#and ruby…. whew that’s a whole other post
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what a satisfying freakin episode. i keep thinking about how everyone vividly discussing the potential of blake as a leader this volume was dead on like!! this is what she’s been training for her whole life romantic bookworm that she is underneath it all. she is so ready. and ruby even turns to her for advice!! im really impressed with the was blake is being approached and treated by the narrative
#ALL OF THEM REALLY#idk who it was but someone saying the characters were less distinct 7-8#like saying lines anyone could say etc etc etc#i thought of that OFTEN with weiss this episode#like with blake but also yang being a rapscallion#and ruby…. whew that’s a whole other post#and weiss (this is a whole other post too) but WEISS#being so fucking done with everything#completely lacking the streak of romance that’s driving blake right now but what would you expect#she grew up idolizing winter! and#weiss is at a pretty low point too thinking “I have nothing to go home to#but like all the voices feel so distinctive and vivid and true#im having a ball here#rwby 9 spoilers#rwby#blake belladonna
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I know you're primarily doing Bumbleby, but ever since the Big Cat RWBY post where Cheeta!Ruby and Snow Leopard!Weiss where introduced, I kept wondering about what Animal!JNPR would look like.
Rather than giving them feline dopplegangers as well, my mind instead kept returning to canines, domestic dogs specifically.
Dog!Jaune would a Golden Retriever, because obviously. He'd be owned by Pyrrha before she came to the zoo/animal reserve Jaune works at. Picked up as something of a runt from the litter, and the only male pup amongst all the sisters because why not.
Dog!Pyrrha would be something that looks imposing but would only be dangerous if provoked or goaded, maybe something like a Rottweiler. Or better yet, a Dobermann! Dobermanns are fiercely loyal to their owners and are known to bond with one person only. Owned and cared for by Jaune after he found her in an dank alley with, of all things one could expect, an arrow in one of her back legs.
Arkos happens by chance when both Jaune and Pyrrha are taking their dogs out for a walk in the local park. There's a whole meet-cute scenario that brings the two together and bish-bash-bosh, both Jaune and Pyrrha end up with a significant other they each believe to be out of their league.
Dog!Nora can't really be anything else but a Samoyed. Sure, it'd be funny to have her be like a massive wolfhound or something, but I think the Samoyed is basically perfect. Nora's boisterous, active energetic and playful and so is the Samoyed. If you can keep a handle on her, she's incredible to have around.
Dog!Ren on the other hand was harder to pick. After some searching however, I managed to come across the Chuandong Hound. They're described, among other things, as noble, loyal, and dignified. All of that describes human!Ren quite well I'd say. They're also protective of the people they care about and are known to stand guard if strangers come up to their owners, only to lower their alertness if their owners are fine with them.
Dog!Ren and Dog!Nora would both be owned by an established Renora couple. When they adopted them as pups, Nora named them like that on a whim because she thought it was hilarious. She still thinks it's funny now, now that the dogs are all grown up.
All four dogs, despite their vastly different personalities seem to mesh incredibly well when they all meet each other for the first time. The same goes for their owners but that's to be expected really.
Anyhow, whether you decide to do something with this or not, I just needed to get this out.
Big Cat AU is 100% funny, fluffy and lovely by the way, definitely hope to see it come back from time to time.
Whew! This was a long one for me to go through, so I apologize for the delay here.
I like the idea of Pyrrha being a doberman! But maybe keep the ears floppy instead of cropped for her. Adds to her wanting to be "normal".
Jaune is definitely a Golden boy, but I don't see him being one of the AKC purebread floof boys. No, I want him to be the shaggy, dark blonde slender boys. They have more charm.
Nora.... I have to disagree with the Sammy. I can honestly see her being a Terrier. Specifically a Jack Russel Terrier. Those little crackheads are so loving, but absolutely crazy when they get into hunting mode. Considering her backstory, I can see her being a terrier mix.
Ren's definitely works! Never heard of a Chuandong Hound before, but I can definitely see it. Otherwise maybe a black and brown Chow Chow.
I'll have to do the Dog Days AU in a different post, but I'll try to do one soonish! I just need to get an idea. If you think of a prompt before I do, shoot me an ask!
(Funny thing is: I'm not that big of a cat fan. I'm a dog person, so the fact that I'm writing a Big Cat AU is hilarious for me! I'm glad you're enjoying it though! I enjoy writing up blurbs for it.)
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*Looks around*
Is the volume over? Are we done here?
Okay, 1: If that whole thing was basically a prolonged therapy session for Ruby, then they shouldn't have done that whole allegory in the first place. That was stupid as hell, and it was unnecessarily realistic to the point that I want _WBYJ to outright NEVER let Ruby out of their sight again for the rest of the next Volume out of a fear of her doing that again. At least, until they feel like they can trust her to not redo that whole thing. If they could also add a small PSA at the end of that episode with hotlines to prevent that, it would have been better. Speaking of, here's a link to the list of various hotlines in the states: http://www.suicide.org/suicide-hotlines.html And here's a link to the ones that are outside of the US: http://www.suicide.org/international-suicide-hotlines.html
Stay safe out there.
2: The Ruby therapy session was good… By RT standards, I suppose. They didn't fall into a good majority of pitfalls like "It's selfish to take your own life" and all that, so that's a good thing, but it was kinda over pretty quickly, and I feel like there could have been an extra five or ten minutes spent on it.
3: Whew. Jaune survived. That means I don't have to buy a shirt. But on the other hand, DAMMIT, jaune survived. Now he's inevitably going to steal screen time from characters who need it.
Waitaminute… Volume's over… That means I can complain about jaune again!
Okay. After Ruby pulled that whole thing that made her part of the tree, putting emotional focus on jaune was very jarring. Who gives a crap about the guy who only ended up at Beacon because he wanted the thrill of being a hero but didn't want to put in any actual work into getting to that point? Ruby had basically offed herself, but the priority is comforting jaune? Miles might be able to combat the self-insert accusations, but he's most certainly not going to combat the creator's pet accusations anytime soon.
The character pretty much said that he only protected the Paper Pleasers to feel like a hero instead of actually being a hero. He wanted the rush, and that wasn't criticized. Seriously. Jaune's whole thing about only wanting to have the rush without the work needs to be addressed. The guy basically confided them to that town just so he could play hero. That's messed up.
Him also getting his youth back was a… Weird choice to say the least. Not going to elaborate on that too much though, that's probably a post for another day. Maybe.
And with that… I think that's all the negatives out of the way. About the show anyways. Obviously, the company still needs to improve by a lot.
Onto the positives.
For starters, this volume is actually pretty good. All the character interactions and development were really great, and the action was pretty good too. I still would have much preferred the Cat to be a neutral party, with the world and Neo being the main threats, but I guess what we got was pretty good too. Betrayal being a major factor. I don't see why Lewis couldn't take the Cat with him to Remnant though, seems like a bit of an oversight.
Like I said, the character interaction is great, and on-point. Were there moments where I feel like some things could have been a bit different?- Yes. I would have preferred Yang trying to get Ruby to direct her anger at her to get her attention, and I would have preferred _WBYJ trying to stop Ruby from drinking that tea, but the show did a good job of conveying the despair that the characters felt, and it did feel like they were trying to rationalize Ruby's condition, at least for a little bit. Boy were they lucky that their rationalizations turned out to be right.
Blang being canon is also a major plus. There's something inherently funny about the idea that even the Ever After was sick and tired of them dancing around their feelings that it pushed them together.
And Neo's development from a randomly thrown-in whim to a more fleshed out character was really good. I gotta give credit where it's due, that was a really great moment of her just taking a rest to find herself.
Also: Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions. Raven and Summer interactions.
Can you tell that I'm excited about Raven and Summer interacting?
All in all: Good Volume. There are some things that irked me, and there was definitely some questionable writing decisions, but I was overall satisfied with the improvements to the writing, action, and character development.
Now if only the company could do the same.
