the aftertaste of his kiss on her lips, she felt a sudden wave of bittersweet tenderness for him. Oh, my sweet Joshua. My dear…friend.

Back in her car, they still didn’t speak. They had wished the other two a safe journey back home and Joshua hugged them both, but other than that, he seemed distant, watching the passing trees outside the window absentmindedly.

“Thank you for today, Olalla,” he finally spoke, not looking at her. “It was really nice.”

“No need to be polite now, Joshua. Just tell me what’s troubling you…if you want to. If you don’t…then don’t...”

He opened his mouth, only to move his lips in vain like a mute fish, and started crying. She felt a sudden surge of panic. The incident itself, however unpleasant, couldn’t possibly shake him that much. Something else was going on, and she had a feeling it was related to the previous phone calls he had. It seemed impossible to return to Eulalia now. Her notoriously curious sister would be waiting behind the reception desk, no doubt. It was not her place to explain why they were both behaving as if they just returned from a funeral. She couldn’t muster enough strength to do that, anyway. And then there was Bart and his buddies, whom she just didn’t want to see now. AND she didn’t want them to see Joshua. Not like this.

He didn’t even notice that she took a different turn, coming back to reality again only when they passed the town centre and were now heading towards a much smaller Gubalowka mountain range on the northern side of town.

“Where are we going? he asked, looking confused.

“I just thought you might appreciate a change of scenery…”

To be continued...

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uravitypng · 2 years ago

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𝐈 𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐊 𝐓𝐎𝐎 𝐌𝐔𝐂𝐇: 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐓𝐖𝐎

pairing: kaminari denki x reader, (hanta sero x reader)

word count: 3.8k

content warnings/things in part two: gardening bashing, pet names, fluff, it's a mystery trying to figure out what's going on inside your best friend's heads, i use the words sofa and couch interchangeably, written with a chubby reader in mind (smut in later chapters/+18)

a/n: i hope you all enjoy part two!! i'm really excited for you all to read it and i hope you like it!! let me know what you think of this chapter ♡

i talk too much summery: it's terrible when you're in love with your best friend. it's terrible that he's in love with someone else.

<< previous | next >> | masterlist / check out my poll for this chapter!

Having the morning off is great for many reasons, sleeping in, spending time getting ready, maybe meeting with your friends and sleeping in again. Today is one of those days, where you can relax for the morning and not be in a rush to go out the door. You love being a hero but early morning patrols are the bane of your existence, so you start the morning of by waking up late and getting breakfast. Denki's already patrolling right now so you can't spend the morning with him, although lounging about on the sofa sounds like a good idea.

That's when you get a message come through and you know straight away it's from Hanta, he has a custom ringtone on your phone. One night when you both just graduated you went down to the beach together and played each other music until dawn. That was the first time he played you the song heat waves and now you always think of him when you hear it. That night he grabbed your phone and took a photo of you together, before changing his ringtone sound, pressing the record button and using the sound from the speaker. You still use that exact sound now where you can hear the waves and the sound of you laughing in the audio so as you hear the familiar notes of by glass animal and waves you open up your messages. 'Hey you're not patrolling right now, right? You've got the morning off?'

You briefly wonder how he know's your schedule but maybe you mentioned it earlier in the week. 'Yeah, have the whole morning off.'

'Cool, you wanna hang out?'

'Definitely. It'll be so much better than watching day time tv and napping throughout the morning.'

'Don't disrespect day time tv like that.' That gets a laugh out of you before you're arranging somewhere to meet and start getting ready.

You end up in a small cafe not too far a walk from yours, where you see Hanta is already there waiting and sitting at the back where you typically sit. It's not a very well known place as it looks fairly small on the outside but it's looks deceive because the inside is beautifully decorated. You've been told the owners daughter wants to be an artist when she's older, there's pretty little paintings in the corners or the walls and everything about the place just fits. It's delightful and you can't knock the food and drinks either.

Because it's so quiet you're less likely to be recognised which is also a big reason as to why you like this place. Fans coming up to you and asking to take photos or have signatures is part of the job but every hero deserves respite and you in particular are not the most charismatic, just wanting to do hero work and finding all the extra PR stuff boring and tedious. Most of your friends are more accepting to that side of hero work, but you lack the patience and charm for it, maybe Bakugou has rubbed off on you. You're just not good at it.

You are sitting across to one of your friends who is good at it and you're not confused to why. Hanta is one hero that people never have criticism for, he works hard, he's good at hero work, he's outgoing, approachable and magnetic, you're often in awe with him in general and how you have such amazing friends.

"Are you even listening?" You're thoughts get interrupted as you realise Hanta is grinning at you with this all knowing look on his face. Your silence answers him causing him to snicker at you. "Am I boring you or something?" In that moment you wish you were equally as quick-witted as him and be able to say something that would wipe that cheeky grin of his face, but alas you're not.

Sticking your tongue out at him, "yes." he laughs again which causes you to smile, all attention focused back onto him and your conversation. The next few hours are spent in the cafe immersed in one another's company, enjoying your time together. He's been on another failed date and every time there's an entertaining story to go along with it. This time he swears that the women he went on a date with must have been over ten years older than him and the only thing she seemed interested in talking about was gardening.

"I swear it's true! I don't know where Mina finds these girls who she swears are 'perfect for me'." The thought crosses your mind that maybe he should stop going on dates picked by Mina, they never end well but you think not to as the stories always make you laugh and Hanta has never told you throughout all of you knowing him if he even wants a committed relationship or similarly what his type is. For now you'll enjoy listening to his stories and maybe you'll have to ask Kiri at some point if he knows more about it than you. You know he has one night stands, you've seen people leave his flat and people leave with him after nights out at the club but he's never introduced a partner to you. "There's no way that she's our age, she's got to be like 40 AND then the gardening thing. The whole time she was talking about how often you have to water orchids and that you should put ice cubes on them. I'm telling you that just isn't true."

"How do you know it isn't true?" you interrupt, chuckling.

He pauses for a second before replying, "if it is true I don't want to go on a second date with someone who knows that fact." You laugh more, knowing that he is a hundred percent serious and that makes it all the more funnier.

You quickly glance at the clock hanging up on the wall opposite you, you're going to be in serious trouble if you don't get a move on. You've been so engaged talking to Hanta that time flew by. "Shit, I wasn't looking at the time, fuck." You grab your phone and throw it into your bag.

"Patrol?" Sero asks after checking the time.

"Yeah, I'm going to be late if I don't hurry," you respond, as you're getting up, starting to make your way to the door.

He gathers his things and slides his way next to you, "I'll walk with you."

With you walking as fast as you can and Hanta's long limbs you're bound to make it in time. Worrying less, you take a deep breath and remind yourself that you're not going to be late. If it's necessary you'll just get him to swing you there with his quirk.

You're both a couple minutes away from the agency when you're about to be heading your separate ways. You, on your way to the agency to get your hero gear on and Hanta across the road next to the agency to get back home. "See ya, I'll text you after work," you tell Hanta. Before you know what's happening he holds onto your wrist and quickly places a chaste kiss on your lips, "have a good shift, I'll see you soon. Yeah?" He says just as quickly as the kiss and he turns and heads down the road. That's never happened before but processing that can wait until after work.

It didn't wait until after work. During patrol your mind couldn't help but wander. You think maybe it was so fast you could have imagined it, or maybe it's likely that you're overreacting and thinking to much about it. It was just a quick kiss, a peck. Sure, Hanta's never done that before but you've been friends with Mina for years and she's surprised you more than you can count by kissing you quickly, unexpectedly grabbing onto your face making you keep eye contact as she swiftly swoops in and kisses you before saying she's about to leave whatever convention you're at.

Also every Christmas you and Kiri find yourself under the mistletoe together. The first time it happened it was awkward and you felt kind of shy however every Christmas after that it happened without fail, both of you gained confidence and took the kiss in stride and would find the whole ordeal amusing. It would feel strange if you didn't end up under the mistletoe with Kiri one Christmas, that does make it an odd pattern and a weird thing to happen but there are certainly plenty of worse people to be stuck having to kiss every year.

Like having to kiss Mineta, feeling his eyes staring at every inch of your body or Iida whose kiss you know would be to such a level of discomfort you wouldn't be able to look each other in the eye for days when seeing each other again. Or heaven forbid Denki, the man you love but know you can't have, you know that kiss would kill you. Stuck under there, with you feeling like he's being forced to kiss you while wishing it was someone else.

Maybe the kiss is like that, like it is with all your other friends. Simple. Either way it was a great kiss and though it was only a second it was a good second. His lips were soft and smooth and you could smell his pine and sandalwood cologne.

Your patrol feels quicker than normal, with you thinking about Hanta for most of it, either way you're going home and you're going to try not to think about it anymore, it's a waste of brain power. Luckily you remember what you said to Hanta before you left, shooting him a text while walking home saying how your shift was and you thanking him for a lovely morning, you can't remember who paid for drinks so you leave that bit out.

You make it home on time, to you there wasn't a time to make it on but Denki had a time. You and Denki haven't spent a lot of alone time together in the past couple of weeks and you've both noticed. It can't be helped you're both busy with patrols and work different times and different schedules and then when you have had time together it's typically with Kirishima and Sero so it's made him antsy, he misses you. He checked your patrol times for the week and made sure he was free, clearing his schedule for the time you finished work. He wanted to see you and make you dinner, just be with you.

You opened the door and five minutes later dinner would be served. Denki silently congratulates you and himself, even without knowing so your teamwork is impeccable. "I'm home!" You call out like every time. At first you didn't know if Denki was home or not but after a second you heard a clatter of pans and Denki distinctly say 'shit', you giggle before making your way into the kitchen. He must be concentrating pretty hard not to call back as loud as possible like normal.

Before you can even tease him about dropping things and being clumsy Denki turns around with a huge grin, "I'm making your favourite, go sit down." Walking behind him, and peering over his shoulder to see what he was doing exactly, your heart bursts out of chest due to the gesture.

"I can see that Denks. It smells really nice. Is it a special occasion or are you just trying to distract me and butter me up before telling me you broke the toaster again?" You ask half joking and half being genuine.

He laughs before telling you, "no, I just wanted to something nice for you, that's all." You heart warms and you try not to let it show, even though if Denki turned around he would clearly see you bashfully smiling and suddenly finding the floor very interesting looking down. "Go sit down or you're not getting any."

That gets you to move but not before you get a couple of glasses for you both and take them with you, replying a little snarky with, "yes boss." If it was anyone else you might have regretted doing that, people don't always respond well to the mocking or teasing comments you make but you know that Denki doesn't mind. In fact he always finds them humorous, every time getting a smile or chuckle out of him and pretending to be hurt by what you said so he gets you to make up for it in various ways. Even if he'll only be 'hurt' when it's his turn to do the hoovering or when he's feeling particularly tenacious and wants your attention, dragging you along with him to everywhere he needs to be that day.

You're on your way to the couch to sit down, most of the time after work if you're home late you'll eat on the couch, taking comfort over conventional seating but you're reconsidering tonight, it's not everyday you get to eat homemade food especially Denki's. Choosing the table you go over and you see that Denki has already made that decision with the table set. Not only is it set but he's put out your specific cutlery you use, you don't like using the bigger knives, forks and spoons so you have a couple of your own sets, he brought you one one day, you had only one but he brought the second set after moving in together in case the other set hadn't been cleaned yet. There's also glasses already on the table with a couple of options of both your favourite drinks. 'He really did think of everything tonight, huh.'

You sit down and place the glasses you carried to the side table so they won't get in your way as you hear, "foods coming, babydoll". You light up at use of the nickname, it's been a little while since you've heard it. He used to call you it all the time but hasn't for a little while, you would never admit it but you're glad he's called you it again, whenever you hear it you get butterflies.

The food really is delicious, neither of you are particularly good cooks but after you put your mind to something it's fantastic and this food really is. He went through all this for you and you'll love and saviour every bite. Even if it were burnt you'd still love it because of the time Denki put into it, you might've poked fun at him a bit though. You tell him how good it is and how your day has been while he tells you his. "I was kind of distracted during patrol if I'm honest." You say in between bites. "I was still on the top of my game though!" you rush out, tacked on at the end.

"I'm sure you were, you always are but what were you distracted about though?"

"It's nothing. not really."

Denki looks at you, not believing you for a second. "You may think I'll think it's nothing but that's not the case. If it's not nothing to you then it's not nothing to me as well. If you were distracted by something you've got to tell me, I've just made you dinner." He has got you there, it really isn't a big thing so there isn't any harm in telling him.

He's looking at you waiting for you to tell him, he's knows with you it could be anything. Maybe something like a philosophical question that you haven't gotten out of your head or a strange thing you saw while walking down the street, one day you came home rambling about a riddle that had you puzzled.

"I had lunch with Hanta, like I said I did, and before saying bye he kissed me. Like one of those kisses Mina gives everyone or when me and Kiri catch each other under the mistletoe."

He didn't know what he was expecting but it certainly wasn't this. You don't see Denki when you say you kissed Hanta, you're looking down at your plate getting ready to take another bite. You miss Denki's furrowed brows and his deep frown, it doesn't suit him. He tried to school his expression but that didn't stop his mouth moving, "he what?" You look up to see him and there's something about the way he said it that seems familiar. You can't exactly place what's strange about the way he said it or where you've heard him speak like that to you before but you chalk it up to confusion.

"Yeah, he kissed me. It just shocked me that's all, I didn't expect it," you explain.

"No wonder you were distracted during patrol! I can't believe he did that. You'll have to make him apologise." Denki says back automatically like it's the most urgent matter in the world, and to Denki right now it is. He can't believe Sero would just kiss you randomly like that, it's made you uncomfortable. The gall of him to put you in a situation like that!

"It's really not a big thing Denki! He doesn't need to apologise or anything." You give him the biggest smile like it's suppose to be obvious to him, that it's not a big deal but it doesn't stop him from thinking and just as he was about to say something else you start speaking again. "I'm so lucky to have you as my best friend Denki, you always look at for me but I swear this time you don't have to. It's just Hanta. It's not like I want him to apologise, it wasn't bad or anything, it was just surprising." Denki stays silent after that, you know he's protective of you, you just hope that doesn't lead him to talking to hanta about it and getting into an argument with each other.

"Dinner really was lovely Denks, thank you." You reach over to his plate and make your way into the kitchen. Just when you're about to wash up he comes up to you.

"I'll clean up tomorrow." Before you can object and tell him it's only fair for you to do it since he made dinner he's clutching onto your wrist and pulling you out of the kitchen.

"Denki what are you doing?"

"We're sitting down and we are going to watch a film."

"Can't that wait until after I clean up?"

"No." He picks up a blanket as he brings you both on the sofa and hands you the remote. Normally you sit close together or you end up next to one another because you're cold but as soon as you sit down Denki's dragging you next to him so your thighs are touching his and you're leaning against him as he pulls the blanket over you. "Put something good on babydoll."

You clear your throat, "oh, um yeah, I'll pick something now." You flick through what to watch seeing if anything in particular catches your eye. "How about wall-e? It's way better than any of the star wars films."

Denki chuckles and agrees with your pick, "it's still not better than star wars though."

"I beg to differ, it's the best space film there is."

"I don't know about that, hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy exists and there's alien too."

"Hush, wall-e is the best film that's ever been made." He's about to rebuttal but the words die on his tongue as he sees you look up at him pouting.

He pulls you even closer to him, where you're practically laying on his chest, "whatever you say doll." You play the film as you move to get comfier and pull the blanket more so it's covering your whole body.

You watch together as he cracks jokes and asks you questions and your opinions about specific scenes. It's so warm and cosy next to Denki. You can smell the citrus shower gel he uses and the faint dark chocolate smelling fragrance from his cologne that Todoroki gave him one year as secret santa, it was incredibly obvious it was from him, he basically told him. Denki now buys it whenever it runs out, he fell in love with it, he must be on his tenth bottle by now, but you're not entirely sure though.

You hear his breathing and it just all feels right, it's so cosy that halfway through wall-e you've fallen asleep. Denki realises you've fallen asleep nearly instantly by the way you didn't respond to his last joke, he looks at you and see's that your eyes are closed and fluttering occasionally, he wonders what you're dreaming about. Denki holds you tighter, wrapping his arm around your plush waist, making sure that you're comfortable and that you're warm enough. You get cold so easily. He watches the film with you in his arms and he's so thankful that neither of you were busy tonight.

Thinking about being busy he pulls out his phone, careful not to wake you, and reluctantly checks his phone, hoping that nothing important comes up. He sees a few messages from the group chat and a couple sent to him directly but nothing that demands his attention more than tonight with you so he puts his phone back down.

You wake when you feel Denki shoving his phone back in his pocket, blinking your bleary eyes trying to wake up. Hopefully Denki is unaware that you've been asleep but you know that isn't the case as you pretend you've been awake the whole time and he laughs. "I really was awake."

"Sure, I totally believe you."

"It's not my fault, I was relaxed and comfy. Sleep is important."

"Awe, ' you saying I'm cosy?"

"Go away Denki."

He chuckles as the credits roll. "Sleep is important, and that's why i'm telling you to go to bed. It's late and after the best dinner of your life I'm sure you're tired." you giggle but don't disagree or argue. "I know I'm better to sleep on than the bed but you've got to." he grins at you. you wish he wouldn't say things like that, you're tired brain can't help but imagine you asleep on him again, only this time you're in your own bed.

" 'kay i'll go to bed, but my bed is the best to sleep on," you respond tiredly.

"What else have you slept on?"

You ignore this but it still makes a sleepy smile creep on your face, "night Denks."

"Yeah night 'doll."

You waddle into your room and close the door and drift off to sleep thinking about sleeping next to Denki, while Denki's in the kitchen washing up the dishes just in case you wake up before him and do it yourself, he highly doubts that he would sleep in or that you would wake up early, but just in case.

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jillsandwhichs · 4 months ago

Text

RE Character x Reader Smutshot Collection , Chap 4 , Shine bright like a diamond

Masterlist

Pairing: Claire Redfield x F!Reader

Summary: Your sugar mama, Claire, takes you out to buy jewelry and just an exchange of a few words leads to much more

Status of your guy's relationship in this one shot: not dating/married but have mutual feelings/attraction

WC: 4.5k

Type: NSFW

Warnings: Massaging, Dirty talk, Making out, Thigh kissing, Oral (Reader recieving), Readers first time with a strap, Claire uses her strap on you, Orgasm kink/fetish ??

A/n: Hi! Hope you all enjoy. Please check out my masterlist, there's a lot of stuff there. You can get to know me, you can see the rules of my blog and then you can see all of my fanfictions. You'll be able to find the previous chapters to this fic and upcoming ones. You'll also be able to find my Wattpad & AO3. Comments, reblogs & likes are appreciated. Thank you

"Now I think this would look great on you." Claire held up the fancy necklace, admiring how sparkly it was. You looked down at it, there were so many gemstones inlayed in it, it must cost a fortune. You could hardly believe she was willing to spend this much on you. "It is... Pretty..." You raised an eyebrow slightly. It wasn't not pretty, it just seemed like it was a bit to much for a wedding. The bride should be the one sticking out, not some random plus one whose attending.

"What? What's wrong with it?" Claire cooed out, taking the necklace away from your neck and analyzing it. "Nothing, it's just... Shouldn't the bride be the one wearing flashy jewels? Not some random guest...?" "You're right... Sorry love, I just thought you'd look beautiful in it." Claire agreed, setting it back down into it's casing.

Claire brought you to this super expensive jewelry store, they have all sorts of stuff here, the most expensive thing probably cost damn near a million bucks, it's nuts how much money some of these gems are worth. You spotted a bracelet earlier that nearly costed two thousand dollars, it's not over priced, it's just how much it is truly worth. You've never been to a place like this. Claire insisted on taking you, you couldn't help but agree, you wanted to see what they had, even if you didn't buy anything.

