#and now sam is here he’s another project i’m working on

[chikoyama]

(( saw an instagram reel with an artist who spent 2k on a vet bill just to get told their bird is horny, lmao. then they bought their bird a husband. naturally, people in the comments were curious about the situation. ))

[waitimcomingtoo]

Uranus

Pairing: Peter Parker x Avengers!Reader

Synopsis: you fix Peters science project while he’s out on a date with another girl

Masterlist

You walked by Peter’s room and paused in the doorway. The empty bedroom reminded you of where he was tonight and it send a sick feeling down to your stomach. The scent of his cologne lingered in the air as you looked at all the discarded outfits he had left on his bed.

“I’m not cleaning his stupid room.” You decided and walked away. You were barely halfway down the hallway when you turned and sprinted back to his room to start to put things away. You knew it wasn’t your job to take care of him but you simply couldn’t stop yourself from tidying up. You assumed he’d be getting back late from where he was and probably wouldn’t want to clean up all his clothes just to get into his bed. As you folded a pair of his jeans, you looked up into his vanity mirror and sighed.

“You’re so pathetic.” You told yourself through a groan.

“Stop talking to yourself.” Your reflection replied and pointed at you with a scathing finger. You jumped and looked down to see your finger was pointed as well.

“Right.” You mumbled and left his room.

You then went into the living room and saw Peter’s science project sitting on the couch. He had been building a model of the solar system for weeks now for his astronomy class with a little help from you here and there. All you did was hold pieces together after he glued them but he still insisted that he could not have done it without you. You smiled at the memory of the two of you working on it together and picked it up.

“Why would he leave it where someone could sit on it?” You sighed and moved it to the bar counter in the kitchen. You left the living room to use the bathroom just as Thor was entering the room. He stepped onto a bar stool with ease and took a seat on the counter to eat the apple he had taken from a lunchbox labeled “Sam’s: do not touch”. He munched his apple for a moment before feeling something digging into his back. He sat up a little and pulled a small ball out from under him that was painted to look like Mercury.

“Hm. Thats strange. I don’t remember putting that up there.” Thor frowned as he rolled the planet between his fingers. You walked back into the living room and smiled at Thor until you saw what he was holding. Your heart stopped at the same time your feet did and you let out a dramatic gasp that sent you into a coughing fit.

“Thor!” You exclaimed. “You just destroyed Peter’s science project!”

“These tiny colorful balls were his science project? What was it on? Tiny colorful balls?” Thor asked as he stood up to look at the science project he had completed crushed.

“No. It was a model of the solar system. And you just crushed it. How did you not feel that when you sat down?” You whined as more parts of the project fell from Thors jeans and back into the counter.

“Lady Y/n, you must be mistaken. I’ve seen the solar system with my own eyes. And then I had my eye cut out. And then I had my eye replaced and saw the solar system again. Peters little balls looked nothing like it.” Thor told you, making you roll your eyes up to the ceiling and stamp your feet like a little kid.

“I don’t care about your optic history.” You groaned. “Peter’s been working on it for weeks and your giant butt just crushed it in seconds.”

“Thank you. I eat a lot of yams to get these yams.” Thor smiled at the presumed compliment and patted his thigh. You watched him for a moment before letting out a deep sigh.

“Okay.” You was all you could stay in your effort to remain calm.

“I don’t see what all the petulance is about. If he formed one solar system out of tiny colorful balls, surely he can do it again. All the pieces are right here.” Thor pointed out.

“Yes, but that doesn’t erase the fact that you ruined the project he spent weeks working on. He’s gonna be devastated when he sees this. And who taught you the word “petulance”? Have you been watching The Twilight Zone again? I don’t know why you do that. It always scares you.”

“Never you mind.” He wagged a finger. “I do feel bad for the boy. I’ll collect the tiny balls since it was my behind that crushed them and then Peter can glue them back together.”

“He can’t. It’s due tomorrow and right now he’s on…I don’t know. He’s just busy and he can’t fix it tonight.” You sighed and started to collect the scattered pieces of the project.

“Busy doing what? You’re here and his small balls were finished. What else could the boy be doing?” Thor wondered. You paused for a moment and felt that sick feeling in your stomach again.

“He’s on a date.” You said for the first time out loud since Peter told you his plans for the evening. You’d been quietly stewing all day over it and letting it settle in a massive dark cloud over your head.

“Well I’m sure the man he’s with will be understanding that he has to come home to fix his balls.” Thor told you.

“Stop saying balls!” You scolded. “And the date is with a girl, for your information. A very pretty girl from our business class who smells like a vanilla and my broken dreams.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Lady Y/n. I never knew why but I know that small boy means a lot to you.” Thor said sympathetically and put his hand on your shoulder. You gave him a sympathetic smile and patted his hand.

“Seems like a lot of things are broken tonight.” Thor continued. “Your dreams, Peters balls-“

“Say balls one more time.” You said through clenched teeth.

“Or what? You’ll stab me?” Thor challenged you.

“What? No. Jesus Christ. Who hurt you?” You mumbled and pushed his hand off your shoulder.

“My brother. And then he hurt me again. And then my sister hurt me. And then my brother once more before he died before my eyes. Enough about me, why are your dreams broken?”

“It’s complicated.” You sighed. “Can I tell you something personal?”.

“No.” Thor replied and left the room without another word. You shrugged in defeat and wondered why you even bothered.

“Well that was a fine howdy do.” You mumbled and finished collecting the pieces. You laid out all the broken bits of Peter’s project on the kitchen counter and folded your arms. It would be a lot of work for Peter and you had no idea what hour he’d be getting back. As much as you hated the idea of him being on a date, you more so hated the thought of him coming home happy and his smile falling when he saw what had become of all his hard work.

“I need to fix these balls.” You whispered to yourself. You grabbed Saturn and one it’s broken rings and started to see how you could glue them back together.

“No. I can’t do this.” You said out loud. “I can’t fix every little thing in Peter’s life just to make him happy. I’m not his girlfriend. I’m not the one he asked on a date. I’m just a friend.”

You put the pieces down and folded your arms to keep your hands off it. You knew you should walk away, but you couldn’t stop thinking about all the nights you walked past his room and saw him working on the project. He’d put so much effort into it and now it was in pieces on the counter.

“A girlfriend would spend the next few hours working on a project that has no impact on me just to save Peter the trouble. A good friend would feel bad that his work got destroyed and offer condolences when he got home. And I’m a good friend. Not a girlfriend. It’s not my problem. So I’m walking away.” You decided and left the room. You lasted all of three minutes before you ran back into the room with a tube of crazy glue.

“I gotta fix the balls.” You exclaimed and plopped yourself down at the table. Once you organized all the planets and parts of the solar system, you went to Peter’s room to get the sketched out drawing he had made of the project to use as a blueprint. You silently thanked Peter for being so meticulous and followed his sketch to rebuild his project.

Time went by slowly but your hands cramped up quickly as you worked on the model. It was around the time you glued on Saturns 30th moon, you understood why it took Peter so long to complete the project. All the moons and planets looked the same to you so you had to carefully study his drawings and rely on your memory of when you helped him with the project to guide you as you worked. You had to stop every so often to rub your eyes and roll out your wrists to keep them from getting stiff.

You drifted off into sleep at some point when staring at Jupiters moons became a little too mind numbingly boring. Peter got back from his date about midnight and strolled past you on his way to his room. He backtracked when he realized you were asleep at the table and frowned. His completed science project was beside you, save for one missing moon next to Jupiter. His eyebrows knit together in confusion over the sight so he gently shook you awake.

“Hey. You awake?” He asked in a soft tone as he shook your shoulders. You shot up immediately and nearly knocked your head into his.

“I’m not snoring.” You blurted as you pulled the hair that was stuck to your cheek away.

“I know.” He chuckled. “What are you doing here? Why is Ganymede stuck to your face?”

“Why is what?” You asked through a yawn. Peter smiled and pulled the missing moon off your cheek and held it out to show you.

“Ganymede. The largest moon in the solar system.” He told you and put it in its correct spot on the model.

“There is no way you saw a random gray ball stuck to my face and correctly identified it as Gammy meme.” You insisted.

“Ganymede.” He corrected. “And I only know because I labeled them. See?”

Peter pulled the moon back off to show you a tiny G written on the bottom with the word “Jupiter” in parentheses beside it.

“They’re labeled?” You nearly shouted. “Well that would’ve been helpful four hours ago.”

“Four hours? That’s how long you’ve been here? What happened?” Peter frowned and took a seat beside you. You gave him a sheepish smile and looked at the model.

“I’m sorry, Peter. Thor sat on your project by accident.” You admitted. “I’ve been putting it back together ever since. I think I got most of it the way you had it but I never found Pluto. I honestly think it went up his ass and he just didn’t realize.”

“You spent four hours fixing my project?” He asked with a surprised smile.

“Of course I did. I know how hard you worked on this. I didn’t want you to have to start all over.” You told him. He gave you a fond smile and placed his hand on top of yours. Your eyes flicked to your hands and you gulped but said nothing.

“I really appreciate this but you really didn’t have to do this. You should have called me. I could’ve come home and fixed it myself.”

“But I knew you were really excited about tonight. I didn’t want to interrupt your date.” You said without looking at him.

“Well that was very selfless of you. And I hate to tell you this after all the work you did, but the date was bad. I would’ve loved an excuse to leave.” He admitted, making you smile involuntarily.

“It was bad?” You asked and quickly cleared your throat to cover up your smile.

“Woah. Don’t sound too happy.” He snorted.

“What?” You asked in a high pitched voice. “I’m not. Why would that make me happy? But please elaborate anyway.”

“It was bad.” He grimaced. “Like, season 6 of Glee level bad.”

“That bad?” You gasped. “So many forgettable characters. So many odd couple choices.”

“They sang Let it Go. They worked Let it Go from Frozen into the plot and made them sing it.” Peter shook his head.

“That was not the worst for me. The worst was when Mr. Shue rapped Same Love. They let the straight adult rap a song about being gay when the entire cast of queer young people were right there. And wasn’t there a child in the club for some reason? And twins who were lowkey dating?”

“Yep. All of that. And yet, my date was still worse.” He shrugged. You looked down at your lap and smiled a little before quickly dropping it.

“It was that bad, huh?” You asked and tried not to sound too interested.

“So bad.” He sighed. “She was a great girl, don’t get me wrong. We just had no connection whatsoever. She didn’t laugh at any of my jokes and then there were a few times where I thought she was joking so I laughed but she didn’t and then we sat in awkward silence.”

“That’s the worst. I hate awkward silence. I once pretended to forgot the word for “seatbelt” just to keep a conversation going with an uber driver. I kept calling it a strap on.”

“Wait, is that not what a strap on is?” Peter played dumb. “Should we Google it to make sure?”

“Shut up.” You rolled your eyes. “Keep going. I want to hear more about this awful date with the girl you’ll never see again.”

“There was just no spark. We realized pretty quickly that we didn’t have anything in common. At one point, she asked me if Star Wars was the “movie with the things you can’t feed after midnight”. So I don’t foresee a second date.”

“Wow. She had to have a serious lack of knowledge about two major huge pop culture movies to ask that question.”

“I know. I told her yes and she believed me.” Peter replied, making you laugh. He laughed as well over how ridiculous the whole night had been before stopping to look at you. When your laughter died down and you realized he was staring at you, you smiled shyly and looked over at the project to avoid eye contact.

“Well, I’m sorry it didn’t go well.” You told him. “Maybe the next girl will understand you more.”

“Yeah. I hope so.” He said in a soft voice and never stopped looking at you.

“You’ll have better luck next time. To be honest, I thought the date was doomed as soon as you told me you were going for sushi. You hate raw fish.”

“Because I’m not a seagull.”

“Because you’re not a seagull, yeah.” You laughed. “I think of that every time I eat sushi. I’m no better than those damn seagulls.”

“Don’t say that. You’re way better. A seagull would not have done all this for me.” Peter insisted and gestured to the project. You looked over at the solar system you had given too many hours of your life too and smiled as you realized something.

“I had to fix it. I didn’t want you to be stressed.”

“But didn’t this stress you out? Designing this thing gave me gray hair and premature menopause.” Peter replied, making you laugh softly.

“A little.” You admitted. “But I felt better when I remembered why I was doing it.”

“Why were you doing it?”

“Because I’d do anything for you, Peter.” You said simply. You watched his ears turn pink and he turned his head so that you wouldn’t see his smile.

“I’d do anything for you too, you know.” He said in a quiet voice.

“Careful.” You warned him. “You already owe me big time for fixing this unnecessarily detailed solar system. If you tell me you’d do anything for me, you’re really at my mercy.”

“Uh oh. Sounds dangerous.” He laughed softly. You shared another moment of eye contact and smiled softly at each other.

“It’s late. We should probably get to bed.” You suggested.

“You’re right. Thank you again for this.” Peter said and picked up the project. You didn’t know if you were sleep deprived or delirious from working on the project all night but you felt compelled to share every secret you had with Peter.

“Honestly, Peter, I was happy to do this stupid science project because it kept me from thinking about you on your date.” You told him as you got up and rubbed your tired eyes.

“Really? Why didn’t you want to think about that?”

“Because whenever I did think about you on your date, I wanted to throw up.” You admitted. “And then rip out my hair. And then eat my hair and throw it back up. And then kill my self or something.”

“Well,” Peter said slowly, “I see your urge to rip your hair out and raise you the fact that I only said yes to this date because she wears the same perfume as you. And I needed a night off from staring at the ceiling and thinking about what would happen if I just told you how I felt.”

You stopped mid yawn and gave him a confused look. His eyes were darting everywhere except for your eyes and you could see the rosy glow on his cheeks even in the dim light of the kitchen.

“Oh? And how do you feel?” You wondered and crossed your arms. Peter gulped before sitting up straight in his chair.

“I don’t know. Why did me being on a date make you so upset?” He challenged you. You narrowed your eyes at him and he looked nervous but didn’t back down.

“I asked you first.” You shrugged.

“Well I asked you second.” He replied. “And as Aristotle or whoever once said, first is the worst. Second is the best. Third is the one with the hairy chest.”

“Ew, what?” You grimaced. “It’s treasure chest. Third is the one with the treasure chest.”

“That makes no sense. Why would a person in third place, the very last place, be rewarded with a treasure chest? They’re the loser so they get a hairy chest. Now that’s sensical.”

“No it’s not.” You scoffed. “It makes even less sense. If I come in third place, does that mean my chest will grow hair? Or does it mean I will be given a torso with a hairy chest? Or, hear me out, does it imply that my chest is already hairy. And that’s why I came in third.”

“You did what in third?” Peter mumbled.

“Shut up. Can we get back to what we were talking about?”

“You’re right. We should go to sleep.” Peter said and tried to walk past you. You placed a hand on his shoulder to keep him in place and he gulped.

“Hold up.” You told him. “I’m cashing in that favor you owe me right now. We gotta talk. Sit back down.”

“I’m sat.” Peter said quietly and sat back down in his seat. You pulled your chair up to be across from him and sat down as well.

“I’m going to ask you again and I don’t want to hear another single reference to chests or placement.” You prefaced. “How do you feel?”

Peter scratched the back of his head to spare some time because he knew he was caught. He suddenly got a shy smile on his face suddenly and looked over at his project.

“Can I show you something?” He asked you as he pulled the sun off the center of the project.

“Dude.” You sighed. “I just glued that.”

“I know. And I’ll fix it. But look.” He said and turned the sun over. You looked at him in confusion and leaned forward to see what he was talking about. On the bottom of the sun in Peter’s hand writing were your first and last initials.

“My initials? Why? You smiled in surprise and looked up at him.

“Because the solar system revolves around the sun.” He explained. “But my solar system revolves around you.”

You stayed quiet as he put the sun back on the model and took your hand. A look of skepticism stayed on your face as he looked into your eyes.

“I know I do a good job of hiding it. But there is a piece of you in everything I do.” He said. “There always has been. This was just one of my more obvious ones.”

“Wow.” You said after a beat. “I really should’ve looked at the bottom of these.”

“Yeah. You should’ve.” He laughed and leaned in a little.

“Yeah. I should’ve.” You cracked a smile and leaned in as well. You stared into big brown eyes for a second and decided this was the last night you and Peter were just friends.

“Can I ask you one more thing?”

“Is it about the solar system?”

“No.” You rolled your eyes. “Did you kiss her tonight?”

“I don’t know. Ask me that question again one minute from now.” Peter said as he closed the gap between you and kissed you. You wrapped your arms around his neck to pull him closer since you’d been waiting for this for a while. And it was everything you imagined it would be. When the kiss started to heat up, Peter slipped an arm around you and picked you up with ease. He hastily placed you down on the counter and you jumped apart when you heard a crunching sound.

You pulled out of the kiss and looked down to see that Peter had placed you directly on top of the science project that you had just spent hours fixing. You both stared at the scattered pieces in stunned silence for a moment before he gave you a sheepish smile. You didn’t smile back and instead stared daggers at him while trying to explode his head using your mind.

“I can fix it?” He said through a nervous laugh. You held your hands up in defeat and hopped off the counter without a word.

“What? That’s how this night ends? Come on.” Peter whined and followed you as you left the room and continued your silent treatment towards him.

“You’re seriously going to walk away after that? We had something going there. Don’t go now.” He whined some more and trotted after you like a puppy.

“Go get something going with the planets I spent the last four hours glueing back together.” You grumbled and held up your middle finger for him to see as he trailed after you.

“Come on.” He half laughed, half groaned. “You can’t send me to bed after a kiss like that. We need to at least talk about it. Let’s go back and…” Peter trailed off when you passed his bedroom and he caught a glimpse of his clean floor.

“Wait, did you clean my room too?” He asked, knowing he had left it a mess before he left for the date. You froze in your tracks for a moment but decided to keep the upper hand instead of admitting to Peter that you were so down bad that you had in fact cleaned his room.

“I don’t know. I don’t have all the answers, Peter. Goodnight.” You said and slammed your door in his face. He barely had time to react before you opened your door back up and grabbed a fistful of his shirt.

“Get your ass in here, loser.”

“Don’t you mean get your anus in here? Because it sounds like Uranus?” He said with a proud smile. You stared him dead in the eyes and didn’t crack even a hint of smile.

“Do you want to come in here or not?”

“I already unzipped my pants, yeah.” He admitted as he dashed through your bedroom door.

Tag List 🏷️

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[writersdrug]

Training for Two

Chapter 7. Motivated, Sir!

Masterlist

Summary: You struggle to keep up with your freelance work - Soap has the wonderful idea of bringing you and Riley to base.

Warnings: cursing, yeah.

Sure enough, Simon had requested your services about three days after you’d run into him in the café.

He had sent you an email the Tuesday following your run in. It was the same as before – short and to the point. leaving thursday at 0900. riley will need her meds at 1300. i’ll be on base for a few days for trainig, won’t be far. call if you need anything.

You showed up no later than twelve-thirty, your backpack hanging off one shoulder and a fresh bag of peanut-butter-bacon cookies in your free hand. You cooed and smiled at Riley as she all but attacked you as you entered through the front door. She seemed to have grown to miss you, which had your heart swelling with pride. People pleaser and a puppy pleaser, it seems.

After a dose of her medicine and a much-needed walk through one of the nearby parks, you crashed on Simon’s couch to do some freelance work. With your feet kicked up onto the coffee table (politely, with your socks on and your shoes by the front door), you tapped and clicked away at your laptop, fiddling with the edge of your sweatshirt as you concentrated.

You may have bitten off more than you could chew, as much as you hated to admit it. Prancing your skill online – boosting social media posts that boasted about your expertise in logo design and marketing had brought in more customers than you anticipated. Recognition was exciting, and you had taken on four clients at once; something you were currently and mentally kicking yourself for. The burnout had settled in quickly after you finished the first portfolio of logo samples, and you wanted nothing more than to take a nap with Riley as your blanket.

You sighed, sinking further into the couch cushions and running your hands over your face. You were dangerously low on motivation.

A few moments later, you were holding your phone, listening to each ring as you chewed on the edge of your sleeve. A bad habit, one that your mother had tried to break you of in your teenage years, but you stubbornly kept to it.

Soon, the phone picked up with a click. “Hey, babe.”

“Hi Tyler…” you said with a relived exhale. “You busy?”

“Eh-“ he grunted; you heard the sound of tinkering in the background, and the voice of the secretary at his main office. “I’ve got a moment. Everything alright?”

You sighed. “Yeah… nothing’s wrong, I’m just stuck.”

“How so?”

“Well” – you sat upright, crossing your feet under you and putting your laptop to the side – “I’ve finished the one project, and now I-“

“Which project?” Tyler interjected. You heard beeping, followed by one of his coworkers asking for a wire stripper.