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@kmomof4 I have to admit that I already read this chapter once - back when you posted on Wednesday, I just couldn’t wait! Unfortunately, I have been continually swamped at work lately and didn’t get to review. But what a wonderful update this was: touching, and tear-inducing, heartwarming, steamy, ALL THE EMOTIONS at various points!! So well done!! I really can’t state how much I LOVE this story and you for writing it for me!! 🥰😍🥰
I feel with each new chapter that I don’t know how to sing its praises enough, but I am going to try to hit on the many parts I liked all the same. I was giggling at the way Ava and Nicholas picked and pestered at each other and exasperated Graham and how - of course! - the Jones arrived right when they all ended up in a pile on the floor (not exactly the impression he wanted to make.)
Naturally, Ruby’s hoping for true connection and real love is going to clash with how Graham is more than anything wanting a good mother and sees how great she is with the twins. I do think there is more there between them than the chemistry and her skill with his kids, but Alice is very astute that Ruby is going to have to be patient and give it time. You can almost see the frustration and disappointment Ruby is probably going to have first.
Speaking of Alice Jones, I simply adored the scene between she and her daughter just after the wedding ceremony. It was so lovely!! 🥰 She really does know and value each of her children- and she understands them. That’s clear in this private moment here with her daughter. I adored seeing that (and it was very reminiscent of what we know of Violet Bridgerton too.) So touching as well, seeing Ruby’s realization that she will really be leaving home and how much she will miss her mother and all the rest of them now that she will have a husband, children, and a home of her own.
I also cannot leave out the glimpse into Ruby’s tender heart in her conversation with Graham before the ceremony - about always being too much, saying too much, and the many other things she had held in her heart. That she hadn’t shared them with anyone, not even her best friend, just goes to show the caring and connection between she and Graham has the potential to grow and deepen as she would hope. They will just need time. And I melted at his assuring her would be alright - I could absolutely see the sweet acceptance in it.
Of course - the whole section with their wedding night - wow!! 🤯🔥❤️ My goodness -even the lead up to it was so beautiful and heartfelt and just smoking!!
I don’t know what it was about this little bit as they are just getting settled into their bedchamber, but I adored this. It seemed so absolutely the Graham I see in my mind’s eye - PERFECTION!! 😍😍😍 “He cleared his throat and tugged at his cravat, in a move that had become so dear to her in the last few days. He was never as comfortable in formal attire as he was in his work clothes. It was quite strange that she’d married a man with a vocation. A calling, a purpose in his life. So different from other men of the ton. She liked it. She liked him.”
And then, when Ruby (and we) finally learned exactly what his father had done to him… my goodness!! I wanted to cry and tear his father apart both! I could completely understand Ruby’s anger at learning the cruelty he had survived. It explains so much, and it just broke my heart for him all over again. I wanted to gather him up and just hold him and soothe that pain away. I am very glad Ruby was there to finally allow him to let out that secret weight - even if he hadn’t intended to do it.
Okay, and then, once I (sort of) got my emotion under control again from that… there was the love scene. WHEW!! 😅🥵🔥 I just don’t hardly know how to get into it other than say it was beautiful and amazing and perfect for the two of them. 😍😍😍
Also, I feel like this little gif of the sweet scene from the old movie Casper kinda captures Graham’s reaction as he first sees Ruby with her hair down and they’re about to begin their first night together:
💕💕💕
To Sir Graham, With Love Ch. 7
And we are back!!! It is time for Ruby's family to meet Graham's children... and to get a wedding scheduled!! Thank you all for coming along on this journey with me! I hope you enjoy this chapter and let me know what you think!
We don't actually see the wedding, but we do have the wedding night in this chapter, so the smut is again bracketed off by a double scene change line like in the last chapter. But that said, there are some very important happenings between Graham and Ruby in the middle of the scene, that I don't think you should miss. So if you are skipping the actual smut, stop reading at the first double scene change line...
~*~*~
~*~*~
then resume reading when they are repeated (this is the important scene I don't want you to miss), then stop again when they are repeated again. I hope that all makes sense. If it doesn't, please feel free to message me.
Once again, all the love and long distance internet hugs to @jrob64 @whimsicallyenchantedrose and @motherkatereloyshipper for their betaing expertise and gorgeous artwork, respectively!!
And also, happy birthday to @snowbellewells for whom this fic was written!!
Summary:
After a year long secret correspondence, twenty-eight year old spinster Ruby Jones decides to accept Sir Graham Humbert's offer of a visit to see if they might suit for marriage. Unfortunately, he failed to mention that he was the father of twins, and they are not thrilled with Ruby's appearance.
Rating: M (smut and mentions of physical abuse, both in this chapter)
Words: 7500 of 68k
Tags: Red Hunter Fic, Birthday Fic, Inspired by Eloise Bridgerton's Story, Smut
On ao3 From Beginning / Current Chapter
On Tumblr Prologue Ch1 Ch2 Ch3 Ch4 Ch5 Ch6
Tagging the usuals. Please let me know if you'd like to be added or removed.
@jrob64 @winterbaby89 @hollyethecurious @the-darkdragonfly @jennjenn615
@donteattheappleshook @undercaffinatednightmare @pirateherokillian @cocohook38 @qualitycoffeethings
@booksteaandtoomuchtv @superchocovian @motherkatereloyshipper @snowbellewells @djlbg
@lfh1226-linda @xarandomdreamx @tiganasummertree @bluewildcatfanatic @anmylica
@laianely @resident-of-storybrooke @exhaustedpirate @gingerchangeling @caught-in-the-filter
@ultraluckycatnd @stahlop @darkshadow7 @fleurdepetite @captainswan-kellie
@soniccat @beckettj @teamhook @whimsicallyenchantedrose @thisonesatellite
@jonesfandomfanatic @elfiola @zaharadessert @ilovemesomekillianjones @mie779
@kymbersmith-90 @suwya @veryverynotgoodwrites @myfearless-love
Under the cut, unless Tumblr ate it.
I grant that Mr. Wilson’s face does have a certain amphibious quality, but I do wish you would learn to be a bit more circumspect in your speech. While I would never consider him an acceptable candidate for marriage, he is certainly not a toad, and it ill-behooved me to have my younger sister call him thus, and in his presence.
– from Ruby Jones to her sister Tilly, after refusing her fourth offer of marriage
~*~*~*~*~*~
The next day, Ruby, Liam, Killian, and Emma traveled to Romney Hall for lunch. David and Henry had returned to London, deciding their elder brothers had the situation well in hand and no longer needed their presence. Ruby was glad of their departure, if she was honest. She loved all of her brothers dearly, but to be subjected to the four of them all at once was quite more than anyone should be expected to endure.
She was feeling quite happy and optimistic as she stepped down from the carriage. Yesterday had gone far better than she expected. Even if Graham hadn’t taken her into Emma’s office to prove to her that THEY’D SUIT (she’d never be able to think those words again without seeing them in all capital letters in her mind's eye), he’d gone on to prove himself against all four of her brothers in the shooting match. She was reluctant to admit, even to herself, that she’d never be able to marry a man who wasn’t equal to the four Jones men, and Graham had acquitted himself admirably, leaving Ruby very proud of him.
She still had reservations about the marriage itself - the fact that they didn’t love one another would tend to do that - but they at least did share respect, affection, and passion. That last thought brought a blush to Ruby’s cheeks. It may not be a firm foundation for a marriage, but she thought, a wicked smile curving her lips, it certainly didn’t hurt.
He would make a fine husband, she was absolutely sure. And she could only hope that time would bring her the love match she so longed for.
~*~*~
Graham glanced at the clock on the mantle for about the fifteenth time in as many minutes. The Joneses were due at half noon, and it was now thirty-five past the hour. Not that five minutes was terribly tardy, but it was so hard to keep Nicholas and Ava neat and presentable as they waited with him in the drawing room for their guests.
“I hate this jacket,” Nicholas complained, tugging on the too short sleeve.
“It’s too small,” Ava commented, matter-of-factly.
“Of course, it’s too small,” Nicholas shot right back. “That’s why I was complaining. Your dress is too small too,” he observed. “I can see your ankles.”
Ava turned alarmed eyes to her father. “You’re supposed to be able to see my ankles,” she gasped.