"Will you be getting anything for yourself?" "No sweetheart, just you, I wanna find a necklace that suits you that isn't too out there, you were right earlier." Claire stated, her painted finger nails trailing along the rack of cased necklaces. There were so many, you could see the glare off of them randomly hitting your face. "I think something like this would be nice on you." Claire then picked up a smaller necklace.

The chain of it was silver, which you most definitely preferred over gold. The charm on it was a small circle, the gem was a light blue but you didn't really know what it was specifically. "Is there a theme for the wedding?" "Not that I can recall, but this would match well with just about anything, don't you think?" "Sure." You responded to Claire, placing your palm to cup the gem. It was very elegant looking, and it wasn't flashy at all.

"I wonder how much it is." You went to turn the tag around but Claire grabbed it from you. "Ah, ah, ah, no, I don't want you to try and back out of me buying it for you, my love." Claire snickered, checking the tag and giving out a slight nod. Whenever she did that, it usually means it's expensive in general, but not to much for her. "Listen, I get you're like my... Sugar mama... Or whatever, but I still have a guilty conscious." "I know you do, now, let's go try this on you, yeah?" Claire slithered her thin arm behind your back, the two of you walking up to one of the body length mirrors.

"Are we even allowed to take it out of it's packaging?" "Well, I can do whatever I please, so." Claire snorted, unhooking it from its cardboard back. The necklace was meant to rest higher up on your chest, hence why the chain is smaller. The jewel was absolutely gorgeous, Claire has a good eye for things. "Alright." She grunted, undoing the clasp and setting it into your neck before re clipping it together.

You looked at yourself in the mirror, turning your head at different angles to get a good understanding of how it looked on you. You loved it, it made you feel so beautiful. "Oh, just look at you." Claire hummed out, she was now standing directly behind you. "I like how it's not super long, y'know?" You mumbled, your eyes gandering down at it again. "So, do we like?" "Yes, it's very nice, I like it Claire." You confirmed your liking to it. You aren't one of those women who fawn over expensive things but this was a keeper.

As you were still admiring the piece of fine jewelry, you sighed softly, feeling the touch of Claire on you. Her gentle hands slid up to your shoulders as she began to slightly massage them. "You're tense sweetheart." "I know." You chuckled. She wasn't wrong. You've been dealing with some bullshit the past couple of days and it's done numbers on you; Physically and mentally. Her hands firmly rubbed your shoulders, attempting to release any stress knots from them. It felt great.

Your head slightly tilted back as she continued, the motions of her hands making you devilishly weak; She knew exactly what to do. Her lips met your upper back, leaving loving kisses along it til she reached your shoulder. "That feels amazing." You breathlessly chuckled, turning your head to the right more so you could see her gorgeous face. "Yeah...?" Claire kissed you more, the air from her nose blowing onto you now - She was so very close to you. "Mhm." You groaned out.

Her hands than slid to your midriff, her fingers scrunching onto your knitted sweater. Her lips never left your upper back/shoulder area, she continuously marked her territory on you. Her darker shade of lipstick left imprints too, you didn't mind though. The way her fingers worked on you was magical, you felt immensely relaxed now.

"Claire...?" "Yes lovely?" "How about we pay for this necklace and just go?" "Eager, are we?" "Very." You breathed heavily, your fingers failing to remove the necklace. With a titter, Claire took it off for you, grabbing it's packaging and gazing up at you. "Get in the car, wait for me while I pay for this, got it?" "Will do." You shrieked slightly. Now you were excited. Whenever Claire tells you to do something, you gotta do it.

The jewelry shop is modern looking, very modern. The primary colors are black and white. The lights are extremely bright, pure white, it honestly hurt your eyes to stare up at. Each one of the worker's is wearing either a fancy suit or a ravishing dress, nothing else - This place must have a strict dress code. Most of the jewelry is also in clear glass cases, but some of it was set up on a rack. Overall, it was clearly meant for wealthy people only.

Pushing open the glass door, you exited the building, immediately heading towards Claire's vehicle. She was nervous for what Claire had in store for her.

After waiting in the cool car, you watched as Claire made her way to it, climbing into the front seat. "Here you go." She handed you the necklace. You went to look for a price tag on it, but there wasn't one; She's to sly sometimes. You set it in your purse, ensuring it will stay safe. The last thing you want is to lose something Claire gifts to you, you cherish everything she gifts to you.

Claire's hand went to yours, taking it in hers. "Where are we going?" "My place." Claire cleared her throat, pulling onto the busy roads ahead. "For?" "I think you know what for." Claire squeezed your hand, her thumb colliding against it. Her words had you all over the place. You turned your head to face the direction of the car window, biting your lip gently. Your stomach was doing flips in itself.

The car ride from the jewelry store to Claire's home wasn't very long, quite quick actually considering she lives in the main part of the city. But gosh, it felt like the drive was taking an entire century. There was no talking the entire time, just some low pitched music playing in the distinct background. Her hand was still in yours too, you'd occasionally feel her squeeze your hand - It is just one way of her letting you know she's there.

While you and Claire aren't in some serious relationship, there's times where you wish you two were. It would just be difficult. Often, she's gone, not even around. Then there's times where she's home for weeks on end. Her job just takes her away from you and originally, the two of you were going to give dating a try but you don't think you can handle being apart from her for extended periods of times and vice versa.

For now, she's like a sugar mama. You hated the term at first, but it definitely grew on you and well, she technically is exactly that. She makes good loads of money and a vast bit of it is used on you, you mind of course but at the same time, it's awesome. You rarely have to worry about money now, even when she's gone she'll cash app you. Honestly, you prefer it this way but still, there's that part of you that wants to be with her.

Claire pulled into her driveway, pulling the key out of it's holder and setting it into her wallet. "Come on sweetheart." Claire smiled at you, opening her door and stepping up onto her porch, beginning to unlock the front door. You got out as well, taking your purse with you. Her house is quite large, massive even. It's always been an eye grabber. It's well designed; Claire told you she had it commissioned. That's one thing that will definitely let someone know she has rich taste.

The interior of her home was expensive too. Although, she's definitely apart of the stereotype that rich people have little to no furniture to fill out their large homes. It feels so spacious, unnecessarily though. But, at least her home is actually colorful. It's very exquisite looking, you always liked that. She has a unique taste pallete.

"You go on to my bedroom, okay? I'll be up there in a second darling." Claire hummed out to you. "Okay." You nodded, looking over at the spiral staircase. You began to step up them, making your way to the tippy top. You always enjoyed how open the upstairs was, you could look down at the lower floors from above, it felt like a deck but just inside instead of out. In her home, there was three bedrooms, hers was the most extensive, but that is to be expected. She is the only one who lives here after all.

Ambling into the bedroom, you let out a quiet sigh, taking in the sight. The room was pristine, everything was dusted, bed was made, floors were vacuumed, etc.. Claire was a tad bit of a neat freak, it seems. This is also only your third time being inside of her house within the four months of hanging out with her. You remember absolutely being appalled by it when you first came over, it was nothing like what you are used to. You grew up simply mediocre.

You sat down on the end of the bed, the feeling of the plush comforter was comforting, ironically. Her bed was large, the largest it could get. Her bedsheets were a deep red too, reminded you of Christmas colors sort of. You let your fingers roam the blanket, the softness felt nice. You didn't know what Claire was doing and why she needed to do something before coming into her room with you, but whatever it was better be good. You want her now.

The two of you have hooked up before, a few times. In total, maybe five...? You two have only been speaking for about four months now and didn't get as close til midway through the second one, so it's definitely a slow yet worth it process.

Claire entered the bedroom, a black case in her hand. You have absolutely no clue of what it could be. "What's that?" "You'll see lovely." Claire giggled, placing it onto her white dresser. It was a secure box, a whole ass padlock on it. The only thing that came to mind was a gun of some sort but then again, why the hell would she bring that into the room you two are about to fuck in.

Turning around, Claire came over to you, a cute smirk plastered on her face. She took your hands in hers, lifting you up off of the bed. With a giggle, you wrapped your arms around her neck, hers going to your waist once again. "I can't wait to see how good you look with that necklace on." "Yeah?" You cooed out to her, your head slightly tilted as your eyes were locked with hers. "Yeah... Bet you'll be prettier than the bride even." "Hey, don't say that." You gave her wide eyes. She was so blunt sometimes.

With a snicker, Claire pressed her lips to yours, her hands touching you all over the place. You moaned with tranquil, not quite expecting the sudden movement. You felt your heart rate increase with each kiss, each one making you feel more and more alive. Claire's hands didn't help, they were going all over on your body, making you wanna feel her even more.

"Mmm, I want you." You spoke out in between kisses, your fingers trailing through her thick, soft hair. "I know you do, I want you pretty." Claire responded, her lips encasing yours. Her hands went to your jeans, her fingers pulling the buttons apart. You did the same to her, your guy's outfits were oddly similar today. Jeans, a T shirt and both of your guy's hair was straightened out. It fit to say the least.

You watched as Claire got down on her knees, pulling your jeans down with her. You placed your hands on her shoulders, stroking them with ease. She gazed up at you, her eyes so pretty and dark, you wanted to feel her touch you even more. "Come on." Claire hummed, urging for you to step out of your pants, which you did. Claire slid them to the other side of the room, her gaze going to your thighs now.

She began to kiss all over your thighs. She did always love them. From her shoulders, your hands went to her cheeks, gently caressing them as she left smooches all over your legs. You could tell what she was about to do; You didn't mind. "Claire..." You murmured out, her lips getting closer and closer to your core. Through your undergarments, the wet spot you had going on was visible, and Claire was absolutely mad about it, in a good way. You make her go crazy.

Her lips went all the way up your thighs, not missing a single spot before you nearly lost yourself, feeling her nose press against your clit area and her lips slightly rub against your pussy. "Oh." You sighed out intently, her face felt so perfect in your hands. She breathed your scent in deeply, setting off something in her furthermore. "You smell so good." Claire uttered against you. The tip of her nose was teasing your clit, you just needed her at this point.

Through your panties, she kissed your clit briefly all while her fingers locked on the band of them, ready to pull them down. Claire was dying to taste you - Ravish you. Everything about you causes her to go crazy for you. "Can I?" She questioned you, her eyes on yours. Asking for consent is always sexy. "Mhm." You nodded repeatedly, really getting the point across. With a chuckle, she pulled your wetted panties all the way down, having you step out of them. She grabbed ahold of them and instead of tossing them, this time she breathed them in, then set them to the side. She always does stuff like that.

Immediately, her mouth went back to your center, beginning to eat you out. You held onto her shoulders for what seemed like dear life, given that any moment you could fall over from pleasure. Her tongue did thick licks through your folds; All of your wetness being swept up by her tongue. "You waste no time, huh?" You moaned, gandering down at her. She looked so enticing whilst eating you out like this.

Her hands went to your upper thighs, holding onto them tightly, slightly gripping them as she continued her work. The way her tongue flicked against your bud was phenomenal, it made your legs twitch like crazy. "Taste... So good..." Claire commented against your pussy, kissing your clit quickly before instantly heading back to devouring your entire center. Her lips would part entirely before connecting again, all while doing this, her tongue would slurp you right up.

You squeaked as Claire spread your legs open more, now she didn't plan to stop. She wanted to bring you pure pleasure, and she will accomplish that exact motive. Her pretty lips swathed around your clit, suckling on it with intensity. Anytime she does this, it is what eventually heeds you to your orgasm. As she began, you released a sharp and loud moan, tossing your head back. You could hardly stand still now, you kept finding yourself moving each time she sucked a bit harder and faster.

Breath shuttering, legs shivering and your orgasm is coming upon you, you can tell you're becoming closer and closer to your climax. "Claire, I'm so close." You whimpered, gripping onto her shoulders much tighter now. She was making you feel so fucking good. How she works her tongue on you is magnificent. "Mmm." Claire moaned against your pussy, the sounds of your wetness becoming much more prominent.

Seconds later, her tongue did one more swipe through your lips and that was your complete undoing. You felt yourself falter, your mouth wide open but no noise emitting from it. She didn't let up either, continuing to lap at you til you suddenly pulled away, your body slightly shaking. "Look at you." Claire giggled, standing up now, wiping her somewhat wet mouth. You were still drenched.

"You good?" "Yes." You nodded, a cute snicker coming from you. Claire stepped over to you, embracing you in her arms, "Can I show you something, pretty?" "Yeah, sure." You muttered, plopping down onto the bed, making sure your legs were closed, you were still aroused too.

Claire walked over to her dresser, that black case snatching your eyes again. You truly wondered what it was that was in it. "What's in there?" "You'll see sweetheart." She hushed you, taking the padlock off of it and setting it to the side. She then unclicked the two clasps, opening the case up. You still couldn't see inside of it from where you were, but you didn't necessarily know what you should expect.

You saw her grab out another smaller box and bring it over to you, placing it into your lap.

"Baby, don't freak out or anything, it's nothing bad at all, it's just that... There's a chance you won't like it and hey, if that's the case, I understand!" Claire rambled, sitting down beside you. "Uhm, you're worrying me." You cackled out, beginning to open up the box. "Don't be, it's just... A bit intense." Claire hummed out to you, caressing your back with sweet love. You nodded carefully, beginning to remove the wrapping off of the top of the box.

And yeah, she wasn't lying, it was very intense.

There was an entire dildo and a strap on in the box.

Your jaw was dropped, eyes wide and hand slightly shaking. You never expected this. You didn't even think people truly used these outside of pornos. It looked real too, the skin color was realistic and everything. It was quite decent in size as well. "Wow I..." You gasped, a faint titter being heard from Claire. "I know, I know, it is a big jump... But all I'm asking is that you let me try." Claire smiled at you, rubbing the back of your neck now.

"So, you want to use this... On me? Like you're a man or something?" "Ew, don't say that." Claire snorted, "No, it's just... I want to make you feel good." Claire kissed your cheek quickly, her forehead now resting against the side of your head. You picked up the item, analyzing it. It felt okay, you didn't expect it to be that texture but it wasn't necessarily bad. "So... How do you feel?" "I think I am willing to try it." You whispered, handing the box and dildo to her now.

Claire bit her lower lip in excitement. "I promise, I'll make you feel great, get undressed." You listened to her, now removing your shirt and bra, your breasts popping out of it. The entire time, Claire simply gazed at you. You laid yourself up on the bed, running your hands through the cold sheets. Claire removed her articles as well, and began to put the strap on. You watched with focus as she adjusted it, making sure it was snug on her. "So that's how it works." You chortled.

Grinning, Claire hoisted herself onto the bed, climbing herself on top of you, her lips going to yours, breathing in deeply whilst she did so. "Just let me know when." "When." You laughed, wanting to feel her. Claire chuckled. "Are you sure lovely? This is completely up to you." "Yes Claire, I'm very sure... If I don't like it, then we can stop, but obviously I've fucked men before, it shouldn't be much different, right?" "Right." Claire cleared her throat, sitting up on her knees now.

Claire set her hands on your upper leg area, spreading them apart slowly. Your wetness was clear and goopy, Claire watched as it pulled apart whilst spreading your legs. "Mmm." Claire smiled, leaning down and placing a kiss to your knee before getting in position. "Just let me know if I need to stop, yeah?" "Of course baby." You assured her, stroking her pale cheek. Claire moved against your hand, sort of like how a cat usually does.

You eyed down at her crotch area, watching as she aligned the fake cock to your very real and soaked pussy. She swiped it through your folds a few times, needing it damp so she could slip it in. The texture of it was smooth and real feeling, but it definitely needed more lubricant than the real deal.

She then slowly but surely pushed the tip into you, then the base and then all the way until her legs were pressed to yours. It was a mating press type of position. "Feel good?" "Mhm." You nodded with a gleeful look. She did feel great inside of you. She began to move but her pace was slow. You could feel her hit so deep inside of you, then pull practically all the way out. It was so teasing.

You wrapped your arms around her neck, your eyes on hers as she rocked her hips against yours.

As she picked up the pace, the sound of your inner thighs being clapped against became louder, which you found hot. Most people wouldn't, but it shows just how good she's rocking your fucking world. Even though it wasn't her real cock, it still felt great. It wouldn't feel as good if it was somebody else either. "You look so good like this." Claire whispered to you lovingly, her head going into the crook of your heated neck.

From her neck, you moved your hand to the back of her head, running your soft fingers through her brushed out hair. "Does it feel nice?" "Yeah, yeah it does." You panted out. Her warm breath could be felt against your neck, along with her lips as she would frequently mooch on you there; Leaving lipstick marks on you. You were hers. Even if your guy's relationship wasn't entirely official, you know you'll always be here and same goes for her.

You'd do anything to be with her like that.

"Sweetheart..." Claire grunted, her hips grinding harder now. Letting out a moan, you wrapped your legs around her, her ass occasionally hitting your feet. The dildo was hitting deep inside you now. It felt real but even better? But that was probably because it's Claire doing it. She knows how to work herself on you. "Let me know when you feel like you're about to cum." Claire hummed, nibbling on your earlobe.

You felt like you'd look stupid while cumming, you always try to avoid letting her see your face. But you already know that if you try, she will not let you succeed. Pulling away from your slick neck, she made eye contact with you, her strap still plowing into you. You could feel your insides contort, the need to cum arising with haste. "I wish I could actually feel you baby." Claire said softly, one hand of hers now holding onto your structured face.

You wish so too.

Your eyebrows curved and your lips went apart, your orgasm was coming at you hot, you knew any second you'd cum - Claire could tell too. You nearly broke right then and there as you felt her fingers go down to your clit, beginning to rub it as she fucked you with intense speed. She rubbed circles on your nub, her tongue slightly sticking out onto her lower lip as she concentrated on you and your face, oh how beautiful you are to her.

"Fuck," Claire blurted out, "I bet you feel so tight and so wet." She praised, the tip of the fake cock hitting that G spot it so desired. "Only for you..." You giggled, tugging on her hair slightly. Claire pumped her strap on into you rapidly, each motion bringing you closer and closer. Her fingers also continued their work, making your clit become more sensitive.

"Right there!" You moaned out, biting your lip roughly as she flicked your clit faster. Her movements came to a much slower speed now that her fingers were the ones moving quickly, she didn't want to overstimulate you or anything.

"Claire..." You sighed out as your undoing hit you like a wave clashing against a rocky shore. Your back arched sharply, the arm that was on the bed now grasped around her neck, mainly for support. Claire chuckled, stopping all of her movements instantly, just watching you unravel beneath her. "Gorgeous girl." Claire cooed kindly, kissing the top of your head with love. You inhaled deeply, wrapping both of your arms around her now. She snuggled you back, pulling the dildo out of you and taking it out as fast as she could.

The two of embraced one another as you layed on the bed. Claire brought the comforter and sheets to cover the two of her. Her arms slithered around your hips, your bareness against hers. Her touch, the nakedness, felt so raw and bare, you quite liked it. "Gosh, that was different in an amazing way." You snorted, giving her an adorable look. Claire kissed your nose at the tip, then rubbed hers against yours. "Glad you liked it pretty." She spoke softly.

"We definitely need to do that again."

"Definitely." Claire grinned.

#claire redfield #claire redfield smut #claire redfield fanfic #claire redfield fanfiction #claire redfield resident evil #resident evil #resident evil smut #resident evil fanfiction #tumblr fyp #wlw

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lavender-at-heart · 3 months ago

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Hihi! Could I request some headcannons of how Jedediah and Octavius would react to a new nightgaurd that is interested in both of them? Would they end up bickering even more or would they intentionally try and get along more? How open are they about their feelings towards the nightgaurd and how obvious to others is it how they feel? Do they have any special gestures they end up doing to try and show their personal affection? Things like that please :)👍❤️

Jᴇᴅ + Oᴄᴛᴏ ʜᴄ's

K first off I wanna say I'm so sorry for taking so long I have not checked my inbox in the longest time 🙏 hope it's not too late.