“The logo design for that new attorney’s office off of main and thirty-fourth.”

“Oh! Yeah yeah, I remember.”

You cleared your throat. “Yeah, I finished that one. I have three other projects now, and one is due by the-“

“Three?! I thought you just had the one!”

A sigh escaped your lips. “I did, and then more clients flooded in, I just got ahead of myself-“

“Sweetheart- here, Max, hold this for a second- you got too much on your plate. You’ve already been house-sitting for that one guy, Sam-“

“-Simon.”

“Right, yeah. But, doll, maybe you need a break. Can you tell him that you need him to find someone else for now?”

You faltered. “You’re saying quit the house-sitting gig?”

“Not quit, I know Riley likes you – but maybe just have him get another guy to finish the week.”

“I can’t do that!” you said, a bit taken aback that Tyler of all people, Mr. Work-Till-You-Drop himself, would suggest that you let go of a project. “He can’t exactly find a different sitter right now, he’s not going to be home.”

“Alright, alright- what about dropping one of the logo gigs?”

“That would look bad for my business.”

“Well, babe-“ you heard someone call for him in the background of the call. “-give me a sec, Ron, it’s important- I don’t know what to tell you. You bit off more than you can chew, it sounds like.”

Your heart dropped into your stomach; why am I bothering him? He’s working, and this isn’t something he can exactly help with. “Yeah- I’m sorry. I’m just- I dunno. I need something to motivate me.”

“Don’t be sorry, sweetheart.” Tyler sighed; you could hear the pinch in his brow. “I’m not trying to be short with you, I… eh, I guess this wasn’t the best time, hmm? Tell you what: when Sam comes back-“

“Simon.” You said with a chuckle.

“Shit, sorry- when Simon gets back, and you’re back home, let’s have a day in, yeah? You pick a movie, I’ll get the takeaway, and have a look at your portfolio. Sound good?”

You smiled, the knot in your stomach easing up a bit. “Yeah, sounds like paradise.”

“Good.” Tyler said, and you could hear the smile in his tone. “I’ll make sure it is. Let your mind rest a bit, alright? And give Riley a kiss for me.”

“What, I don’t get one?”

“Yours are automatic!”

“Leavin’ me for a dog, are you?”

“I wouldn’t leave you for Aphrodite.”

You smiled. “I love you. But go back to work! I don’t want Ron to hate me.”

Tyler chuckled, the sound sending butterflies fluttering in your stomach. “Alright. Love you too.”

You ended the call, tossing the phone onto the cushion next to you. Why did I call him? He was at work – I knew that. He doesn’t even know anything about design. I could have texted him – or I could have just left him alone. Why would I even bother him with this? How could he have helped?

You groaned, closing your laptop and moving it to the coffee table. Looking across the room, you saw that Riley was no longer in her bed, her blanket partially spilling onto the floor next to it. She whined; you turned your head to find her sitting at the door. She met your gaze, licking her lips and tapping her feet anxiously on the floor.

“Do you need to go out?”

She whined again, impatient.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” you huffed, standing on your feet and stretching your limbs. She trotted over to you with a groan, then back to the door.

You followed her there, slipping on your shoes. You reached into the closet and grabbed her leash, leaning down to clip it onto her collar. She grunted and jerked her head back, taking a few steps away from you.

Confusion settled on your face. “C’mon girl, don’tcha want to go for a walk?”

She let out a few voofs, raising a paw and stomping it indignantly. You tried again, reaching out with the clip of the leash, but she darted away once more. She stood by the closet and barked shrilly, still staring at you.

This lasted for a few more minutes; you’d stand there, taking every woo and wuff that she threw at you. After a few moments of the following silence, you’d take a step towards her, holding up the leash with a cocked brow, and she’d huff and turn in a circle.

“I’m sorry I don’t speak awoowoo.” You said in frustration, putting your hands on your hips. “spreek je Nederlands?”

She huffed dramatically, lying down and resting her nose on her front paws. You sighed yourself and headed back towards the couch – she yipped, whining at you through her nose.

“What?” you asked, throwing your hands up. “I don’t know what you want!”

She barked back at you. Helpful.

You groaned. This wasn’t getting you anywhere. You went back to the couch and grabbed your phone, flopping stomach-first onto the cushions. Riley trotted over to your side and whined, sitting politely on the rug.

With a few clicks, Simon’s contact appeared on your phone; well, it was Riley’s face, her snout taking up most of the camera and her ears tucked back against her head as she had sniffed the lens in the moment. You chewed your lip. It’s not an emergency… but maybe he forgot to tell me about part of her routine? She hadn’t acted this upset the last time you were here… and she had certainly never indicated no when you got ready to take her outside.

You pressed the call button, putting your phone on speaker. Not half a ring had passed before Simon answered.

“Wha’s wrong? ‘S Riley ok?”

“N- hi, Simon – yeah, Riley’s ok. She-“

“Are you ok?”

You chuckled. “Yes, I’m fine. This isn’t an emergency.”

You heard him sigh, and quickly tried to deescalate the situation. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you-“

“Don’t apologize,” he said, “ya did nothin’ wrong. I know you wouldn’t call if it wasn’t important.”

You laughed again. “Well, I don’t really know if it is or isn’t – I’m trying to take Riley out for a stroll, and she won’t go,”

“No?”

“No. I try to put her leash on and she runs away. She’s yapping at me though, like she’s got something to say.” You looked at her, reaching a finger to boop her nose.

You heard the faint sound of gunshots in the background of the call. You had half a mind to ask if he was in battle- war- whatever they called it- at the moment, until you remembered that he said he was training this week. “Ya sure she needs t’ go out?”

“She’s acting like she does.” You said, rolling onto your side.

He grunted. “Pain flarin’ up?”

“She’s not limping.”

“Biscuit?”

“She’s had her first daily.”

He sighed. “Beats me. I’d think she was-“

“Oi! LT!”

You listened closely, suddenly drawn to the commotion beyond the speaker. “Simon?”

“One sec, luv-“ he said quickly. “I’m busy, Soap-“

“Cap needs ye back oan th’ feld. One o’ the Jimmies hud o’ nice fall.”

“Fuckin’ wot?”

“One o’ the rookies collapsed.” Soap was now closer to the phone; close enough that you could hear he was out of breath. “Cap wants ye out there.”

“Tell him I’m busy.”

“Tell ‘im yer feckin’ self, ye dry piece o’ shite-“

Riley suddenly barked, making you jolt. She stood with her paws on the edge of the couch and staring at the phone.

“Awe, tha’ mah girl?” Soap said from the other line. “Mah Bonnie, yea? She miss me?”

“’M on the fuckin’ phone, Johnny.”

“Ah know, I’m talkin’ to the pup.”

You thought for a moment, as Simon and Soap bickered in the background. Maybe, Riley misses Simon’s coworkers? She used to work with them… judging on her reaction – panting and ears perked up as she listened to the conversation – you’d guess you were right.

“Hey, uh… Simon?”

‘- hm?” Simon halted his bickering with Soap at the sound of your voice.

“Does she maybe want to see your- team? Or Soap, at the very least?”

“Aye, she does.” Soap chimed in, making Riley whine. “Ya hear tha’? She misses ‘er ol’ uncle Johnny.”

“Bugger off, mate.” Simon grumbled.

You suddenly felt like you made a mistake even voicing your thoughts. “Sorry if it’s not a good idea, I just heard how she reacted to Soap’s voice, and, y’know – how she used to work with you all…” you chuckled at yourself. “Now that I think about it, I probably couldn’t even get on base, could I?”

“It would-“

“None o’ that keech!” Soap said, cutting off Simon for the umpteenth time. “Ghost, ye can tell the gate guards you’ll be expectin’ er. Or cap, he’ll vouch for ‘er. Want tae see my girl.”

You felt a bout of excitement roll through your veins. “I think that would be great! And I’d get to meet you all finally. I should know who Simon travels the world with, right?”

There was a moment of silence over the phone, save for the distant gunfire and the cadence of orders being called out. You wondered if you had said something wrong; ‘travel the world…’ it’s deployment, not a vacation. Why did I say that?

“Don’t see why not.” Simon finally said, and you sighed quietly.

“You sure?” you confirmed.

“It’s jus’ what the pup needs.” Soap said. “Probably misses ‘er other friends, too-“

“Jus’ head towards the naval base, n’ I’ll send you the address to the gate.” Simon said with a huff. “Tell them you’re here for Ghost.”

“Ghost…” you repeated.

“’S my callsign. Oh, and, uh- put ‘er harness on. She wears that to base, probably why she won’t take jus’ the leash.”

You smiled, heart fluttering a bit at the information. “Great! I’ll see you soon!”

“Drive safe.”

You bit your lip as the call ended, that warmth still bubbling within your chest. A thousand, fleeting questions circled within your head as you rolled onto your side, clutching your phone to your chest. Does he call everyone luv? What gave him the callsign “Ghost”? I wonder what his team is like… I wonder what Johnny- Soap?- is like. I wonder if they’re all as attractive as-

Riley barked; you yelped, body tensing as you were torn from your thoughts. She pawed at you, still standing on her two hind legs and yowling lowly in your direction.

“Alright, alright- let’s go!” you rolled off the couch, equally as excited as she was. She happily obliged to sit next to you when you grabbed the harness from the closet, slipping it over her head and latching the leash to its back. She then eagerly trotted to the door, tapping her feet anxiously and whining.

You stuffed your feet into your shoes (you hoped that a sweatshirt, leggings, and rain boots would be appropriate for bringing your client’s dog on a military base). You stepped out into the overcast day, locking Simon’s door behind you and shoving the key into your bra; excitement boiled underneath your veins as the two of you headed over to your car, right as your phone buzzed with Simon’s text.

Simon watched as your contact photo faded from the screen. His eyes hardened as he turned to Johnny – the bloke had a cheeky grin on his face, staring right back at his lieutenant. Simon wanted to grab him by his mohawk and swing him into the wall like a discus.

“Wha’?” Soap said innocently, shoulders shrugging with irreproachability. “I miss ‘er.”

“Ya don’t have nothin’ to miss, you wanker.” Simon snarled, stuffing his phone into his back pocket. “You’ve never met ‘er.”

“The dog, ya git.” Soap sighed. His eyes narrowed in amused suspicion. “Yer awfully protective o’ the lass, don’t ye think?”

Oh, Simon could have launched the Scot into next week. He knew what he was doing, the bastard. He knew Johnny was either going to try and pair you with himself, sweep you off your feet and charm you with his stupid blue eyes and bright smile – or, he was going to pitch you with his lieutenant. Simon didn’t like not knowing how to prepare himself: to either cockblock you and Johnny, or to refuse any advances Johnny made to him on your behalf.

Soap huffed, not intimidated in the slightest by Ghost’s dissociative, angry stare. “Calm doon, LT.” he said, shoving his shoulder with two, sturdy fingers. “She’s got a lad, aye? I jus’ want tae see Riley. I’ll leave your precious house-sitter alone.” He held a hand up and crossed a finger over his chest. “Scout’s honor.”

“You were never in Boy Scouts.” Ghost grumbled.

“Does it make a difference?” Soap said with a quirked eyebrow.

Simon sighed, leaving Soap on the training field to find Price. He had to let him know you’d be coming to base, or you’d be stopped at the gate and turned away – or worse, dragged off by the military police. It would be a surefire way of keeping you away from Soap, but it was also rather unhospitable. Riley wouldn’t be too impressed, either.

Still, Johnny had a point. Why was he fretting? You weren’t his.

“Jus’ keep an eye on the recruits. Be back in a moment.” He said over his shoulder.

“Aye, LT.” Soap responded: Simon could hear the grin on his face.

Smug bastard.

Next ->

Taglist (trying this again): @my-queen-rhaenyra-targaryen @jisungswiftie @sweet-tooth4you @kennyis-aloser @hyyyxr @lahniu @dory-98 @naradae @cum-tea-and-towels @boystepper @definitelynotaclown @your-wifes-boyfriend @ghostslittlegf @bossva @poppingaround @katzykat @mileyraes @chocolate-noodles @jupiternighties @sadlonelybagel @rorysbrainrot @reevesdriver @kingshitonly @ghost4love @lilyofhoon

[joeybsversion]

Like and Love

Joe Burrow x Reader

Joe and Reader have a competitive relationship

“Loser buys drinks for the rest of the night?” Joe pulls the smoky cigar from his mouth, passing a smirk your way.

The tiniest of smiles graced your face, “Considering I’m a struggling project manager and you’re a millionaire, that seems fair.” You tease.

“Hey now, don’t insult me. I’m a billionaire.” Joe corrects, popping the ‘B’. “But if you have no faith in your pool skills, we can call it off.” He tilts his head.

You rolled your eyes, hating this reverse psychology act he always tries to pull over on you, yet you fall for it every time. “I have plenty of faith in my ability to hit a few balls.” You lean over the pool table, lining your stick up with the cue ball.

Joe comes up beside you, his large hands resting on the edge of the table, he’s so close you can almost feel his breath down your neck as you stand back up, making your way to the opposite side of the table for your next shot.

“We have a little pool shark on our hands!” Joe’s teammate and best friend Sam Hubbard teases as he makes his way over to Joe. “Nice shot!” He high fives you.

Joe and the Bengals had just won the AFC championship and would be heading to the Super Bowl. You were out with the team celebrating at a bar in downtown Cincinnati.

“I’m just trying to boost her confidence before I destroy her on my next turn.” Joe proclaims, taking a sip of the drink Sam had just handed him.

His remarks earned a laugh from Sam, who quickly was distracted by the bartender bringing another round of drinks through the room.

“Hold this for me.” Joe hands you his drink as he lines up to take his next shot. “And get ready to go buy us a round.”

“I’m liking the confidence, Joey.” You giggle, taking a sip out of his cup watching as he completely misses his shot. “But your game could use some work.”

He rolls his eyes, nervously chewing on the end of his cigar, trying to decide what to say next as you strike the cue ball, making another shot.

“All that’s left is the 8 ball and I win. You better get your wallet out.” You tease.

Your chest is heaving as you nervously lean over and make the shot, you stand up excited, throwing both arms into the air as you win the game.

“Good thing you’re a billionaire, because I’m ordering the most expensive drink on the menu for the rest of the night.” You smile and turn around, heading towards the bar.

Joe grabs your arm, “Not so fast.” He stops you, turning your body back around to face him. “Best out of three.” His lips are so close to yours, you can practically taste the alcohol on his breath.

“Changing the rules after I win.” You tease. “You’re a sore loser.”

“I don’t lose.” He scoffs.

“Then what do you call whatever just happened?”

A mischievous smile came across his face, “Alternative,” he presses a kiss to your lips, “winning.”

You can’t help but giggle as he pulls away, “Get out of here with that nonsense.”

“So what do you say, best 2 out of 3?” He steps away to start preparing the table for another game.

“Bring it.” You smirk.

Drinks continue to flow for the rest of the night, into the early morning hours, and you continue to beat Joe at pool. He finally followed through on his end of the bet, buying you both a few rounds of drinks while you celebrate with the team.

Just as the sun starts to peak up over the city scape, Joe leads you hand in hand out of the bar as you both head outside to catch a ride.

“I had fun with you.” Joe peppers your face with kisses as you stand on the sidewalk waiting for your car.

“I had fun beating you.” You giggle, his kisses ticking your face and neck.

“It feels good to win, doesn’t it?” He smiles, thinking back to the game his team just won hours prior.

“The best.”

The car pulls up and Joe climbs in, drunkenly pulling you into his lap. You cling to him like he’s the only sense of security you’ve ever know, his hands furiously tracing up and down your sides.

Your apartment is a long way from downtown, making it a 40 minute ride home. Snuggled into Joe’s body, you feel yourself slowly drifting in and out of sleep, while Joe makes small talk with the driver.

“S’go inside.” He whispers, doing his best to wake you. He helps you from the car before thanking the driving and picking you up, carrying you inside.

“You’re so pretty.” He murmurs, hand smoothing over the back of your legs as he carries you. “I like you so much, and you smell so good, and I like when you’re competitive and beat me.”

You feel like you’re dreaming. “You’re drunk.” You mumble still half asleep.

“Uh-huh.” He sets you on your feet as you reach the bedroom, before guiding you towards the bed. “And I also like you so much. So much more than anyone.” He slurs. “I like you and I love you.”

[jpnriikicore]

── public eye

paring colby brock x fem!musician!reader, word count 958, genre fluff, authors note ngl this is my fav piece i've did, ( masterlist )

fireworks burst in the sky lighting up the entire night sky, as you and your members are rushed backstage.

"hi, baby!" you rush towards colby, as you enter the dressing room. he picks you up from the ground engulfing you in a tight hug. you kiss his cheek as he places you back onto the ground again.

"here you go." sam said, handing you a bouquet of yellow roses.

"thanks, sammy!" you pull sam into a quick hug.

you haven’t seen colby nor sam in two months since they went to their trip to japan and you went on tour with your band.

"alright, sorry to break this reunion, but we have to go right now." maría, your band manger said.

you held hands as you walk into the hotel as multiple paparazzis cameras flash taking pictures of you. even some yelling questions towards you.

"y/n, what project are you working on next?"

"an album." you flash him a smile. tightening your grip on colby’s hand to make sure you don’t lose him within the crowd.

"can you tell us what is the album about?"

"a dedication towards someone special in my life." you replied quickly as you walk through the doors of the expensive hotel.

this action of holding hands wasn’t unusual between you two, so nobody would suspect anything. you’ve been friends with sam and colby since they started vine. you was the one to film their vines and youtube videos. occasionally starring in one of their vines or videos. according to the media you’ve been strictly friends since forever.

you got into the elevator pushing the eleventh floor going up to the presidential suite. "I’m sorry, baby." you apologized, as you leaned against him looking up at him. you stood on your tippy toes reaching to give me a quick kiss. you know at times all of the paparazzi could get too much. hell, you’ve had one too many anxiety attacks because of it. lucky one of your members or your beloved, colby, was there to help you. you’ve even helped colby through some when he has them out in public. normally he keeps his head down and stays as close as possible to you when the paparazzi gets too much for him.

"it’s alright." he pulled you in closer engulfing you in a tight hug. he pressed a kiss on the top of your head.

you exit the elevator and into the suite with his arm around your shoulder and your arms wrapped around his waist. you noticed your members joking around in in the kitchen, as you quietly sneak over to your room.

"did you have fun in japan?" you asked even though you already knew the answer. he sent you videos and pictures of places he visited. he even stay up just a bit longer than normal just to talk to you about his trip. you slipped on a pair of his sweat pants and an xplr hoodie.

"it was good, but i missed you." he replied, settling in the freshly washed sheets of the bed.

"i missed you too, baby." you said, turning off the lights of the bathroom crawling into bed settling between his legs.

"do you think it’s a good idea coming out to yours fans?" you asked, leaning your head back onto his shoulder.

"it’s going to fine, baby." he kissed the top of your head.

it was your idea in the first place to finally go public with your relationship after dating for three years and being married for three years already. with the recent news of you founding our that you was pregnant you thought now would be the time.

all though when you purposed the idea he shut down the idea completely wanting to protect you and the unborn baby, but you convinced him to do so. using the fact that once the baby comes fans were going to find out anyways. it was better to hear it from him than figuring it out by another source.

"stay for five minutes longer!" he whined, shuffling in the sheets holding onto your wrist, after his miserable attempt to keep you stay put in the hotel room with him. he let go of your wrist grabbing the pillow next to him shoving his face into the plushand groaned into the cotton material.

"babe, i can’t you’ve already made me late and maría is starting to hate you because of it." you said, slipping on your leather jacket. the leather jacket you’ve been waiting to wear since you got married. a leather jacket decorated with a bunch of pins in the front and your married surname spray painted in white on the back. you lean down and move the pillow away from his face to quickly kiss his lips.

once finally escaping clingy colby you made your way to the hotel lobby out to the valet where your bands van was. you slid open the van door slipping into the seat you always seat in.

"sorry, i was late it’s-"

"because of colby." your members said in sync causing you to chuckle. it’s been a recurring theme even since you started dating colby. that he would make you incredibly late most times because you would spend most of your time with him and forget about time making you late for important events.

you scrolled through twitter seeing all the tweets from fans going utterly crazy over the new update of your relationship. you noticed a new notification from colbs.

colbs <3

i miss you 🖤

© JPNRIIKICORE, 2023

[padfootagain]

Only An Almost (VI)

Chapter 6: Hiding

Hello!! Here is a new chapter!

I hope you’ll like this chapter! Please, tell me what you think!