“Not so much of them,” Nicholas huffed.
“You’re eight,” Graham said in what he hoped was a soothing voice. “Your dress is perfectly suitable.” At least, he hoped it was. He knew blessed little about such things. But Ruby would know. She would know and she would handle all the things involved in the raising of children. She would know when girls should start wearing their hair up and whether boys should attend Harrow or Eton. Thank God.
“I think they’re late,” Nicholas announced.
“They’re not late,” Graham replied without thinking.
“Yes, they are,” his son insisted. “I can read the clock, you know.”
He didn’t know, and Graham sighed at that knowledge. It was rather like the swimming thing.
Ruby, he reminded himself. No matter his failings as a father, he was convinced that he was now doing the exact right thing for his children, marrying Ruby. The sense of relief at that knowledge could not be overstated.
Ruby.
She couldn’t get here soon enough. He sighed. Who was he kidding? He couldn’t marry her soon enough. How did one go about getting a special license anyway? Surely Liam would know. Weren’t weddings supposed to take place on Saturdays? That was only two days away, but if they could get that special license…
Graham blessed his quick reflexes when Nicholas made a dart for the door and Graham grabbed him by the collar before he could go two steps.
“No,” he admonished his son. “You will wait here for Miss Jones and our other guests. You will do it without incident and with a smile on your face. Do I make myself clear?”
The twins were silent as he stared them down, but Nicholas at least made an attempt to smile, though the results were somewhat lacking.
“That’s not a smile,” Ava informed him.
“Yes, it is.”
“No, it isn’t. Your lips didn’t even curve up at all,” she said, demonstrating by using her fingers to push up the corners of her own lips.
Graham sighed. Saturday couldn’t come soon enough. He’d speak to Liam this afternoon about the special license. He could turn the twins over to Ruby during the day, and she could turn herself over to him at night, he thought, a true smile touching his lips.
“Why are you smiling?” Ava asked.
“I’m not smiling,” he protested automatically. The words were barely out of his mouth when he could feel himself - dear God - he was blushing.
“Yes, you are,” she argued. “And now your cheeks are pink. Aren’t Father’s cheeks pink, Nicholas?”
“Your cheeks are pink, Father,” Nicholas agreed.
Graham blew out a short breath and glanced at the clock again. At that moment, Ava swung her legs from where she sat on the sofa and knocked over an ottoman.
“Oops,” she said, jumping down to right it. “Nicholas!” she howled from her place on the floor where she’d fallen when her brother had pushed her. “He pushed me!”
“Did not!”
“Did too!”
“Did…”
“Well someone pushed her,” Graham interrupted, glaring at Nicholas, “and I’m certain it was not me.”
Nicholas pressed his lips into a thin line as he cut his eyes to his father and then his sister. He obviously hadn’t considered that being one of only three people in the room, his culpability would be rather obvious.
“Very well,” he admitted. “I pushed her. I’m sorry.”
Graham was stunned speechless. It was the first time he’d ever heard an unsolicited apology from one of his children for any kind of infraction.
“You can push me back,” Nicholas offered.
Oh no. No, no. Very bad, Graham thought. Very bad, indeed.
“Ok!” Ava agreed brightly. Graham couldn’t get to them in time. It was only a moment later that Nicholas was toppled over the back of an ottoman and Ava was squealing with delight while Nicholas howled in indignation.
Visions of the drawing room completely destroyed raced through Graham’s mind as he grabbed Nicholas by the collar and hauled him to his feet.
“She pushed me!”
“Because you told her she could, you miserable little wretch!” Graham shouted. Nicholas darted away from him after his sister, and Graham caught him just as he caught Ava, bringing them all to the floor with a crash of the mantle clock and two cushions off the sofa as well. How they’d managed to bring down the clock, he’d never know.
“Nicholas did it,” Ava accused.
“I don’t care who did it,” Graham said, standing up and dusting himself off. “You know that Miss Jones is due any moment…”
“Ahem.”
Graham shut his eyes and sighed before turning slowly around - dismayed, but not surprised - to find Ruby, Liam, Killian, and Emma standing in the doorway.
“My lord,” he grit out. He was too curt, not the gracious host he meant to be in the least, but he couldn’t help himself. He was too frustrated with his children to be otherwise.
“Are we interrupting?” Liam asked mildly.
“No, not at all,” Graham rushed to reassure them. “As you can see, we’re simply, ahhh… rearranging the furniture.”
“And doing an excellent job of it,” Emma said, brightly with a gentle smile for the twins. She seemed the sort to always be trying to make everyone around her at ease and right now, Graham could have kissed her for it.
He rose, righting the overturned ottoman as he did, and motioned his children to stand to their feet. Nicholas’ cravat was completely undone, and Ava’s hair clip hung loosely by her ear.
Once they were both facing their guests, Graham spoke with as much dignity as he could muster. “My lord, may I present my children, Nicholas and Ava Humbert.”
The children murmured their greetings, looking as uncomfortable as Graham felt. Perhaps they were ashamed of their abominable behavior, as unlikely as that seemed, but Graham couldn’t help but hope.
Once they’d fallen silent, Graham patted them on the shoulders. “Very good, children,” he praised. “You may run along now.”
They turned to him with matching forlorn expressions. “Can’t we stay?” Ava asked in a small voice.
“No,” Graham said immediately, and forcefully. He’d invited the Joneses for lunch and a tour of the greenhouse, and if the day was to be a success, the children couldn’t be anywhere near.
“Please?” Nicholas pleaded.
Graham was very conscious of his guests witnessing his woeful lack of control over his own children, so he was careful to avoid their gazes. “Nurse Ratched is waiting for you in the hall.”
“But we don’t like Nurse Ratched,” Nicholas said, Ava nodding in agreement next to him.
“What are you talking about?” Graham asked impatiently. “Of course you do. She’s been your nurse for months.”
“But we don’t like her,” Nicholas insisted.
Graham sighed, and looked over at the Joneses. “Please excuse the interruption,” he said.
“It’s no bother, truly,” Emma said with a gentle, maternal smile.
Graham guided the children to the far corner of the room, crossed his arms, and stared down sternly at them.
“I have asked Miss Jones to be my wife,” he said. Their eyes lit up. “Good,” he continued before either of them could get a word in edgewise. “I see you agree with my action.”
“Will she…”
“Don’t interrupt me,” he said sternly. “Now listen. I have asked Miss Jones to be my wife, but I still have to win the approval of her family, and I can’t do that with you two underfoot.” It didn’t really signify that Liam had all but ordered the wedding and approval was no longer an issue. Entertaining his guests with the children around was a futile endeavor.
Ava’s chin trembled, tears shining in the corner of her eyes. “Are you ashamed of us?”
Graham raised his eyes to heaven wondering just how it had come to this.
“May I be of assistance?” The voice of his savior reached him and Graham turned toward where she stood right behind him, grateful acceptance in his eyes. He watched as she kneeled down and spoke gently to them. Her voice was too low to discern her words, but the tone was unmistakable.
Nicholas said something in protest, but Ruby cut him off, still gently, but firmly. It was only a moment later when, to his great surprise, the children said their goodbyes and left the room. They didn’t look happy about it, but at least they did it.
“Thank God I’m marrying you,” Graham said under his breath as Ruby rose to her feet.
“Indeed,” she whispered, a secret smile on her face as she rejoined her family.
“I do apologize for the children’s behavior,” Graham said when he reached them right behind Ruby. “They’ve been hard to manage since their mother died.”
“There is nothing more difficult than losing a parent,” Liam said solemnly, “Please, do not feel any need to apologize on their behalf.”
Graham nodded his thanks for the understanding of the older man. “Come, let’s enjoy lunch.”
As he led them into the dining room, Nicholas and Ava’s faces loomed large in his mind. He’d seen his children stubborn, in full fledged tantrums, and insufferable, but he’d never seen them sad since their mother died. It was most troubling.
After lunch and a tour through the greenhouse, the group split in two. Killian had brought with him a sketch book, so he and Emma stayed near the house while he drew the exterior of Romney Hall. Liam, Graham and Ruby took a walk along the grounds, Liam very graciously allowing them to tarry several yards behind so they might speak in relative privacy.