Warnings:

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

Being a night gaured in a magical museum is hard enough

Having two miniatures fight over you is ever harder

It starts off as a joke on your behalf

Jed and Octavious were some of the first friends you made at the museum, they offered to give you tours and introduce you to the other exhibits

Jed and Octo would be super shocked at the stark contrast between you and the previous gaurds

You were a lot younger, a lot prettier, a lot nicer, always making light jokes and suggestive comments

And that's where you went wrong (or right). Being from a modern generation its normal to make suggestive jokes and use crude language and humor.

Sometimes you'd make little comments like " Wow that hat makes you look so handsome Jed" or "my you really are a brave general Octavious"

And you think their not gonna become mega infatuated with you? Yeah right

Octavious immediately insists on being your personal gaurd when you make the rounds, sometimes siting on your shoulder, keeping watch, sometimes always a few feet ahead to spot any danger

He would swear oaths to protect you in Minervas name

He would quote Roman poetry and compare you to the sun and moon

Jedediah would give you miniature bouquets and collect other things for you. Oh Ahkmenrah isn't liking his ring anymore? Well it would look just great on your finger. He would offer to walk with you, keep you company.

He would sing you old country songs about true love and the good old days

Obviously the animosity between the two grows so much more becuase of you

Jed will tie Octavious up with rope so he can't go join you on your walk

Octavious will send his army to destroy the western exhibit

They'll fight all the time, trying to assassinate eachother becomes a nightly occurance

And obviously it makes you sad, the two people you get along with most end up hating eachother

They will desperately try and prove to you why the others better

"Jeez, I mean you don't want to be bothered by this dusty old schmuck." Jed is definitely more forward but has that southern charm yknow?

"I am appalled that you would even dare to befriend this ungrateful, insolent peasant. He speaks to you in such an inappropriate manner and does not give you the proper respect you deserve."

Eventually they bicker so so much that even Teddy has gotten annoyed by it, so you step in

You tell them that if they keep fighting you'll end up hating both of them and go find someone else to spend time with

So they reluctantly agree

They both patrol the halls with you

They both enjoy siting on your shoulders, mostly becuase then they can't see eachother

But to be honest forcing them to hang out with eachother makes them slowly build their own friendship

Like they might do a joint valentines day gift, you know, combine forces so you have a better experience. It's only to benefit you (totally not becoming friends)

You feel like you could tell them anything, and they would just sit there and listen. They find modern human life so so fascinating

And you ask them for stories too of course. You ask about cowboy life and the glory of Rome, you can tell they both (Octavious especially) love talking and telling stories about the glory days.

#night at the museum #night at the museum x reader #night at the museum fanfic #natm jedediah #jedediah and octavius #night at the museum jedediah #jedediah x reader #octavius x reader #natm octavius

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maochira · 1 year ago

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Toki-Niji (my hamster) is getting a new owner in an hour. I sadly can't take care of him the way he needs it, and luckily I found someone who already has experience with two other hamsters as sensitive as him. I'm sad and wish I wouldn't have to let go, but it's the best for both Toki-Niji and me to put him into someone else's hands.

(More details under the cut if you wanna know more.)

I first started struggling with Toki-Niji back in the beginning of August (about 3 weeks after getting him) when he started biting the corners of his cage due boredom and/or stress. After multiple tries I only got him to stop the behaviour, but couldn't get rid of his boredom and stress. I really tried to. I bought and DIYed stuff to krep him busy, but he ignored those. One week I spent ike 80-100€ on things for him in hope it'll keep him busy but it didn't work. That was the first time I thought about giving him away but at that time, I just couldn't deal with the guilt I felt about "failing." By now I know I didn't fail because I tried as much as I could and giving him to someone else with more experience is the only right thing to do.

Besides that, Toki-Niji is very sensitive to noises and light, so I couldn't keep a big light on anymore and only a desk lamp as soon as he woke up at 7pm, which is an hour after I get home from school on most days. I also had to keep noises down as much as possible and often ended up not doing anything in the evenings. I just didn't want to cause him any more stress.

Every time I would hear any kind of noise from him I would get anxious in fear he's showing stress signs again. Knowing I have a stressed hamster terrified me because I want the best for him but didn't know what to do anymore.

I looked for help on reddit (in August) and followed the advice but nothing helped enough. I tried letting Toki-Niji run free outside of his cage to help with the boredom, but that only stressed him more.

My breaking point was 2 nights ago when he escaped his cage like 10 times and barely let me sleep that night. On one side that is my fault because the cage wasn't secure enough (I fixed it afterwards) but I also realized if it happens once, he'll continue trying to find new ways escape which means he's still stressed and bored.

I just couldn't deal with the anxiety and being woken up at night anymore. And I just couldn't deal with being fully aware I can't care for Toki-Niji the way he needs it.

Sure, I could have tried more. I could have bought and crafted more things to keep him busy. But honestly, I tried so many different things and I don't want to spend more money only to probably "fail" again. I just don't have the emotional capacity for this.

I know why he is so sensitive. He was raised in a bad environment and when I picked him up he was in a small cage with his brothers and father, in the middle of a hallway - aka a busy area where he probably didn't get much rest and was stressed a lot.

This experience just taught me again how hamsters, despite being so small, aren't always easy pets. Toki-Niji is very different from my previous two hamsters. And that's okay. He'll be better with another owner.

Sometimes a human and an animal aren't meant to be with each other. And that was the case for Toki-Niji and me.

I don't plan to have another hamster (or pet in general) for a while. At least as long as I live with my father I don't want another pet.

#💟 maochira talks

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paperandhis-paper · 1 year ago

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Arc-V Month Day 8: The Regular- ah, Standard Show and Day 9:Light Across the Aether

Combining two prompts, as I'll be gushing about (among other parts) about the Standard arc. Hope that's fine, @arcvmonth

Anyway, Arc-V has a lot of positives (that tend to get washed by the hatejerk), but what I want all of us to appreciate is that this silly show...exists. Not only that, but the awesome way the staff managed to hype all of us up?

What do I mean by this? Let me put it this way. This is a show about a multidimensional war where each dimension is based on a previous Yugioh series, featuring Returning Characters, and every Summoning Type is used.

Now go back to the original trailer for Arc-V. Notice how there're some things missing. Namely? ALL OF THE ABOVE. We knew about Pendulum Summoning, we knew Yuya rode a hippo...and that's about it.

Marketing-wise maybe this wasn't the brightest move, but it's an example of something I love about early Arc-V. In the year of our lord, 2023, where crossovers are everywhere and meta-commentary is so overdone people do meta-commentary about meta-commentary, it's bewildering how Arc-V kept its cards close to its chest and drip-fed information about its plot to keep the audience interested.

All of Season 1 is like this. At first we only really see Pendulum Summoning. But as early as Episode 3, we get hints about the other Summoning Types, since LDS has courses on each one. But whatever, you may think. It's only an Easter Egg, right?

Then this little fella shows up.

Casually, this kid activates Polymerization like it's nothing. And it's not like Jack randomly Fusing in early 5D's, Sora's deck is clearly Fusion-focused. But if that's not enough, we then meet the LDS trio, who use Xyz, Fusion, and Synchro. AND THEN Reiji tops them all by using all three at once. And Pendulum.

It's easy to take it for granted now, but this was legit just such a "holy shit" moment back then. 5D's featured Fusion a few times, but it was mostly a Synchro Spam. And Zexal pretended Synchros didn't exist. So it was so exciting to know Arc-V would be different.

That would be cool enough, but then they went ahead and made it so that each Summoning Type was tied to a specific Dimension. And again, the war plot was dropped slowly but surely. We get introduced to Yuto, who not only looks like Yuya, but he mentions something about some "Academia". But hey, a GX reference, whatever. And then it keeps going. We learn about Shun, about Ruri. And it all culminates in Shun vs Sora, which... ok, everyone knows this duel is amazing, but it's not just about the duel itself being spectacular. It's about the confirmation that, yes, we really are doing this. That Action Field IS Heartland, Shun and Yuto are from there, and the Academia Sora belongs to is based on GX.

The most ambitious crossover in history is here. And all they told us at first is that Tomato-boy rides a hippo. What the fuck.

Speaking of hippo-ridah. Arc-V always gets the somewhat-backhanded compliment of being the most ambitious Yugioh series, a statement I agree with. However, this is generally just refers to the overall scope of the plot. Today, one aspect that can sometimes get neglected that I want to highlight is how daring their choice of protagonist is.

Yuya, my beloved. I don't wanna spend too much time about how much I love him, because I'm sure I'll do so in the future, but I want everyone to appreciate the writers' choice in creating him.

I'm gonna be blunt: Shonen fans can be dumb. They are not the kind to be receptive to protagonists who're not hyper-macho, badass types and who are prone to show weakness. Just look at the response characters like Shinji Ikari or Natsuki Subaru get. Now, I'm not saying Yuya is as well-written as those, but it shows that even if the writers had written him perfectly there was always going to be a crowd of people who were going to hate him.

So I gotta give a shout-out for creating what's easily the most complex Yugioh protag by a long shot. Other protags could be slotted into one of two categories: "Serious" (Yugi, Yusei), or "Upbeat" (Judai, Yuma). Meanwhile, from Episode 1, Yuya defies categorization. He plays the clown, making one think he'll fit right in with Judai and Yuma, before the show makes it clear that it's just a facade... but also it's not. He truly strives to be the fun-loving, charming Entertainer he projects, but his own struggles and feelings prevent him from succeeding. It's a fascinating struggle, and I'm impressed that a franchise like Yu-gi-oh would even attempt this. And then you throw in the demon inside of him, and the waters get even muddier.

Speaking of which...

Something Cool about the Zarc Duel

(Yeah, that's as good of a segue as you're getting. I just wanna talk about something cool I noticed.)

So. The Zarc-duel. It's a mixed bag. I'm of the opinion most of it is meh (not helped by it taking over a month to air), but that the first and final episodes of it are amazing. And I wanna talk about something cool about said last episode that doesn't get talked about enough.

So, as we know, Zarc, alongside Yuya, created Pendulum to get revenge. And yet he gets defeated the exact-same way, by Ray activating the En Cards...or does he? If you pay attention, you'll notice that the En Cards destroy monsters, negate their effects, and deal 600 damage for each Monster sent to the graveyard (very particular wording these uber-powerful cards). Zarc has 2800 LP, and five monsters affected. 600x5 means his Life Points naturally drop to... 1000?

Of course, that's because Odd Eyes and Zarc are Pendulum monsters, so they're sent to the Extra Deck. If they weren't, he'd have lost right there and then. And not only did Zarc's scheme prevent his defeat, it basically got him the duel: he still had Scales set, and Reira's field was empty, so nothing stops him from Pendulum Summoning Zarc and/or Odd Eyes, and attack for game. Thankfully, the Lancers' efforts managed to reach Yuya, and he regained control and basically Shining Drew Smile Universe. In a hint of irony, they even play Swing, Pendulum of Souls, a song usually reserved for Zarc possessing Yuya.

Speaking of which, Smile Universe's effect is really similar to that of the En Cards. I guess it's the Unofficial 5th one and Smiles are the 5th beauty of Nature.

On that note, one last thing.

The Title: Arc-V

Arc-V is a very peculiar name for a show. And what I love is that it has many meanings. Most straight-forwardly, it's the name of the machine Leo builds to fuse the Dimensions. And obviously, it refers to it being the fifth Yugioh series. But it also refers to both the arc of a Pendulum, as well as the shape of a smile (there's an ED literally called "ARC OF SMILE", in case you think I'm reading too deep into things). I love how well-crafted this show's symbolism and visual language is.

Anyway, this turned into a massive ramble. I'm just happy to talk about this silly show that's burned itself into my mind. Thanks for reading if you somehow made it this far.

#arc v #arcvmonth #arcvmonth2023 #yuya sakaki #zarc arc v

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fantastic-mr-corvid · 9 months ago

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👾!!

Tyyy!!

one from Celia's! Dessa is one of the two main artists i associate with Celia n co's story, and Fire Drill has a massive link to Celia, especially her relationship with womanhood & poverty. its a song i associate most with a younger Celia, but carries on being relevant

[i picked wayy to many lines out to talk about, so under the cut it is!]

Cut my hair, tape my tits down

teen Celia was cutting her hair short and wearing to tight bras long before she was living as a man, trying to be mistaken for a boy and distance herself from being seen as a 'girl' in general, trying to reduce the reminders people would have that she was not one of the boys, literally.

A woman on her own must be from out of town

Even Elena was firmly entrenched in the group, and Celia was no different. safety is found in numbers, and lone wolves end up hurt. Celia and Elena threw their lot in with the boys, because they couldn't with the girls, and because anything is better than being alone.

Funny, you don't know the concessions that you're making until you catalog em And by then they're many and you're battle-hardened

Celia was just a little girl, then she became a monster, and although she can see in hindsight how it happened, at the time it felt like barely any difference at all. she made concession after concession, had decision after hard decision, all in the moment, all with pressure on her shoulders, and its not until after it all, years and years after, she can see just how much damage shes taken, just how much she changed, and by then she practically numb, drowning in an ocean of blood and battle hardened.

I'm here to file my report as the vixen of the wolf pack;

Celia, by the previous leaders and candidates dying or getting life changing injuries, becomes the leader of the 'pack', a girl leading men, a vixen. it also links to how she used to be fairly low down, weak and a scavenger, until the numbers where whittled down, and ven then it took a few years for her to be a strong leader, a wolf among wolves.

Tell Patient Zero, he can have his rib back

referencing Adam, but also given the stand arrow gives a virus, its her saying that she doesn't want this power, but also- Eve came from Adam, almost as an afterthought, and she was hit with the stand arrow as an afterthought, with the man meant to get it dying, failing idk i find it intresting.

You can count my ribs Wanna know what class I'm in- Count my You can count my ribs

the malnourishment Celia experienced stunted her growth massively, and she was a skinny teenager, like many people she knew, due to living in poverty, because of her class. also links to her eventually showing more chest, with her wrap top under jacket, and the story that adam has one less rib, daring people to not call her a man.

You can't be too broke to break As a woman always something left to take So you shouldn't try to stay too late or talk to strangers Look too long, go too far out of range cause Angels can't watch everybody all the time Stay close, hems low, safe inside; That formula works if you can live it But it works by putting half the world off limits

there is always further to fall, something more to take. to Celia, and due to the environment she was in, being a woman mean being a victim, and as outlines in the song, there were so many ways you had to stay safe, and it puts so much of the world of limits. Celia doesn't want to have to live like this, and so she rejects what places her there, femininity and womanhood. as a teen, Celia felt so much rage at how her gender confined her, and then forcibly removed it.

its also ironic, with how despite rejecting being a woman, she is still living a life of running fire drills, still has left her ambitions to just stay safe, still spends all her time vigilant.

this song is not a 1:1 with Celia, but is very tied to her character, especially in vibes. it fits best early on, her anger at how her gender confines her, but the vibes follow her.

#Tyy again!!#thebirdwrites #gold & silver #celia #if you couldnt tell i think to much about my song choices<3

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manofmanymons · 2 years ago

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takuma/kaito marriage headcanons oh great one?

Oh goodness when's the last time I used the cute braincell instead of the cursed braincell

Like with previous marriage-related asks I'm gonna backtrack all the way to the proposal stage. Which means I have to backtrack even further to a general ship hc I've always had but don't think I've shared??? That being that I am convinced that Kaito and Takuma's mom would get along really well. You know cuz she's like kind of an overbearing mom and Kaito is Kaito.

I feel like I use "Kaito is Kaito" as an explanation for whatever the hell Kaito's got going on a lot but I really don't have a better way of describing him you know like he's just very very Kaito.

Anyways the idea Takuma's mom being overly worried about Takuma, and Takuma insisting that she's worried over nothing and trying to get Kaito to back him up, only for Kaito to side with his mom instead lives in my brain rent free. Just...Mrs. Momozuka deciding "this boy is my son now" from the day she meets him lol.

All this to say, I love the idea of her, over the years, getting to a point of "when are you finally going to marry him?" @ Takuma. Like Takuma somehow simultaneously already having planned on being with Kaito forever yet never having considered that marriage is a thing and also you have to propose before you can get married.

AND LIKE FROM THERE I HAVE THREE DIFFERENT HCS

#1 is the funniest but least likely one and is more of a meme than an actual hc but...Mrs. Momozuka straight up going "will you be my son in law?" @ Kaito and Takuma being like ???? did you just propose to him for me?????

#2 is the most likely one which is that once Takuma realizes that, hey maybe I should ask my bf to marry me, he just goes all out trying to plan a perfect romance-movie proposal because Takuma is a freaking sap. He's got a speech and everything that his mom and Agumon helped him rehearse. When he finally puts the plan into action, Kaito is anxious the entire time because he's been forced to watch enough romcoms that he knows what a set up to a proposal looks like but also doesn't want to assume anything and then get disappointed. His immediate response to "will you marry me" is "oh thank fuck" because he's relieved that he wasn't reading the situation wrong. Dumbass completely forgets to actually answer the question until Takuma asks if that was supposed to be a yes.

#3 is medium likely and medium funny which is Kaito asking first but in like the most blunt and casual way. It's not that he doesn't care as much he's just kind of a dork and isn't one for grand gestures, so one day they're spending time together and it crosses his mind that it would be kinda nice to be married so he just...says it. Like "hey do you wanna get married?" And Takuma is caught off guard and asks does he just mean at some indeterminate point in the future and he's like no I mean soon like do you wanna start planning a wedding now. The answer is yes but my god do their friends make fun of him for giving the least romantic proposal of all time. Takuma isn't disappointed at all, he thinks it was cute, but everyone else is jokingly like "if I were you I would've dumped his ass wtf"

THIS POST GOT LONG AND I HAVEN'T EVEN GOTTEN TO THE MARRIED PART YET JESUS CHRIST

Small ceremony in the red spider lily forest? Small ceremony in the red spider lily forest.

Disgustingly sappy couple. Annoying as hell. Yes Takuma we know you think you have the cutest husband in the world yes we know you're luckiest man on the planet YOU CAN SHUT UP NOW. How many years does it take for Kaito to stop getting flustered by literally everything Takuma does? The world may never know.

Kaito and Dracmon cook, the other two clean. Personal hc #500: Kaito learned how to cook from Ryo so he could make all of Miu's favorites when they were younger, and now he's just kind of good at it. (He would've asked Aoi but she was pretty strict and scared him a little bit at the time. He will never tell her this.) Agumon is not allowed in the kitchen because he eats every single ingredient before it can be used properly.

Miu will bring up the time Takuma said he'd like to have a sister like her and jokingly accuse him of planning to marry her brother all along.

Kaito never fully unlearns to be on high alert at all times, so he's a light sleeper. Takuma tries his best to be quiet if he ever needs to get up in the middle of the night or goes to bed late but he ends up accidentally waking him up 100% of the time. Kaito will pretend to still be asleep because he doesn't want Takuma to feel bad about it, but he's not very good at it.

Kaito will wake Takuma up in the middle of the night sometimes too like "hey do you like me?" "I literally married you, go back to sleep." He's fine most of the time but is occasionally prone to the sudden anxiety that Takuma will wake up one day and realize choosing him was a mistake. He can't sleep when that happens.