*************************************

Pairing: Hozier x fem!reader, friends with benefits AU

Warning: No explicit smut or nsfw content, but there are sexual themes and heavy make-out sessions (it’s a friends with benefits AU, I can’t really escape it), so 18+ only!

Summary: Andrew has been in love with you for years, and yet he has never confessed his feelings. But a night out celebrating the engagement of his best friend changes everything. However, you don't seem ready to be with him just yet. You make him an offer that he can't refuse... but will certainly regret.

Word Count : 2387

Masterlist for the series – Hozier’s Masterlist – Main Masterlist

Andrew needed to talk to you.

After his conversation with Sam, there was no doubt left in his mind that he needed to tell you how he truly felt. This… situation, this… arrangement… it couldn’t go on. It was hurting him too much. Having you for a moment, and then being back to square one, holding himself back all the time, and this fool’s hope that you could feel the same if he waited…

He couldn’t keep on doing this. Another week and two nights with you had passed, and Andrew was now resolute. As he was knocking on your front door and then digging his hands in his pockets, he kept on repeating the words he had prepared beforehand. It was so much easier to write things down, he had sketched his speech this morning.

I know you don’t want a relationship at the moment, I understand that.

He knocked a second time as you weren’t opening the door.

But I’m not sure this… arrangement of ours is a good idea. I see you as more than just a friend. Way more than that. And I don’t think that I can keep on being casual with you.

At long last, the keys turned in the lock, and he stood a little straighter, taking a deep breath.

I get it that this is not the right time for you, and that’s alright. I’ll wait. I’ll wait all the time you need to have a proper date and a proper relationship with you. I’ll wait for you.

You opened the door.

I’ll wait for you, Y/N, if you want to give me a chance…

“Andy? Were we… had we something planned for today?”

“Hi! Erm… not exactly, but like… I haven’t seen you in a few days, I was getting worried you might have been eaten by some roaming spirit or the monster under your bed or something…”

He mentally slapped himself for such a weird and stupid joke.

You granted him an amused smile nonetheless, he was even ready to believe that you were struggling not to laugh.

“I’m alright, I’m just super busy with work.”

“You look tired.”

You looked exhausted, actually, with bags under your eyes, dishevelled hair…

“Thanks, I guess…”

He rolled his eyes.

“It’s not what I meant. You are always stunning. But you do look like you haven’t had a proper rest in a few days.”

“I have so many things to do…”

You heaved a sigh, and it was easy to see that you were buzzing with anxiety.

“Can I come in?” Andrew finally asked, but he was surprised when you hesitated.

“I have some work to do…”

“It’s Sunday afternoon, you’re not supposed to be working on Sunday.”

“Andy…”

“Do I really need to beg?”

He gave you a crooked smile, the ones he thought were almost cocky but behind which he badly hid that he was worried. You heaved a sigh and let him in.

“Tea?” you asked, although you were already grabbing the kettle by the time Andrew had rid himself of his coat.

“Thanks,” he smiled as he sat down by your table.

He waited until you were sitting with him before speaking again. He reckoned that you needed to be eased into the conversation he was aiming for, so he started with niceties.

“What has you so busy then?”

“Work. Important projects.”

“What kind?”

“Look, Andy… I appreciate the thought, but I don’t have time for this…”

“You can’t keep on working without taking a break… it’s Sunday.”

“Like you’re never working on Sundays.”

“I’m a musician, not an office employee. If I want to, I can decide not to work for an entire month, and no one is going to say a thing about it.”

“Touché…”

“Seriously, though… I’m just worried. Why don’t you take a small break with me, huh?”

“Andy, if you came to get laid, I’m not in the mood…”

“I didn’t…”

He frowned as he stared at you, offended by the thought. Your expression softened.

“Sorry. I’m a little on edge.”

“I haven’t heard from you in several days, I was just stopping by to check up on you.”

“I know… I’m sorry, that’s very nice of you, actually. I’m just so…”

“Stressed? Tired? On the verge of a nervous breakdown?”

“All of the above…”

Andrew drank a gulp of tea or two, before standing up in a jolt.

“Come on, go get changed.”

“What?”

“You need some fresh air. Some fresh air, and a nice walk. Come on. Get properly dressed, we’re leaving.”

“Andy…”

“You look like a zombie, you need a break.”

“I thought I was still stunning.”

“You are. Don’t ask me how you do it. Come on!”

You smiled, and seemed to hesitate one last time before getting up as well. You went to your tiptoes to kiss his cheek, and he bent to meet you halfway.

“Thank you, Andy. Where are we going?”

“I’ll find a nice spot, I promise.”

How could Andrew bring up this conversation?

He kept his words light and playful during the short drive to the spot he knew you would like. Some quiet path winding through the Wicklow hills, one that you knew already, but didn’t go there often. It was an easy, peaceful walk. Perfect to focus on nature, and get out of your head. It would do you good.

You were finally starting to relax, and Andrew didn’t dare to bring up the subject he so desperately needed to discuss. Partly because he didn’t want to stress you out again, partly because he was too afraid.

You joked around and spoke of unimportant but lovely things while you walked, his fingers brushing yours every once in a while, blaming the uneven terrain for the ghostly touch. But he didn’t reach out, didn’t hold onto you. He didn’t dare to.

You had brought some snacks with you, prepared while Andrew was pestering you to hurry. He decided that he would talk to you while you took a break to eat them. Yes, that sounded good…

“How often do you come here?” you asked him after a short silence.

“To this spot you mean? I don’t know… Haven’t come in a few weeks, that’s for sure.”

You giggled, and he slowed down to walk next to you again.

“You and your long legs. Wait for us mortals, would you?”

“Only if you’re nice to me.”

“I’ll give you a snack.”

“Hmm… that could work.”

“Or actually, never mind that. Go ahead and play the lure. So the beasts will attack you and spare me.”

“The beasts? What beasts? The squirrels? A bird?”

“There are badgers everywhere around here.”

“True, but I’m too skinny for their taste, I’m sure.”

“A bite-size ankle.”

“Nothing but bone, I’m afraid. Not enough sustenance. They’ll have to get to you, eventually.”

“Naughty.”

You walked further along the quiet path, laughing and joking and talking nonsense. And this was nice, unbelievably nice. There was just something about you that made Andrew’s shoulders lighter, his world brighter.

Love. It’s love.

You took a turn, came to particularly nice spot, breaking free from the trees of the forest trail. There was a clear view of the hills from there, and the valleys below.

“This is so nice. You were right, I was cooked up at home, and then at the office… I needed this. I needed some time outside, to clear my head.”

The Wicklow hills rolled before you, in various shades of green, the bluish grey of a stream running between them. You sat down together on an old stone wall, and you shared your snack with him: some slices of apple and a few biscuits.

“It’s so nice out here. We had not done that in a while, had we?” you went on, before taking a bite at the piece of apple in your hand.

The fruits were sweet and sticky with juice and sugar. The flesh had turned a little brown, oxidized by the air. Andrew hummed in agreement as he took another piece.

“Yeah, a few months, I’d say.”

“Longer than that. I don’t think we’ve done this since you’ve been back.”

“Maybe you’re right.”

He saw your gaze softening with sadness, something close to melancholy.

“How do you do it?”

Andrew frowned in response, silently asking what you meant. You looked at the landscape again as you answered.

“The touring. The constant travelling. Always being away from home. How do you do it?”

Andrew shrugged.

“It’s not as bad as it sounds. I get to do what I love, I can’t complain about it, I reckon. I’m so lucky people across the world love my music, that… total strangers on another continent can find something to relate to in my songs… It’s more than I’ve ever hoped for concerning my career. I’m very grateful for that.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

He couldn’t refrain a small smile at that. You were always so stubborn, never letting him get away with things. He loved that about you, it was endearing.

He set his gaze on the landscape too, tracked some clouds drifting in the blue sky. The weather was so lovely this afternoon… he wondered when it would turn to rain.

“It’s tough,” he admitted. “On one hand I’m unbearably lucky. I love travelling, I’m going to places I would never have dreamt of visiting. I meet amazing people. I get to perform my songs, and people come to see me. And I would lie if I pretended that I don’t love touring. But it’s… it’s hard to be away for so long. You live out of a suitcase. You don’t have a proper bed, not to mention your own. You never sleep twice in the same place, you’re always busy, always torn in a thousand directions at once… you’re never on your own, there are constantly at least five people in the same room as you. Sleeping in a bus is hell. You’re… exhausted, all the time. Stressed because of all the things to do, stressed about the schedule, the interviews, the nerves before a show… And I miss home. I miss my parents, and my brother. I miss my friends. I miss my house, and my dog, and my bees, and just… this. I miss this place. And I miss you…”

He heaved a sigh, forcing himself to look at you again, feeling your stare upon him.

“But in the end, I love it. There’s nothing as rewarding as hearing someone else singing something I have written. There’s nothing as exhilarating as being on stage, and performing and… It feels like I was born to do that. It just feels so right. It’s the same when I write music. It just feels right.”

Slowly, you nodded, a gentle smile on your lips.

“I understand. But it sounds lonely.”

“I’m literally never on my own, that’s an issue, actually… to me it is, at least.”

“But you’re not with your family. Can you say that you’re with the people who matter most to you?”

“Some of them are.”

“What about most of us?”

He granted you a sad smile.

“Yeah… yeah, I miss all of you.”

You looked away again, and he was surprised to catch a glimpse at tears in your eyes.

“I don’t think I could do it. Not just travelling but… just… how can you be with someone if you’re never here?”

It was his turn to look away to hide rising tears. His throat tightened, his heart dropped, his chest was collapsing…

Was that why you didn’t want to be with him? Why you kept him at arm’s length?

“It can be difficult,” he nodded.

“Is that why you broke up with your ex?”

“There were a bunch of reasons. But it was one of them, yeah.”

“I… I don’t think I could handle it. Waiting for you to come back…”

“I understand.”

“Don’t get me wrong, when I proposed our… arrangement… it wasn’t because it was you. I… I genuinely don’t want to date anyone at the moment. My job is a lot. And I… I’m a little lost these days. What I’m trying to say is that… I feel lonely, sometimes. But I can’t be in a relationship right now. But if I proposed for us to remain friends, it wasn’t because I was rejecting you specifically. Do you see what I mean?”

“I think so… but I… I mean like… my career means that… if you were in a position that allowed you time and space for a relationship, you would still not choose me, right? That’s what it means.”

“I…”

But you grew quiet, and he wasn’t stupid. His vision was blurred with tears: a mix of several shades of green, a splash of blue and some grey and white. A cloud was passing.

He had come all the way here with you to talk, and he had his answer.

“You’re… you’re still okay with what we agreed on, right?”

What could he answer?

No… no, it hurts more than anything I’ve ever experienced. But I can’t lose you for good. I’m not strong enough to survive it…

“Had I been anything else but a touring musician… would you have wanted to date me?” he asked, voice deeper than usual, unbearably fragile.

You didn’t say anything; he took your answer for a no.

He was being a fool…

“I can’t think like that, Andy.”

“Why not?”

“For the same reason you can’t stay for the entire night. That we can’t have pet names. That you can’t kiss me now.”

He blinked his tears away to look at you, frowning, silently encouraging you to keep going.

“I can’t let you break my heart, Andrew.”

His lips parted at your words, he tried to wrap his mind around their meaning, blinked a few times.

It was… It was him. He was the problem. Him, and his job. The same pattern it had always been, all over again, but with you this time around.

You cleared your throat, stood up in a hurry.

“Come on, let’s finish this hike!”

He looked at you as you started to walk away, but didn’t move a muscle.

You could have loved him, and he would still stand no chance at all…

[pahtoosh]

the dreaded door

masterlist

18+

wc: 795 words

warnings: you get picked up by bucky. playful biting.

a/n: elephant in the room 🐘 (not my ellie stuffie) i have not been writing as much! it’s mostly because life is really good but also really busy for me right now. it’s also hard for me to get into the zone 🎯 for writing regression when i am not regressing that often. i know i don’t need to explain myself but this is for my fellow nosey 👃 nellies

pairing: mafia!bucky x gn!little!reader

summary: you wait for bucky to finish working

⋆｡ﾟ☁���｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆

Never in your life had you been so angry at a plank of wood. It all began this morning when Bucky left a note on your nightstand.

“Good morning, my sweet angel. Daddy has a lot of very serious calls today. Please keep the noise down and don’t open or knock on the door if it’s shut. Use your special phone to call me if there’s an emergency. Do your chores for today and be a good baby for me. Love, Daddy.”

The door is where you are now. Sitting on the floor, glaring at the smooth oak that you can’t tap on and the shiny knob that you can’t shake. You finished your chores, played for a while, and ate both breakfast and lunch already. Bucky was still in his office and he hadn’t left all day.

Your daddy spoiled you in so many ways: with his gifts, with his love, with his words. The only thing he couldn’t give you enough of was his time. His job was a difficult one with long and sometimes unpredictable hours.

He was able to make some changes. He trusted Sam and Steve to handle his out of town meetings so he didn’t have to travel as much. He also promoted Natasha from head of security to essentially his right hand by helping him with his larger projects.

These changes were so important. They gave you so much more time with your daddy, but there were still days like today when he simply had to do the work himself. Bucky also worked from home as much as he could so he could see you for lunch or even work with you sitting quietly on the velvet loveseat in his office. Him working from home was almost worse for you on the days you couldn’t go see him.

You daddy is home. He’s sitting at his desk where you color sometimes, on the chair with the best spinning ability in the whole house. There was just this one door standing in your way. You wanted so badly to knock and call for him through the cracks, but you knew better. You daddy was a stickler for rules, and he would not appreciate you ignoring his boundaries.

You sighed and settled for glaring at the door. Maybe your anger would be enough to open it without touching and then Bucky would be so impressed he’d have to take the rest of the day off.

Pleased with your plan, you sat on the floor with your hands on your knees and continued glaring. It felt like hours were going by. You thought the doorknob was moving, but it was just Alpine’s reflection as she trotted past. You kept glaring. Still, nothing moved. Just when you were about to give up, the sound of a lock turning echoed through the hallway and your daddy opened the door with an amused smile.

“What’re you doing here, sweetheart?”

“Daddy!” You reached your arms out for cuddles and Bucky happily obliged, even pressing a noisy kiss to your cheek.

“Were you sitting on the floor and waiting for Daddy? I saw you on the cameras.”

“I wantedta knock on your door but you said no knocking so I was trying to open it with my eyes,” you explained.

Bucky laughed. “Oh yeah? How did that go?”

You pouted and hid your face in his neck. “It didn’t work.”

“Aww.” He rubbed your back to comfort you. “Maybe if you ate more carrots your eyes would be strong enough to open doors.”

“Daddyyy.”

“I’m kidding, baby. C’mere.” He pressed your foreheads together.

“Thank you for listening to Daddy’s instructions today. You were such a good baby and I’m so proud of you.” He gave you a gentle kiss while your face warmed from his praise and affection.

You thanked Bucky, earning you another kiss and more praise for being so polite.

Your daddy was beaming. Anyone who knew of his title and past would’ve been shocked at the way he grinned ear to ear while holding you in his lap as if you were the most precious thing in the world.

“How did I manage to capture the sweetest little baby in the whole world, huh?”

You giggled. “You didn’t ca’ture me, I got you!” You held his face in your hands. “My daddy.”

“You better feed your daddy now, angel. Daddies get hungry!” Bucky playfully shook free from your grasp and bit your hands.

“Nooo, daddy!” you squealed. “Eat the food downstairs, not me!”

He stopped thrashing and acted shocked. “There’s food downstairs? Why didn’t you say so?”

“Yeah! And we can watch a movie and cuddle after dinner! Can we, daddy?” You clasped your hands together and bounced excitedly.

“Anything you want, baby.”

[retellingthehobbit]

Tolkien Webcomic Recommendations!

I know people here follow me for my webcomic adaptation of the Hobbit. So I thought I’d share recommendations for my favorite similar Tolkien comic projects, in case people are looking for other Tolkien webcomics to read! :D

My recs will be mainly Tolkien comics that adapt portions of the original books, just with their own unique spin on them.

1. Sam and Frodo Comics, by Molly Knox Ostertag

Ostertag is probably the most well known artist on this list! She is a professional graphic novel artist who does gorgeous adaptations of scenes from Lord of the Rings, read through a queer lens, in order to tell the story of Frodo and Sam’s love for each other. This is mixed in with comics based on her own Tolkien-inspired writing. I’m focusing on comics in this rec list, but I’ll add that Ostertag has also written a lot of engaging prose fanfic with illustrations.

“Sam and Frodo Comics”

“In All the Ways There Were” (illustrated prose fanfic adaptation)

2.Lord of the Rings Book Canon Comics, by @yambits

Yambits does beautiful adaptations of scenes from the original lord of the rings books that do not appear in the New Line Cinema films, hewing very close to the original prose, and focusing on the love between Frodo and Sam. I especially love the way they depict the magical temptation of the Ring.

“Ithilien,” an adaptation of Frodo & Sam’s encounter with Faramir

“In the Lair,” an adaptation of Sam & Frodo journeying together into Shelob’s lair

“The Tower,” an adaptation of Sam journeying to the tower of Cirith Ungol to rescue Frodo

“Escape from the Tower,” an adaptation of Sam and Frodo leaving Cirith Ungol to journey into Mordor

The Ringbearers, a comic about the One Ring reflecting on the resilience of hobbits

3. Sansukh the Webcomic, by @fishfingersandscarves and @determamfidd

Sansukh is a well-loved Bagginshield fanfiction that is now getting a webcomic adaptation co-created by the original author. The premise is that after his death, Thorin Oakenshield is not able to speak to his surviving loved ones, but can influence them in subtle ways; he uses this power to help inspire Gimli to join the Fellowship of the Ring and protect Bilbo’s nephew. From there the fic becomes an “adaptation” of Lord of the Rings, retelling the trilogy through its new lens until the very end.

This is a bit of an outlier on this list because it’s an adaptation of a fanfic that’s an adaptation of the books, rather than an adaptation of the book. However, if you’re into the Hobbit fandom/Bagginshield, I recommend checking it out! It’s also one of the few comics on this list that is currently updating. :)

@sansukhcomic (tumblr blog)

Chapter one

Original fanfic the comic is based on

4. The Ainulindalae from the Silmarillion, by Evan Palmer Comics

People who know me, know that I’m *usually* not a big Silmarillion person. However!

Comic artist Evan Palmer did a gorgeous adaptation of the Ainulindale. This section of the Silmarillion describes the elven myth of creation, the ancient years where the world was created through a divine magical song. Palmer’s Fantasia-inspired expressive watercolor art really helps bring this section of the story to life!

Full comic

5.The 1989 Hobbit Comic adaptation, by Chuck Dixon and David T Wenzel

This is another outlier because it’s a physical comic book, rather than a webcomic- and unlike all the other recs this is an “official” adaptation produced by an actual publishing company rather than a zero-budget work made by an indie creator working alone/with a partner. I’m unsure if it can be found online.

It’s an adaptation of the Hobbit that hews extremely close to the original book, making practically no changes at all. It has very gorgeous watercolor illustrations! ( It’s been a big inspiration for me on my own little comic adaptation of the hobbit shsjd.) This is also the only comic on the list I’ll offer critique of, because it’s the only one made by an actual company with a budget— so I’ll say that because of page limits imposed on the comic many of the pages can feel overcrowded with prose, and emotional beats/comedy beats sometimes aren’t given the time to properly land. At times it feels less like a comic adaptation and more like reading the original prose of the Hobbit accompanied by some very beautiful illustrations. But if that’s what you’re into it’s great!

It’s a fun well-illustrated read that I recommend. I’m not sure where people can find copies; I stumbled across it in my library, so they’re definitely still around.

If anyone has additional tolkien comic recommendations,especially ones that can be found easily online, feel free to add them to this list! : D

[glittercake]

For Samtember Day 3: 'Costume' @samsseptember

“How long’s this going to take? Let me speak to Ayo.”

On his end of the line, Sam snorts, then does a quick scan of the workshop to see which Wakandan saw him smiling at his boyfriend this time. Okoye had already drawn an incredibly immature picture of Sam and Bucky and pinned it to the notice board in the palace foyer.

“Ayo doesn’t want to speak to you,” Sam says. He rotates his arm along with the hologram. It beeps a few times and records his biceps measurement, then moves to his chest. “Besides, it’s nice here. I ain’t in a rush.”

Bucky groans. Sam laughs again. “Yeah, you’re not. I’m dying over here.”

“Because you gotta work with Torres? Grow up, Buck.”