“What did you say to the children?” he asked immediately.
“I don’t know actually,” she replied. “I just tried to act like my mother.” She shrugged. “It seemed to work.”
He was silent for a moment, thinking about her words. “It must be nice to have parents one can emulate.”
“You didn’t?” she asked gently.
“No.”
She waited for him to elaborate, but he didn’t.
“Was it your father or your mother?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Which of your parents was so difficult?” she pressed.
He stared at her for a long moment, before his brows furrowed and he answered her. “My mother died at my birth.”
“I see,” she said quietly. “I’m so sorry.”
“Thank you,” he murmured. They continued along, walking slowly, wanting to make sure they remained far out of Liam’s earshot. When they turned back toward the house, Ruby stopped and asked the question that had been plaguing her mind all day.
“Why did you take me into Emma’s study yesterday?”
Graham sputtered and stammered, his cheeks turning pink at her blunt question. “I should think the answer was rather obvious.”
Ruby glared at him. “Obviously it isn’t, or I wouldn’t have asked.”
Graham stared at her for a full ten seconds before he cut his eyes to where Liam stood investigating a birch tree and then moved closer to Ruby.
“Very well, if you must know,” he began, his voice low, “I intended to kiss you to show you how well suited we are.” He shrugged. “I did not intend to get so carried away, but I’m not sorry it happened.”
“But passion is not enough to sustain a marriage,” she replied, forcefully.
He shrugged again. “It’s certainly a good start. May we please talk about something else?”
“No. What I’m trying to say…”
This time he rolled his eyes and snorted. “You’re always trying to say something.”
“It’s part of my irresistible charm,” she said peevishly.
He looked down at her, holding on tightly to his patience and temper. “Ruby, we are well suited and will enjoy a perfectly pleasant and amiable marriage. I don’t know what else I can say or do to prove it!”
“But you don’t love me,” she said quietly.
That brought him to a screeching halt. He stared at her for a long moment before speaking. “Why do you say things like that?”
She shrugged and couldn’t meet his eyes. “I don’t know. Because it’s important, I guess.”
“Did it ever occur to you that not every thought has to be given voice?” he asked after another long moment.
“Yes,” she said, a lifetime of regret - of always saying the wrong thing at the wrong time - wrapped up in that one tiny little word. “All the time. I can’t seem to help myself though.”
He stared at her, his confusion obvious. She understood completely. Her mother had always told her she’d catch more flies with honey than a sledgehammer, but Ruby had never mastered the skill of keeping her thoughts to herself.
She had all but asked Graham if he loved her, and his subsequent silence was more of an answer than no would have been. Her heart wept. She didn’t really expect him to fall in love with her so quickly, but her disappointment was proof that a tiny corner of her heart and mind had wished for exactly that.
“Did you love Jacinda?” She winced as soon as the words left her lips. There she went again, speaking before thinking about the wisdom of her words.
Graham stood before her, silent. “No,” he finally said in a low voice.
None of the expected feelings at the single word rose up within her. Not joy, that her intended hadn’t loved her predecessor, nor sadness that her cousin’s husband hadn’t loved her. She simply felt relief, which was a surprise. She wanted to know. That was all. She hated not knowing. About anything. She released the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.
“Why did you marry her?”
His face was rather blank as he looked at her. Finally he shrugged. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “It was expected, I guess. She was to marry George.”
Ruby’s head turned so sharply, she was surprised her neck didn’t crack. “I - I didn’t know.”
Graham shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. It was a long time ago.”
Ruby nodded in understanding. It wasn’t terribly surprising. He was the type of man who’d do that - always doing what was right and honorable, apologizing for his perceived transgressions, shouldering others’ burdens… honoring his brother’s promises.
Which brought her to her final question. “Did you…” she trailed away, almost losing her nerve. “Did you feel passion for her?” Her voice wasn’t much more than a whisper, and she found herself hoping he hadn’t heard her.
“No,” he said abruptly before turning away and walking quickly toward the house. She rushed to catch up with him and ran into his solid chest when he suddenly stopped and turned back toward her. “I have a question for you.”
“Of course,” she agreed quickly. It was only fair, after all. She’d all but interrogated the poor man.
“Why did you leave London?”
Ruby blinked in surprise. She expected a much harder question than that. “To meet you, of course!”
“Balderdash.”
She blinked again, her mouth falling open at his obvious disbelief of her answer.
“That’s why you came,” he said, “not why you left.”
It had never occurred to her until this very moment that there was a difference between the two, but he was right. He’d had very little to do with why she’d left London. He’d simply made it easier for her to do so. He gave her a place to run to, which was much easier to justify rather than where she was running from.
“Did you have a lover?”
Ruby’s mouth dropped open, and her eyes widened in shock. “No!” she exclaimed, so loudly that it caught Liam’s attention, who started quickly toward them. Ruby waved him away. “Everything’s fine. I promise.”
“It’s not an unreasonable question to ask,” Graham said mildly, once Liam was back out of earshot. “You leave London in the middle of the night, like a wanted fugitive. I simply wondered if perhaps something had happened to ah… tarnish your reputation.”
He was right, of course. Not about her reputation, which was still as pure and white as snow. It did look odd. Frankly, she was surprised he hadn’t asked her sooner.
“If you did have a lover,” he continued quietly, “it wouldn’t change my intentions.”
“No,” she assured him. “It wasn’t that.” She sighed and after another moment to fortify herself, told him everything.
She told him all about the marriage proposals she’d received, and the ones Mary Margaret hadn’t, and the plans they’d jokingly made about growing old and spinsterish together. And she told him about how guilty she felt when Mary Margaret and David got married and she couldn’t get her mind off of herself and how alone she was.
She told him all that and more. She told him things in her heart, in her mind, in her soul. She told him things she’d never told another living soul, not even Mary Margaret. And for someone who couldn’t keep her mouth shut if her life depended on it, there was an awful lot inside her that she’d never shared with anyone.
And finally, when she was done - and in truth, she’d simply run out of energy and trailed away into silence - he’d taken her hand and smiled gently at her.
“It’s all right,” he said. And it was.
~*~*~
Four days later they were married. Graham had no idea how Liam managed it, but he’d obtained the special license that allowed them to be married without banns and on Monday, one week to the day since they’d met in person.
Ruby’s entire family - save her widowed sister Tink, who lived far away in Scotland and hadn’t had time to make it down for the festivities - had made the trip out to the country for the wedding. Normally, the ceremony would have taken place at the Jones country seat in Kent, or at St. George’s in London where the family regularly worshiped. But it all happened so quickly, those arrangements were impossible to make. Killian and Emma offered My Cottage as the reception place, but Ruby felt the twins would be more comfortable at Romney Hall, so they’d held the wedding at the parish chapel down the lane with the small, intimate reception on the lawn around Graham’s greenhouse.
As the sun was beginning to set, Ruby found herself in her new bedchamber with her mother who was busily tucking away the items from Ruby’s hastily gathered trousseau. She smiled, completely understanding Alice’s need to move while she talked.
“I should complain that I’m being denied my moment of glory as mother of the bride,” she said, folding Ruby’s veil and placing it in the top drawer of her bureau. “But, in truth, I’m simply happy to see you as a bride.” She turned toward Ruby, tears shining in the corner of her eyes.
Ruby released a watery chuckle of her own. “You’d rather despaired of seeing it, didn’t you?”
“Quite,” Alice agreed, then tilted her head knowingly. “But I had a feeling you might surprise us all in the end. You frequently do.”
“I’m sorry if I’ve disappointed you,” Ruby whispered.
“Never,” Alice replied, her visage exceedingly wise. “My children never disappoint me. They simply astonish me.” A knowing smile touched her lips. “I think I prefer it that way.”
Ruby threw herself into her mother’s arms. She felt awkward doing so, though not from the display of familial affection itself. Perhaps it was that she was perilously close to tears herself. But suddenly she felt as she had when she was quite young - all long limbs with gangly arms and legs and bony elbows and a mouth that was always open when it should remain closed.