On that note, not forever, but for like the first year at most, Takuma constantly doing cute romantic things like planning spontaneous dates or just outright gushing about how much he loves him stresses Kaito the hell out because he's afraid that Takuma does too much for him while he does nothing in return, which would make him The Worst Ever and oh god oh shit Takuma deserves better. Which is STUPID because he's the one who spent hours learning how to make all of Takuma's favorite dishes from his mom and is constantly bringing home little things that "just reminded me of you," what do you MEAN you do NoThInG iN rEtUrN? Like admittedly if you were a total stranger on the outside looking it, it would kinda seem like Takuma loves Kaito a lot more than Kaito loves him, but their friends and family know that's not true. They're both equally obnoxiously and embarrassingly in love, actually.

They work it out eventually ofc but Takuma has to accept that he married an insecure doofus who sometimes needs to be reminded that he is NOT, in fact, The Worst Ever.

Ironically, while Kaito's in his own little idiot corner thinking Takuma's out of his league, Takuma thinks Kaito is out of his league. He's not insecure about it though he's more like "yeah that's right the perfect man agreed to marry me" yknow what I mean like he's just proud of it.

WHO LET ME WRITE ABOUT THEM AGAIN WHY IS THIS POST SO LONG? YOU WANNA KNOW HOW MANY WORDS THAT WAS? ONE THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED FIFTY SIX. I HAVE WRITTEN FICS SHORTER THAN THIS POST.

TLDR: they're idiot losers and they like each other a lot

#digimon survive #kaito shinonome #takuma momozuka #you guys keep asking me for hcs and I don't think you realize what you're unleashing upon the world when you do that #'oh great one' made me smile btw sldkfa I am neither great nor particularly creative I am just mentally ill and really like kaito

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claire-starsword · 1 year ago

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The Guardiana Magic School Run - Part 4

We're back and after all the setup in the previous part, we can just move on with the plot. The Guardiana's Magic School gang gets a tour of Alterone's escape rooms, to Max's delight, and he fails at them, requiring the help of a beloved old pal again.

Seriously, why did she know this was here. I approve but I also have questions.

She unfortunately has some catching up to do level wise, but healers are useful on any level so who cares, and she's not that away from Lowe in terms of stats.

We get a Healing Seed from this terribly placed chest, like, why this.

As I anticipated in the previous part, Khris has as much defense as Tao (derogatory) so she gets loaded with all the Steel Rings I bought last time. I also give her a bunch of healing items that I got from chests. Don't even remember how much a Healing seed heals, but would suck to spend them this early, this is just for emergencies, and because I forgot to plan to buy herbs for her early. To be fair (hubris incoming), I don't think the next battle will be that hard.

As you can see, the clear bonus for this one is the Jagged Flash, which I've insulted enough last time, and is not even usable in this playthrough. I guess we've somehow established a rivalry between the magic and axe schools huh, the epilogue was right.

This battle divides into two areas on each side of the river, with the enemies on top splitting between them. Usually on my normal playthrough I split the team to get the clear bonus, so I'm used to doing each area with roughly the same amount of characters I have here. That's why I'm not too worried.

Of course, hubris has killed me before, so Max has the right idea too, let's be careful with the squishy spellcasters.

I, also need to dunk on myself a bit, i've complained so much that this game doesn't let you check stats during battle but uh, turns out it does. It's with the R button. I'll dunk on the game too because that's a weird choice, just let me click on things with A like a normal person. Also it doesn't show enemies you haven't attacked yet it seems, which is kind of a pain. Perhaps on Chapter 4 I'll get to explain how bad that can be.

Enough rambling, I believe starting from the left will be the best as there are less enemies, we should be able to dispatch the bats before the knights come, they tend to stick to blocking the bridge. Let's do some boring turns of just walking.

It takes four turns for us to get remotely close to each other. As I said the knights are sticking to the bridge, so I'm gonna bait the bats with Max and deal with them first. There are two more bats beyond the river and I expect them to come too.

Bat behavior happens, and I messed up, the knights are actually out for blood.

Gong and Tao team up to take out one bat, and Max woke up as soon as the turn started, though you still can't move on the turn that happens.

So yeah, he's not doing anything any time soon lmao

He still remains the greatest bait ever though. He and Gong still take only 1 damage from anything here, so I don't think anything will be a threat except the Dark Mage.

Tao and Gong wreck the two knights that advanced, and a bat from the other side finally comes, being greeted by Gong's counter immediately. Meanwhile, Max…

Well, he is overleveled anyway.

Khris finally debuts by healing Max for 25 exp, which I think is more she'd ever get in the mega drive version. Not exactly sure how they adjust the exp for healing, but it will help a lot.

She then manages to finish the bat tormenting Max doing 4 damage, which is more than I expected! Go girl we're one battle away from the Power Staff!

I really wanna bait this bat before dealing with the bridge gang. Gong still has the Rousing Ring so there's no sleep risk.

Actually the real reason there's no risk is that Gong has had enough of bats in general.

I try getting some exp for Lowe with this kill, but bats being bats, it dodges.

Max asks for five more minutes on his afternoon nap, unfortunately for him he's a warrior so he returns to battle, finally making some sort of line to defend my squishy people.

He's just in time to take a Blaze level 2 to the face. Ah, the wonders of magic.

...

oh c'mon, I've hit tumblr's image limit, that's gonna be a pain to deal with in this run. continuation in the reblogs i guess

#shining force #shining series #guardiana magic school run

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prismaly · 2 years ago

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Previous | Beginning | Next

Transcript:

After her graduation, Matsui Hana managed to get an apartment in this area. The whole district of this city is extremely pricey, it was only sheer luck she ended up getting a rental contract here. She somehow managed to get a job at this big agency in their accounting section. Again; it was only luck. She was not rich, and ddidn't consider rich people highly. She saw them as privileged fucks that think they stand above anyone else, selfish and rotten. However, was she really wrong about generalizing all the people in this disctrict ?

Suguru: You need help with that?

Hana: Nahh, it's fine thank you. I can carry them myself.

Suguru: You live around here, right? I think I have seen you a few times already.

Hana: *He has seen me? Why haven't I noticed a man like him? This is straight-up impossible. He is just hitting on me and talking bullshit to make me flustered. It almost worked tho.*

Hana: Yeah, I do.

Suguru: You moved into the building down the street two weeks ago, correct?

Hana: Mhm, kinda creepy that you know this, but you are right.

Suguru: Pretty girls like you stick out you know?

Hana: Mind telling me where you live, so I can have some information about you as well?

Suguru: In that building behind me.

Hana: Ohh, cool.

Suguru: Still want no help after exchanging so much private information?

Hana: You call that private information? I don't even know your name. And I am fine, but thanks.

Suguru: Right, how rude of me, my name is Geto Suguru.

Hana: Matsui Hana.

Suguru: See you around then?

Hana: Talk to me the next time instead of just observing me like a creep.

Suguru: Ohh, I definitly will!

Once home, Hana searched up the name of the agency in whose office she will be working in. This agency was a really renowned one, managing mostly famous models and other artists. The agency was currently undergoing a lot of public media fire caused by some of its model's misbehavior at an illegal place, this must have been the reason why they hired Hana so quickly without any requests.

[The next morning]

Suguru: Hello, sweatheart.

Hana: Hi!

Suguru: Where are you going?

Hana: To the office.

Suguru: You have an office job?

Hana: You don't?

Suguru: Nope, much more exciting. When does your shift end?

Hana: I think like 5pm. Why?

Suguru: I was wondering if you wanna come around and cook something with me and a friend. You know, since you moved here just recently it must be boring to spend so much time alone.

Hana: *This is definitely not a good idea, I only know his name and on top of that, there would be his friend. But, he seems nice and he is right; I feel lonely* Sure, sounds good!

Suguru: Perfect, my apartment number in 42, it's easy to find. Want me to drive you to your office?

Hana: No, thanks but I'm good.

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onyxisnotuniqueenough · 1 year ago

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to anyone who ever wants a really good tool for character designing and character building, i very much recommend using miitomo

i have played the game tomodachi life for many years now and while it's very similar there are a few things where miitomo is better specifically for this

miitomo is down so you can get it through kaeru patcher

here's why it helped me

1. getting it this way - everything is very cheap - costumes, outfits and accessories that should be between 2k to 6k are now literally just. 10 coins. and kaeru gives you like 10k to start out so you have room to dress your characters however you want

thinking about what your ocs wear is important not only because of the art aspect but also because when you try to come up with personal style, your technical skills of how well you draw clothes and textures and wrinkles come up like an obstacle, PLUS you have defined limited options so it's less difficult to pin point what their style would be

for me, i talked about it a WHILE ago but the story i'm working on is based on greek and roman mythology, although with spicy innacuracy and lack of research 😁❤️

and even though there are literally two clothing options that would match their actual attire they wear at work or during meetings or just during their life in general in the sky, it was very interesting to construct outfits for times where they'd have to descend on earth

each character of mine has different opinions on human life and its value, and how they approach foreign human concepts and traditions, depending on how much time they spend there to work

so everyone has "human outfits" and that was very interesting to explore

i had to ask myself : does this character value comfort, style, practicality or etiquette? how much skin are they willing to show off? what are they doing on earth and how do their clothes help them blend in while being practical for the task at hand?

2. mentioned in the previous point, but the options being limited does help a lot

the mii maker is great for character designing

since the mii-from-photo option is particularly ridiculous, it acts as good randomizer for the features, and then you can work it a little more from there

here is the main character that I designed on my own :

and how he looks in miitomo :

and here are some characters i made "randomly" (mii-from-photo with added personal adjustments) in the miimaker FIRST

and there are so many more i want to make, and that i'd be happy to share with you!

having a set of features to choose from instead if being left at your own devices is nice, and the process of trying to translate those features in your artstyle is even more nice

also, taking miifotos and having fun posing them and seeing how you could make them interact serves as cute little oc things but also, maybe a reference if you don't know how to pose your characters? NOT AT ALL anatomically accurate but it's cute for ideas

for example

ummm anyway i've been so so obsessed with this app for like a week or smt now and it's all i think about 24/7 😁

ummm anyway go friend me on miitomo

this post has no subliminal intentions whatsoever i DON'T WANNA MAKE MIITOMO FRIENDS AND I DIDN'T WANT TO INTRODUCE THE SUBJECT SO THAT THE NEXT TIME I POST RANDOM MIIFOTOS YOU HAVE SOME CONTEXT DEFINTELY NOT ANS I DIDNT WANT TO JUST DUMP PENT UP EXCITEMENF ON TUMBLR !!

#miitomo #character designing #tune in for drawings of these guys #and tune in for the requests i haven't finished #and the birthday gift i javen't even started making irl (5 days late)#i don't have a procrastination problem #I DONT #ummm #i'd like to thank the server for enduring this first #and uhhh #there will be more miitomo just so yk #so get ready ig #kaerutomo #miifotos #original characters #ocs #my art #onyx's art

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surrealsunday · 2 years ago

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helloo! wow it’s been a little while ngl! but when when chap10 was posted i was like “do i read it now or wait till the epilogue is posted? 🤔” and i ended up waiting for the epilogue, idk in my head it’s as logic sjsbdb. meanwhile i decided to rewatch stranger things + skamfr kinda at the same time bc it’s been way too long (for the latter). then the epilogue was posted and haven’t found the time or energy to settle and read the last two chapters (we love uni for that). till tonight!! so here’s my not so little review of the chap10 + the epilogue 😅

-> chap10

woaaah im at loss for words for how cute and beautiful that chapter was omg! the vulnerable moment right after the intensity of their love scene hit me right in the feels, lucas’ “please don’t hurt me (again)” and then eliott hugging him tight saying “i promise” 🥺MY HEART🥺

also these little acts had me giggling and kicking my feet

gosh i’m just so giddy when it comes to them like- THEY. ARE. IN. LOVE. 🥹

OH YEAH the moment when idriss came back home and said “I swear, if you fucked in the kitchen, Eliott -" made me think of that one scene in tempo (i think) when he discovers they did it on the counter and there was like evidences or sth and i just burst out laughing 😭 like i imagined him being so done already with them (/affectionate of course)

-> epilogue

MY HEEAART!! i know i’ve said it like a million times already but i’m so soft for theeem 🥺

i really loved how eliott reassured lucas during the moving, how they once more opened a little to one another. then lucas asking him to say something true abt himself, eliott’s little story was very cute despite starting kinda sad :(( but that little parallel to the minute par minute scene but this time it’s eliott calming lucas down ☹️

but goosh i’m in love with their love, in every universe istg 🥰 like i smiled SO BIG here!

now real thing: i cant believe it’s over now :/ i’m gonna miss them so much, these version of elu is definitely one of my favorite! i wanna thank you for writing this fic that, i’m sure, helped a lot of people (including me) escape their boring ass work/uni life ahah. every time it truly has been an amazing time, even when pain was dominent sometimes. but as always i’d say sjsbsb

wishing you a wonderful friday and weekend, i’m gonna spend mine mourning elu!10things and thinking of how much their love is incredible in every universe 😭💞

gosh i just realized i forgot about to say some more things in my previous message 😭 in my defense it’s 1am so- anyways

i’m also very thankful you listened to the little voice in your brain and wrote that little epilogue, the quote of kat is one of my favorite and it’s really well included! would have been such a waste not having lucas saying this tbh.

also the last pic of chap10, eliott’s post with the shadows…wow i literally stared at it for 10 good minutes it was so well done! especially lucas’ wild hair sbsjsb (also i see you have been generous for some parts 👀)

finally, i thanked you for the fic but i also wanna be grateful to your friend julie for pressing you making this fic alive ahah, bc yeah your elu fic are really one of the most emotionally amazing and still being able to read elu content in, now, 2023 is truly incredible ♥️

Oh my gosh I somehow completely missed the notification for these messages in my inbox. I'm so sorry! I was not ignoring you, I just am a useless human 😂

As always I absolutely love hearing your thoughts. I'm so glad you liked chapter 10 🥹. It was interesting pairing smexy times with some super raw emotional nakedness. I liked it tho. It felt right and natural in the moment.

Your memes btw aldfkjalsdfkja. They kill me 😂😂😂

I thought about Idriss in Tempo too at that moment! I truly don't know why I keep doing these things to poor Idriss lmao. But I make it up to him with Manon. So I don't feel too bad 😌.

Ok, so I very much got minute-by-minute vibes in that moment of the epilogue too, but it wasn't pre-planned that way. I kinda love that you had the same reaction. It just sort of happened and as I was writing it occurred to me that it very subtly nodded to that classic Skam moment. It seems they're determined to be that way in every universe.

Ahhhh the shadow pic! It's one of my faves! I get obsessive about most things (this is not news lmao) so it wasn't surprising that I obsessed over getting those shadows right, but in the end when it did look like them I was sooooo satisfied. And yes, satisfied with the very lovely booty on Lucas too 😌. It makes me so happy you liked it too!

Really it was my absolute pleasure to share this fic, most especially because I seriously do have the best readers in the world, and you all are so generous in leaving me your thoughts and feelings about the story (there is really nothing better than that as a writer). It's a big part of me coming back to Elu over and over, I think. I love reconnecting with all of you. And of course I'm more than happy to provide distraction from real life!

P.S. I told Julie what you said and lemme tell you... the way she got all proud and puffed up on herself 😂😂😂. I told her to take it down a notch but she's already kicking into high gear on harassing me for new stories lol.

Anyways, all the love to you. Thank you again so much for sending me your thoughts as you read the story. 💖💗💞💝

#10 things fic

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bratbarzal · 2 months ago

Text

On Your Side (NH13) / Chapter Seven

Pairing: Nico Hischier x Fem!OC Poppy Jensen*

*I say it's an OC, it's just a name and third person POV. I use minor character descriptions because I don’t get on with writing vague reader inserts/YN for long-form, story heavy fics, but I will generally try to avoid including race and body type or really any physical descriptors. I’m always open to feedback on my writing, or how to be more inclusive.

WC: 18k (mad)

Chapter Warnings: ok so me and @h1sch13r were having a conversation about the girl with the list (iykyk and if you don't, don't go looking) and I had to put it in here because it was too funny of an opportunity not to (s/o to Rory for the inspo and the trauma where she told me a woman's brain shrinks in pregnancy who knew!!!) so there's some pretty gross things in here about pregnancy and babies lmao, also poppy has well and truly lost the plot tbh but this is why we love her she is nothing if not delusional, mentions of judgemental parents and weak family relationships, talk of pregnancy, babies and thoughts/feelings around the two topics, talk of childbirth kind of but not in depth, sort of angsty but not like ANGSTY!!!!! do you know what I mean? very much moreso on the fluffy side though. a bit of hurt/comfort. poppy is an anxious mess, nico is... nico (I say with love and affection this time I promise)

Series Masterlist

Previous Part (Chapter Six)

A/N: I feel like the speed in which I wrote this is a testament to how much I love writing these two and this story and I LOVE YOU GUYS AND THE WAY YOU LOVE THIS FIC SO MUCH IT MELTS MY WEE HEART I just wanna spend my days reading all the nice things you send me I HOPE YOU ENJOY!!! 💖 the ending is a little bit rushed but I can't keep going back and forth on it or I'll lose my mind

Poppy

Despite having the invitation stuck to her fridge for 6 weeks, and knowing about the event even further in advance, Poppy’s cousin, Elsie’s, baby shower could not have come at a more ridiculous time for her.

She knows she can’t expect everyone else’s world to stop turning just because her own life is spiralling way out of control, but a baby shower is just downright cruel.

Especially when she hasn’t even taken a test yet.

It's been 3 days since she had spoken to Katja Hischier at the signing event.

She had gone straight to the pharmacy once she had finished work, had picked up every single brand of pregnancy test she could find and had swallowed down the embarrassment when the girl behind the counter had looked at her like she was insane.

And she had spent that whole evening sat staring at the bag in which she had stashed them, not even daring to get one out.

The next day, she had gone to work, and had gone straight back to pretending like nothing else was going on in her life - only this time, she had a little trashcan beneath her desk dedicated to the nausea that rippled through her all day like some sort of sick constant reminder of her situation. It was a gross counter measure, but it stopped her having to take constant trips to the bathroom and rousing any sort of suspicion.

If anyone else were to come to the same conclusion Nico’s mom had, and confront her about it, she would have burst into tears on the spot.

The day after that was Saturday, and of all the things she could have done to distract herself from what was going on, she had gone shopping for a gift for her cousin in Manhattan. With her mother.

She had spent the day looking at cribs, and changing tables, little tiny wardrobes to keep little tiny clothes, and God all the little tiny clothes were so small it made her tense up.

On the upside, it was like her body knew better than to get sick in front of her mother - she’d never hear the end of it.

She was getting enough of a backhanded lecture about her cousin’s pregnancy, never mind the potential of her own.

“I can’t believe she’s having another baby out of wedlock,” Priscilla had scoffed as she and Poppy were first checking through the gift registry in Macy’s, “Your father and your Uncle Paul think she’s an absolute disgrace.”

“They’ve been together like 7 years, Mom, that’s stronger than a few marriages I know of. She’ll be fine.”

“It isn’t about how long they’ve been together, Poppy,” her mom swats at her hand as she scrolls a little too fast down the list, “It’s about securing the best future for those children. The man is a glorified construction worker, she could have chosen better in life.”

Elsie’s partner Jared is an architect, but she couldn’t find any use in arguing that point with her mother in the middle of a department store.

If she found out Poppy could maybe be carrying the baby of a hockey player, who she would never marry and wasn’t even in a relationship with, she would have a cardiac episode right in the middle of the shop floor.

“Is it not about her being happy?” She had asked, and the look her mother threw her way was all the answer she needed.

“Don’t be ridiculous. She can’t possibly be happy in that little bungalow with no college education and no ring on her finger. Believe me.”