“He’s alright. No, I’m—”

“Before you say that, remember you’re calling on Wakandan tech, and if Aneka calls me Captain Lovey Pants one more time, I’m breaking up with you.”

This time, instead of complaining, Bucky cackles. It goes on for a few seconds. And yeah, Sam’s smiling again, all to himself.

“Stop,” he says fondly, listens to Bucky laughing on the other end. So maybe he lied. Maybe he could rush a little to get home. Maybe he misses this idiot just a little. Maybe he wouldn’t mind if they tossed this new suit through a speed cycle and threw him on a jet back home tonight.

“If you laugh, Captain, your chest expands and corrupts the reading,” Lerato tells him when she restarts the measurement. Again.

“Yes, ma’am. Sorry ma’am.” Sam holds still, bites back a laugh. “You’re getting me in trouble, man. I gotta go.”

“Yeah, alright. Gotta get started on my dinner for one, anyway.”

“You’ll be fine, baby. I’ll send an update later.”

“Later, sweetheart.”

“Cheers, Buck.”

“Finally. My ears can not stand another second of that.” Ayo has come to check on the suit’s progress and gives Sam a sideways look.

Sam sighs. “Of course you heard.”

“It’s custom here to give the new leaders as much grief as possible—this is looking good. Any requests? James sent a list, but it went missing. Strange, hm?” A smirk plays around her mouth.

Sam smiles. Bucky is still very much banned from Wakanda despite his letter of apology. “Yeah, if it’s anything like his shopping lists, that’s a good thing. Uh. Just one request, really.”

Ayo fiddles with the inputs and projections and slides a few specs around. “I can not turn Redwing into an actual bird, Samuel. We talked about this.”

“That’s what you claim, yeah, and I’m gonna keep asking, but no, not that.”

She gives him a suspicious look. Probably because whatever is upgradable on this suit has been upgraded, it even has an unimaginable amount of secret pockets and he won’t admit it out loud but he’s using those for lube and condoms and gum and there is nothing the Kingdom of Wakanda can do about it.

“Alright, the suit’s a little loose in the back. That’s all.”

“In the back? Samuweli, uthetha ngantoni?”

“You know. Part of this gig is the image. I gotta look good.” He motions vaguely to his ass. “This just needs to be a little… tighter.”

Ayo stares at him, then blinks. “That old man has got you good, doesn’t he?”

“Hey, I see how you look at Aneka. Yesterday she mentioned peaches and what did you do last night—” Ayo groans, rolls her eyes. “—no, tell me what you did last night!”

Her mouth twitches, but she schools her expression, points at him. “Wena. You are on thin ice.”

“You baked her a whole peach pie, that’s what. You feel me?”

“She likes pie,” Ayo says with a soft little sparkle behind her eyes, regarding Sam for a moment before returning to the monitors. “Fine. Tighter in the back.” She fiddles with two of the measurements on the suit hologram, then presses Enter.

Sam gives her his best grin when the machine circles down to his hips. “Thanks. I owe you.”

Ayo gathers her spear and clipboard. “We are hosting a few Ghanaian warriors tomorrow night. They would love to meet you. Wear the new suit.”

“I’ll be there.”

“I guess ‘Captain Lovey Pants’ has a whole new meaning now, eh?” Sam groans, and Ayo throws her head back and laughs and then some on her way out of the workshop.

The scanner zips into motion, and within seconds, the material tightens around his glutes, squeezing.

“Uh, Lerato! Ayo? Not this tight!”

“Hm,” Lerato says, titling her head and peeking around at Sam’s behind, smiles then shrugs. “I don’t see the problem, Captain. Didn’t you say it’s all about the image?”

“Ugh, I did.” Sam regrets everything. These folks are relentless.

“Well,” Lerato says, a sneaky, mischievous look in her eyes. “This is quite the image.”

[justtwotired]

Im Vic, Can i please get something with colby? The reader would be a ex gf who runs into him when sam and him are recording a video and he asks if they could meet up after they are done recording. She says yes and sam goes back to the hotel leaving them alone maybe there are some sparks still there.

Hi! Yes, definitely! I’m sorry I posted like more then a month after your request, I’ve just been really busy with school and other writing projects of mine, but thank you so much for the req<3

I laughed as Amelia made a joke about our experience a few hours ago in the haunted house we work at. I was packing my bag to go home while she was staying to give a tour of the house to some guests who where going to check it out and come back the next night.

“Hey, unheard your tour is being recorded for YouTube,” I commented and she smiled a bit giddy. “It is! I really can’t wait, this is actually so exciting, does my hair look alright?” She asked and I laughed.

“You look amazing, don’t worry,” I reassured and she winked at me in a flirtatious way, making me blow her a kiss. “We are such girlfriends,” she joked and I shook my head with a small laugh.

“Hey, wasn’t one of your ex boyfriends a YouTuber who recorded in haunted places?” She asked and I nodded.

“Yeah, he still is, I didn’t really speak with him anymore… sometimes I wish I still did,” I admitted making her wiggle her eyebrows at me. “Oh don’t look at me like that, it’ll never happen, I know it,” I sighed and she gave me a reassuring smile.

“It’ll be fine hun, if nothing works out you can always marry me,” she said and I gave her a look. “I’m sure your husband would love that,” I said and she waved me off.

“I’d dump him for you,” she said and I snorted, going to hit her arm but she quickly dodged and stuck out her tongue at me.

“What’s the name of the YouTubers coming here? I’ll look them up to see if they’re anything interesting,” I said, grabbing my phone.

“Oh, Sam and Colby,” she said and I paused, looking at her in surprise. “You’re joking right?” I asked and she shook her head.

“No, why?” She questioned and then her face hit with realisation. “Don’t tell me one of them is your ex,” she said and I nodded.

“Jup, Colby is my ex, and I think this is my cue to go before they arrive,” I said and she hid back a smile, making me glare at her.

Of course, as if the world hated me, we heard a car arrive outside, making me want to sink trough the ground right at that moment.

With a teasing grin, Amelia walked towards the front door and I followed her, not like I could escape now anyway, my car was parked outside.

When Amelia opened the door, I immediately noticed the two of them and seemingly two friends. Sam was holding a camera and filming himself and another guy, then he pointed the camera at me and Amelia making our way outside.

His eyes visibly widened at the sight of me and he instinctively pointed the camera at Colby who seemed to be rather shocked when he noticed me.

“Hi, Amelia,” she introduced herself, shaking Sam’s hand and then Colby’s, followed by the other two who where apparently called ‘Josh and Seth.’

“Hey,” Same greeted me with a smile and opened his arms, making me pull him into a hug. We had become great friends after me and Colby became a couple, but when he and I broke up, I stopped contacting Sam as it was kind of a unwritten rule.

“Hi, it’s been a while,” I said with a small grin. I shook both hands of Josh and Seth, introducing myself, before turning to Colby who seemed lost in how to greet me.

With a small smile I opened my arms to invite him for a hug which he excepted, holding me tightly and resting his chin on my head, just like old times.

“I didn’t know you two where coming,” I said, taking a step back. “We didn’t know you worked here,” Colby said and I chuckled.

“Isn’t it a small world?” Amelia said, making Sam point the camera at her.

“You’re our guide then, right?” He asked and she nodded. “That would be me,” she answered.

“Do tell us about yourself,” Colby said and she shot me a nervous glance, making me give her a thumbs up.

“Alright, I am Amelia Cooper, I’ve been working at the -haunted house name- for about three years now and I’ll be your guide this evening,” she said and I smiled at her approvingly.

“Great, and you can introduce yourself aswel,” Sam then pointed the camera at me, making me chuckle.

“Alright then,” I said, telling the camera my name. “I have been working here for- I think for almost a year now, and I won’t be your guide for this evening because I am actually leaving, but I’m going to be here tomorrow night to receive you for your night alone,” I explained.

“Alright, great, let’s go inside then,” Sam said and shut of the camera. “I didn’t hear that you moved,” Sam commented and looked at me.

“Oh, I didn’t really, I just live with Amelia trough the week but I mostly go bakc home around the weekend, so I kind of live her, but I kind of don’t,” I said making him chuckle.

“Alright, sorry if I’m being clueless, but you know each other, because…?” Seth pointed a finger at the three of us a bit confused.

“Oh, ex girlfriend,” I pointed at Colby, making both Josh and Seth nod in understanding. “But, you guys can go inside to start the tour, I’m heading home because I think the cat will kill me if I am to late with feeding him,” I said making Amelia let out a noice of offense.

“Was that a jab at my cat?” She asked giving me a scolding look, I stuck my tongue out, making her chuckle. “I’ll see you later,” she waved and gestured at the boys to follow her, making her way back inside.

I wanted to walk towards my car but was stopped when Colby laid his hand on my shoulder. I turned to him with a questioning look.

“Hey, Uhm, I wondered if you wanted to hang out later tonight?” He asked and I felt heat rise to my cheeks, because it is actually something I really hoped he’d ask but I was to afraid to do it myself.

“Yes, sure, sounds fun,” I said with a small smile. “I’ll text you my address, you may pick me up when you’re done with the tour, we can head to the fair that’s in town,” I said, knowing he loves those.

He gave me an excited grin. “I’ll be there,” he promised and then followed his friends inside.

Later that evening, I got a text from Colby saying he was on his way. Amelia was home already and she told me he and his friends were headed back to the hotel first before Colby would pick me up.

It made sense, as they only had one car at the moment.

After about 15 minutes, there were knocks on the door and I quickly shot up from the couch and opened the door, finding Colby looking at me with a smile.

“Ready to go?” He asked and I nodded. “Of course I am,” I said and yelled a goodbye to Amelia before following Colby to his car.

“So, what have you been up to?” He asked as we were driving to the fair.

“Nothing much, just mostly working at the house,” I shrugged with a small smile. “I became interested in those kind of things because of you, you know,” I said, masking him give me a small smile back.

“I already hoped so,” he said, sending me a small wink, making me bite the inside of my lip, trying not to blush.

“And you?” I asked. “What have you been up to?” I liked at him while he kept his eyes on the road.

“Mostly just making video’s,” he admitted. “And of course a few party’s here and there,” he grinned slightly, making me chuckle.

“Yeah, I expected nothing less,” I gave him a look, making him give me a ‘guilty’ look back. It caused me to laugh and shake my head.

It was silent for a moment when we stopped laughing. It wasn’t really awkward, but not comfortable either.

“And uh,” he started. “Any new relationships?” He asked, a bit too curious if you ask me. Bit I couldn’t blame him, I’d been aching to ask him the same question after all.

“Oh, I dated about two guys between the time we broke up and now, but one was just a small fling and the other was a bit serious, but I eventually broke it off because he wasn’t really my type after all,” I admitted.

The guy I had been in a relationship with had been nice and all, but nothing like Colby, he was not what I was looking for and I had to break it off because it was unfair for him.

“What about you?” I asked, maybe a bit to intrigued, but what could I say, I really wanted to know if he had found better than me.

“Just a few flings really, nothing serious,” he admitted and looked at me. “Nothing like you,” he said, making me blush and smile rather proudly.

We eventually arrived at the fair and I immediately dragged him towards my favourite ride, making him laugh and tell me I was like a child, making me roll my eyes and whack his arm.

We stayed at the fair for multiple hours, and just like in the movies, he managed to win a huge teddy bear for me.

We eventually sat down somewhere to eat and I yawned as we sat at the table.

“Tired?” He asked with a chuckle and I nodded, combing a hand trough my hair. “I’ll bring you home, come on,” he stood up a reached out a hand, I took it and he pulled me up.

We threw away the paper cups and trays and headed towards the car.

He took my hand in his, making me look up at him with a smile, I’d missed how our hands fitted so perfectly together.

“Thank you, for tonight,” I said at the excit of the fair and he smiled at me. “I’m happy you wanted to come,” he answered.

“Can I be honest with you?” I asked and he nodded rather interested. “I really missed you,” I said, pursing my lips slightly.

“I missed you too,” he admitted with a low chuckle, I gave him a soft smile and looked into his eyes, I’d missed those eyes.

His eyes shot down to my lips for a second and I could feel excitement start to bubble in my stomach. I shot a longing glance at his own lips, making him grin at me.

He put up a hand and rested it on my cheek. “May I kiss you?” He whispered and I chuckled.

“Obviously,” I said, before standing on my toes and connecting our lips.

[gretavangroupie]

Secluded

Word count: 9.3k+

Pairing: Sam x Female Reader

Warnings: Language, Smut, Fluff, Drinking.

Summary: You're so ready for a nice relaxing weekend alone in the mountains, until suddenly you're not alone...

You click the bright pink ‘Book’ button on your screen, sealing your fate for the weekend. Tucked away in the mountains of Gatlinburg, a tiny one bedroom cabin awaits you for a weekend of relaxing and recharging. You had wanted to do this for a few weeks, but work always got in the way, making you push it back another week. When Wednesday rolled along and your boss hadn’t mentioned any big projects for the rest of the week, you took your chance. You booked the cabin and counted down the minutes until Friday. 

You packed everything you thought you might want or need, tossing the suitcase in the back of your car, where it sat until the clock struck 5:00 on Friday evening. You changed in the bathroom at work, putting on more comfy clothes to drive in. It was roughly four hours to Gatlinburg from Nashville and you were looking forward to the scenic drive. You turned on your favorite music, letting it provide the soundtrack for your solo adventure. 

The hours on the road seem to pass quickly, anxious energy swirling in your chest. You couldn’t wait to take a bath in the luxurious tub in the peace and quiet of the mountains. You specifically chose this cabin because of it. That and it was completely tucked away from town. The nearest house miles and miles away. Your GPS read one mile left and you turned on your brights as you navigated the winding mountain roads. You saw the lights on the porch were on as you pulled into the parking space in the driveway. You opened the AirBnB app, and retrieved the entry code as you stepped out of the car. 

You grab your suitcase from the trunk, hauling it up the steps to the front door. You enter the code on the electronic lock and hear it unlock, allowing you entry. A few lights are on, scattered throughout the small living room, and a note is left on the kitchen counter, thanking you for choosing their home, and to have a relaxing visit. 

You roll your suitcase into the master bedroom, and are met with a fluffy and inviting queen size bed. You can smell the clean sheets as soon as you open the door, almost beckoning to you to slide in. But no. You have had one thing on your mind the whole drive, and you were ready.

You walked into the bathroom, and turned on the lights before walking over to the large white tub, turning the lever. You run your hand under the water as you feel for it to come to temperature. You push the drain stop down, and watch as it slowly begins to fill with steamy water. It was so nice to be here away from the city. Completely secluded.

You start to shed your layers, preparing to step into the tub as you hear something in the living room. You quickly shut off the water and listen to see if maybe it was just your imagination. But sure enough you hear it again. You recognize the sound. It’s the electric lock on the front door. You quickly redress yourself, heart pounding as you run through scenarios in your head. 

You step out of the bedroom and into the living room, your cardigan wrapped tightly around your chest as you are met with a man standing in the doorway.

His eyes flick to yours, “Oh, hi, I’m sorry. I am just now here to check in. The traffic was bad coming in.” he says, rolling his suitcase through the door.

You toss him a bewildered look. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you mean?” you reply.

He pulls his phone out of his pocket and looks at it, “I am the renter for this weekend…” he says, showing you the booking on his phone.

“No… I’m the renter…” you reply, terribly confused. “Can I see that?” you say motioning towards his phone. 

He steps in further, shutting the door behind him as he hands you the phone. Sure enough it was the same cabin, but the confirmation was from a different site. The host had double booked their property. 

You hand his phone back to him, “When did you book?” you ask.

“I think it was Wednesday?” he says, pushing his long hair away from his face. “What about you?”

You nod your head, “Wednesday as well. Let me call the host and see what she says. Surely there has to be some kind of mix up.”

He nods his head and finds a seat on the small red sofa near the door.

You call the number listed on the note left on the counter, listening as the line rings out. 

“Hello?” the voice answers.

“Hi! I’m so sorry to call you so late but there seems to be a small issue that has come up. I checked in earlier and as I was getting settled, someone else arrived. We compared our two bookings and they both show a confirmation for this weekend.” you say. You listen intently as the woman goes over the bookings in her calendar, absolutely mortified when she realized that she double booked the cabin on two different sites.

After a few minutes on the phone with her, you hit the red end button and stare at the man before you with a horrified look. “She said that she is so sorry, but there is nothing she can do other than comp our stays…She tried to book another cabin up the mountain that her friend owns, but everything around here is booked, even the hotels in town. I really… don’t know what to do in this situation.” you say.

“I can go… it’s really no big deal. I don’t want to ruin your weekend, and you were here first.” he says, standing up from the couch.

“Well, no hold on a minute.” you say, moving to sit on a bar stool in the kitchen. “It’s really late. How far did you have to drive?” you ask.

“It was about four hours, but honestly it was closer to five with all of the traffic. It’s really no big deal, I am used to being on the road.” he says, tying his hair back into a loose bun. 

You know you should feel scared, you are in the mountains in the middle of nowhere, stuck in a cabin with a man you don’t know, but something is telling you that you’re safe. You don’t need to be afraid. You toy with that feeling for a few moments, as your mouth takes over before your brain can think. “You should stay.” it falls from your mouth before you can even think about the logistics.

He raises his eyebrows in response, clearly playing with the idea and taking the time to consider what that would entail.

“This is a one person listing…” he says, confused.

“I know, but… I saw extra bedding in the closet, and if you don’t mind taking the couch, you could stay. I just can't in good conscience let you drive five hours because I am being selfish.”

“Wow, that is… very kind of you. If you are absolutely positive… I just don’t want you to be uncomfortable.” he says, “I’m Sam, by the way.”

“Well, Sam, I would feel better if you atleast stayed here tonight. We can figure out the rental thing tomorrow.” you say with a soft smile.

“Okay.” he agrees. 

“I don’t want to be forward but I brought some wine with me if you’re interested.” he says, pointing his thumb over his shoulder.

“Actually… I think that is exactly what I need. Good call.” you smile, “I’m Y/N, sorry I didn’t introduce myself sooner.” you laugh. 

“No problem at all. I’ll be right back….do you want to see if there are any wine glasses?” he asks.

You jump down off of the barstool, and pad over to the cabinets as he slips out the front door. 

You release a deep breath, letting your brain process exactly what is happening. You find two glasses, pulling them down from the shelf, and deciding to give them a quick rinse. As you dry them, Sam walks back through the door, clearly a little nervous as he tries not to make eye contact for too long.

He joins you at the kitchen counter, opening the drawers searching for a wine bottle opener. He slices the plastic label revealing the cork, before twisting the lever and pulling out the wine soaked barrier.

You slide the glassware to him and he pours the red wine into the glasses. He passes one to you with a smile and you take it as you make your way over to the couch. He puts a wine stopper in the bottle, before grabbing his glass and joining you, however, opting for the chair across from you.

You sip the wine, surprised at the taste. It's not what you would usually go for but it's shockingly good. 

“So, what brings you out here this weekend? Just a quick getaway?” you ask.

“Yeah, something like that. Just need a little bit of alone time. I spend a lot of time around people for work.” he replies. “How about you?”

“Well, I have been wanting to take a vacation but have had to keep pushing it off because of work, but it just happened to work out for this weekend. Well, kinda.” you laugh, taking another sip from your glass.

“Thanks again for letting me stay, I was more than willing to drive home, but I’m not gonna lie, I am pretty glad I don’t have to.” he says with a chuckle.

“Of course, I wouldn’t want to drive home tonight either.” you smile.

You spend much of the next hour talking, getting to know each other. You drain the bottle of wine as you talk about living in Nashville, your job and a few other odd topics brought up in random conversation. 

He is sweet, and genuine and not bad to look at either. His chestnut brown hair hangs long past his shoulders. He has a small scattering of facial hair, and dark brown eyes that squint when he laughs. He is tall, way taller than you are. You notice this as he folds himself up into the couch, attempting to get comfortable, his bare feet propped up on the edge of the coffee table. As he continues to talk you notice his accent. It’s clearly midwestern, and very distinguishably unique. The way he says certain words almost makes you giggle. You find yourself almost feeling happy that things worked out this way, and that you are in the company of this intriguing stranger.

“So do you have any big plans for tomorrow?” he asks, setting his glass on the small coffee table.

“Yeah, I think I am going to do a little hiking. There is a waterfall I want to check out, and then I might go to this brewery I read about. What about you?” you ask.

“Actually… I am planning on going on a hike, and then I was going to take myself to dinner.” He laughs, but his expression suddenly changes into something you can't place. 

“I know this is crazy but… would you maybe want to hike together?” he asks, pushing his hair back and grasping at his neck nervously. “It’s totally okay if you don’t want to, I mean you probably already have a trail picked out and everything…” he trails off.