And she wanted her mother.
Alice held her close, rubbing her back and making soothing sounds, as if she knew exactly the maelstrom of feelings surging in her daughter. And she probably did. Intelligence and wisdom were most definitely not the same thing, and they both very infrequently found a home within the same person. But in the case of Alice Jones, they did. And Ruby was ever so grateful.
Alice finally released her and Ruby took a step back to see her mother looking rather wistful. She ran her fingers down the side of Ruby’s face, the action so tender, it made Ruby want to weep.
“Are you certain you’ll be happy?” Alice asked, softly.
“It’s a little late for that, don’t you think?” Ruby replied, a rueful smile touching her lips.
“It may be too late to do anything about it, but not to wonder.”
“I think I’ll be happy,” Ruby said. I hope I’ll be happy, she said in her mind.
“He seems to be a nice man,” Alice said.
“He is,” Ruby agreed.
“Honorable.”
A soft smile graced Ruby’s lips. “He is that.”
Alice nodded, her own smile soft as she gazed at her daughter. “I believe you’ll be happy. It may take time.” She paused for a moment, but her smile didn’t waver. “It will take time, and you may doubt that it will come. But it will. Just remember…” she trailed away, her teeth nibbling on her lip.
“What, Mother?”
Alice didn’t answer right away, appearing to choose her words with great care. “It will take time, that’s all.” She turned toward the door and Ruby cut her eyes to the side as her mother wiped at the tear that rolled down her cheek. “You’re very impatient,” Alice continued. “You always have been. But there’s a great deal more to you and it seems that you sometimes forget that. I’m glad you never accepted a proposal from any of the men in London. You wouldn’t have been happy with any of them. Content? Maybe. But not happy. Second best was never good enough for you, Ruby, and I’m glad.” Her smile was gentle and warm. The smile of a mother saying goodbye to her daughter. “Give it time. Be gentle. Don’t push.”
Ruby wanted to say something, anything, but found she couldn’t utter a single word.
“Don’t push,” she repeated. “Be patient.”
“I…” She wanted to say I will but her words simply slipped away as she gazed at her mother, realizing something for the very first time. She was leaving. She was leaving her family. They’d still be a part of her, of course, in all the ways that mattered, but she was leaving the family of her birth and forming a new one of her own.
And as she looked at her mother, she realized just how much she loved her. Alice always seemed to know exactly what each of her children needed, which was truly remarkable with eight of them, after all. When Ruby had finally read the letter her mother had given to Liam to give to her, she hadn’t scolded or thrown accusations, either of which she was entirely entitled to do. She’d simply reminded Ruby that she would always be her daughter and that she loved her. Ruby had bawled her eyes out.
Alice Jones had never wanted for anything, but her true wealth lay in her wisdom and her love, and as Ruby watched her mother turn to the door, she realized Alice was everything she aspired to be.
And she couldn’t believe it had taken her all this time to realize it.
“I expect you and Sir Graham would like some privacy,” she observed, turning to her daughter again as a small chuckle escaped her lips. “If I don’t escort the family out, they’ll never leave.”
“I shall miss you all,” Ruby said.
“Of course you shall,” Alice replied. “And we shall miss you. But you won’t be far. You’ll be nearby for Emma when her time comes, and I’ll be making more frequent trips out here now that I have two new grandchildren to spoil,” Alice said, a satisfied smile spreading across her face.
Ruby wiped away her own tear. Alice and the rest of the family had fully accepted Ava and Nicholas into their fold without reservation. Not that she expected anything different, but it had warmed her heart in a way she had not expected. Already the twins were playing wholeheartedly with their Jones cousins and Alice had insisted they call her grandmama. They had quickly and enthusiastically agreed, especially after Alice had pulled out a whole bag of peppermint drops that she claimed must have fallen into her valaise back in London.
Ruby had already said goodbye to the rest of her family, so when her mother left, she felt she was really and truly Lady Humbert. Miss Jones would have returned to London with her family, but Lady Humbert remained here at Romney Hall, mistress of her own home and family. It suddenly occurred to her that no one in her family had had to undertake the role of parent so quickly. But she was up to the task. She had to be. She was a Jones, even if it wasn’t her surname any longer, and she could handle anything thrown at her. She was not one to sit idle and let her life pass her by or dictate her happiness. So she would have to make certain that her life was happy beyond reason.
A knock sounded at the door and a moment later Graham entered. Even from across the room, the heat in his gaze made her shiver.
“Don’t you want a maid for that?” he asked, motioning to where she was running her brush through her long locks.
“I told her to take a free evening,” she said, blushing. “It seemed the least I could do. It almost seemed like an intrusion, don’t you think?”
He cleared his throat and tugged at his cravat, in a move that had become so dear to her in the last few days. He was never as comfortable in formal attire as he was in his work clothes. It was quite strange that she’d married a man with a vocation. A calling, a purpose in his life. So different from other men of the ton. She liked it. She liked him.
“Do you need a few more minutes?” he asked.
She shook her head. She was ready.
“Thank God,” he murmured, crossing quickly to her and gathering her in his arms.
Then he was kissing her and every thought in Ruby’s head was utterly gone.
Graham supposed he should have paid more attention to his wedding, but with the wedding night so very close, he just couldn’t. Every time he looked at Ruby - in her cream colored gown that made her skin and green eyes glow, and delicate veil that trailed behind - he caught his breath and felt the tightening in his body that he had to will away while in the presence of so many.
Soon, he thought.
And then soon became now and they were alone, and she was in his arms, responding to his kiss, and he just couldn’t believe how beautiful she was as his fingers buried themselves in her long, long hair that reached nearly to her waist. He’d never seen it down, he realized, and he’d had no idea how long it was when he’d only ever seen it gathered up at the nape of her neck.
“I always wondered why women wore their hair up,” he murmured into the skin of her jaw as he peppered soft nips and kisses there. “But now I know.”
“Well,” gasped Ruby, “it is expected out there in society.”
He pulled back and smiled down into her slightly dazed countenance. “That’s not why,” he said, shaking his head. Her brow furrowed slightly and Graham placed a tender kiss on the lines in her forehead, utterly delighted in the fact that the privilege of kissing Ruby anytime and anywhere he wanted was now his. Forever and ever, Amen.
“It’s for the protection of all the other men of the ton,” he continued, a smug smirk tugging on the corner of his lips.
Ruby’s eyes widened in surprise. “I think you mean protection from all the other men of the ton,” she said.
“No,” he insisted. “Protection of. Because I’d have to kill any other man who beheld you thus.”
“Graham,” she admonished him on a whisper. But she was blushing as she said it.
“No man who saw this would be able to resist you,” he said, his fingers running through the long locks and twisting a strand around his pointer finger. “I’m quite sure of that.”
Ruby snorted inelegantly. “Many have been able to resist me over the years,” she said, the self-deprecation in her words raising his ire.
“They were all fools,” he interjected, vehemently. “And it only proves my point. This has been hidden away for years, has it not?” he asked, bringing the strand to his nose and inhaling deeply, the scent of rosewater filling his sinuses.
“Since I was sixteen,” she murmured.
“I’m glad,” he said, his face lowering toward hers again, his breath whispering against her lips. “Some London idiot would have snapped you up years ago if you’d tugged out your hairpins.”
“It’s only hair,” she whispered. Her lips trembled as his nose nuzzled hers.
“You’re right. It’s only hair,” he agreed. “Because on anyone else, I don’t believe it would be so intoxicating. It must be you, then,” he said, dropping the strand he’d held and capturing her lips with his own.
He couldn’t understand how just a simple kiss could turn his blood to fire in his veins. His tongue touched the seam of her lips and she opened to him with a low moan in the back of her throat.
He’d forgotten. He’d forgotten the sweetness of her lips. He’d kissed her several times now and each time he did, the sweetness of her mouth surprised him. It must be for the preservation of their routine, their everyday life. Because if he did remember how it felt to kiss her, to taste her, he’d never stop. Not for his work. Not to eat. Not to sleep. Hell, not to breathe.