Elsie’s bungalow had been designed by Jared when she was pregnant with their first son. They owned everything outright from the 4 acres of land it sat on to the final tile Jared had laid in the roof, himself. The house is a labour of love, and every time Poppy visits, Elsie has a smile on her face like she has the whole world at her fingertips.

It has always been something she has envied.

And she thinks it’s envy that creeps up on her in the third day, when she and Nia arrive at the bungalow with their gift bags in tow, and Elsie and Jared answer the door like the picture of once in a lifetime love.

She’s absolutely glowing, mostly through her third trimester now, her bump round and low, her cheeks puffy and her eyes gleaming with unadulterated joy. And Jared looks at her like she’s the only woman in the world.

Yeah, it’s definitely envy.

And maybe a touch of pride at her cousin for sticking it to their family.

“I can’t believe Elsie’s onto her second kid and me and you are glorified spinsters,” Nia comments as she picks up a handful of finger sandwiches.

“I don’t think you can be a spinster at 25, Ni, that’s a little overdramatic.” Poppy responds, swallowing down the arising queasiness at just the sight of devilled eggs on the table set up for food. Elsie is pregnant, for God’s sake, she thinks, she shouldn’t want to be around any kind of eggs.

“Maybe we should just suck it up and marry each other, we’d make cute babies.”

“Again, not how that works.”

“Well obviously you’d carry it. There isn’t a chance in hell I’m ever pushing a little cantaloupe sized head out of my lady parts, I hurt just thinking about it.”

Poppy wants to say tell me about it. It’s all she’s been thinking about herself the last few days, and the last thing she needs as she’s trying to avoid thinking about it is to be surrounded by constant reminders.

Like the little tiny plastic baby clinging to the straw in her lemonade that it takes everything in her to resist launching across the room, or the giant stack of diapers shaped into a four tier cake that sits on the end of the table that she wants to tear apart.

She usually loves babies.

She loves fawning over little boopy noses and squealing at all the cute slogans on their little onesies - like I’m berry cute with a little embroidered strawberry beside it or a little printed dinosaur that says, I’m a-roar-able!

She loves when they get the hiccups, and their wide eyes go round like they don’t know what the hell is happening to their bodies.

She loves when they have those little self-satisfied smiles in their sleep, and everyone argues over whether it’s gas or not.

But as much as she loves all those things usually, right now they are terrifying her.

Every single thing she tries to lay her eyes on to take her mind off of everything is baby themed. Pink floating balloons with teddy bears weighing them down, a message board with a bunch of baby grow shaped cards pinned to it, a bowl of lollipops that are shaped like pacifiers.

She can’t escape it no matter where she goes or who she speaks to, and so all she can do is hover round Nia like a wordless zombie and wait until there’s a group event where hopefully some normal conversation gets flowing.

Only, expecting any kind of normal conversation at a baby shower is delusional at best.

“Oh my god, a snot sucker! I was just telling Jared how much we need one of these!” Elsie exclaims as she pulls the little box out of a gift bag covered in little rainbows.

“A what-now?” Nia’s face is the picture of disgust, leaning into the circle to get a better look at the present Elsie had just unwrapped.

“Babies can’t clear their own noses when they get congested,” Elsie’s friend, Gina, who had gifted the device, pipes up from across the room, “So you put the little tube up there and suck on the other end. The snot gets stuck in the middle and you just wash it out. It saves you having to suck it out with your own mouth.”

“Oh God, I’m gonna be sick,” Poppy chokes out, bringing her hand to her mouth in what the rest of the group assume is mock disgust, but she can literally feel her stomach turning.

“Me too,” Nia mimics her, “Does the girl with the list know about this? That you have to suck the snot out of your baby’s nose?! Who would even think of doing that in the first place?!”

Poppy jabs her elbow into her side, wincing at the thought and trying to fight the urge to vomit. The last thing she needs is to be reminded of the girl with the damn list. The last time that had come across her feed, she’d added on there that being pregnant can cause your sweat to turn blue. What if she can never wear white again?

“It’s one of those wonderful motherly instincts, you don’t even think about it being gross when it comes to relieving your baby, like sniffing their diapers or fishing their crap out of the bathtub!”

Poppy pushes herself up from her place on the couch, and makes a dash for the nearest bathroom, hearing Nia excuse her with, “She probably shouldn’t have come, she’s been sick all week. Tell me more about the bathtub thing though, is that like a regular occurrence? You just live in constant fear like that?”

When she’s safely inside, she presses her back to the other side of the door, her shaking body calming as she takes deep breaths and fights past the nausea until she no longer feels the need to throw up.

She tries to think of other things. Clean things. No bodily fluids involved. Fresh laundry and Coconut Breeze candles.

It takes a good couple minutes before she feels okay again.

When she finally opens her clenched eyes, she realises the bathroom she had stumbled into is not in fact the guest bathroom, but the one Elsie and Jared had assigned specifically to their son - and Poppy’s god-son - Jensen, who was given his mother’s surname as his first, but Poppy has always told him he was named after her.

There is sailboat wallpaper, rubber ducks with different costumes lining the bathtub, a little plastic step up to the sink with Paw Patrol characters on the side, and a cabinet covered in stickers.

God bless her cousin for not raising a beige baby, she thinks.

When she gets a closer look, she realises the stickers are little cartoon versions of Harry Potter characters, and she can’t help the little smile that tugs at the corners of her mouth as she smooths her fingers over one of them, making sure the edges stick back down and don’t start to peel.

Nico would give his kids Harry Potter stickers. He’d let them leave them all over the house, would probably let them stick them to his practice gear and his old sticks. He’d play rubber duckies in the bathtub, give each one a little unique voice and would ingrain each character to his memory for every bath time, and blow bubbles at them until they erupted into little dimpled giggles. He’d stand in front of the sink and brush his teeth beside them, singing a 2 minute song he made up in his head so they’d learn to brush them for longer.

It would all come so easy to him.

Oh God.

She should not be thinking about this. Not in her godson’s bathroom, at least, in the middle of her cousin’s baby shower.

There’s a door off to the side, hooks on the back with a couple hooded bath towels - one that looks like a frog and another that looks like a dinosaur - and she finds herself reaching for the handle before she can think too much of it, pushing the door until it opens into Jensen’s room.

He’s sitting on the floor beside his bed, surrounded by little plastic pieces and trying to make sense of the booklet in his lap, and when he hears the door creak open, he looks up in surprise.

“Hey, Auntie Poppy.”

He would usually shoot up when he sees her - would run and jump into her arms and squeeze until he gets bored, would ask her, is that enough? And she would always tell him no so that he would squeeze her again.

It’s their thing.

But he stays sat, this time, his attention diverting immediately back to the Lego bricks in front of him.

“Hey, bud, you okay in here? What are you doing on your own?”

“I’m just playing.”

Jensen never plays on his own. He usually has the attention span of a gnat, and jumps between every activity he can think of, all while clutching the nearest adult’s hand and dragging them along for the ride.

Poppy lowers herself onto her knees beside him, careful not to push down into any of the bricks, and leans onto the palm of her hand. “You mind if I play, too?”

“Sure! I’m building Ron’s car from Harry Potter!”

He shows her the box, that reads Flying Ford Anglia, and she gives a reminiscent smile as she says, “I’ve never seen it.”

“It’s my favourite! Mommy says if I can do this one she’ll get me the train for my birthday.” She doesn’t even let her mind go where it wants. She’s putting a temporary ban on thinking about him until she’s in the safety of her own home, where her mind can’t wander at the sight of tiny pairs of sneakers sat beside matching big ones and baby grows that are no bigger than her forearm. “I’m gonna be 6.”

She knows that. She remembers the Thanksgiving dinner 6 years ago where his mom had announced to their family that she was foregoing college because she was pregnant at 18. She had never been prouder of anyone in her life, if not for taking centre stage at Jensen Thanksgiving, then for the way she had so casually gone back to eating Turkey legs like it was no big deal while both of their parents argued amongst themselves.

“That’s awesome, how can I help?”

“Could you read it to me? I can read, but I can’t read and put it together at the same time. I’m not an octopus.”

Poppy chuckles, taking the little instruction booklet from him and biting her tongue to save from telling him he wouldn’t need more hands to do both things, he’d just have to put the booklet down.

She observes him mostly as he puts the figure together, blue bricks stacking up until they eventually resemble the car in the picture, and he attaches them with a tiny tongue poking out the side of his mouth that reminds her of his mom. She does the same thing when she’s baking, following instructions left in a book by their grandmother and trying to measure things out to the gram.

He isn’t as chatty as he usually is, and she takes a stab in the dark as to what might be the matter.

“Hey, how cool, you’re gonna get to teach your baby sister all about Harry Potter, too!”

Jensen shrugs, a pensive frown on his face as he stays focused on the Lego. “Mommy says she won’t be able to watch movies with me.”

“Not for a little while. Babies just eat, sleep and poop for the first couple of months, I think,”

“Gross,” he turns his nose up, but his eyes flicker up to Poppy’s in amusement. She may not be a mother, but she knows the surefire way to a kid’s good graces - mentioning poop. It works every time.

“Super gross. But eventually, you’re gonna get to teach her about all the cool stuff you like, and she’ll probably love things just ‘cause you do. When I was a kid, I wanted to do everything my big brother did. We went as Ash and Pikachu for Halloween 3 years running, and I’d spend all my allowance on Pokemon cards for his collection.”

“You were a baby sister?” He asks, and she swallows down the hurt at the fact he doesn’t really know his uncle Oliver. Or his first cousin removed, whatever it is that they are. Oli’s eldest, James, is only a year older than Jensen, and they barely know of each other’s existence, just another name in a Christmas card they’re too young to read.

Their family is a minefield of hidden feuds and bad communication skills, but she’d like to think Elsie is attempting to break the generational patterns.

Maybe she could do that.

“Yeah,” Poppy chuckles, clicking the tiny brick into another and checking it against the picture in the booklet. She hasn’t felt like a little sister in a long time. “We’re not all that bad, as long as you’re nice to us.”

“Yeah, you’re pretty cool.” Jensen nods, and he smiles so big that Poppy notices for the first time that he’s finally missing a tooth.

“Your sister will be pretty cool too,” she tells him, resisting the urge to tell him about a few other guys missing teeth that she knows.

“Yeah, when she stops pooping all the time.” He giggles.

“Definitely.”

He continues building his car for a second, until he asks, “Hey, Auntie Poppy?”

“Yeah, bud?”

“How is she coming out?”

“How is she-,” her mouth flops open in shock. Of all the things in the world he wants to come to her about, he has to be joking with this. Talk about timing. “Your mom hasn’t handled that one?”

“Nope. And she won’t tell me how she got in there.”

“Yeah, that’s not really my area of expertise, kid.” If only he was old enough to understand irony. “How do you think she’s gonna come out?”

“I think they’re gonna have to crack mommy like an egg.”

“Oh, that-,” Sounds like something the girl with the list might be interested in, Poppy thinks, her mind going places she hadn’t yet dared to let it go. “That actually makes sense.”

“I knew it.”

Poppy hadn’t realised she had spent the better part of 90 minutes on Jensen’s bedroom floor with him, but it was the only place that felt safe - building Lego cars and skirting around the question of, if my mommy is my mom cause I grew in her belly, then how is my daddy, my dad?

That had genuinely stumped her.

How do you explain genetics to a 5 year old without getting too graphic about it?

She hadn’t been able to argue with the validity of the question - the kid is curious, God help his parents, and she thinks she might have to turn her phone off later to avoid angry calls from Elsie and Jared about why their son is asking them about DMA and Jeans.

She tried to tell him that he was made up of parts of each of them. That he had his mom’s eyes, and her mouth and chin, but he had his dad’s curly hair and his pointed nose. But that had just caused a whole other slew of questions.

And a whole other bunch of thoughts that she was actively trying to fight.

Thoughts of a baby with chocolate brown eyes and hair that goes a little lighter in the sun. Little pudgy arms that cling around broad shoulders, and soft, tiny lips that press wet kisses into a stubbled jaw and giggle at the way it tickles them.

Thoughts of little clumsy legs that will learn to run before they learn to walk, and, when given the chance, will always run straight into muscled arms and a tattooed bicep curling around their tiny frame, a deep laugh ringing in the air between them and dark eyes meeting hers over a mop of fluffy hair.

Thoughts of 6-foot-something someone sitting on the floor with an almost 6 year old, building Harry Potter Lego trains and patiently directing them on what goes where.

For most of those 90 minutes, she hadn’t felt sick. She hadn’t felt nauseous, or panicky or anxious.

She had felt longing, and hopeful, and full.

And as soon as she had left that room, those feelings had swirled into dread again.

At least Nia had herself a good time.

She had won the game of Baby Bump Balloon Pop, which Poppy is glad she had missed - if she had to watch a bunch of exploding baby bumps, she might have had a heart attack - and had used her almighty eavesdropping skills to thrash everyone at Don’t Say Baby - ending up with 16 clothes pegs and winning herself the esteemed prize of a bottle No-secco, which she has been ranting about the whole drive back to Poppy’s apartment.

“I get that it’s a baby shower, but come on, the rest of us can still drink! When did Elsie become such a bore,” she whines as the two of them make it through the front door, Nia throwing her jacket onto the coat rack and Poppy making her way straight over to sit down. “Hey, I thought you said you were feeling better,”

“I am,” Poppy feels okay to know that it’s only a half-lie. She does think she caught some kind of food poisoning initially, and the sweats and shivers had subsided since last week, but she can’t find anything to subdue the queasiness at every strong smell or icky thought that crosses her mind.

“Then why did you flake on me at the party?”

“I didn’t flake, I told you, I was hanging out with Jensen. He was a little down. Also that conversation about snot was too much.”

“Okay, but you were being weird before that. And you’ve hardly spoken the whole way back here.”

“I’m fine.”

“C’mon, Pop, out with it,” Nia sighs as she throws herself into the couch beside Poppy.

“Out with what?” She huffs in response as she works at unzipping her boots.

“Whatever’s got you wound up tighter than a drum, you’ve been acting super weird all day.”

“I haven’t been super weird.” Poppy frowns, throwing the boot she’s just shucked off with a little more passion than is probably warranted, doing little to disprove her best friend’s point.

“You didn’t crack a single joke about how Elsie’s giving her kid a pornstar name. Mia Moore. She’ll be getting bullied for life, Poppy. Even Jared says it with that stupid Italian hand gesture.”

“Maybe I’ve matured,” she shrugs, pushing herself up from the couch and making her way over to the refrigerator, hoping that sticking her head in there for a second might disguise the fact that she is still turning green from waves of nausea.

“Not likely,” Nia obviously follows, slamming the door shut before Poppy can even adjust her eyes to the light. “You’re being weird.”

“Am not, you are.”

“Oh yeah, real mature,” Nia rolls her eyes before narrowing them at her best friend. “You’re being quiet, and you’re clearly freaking out about something, so why don’t we cut out your very obvious internal meltdown and you just tell me what’s going on?”

Poppy swerves around her, reaching out to where a grocery bag sits on top of her counter, and empties the contents until they scatter across the surface in gentle, staggered thuds.

“Holy shit.” Nia breathes out, carding through each box as if she’s taking stock. “You know you only need one of these, right?”

“I didn’t know which one was the best, so I got all of them.”

“I think pregnancy tests are pretty universally reliable, Poppy.”

“Yeah, well, they’re non-refundable, so I’ve decided I’m doing every single one and working out the average.”

“Oh my god, the vomiting,” Nia gasps, as if the situation is only just dawning on her - never mind the multiple boxes of tests Poppy has just unveiled on her kitchen counter. “And you had to change your dress earlier, ‘cause it was making your boobs hurt!”

“I didn’t buy these for a fun evening experiment,” she quips, sarcastically, “My period should have been last week, too.”

“Oh my God!”

“But I also can’t be pregnant,”

“Why not?”

“Maybe because then I’d be carrying the baby of a man who wants nothing to do with me?”

“Okay, calm down, Mrs Theatrical.”

“My karma can’t be that bad. I recycle, I adopt a whole pride of lions in Kenya and my $5 a month contributes to them being safe from poachers! Poachers, Nia! I donate to charity, I don’t steal, I don’t lie, I love thy neighbour,”

“I think you loved thy neighbour a little too much,” Nia cracks, swiftly catching the box that Poppy throws straight at her. “What? You laid that one straight out for me!”

“This is not the time for jokes.”

“You’re right, it’s the time for you to put on your big girl pants and go pee on some sticks.” She holds out the box that had just been launched at her, and Poppy swipes it with a levelling glare. “You’re being ridiculous, Poppy.”

“Fine,” she grunts in displeasure, “But I’m gonna remember how unserious you were about this when it’s your turn for a scare.”

“I have an IUD babe, some of us practice caution when we take hunky men into our beds!” She calls out after her, and Poppy hates how she can still hear her laugh when she slams the door of her bathroom.

“Oh, thank God,” Poppy lets out a sigh of relief once the line forms clearly, the lack of a second allowing her heart rate to slow to a bearable speed and the device in her hands feeling a whole lot lighter than it had a minute ago. “It’s negative!”

“Poppy,” Nia yanks the test from her grip, beyond caring at this point where the piece of plastic has been, and throws it into the pile on the table, “Delusion isn’t going to work for this, that’s one out of fourteen. You know damn well you’re pregnant.”

“But all the boxes say they’re 98% accurate! What if this is the only right one?”

Nia swats at her boob, and Poppy clutches at her chest as the pain merges into the ever-present ache she has felt there for the past week-or-so.

“Ow, don’t do that, I told you they’re sensitive right now!”

“Oh, I wonder why!” She contends, “Poppy, you’ve taken like $100 worth of tests here, how many more do you need to do until you come to terms with the fact that you have a baby growing in there?”

“I don’t know! Maybe you should try one!”

“Pop, come on-,”

“No, seriously, because what if I bought a bunch of bad ones? Like placebos or something? And if you get a false positive, then we would know!”

“Why would they make placebo pregnancy tests?”

“Duh, for money! Big pharma, Ni! It’s a real thing!”

“You have to be joking,” Nia throws her arms up in exasperation, “Poppy, you’re vomiting,” she holds up her thumb, “Your boobs ache,” she adds a finger, “You should have had your period by now,” and another, “and I don’t even have enough fingers to take into account how many pregnancy tests have told you so, you’re pregnant! The sooner you accept that, the sooner we can be serious and figure this out!”

Poppy picks out a fresh test from the last packet and pushes it into Nia’s chest, a stern look on her otherwise panicked features, “Go pee.” She demands, and when Nia levels her with a look back, she adds a desperate, “Please?”

“Fine,” she grumbles, before wagging an authoritative finger at her friend, “But this is the last one either of us are doing, okay? And because you’re being ridiculous, I get to gloat when it’s negative.”

“Yeah, fine,” Poppy shrugs with feigned nonchalance, and as soon as Nia disappears into the bathroom, Poppy starts refilling her bladder for the last test in the packet.

“You are unbelievable,” Nia sighs when she returns a minute later to find her chugging at a bottle of water. She snatches the last unopened test away, stashing it down her bra where Poppy won’t be able to get it.

“What? I drink when I’m nervous!”

“Yeah, tequila. You’re stressing me out. We’re gonna set the timer on this and while it’s going down we’re gonna talk about it.” Nia throws her own test onto the empty side of the coffee table before she gets her phone out and starts a timer for three minutes. “Sit down, and for the love of God, give me that bottle.”

Poppy sits, surrendering the drink to Nia with a frown and throwing herself down onto the couch in child-like stubbornness.

“You’re pregnant. We can sit here all night and take a thousand tests, and they’re all gonna tell you the same thing,”

“Not all of them-,”

“Shut up. Do you want to have a baby, yes or no?”