“Actually… I was going to pick one out tonight. But…if you want, we can find one now.” you say with a smile. “Plus I think it's better to not go alone anyways.” you laugh.

His smile is practically beaming as he realizes you have agreed to his proposition. “You can pick, obviously we have similar taste if you picked out the same cabin as I did.” he laughs.

You scroll through a list of trails on your phone, and show him each one until you both decide on one with the best view of the waterfall.

The hours have ticked by as you have continued talking. The conversation flowed naturally, and easily. You glance at your phone to see the time and know that if there is any chance of you making it to the hiking trail at a reasonable time you need to go to bed. 

“I think I need to go to bed if I am going to be outside all day tomorrow.” you laugh, “Let me go grab you that spare bedding.” you say, standing up from the couch. You make your way into the bedroom and grab the quilt and pillows from the closet placing the folded articles on the edge of the bed. 

You pop your head out of the door, “Do you need to use the restroom or change or anything before I go to bed?” you ask, knowing that the only bathroom is through the master. 

“Actually, yes. Let me grab a few things.” he says, standing up and walking to his suitcase. He crouches down and pulls a few clothing items and a toiletry bag from the silver suitcase and smiles softly as he walks through the doorway to the bedroom. 

You watch him as he steps into the bathroom, the solid wooden door closing behind him, catching the scent of him as he walks past. You walk over to your suitcase, retrieving your pajamas and your toothbrush, getting everything ready for bed. The door opens, and you can see that he has changed. A pair of flannel pajama pants hang off of his hips. He has opted for no shirt, but to be fair he probably wasn’t planning on being around anyone. You can hear the buzz of his electric toothbrush as your eyes travel the length of his body in the reflection in the mirror. As you make your way up you catch his eyes in the mirror, quickly looking away as you feel your cheeks flame red. 

You quickly gather your things, and place them on the bed, waiting for him to be done and avoiding any further eye contact. 

Hearing the water splashing, you know he is done and will walk out any second. You take a deep breath to calm yourself and watch as he walks out of the bathroom with his bag and clothes. 

“There’s the extra bedding.” You say pointing to the pile on the bed, trying not to hold his gaze for longer than you have to.

His eyes dont break away from you as he nods. He steps over to the bed and retrieves the pile of blankets, “Thank you.” he says, your eyes return to meet him, “Goodnight…” he says with a smirk, and then he is stepping out the door. You shut it behind him and lock it, before letting out the breath you were holding. What was that all about? 

SAM POV

As you hear the door shut behind you, you blow out a breath between your lips. That was interesting. Your mind is still reeling from everything that has happened tonight. You toss the pillow on the couch before spreading the sheet over the cushions. You spread the quilt out on top of the sheet and admire your handiwork. It will do, and you are used to worse. 

You fold your clothes and put them into your suitcase along with your toiletry bag. You lock the front door, and turn off the lamp at the entry table. You grab the two wine glasses from the coffee table, depositing them in the kitchen sink to be dealt with tomorrow. You grab your phone charger and plug it into the outlet on the counter, as you realize you haven't looked at your phone in hours. You grab it off the coffee table and see a few missed messages.

Jake: Did you make it?

Daniel: How’s the woods you hermit?

You laugh at Daniel’s message, replying to him and Jake, letting them know you made it. You’d tell them the story of the mix up next week, but for now your makeshift bed was calling. You plug your phone into the charger, and turn off the light, leaving the small cabin in total darkness. You pull the quilt down and slide into the small space of the couch, before pulling the soft cotton over your bare chest. You let out a sigh and realize there is not a single noise to try and tune out. 

You turn onto your side and stare into the darkness as your mind races with all of the thoughts you came here to escape. You see the thin strip of yellow light disappear under the door to the bedroom and smile to yourself, as you hear the creaking of the bed as she goes to sleep for the night. 

How did you get so lucky to be stuck in this cabin with such a beautiful girl? Better yet, how did you manage to convince her to go hiking with you tomorrow? 

You saw the way she was looking at you in the mirror. Her eyes lingered a little longer than normal. You’d be lying if you didn’t have the urge to look at her the same way, but you were trying very hard not to get kicked out of this cabin. The way her cheeks turned pink after a few glasses of wine, or her laugh when you told her a joke… it was funny how quickly you felt comfortable around her. Sure, you meet and talk to people everyday, but somehow she was different, and tomorrow you planned to get to the bottom of that. 

—

Your eyes shot open when you heard the sound of the bedroom door being opened. You blinked rapidly to clear the sleep from your eyes, being met with the vision of a blurry figure walking towards the kitchen. The sun was up and pouring in through the blinds on the windows. The sound of footsteps walking into the kitchen had you stretching and groaning as you felt your joints in your ankles popping. 

“I’m sorry I woke you.” she all but whispered into the quiet morning air. 

“That’s okay, I need to get up anyways.” you say, voice still sleepy. You watch as she mills around in the kitchen cabinets looking for the supplies to make coffee. A small smile crosses your lips as you watch her. She stands on her tiptoes to reach the top shelf to grab the coffee filters, her shirt lifting to reveal a bit of her stomach, sending a signal straight to your groin. 

What is this, the 1700’s? It's her stomach Sam. Get it together.

You swallow harshly and stand up, grabbing your toiletry bag and making your way to the bathroom to brush your teeth. As you look at yourself in the mirror, you rub your eyes and try to run your fingers through your messy hair. Pulling the elastic from your wrist, you tie your hair into a messy bun, before beginning to brush your teeth. 

As you make your way back into the living room, the smell of coffee begins to overtake the house. You pull a shirt out of your suitcase and pull it over your head before joining her in the kitchen. She pours coffee into a mug and slides it across the island towards you with a smile. 

“I would ask how you slept but I know it couldn’t have been well on that tiny couch. I totally should have let you take the bed. I didn’t even think about it.” she says. A flutter in your chest causes you to let out a small laugh. 

“I actually slept fantastic. There wasn’t a single noise all night.” you say. “I am used to sleeping in small spaces, so it really was no big deal.” 

“Okay, if you say so…” she says, a moment of silence lingers between the two of you. 

“What time were you thinking about heading out today?” you ask.

“I was going to ask you the same thing… maybe in like… an hour?” she asks.

“I’ll be ready.” you smile.

“Sounds like a plan.” she says, grabbing her mug and disappearing into the bedroom.

HER POV

As you retreat back to the bedroom with your mug in hand, you close the door behind you and let out a sigh.

Your heart seems to be racing and you can hardly stop your mind from spinning. He looked different this morning. Really different. His hair up in that bun, His bare chest, the smile on his face when he took his coffee…You were in for a long day.

You took your time getting ready, making sure your boots were tied correctly, and that you filled your backpack with hiking necessities. When you finally emerged from the room you saw him sitting on the couch waiting for you. His face lit up when he saw you, causing you to blush a little. Dressed in far too short shorts, and a long sleeve t-shirt, he looked effortlessly put together. His blue fanny pack slung across his body, and a pair of sunglasses sitting on top of his head. He had let his hair back down and the waves framed his face. 

“You ready to go?” he asks.

“Yeah, let me grab my sunglasses and we can go!” you say, walking to the kitchen. You grab your sunglasses from your purse and dig around for your keys.

“Oh, I will drive. I am blocking you in anyways.” he laughs.

“Are you sure?” you ask.

“Absolutely. Lead the way.” he says motioning to the front door.

As you step out onto the porch you see his car is in fact parked directly behind yours. “You drive a Tesla?” you ask, a little shocked.

“Yeah! Probably not the most practical for the mountains but, this rental had a charging station, which is why I picked it. She's all charged up and ready to go.” he says with a smirk.

“You know, you kind of strike me as a Tesla guy, now that I think about it.” you say playfully.

He opens the door and you climb into the passenger seat. As he gets into the driver's seat he starts the car and a cheerful tone plays through the speakers. You look around at the interior before turning back to him and raising your eyebrows.

“It was my first big dumb purchase, don’t judge me.” he laughs.

“No judgment here…” you reply giggling to yourself.

He types the directions into the touchscreen and you set out on the stretch of tree lined road. 

After a few minutes on the gorgeous scenic road you pull into the trailhead and park. You both get out and make your way to the trail entrance. The weather is beautiful and sunny, and you know by the sheer number of cars in the parking lot, that everyone else had the same thought today.

You begin your hike, opting for the less traveled path at Sam’s suggestion. He points at flowers and trees and makes jokes that have you laughing most of the hike. He mentions the waterfall nearby and you set your course heading to find it. 

He asks about your job and your hobbies and what kind of music you like. You have walked about 3 miles at this point, time flying by in his company. As you admire the beautiful scenery you feel his hand brushes against yours gently, sending a flash of electricity through your body and a blush across your cheeks. You continue walking, taking notice of his natural flirtiness, and letting him attempt to woo you.

A while later, as you finish explaining your mutual love for vinyl hunting, you are met with the beautiful sight of the waterfall, hidden and tucked away from the most common path, surely a reward for those who choose to take this one. 

To get to the cliff to view the waterfall, you have to make your way up a small set of boulders and onto the flat part of the cliff. As you go to start climbing up Sam stops you. “Let me go first, and then I can help you over?” he asks.

“Oh such a gentleman…” you say playfully.

“I can’t let a pretty girl go first, what if there is a bear or something?” he says.

“Well then I think we are both out of luck Sam…” you laugh, watching his slender figure maneuver its way up the boulders. 

“Yeah, no that actually sounds right…” he says, pulling himself up to the flat part of the cliff turning to you with an exasperated sigh. After making a scene of looking for bears he says, “Come on up, I got ya!”

As you start to make your way up, you watch as his hand reaches out for yours. Your eyes flick up to his, locking in on the big brown orbs as you reach your hand into his, letting him pull you up and over the ledge. The same spark running through your veins.

“Thanks…” you say with a smirk.

He raises his eyebrows at you, “Sure.”

As you both sit at the edge of the cliff you overlook the waterfalls roaring in front of you.

“It’s so beautiful. I can’t believe there aren’t a ton of people here!” you say, shocked.

“I know, but it’s kinda nice.” he says, turning to look at you. You both sit down, resting your tired legs, stretching them out in front of you as you watch the water fall down into the stream below. You watch as he crosses his ankles and leans back onto his hands, turning his face to the sun. You smile inwardly as you admire how content he looks. The way the sun hits his cheekbones are something straight out of a Greek Mythology book.

It’s quiet for a few minutes, just the roar of the waterfall as you speak, “So you know all about me now, but I can’t help but notice you have hardly shared anything with me about yourself.” 

He turns his face away from the sun to look at you, “Well, what would you like to know?” he asks.

“How about… what you’re doing renting a cabin alone in the woods?” you ask playfully.

“Same reason you are. To get away from work.” he answers.

“And work is?” you ask.

He pauses for a moment before answering, “Work is…I work with my brothers. That should tell you everything you need to know.” he laughs, “It’s a demanding job, we travel constantly. Always together. Sometimes I just need to be alone.” he says, smiling softly.

“Understandable.” you reply, a beat of silence passes. “So you have brothers…where did you guys grow up?” you ask.

“A small town in Michigan actually.” he replies with a smirk.

“Ah ha… that is the accent isn’t it? I couldn’t place it, but… there it is.” you laugh.

“Yeah, yeah… I know, I hear about it constantly.” he mocks playfully.

“No, it's fine, it’s cute.” you say, the words tumbling out before you can stop them. Your face blushes a bright red and you hope he doesn’t notice. But the smile on his face tells a different story.

He stands up suddenly, looking down at you, extending his hand, “Come on.”

You reach up and grab it, but this time he doesnt let it go so quickly. You feel his fingertips brush against your palm, rough and calloused. You almost found yourself wishing he wouldn’t let go. 

When he finally does, a look crosses his face and you can tell he was nervous about overstepping the invisible boundary made between the two of you. 

“Do you want to swim?” he asks.

“Down there?” you ask, pointing to the water.

“Yeah! Let's at least get our feet wet! Come on, it will be fun!” he says, lowering himself down the boulders, before helping you down. 

You walk down the trail a bit until it turns up at the foot of the stream. Sam kicks off his shoes and walks to the edge of the water before dipping his feet in. “Shit that's cold…” he says, pulling his foot back out quickly.

“I thought you said you were from Michigan… aren’t you used to the cold?” you ask, taunting him.

“I mean yeah, but we’ve lived in Nashville for so long now… I forget sometimes.” he smiles. 

You meet him at the edge walking forward into the water, realizing that he is correct it is freezing cold. “Okay, maybe you weren’t exaggerating.”

“I am known to be a bit dramatic but…” he laughs. His laugh is interesting, not a typical laugh. You would be able to pick it out in a line up if it ever came to it. Sam was a fascinating person and he was growing on you as the minutes passed. 

“Maybe the hot tub at the cabin is more your speed.” you joke.

“You know…it just might be.” he says with a twinkle of mystery in his eye.

You make the three mile walk back to the car, cracking jokes the entire way, talking about the people you encountered on the trail and how bad both of your feet hurt, discussing maybe putting that hot tub to use. 

As you finally make your way back to the car you slide into the passenger seat with a sigh. Both of you are spent, but completely fulfilled after spending a day enjoying nature. The drive back to the cabin is mostly quiet except for the music playing through the speakers, old blues music that has your eyelids feeling heavy. 

Pulling into the driveway Sam pulls in next to your car so that he doesn’t block you in, and shuts off the car and the hum of the music. Before you can reach for the handle Sam is at the side of the car opening the door for you. You step out and make your way to the front door, punching in the code and stepping inside. Sam isn’t too far behind you, likely plugging in his car. A thought that makes you giggle. 

As you make your way to the fridge you grab a seltzer and pop the tab, drinking down the fizzy bubbles, hoping the alcohol will relax your tired muscles. 

“Is it happy hour?” Sam asks, walking through the front door.

“It is, would you like grapefruit, or mango?” you ask.

“Mmmm….Mango.” he replies, meeting you at the counter. “So… what is your plan for the rest of the day?”

“Well, let’s see it's 4:00 now… so I’m not sure. Hang out, shower, maybe eat something later. What about you?” you ask.

“Actually… I was wondering… do you think you would like to join me for dinner?” he asks.

You’re taken aback as you reply hesitantly, “Of course I’ll join you but, do you really want me to come to your special dinner?” 

“Well, yeah. I was actually kind of hoping you would say yes. I just called and updated the reservation for two.” he says nervously.

“What if I had said no?” you ask.

“I would have asked again, but laid on my ‘cute’ accent a little thicker.” he says with a wink.

Your jaw drops at his playful remark. His wink causes a flame to ignite within your chest.

“We need to leave here in about an hour…Is that enough time for you to get ready?” he asks.

“Yeah, it should be, do you want to shower first or…” you ask.

“You can go ahead, I will go after you.” he smiles nodding towards the bedroom door.

A bit later as you are blow drying the last parts of your hair you hear the water shut off as he finishes his shower. You smooth out your blue dress, a last minute addition to your suitcase just in case you felt like going into town. You found yourself feeling thankful that you packed it. 

As the door swings open and he steps out in his towel your breath catches in your throat at the sight of him. His skin is still damp from the shower, glowing almost. His long hair hangs down his chest dripping the length of his torso, meeting the top of the towel wrapped around his waist. 

You try your hardest to pull your eyes away from him, trying not to stare. His eyes meet yours with a gentle smirk and you know you’ve been caught. The blush that creeps over your cheeks also doesn’t go unnoticed by him, causing a slight giggle as he leaves the room. 

You let out a breath as you brace yourself on the wooden bed frame. Fuck, get it together. 

A few minutes later you are ready to go and step out of the bedroom to see him fully dressed and waiting for you. His eyes linger on your bare legs for maybe a moment longer than normal and you watch as he catches himself and meets your eyes. 

“Drink before we go?” he asks, standing up and walking into the kitchen.

You toss him a playful smirk, and nod your head. He pours two glasses of wine and you watch as he focuses on recorking the bottle. You find yourself having a hard time pulling your eyes away from his chest that he has out on full display, only covered by the shirt barely hanging on by a few buttons. 

You bite your lip as you accept the glass from him, sipping down the red wine.

“The sun gave you some color today. You look really good.” he says as he tips his glass back.

“Oh, did I look bad before?” you say playfully.

“No! No I just meant you are glowing a little. It’s pretty. You're pretty.” he smiles softly.

“Well thanks, you seem to have a bit of a glow yourself, but I think you’ve had it since I met you.” you reply.

You see his cheeks grow pink and a smile turns up the corners of his mouth. You both finish your wine and place the glasses on the counter. 

“You ready to go?” he asks.

“Yeah let me just grab my purse.” you say.

You both make your way out to his car, and ever the gentleman he opens the door for you as you slide inside. As he comes around to meet you, you hear the car come to life and shake your head at the situation you have somehow found yourself in. 

He gets in and plugs the direction into the screen, letting it guide him into town. It’s not that long of a drive but the sun is setting and the gentle music playing in the car, combined with the glass of wine, has you feeling the effects from the long hike you had this morning. 

His hand rests on the steering wheel so effortlessly and you can't help but to stare at him. In the short time you’ve known him your eyes have become almost magnetized to him, finding yourself looking at him any chance you get. Your mind wanders wondering how it would feel if his hand brushed across your bare skin. 

No. Stop it. You can’t do this, you don’t even know him. But maybe you want to.

Minutes later you are pulling into the parking lot of the restaurant, gently nestled in the hustle and bustle of the town with a beautiful view of the mountains surrounding you. Twinkle lights hang on the patio of the restaurant, reflecting on the large windows that line the walls of the building. 

“Sam, this place looks really nice, I feel underdressed.” you say, worry lining your words.

Almost as if he had heard your thoughts earlier, he placed his hand on your thigh, as he looked at you, “You look gorgeous, I promise.”

You can feel the redness growing in your cheeks at his complement, as your tongue peeks out to wet your lips. “Thanks, you think so?” you reply shakily.

“Yes, absolutely.” he smiles.

His hand sweeps across your thigh as he draws it back to open his door. The butterflies in your stomach swirling from the brief contact. 

As you step out of the car you meet him at the front to begin walking to the door, when you feel his hand on the small of your back. The warmth that washes over you can be felt head to toe and you wish that the walk to the door was longer. 

He opens the door for you and the host smiles as she looks at him with puppy dog eyes. You can't exactly blame her. 

“Hey, we have a reservation for Sam!” he says enthusiastically.

She fumbles over the menus and hands them to the server without taking her eyes off of him. I wonder what her deal is?

The server takes you to your table and you take your seat at the small table. A white table cloth and a tea light candle is placed in the middle, the glow reflecting onto Sam's face causing his eyes to take on a special glint you can't seem to look away from. 

“Seems like the hostess was sure taken with you…” you say playfully.

“Nahhhh, she was just starstruck.” he laughs.

“Starstruck?” you ask confused.

Panic crosses his face as he holds up the wine list, “Should we get a bottle?” he asks, changing the subject. 

“We can If you want…” you smile.

“Okay, you can pick.” he replies.

“Red or white?” you ask.

“Dealer’s choice.” he replies.

“Hmmm, you're no help...how about a Cab?” you ask.

“Lovely.” he smiles. 

The waitress comes to your table, greeting you and reading out the dinner specials, all of them sounding amazing. You order the bottle of wine and eagerly await its arrival, as you and Sam look over the menu.

“See anything you like?” he asks.

“Yeah, I think I am going to get the special she was talking about. What about you?” 

“Oh I definitely see something I like, but I’m going with the butternut squash dish. Sounds intriguing.” he smiles.

The waitress returns with two glasses and the bottle of red wine, uncorking it and pouring it into the glasses, leaving the bottle on the table. 

Sam lifts his glass to you, “To unlikely circumstances, working out favorably.” he says with a wink.

You feel your cheeks blush, as you tap your glass to his. He is such a smooth talker.

“Cheers, Sam.” you smile.

“Cheers beautiful.” he replies.

Beautiful? You could get used to that...

The waitress returns and takes your order, whisking away the menus, as you sip your wine. The chat continues with more subtle flirting, and you were totally eating it up, hanging on his every word. Even feeling brave and throwing in a few of your own flirtatious remarks.

“Why did you agree to come with me tonight, Y/N?” he asks. 

Feeling a little fuzzy from the alcohol, you reply, “Because you’re cute, and sweet, and you asked.” you giggled.

“You think I’m cute and sweet?” he taunts.

“Well, yeah, and you’re fun and easy to talk to. What reason did I have to say no?” you add.

“Wow, the compliments just keep coming…” he laughs.

“Stop or I will take it all back.” you say.