~*~*~
~*~*~
He pulled back and the whimper of loss from Ruby’s lips nearly undid him. “Patience, dearest,” he whispered, turning her in his arms. The back of her gown was adorned with small silk covered buttons, from her shoulder blades to the swell of her bottom, and he began to undo them. One by one. Inch by tantalizing inch of skin revealed, until finally he reached the last one, just above the cleft. What would he give to kiss Ruby right there?
As he opened the last button, revealing the small square of skin to his sight, he couldn’t help himself. He sank to his knees and placed a tender kiss right there, making Ruby shiver. This was Ruby. Ruby. His bride. His wife. She was strong. She was passionate. She was magnificent. She was his.
He rose to his feet again and turned her back around, her gown falling to the floor and baring her to his sight. He couldn’t look at her though. Not yet. He gazed into her face, her eyes half lidded in rapture, her kiss swollen lips parted slightly as her breath stuttered in and out. He ran his hand up from her hips until his fingers grazed the side of her breast.
Capturing her lips once again, his hand firmly cupped her weight in his hand. “Graham,” she moaned against his lips, and his heart tripped at the thought that this had all come to pass.
Both his hands cupped the fullness of her breasts as his mouth devoured hers. It was only then that he felt the lightest of brushes of her fingers along his shoulders as she reached for him, drawing him closer to her warmth. His own arms reached around her and pulled her close, until she was lined up with him from her shoulders to her feet.
The emotion within him surged and his eyes filled with tears. Tears of disbelief and tears of joy. He had to see her. The sun hadn’t yet set outside and the golden rays flooded their bedchamber, bathing Ruby in a glow that dazzled his sight. How he’d gotten so lucky, he’d never know, but he vowed then and there to never take it for granted and to simply enjoy the fact that he was the most blessed man alive.
~*~*~
~*~*~
He pulled back from her again and began working his own buttons, watching Ruby watch him, her eyes growing wider as more of his skin was revealed. Once his shirt was opened, he turned around and removed the garment, only to spin quickly back to face her when he heard her gasp.
He’d forgotten. He’d completely forgotten to keep his back away from her sight.
“What happened?” Her voice was low and trembling, though from terror or disgust, he couldn’t tell. But she was his wife, and while he could avoid the vivid reminders of his childhood, she couldn’t.
“I was whipped,” he said quietly.
Her eyes narrowed and Graham realized that not only was her voice trembling, her limbs were as well, and not from his lovemaking.
She was enraged.
“Who did this to you?”
“My father.” Such a simple phrase that encompassed so much. He remembered well the day. He took a deep shuddering breath as the memories washed over him. He’d been twelve and home from school when his father had requested that he join him on a hunt. Graham hadn’t been gone so long that he’d forgotten that Thomas Humbert didn’t request anything. Graham was a good horseman, but not good enough for the jump his father had taken ahead of him. He’d tried to make the jump as well, knowing he’d be branded a coward for not making the attempt.
He’d fallen, of course. Been thrown really. He’d walked away without injury, miraculously, but his father had been livid. His vision of English manhood did not include tumbles from horseback. His sons would ride and shoot and fence and box and excel and excel and excel.
And God help them if they did not.
George had made the jump. He was two years Graham’s elder. Two years taller, two years stronger. He’d tried to intervene when Thomas had turned the whip on his younger son, but he’d only been beaten as well for his trouble. Graham needed to learn how to be a man, Thomas had growled, and no one would be permitted to interfere with his deserved punishment. Not even George.
Graham wasn’t sure what was different about that day. Thomas had seemed angrier than usual and while he normally used his belt, which didn’t leave marks, this day he grabbed the whip. And even when Graham’s shirt shredded under the beating, his father still hadn’t stopped.
It was the only time his father’s beatings had left a physical scar. And Graham was stuck with the reminder for the rest of his life.
“I’m sorry,” he said. He hadn’t meant for her to see them. He hadn’t wanted to expose himself to her this way, bringing her into the horror of his childhood.
“I’m not,” she said. Graham’s eyes widened in surprise. “I’m furious.”
God help him - because he certainly couldn’t help himself - he burst out laughing. Here was his beautiful, magnificent, naked wife, trembling in fury, looking like she was ready to march right down to hell to take out her own retribution against Thomas Humbert for his crimes against his son.
She startled slightly at his mirth, but then she smiled too, recognizing the importance of the moment. Graham continued smiling at her, the memory of his father and that day slipping away. He grabbed her hand and placed it over his heart.
“So strong,” she murmured, her gaze and fingers tracing the lines of his shoulders, arms, and chest, approval plain in her tone. “I had no idea it was so difficult, working in the greenhouse.”
He positively preened under her compliment. “I do work outside too, you know,” he said, quite unable to just thank her for the compliment.
“With the laborers?” she asked, looking up at him from underneath her lashes.
Graham’s brows raised in amusement. “Ruby Jones…”
“Humbert,” she interrupted.
He couldn’t hide the surge of pleasure inside him at the reminder. “Ruby Humbert,” he agreed softly. “Have you been harboring secret fantasies about the laborers?”
The indignant look on her face made him chuckle. “Of course not! Although…” she trailed away, looking a little sheepish.
“Although,” he prompted.
“They do look awfully elemental, toiling out there under the hot sun.”
Graham smiled. Slowly, like a man about to feast upon a banquet of all his favorite foods.
“Oh, Ruby,” he said, his lips meeting the skin of her neck and trailing down, down, down until he reached the curve of her breast. “You have no idea of elemental. No idea at all.”
~*~*~
~*~*~
Then he did what he’d been dreaming of. Well, one of the things he’d been dreaming of. He licked her nipple then blew on it before sucking it into the warm cavern of his mouth.
“Graham!” she shrieked.
He swept her into his arms and carried her over to the bed, already turned down for the newlyweds. He laid her upon the sheets and stood back to just look at her. He was pleased that she didn’t try to cover herself from his sight and he just stood soaking in her beauty before his trembling hands began to work on his pants.
“Let me,” she whispered, her eyes glowing. Graham caught his breath and nodded, laying down beside her. She reached for him, but before she could undo the fasteners on his pants, he ran his fingers along the silk of her stockings, the last garment she wore. He slid the first down her leg, delighted when a laugh burst from her when his fingers grazed the back of her knee.
“Ticklish?” he asked, and she nodded shyly, finally undoing his trousers. They both rid themselves of the other’s clothing until they were fully naked and facing one another on the bed.
His fingers trailed gently down her cheek and cupped her chin, bringing her lips to his.
“There’s nothing to be afraid of,” he assured her.
“I’m not afraid,” she murmured, her breath brushing over his lips.
He drew back, just a little surprised at her words. “You’re not?”
She shook her head. “Nervous? Yes. But not afraid.”
Graham chuckled. “You are magnificent, Ruby. Do you know that?”
Ruby shrugged, a sly smile on her face. “I keep telling everyone that, but you’re the only one who seems to believe me.”
He really laughed that time and he realized what a gift that was. Twice since he’d entered the bedchamber, she’d made him laugh. Who would have thought that he’d be here, on his wedding night, laughing with his bride. Certainly not him.
He kissed her hard and then began his lovemaking in earnest, exploring Ruby from her head to her feet. He kissed, and he nipped, and he licked, and he touched, finding all the places that made her gasp and moan in pleasure. He was as hard as he’d ever been in his life, but this was Ruby’s first time enjoying the physical intimacy of married love and he was more concerned about introducing this joy and wonder of discovery between them than satisfying his own needs.
He finally touched her between her legs, and Ruby released a trembling sigh from above him. He looked up at her and found her looking down at him, her eyes glazed, her mouth open slightly. She focused on him and Graham grinned at her, dipping his finger inside her and then popping the digit in his mouth to taste her essence.
“Delicious,” he murmured.
“Graham?” she asked, almost in a whisper. “How much is it going to hurt?”
Her question startled him and he quickly schooled his features.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I hope not too much.”
She nodded. “I keep…” Her words trailed off and Graham waited patiently for her to finish.
“Tell me,” he urged, when she remained silent.