“Nia,” Poppy whines, “It’s not that-,”

“Yes or no, Poppy?”

“Fine, yes!” It almost shocks her how easy the answer comes out.

“Do you want to have this baby?”

“Yeah,” she pouts, tears pricking at her eyes as she accepts her reality for the first time since the thought had so innocently been forced into her mind by Nico’s mom.

She wants the pudgy armed, brown eyed, giggling ball of joy she had conjured up in her brain earlier.

She wants to wrap it up in fluffy animal themed bath towels, pull the hood up just above its eyes and take a million pictures, and tickle at the back of it’s chunky little legs until dimples form in it’s puffy cheeks and her apartment is filled with the sounds of squeaky little laughter.

And she knows that it isn’t all rainbows and sunshine. She knows she’ll never sleep a full night again, knows she’ll never have free time to do what she wants or that she might lose every ounce of sanity she has left, but she feels like the good stuff outweighs the bad.

“Then why the hell are you going crazy, Pop?” Nia sits right beside her, arm wrapping around her to console what could potentially be a weeping, hysterical shit-show.

“Because it’s a gigantic mess, Ni!” She whines, “My hormones are going apeshit, and all I want is to go to Nico, and to tell him what’s going on, but he doesn’t want me, and this is gonna ruin everything! He’s gonna hate me, he’s gonna want nothing to do with me, and I’m gonna have to quit my job, and then I won’t be able to afford living here and raising a baby on my own, so I’ll have to move back home, and that means this poor innocent clump of cells inside me is gonna grow up in a house with my mother because it’s own mom is hopeless and then the baby will resent me because I can’t do this on my own!”

“Poppy, slow down, breathe,”

She knows she’s hyperventilating, but she can’t stop. Can’t slow down until she gets it all out.

“Nico’s gonna hate me. He’s gonna think I’m trapping him, and he’s gonna think I’m crazy and obsessed with him and maybe I am, you know, maybe this is all my fault and deep down a part of me wanted this to happen because who in their right mind doesn’t even stop to think hey, you probably shouldn’t be coming inside me when we haven’t even talked about it,” she sees Nia wince somewhere out of the corner of her eye, “and he’s gonna blame me for getting in the way of his perfect life with his pretty girlfriend and she’s gonna hate me-,”

Nia squirts her with the bottle, underestimating the spout and pretty much covering Poppy’s entire face with water until it’s dripping from her eyelashes and she has to huff it out of her nose.

“Nia, what the fuck?!” Poppy frowns, looking down at the mess of water that covers her legs and is dripping onto her couch.

“You’re going insane! I didn’t know how else to get you to stop aside from slapping you, and I can’t hit a pregnant lady!”

“But you can waterboard her?!”

“Oh my God, how dramatic can you be?”

“Uh, I think I get a pass right now!” Poppy scoffs, swiping at the droplets running down her face and splashing them over at Nia in retaliation. “You’re not being very helpful.”

“That’s because you’re being stupid.” Nia levels, “You’re not hopeless, Poppy, you’re the smartest, strongest person I know. If that idiot can’t see that, then it’s his own loss, and if he wants nothing to do with you then you’ll be fine. You don’t need him. We can figure this out, you and me together. We can find a place and we can live together again, I’ll be the dad, I’ll take care of you.”

“Ni, I can’t ask you to do that,”

“You’re not asking. I’m telling you.” She asserts, taking Poppy’s still wet hands in her own, “And I’m also telling you that as mad as I am at him right now, Nico isn’t the type of guy that would let you do this on your own, Poppy. You know for a fact that I won’t let a man make a fool out of either of us more than once, so I know I’m not wrong when I say that he is not going to hate you, he isn’t going to blame you.”

“He still doesn’t want me.”

“You don’t know that, Poppy.” Nia tries to reason with her, “You didn’t let him tell you what he wanted.”

The shrill sound of Nia’s alarm interrupts the moment, and Poppy sniffles as her best friend reaches for her phone and picks the test up while she’s there.

She hands the test to Poppy, who sighs as she looks over the result, and rolls her eyes before huffing out a jeering, “You win. Congratulations, you’re not pregnant.”

Nia is too busy typing away at her phone to respond, and after a minute of Poppy glaring at her - annoyed that her focus has diverted elsewhere and more annoyed that she has to be right all the time - her face breaks out in a celebratory grin.

“You’re not gonna believe this,” she huffs out a breathy chuckle, the grin widening with every passing second.

“What? What could possibly be funny about this?”

Nia turns the device in her hand so Poppy can see the screen - a picture of a small dusting of what looks like crushed black pepper. It's one of those websites that compares the size of a baby in the womb to different foods.

“Your baby is the size of a Poppy seed,” Nia’s face settles into a soft, loving smile, her eyes rounding in awe as she awaits Poppy’s reaction.

Poppy reads the description below.

At four weeks, the foetus is about 2mm or 0.3 inches long, and weighs less than a gram but is growing rapidly in your womb!

“Holy shit.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come up with you?”

The inside of Nia’s car is warm and comforting, the heat cranked so high that Poppy doesn’t want to leave into the cold, even if it’s just for the few seconds between the vehicle and the entrance to Nico’s building.

It’s nothing to do with the nerve-wracking conversation she is about to have.

Nothing at all.

“I’ve got to put on my big girl pants, remember? Let him tell me what he wants before I decide it in my head.”

“I’ll be here if you need me,” she pats Poppy’s thigh in consolation, “And if I need to come up there and kick his ass, just give me a call.”

“I will.”

“Good luck!”

Poppy shuffles out of the car and holds her jacket tighter around her as she makes her way over to the doors of the apartment building, harsh winds whipping at her face and causing her to grimace before she makes it to safety, the doors pressing closed behind her in a gentle thud.

She’s surprised to see Lionel still sat at his desk, a little later than he normally works, but the familiar face gives her a little bit of reprieve, and the friendly smile he flashes her way calms her rampant heart.

“Hi, Poppy,” he stands to greet her, “You here to see the boys?”

“Nico, actually,” she responds, and watches as he presses his button for the elevator without question, typing something else while he waits for the notification it’s on its way down. “You’re here late.”

“So are you.” He gives a knowing smile back, looking at her over the top of his glasses and causing her skin to turn warm. “Our night guy, Evan, just had a baby, I stick around until he can do bedtime with his wife.”

“That’s sweet of you.” She ignores the lump in her throat at the mention of babies. “I bet it’s nice of him to still get that time in the routine.”

She wonders if that’s something Nico would do - fight to make it home for every bedtime, getting one of the guys to pick up his media responsibilities after a game so he could give their baby an evening bottle and a kiss goodnight.

“He makes sure I have coffee and a donut waiting for me on the desk when my shift starts in the morning, so I can’t complain.”

“Oh, wins all around then,” she chuckles, and thanks him as he walks with her to the elevator.

“It sure is, you have a nice evening, Poppy, I’ve sent Mr Hischier a message that you’re on your way up.”

“Thanks, Lionel,” she hums, appreciative that she isn’t springing a visit on him entirely out of nowhere, now. “Get home safe!”

Lionel presses the buttons for her, and gives her a cheerful wave as the doors close between them, leaving her to her own anxiety for company.

The elevator ride up is torturously slow, the numbers rising at a mocking pace, and she can feel her heart hammering with every second that passes. When the doors open, she doesn’t immediately step out, and has to reach a shaking hand to stop them closing again and going back down.

As much as she is dreading this, she needs to get it over with.

Once she has told him, it’s done.

He can tell her what he wants and she can just live with it.

No more running through every nightmarish scenario in her head, no more imagining the other side of conversations and mentally booking flights to faraway countries to get away from her problems.

She will tell him she’s pregnant, and then the ball is in his court. Or the puck is in his rink. Whatever.

Her feet feel heavy as she moves toward his apartment, and when she’s stood in front of his door, she raps her knuckles harshly against the wood before she can convince herself not to.

And then she waits.

And waits.

And continues to wait until it starts to frustrate her, knocking again with the side of her fist in jerky movements that rattle the surface.

He’s definitely home, she thinks - she’d shamelessly stalked him on Find My Friends. Lionel had sent the message she was coming up. He has to be home.

Unless he’s down at Jack and Luke’s place.

She isn’t telling him there. God knows what those two would have to say about it.

What if she’s there?

Oh God, she hadn’t even thought about that.

What if he isn’t answering because he doesn’t want Talia to see her there.

Shit.

Before she can duck and run, before her brain can even send out the direction to get the hell out of there, the door swings open, and she clumsily stumbles back with a surprised gasp.

Nico stands on the other side, skin dripping wet, steam coming off him like something out of a movie, and a towel clutched with a tight fist around his waist that also has a grasp on his phone. His hair is soaked, slicked back out of his face and her eyes are drawn to a droplet of water that trails down from his jaw, beneath a gap where the gold chain he is still wearing doesn’t quite sit flush against the base of his neck, and she watches it disappear into the tuft of dark hair that has grown in the centre of his chest.

“Poppy,” he’s breathless, like he’s just booked it down the hall to get to her, no doubt leaving a trail of soggy footprints in his path, “Hi.”

“S-sorry,” she stutters, making a serious mental effort to keep her eyes on his face. “Is this a bad time?”

“No!” He exclaims, eyebrows shooting up in panic, “No, you’re fine, come in.”

“Are you sure? I can come back,”

Nico steps back, giving her space to come in and tilting his head in a silent invitation. “Positive,” he watches as she takes a cautious step into his apartment, and he closes the door softly behind her. “Let me just,” he gestures to his body as if she isn’t actively trying to avoid looking at it, and she presses her lips together to save herself from audibly gulping. “I’ll get dressed. Make yourself comfortable, I’ll just be a second.”

Jesus Christ.

If Poppy’s heart wasn’t about to beat into oblivion before, it sure is now.

He rushes off down the hall toward his bedroom, and she steps a little further into the open plan of his apartment, casting her eyes in a quick glance across the room.

She can’t help herself - one of the few traits inherited from her mother - if she’s invited into someone else’s home, she’s going to be nosey.

She hasn’t spent much time in Nico’s apartment, before. Back before Summer last year, most of their time together was either spent out or round at her place. He had always said it was for convenience - he would rather be the one that had to drive home, and her place was closer to everything else so it just made sense - but she still thinks in the few times she had seen it, it looks different.

He’s rearranged the furniture, he has a new couch, his kitchen has a new coffee machine. He used to have a couple pictures of his family around, but she can’t see them from where she is.

In fact, she can’t really see anything personal.

If she compares it to her own cluttered space, his apartment looks fresh out of a catalogue. Stone walls, grey fabrics, brown leathers, random red pieces like the odd book and some candles, like he’d picked a page out of Bachelor Pad Weekly and handed it over to a designer with the sole instruction to copy and paste.

There’s a floor to ceiling shelving unit that seems to act as a separator, and it has random sculptures and trinkets she can’t see him picking out for himself.

She tries not to think too much about how his place differs from her own. How she still has pictures of the two of them scattered in every room.

Guys don’t put as much thought into stuff like that.

She tells herself as much as she’s reading the spines of some of the books that line the shelves - hardbacks that look more like decoration than anything he would actually read - and she finds herself fiddling with the bunch of plastic in her pocket to ground herself.

There isn’t a single feminine thing about the place - almost like he’s scrubbed clean any trace of a woman ever living with him, which shouldn’t ease the tension in her shoulders as much as it does.

She isn’t here to worry about his choice of decor, or who may or may not have had a say in it.

She isn’t here to question why she sees him in every corner of her home and she is nowhere in his.

She’s here to talk.

“Sorry,” Nico returns, and she swivels where she’s stood to take him in. Sweatpants slung low on his hips, a slight gap between those and the hem of the t-shirt that sticks to his every muscle like second skin. A towel held up to his head to try and drain out the excess moisture. “I wasn’t expecting company so I hopped in the shower, I was ignoring the knocking until I saw the text to say it was you.”

“Yeah, I,” her tongue swipes at her parched lips, and she blinks away the daze he always seems to cast upon her. “I figured we need to talk.”

He takes an eager step forward, gesturing over to his couch and waiting for her to perch down uncomfortably on the edge before he sits on the cushion beside her - keeping a respectable distance between the two of them.

“I’m glad you’re here,” he seems nervous, and it makes her chest feel tight. “I wanted to apologise for the other day. I pretty much cornered you when you asked me for space and I didn’t mean to push you. Especially when you weren’t feeling great. If it helps, my mom laid into me when I drove her back to her hotel.”

“It’s alright,” she squeaks out, meekly, thinking that maybe if she lets him off the hook for that, he’ll let her off the hook for this.

“It’s not. I’ve dealt with this whole thing so wrong, I need you to know I didn’t mean what I said that night in your apartment. Y’know, about-,” he shakes his head as if trying to gather his thoughts, “About what we did. I don’t think we made a mistake. I made one, with how I handled everything after, I-,” she knows she shouldn’t let him ramble on, shouldn’t let him think she needs him to beg for her forgiveness before he knows the full extent of what he’s asking, but she’s spent 4 weeks imagining what he might want to say to her, and she wants to hear it. “You were right the other day, I haven’t been a good friend to you, Poppy, I was selfish and you deserve better. You deserve to make your own decisions and I’m sorry I took that from you.”

Poppy is usually better at catching herself before she cries in front of anyone else - the warning signs of an ache at the back of her throat and the corner of her eyes stinging coming up in advance - but this time, her lip starts to tremble before she’s able to get a grasp on her emotions, and a sob racks through her before she throws her head into her hands.

“Whoa, hey,” she feels a large, warm hand stroking at her back, and feels the couch dip as Nico shuffles closer to her, their knees knocking and his arm swinging around her shaking body. “Please don’t cry,”

“I’m so sorry,”

“No, Poppy, you have nothing to be sorry for-“

“I don’t want you to be mad at me.” She cries, her voice strained as if she’s choking back another sob as she looks up at him, arms cradling herself for a slight reprieve of comfort.

“Why would I be mad?” He questions, his arm still rubbing soothingly at hers as she unravels in front of him. “What’s going on, Poppy? I’m worried about you,”

“Do you promise me you won’t hate me?”

“Mohn,” Nico sighs, running his spare hand through his still-damp hair and making sure it stays slicked back.

“Please?”

“I could never hate you,” He assures her, and, as resolute as he sounds, she tilts her head, urging him to say what she wants to hear. “I promise.”

She takes a second to even out her breathing, in through the nose, out through the mouth, until she no longer feels like she’s about to implode, and Nico waits, watching with his own bated breath.

“I uhm,” she takes a shaky inhale, trying to build the courage to come out and just say it, but her mouth just bops open like a fish, the words refusing to come out. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out the handful of tests she had haphazardly stashed in there, before reaching forward and dropping them carelessly onto the coffee table - the plastic scattering across the surface and making a clattering sound against the solid wood.

Nico’s eyes drop to the sticks that are splayed out in front of him, his own words failing him as if he daren’t speak them into existence. His eyes close a few times in forced, hard blinks, as if he’s trying to determine the reality of the situation, and he reaches out to take one of them in his hand before she presses her shaky fingers to his arm in an attempt to stop him.

“I peed on those, I wouldn’t touch ‘em.”

He ignores the warning, picking up another, bringing them up to his face so he can read what he must already know they all say. The dim light of his living room does little to mask the shock on his face.

“You’re-,” his words drift off, and his eyes flicker back to the two tests left.

“I’m pregnant.” Her voice cracks as she says it, holding back a choking sob that strains her throat. She can no longer stomach the thought of not saying it out loud.

Silence lingers between them like a rubber band, ready to snap. She can feel every liquid ounce of blood rushing through her body, can probably hear the whoosh of it, too, if she focuses hard enough, and she thinks she can see a vein pop in his neck.

“Please say something.”

“It’s mine?”

Their eyes meet, his round and concerned, her’s glassy and afraid, and all she can do is nod.

She doesn’t take offence to the question, knowing he has every right to ask what he needs to. She’s spent the last hour trying to prep herself for the possibility of what he might ask, for an onslaught of potential accusations and finger-pointing.

Even if she only took the tests today, she’s had days to think about this. To ask her own questions, fathom her own feelings, she owes him the leniency to do the same.

She and Nia had gone through some pretty serious breathing exercises before she drove Poppy out here just to calm her down in preparation for it all.

“I haven’t been with anybody else.”

“I didn’t use protection,” he stares blankly ahead as he speaks, as if he’s running through the events of that night in his head, the tests still clutched between his thumb and fingers. She shakes her head, and hopes he can see the action in his peripheral, because her tongue currently feels like a paperweight in the dead centre of her mouth, and she probably couldn’t speak if she tried. “And you’re not-,” he seems just as much at a loss, “Protecting yourself?”

If it were anyone else asking her that kind of question, she thinks she’d be a little more on edge, but she knows he isn’t asking to shame her.

Still, she can’t help the guilt that racks through her entire body. “I was trying a new birth control last year, and it uhm-,” she exhales a shuddered breath, “It didn’t really work for me, so I stopped. I was due back to see my doctor around Christmas, but I pushed it back, and then I- I forgot.” Tears line her eyes again, glossing them over completely until a fat droplet falls straight down her cheek and drips down onto her leg.

“Holy shit.”

She can’t exactly blame him for that response, either. She had said the exact same thing. Nia had even reacted the same way.

“I’m so, so sorry, Nico,” she tries to suppress a sob, but can’t stop the onset of tears, now, her head falling into her hands as her body begins to tremble.

Nico pulls Poppy into him immediately, his arms wrapping around her shaking frame, and he presses his head into the top of hers. Large hands stroke comfortingly up and down her back, trying to hold her as tight as is comfortable so she knows he’s there for her, shushing her and taking slow, measured breaths in the hopes her body instinctively copies him.

Her body melts into his, soaking up his warmth until it eases all the tension in her muscles, and all she tries to focus on is the rhythmic motion of his touch on her spine.

“You have nothing to be sorry for, Mohn,” he mutters into her temple, pressing his lips in a gentle kiss to the skin there. “It’s gonna be okay, please don’t cry.”

He sways her gently, lifting a hand to stroke her hair and keeps her in his hold until she starts to properly calm down - sobs becoming sniffles, tremors becoming the occasional shake, and her breaths evening out so she no longer seems like she’s hyperventilating.

Somewhere in her panic, she had taken to clutching at his shirt, the fabric bundled up so tight between her fingers that they start to ache, and she can feel the sharp press of her own nails in her palms. She lays them flat against his chest, ignoring the growing sting she feels when she applies pressure to the crescent-shaped indents, and uses him for leverage to push herself back a little - only going far enough that she can still feel his arms around her, even if they’ve loosened up a little.

She must look a complete mess - lips swollen, nose snotty, eyes red-raw - but he looks at her only with concern rather than any kind of disgust. He brings a hand forward to swipe at the remaining dampness on her cheek, and keeps it there to cup the side of her jaw, stroking tenderly at her face just as he had done the other day, when she had felt like she was floating out of her body and he had grounded her.

“You took those today?” He gestures towards the sticks that are still on the table, the others that had been in his grasp before discarded somewhere into the cushions of the couch when he had taken her into his arms. She nods, meeting his dark eyes and watching as they flicker between the features of her own face. “You didn’t know when we spoke the other day?”

She shakes her head, vehemently. “I wouldn’t have tried to push you away if I’d have even thought I could be pregnant Nico, I swear. I thought I was just sick.”

“You would have had every right to push me away, Poppy.”

“I came here as soon as I knew for sure.” She places her hand over his, her thumb swiping over the knuckles on his hand and her fingers curling around his own digits. “I mean, I was kind of losing my mind so it took me 13 positives to know, but-,”

“You took 13 tests?” When she takes note of his face, he seems like he’s trying to fight a smile. She hadn’t even realised before.