“Well, I am glad you agreed to come. I would have thought about you the whole time I was sitting here if you hadn’t.” he says.

He would?

“Oh really…” you press.

His eyes flick up to yours as he takes another long sip of his wine, “Actually…I haven’t stopped thinking about you since I met you last night. Then, I got to spend the day with you, got to know you a little bit… not to mention you are gorgeous. I was really hoping you’d come.” he smiles.

“Sam, you flatter me…” you laugh, tipping your glass of wine to your lips. “But for what it’s worth, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you either. There's something about you...”

His eyes grow dark and travel down to your lips, “Good to know…” he breathes.

The waitress arrives with your meals, and places them in front of you, refilling each of your glasses of wine, effectively polishing off the bottle. 

Intentions are exchanged silently as you eat, eyes never leaving each other for too long. With pure confidence rushing through your veins you slide your foot along the inside of his leg under the table. The act catches him off guard as a smile forms at the corners of his mouth.

“Mmmm… careful, we still have to get through dessert.” he warns playfully.

You place your fork over your plate and lean slightly forward in your chair, “I like to have my dessert at home.” you whisper.

You see him swallow nervously as he clenches his jaw and you know you have him. You can tell he is having the same thoughts that you are having.  

You weren’t sure what had come over you, this sudden braveness filling your body. But he liked it, you could tell, and you wanted him.

Your foot continued to rub his leg as you talked, waiting for the waitress to bring the check. You tossed back the rest of your glass of wine and let the warmth wash over your body as you locked eyes with him.

“Thanks for inviting me tonight.” you say.

“Thanks for not making me leave.” he replies.

“It’s too bad you’ll have to sleep on the couch again tonight…” you say playfully.

“I can be pretty convincing…” he replies.

“We’ll see about that.” you say, just as the waitress returns with the check. Sam slides his card into the opening, sending it off without even looking at it.

“Bold.” you quip, raising your eyebrows.

He tosses a smirk back at you as she sets the receipt down on the table, thanking you and walking away. Sam signs the check and places his card in his wallet before standing and walking over to your chair. He slides it out as you stand, and places his arm around your waist. A fire spreads through your chest at his touch. 

“Now, how about that dessert.” he growls into your ear. 

—

The ride back to the cabin is spent with his hand grasping the top of your bare thigh, and it feels exactly like you imagined it would. Soft but firm. His thumb twirls across your skin and you can feel a rough patch on the tip.

The sexual tension is buzzing through the air, and you know as soon as you get through the door you won't be able to push it off any longer. 

You look over at him, his eyes focused on the road ahead, and you think about his lips on yours. You imagine how he will taste, how he will feel… But mostly you wonder how this person who was a complete stranger to you just yesterday, now has you feeling like no one has made you feel in years.

The car pulls into the driveway and he shuts it off, rushing to your door. He takes your hand as you step out and walks with you to the front door. You enter the code unlocking the lock as you both are rushing inside. You throw your purse onto the couch, before spinning around to face him. His hands are flying up to your face, cradling your cheeks as your mouth meets his. 

His lips on yours are like pure silk. Remnants of the bottle of wine still fresh on his tongue. His hand slides down to rest behind your neck,  pulling you in closer to him as you walk backwards towards the couch. Your lips part from his just momentarily, as he speaks, “Fuck, I have been thinking about that all day.”

You laugh as he presses them back to yours, slowly letting them trail down your neck. A sigh leaves your mouth as he kisses your throat, your favorite spot.

You push him back to sit on the couch, and climb over top of him, straddling his legs. He places his hands on your hips, as you lean down to meet his mouth once again. Your tongues swirl together in perfect rhythm as you tangle your fingers into his hair, eliciting a soft groan from his chest.

“Oh, you like that?” you whisper.

“Feels good.” he whines.

Feeling brave you unbutton the rest of the buttons on his shirt, letting it fall open as you run your hands down his chest. His skin is tan and glowing, his cheeks pink from the sun today. He sits up and throws his shirt over to his suitcase, before returning his mouth to your neck and collarbones.

“Sam…” you breathe.

“Yeah, baby. Tell me what you want.” he says. That alone sent a spark right to your core. 

“I want you.” you whisper.

“Oh I have been waiting for you to say that.” he growls, wrapping his arms around your waist and carrying you to the bedroom, his mouth never leaving yours. 

He pushes the door open with his foot and tosses you on the bed. He shuts the door and crawls over the top of you. “You want me, huh?” he asks, peppering your chest with kisses. 

“I want you too. Can I have you?” he whispers against the curve of your breast.

“Please.” you beg.

He sits back on his knees and slides his fingers into the straps of your dress, gently pulling them down your shoulders. He grabs the fabric at your waist and slides it down, slipping it over your legs before throwing it off the bed. 

A groan grumbles in his chest as he rakes his eyes down your body. “Stunning.” he breathes. 

You reach behind you, unclasping your bra and tossing it to the side, leaving you bare beneath him. 

“How about now…” you ask playfully. 

He brings his fingers up to your nipples, twisting the buds until they harden, as you groan at the sensation.

“Even better, shit.” he says, shaking his head. 

He leans down, eyes connected with yours as he flicks his tongue over your hardened flesh causing you to arch up into him. 

“Eager little thing. God you’re so hot.” he says, before taking your nipple into his mouth and sucking the sensitive bud. He repeats the action on the opposite side before pressing a kiss to your sternum. 

He works his way down your stomach, stopping right at the top of your panties. 

He sits back on his knees again, before sliding his calloused fingers over the wetness accumulating on your underwear.  

“Are you ready for me? It looks like you are…” he smirks.

“Take them off, please…” you beg.

“Tsk. Tsk. Begging already…” he says, hooking his fingers into the fabric and sliding them down your legs. “God you are just perfect everywhere aren’t you…” 

He leans down, pressing a kiss to you bare heat, your hips bucking into him as he does it. He places a hand on your stomach to still you as his tongue slides through the wetness, a moan leaving your lips.

“You are so sensitive, you respond to me so perfectly.” he says, before licking another stripe through your heat. 

You feel his fingertip teasing your entrance as his tongue starts to circle your clit. Your breathing begins to grow heavier as the pressure builds in your stomach. 

“Relax, take a deep breath. I’ll get you there.” he says. Just then you feel his finger slide into you, as you tense around him. 

“Shit, Sam.” you whine.

His tongue flicks rapidly over your clit as the pressure continues to grow. He slides a second finger in, rubbing your g spot with every motion. 

"Oh my god, why are you so good with your hands?" you whine.

He smiles as he continues, causing you to tense around him.

“Damn you feel so good on my fingers baby…I don’t know how much longer I can wait.” he breathes.

“Please…now.” you beg.

Pressing one last kiss to your core, he removes his fingers, and fumbles with his belt buckle before unbuttoning his slacks and throwing them to the floor. He climbs back over top of you, pressing a kiss to your lips, letting his tongue trace along your lip ever so slightly. 

You wrap your arm around his waist and pull him down closer to you, needing to feel him immediately. 

He lined himself up with your entrance and pressed into you. You both groaned at the sensation, his length bottoming out inside of you. 

“Fuck, you feel so fucking good.” he whines, eyes squeezed shut.

His hips begin to move and you feel him start to slide out of you before he shoots himself back into you, hitting your sensitive g spot so perfectly.

He grabbed your hips and held you as he began to thrust in and out of you, his hair swaying around his face. The faces he was making as you clenched around him were sending you barrelling towards your release.

You grabbed his hand, and pulled it towards your face, sucking his finger into your mouth. He let out a groan as his hips began to snap into you quicker. You could tell he was getting close by the jagged breathing and the inconsistency of his thrusts, but you were there with him, holding on as long as you could, not wanting this to end. 

“You gonna cum for me sweet thing? Gonna let go and let me feel you all over me?” he asked, short of breath and teetering on the edge.

“Yes… yes, please….” you begged.

“Say my name. Say my name as you cum all over me baby.” he demanded, and with those words you were sent spiraling into your orgasm, his name falling from your lips as you let the sensation wrack through your body. The second his name left your mouth, he was reaching his own climax, spilling inside of you as he groaned through the pleasure. 

He pulled out immediately, watching himself spill from you, with a satisfied look.

You were still breathing heavily, as he made his way to the bathroom, grabbing a wet washcloth. He returned, cleaning you up before himself, still showing that even though his words in the moment were rough and demanding, he was still the gentleman you came to know. 

Still reeling from the euphoria that washed over you, you laid there, a smile plastered to your face as you watched him slide back into the sheets next to you. 

“Oh, you think you’re sleeping in here?” you say playfully. 

“I’m either sleeping in here, or we are both sleeping out there. Either way, I’m not letting you go tonight.” he said, placing a playful kiss on your cheek.

You turn to face him, propped up on your arm, “I can’t believe you were a stranger to me 24 hours ago.” you laughed. 

“We don’t have to be strangers anymore you know…” he says, letting his finger tip trace along your bare shoulder. 

“Well, I think we just got that out of the way, didn’t we?” you laughed.

“I mean, yeah, but I meant like… when the weekend is over.” he trailed off. 

“I'd like that. I like you. Are you leaving in the morning?” you ask.

“Yeah, I have a work call at 9am, I will probably take it from the road.” he answers. 

He gets a funny look on his face as he reaches over you, grabbing your phone from the side table. He holds it in front of your face to unlock it, before going into your contacts. He creates a new contact, and holds the phone over your heads, turning to kiss you on the cheek as he snaps the picture. He types in his number and sends a text to himself, effectively sending himself your number. He leans back over you and sets it back on the table, before placing another gentle kiss on your lips.

“You’re so beautiful, you know?” he says, rolling onto his back.

“You’re only being sweet because I let you fuck me on the first date.” you joke.

“Maybe. But I plan to fuck you after the second, third, fourth, and every one after that.” he replies.

You roll over and turn off the lamp, leaving the two of you in the dark silence of the old cabin. 

“You really think you want to do this again?” you ask.

“Yeah baby, I do. You like me for me. Not for who you think I am.” he replies.

Huh?

“What do you mean?” you ask.

“Nothing, let’s go to sleep. It's been a long day.” he whispers, pulling your body into his. You rest your head on his chest, listening to the sound of his heartbeat as you both fall asleep in the bed, meant for two.

—

The morning came early, both of you packing your things, and wishing you had more time together. You shared a kiss goodbye, and felt hopeful that you two would see each other again in Nashville soon. After all he did promise you another date right?

Packing your suitcase into your trunk, you took one last look at the cabin, and laughed at how crazy this weekend ended up being. You got into your car, still shaking your head and pulled away wondering if you’d ever be back. As you finally got onto the interstate you had better radio signal, and could finally pick up a few channels. You scanned along until you found one that wasn’t fuzzy. 

You listened in as the radio host spoke, and let your mind wander as he talked in the background. As the new hour rolled in, a new host came on the air, talking about a band touring this summer for their new album and making a stop in Nashville. Intrigued you turned up the volume to listen in and see if you would be interested in going. 

She played their new single and much to your surprise you loved it. It was nothing like you’d ever heard before. Just as it ended the host said that one of the members was joining her on the air.  ‘I’m joined by Sam Kiszka of Greta Van Fleet, how are you doing today?’

‘Hey! I am doing great, thanks for having me on the show!’

That voice. You would know that voice anywhere.

Sam? Your Sam? No. It couldn’t be right? It was just a coincidence, right?

When she began asking about growing up in Michigan with his brothers you knew it definitely wasn’t just a coincidence. Your heart was racing, surely you just didn’t sleep with a famous musician…He continued to talk, answering her questions, being the perfect gentleman that you knew. Full of jokes and laughter, but also insanely smart when talking about his music. 

You couldn’t believe it. But then it clicked. That’s what he meant last night…

‘You like me for me. Not for who you think I am.’

The interview ended, and you shook your head laughing. His work call, the starstruck hostess, his crazy work schedule… it all made sense. 

You pulled out your phone, and found his contact, the picture of the two of you last night sending a smile to your lips.

You: Just heard the craziest thing on the radio…

Sam: Did you?

Just then, your phone rang through your car speakers, it was him.

“Well hello…” you answered.

“I’m more of a talk on the phone kind of guy…” he laughed.

“Yeah, so I’ve heard…” you replied.

“Did you know that you can’t pick up many radio stations very clearly in the mountains?” you ask.

“Hmmm, really?” he replies.

“Yeah, luckily I was able to find one. A local one, right out of Nashville. 105.9… Ever listen to that one?” you ask playfully.

“You know… it sounds really familiar.” he laughs, knowing he’s been caught.

“How long until you were going to tell me that you are some big famous rockstar?” you ask.

“Mmm… maybe never, or maybe next time I saw you. Oh yeah, I have something really important to tell you. When are you free?” he asked, laughing through the thought.

“Oh really? Well, when did you have in mind?” you laughed. 

“How about tonight?” he replied, you could hear the nerves in his voice.

“It’s a date.”

.

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.

.

.

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@gretavansara@jordie-gvf-admin@starshine-wagner@gretavanfvckface@gretavanmoon@gvfjess @misshunnybeebee@fretaganvleet@gvfpal@joshkiszkas@ascendingtostardust @raviolilegs@sammysprincess@gvfpal@objectsinspvce@lallisonl@gvfpal@raviolilegs@jaketlover@ascendingtostardust @indigostreakmorgan @jakemarrymeibeg@fakeplastiqtree@radmads-gvf

[lunaroserites]

Art and Ice - Doodle

Pairing: Eventual Bucky Barnes x Fem!Reader

Characters: Natasha, Wanda, Pietro, Loki, Bucky, Sam Wilson, Clint Barton, a lot of the avengers cast is mentioned.

Summery: MC asks Bucky to be her focus on her project.

This might a 2 or 3 parter (it's gonna be more because cannot help myself). College AU, our boy Bucky is on the hockey team, and reader is an art major (because I love that trope and couldn't help myself)

Warnings: Not beta'd! All mistakes are my own. Friends fluff, swearing, mentions of college students being college students. Bit of friendly harmless flirting between friends. Bucky is a playboy. Fighting.

Word Court: 2770

Likes, reblogs, comments are appreciated!

Please do not repost, translate or otherwise copy my work elsewhere, without my express permission, thank you! Lunaroserites on tumblr and ao3

Catch up here: Chapter 1 Chapter 2 ❤️

“You think I can just say fuck it and drop out?” The words tumbled out of your mouth quickly as you walked with Nat toward the arena. Practice was in the afternoon today because there was a game tonight. According to Nat our rival team would be here later to do some warm up before the game tonight. 

“Seriously?” She raised a manicured brow at you. 

“Maybe Pietro was right. I should be a drama major,” you whispered, mostly to yourself. You knew you were being over dramatic about the ordeal, but Barnes was an egotistical jerk and he was going to make this project hell. Was that a pessimistic take on it? Maybe. Were you wrong? Probably not. 

You pulled your school hoodie tighter, winter's grasp was holding on tight this year. The wind nipped at your nose and cheeks as you both made your way into the arena. Once inside the main doors heat blasted at you, you rubbed your arms with your hands and looked at Nat who was doing the same. 

“You are dramatic. But it’s gonna be fine,” her confidence almost made you believe her. Originally you were just going to wait and ask him outside the arena, in hopes maybe his cocky, surefire attitude would be on the back burner. But Nat said practice was amping up now as the season drew closer to playoffs and the team would be traveling a lot more. Nat led us to our seats next to the bench, another woman was sitting there already. 

“Peggy!” Nat said cheerfully, as she sat down next to her. 

“Natasha!” she said cheerfully back. “Who’s this?” She smiled at you. You waved and introduced yourself.

“Oh you’re the one doing the art project? Steve mentioned it,” she asked. 

You nodded, “news travels fast?” you laugh a little weirded out how she already knew. 

“Hockey players gossip worse than fishermen wives in the locker room...”

“And out of it,” Nat added with a laugh, Peggy chuckled as well.

 “And Barnes can’t shut up about the fact you drew him,” Peggy said with an eyeroll. Right, you thought. Peggy probably spent a decent time around him, since Steve and him were best friends, from your understanding it was rare to see one without the other. 

“I’m not surprised,” you chuckled, looking down at your sketchpad. The night before you stayed up and watched videos of Barnes’ best plays and a couple of his interviews. There were some very detailed pictures of his face there. You quickly turned to a black page so Nat wouldn’t see it and poke fun. When you found a muse, it was hard for you to focus on anything but it. You could feel the hole you were digging getting bigger and bigger. 

“Fuck,” you glared at Barnes as he slammed into the glass in front of you, startling you. He had his helmet lifted and he was giving you a bright and flirty smile. You raised an eyebrow at him and shook your head, uninterested in his antics. He slipped his helmet down and pushed back, skating backwards, he moved so fluidly, you couldn’t help but pay attention. 

“Oi! Barnes. Pay attention,” someone snapped, you looked towards the voice and stared for a moment. 

“Coach Fury,” Nat said to you, “the only person that can get Barnes to pay attention besides Steve,” she finished. You nodded before looking back at the players. Your eyes were drawn to a smaller player, he wore a 12 on his back, Stark. He had been in one of your business classes you took in your second semester. He was an interesting guy, cocky and arrogant, he also came from money. His father was the owner of Stark Industries. He was speeding up and down the ice with ease. 

“12, he's fast,” you murmured to Nat, who nodded.

“He broke a record last year, his size makes it easier for him to zoom around,” Nat answered as she looked down at my paper, “Barnes really has your eye doesn’t he, this is like the Hela thing all over again,” she chuckled.  

“Yeah,” you blushed deeply and looked back down at your paper. You really wished one of the other teammates caught your attention, if Clint did this would be much simpler. But of of course the school hot shot had to be one to catch your eye.

“Hey,” Nat lifted your chin and made you look at her. “It’s fine, muses come and go. That’s how art is,” she smiled, that was one thing you loved about Nat, she never questioned or made fun of your muses or how ridiculous an idea you had was when it came to your art. She would poke fun, and make silly jokes, but nothing harmful. Just good natured fun. Her support was unwavering and true. 

Nat was a dancer, she was studying dance and dance theory. That’s how you two met, you accidently stumbled into one of the dance studios after hours instead of the art room. She was there practicing, and made small talk with you. You ended up just sitting on the dance room floor and working on your project talking with her as she practiced. 

“You know what’s funny, I didn’t think about dance for this project,” you chuckled after you relaxed a little. Nat’s face broke into a wide smile. 

“It would be the same as Pietro and the track team, but at least we look cute in our dance attire,” she mused lightly. You laughed loudly at her comment. 

“You really hate those track uniforms,” you shook your head as you chuckled some more. Clint zipped passed a moment later and Nat‘s eye followed him like a magnet. “Goodness, you’re so in love, it’s sickening,” you mused, she pushed your shoulder playfully. 

“How long have you two known one another?” Peggy asked. 

“Since first semester,” you answered her with a smile. 

“You guys are such good friends, I would have expected childhood bestfriends,” Peggy said, as she smiled at Steve who skated by. 

“We just clicked,” you shrugged, returning to your sketchpad. 

Practice drew to a close a little while later and you followed behind Nat and Peggy as they made their way back toward the locker room. There were a few girls, including Pepper Potts, Starks on again/off again girlfriend. Every other week Nat would be talking about it. The girl Bucky had on his arm last time was missing from the group of girls waiting for the players to leave the locker room. First out was Clint, and he made a beeline for Nat, instantly pulling her into a hug and pressing his nose into her neck, she squealed a little as his cold nose made contact with her skin.

Peggy excused herself to go wait by the door for Steve who emerged with Barnes a moment later. She whispered something in Steve’s ear and pointed over at you with a smile. Steve nodded and waved with a small smile of his own. Barnes followed his gaze and instantly he perked up when he noticed you. He swaggered toward you, past the gaggle of girls waiting to try and get his attention, you noticed a couple of them glare in your direction. You stood with your arms crossed over your chest, sketch book tucked against your side. You looked up at him as he came up to you making a complete stop a foot in front of you. He really didn’t care about personal space, you took one step back so you didn't have to crane your neck as much to look him in the face.

“And what do I owe the pleasure today Doodle,” you cocked an eyebrow at the nickname, and squinted slightly. The nickname didn’t make you scrunch your nose or want to gag so it wasn’t the worst. You sighed heavily and danced on the balls of your feet for a moment. He just stared, watching you intently, a dumb cocky smirk plastered on his face. 

“Would you let me draw you for my art project?” You asked, you wished the weight bearing down on your shoulders lifted but it didn’t. You dreaded the thought of spending more time with this menace of a man. His lip twitched further upward and showed some of his perfect white teeth. 