“I keep getting swept away,” she said haltingly, “but then I’ll see you, or feel you, and I just can’t imagine how that is going to fit inside me, and I’ll lose it. The magic,” she explained. “I keep losing the magic.”
Graham’s lips curved into a wicked smile. “Let me give you the magic,” he said. “Stay right there. Don’t move.” He kissed her hard and then moved down her body to the one place his lips had avoided so far. He spread her legs wide and kissed her.
Ruby screamed.
“Very good,” Graham breathed into her center. He held her still, his hands holding her hips firmly. He had no choice, for she was writhing and squirming like a wild woman as he tasted and explored every fold, every crevice of her womanhood. He was voracious and he devoured her, thinking that this had to be the very best thing he’d ever done in his entire life and he was able to do this every day for the rest of his life.
He’d heard other men talk about it, of course, but he’d had no idea it was this good. He was terrifyingly close to losing himself and she hadn’t even touched him. It was a good thing too. The way she was gripping the sheets, she’d be liable to tear him apart.
Ruby stiffened above him, crying out her ecstasy, and a surge of sweetness exploded on his tongue. He couldn’t enjoy everything she gave him because his own needs took over and he could hold back no longer. He tried to go slowly, for her sake, but when she lifted her hips to meet him - her fingers digging into his shoulders in wild demand, his name a prayer on her lips - he surged forward into her depths all the way to the hilt.
He checked her face for any sign of pain but he saw none as he began to pump a steady rhythm into her. He was rougher than he wanted to be, but it had been so long and he needed her so much, he just couldn’t help himself. She seemed to enjoy it though, meeting him thrust for thrust.
And when she moaned, it wasn’t his name. It was More.
He slipped his hands underneath her bottom and lifted her toward him. Just that slight change in angle, pushed her over the edge again and the tight sheath of her squeezing him had him spilling himself inside her with a roar of her name, claiming her finally and indelibly as his own.
~*~*~
Thank you for reading and sharing! I'd love to hear what you think! Next ch will be up Friday night before I go to bed.
#to sir graham with love#chapter seven#krystal writes#art by motherkatereloyshipper#red hunter fic#OuaT au ff#Bridgerton au fic#major OuaT fic rec 🐺❤️🐺#such a talented shipmate 💕⚓️💕
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Hated Love 3 - Post-wedding apocalypse
Summary: Will your wedding become a dream or a nightmare?
Pairing: Mobster!Dean x Mobster!Daughter!Reader
Characters: Sam Winchester, Ruby
Warnings: angst, love-hate relationship, Dean hates the reader, and she hates him, language, snarky comments, arguments, smut, public sex, unprotected sex, arranged marriage, food play, anal play (not really; does eating pie off a butt count?), implied threesome (mentioned/and implied)
Kink: Foodplay
A/N: Y/F/N = Your father’s name
Catch up here:
Part 1 - Hated Love
Part 2 - Hated Love – The Reckoning
Kinktober 2020
Wedding days should be filled with laughter, cake, white dresses, and people crying as they watch the bride and groom confess their love for each other.
Wedding days shouldn’t be filled with odd noises coming out of the bride’s room right before the ceremony.
“Look at you, filled to your limit,” Dean purrs, holding your body against the wall.
He’s driving wildly into you, not caring anyone who passes your room can hear he broke your fathers’ rule to not see you before the wedding.
“Missed this tight little pussy. Your father is an idiot for believing he can keep me away from my girl.”
“I’m, fuck me, not your girl, Winchester,” your eyes roll back at the way Dean grips your ass to fuck up into you. “Did you forget that I’m your fiancé?”
“Never, sweetheart,” Dean grins, rolling his hips faster. “How could I ever forget I’m allowed to fuck you anytime I want to from now on.”
“Already daydreaming?” you laugh when someone knocks at your door, to tell you that the ceremony will start in ten minutes. “Faster, Dean. I want to cum before I agree to marry your sorry ass.”
Dean tries to fix your dress while you fight with your hair. “The zipper, I think it’s ruined,” you groan at Dean’s words, adding another bobby pin to your hair. “Do you have a clasp pin?”
You would laugh about Dean, even find it adorable he tries to fix your dress but not three rooms away your families wait for you to attend a wedding – your wedding.
“Dean, you can’t use a clasp pin to fix my wedding gown! Why did you have to rip it down my body? Jesus, I swear you’re a kinky bastard,” Dean grins, nodding eagerly whilst his hands creep toward your ass to squeeze it tightly.
“Guys, you should stop doing whatever you are doing and move your asses outside. Y/N’s father is close to starting a war. John is no better. I can tell, I never saw Y/F/N that mad,” Sam calls from outside the room, snickering. “Dean, stuff it back inside and hurry.”
“I ruined her dress,” Dean curses, still fighting with the zipper. “Do you have a safety pin? Or a jacket she can wear?”
“Wait, I’ll ask Ruby. Maybe she can help Y/N out. Just wait here,” you roll your eyes at Dean when he tries to repair your dress with a bobby pin.
“Dean, stop trying,” a deep sigh leaves your lips, realizing this could be a sign. “Maybe we shouldn’t marry. For years we hated each other and now you want to marry me.” Dean has the guts to smirk at your words.
“Oh sweetheart, you are mine and I intend on collecting,” he husks, grabbing the back of your neck to kiss you fiercely. His tongue slips inside your mouth to explore every inch of your wet cavern. “I will not let you slip through my fingers again, Y/N. Now be good, get out of that dress and we will try to fix it.”
“If not,” you grin, sliding your hand over Dean’s chest, “I can still marry you in nothing but my underwear…”
“Perfect, Ruby,” you smile, checking on your wedding gown. “Where did you learn to sew? I never thought you would be the one saving my dress.”
“Let’s say Sam likes to rip my clothes off my body too. I hated that I had to explain why my clothes got ripped open almost every week,” Dean snickers, watching Sam’s cheeks turn pink. “Don’t act all shy now, Winchester.”
“I know you would like to talk about my sex life some more, but we should not wait any longer or Y/N’s father will lose his patience. I think he already checked on his gun,” Sam tries to turn your attention back toward your wedding.
“I guess it’s time for a wedding,” you smirk, holding out your hand for Dean. “Don’t you think I’ll let you out of sight, Winchester. I don’t need a runaway groom.”
“Damn, I forgot my sneakers,” Dean grins, taking your offered hand to squeeze it tightly. “No one will stop me from marrying your cute ass, sweetheart.”
The ceremony is short, honest, and filled with insults. Which means you called Dean a humorless jerk. He called you a frigid bitch. You exchanged rings and swore to each other not to stray.
Whilst John grinned throughout the whole ceremony, even dared to laugh, your father remained stoic. He didn’t like you acted as if the ceremony or rather the whole wedding is a joke to you and Dean.
Your father’s mood didn’t get any better when you insisted that the wedding was perfect to you. Even though you laughed, joked, and threw insults at your husband, it was the wedding you wanted.
The after-party, or as you liked to call it, the desperate people buffet who look for someone to fuck after a wedding, went on until 2 am. Your father grumbled the whole time, not missing John was in a good mood.
When the last guest finally left the ballroom you kicked your shoes off, grabbed the last piece of cake, and pushed it into Dean’s face.You laughed your ass off, he wasn’t amused.
That’s how you ended up, bend over the table with the cake, hands tied tightly behind your back with Dean’s tie whilst your husband smears the cake all over your ass.
“You should see your ass, baby. Ready to get eaten,” you gasp, feeling his teeth sink into your left cheek to leave an angry bite mark. “What will your daddy say when I send him a copy of the video?”
“He’ll believe I married a kinky bastard who likes to smear cake onto my butt,” you giggle, feeling his fingers slide through your folds. “No cake on my pussy or you’ll lose your dick.”
“Shhh…, sweetheart,” Dean smirks, licking more cake off your ass, moaning as you press your butt into his face. “I’d like to take your ass.”
“No,” you grit out when Dean’s teeth leave another mark on your right cheek. “Not now, Dean. I want you to fuck me on that table. Give me the perfect ending.”