13 positives to finally convince her, and a baby the size of a Poppy seed, it was always meant to be.

“14 technically, but one was negative,” her lips twist then in slight embarrassment. “I even made Nia take one.”

“Nia knows?”

The would-be smile drops immediately, and the frown that forms on his face almost stops her heart in its tracks.

“I needed somebody to hold my hand, Nico.” She reasons, head tilting and trying to meet his eyes again, his hand drops from her face, hers falling limply with it, and the look he gives her back is one of resigned acceptance.

“It should have been me,” he mutters, and when she parts her lips to respond, he shakes his head, “I know I’m the one who hurt you and pushed you away, Poppy, I just-,” he sighs, he isn’t trying to blame her, he’s trying blame himself. “I’m glad you weren’t alone.”

She threads her fingers through his again, bringing their hands between them and holding his firmly in her lap. “I would have come to you, Nico, I just didn’t want to stress you out if it turned out to be negative.”

“Even after what I did?” His voice is the one that’s strained, now, and the sound plucks straight at her heart strings.

He had hurt her - she knows he understands that - but she doesn’t want him to hurt. She’s never wanted that for him. And with the regret in his eyes and the conflict in his tone, she sees that they’ve both been hurting regardless of what she wanted, so she nods.

If she had been left to her own devices, earlier - if the baby shower hadn’t conjured up so much anxiety that she erupted on her best friend - she would have ended up in this exact spot. Poppy knows that with everything in her. She would always have come to him.

When she had had her not-so-mini meltdown with Nia earlier, it was his reassurance she craved.

“You wouldn’t have stressed me out.” He tells her, squeezing back at her hand, and she knows he isn’t putting on a brave face just to make her feel better. “In fact, I feel weirdly calm right now.”

“Yeah, I think you might have calmed me down, too.”

His constant touch, his serene demeanour, he’s done everything in him to make her feel relaxed.

He hasn’t raised his voice, hasn’t pushed her away, hasn’t blamed her or shamed her or made her feel like she is a burden in any way.

He’s just held her in his arms and told her it will be okay, and she doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to show him how much she appreciates it.

She had made herself entirely hysterical with an abundance of what ifs and hypotheticals that she knew in her heart he would never live up to.

If she had been thinking rationally at all, earlier, she’d have known he wouldn’t get mad, wouldn’t hate her, wouldn’t react in any way other than the way he has. With tender-hearted acceptance and love born from empathy and the long-withstanding trust they share for each other.

Her mind had spiralled so far beyond the realm of possibility that it had created a version of him in her head that he would never be. One that would have shut her out, left her to deal with her emotions alone. Even when he’d pushed her away the last time, she had been the one to shut the door.

“I-,” he starts to say something, but is interrupted by the buzz of his phone on the coffee table. “Why is Nia calling me?”

“Shit,” Poppy curses, shooting up and dropping his hand in the process, “She’s waiting downstairs for me, she was gonna drive me home.” She pats around her pockets before realising her phone isn’t in them, and it dawns on her she must have left it in the passenger seat of Nia’s car - a really useful spot for it to be.

“It’s alright,” Nico focuses more on consoling her than answering the call, and it rings out before he remembers he should probably have picked it up. “She’s parked on the street?”

“Yeah, right out front.”

“Wait here,” he commands with gentle authority, a hand on her shoulder pushing her softly back down onto the couch. “We need to talk about this, I don’t want you to be home alone, you can stay here tonight,”

“Maybe I sh-,”

“I’ll go down and tell her,” he says with finality, leaving the living area in search of a hoodie he can shrug on.

“Nico, she isn’t exactly your biggest fan right now,” Poppy warns, following him toward the door to his apartment with a slight bout of panic.

If he goes out there, there’s no telling what Nia might say to him. She’s been on one for weeks about how disappointed she has been in him, and he could be marching straight into the firing line without a clue as to what is waiting for him out there. And he might return with his defences raised.

“I’ll be fine. I’ll be back in a few minutes, just make yourself comfortable, okay?”

He doesn’t really give Poppy much of a choice before he’s dashing out of his apartment, and she doesn’t exactly have the energy to chase him.

She steps back around the couch, feeling a little out of place again as he has, for the second time in one night, left her to her own devices in his space.

She starts to pace, feet padding softly around the pattern of the rug, focused entirely on matching up her steps to the patches within the fabric until she starts to get dizzy.

Then, she finds herself looking around again. Snooping around shelves, eyeing up the cabinet where he keeps odd bits of Devils memorabilia, newspaper cut outs of his biggest games and even a patch of a Switzerland jersey framed in dark wood.

The rest of the space is minimal, as she had taken notice of before. A couple generic pieces of artwork, nothing too personal anywhere other than that cabinet. A large mirror hung on the wall, that she doesn’t really want to look in, through fear of catching sight of her ghastly reflection, but something else captures her attention in it, entirely.

She turns quicker than she probably should, and her lips part as she steps closer to the wall that had been behind her.

She’d been too focused on her thoughts before - hadn’t noticed it in her initial snooping.

A landscape canvas, framed in the same dark wood as everything else he had in the room that had been a personal touch, large enough to be the only artwork on that wall - a focal piece in the heart of his apartment.

A patch of dainty red flowers seemingly waving in the breeze beside a picturesque coastal view, peaceful waters and some tiny sailboats in the background.

And beneath it, a small plaque just above the base of the frame that reads; Childe Hassam. Poppies, Isles of Shoals, 1891.

Nico

Nico has never really given much thought to having children, before.

He doesn’t have any problem with kids - he enjoys his mentoring sessions, loves meeting the kids who come to games donning his name on their back and looking at him like he’s their hero, and will always go out of his way to meet fans if he hears there’s a bunch of kids excited to meet him.

But being a part of one of the youngest teams in the leagues means he doesn’t exactly have a lot of dad friends. Sure, a couple of the guys have kids - they bring them to games, to team events and he’s met his fair share of them at family skates, but he isn’t that actively involved in any of their lives.

Whenever he pictures his future, it’s really just hockey. It’s captaining his team all the way to lifting the cup, it’s winning gold in the Worlds or the Olympics, representing his beloved home country and succeeding at the top level with his friends.

And if he’s ever thought about anything outside of that, it’s just been experiencing as many new things as he can before he doesn’t have those kinds of opportunities anymore. Travelling, flitting around Europe with his friends back home, climbing mountains, going to festivals, trying his hand at whatever sport he can.

He’s never had any inclination for that to change.

Until the thought of having children with Poppy fell into his lap. Or onto his coffee table in the form of a handful of positive pregnancy tests.

And once the initial shock had subsided, once his brain had comprehended the switch between missing her and screaming not to let her go, he had found comfort in the concept of knowing that something about his future was now an almost-certain.

Poppy will be a part of it.

And he will be a part of hers.

It’s with the conviction of those facts that he finds himself jogging across the street to Nia’s Mazda with misplaced confidence.

Poppy had tried to warn him that she wouldn’t be welcoming and he had shrugged it off, knowing already how pissed her best friend was going to be with him.

A couple nights after she had kicked him out of her apartment, in the depths of his despair and on a lonely evening in a hotel room in Tampa, all he could think of doing to make himself feel better after a loss was to check up on her. Every time he had tried to see her at the Rock the first few days that week before they had gone on the road, she had practically ran the other way, and so as he lay in his hotel bed, muscles aching, mind racing, heart hurting, he had taken to stalking her instagram to see what she had been up to while he had been away.

Her story had been of Nia, the two of them had gone together to get their nails done, and when Nico had clicked on where Nia was tagged in the hope that maybe she had posted a picture of Poppy, it had taken him to a private account he no longer had the privilege of following.

She had removed him.

And as he raps his knuckles against her car window, he can see why.

She’s angry.

“I didn’t call you so that you’d come down here, I called to check on my best friend.” She snaps, the brisk winter air invading her car and making the annoyed huff she gives come out in a misty cloud.

“She’s fine, she’s gonna stay over-,”

“Like hell she is,” she goes to unbuckle her belt, and when she reaches for the handle of the door to open it, Nico promptly pushes it back shut. “Let me out.”

“Come on, Nia,” Nico sighs, “Poppy’s okay, I got her to calm down and we need to talk about things, I don’t want you having to wait out here all night until we do.”

“Right, ‘cause the last time you two had a sleepover, it turned out so well for her.”

Nico finds himself clenching his jaw, not in anger but in shame. Yet another reminder from another person just how much he has messed this all up.

“I’m gonna wait here until I know this is what she wants to do,” Nia holds out Poppy’s phone, and Nico takes it, immediately thrusting it into the warmth of his pocket. “You make sure she texts me so I know you’re not holding her hostage up there. We have a code. If she doesn’t send it to me in the next five minutes, I’ll literally scale your building to find you and make you hurt in ways you can’t even comprehend.”

“I’d expect nothing less.”

He misses the way Luke had subtly threatened him back in the locker room. That was a lot less violent, and while he had taken it seriously at the time, he was a lot less scary than Nia.

She narrows her eyes at him, and he tries to morph his face into one that reflects the gravity of the situation.

He has no intentions of ever making her sad again. He knows that. Hell, Nia probably knows that deep down.

“Thank you for being there for her.” He knows it’s a risky thing to say - Nia and Poppy have been friends since their childhood, there would never be a question over her being there for Poppy - but he’s hoping that she understands what he’s trying to get at. “With the tests and all, holding her hand. I’m glad she has you.”

“You won’t be glad if you don’t get back upstairs in time,” she shoos him away with the flick of her hand, and before he can fully jog back across the street, she calls back out to him. “Hey Nico,” he turns and watches as she leans out of her window a little, voice shouting out as if she has no worries about the repercussions of threatening him so brazenly, “If you ever make my best friend cry again, there isn’t a corner of this Earth that you’ll be safe in, do you understand?”

“I understand.” He nods, before he dashes back into the safety of his building.

Despite the visceral way in which his life has just been threatened, he finds himself walking with a newfound spring in his step, bounding through the lobby and sending Lionel a friendly salute as he passes him, the old man shaking his head fondly in return.

The elevator flies straight up to his floor, and he’s back inside the warmth of his apartment in no time - all that much warmer now that he has his favourite girl back inside.

“Have you ever seen the movie Taken?” He huffs as he pulls off his hoodie, his head popping out of the neck of the garment in a way that makes his hair fluff out. “I’m telling you, Nia could give Liam Neeson a run for his money. She’s scary.”

He finds Poppy stood in his living room, staring at the wall - not exactly where he had left her but she’s never been one to sit still for too long.

“Poppy?”

“I like your painting.” Her voice is much softer than it had been, before. A little deeper, less strained, like she’s found comfort and isn’t as anxious to speak anymore, which delights him just a little. The energy in the room has shifted since he had left, and what he has returned to is comfortable and serene.

He steps in line beside her, eyes cast upon the canvas she is admiring, and he feels his lips twitch upward. “My mom got it for me,” he chuckles, stepping just the slightest bit closer. “She said my place lacked character.”

She had said some other things, too, about how she’d seen the painting and it had immediately reminded her of him and how it would bring some much needed colour to his apartment, and make it feel more like home but saying those things feels like overkill, and he thinks he’s shared enough for now.

Plus, Poppy knows what the painting means, she doesn’t need him to spell it out for her.

He needs to keep some of his dignity in tact.

“Sounds about right,” Poppy mutters with an astute smile.

The silence that falls between the two of them is one of familiarity and understanding, and he nudges playfully at her side before stepping away.

“I told Nia you’d be staying here. She says you need to text her your code before she murders me.”

“How long did she give you?”

“Five minutes,”

“Dang,” she checks the time quickly on the screen, “I think I might have forgotten it.”

“You’re not funny, Poppy.” He responds, but he’s sure the fond shake of his head and the way he battles the oncoming smile gives him away. “You have a minute left before I’m snatching that back and assuming your code is please don’t kill my baby daddy.”

“That’s a good one.” The smile she gives this time is tired, and for the first time all night, he takes in just how exhausted she looks. Shoulders slumped, shadows under her eyes, slow blinks every time she looks up at him.

He watches as she types her message to Nia, a feeling of contentment settling in the pit of his stomach despite the intensity of the situation.

She’s here. She’s making jokes. She’s looking him in the eye and smiling like he never hurt her.

She’s carrying his baby.

However small it might be, a part of him is growing within her, and she doesn’t seem all that perturbed by the idea.

He knows that there’s a lot more to talk about, for him to think about even, but he’s content for now just knowing that.

“I think you should get some sleep,” he suggests, his tone comforting and his cadence smooth, “We can talk more tomorrow, but you look beat, Poppy.”

“Yeah, I haven’t really been sleeping right lately.”

“You can take my bed,” he offers, “My mattress is like sleeping on a cloud,”

“No, I can’t kick you out of your bed,”

“I’ll sleep in the spare, it’s fine,”

“No, I’ll sleep in there, I don’t mind!”

“I shoved a kit bag in there before we broke up for All-Stars, before I got the chance to get it washed, I don’t think you’ll get on too well with how that room smells, Poppy.”

“Oh,” she pouts, an adorable frown forming on her face as Nico finds himself almost blushing at the sight of it. “Gross.”

“Yeah,” he chuckles, “Do you want me to make you anything before you go to sleep?”

“Were you gonna eat?”

“No, I was gonna head to bed early, I have an early morning training session with a couple of the guys. But I don’t mind cooking for you if you’re hungry,”

“No, that’s fine,” she shakes her head, looking up at him with a soft smile, “Nia and I ate before she brought me here. Are you sure you want me to stay if you have plans?”

“Yeah,” he answers with shameless urgency, “I’ll be back early, I can bring you breakfast.”

She bites at the corner of her mouth like she usually does when she’s thinking too much, and he reaches out to swipe his thumb at the side of her chin to pull her lip from the clutches of her teeth.

“I want you here, Poppy. I want to talk about this properly, after you’ve had a good night’s rest and you’re not upset.”

“Okay.” She breathes, “I’ll stay.”

“C’mon, I’ll find you something to wear to bed.”

He holds out his hand, expecting her to swerve it and grasp at his arm instead, but she slides her fingers between his and lets him guide her through his apartment to his bedroom.

When they’re both inside, he manoeuvres her to sit on the edge of his bed while he looks through his closet, and comes back out with some boxers and an old t-shirt. Poppy always wears shorts when she’s at home, and he figures she’ll be more comfortable in these than any sweatpants he could find. “Here you go, I promise they’re clean.”

“I trust you,” she snorts as she takes the garments from his clutches and stands to change in his en-suite.

Nico follows her in, and when she turns to question him, he opens up the medicine cabinet above his sink. “I don’t have a toothbrush for you but I have spare heads for mine,” he offers one out to her from the pack, one that has a blue band at the bottom so she’ll be able to tell the difference when she takes the head he uses off. “There’s soap in there too, and clean washcloths if you wanna take a shower. But if you need anything just let me know and I can pick it up for you on my way home in the morning.”

Before he can step back to head out, Poppy throws her arms around him, discarding the clothes he had given her to the floor and pressing her body firmly into his.

His own arms circle around her waist, tightening around her frame as his large hands press into her back to keep her close. She’s raised up on her tip toes, her face is shoved into his neck, and he presses his lips to the side of her head, closing his eyes to bask in how good it feels and taking a deep breath of the faint smell of her coconut shampoo.

She pulls away after a minute or two with a quiet sniffle, but only puts a little distance between them before she looks up at him with tears brimming her eyes again.

“Thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me, Poppy,” he reaches a hand to wipe at a stray tear, “I’m here for you, whatever you need.”

“I was really scared earlier,” she hiccups out, “I was driving myself crazy, I was driving Nia crazy, and I-,” her lip trembles, and she shakes her head as if to rid herself of the onslaught of emotions, “I should have just come straight to you. I’m sorry you weren’t the first to know.”

“Hey, no,” he gently grabs either side of her face, stroking at her cheekbones with the pads of his thumbs, “You have nothing to be sorry for, I mean it.”

“But I-,”

“I like how you told me.” He affirms to her - and as much as he had wanted to be the first person who knew, earlier, he knows he means it. Nia is Poppy’s person, if there was one other person in the world he would be okay with knowing over him, it would be her. As much as he likes to think he would have been able to make her feel better in the moment if she was panicking, he doesn’t entirely know if he wouldn’t have panicked himself if things weren’t already confirmed. If he would have slipped up and made her feel worse or said something stupid. “You throwing your little pee sticks down onto my coffee table like some kind of performance art and telling me not to touch them after I already had. It’s kind of funny.”

She giggles, glassy eyes crinkling in the corners until they push a tear that runs into his thumb.

She places her own hands on top of his. “You still haven’t washed your hands, by the way.”

“Shit, sorry,” he grimaces, immediately taking them off of her skin. “I’ll let you get ready, I’m across the hall if you need anything, and I should be back before 11. I’ll bring you whatever you’re hungry for.”

“Okay, I’ll try not to vomit everywhere in the morning while I wait for you to come home.”

Come home. His feels like his heart does a somersault in his chest, bouncing off of each rib that protects it in its place, and the feeling reverberates throughout his entire body.

“I appreciate that.”

He takes a hold of her face again, his fingers tucked behind her ears as he pulls her head to his lips, pressing a firm and affectionate kiss to her crown, just like he used to whenever they said goodbye.

And in a way that melts his thumping heart, she does the same, bringing his face down to her lips to press them into the warm skin of his forehead.

“Goodnight, Nico,” she hums, her eyes sparkling and her lips spread into a fond smile.

“Sweet dreams, Mohn,” he replies, feeling the press of the dimples in his cheeks and the rush of blood to his head.

When he retreats to his spare bedroom, and collapses onto the firmer-than-he-would-like mattress, he can’t stop the surprising curve of his lips, a soft smile etching itself into his features that feels like it could be a permanent fixture.

He should be terrified. His heart should be beating out of his chest, he should have broken out in a cold sweat and not been able to form words. He should be panicked out of his mind and sick to his stomach.

But there’s a girl he loves more than anything laying in his bed in the room beside his, she’s wearing his clothes, her head is on his pillow, she is wrapped up in his sheets, and she is carrying his baby.

And despite never picturing much of this part of it before, he can see a glimpse of his future ahead of him.

A future where Poppy’s belly grows round and presses into his whenever she’s close enough that he can pull her into him. A future where tiny sticky hands press into one side of the plexiglass while he’s out warming up on the ice, and his large, gloved hand presses to the other. A future where he comes home to find her battling sleep with a snoring baby held to her chest, highlights playing with lowered volume on the TV, and they’d snuggle up together until they both pass out, and he gets up to do the middle of the night feed-and-change so that Poppy gets her rest.

And all those worries he had before about never being enough for her fade to nothing, because now he has no choice.

If Poppy can grow a little human with a tiny beating heart, who is half of him, and half of her, then he can step up for her.

Whatever she needs him to be, whatever she wants him to be, he’ll be it - and he’ll be it with this same lovesick smile that he now can’t shift.

So with a content sigh, and a deep longing for the girl laying not even 20 feet away from him, he falls asleep for the first time in 4 weeks at peace with his actions.

—

Over the last four weeks, Nico has spent way too much time retracing his steps to the point where he had so royally screwed things up with Poppy that she had wanted absolutely nothing to do with him. So when he wakes up the next morning before the sun shows any signs of rising - when he quickly gets himself ready to head off to practice, sneaking through his room to go brush his teeth, planting a minty kiss to the sleeping girl’s forehead and making sure she has something to drink for when she wakes up - he places a note beside the glass of water on his nightstand, in preparation for when she wakes up.