“Ah Doodle, I thought you'd never ask,” he ruffled your hair with one of his big hands. You groaned and moved your head from him and tried to fix your hair. 

“Don’t touch me, please,” you said sternly. “I just need permission to draw you and use your likeness.” 

“Ah don’t be like that,” he moved forward and you stepped backwards and to the right, dodging him. He huffed in annoyance and you stared at him with your arms crossed again and slight scowl. “Will you be at the game tonight?” He asked, finally standing upright, his own arms crossed across his broad chest. 

“Seats are sold out besides the reserved seats for team partners,” you stated, “so no not tonight.”  

“There's always a seat reserved for my girl, you can have that one,” he stated matter of factly. 

“I’m not your girl,” you said back firmly. “This whole thing is for my art project,” you moved your hand jestering to both of you, “it ends once my project is done.” 

You couldn’t quite place the look on his face after you said that, but you could pick up the small look of challenge in his eyes. It seemed he was making this game, like he was contemplating how long it would be before you would cave and give him what he wanted. Another notch in his bed post. From what you could tell based on his body language alone he was not used to being rejected. Women usually flaunted over him and fell in his lap, all he had to do was choose who he wanted at that moment. Your determination to not be one of those girls was considered a challenge to him, met head on with stubborn determination to break you down and get what he wanted in the end. That made your stomach twist at the thought, he only wanted to do this to sleep with you, have some fun and then dump you off on Loki’s lap heart broken. 

You shook your head, lost in your own thoughts. Barnes was still looking at you, a contemplative look on his face. He had his chin in his hand as he rubbed it, “this will be fun, see you tonight Doodle.” You glared at him as he walked away, twirling his keys around his finger. 

“Jerk,” you said softly to yourself before you made your way over to Nat and Clint. 

“Well that went better than I expected,” Nat said quietly as the three of you left the rink until you had to be back later. 

A sleek black car was parked at the curb, you waved goodbye to Nat and Clint as you ran over to the car and slid into the passenger seat, you rolled the window down and shouted “goodbye! See you later,” Nat waved and they continued walking. 

“Hey Loki!” You said cheerfully. 

“Hello darling, I take it asking Barnes went well?” He asked as he put the car in drive and pulled out from the curb. 

“It went alright. The cocky bastard,” you clipped your belt in place and turned your head to look at Loki fully. “He’s already flirting with me,” you shook your head in annoyance. 

“At least he has good taste darling,” Loki said sweetly as we sped down the freeway into town to have an early dinner.

“Have fun darling,” Loki shouted out the open window of the car as he dropped you off at the arena. You turned back and gave him an unamused smile and flipped him off. 

“Yeah, fuck you,” you said with a slight laugh and turned away, waving, “love you dork,” you said over your shoulder. Nat was waiting just inside the arena for you and led you to your seats. 

“So one of the perks of dating hockey players? Free seats?” You mused sitting down next to her, the arena was still pretty empty as the game didn’t start for 45 minutes. 

“One of them,” she chuckled. Warm ups started and Clint stopped for a moment in front of us and lifted his helmet.

“Hey girls,” he said with a smile before darting off to warm up. 

“Looks like Barnes just noticed us,” Nat said as he skated over. 

“He had me clocked from the parking lot,” you grumbled. Nat laughed loudly and placed her hand on your shoulder wiping a tear from her eye. 

“You’re not wrong,” she said between giggles. Barnes skated forward and came to stop sending glittering flecks of shaved ice toward the glass. 

“Nat, Doodle, how's my new favourite girl?” He asked with a cocky smile. You rolled your eyes, and placed your cheek on your hand as you looked at him with a deadpan expression, Nat smirked next to you. You watched as Barnes ran his tongue over his teeth, he then winked and skated off to join warm ups. 

“Do the woman he dates actually like that attitude?” You mused absently as you doodled on the open page of your sketchbook. Nat shrugged.

“Honestly, they’re probably more interested in his looks, and don’t care about anything else. That or the potential paycheck he’ll be earning if they can tie him down long enough,” She said softly. Your gut twisted uncomfortably at that, and you grimaced. Sure the guy was an arrogant prick, but he deserved better than that. Nat noticed your facial expression and nodded. “It’s not really fair, there's moments when he’s more than the arrogant show off, he’s pretty sweet. I think he’s just gotten used to hiding it; he doesn't bother being anything else.” 

“Be what they expect of you and no one will question it,” you hummed. You mindless doodles turned into a simple sketch of his face. You admired the sharpness of his jaw, his mouth set in a soft line that was slightly upturned.  

The game started, and you were too focused on watching Barnes skate to really watch the game. Not that you really understood the sport enough to really understand what was happening in front of you. First intermission passed and they were half through the second period when a black punk landed on your sketch pad. It startled you and your head shot up and you meant Barnes eyes. Nat was giggling next to you as you picked the offending puck up and handed it to the kid sitting behind you, who happened to be wearing a Barnes jersey. The kids day was made and Barnes’ narrowed his eyes at you. You smirked back in return and went back to drawing. 

The crowd erupted in loud chants as Barnes scored with less than a second left in the third period, winning the game for your college. You watched as Barnes skated around celebrating his goal only for the captain of the other team to get up in his face. You tensed up as you watched the guy push Barnes shoulders and then grab his protective gear getting in his face. 

So the rest of the team came to investigate and there was an all out brawl on the ice right in front of you. You stood up and looked down. Barnes was on top of the captain, his fist raised and he was breathing heavily. 

“Bucky,” his name left your lips before you could stop it and he had to have heard you because his face tilted in your direction for a fraction of a second and the captain took that as an opportunity to flip Barnes over and bring a hard fist down on the bridge of his nose. You shrieked as blood gushed out of Barnes’ nose. Nat was standing next to you as you both watched in horror. 

You turned your head and saw your college coach hopping the bench and helping refs break it up. Steve hauled the other team's captain off his best friend and shoved him into the arms of other teammates who pulled him further away. Steve helped Barnes up and took his face in his hands, Barnes just gave him a dopey smile. His gaze turned to you for a moment and he smiled a bigger smile.  You looked at him with wide eyes and your mouth agape, horrified. 

The captain of the other team didn’t look like he fared much better. He was bloody and his eye was swelling shut with each passing second. Coach Fury looked pissed, and was stalking over to the other teams coach for a few words, a ref following close behind.

Taglist: @vicmc624, @calwitch, @learisa, @aaqua-tofana

Feel free you send me a message if you have a request or would like more, or would like to be added to the tag list <3

[queen-of-deans-booty]

A Big Misunderstanding

Pairing: Lucifer x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~1.9k

Warnings: relationship angst, giving the silent treatment, fluff at the end

Request by anon: I wanted to ask for spn lucifer x reader…they are married she would have been a hunter in the past, but she left the business with him, "giving up" on being the devil, and they actually like live normal life…once she gives him the silent treatment because he was "mean" to sam and dean (they are like brothers), and he just He does little things to kind of get her off her chest so she can talk to him (even if it's shouting), and when she tries to do or fix the little things he did/ or broken but without talking to him yet he just goes to the guys (the brothers, cass and jack) for help and apologizes just to make it up to her!!! (the boys make fun of him but he accepts defeat because not talking to her is worse than having people irritate him

Summary: Your passion is sewing and you love to make clothes and blankets for people, especially the Winchesters whom you consider to be family. When you overhear a conversation you shouldn't have heard, you get pissed enough at Lucifer to give him the silent treatment. Best thing? He has no idea what he's done but he'll try hard to make it right.

Square Filled: never go to bed on an argument for @as-the-saying-goes-bingo (deleted bingo)

Author’s Note: any and all comments are appreciated <3

x

Three down only ten more to go. You have a lot of people who want to buy dresses from you so you’re slowly making your way through the list of orders from people. You’re only on the first order but you’ve gotten done three of the thirteen items they wanted. Sewing and making clothes and blankets is your dream. You love making things people can wear or snuggle with, and you’ve always had this passion ever since you could write.

You’d draw your designs and show your mom who was also a seamstress for a clothing store. She entertained your ideas and gave you a small sewing kit that you’d use to make your Barbie’s clothes. She was so impressed that she got you into sewing classes as soon as possible. You started off making small things like gloves, oven mitts, baby clothes, and other easy projects before working your way up to the harder items.

Now, you have your own business that is run by you and only you, and you work out of your home. You don’t have the money to buy a big store or hire employees. Plus, you kind of like doing it all by yourself. At least you can look at someone wearing your clothes and say, “Yes, I made that all on my own.” or “They’re wearing an original Y/N.”. You pour love and pride into every piece you make and it shows.

The door opens and your husband walks in with a look of confusion.

“Have you been here all day?”

You look at him like you were just caught with your hand in the cookie jar.

“I have orders to make.”

“Being in your room all day isn’t going to help you. You need to get out and move around.” You know he’s right, and your ass is hurting from sitting all day. You nod in agreement and get up, setting your project aside for now. “Come on, let’s go on a walk.”

Never did you think you’d ever go on a brisk walk with the actual devil. The neighborhood you live in is very mellow so you go a few laps around it.

“Want to hear what I’m working on?”

“Sure.”

“So, Janice across the street asked for baby clothes for her daughter’s kid, Bruce and David want some slacks for David’s new job next month, and Ruby from the diner wants a blanket. Ooh! What if I make us another blanket?”

“Darling, we have eighty blankets in the house already.”

“And?”

“We have enough,” Lucifer laughs and kisses the top of your head.

Who is he and what has he done with your husband? He is so not the man you met years ago. He was so much harder and meaner than he is now. After Sam killed Lilith and brought the devil out of the cage, he was one of the meanest men you’ve ever met. His behavior and attitude were atrocious.

It didn’t get any better even after Sam let him in so he could trap him in the cage with Adam and Michael. The cage stayed closed for five years until Amara was released because Dean got his Mark removed from his arm by the Book of the Damned. Lucifer convinced Castiel that he could possess him so that he could leave the cage, and he wreaked havoc on the world because of it. After Amara expelled him from Castiel’s body, he disappeared for a while. He decided that he was going to be done with all this shit.

That’s when you came back into his life. He met you again after he had come to terms with living a simple life. Sam and Dean had pissed you off enough that you wanted to be solo for a while, and you and Lucifer formed a relationship. The Winchesters weren't thrilled to hear you had a thing for the devil, but they trusted you enough to know what you were doing.

You had scammed your way into a very nice resort where he was staying and hit it off. Eventually, you got married to him. You’re not a hunter anymore, he’s not the devil anymore, it’s just you and him until death parts you. Lucifer’s changed behavior is all because of you. Before you, he was angry at the world for what his dad did to him but after you, he wanted to live for you and for you only.

Only after you’ve finished with all of your commissions, you start working on some stuff for the Winchesters. Winter is coming up, and the Bunker has a terrible heating system. You figured they could use a few extra jackets, shirts, and blankets.

They gave you a key to the Bunker should you ever need to use it, so you let yourself in carrying the clothes. Sam and Dean are talking to someone in the library so they don’t notice you coming down the metal staircase in the war room. Suddenly, Lucifer’s voice is heard, and you look at the entryway in confusion. Why is he here? What does he want from the brothers?

“I can’t trust you to do anything! You two are brainless, hairless apes who have no idea what the fuck you’re doing!”

“Maybe next time give us better instruction,” Dean argues.

“God, you had one job and you managed to fuck that up. Typical,” he scoffs.

Why is he being so mean to Sam and Dean? You’re hurt he’d say such vile and mean things to the two men you consider family. You leave the clothes on one of the control panels before leaving the Bunker quickly. You don’t let them know you were ever here. If Lucifer wants to resort to who he was before, then he can but you’re not going to stand by him.

Lucifer comes home hours later in a good mood. You’re in the kitchen cooking food for yourself when he enters. He frowns when he sees enough food for one person in the pan.

“Is that food for both of us?” he asks. You don’t answer him and continue to cook in silence. “Y/N?” Still, no answer. “Darling, are you okay?” No answer. “Are you ignoring me? What did I do?” Again, no answer. “Y/N?”

You don’t go to bed that night because you and Lucifer have a thing where you never go to bed on an argument. Instead, you make more clothes. Lucifer didn’t go to bed either mostly because he kept thinking about why you’re ignoring him. What did he do to piss you off? In the morning, he goes to the room where you make your clothes to try and talk to you but finds the door is locked.

“Y/N, open the door.” No answer. He can hear your sewing machine so he knows you’re in there. “Come on, darling, open the door.”

He is at a loss for words because he doesn’t understand what he did to make you like this. He gives you the space you need for the morning, but you need food eventually so you leave the room in search of some. Lucifer is in the kitchen when you get there but you make no move to acknowledge him.

Lucifer is drinking some water and reading a newspaper. He finishes the water before dropping the glass on the ground. The glass shatters and he watches your reaction to it. He doesn’t care if all you’re going to do is yell at him. He just wants you to do something. You pause and look at the glass on the ground before grabbing the broom. You don’t say a word as you clean it up and throw it away.

“I just broke a glass! You should be pissed at me. Yell at me! Something!” Lucifer gasps. Again, you don’t respond to him. “Fuck!” He walks over to you and points his finger in your face but doesn’t actually touch you. He knows you fucking hate this which is why he’s doing it. He’s such a fucking child. “I’m not touching you. You can’t get mad at me because I’m not touching you.”

You stand still and wait for him to be done before moving around him and heading back to your room to sew. Lucifer doesn't know what to do so he visits the Winchesters in search of answers. Castiel and Jack are in the room, too. Great, more people to witness this humiliation.

“Here to berate us some more?” Dean asks.

“I need your help,” he sighs.

“What?”

“I said I need your help.”

Before Sam can answer, Dean cuts in.

“Sorry, let me just take in this moment. You need us. Isn’t that something?”

“Don’t be an ass.”

“No, I definitely will.”

“What do you need?” Sam asks.

“Y/N isn’t talking to me. She’s ignoring me and I have no idea what I did to piss her off. What do I do? I don’t care if she yells at me. I need her to do something.”

“Sorry, can’t help you there, buddy,” Dean shrugs.

“Does she know you’re an ass?” Castiel asks seriously.

“Yeah, let’s make fun of me. Seriously, you’re so funny.” Lucifer mocks laughs in their faces, ready to punch the shit out of them. “What do I do?”

“Have you tried apologizing?” Jack asks.

“I don’t know what I should be apologizing for.”

“It doesn’t matter. All women want to hear is that you’re sorry. Try that. It might get her talking,” Dean sighs.

Lucifer goes home with more questions than answers. Still, he thinks about their words the whole way home. When he gets there, you’re in the living room watching one of your shows. As soon as you know he’s there, you tense and turn the volume up on the TV. He walks around to face you but you don’t look at him.

“Darling, I am so sorry.”

“For what?” you ask and look at him.

Lucifer opens his mouth to answer but nothing comes out. You scoff as you get up from the couch. You go to leave the room but Lucifer is hot on your heels.

“I am sorry, but you can’t expect me to read your mind to figure out why you’re so pissed at me. You have to communicate, darling. What did I do?”

“You berated Sam and Dean and put them down for what? ‘You two are brainless, hairless apes who have no idea what the fuck you’re doing!’ Does that ring a bell? You treat them like shit.”

“I’ve said worse things to them.” You cross your arms angrily. “Look, I am sorry. I have a really bad temper, and I was trying to surprise you with something. I needed their help getting it but they did it wrong. It pissed me off because I wanted it to be perfect for you.”

“What is it?”

Lucifer takes you to one of the unfinished rooms in the house. You never got around to actually finishing it, but Lucifer has been working on it without you knowing. You walk in and gasp at what you see. Machines are lined up on the back wall, rolls and rolls of fabric hang off tubes, mannequins are in the other corner, and everything else you need to have a successful sewing business.

“I wanted it to be perfect and I took it out on them. I’m sorry you had to hear that.”

You rush into the room and admire everything he’s done for you. He’s trying to apologize but you’re too busy being excited.

“Is this all for me?!”

“Yeah, everything,” he smiles. “Do you like it?”

“Like it? I love it!!”

“Am I forgiven?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Not talking to you was killing me.”

Lucifer pulls you into him and kisses you, glad to have overcome this with you.

x

Follow my library blog @aqueenslibrary​​​​​​​​​​​​ where I reblog all my stories, so you can put notifications on there without the extra stuff :)

[fsbc-librarian]

Hi! I hope you are good! Feel free to mention some of your works that aren't yet posted to tease us all with the potential we're waiting for!

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Spread the self-love! <3

I don’t have many more works than 5 😂 here are some of my favourites 💜

This took me over a year to write, and I was so insanely nervous before I posted it, but I’m so so proud of it. It’s still my most popular fic by hits/kudos (and it recently got a short one shot sequel).

Summary: Bucky looked at Steve. Steve carefully did not look at Bucky.

“You didn’t tell him?” Becca asked, pausing in the doorway. Steve shook his head.

“He only just got here. Besides, I thought you would have told him over the phone,” Steve grumbled, now also carefully not looking at Becca.

“He is also standing right the fuck here,” Bucky snapped. “In case you both forgot.”

“Steve,” Bucky started, quietly, purposely not looking at either of them now. “Why is Becca your doctor?”

Neither Steve nor Becca answered him. Bucky looked up. Becca was watching Steve, who was staring intently at a wrinkle in the sheet covering the bed he was sitting on.

“Why is Becca your doctor right now?” He asked again, more forcefully, this time looking to his sister. “And why are we in the fucking family rooms?”

*****

Steve’s a marathon runner. He’s still friends with his ex-alpha, his life revolves around training, work, and Bucky, his best friend. He’s also 6 months pregnant and he doesn’t know who the sire is. If he ignores his problems, they’ll go away, right?

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers

Characters: Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes, Lorraine, Rebecca Barnes Proctor, Winifred Barnes, Howling Commandos, Tony Stark, Natasha Romanov (Marvel)

Additional Tags: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Mpreg, Slow Burn, Friends to Lovers, hidden pregnancy, Secret pregnancy, New York Marathon, Mechanic Bucky Barnes, Marvel Cameos, Easter Eggs, so many easter eggs, Rating for later chapters, Anal Sex, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Fuck Or Die, Hand-Wavey Medical, Pining, Mutual Pining, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Oblivious Steve Rogers, Oblivious Bucky Barnes, Mildly Dubious Consent, only because both of them want it but both think the other doesn't

✨✨✨✨✨

Summary: Bucky Barnes is running from his problems. He's housesitting for his best friend while she's on her honeymoon - the almost a year prior that he's been staying in her house doesn't count - when he's woken in the middle of the night by an angel and a demon. Okay, maybe they're not a literal angel and demon, but Steve Rogers *looks* like an angel, and his daughter Charli certainly *acts* like a demon.

The father/daughter duo are running from their own problems, but that doesn't mean that they can't crash headlong into one another's lives. Throw in a cursed book for good measure, and it's about to get a whole lot more interesting.

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers

Characters: James "Bucky" Barnes, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Sam Wilson (Marvel), Original Children of Peggy Carter and Steve Rogers

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Author!Bucky, Architect!Steve, Peggy Carter & Steve Rogers Friendship, Human Disaster Bucky Barnes, Homophobic Language, Cursed Book, Eavesdropping, Past Bucky Barnes/Brock Rumlow, Past Bucky Barnes/Alexander Pierce, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Steve's Daughter has a British Accent, Gay Steve Rogers, Gay Bucky Barnes, Anal Sex, Angry Sex, meet ugly, Top Steve Rogers, Bottom Bucky Barnes

✨✨✨✨✨

Summary: An Avengers fundraising event in Las Vegas takes a left turn, and Captain America wakes up with a brand new spouse and no way to get a divorce. Coupled with Tony Stark's current obsession with reality dating shows, obviously nothing can go wrong, right?

Bucky Barnes isn't even Tony's PA - Pepper is his actual boss - and he does not have time to even date anyone, let alone be married to one of the most famous people in the world, especially not with a sick sister and precocious niece at home depending on him. He just needs to keep his head down, and wait it out til they can get a divorce. Easy, right?

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers

Characters: Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes, Tony Stark, Thor (Marvel), Clint Barton, Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Happy Hogan, Jennifer Walters, Darcy Lewis

Additional Tags: Accidental Marriage, Shrunkyclunks | Modern Bucky Barnes/Captain America Steve Rogers, pa bucky barnes, Captain America Steve Rogers, alcohol consumption, Crack Treated Seriously, Sort Of, mentions of illness, Cancer, Hand-Wavey Legals, There Was Only One Bed, Kidfic, Public Sexual Acts, Oral Sex, Anal Sex, Teasing, Bottom Steve Rogers, Top Bucky Barnes, light Dom/sub tones

✨✨✨✨✨

Summary: How do you mourn for someone who isn’t dead? That’s the big question, and so far, Bucky hasn’t been able to answer it.