This time, he won’t leave her to wake up without him without some sort of explanation. Without an assurance that he’ll be back as promised, and that he can’t wait to see her, and that she should text him when she wakes up and let him know what isn’t going to turn her stomach and he’ll get it for her.

Which is why, when he checks his phone after his training session at the arena gym finishes at 9:30, his heart drops to the pit of his stomach when nothing is there.

It’s still early, he tells himself after a quick shower. She might still be asleep, he thinks as he packs up his toiletries, sets his things aside to be washed and tries to act like his thoughts aren’t eating him alive. She might not have seen the note, he convinces himself as he does a quick round of the grocery store - grabbing her some essentials and replenishing some of the basics he knows he is low on anyway. She wouldn’t have left, he thinks as he watches the numbers go up in the elevator, his feet tapping against the floor nervously as he awaits his stop.

And when he makes it into his apartment, and she isn’t on his couch, isn’t in the kitchen, isn’t in the bed where he had left her that morning, he starts to panic - until he hears something through the closed door of his bathroom.

“Poppy?” He asks softly before pushing the door open to see her sat on her knees on the floor beside his toilet, sticky hair matted to her paled skin, and bleary eyes looking weakly up at him. He sinks down beside her, perches himself on his knees and pushes the strands of hair off her forehead and out of her face. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“My phone died,” her voice is strained, and he doesn’t need to look into the toilet bowl to know why. “I tried to find a charger but I couldn’t get up without feeling sick.”

He hadn’t even thought to get her one when he had left her in here last night. “I’ll get you one,” but when he goes to push himself off the ground, she wraps her shaking fingers around his wrist.

“Could you just sit with me for a little?” She asks, “I know I’m gross but I just need you to hold my hair if it happens again, I didn’t bring a hair tie.”

“Of course,” he lowers himself back to the ground beside her, “C’mere,” he swings an arm over her shoulders, pulling her body into his until her head falls weakly into the crook of his neck. He strokes at her hair gently, tucking it behind her ears where she can and trying to soothe her into some sort of comfort. “Have you been here all morning?”

She nods, and he lowers his other arm to tuck his hand under her legs, unbending them as best as he can and stretching them out over his own so that she won’t loose the feeling in them.

They stay like that for a while, her taking deep breaths to alleviate the nausea and him stroking tranquilly at whatever parts of her he can reach. The soft skin of her thighs and the outsides of her knees with one hand, the slope of her neck and the curve of her shoulder with the other. One of her arms stays bent between them, but the other stretches out in an attempt to touch him back, languidly resting on his torso and occasionally her fingers dance lightly across the fabric of his t-shirt with just enough pressure to make his stomach clench in anticipation.

“You should take a shower,” he suggests after peeking down at her to make sure she hasn’t fallen asleep. “You might feel better.”

“Am I that bad?”

“Doesn’t feel right to chirp a pregnant woman, Poppy.”

The laugh she gives him in return feels like a cherished gift, and his chest swells with pride when she looks up at him and her eyes glimmer under the overhead lights.

“I got you some things from the store.”

He had spent almost 5 minutes trying to find coconut scented shampoo and conditioner, unscrewing several bottles and trying not to get caught, but he won’t be telling her that.

“And here I was counting my lucky stars you have such an extensive hair wash routine all morning.” She jibes, pointing over to the toiletries inside Nico’s shower. “If you were a 5-in-1 guy I would have seriously reconsidered our friendship.”

“It’s a good thing you don’t have to worry about that, wait here.”

He goes to retrieve one of the bags he had discarded when he got in, and takes it back to Poppy in his bathroom before emptying it out onto the counter beside the sink.

Shampoo, conditioner, a hairbrush, a new toothbrush, deodorant, some face wipes, an unscented body wash, and a packet of anti-nausea medication he had specifically asked the pharmacist for with the assurance it was okay for pregnant women.

“Oh wow, I must be that bad.”

“Not at all, I just wanted you to feel more comfortable.” He reassures her, and opens a drawer below the sink to get her a washcloth and a fresh bar of soap. “There’s clean towels in the cupboard behind you. And if you want to raise the pressure of the shower, it’s the dial at the top, temperature at the bottom.”

“Got it. Thank you, Nico,” she smiles, and Nico smiles back at the sincerity in her eyes.

“I’m gonna put together something to eat while you’re in there. You don’t have to eat if you don’t feel like it, but is there anything you think you can stomach?”

“Something cold,” she requests, swiping at the packet of medication and curiously reading the label, “That doesn’t have any kind of smell.

“I’ll see what I can do,” he chuckles, “I’ll put some fresh clothes on my bed, just call out if you need me, yeah?”

Poppy nods, and gives him a little salute with a pill packet between her fingers.

Something cold that doesn’t have any smell.

He had got her fruit from the store - strawberries and pre-cut watermelon, Pink Lady apples because he knows they’re the only kind she will eat - as well as yoghurt, some cereal, some bagels and some eggs and bacon. The eggs and bacon are out of the question, as much as he’d want to make himself a decent breakfast bagel after his training session, but the rest of it seems pretty safe.

He cuts up the fruit anyway, even if she won’t eat it now, he can always send it home with her later. He puts the yoghurt in the fridge so it will stay as cold as possible - he had gotten her coconut flavour, remembering how she had once said it was her favourite, but only the greek type that has the taste of coconut but not the texture. He leaves the bagels to the side, thinking that toasting them and potentially burning them is a little too risky without asking her first, and lays the boxes of cereal in a row on his counter so that she has her choice of the bunch if she wants some.

The pharmacist had recommended ginger shots to help with the sickness, but Nico has tried one too many of those on their own before, and they would make even the healthiest person gag, so he had bought some pre-made smoothies to mix them into. He decides he’ll leave her to pick, and blend it over some ice when she isn’t looking.

And as he flits around his kitchen without giving any of these things a second thought, he feels for the first time in a long time like he has thing figured out.

He can so do this. He can look after her like it’s just second nature to him. He can pick up whatever she needs from the store without panicking down every aisle and googling what is or isn’t okay for her. He can sit and hold her hair while she pukes her guts up and not get freaked out by it even in the slightest. He can go to practice, go to training, go to games, and come home and care for her like how she deserves.

He can do it with his hands tied behind his back, he feels.

He’s full of bravado, and hope, and excitement, and it’s a tornado of feelings that plough straight through whatever he had been feeling before - doubt and anxiety and insecurity.

The only thing that remains is regret.

Regret for what he had done to her, what he had said, the way he had ended things. All of it seems so stupid now. It seems so impulsive and he feels like he had been so blind.

Blinded by uncertainty, blinded by self-doubt, blinded by the poison spewed by Talia that he wasn’t good enough for anyone.

He should have listened to that tiny voice within him that had told him he could have been good enough for Poppy. Then he would never have hurt her. Would never have spent 4 weeks longing for her and hoping things could be different.

“You’re gonna have to get me a key cut,” her voice rings down the hall before she appears on the other side of his kitchen island, donning sweatpants that she has had to fold at the waist and a sweatshirt where the arms hang beyond the tips of her fingers. Her hair is damp, her feet are bare, and she looks like she belongs. “I don’t ever want to use another shower in my life.”

“It’s nice, huh?” He chuckles as he leans down onto the countertop, watching her as her feet pad closer, “I sometimes just stand in there for a good five minutes when I’m done, the pressures nice when I’m all achey after a game.”

“I bet, if I didn’t feel hungry for the first time in 2 weeks, I would have stayed in there for like an hour.”

“You feel better?”

“So much better.” She smiles up at him, leaning over the counter and cupping his face with both hands. “You, Nico Hischier, are a gift from God for those pills.”

She pulls him further over the island and plants a big, wet, somewhat minty kiss on his head, and he finds himself closing his eyes and breathing her in while she’s so close.

Where he expects to smell the coconut shampoo he had searched high and low for, he breathes in something different. Something familiar for an entirely different reason.

She smells fresh, like citrus-bergamot, and a little woody like cedar and musk.

She smells like him.

“The girl at the pharmacy said they should help short term until you can get in to see a doctor.” He tells her as he shakes himself out of whatever spell she had just cast on him.

“Thank you, Nico, you didn’t have to do all of this.”

“I wanted to,” he shrugs, straightening up and moving some of the fruit he had prepared to the counter between them. “I technically caused all of your problems.”

Her lips twist, and he watches as she lifts herself onto one of the stools, swivelling until she’s facing him properly and reaching out to take some of the watermelon. He makes his way over to the refrigerator while she chews on a piece.

“Did you get any-,” and before she can finish her sentence, he brings out the pot of coconut yoghurt and puts it down in front of her. “You’re good.”

“I know, it’s weird.” He leans back down and watches in amusement as she dips her watermelon into the yoghurt. “I was stressing a little on the way to the store about what I could get you, and then as soon as I got there it was like my legs just knew where to go.”

“Maybe you’re gonna be one of those sympathy-pregnancy kind of dads,” she smirks, and his knees start to feel a little like jelly at her use of the word, “Like your boobs will start to hurt and you’ll get all hormonal and cry at everything.”

“I don’t have boobs, Poppy.” He chuckles, reaching out to try watermelon dipped in yoghurt for himself.

“You know what I mean.”

Poppy works her way through quite a bit of the fruit before she hangs in the towel, and he decides not to subject her to the ginger shot quite yet - her nausea having subsided enough already that it’s probably an unwarranted form of torture at this point.

She helps him put everything away, and the two of them work around each other in the kitchen like a well oiled machine. It feels completely normal to have her in his space. He doesn’t feel the need to busy himself with mundane tasks to occupy his hands or his mind, and she makes everything seem so easy - cracking jokes and making conversation like nothing else is happening in their world.

He could have had it this good this whole time, he thinks.

He could have it this good forever.

The reality of it dawns on him when they eventually make their way over to the couch, the pregnancy tests still discarded where they had left them the night before, two sticking out from the couch cushions and two remaining on his coffee table. He plucks one out from between the seams of his couch, still not caring much for where it has been before, and stares down at the two lines with the kind of smile that makes his cheeks hurt.

“Have you ever thought about it before?” Poppy asks, and as he watches her lean into the back of the couch, he gets the sense she’s starting to build her guard up in anticipation of a blow. “Having kids, I mean?”

“No,” he replies, honestly. “Not properly. Not beyond thinking, like, it might be nice.”

“Do you still think that?” She chews at the corner of her lip, “Is it something that you want?”

“It is now.”

“Now?”

“Yeah.” He gives her what he hopes is a reassuring smile. “I think it’s that I could never picture it happening, before. I’ve never really had anyone I could see myself doing it with.”

“Not even Talia?”

He cringes inwardly at even the mention of her name. “God, no.”

“Really?” She seems as if she doesn’t believe him entirely.

“She’s not-,” he starts, “We weren’t-,” he tries again, and his mind races with a hundred ways to say what he wants to say without Poppy thinking he’s an asshole. “I don’t know.”

“Nico, I really need you to be straight with me here.” She sighs, sitting up straight and shuffling a little closer to him.

“I’m always straight with you.”

“No offence, but I don’t think you are,” she says, and before he can even give a rebuttal, she adds, “It’s not that I think you keep things from me maliciously, but you don’t always give me the full picture, and I,” she takes a deep breath, rolling her shoulders to prepare herself, “I jump to conclusions super easily, and I end up hurting myself when you don’t say whatever it is that you mean. And I think we can avoid all that if we’re just honest with each other. I don’t want us to get into dumb fights and it get in the way of us being friends again.”

He feels his heart come to a thunderous stop. Friends.

“If we’re gonna do this co-parent thing, we need to be honest about what we think and how we feel.”

Co-parents?

“Okay,” he responds, and it comes out like he’s on auto-pilot.

Okay?

“I know she’s back in the picture, you don’t have to keep pretending.”

“Back in the-“ He shakes his head, his thoughts racing at a million miles an hour. “What?”

“I heard you talking to her, before you left my apartment after we-,” Poppy gestures to her belly, where both nothing and everything has changed all at once, and Nico’s eyes get stuck there as she carries on. “Y’know, and then you broke things off, it hardly takes a genius to add it up.”

“Poppy, no.” He doesn’t remember ever being so direct with her. “No, no, no, that wasn’t-“ She had heard him? “I’m not-,” he takes a deep breath to alleviate the swirl of panic. He needs to be straight with her. “She got herself into some stupid mess, and she thought it was my fault but it wasn’t. I had to help her out, but she’s gone, she isn’t back in the picture, Poppy, I promise. I don’t even know if she was ever in the picture, I-.”

“Why didn’t you tell me that?”

His eyes dart up to meet hers, and where he holds his breath in the anticipation of seeing how much she has been hurting, has been assuming the worst of him and thinking the littlest of herself, he sees everything he loves about her shining back at him. Patience, generosity, forgiveness.

“After I left you without a word, and came back and ended things before they even began, would it have mattered?”

“Nico, this whole time I thought you shut things down because you wanted to be with her but you just-,” she shakes her head like she can’t bring herself to say the rest, and his throat starts to feel drier by the second.

How could he have ever been so stupid? He had thought he’d been miserable the past 4 weeks, second guessing his choices and wanting nothing more than to just talk to her, and she’s spent that whole time thinking he had discarded her like a used toy and gone back to someone else. Someone who could never compare to her in any universe.

“I really fucked this up, huh?”

“Yeah,” she nods, her lips twitching as the silence settles between them for a second.

He watches as she thinks for a second. Watches her brows furrow and relax, her eyes dart around to different spots between the, her bottom lip get tugged between her teeth, and released into a pensive pout, all before she says, “You can make it up to me,” and she gives a gentle and reassuring smile, reaches out for his hand and presses the soft pads of her fingers to his knuckles before pushing them through the spaces in between.

Although it pains him to say it, he tells her, “You have to stop letting me off so easy, Poppy.”

“Trust me,” she says, “I won’t be letting you off easy. Us Jensen women are super scary when we’re hormonal. Super demanding and bratty.”

“I’ll take it.” He promises. “And I’ll give you whatever you want, whatever you need.”

“Right now I just need to know that you’re in this with me,” she requests, so vulnerable in her tone that is makes his chest ache.

He reaches up with his free hand and cups his palm around her soft cheek. “I’m in this,” he whispers, leaning into her and pressing his forehead to hers. “I can't begin to tell you how much I want it, Mohn.”

“Okay.” She whispers back, and when her eyes flutter closed at the proximity, and she surrenders to his touch, Nico gives in to his instincts.

Entirely caught up in the intimacy of the moment, he leans in, and when his mouth presses to hers, he feels the culmination of 4 weeks of longing, of missing her, of regretting everything, of anticipating seeing her, of worrying, of needing of wanting, explode into something vibrant and loud and inevitable.

It’s like a fireworks show, sparks of anxiety, of excitement, of hope and doubt and insecurity clashing together in pops and bangs and fizzes, raining down on him in a mixture of colour and sound.

“Mmph-,” she squeaks out a protest as his lips meet hers, and despite his primal instinct to persevere, to give her a second to adjust to the kiss and to eagerly accept his advances, to bask in the beauty of it all like he is, he pulls straight away with a furrowed brow, eyes meeting hers in concern as he creates an inch of space between them.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t think we should do that,” her eyes dart down, lashes fluttering as she avoids his gaze chasing hers back.

“Do what, kiss?”

“Yeah.”

“Why not?” He doesn’t even feel ashamed at the way he practically whines when asking.

“Would you want to kiss me if I wasn’t pregnant?”

How could she possibly even doubt that? He thinks.

“I always want to kiss you, Poppy.” Again, it’s pointless to second guess those feelings. He’d told her something similar after the first time he had done it, and he had meant it as much back then as he does, now.

“Would you want to be with me?”

That isn’t a matter of want, but this time, he hesitates.

He’ll always want to be with her.

He’s wanted nothing else the last four weeks they haven’t been talking. For the last few years he has known her. He wants to be with her when he’s alone in his apartment, when he’s away with the team, when he’s back home with his family, he has always wanted that.

And especially now that she’s carrying his baby, as minuscule as it currently may be, it’s going to grow in her belly with eyes that sparkle when it smiles and a brain that thinks exclusively in razor-sharp wit and biting sarcasm.

“Poppy, I,” he sighs, knowing he can’t undo the damage he had caused that night in her apartment all those weeks ago. Even after clearing up her misconceptions on what was behind it, it doesn’t change what he said. That was never about not wanting her. It was about not wanting to hurt her. But every time he tries to explain it - to her, to Luke, to himself, even - he just sounds like an idiot. “I don’t know.”

He does now. Of course he knows, but something within him tells him that she won’t believe him this time when he tells her. There’s only so many excuses he can give for what he did.

“We can’t just be together because I’m going to have your baby, Nico, that’s not-,” she takes a shuddered breath. “I don’t want you to want to be with me because it’s convenient.”

“That isn’t what this is.”

“I don’t think you even know what you want,” she says, her tone light and comforting despite the harsh reality check being served, “And that’s okay, but I’m not gonna be a guinea pig for you to figure it out. That isn’t fair to me.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that sometimes you make decisions in the heat of the moment when you might not mean or want them.”

Nico lets her words dawn on them for a second.

If only she knew how much that were true.

“I don’t say that to be an asshole, either, I just,” her tongue darts out to wet her lips, the ones he had pressed his own to barely a minute ago and hadn’t savoured enough while he was there. “Rushing into things is what got us into this, and I don’t want to,” her eyes meet his again and he holds his breath in anticipation. “I don’t wanna get hurt again. Especially not now.”

He wants to say he would never hurt her, but he can’t make promises like that when those are the thoughts that caused such a mess in the first place.

He had hurt her before whether he intended to, or not, and what’s to say he isn’t going to fuck this up again along the way.

“I want this, too. I want it so much it drives me a little crazy, but it feels right. And I think there’s a way that we can do this where it might hurt a little now but it stops us hurting later down the line, where it has the potential to do some serious damage. Does that make sense?”

Maybe she’s right.

Maybe they can do this another way. A way where neither of them are left disappointed.

He gets his friend back, and she gets hers.

And they both get a baby.

A baby that has two parents who love each other more than anything in the world still. Who share so much of their lives together, but might never take that final leap into something more.

He nods, wordlessly.

“I’m not saying that we can’t go back to how we were before, but we both let things get too intense, and I know I’m probably at fault for that, but I think we’ll be better off if we just take things slow.”

“Slow.” He repeats, like he’s trying to get a taste for the word. He doesn’t entirely like it, but he doesn’t hate it like he thought he would.

“Yeah, like being a little more cautious of how far we take things. We start as friends and see how we get on with that.”

“Like baby steps,” he mutters.

Poppy smiles. It’s the slow kind, that builds from something soft to something beaming, something beautiful, and turns into joyous laughter like music to his ears. It’s vibrant and wonderful, and it makes his heart ache all the more. “Yeah,” she lets out a breathy chuckle, “Exactly like baby steps.”

Next Chapter

Taglist: @alwaysclassyeagle @bunbunbl0gs @idgaf-if-youre-here @youflowerr-youfeast @thearchersstuff @bellsdi0r @wonderheartz @jjgsunflower @butterflies35 @kenziepickle @josierosie @laheyxlover @mrsmattytkachuk @dasiysthings (sorry if your tag hasn't worked btw)

#nico hischier #nico hischier x oc #nico hischier fanfiction #nico hischier imagine #nhl fanfiction #*oys #*writing #I had a very rough draft of the nico and poppy convo but other than that the rest of this came from nowhere this week #I've had eNOUGH of angst now I wanna get the good times rolling #also in case anyone thinks of it a go piss girl joke didn’t fit the mood okay it felt too meta in the poppy nia scene #I had to seriously resist temptation #I linked the painting referenced cos it's super pretty and the idea of his mum trolling him with a poppy painting is too good

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