He’d fought for seventy years, even when he didn’t remember his own name, when he didn’t know he was a person. Always the first memory to come back to him was a set of blue eyes, touched with a tiny bit of green. The whisper of a voice in his ears, the flash of memory that someone should be there, right beside him.

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers

Characters: Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes

Additional Tags: no happy ending, Angst, Hallucinations, Depression, Suicidal Thoughts, Anger, Unrequited Love, Canon Compliant, Not A Fix-It

✨✨✨✨✨

Summary: He's not sure how it happened. One moment, he was the Winter Soldier, and the next he's working in a Brooklyn coffee shop, where the prickly owner is someone who treats him like a person, not a machine. And just maybe, he can be a person again.

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers

Characters: James "Bucky" Barnes, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Sam Wilson (Marvel), Yelena Belova, John Walker (Marvel)

Additional Tags: Captain America John Walker (Marvel), Former Captain America Sam Wilson, Shrinkyclinks | Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes/Non-Serum Steve Rogers, Coffee Shops, Coffee Shop Owner Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes Recovering, Minor Character Death, Past Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Amnesia, memory problems, Hand Wavey Medical, Sad, Feelings, Gay Bucky Barnes, Bisexual Steve Rogers, Gay Sex, Anal Sex, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence

✨✨✨✨✨

Upcoming fics

Sympathy for the Devil

Summary: Alpha Bucky Barnes has been a headlining rock star for over 20 years, both as the lead singer of the band The 107, and as a solo artist. The Reunion World Tour of The 107 also features the up-and-coming punk rock band SHIELD, with lead singer (omega) Steve Rogers. The chemistry is undeniable, and when one thing leads to another, Steve Rogers finds himself with an unexpected souvenir.

Working Title: Runaway

Summary: rich kid Bucky Barnes is an omega who has had to pretend to be a beta his whole life, until he’s faced with something that will literally change his life. So, he does the only thing he can think of - he runs away. Right into the dive bar owned by ex-army captain, and alpha, Steve Rogers.

[peanutbutterandbananasandwichs]

“I'm gonna find a diner, dig into the lore."

-

“Can I get you anything else honey?”

Sam gives a reflexive little jolt in the plasticky, vinyl seat of the corner booth he’s tucked into, he looks up and sees the waitress who’d brought him the solitary cup of coffee he’s been nursing since he arrived an hour ago.

“Sorry,” she says, voice soft, concerned little half smile on her face, “didn’t mean to scare ya!”

Sam feels warmth flood his cheeks, embarrassed. He really needs to get a better handle on his startle response, he thought he’d been getting better lately, with the Mark finally off Dean’s arm. But she’d taken him by surprise, absorbed as he’d been in a treatise on a specific subspecies of Vetala, native to the area he and Dean were headed. He’d told Dean he was going to dig into the local lore, probably this was digging too deep, but he enjoyed letting himself go down a rabbit hole when he had the opportunity. It felt like that wasn’t often these days, there was always something bigger looming on the horizon.

“I’m alright,” he replies, trying to sound relaxed “just a refill on the coffee if that’s ok.”

“Sure thing.” she leans in and grabs his cup. Sam catches a waft of her perfume, something warm and woody, hint of vanilla, and a floral scent of jasmine; a late summer’s evening lingering in the air just before dusk. Something flutters in the pit of his stomach, a sensation he’s not felt in . . . in a while. He swallows, watches as she turns and heads back to the counter. He squeezes his eyes shut, takes a breath, getting hold of himself. Everything drops away. Absently he twists his fingers together, thumb grazing over the palm of his left hand. His eyes open. The sounds and smells of the diner come rushing back: chink of cutlery on cheap china, low hum of voices interspersed with bursts of laughter, coffee and burger grease fighting each other for dominance. He drops his hands to the table, it feels solid beneath them.

There’s a small “thunk”. Another cup of coffee appears. Sam turns to thank the waitress, but she’s sliding into the seat opposite him. She smiles at him again, full smile this time, flash of pearly white teeth, and her eyes crinkle in the corners. “Hope you don’t mind?” she asks, sliding a plate with a pastry towards him. It's fresh and warm, little tendrils of steam coiling from it. “I know you said you just wanted coffee, but you look like you need it.”

“Thanks”, now that it’s there Sam can feel his stomach rumbling. He’d told Dean he was starving before he’d headed here, and then as usual he’d got caught up and forgotten all about food. He reaches forward and pulls the plate the rest of the way across the table.

“I uhh, I just finished my shift.” her voice is low, and she lets her false lashes drop slowly as she speaks, grazing her cheekbone. Oh! Sam looks at her again, properly this time, she’s pretty, really pretty, soft lips, cute nose, gently hooded brown eyes, long blonde hair that she’s just letting out of a ponytail. He hadn’t come here for this, and if he’s being honest with himself he usually would have smiled politely, said “another time” and then vanished off into the night. Certainly, he never would have initiated. He thinks again about the scent of her perfume, god she’d smelt good. Maybe . . . maybe he needs this. Something . . . uncomplicated. ‘You gotta learn to have fun. Seriously, it's pathetic’. His fingers grip the edge of the table again. Making sure.

“I’m Sam.” he mimics her same low tone, shapes his features into something soft and inviting, crooked smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, dimples flashing.

“Piper”, she responds brightly, pleased at the reciprocation. She gestures at the pastry, “You going to eat that?”

Sam breathes a tiny sigh of relief that she didn’t mean right this second. He finds this much easier if he gets to talk to the person first, get to know them at least a tiny bit. As much as you can ever know someone you’ll likely never see again. He’s seen Dean walk up to a girl in a bar, whisper something in her ear, and them leave together, all in the space of five seconds, he’s never been able, never wanted to do that.

He picks up the pastry and takes a bite. This isn’t something he does often either these days, eat something sweet. It's good. Soft and warm, buttery, flaky, a hint of salt balancing out the sweetness.

They chat as Sam finishes eating, sipping his coffee. Piper waves another waitress over and has her bring a cup for her too. Sam watches as they exchange looks, an unsubtle “you go girl” grin on the other woman's face.

Piper’s working here to save up to go to nursing school. And, God, Dean can never know about this, he’s already teased Sam once or twice about having a “type”. She turned 30 last year and just decided she wasn’t gonna stay in this middle of nowhere, barely-a-town forever. She, of course, asks what he does, why he’s here, and as ever he carefully treads around the edges of reality, he’s a repair guy, work takes him all over, family business.

-

They finish their coffees at the same time. She pushes her cup away, looks at him expectantly, softly biting her bottom lip.

Ok.

Standing up from the booth, Sam chucks a ten-dollar note on the table, covering her coffee and the pastry too. She grabs his hand and leads him through a staff door out the back of the building. She meets his eyes, making sure. That calms a buzzing noise somewhere in the back of Sam’s skull. He nods. He wants this. She leans in, pushing him gently up against the wall of the diner, rough brick scraping at his back through his shirt. Their lips meet. He drinks in the smell of her again, feels her hair softly brush against his jaw. Her hand snakes round and clasps the back of his neck, fingertips curling into the short hairs at the nape. Yeah, ok, he needs this. Piper parts her lips and her tongue licks across his, he opens his mouth and lets her in, tastes the lingering ghost of the coffee. Sam shivers. They pull back, foreheads lean together. Piper's breath tickles his nose. Unexpectedly, he lets out a tiny giggle at the sensation. She giggles back.

“I live a bus ride away and I don’t know about you but I don’t think I can wait around for a bus right now...” She starts trailing kisses down his jawline. A faint moan escapes his chest.

They could get a motel. For some reason though he hears himself say “car’s parked just round the corner.” Classy Sam! She raises an eyebrow and for a second he thinks he’s fucked it up, couldn’t exactly blame her. But instead she kisses him again, sloppy and wet, needy. And then.

“Haven’t done that since I was a teenager! Could be fun!”

“Me neither” Sam says. Dean is going to kill him. He slides a hand down her side to settle at her waist, his eyes drifting shut, just taking in the warmth of her radiating through her uniform. Something about body heat and soft flesh under his fingers contrasted with the cold chill of the night air is keeping him here, keeping him present. He fucked a lot the year he was soulless. He remembers it, but the memories are at a distance, a sickening disconnect between himself and the actions of his body. He has to be present for this.

-

The car is definitely not the most convenient place he could have chosen. It really has been a long while since he’s done this, at all, but in the car in particular because he doesn’t remember having to contort himself quite this much to make it work before! Piper doesn’t seem to mind though, so he guesses it's ok. He wonders vaguely if maybe he didn’t suggest a motel because of Amelia. The last time he'd done anything had been in that motel room in Texas that he’d never returned to. He doesn’t know if she did. He never will. So much has happened since then.

-

Piper’s eager to take the lead and he’s more than happy to let her. She’s straddling him, his head and shoulders propped up against one car door, lower back on the seat, feet pressed awkwardly up against the other door. She undoes the buttons of his shirt, leisurely, taking her time. She pushes the plaid aside, slipping it as far off his shoulders as the cramped conditions will allow, pushes his t-shirt up to his neck. Taking in the expanse of firm muscle she rakes her nails across his chest. His back arches against the leather of the seat. Piper gives him a satisfied smile. and gets to work on the buttons of her uniform, shimmying it all the way off, dropping it down into the footwell. She grabs his hands and places them firmly on her breasts. His breath hitches in his chest, she’s looking down at him, playful light dancing in her eyes, and her hair, her blonde hair, is cascading down across her shoulders. He’s slipping. He’s not been with a girl, with anyone, with blonde hair, since. . .

“Are you ok?” She whispers. Oh god. This was supposed to be fun. Fun and uncomplicated, and here goes his stupid brain making it anything but that. Pathetic. He blinks. She doesn’t really look anything like Jess.

“Yeah,” he responds, and he can feel himself blushing. “Yeah, I’m fine.” He means it.

“Ok.”

He slides his hands to her back, fumbling for a second to unhook her bra. He’s sure he used to be quicker at this. The bra falls into the footwell, joining her uniform, silky lace slipping through his fingers.

His hands cup her bare breasts, her skin is soft and supple, and now she’s shed her clothes he can properly feel the warmth of her. She whimpers as he brushes his thumb over a nipple. For the first time, he can feel himself truly relax into this. He wends a hand up into her hair, and uses the leverage of his hand on the back of her head to pull himself up to kiss her. She’s tugging at the fly of his jeans and he gasps softly as her fingers make contact with the hard length of his cock through his boxers. He lets himself feel every ounce of the sensation. He's here, in his body, it's his, no-one else's. The door handle presses hard into his shoulder blade. His free hand trails lightly across her stomach, and down, slipping beneath the fabric of her thong. She buries her face into the crook of his neck, smiling against his skin.

-

He's teetering on the edge, pressure coiling, building. He can't let go, he needs something more to ground him. As if she knows, Piper suddenly grabs hold of his wrists, her fingernails dig into his skin, sharp pin pricks of pain. It's enough.

-

“That was . . .” she’s still breathing hard, struggling to get the words out. Propping herself up, barely, her hands planted either side of his shoulders, looking down at him.

“Yeah,” Sam responds, he leans up and kisses her softly again.

She collapses against his chest, a buoyant little laugh escaping her. Sam curls an arm across her back. There’s no way this is going to be comfortable, for either of them, for long, but maybe they can just rest here, just a little while.

-

“Who are you?” Piper’s confused, maybe somewhat interested, voice rouses Sam.

“Oh!” Dean's tone of surprise rings out across the car.

“Ah, good morning. That's, uh, my brother Dean.” Oh my god.

“Sorry, Sam, I didn't - I didn't realize you had company. Sam can feel Dean's palpable amusement radiating off him.

“Can you uh, give us a minute.”

-

They’ve both somehow managed to get their clothes back on and mostly presentable. Piper steps a foot out of the car, leaning down to say goodbye. “Wait” Sam hears himself say. He pulls his phone out of his pocket. “Do you want my number?” He doesn’t even really know why he’s saying it. It seems like the right thing to do.

She looks at him for a long moment, considering it. “That’s ok.” Maybe she’s seen something on his face. “I really did have a good time though.”

“Me too.” He means it.

She gives him a quick peck on the lips. As Sam cranes out of the car he spots Dean hovering inconspicuously a few feet away, no doubt hoping to catch a fragment of their parting. He can be so fucking nosy sometimes. He already knows he’s not going to let him forget about this for weeks, at minimum. At least he seems to have settled on teasing rather than anger at Sam “violating the sanctity of the car” or some shit.

He leans back in, his head rests against the seat. Lets out a breath. He’d wondered if something would have changed in him. If suddenly he’d feel like doing this again would be easy. It hasn't. Maybe, someday. With someone more permanent. Someone to whom he could even begin to explain the tangled knot that wraps itself around every part of his insides. He really does still want that.

-

Sam's finishing buttoning up his red checked plaid. Dean slips a tape out of the box.

“Dean, I can explain what was going on -” How does Dean still have the ability to make him feel he has to explain himself, flustered like an awkward teenager? Well, maybe the car sex had something to do with that too.

The song starts up. Fucking hell. Yeah he is literally never hearing the end of this.

“Don't “Night Moves” me!” Sam's aiming for indignation but he can't quite get there. Sometimes his brother is just too cheesy to let anything outcompete his fondness.

Somehow he ends up singing with Dean. Plays along with the teasing. Uncomplicated.

“Digging into the lore. Is that what the kids are calling it these days?” Dean says delighted with himself at the quip.

Sam huffs out a little chuckle, tips his head back.

“Man, I needed that,” he says.

He means it.

[ladyofthe-lake]

"Wild Edible Plants of Kansas" — a suptober24 ficlet

Summary:

Dean and Cas are living out the rest of their days, happily retired from the hunting life, in the bunker. Cas gets his hands on some books about foraging. Domestic husbands ficlet.

When Cas learns about foraging, he becomes insufferable. No sooner does he see a foraging account on Instagram than several books about it show up at the door of the bunker, and Dean has to have another talk with him about ordering things to be shipped to their home. No matter how calm things have been for years, he doesn’t like the idea of some mega-corporation having his damn address.

“But Dean, you can just eat food that you find in the wild if you know what to look for,” Cas explains as he spreads the books on the tables that used to be used solely to research monsters, Heaven, Hell, and other manners of the supernatural. Now, they pull out the books occasionally, but more often than not, when Dean and Cas catch a whiff of something weird, they call in another hunter, someone a bit more spry.

They’re getting old, they’re getting soft — something Dean never thought he’d have the chance to do.

“Okay,” he says, leaning against the table with a beer in his hand. “So…” He taps the cover of Wild Edible Plants of Kansas. “This is better than just going to the grocery store how?”

Cas looks at him seriously. “This is all free.”

“Well, everything’s free for us,” Dean points out, a half-smile on his lips, as running credit card scams will never get old and at this point he’d be more surprised if he got caught for it than if the apocalypse were to get restarted.

“No, but this is free for everyone,” Cas replies. “All of the creation of the Earth, just… there for anyone to enjoy and to use.” He avoids saying ‘God;’ he’s careful like that, having moved into a more general spiritual realm since everything that happened. Cas likes to think of them now as creatures of the Earth, everything belonging to a cycle. Dean doesn’t even roll his eyes at the tree of life tapestry that Cas has hung up in the dungeon, where he goes to meditate these days — when they’re not pulling out the restraints and chains for their own use, of course.

“Right, but the grocery store is also—” Dean starts, but Cas cuts him off.

“You don’t understand,” he says. “It’s not the spirit of things. We were meant to all be able to enjoy equally. Capitalism, it’s gotten—”

“Okay, okay.” Dean raises his hands up in surrender. As soon as the word ‘capitalism’ gets thrown into the conversation he knows Cas is headed into lecture territory and Dean doesn’t really need to hear that. “You do you, man. I’m gonna be in the garage, gotta get to work on that GTO.” As he turns to leave, the title on the Foraging Mushrooms book catches his eye and he says, “Just be careful you pick out the right mushrooms. Don’t want to get too crazy tonight with dinner, yeah?”

Cas’s eyebrows furrow but Dean leaves him with that, heading down to the garage to spend a couple hours on his latest restoration project.

It’s more than a few hours, though, and he’s lost in the music his speakers blast throughout the echoing space and the work of getting this car back into its original condition. He doesn’t hear Cas when he enters the garage, so Cas’s arms snaking around him from behind comes as a surprise.

Used to be, he’d have jumped at that, reached for his gun; and while he still knows where the nearest gun is, he doesn’t have it on him, hasn’t been carrying it around at home for a long time.

Now, he knows Cas’s touch well, knows that Cas is the only other one here, that they’re safe. Nothing’s hunting them, nothing’s out to get them; they’ve been left alone now for years, except for Sam’s regular visits.

Dean leans back against him, his hands too greasy to return the touch. “Sorry, got lost in my own world again,” he says, contented, arching his neck to plant a kiss on Cas’s cheek.

“It’s okay. I wouldn’t interrupt but I’ve made dinner and want you to come try it before it gets cold,” Cas replies.

“Alright, let me just clean up here and I’ll be done for the evening.” Dean’s been looking forward to the evenings in particular; he and Cas will curl up on the couch that they’ve put in one of the old storage rooms that now serves as their living room and they’ll put on a movie or TV show. They have to pause frequently so that Cas can ask questions or Dean can explain something he thinks is important for Cas to know, references to other things or information about the world that Cas may not have gotten yet. Their list of what to watch grows ever longer with things Dean wants to catch Cas up on and what he himself has missed over the years, too busy with hunting and demons and angels and all that shit.

If they have energy afterward, they’ll fall into bed together, naked and exploring the familiarity that is one another’s bodies. But if they’re both tired, they’ll fall into their normal positions, Cas’s leg slung over Dean’s, his arm wrapped around Dean’s shoulder, holding him tight. On the nights when the nightmares come, Cas whispers in Dean’s ear that he’ll save him from Hell, he’ll save him from Purgatory, he’ll save him from whatever comes to him, forever — for as long as it takes. And when it’s Cas’s turn for the nightmares, a side effect of being human that he loathes, Dean reverses their positions, wraps himself around Cas, kisses his hair, and murmurs the same reassurances: he’s saved him before, he’ll do it again, and again, and again.

The kitchen, when Dean arrives upstairs, smells delicious. Cas turns away from the stove with a broad smile. “I’ve made risotto,” he says, pronouncing the word like it’s brand new to him, which it probably is. Risotto certainly isn’t on Dean’s regular meal rotation and it’s not served at the restaurants and bars they’ve frequented in the past.

“Risotto?” Dean raises his eyebrows.

“Yes. I found some wild herbs and mushrooms,” Cas explains, dipping a wooden spoon into the pot and filling up a bowl with food.

“Just this afternoon?” Dean asks in surprise.

“Yes, the woods and prairie around here are teeming with wildlife. I told you.” Cas looks at him meaningfully. “The Earth offers up so much for us.”

Dean wanders over to peer into the pot. It does smell very good, and he takes the bowl that Cas offers him. “You checked and you’re sure these ain’t poison mushrooms, or the fun kind?”

“Ah, yes,” Cas says, “there’s a chapter on that in the book. These are edible and are not going to send us on a trip. Though, if you’d like to try some of those type, the Internet has told me that they are easy to acquire.”

Dean’s expression is all amusement as he heads over to the table and sits down. “You’d wanna try shrooms, Cas? Really?”

“It seems like a unique human experience,” Cas says, filling his own bowl and following Dean to the table.

Dean lifts a spoonful of food to his lips and pauses only a second to look up at him. “That it does, Cas. You know, some people take mushrooms to see God. That’d be my biggest worry — I don’t wanna see reruns."

Cas smiles softly at him and beneath the table, Dean feels Cas’s foot press against his own. “Then we can stick with this kind for now,” he replies. “There were many in the woods. We’ll eat like kings for years."

Dean would say his first bite is Heaven, only it’s better — he’s been to Heaven and it’s not what it’s cracked up to be. This, though. This is real; it’s earthy, and he can somehow taste Cas’s hands on it, can picture him in the woods, kneeling to pluck the mushrooms from their soil. He can taste the careful preparation of the meal, the care Cas puts into everything he does.

“Cas, man,” he says, looking up at him. “This is fuckin’ delicious.”

“I’m glad you like it, Dean,” Cas says, watching him in that way that’ll never stop making Dean’s heart skip into a quicker staccato.

Around them, their home is quiet, calm. The bunker is warm and safe, their evening spread before them in its simplicity and domesticity. Dean’s lucky, luckier than he could’ve ever imagined being. Outside, the Kansas night rolls in.