“Babe, you’ll get anything you want but I already chased you through the ballroom. We had a food fight and now I’m going to fuck the life out of you,” Dean smirks, feeling wetness coat his fingers.
“I want your dick, Winchester. Give it to me,” you complain. “I’m your wife, fulfill your duty,” laughing at your words Dean gets up to slowly unzip his pants. His dick slaps against your ass and you whine feeling Dean step away from the table to take another picture.
“I must admit I never imagined our wedding like this,” Dean is back on you. This time he slightly lifts your butt to slide into you with one forceful snap of his hips.
“Dean,” you cry out, walls clenching tightly around his thick cock. “Fuck me, please.”
“Love it when you beg me, Y/N,” if not for the pressure he builds in your core with every sloppy thrust, you would gladly slap his face. “Love it, even more, when you moan my name.”
“Dean, fuck,” one hand cups the back of your neck to hold you forcefully down, the other grips the edge of the table. Dean speeds up, ignores his phone started to ring moments ago. “Dean, the phone.”
“Later, sweetheart,” his moans turn louder, and you swear, it’s the most erotic sound you ever heard. You don’t know how the sex feels to Dean but the way he calls out your name gives away he enjoys it as much as you do.
“It won’t stop ringing,” he’s angrily grasping for the phone, to yell at anyone who dared to disturb him. “Dean…”
“Shit give me just a minute,” you feel the knot tightening, ready to snap anytime when Dean speeds up once again. “I need to tell you something,” he pants, dropping the phone onto the table. “I guess you’ll not like it.”
“Make me cum and we can talk about anything, Dean,” falling hard you rest your head onto the table. “Come on, Winchester. Give it to me good.”
Dean groans at your words, not needing more encouragement to fill you with his sticky cum. He’s fast to pull out.
“Promise me to not get mad.” You cock a brow when Dean removes the tie, offering you a sly smile.
“What did you do, Winchester?” He’s grinning cheekily whilst he hands you his jacket to cover your modesty. “Dean?”
“You see…erm-uh,” he coughs, nervously rubbing the back of his neck. “Do you remember Vegas a few years ago?”
“Vague. I know we woke in a bed…with Sam,” you hum, closing your eyes. “I think it was a hot mess back then. Why do you bring Sammy up?”
“Well, it’s kinda – whew, there is no good way to tell you,” eyes narrowed you fist Dean’s shirt to bring him to your eye level.
“Jesus, tell me what’s wrong. I’m freaking tired and want to drive home, maybe smear more cake onto my husband and lick it off,” Dean huffs, glancing at you. “Dean, you are scaring me.”
“Okay…let me tell you what happened in Vegas didn’t stay in Vegas. Somehow, and I don’t know how it happened, you did not only fuck me and Sammy, but you also married my brother. The marriage never got anulled, and this means you are still married to my brother,” Dean gasps for air when he finally stops talking. “Sorry.”
“What the…?” you blink a few times. “Wait…what? I’m married to Sam?” Dean nods, not missing the dirty grin on your lips. “Does this mean I can have both of you? I always dreamed of having a harem…”
Dean’s jaw drops when you grasp for his phone to send the video he made to Sam.
“Ruby said he can go to hell. I think my baby brother is lonely and heartbroken. Sammy is at your daddy’s house. Imagine, having us both in your room for daddy to hear…” Dean can barely end his line before you drag him out of the ballroom.
“This is the best wedding ever…”
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Not Telling: A Study in How Much We are Actually Told About The Characters, Part One of Two
AKA that meta I started writing/promised to post fully a year ago and then never finished or posted bc I’m a mess. It’s being posted in two parts because it got a bit long.
So we all have our own idea of what the characters look like although many people believe the characters look roughly the same, with some minor differences from headcanon to headcanon. But what does the text itself tell us? The answer is...both more than I expected but also in keeping with Not Telling, not a whole lot at all.
I want to start this with a caveat that I kept very good notes on TT, ACoK, and TaT, mediocre notes on KoA and passable ones for QoA lol. however, it does give us a decent picture of what everyone looks likes. This is like 70% quotes and 30% extrapolation, but I try to explain my thought process on some of my conclusions.
Eugenides:
There’s a few instances that I remember reading (mostly in The Thief) that I forgot to mark but I know all of those dealt with his height and hair - that his hair is long, that it’s dark, and that he’s smaller than Pol and the Magus. So here we go:
“..the man wearing it was tall. Taller than I was, of course, but taller than the magus as well.” - Note that he’s talking about the one of the gods here, which indicates that
eugenides is very short at this point
the magus when compared to other people is probably pretty tall
“Scabs that were black against my prison-fair skin.” - Indicates that his skin has lightened noticeably since he was in prison although that’s the only indicator we get about what he looks like until literally the very ending with...
“He mentioned an Eddisian mother to explain his dark coloring.” - Which is exactly what I mean in Not Telling - we are told enough to have a clear blue print of him, but we are left to fill in the details of how he looks.
About his wound: “it’s taken a divot out of your face...it might heal clean.” and “I was quite certain I’d have a feather-shaped white scar.” - Note that Eugenides thinks this is a sign of approval from the Eugenides the god.
We get just as little in The Queen of Attolia, although note that this is the first time we are getting Gen from someone else’s point of view, instead of him describing himself:
“...his dark hair covering his face...He’d grown...he was not quite her height, but with his hair cropped short under his helmet, she hadn’t looked twice at him when she had seen him.” - that’s the only real description we get of him in the beginning of QoA before It Happens, and it’s from Irene’s point of view. There’s also several references to him looking “young” “naive” and “guilless” - young pops up about half a dozen times, and she remarks often on him being “a boy” and “half-grown.” Obviously part of that is guilt, but I did want to note that when we’re in Gen’s mind, he doesn’t focus on how short or young he looks, but when we’re in someone else’s mind, they immediately zero in on how young and small Gen is.
There’s a lot of descriptions of him after The Thing but it’s all involved in how sick he looks ie bruises showing against his yellowed skin, being so pale that his scar looked dark against his skin, that he’s lost a lot weight, stuff like that. It gives us the sense that he is very sick but no real indication of how he looks when he’s not suffering from fever and blood loss.
“His dark hair blended into the darkness behind him…” - first physical description in KoA
“The Queen was several inches taller than Eugenides…” in KoA during the dance scene
“His usually dark skin was so pale the scar on his cheek showed against the lighter skin around it.” - during the assassination attempt
“Costis was sufficiently taller than the king…” - I think this is our first reference to Costis being very tall, but of course nowhere near our first reference to Gen being short.
“His face was pale, his normally dark skin yellowed.” - My note has nothing to do with his look, but the fact that his skin is usually dark but is now both pale AND visibly yellow makes me think his liver was damaged by the assassin and that’s why it took so long to heal.
“He chose Mede coats with the long bell sleeves because no fighting man who’d seen the muscles in the king’s wrist would have underestimated him the way the Attolians had. His other wrist with no hand at the end of it appeared oddly narrow and delicate. Costis tried not to stare and found himself looking instead at the king’s scars. The long line across his belly was an angry red, but there were other marks: ragged tears around his knees and elbows, and lighter shining bands around his ankles that could only be the mark of fetters, as well as the various lines left by edged blows on his chest and arms, and one long one on his thigh. There were also a number of bruises, some newly purple and black and some fading almost to nothing. Costis wondered where they could have come from.” - WHEW long description for the first time and its all about Gen’s scars.
“...skinny and prison pale, incongruous with the clean clothes the Magus had picked out for him.” - Sophos’ PoV from AcoK. This seems to imply that Gen is usually darker than he is in the Thief - which we’ve been told before, that he’s darker skinned but stints in prison and a number of serious injuries seem to frequently make him look sickly and pale - but also that he’s usually heavier - whether that means, like Sophos believes, that Gen is normally not as skinny or that he’s gained weight since becoming Attolis is anyone’s guess.
“I kept going until I could see his face, see every detail—the quirk of his eyebrow, the twist at the corner of his mouth, the mark on his cheek, where he’d said the Attolian guards had once shot him when he was running away…” - Kamet’s description of him.
“I remembered him as a boy, small for his age. I found him taller, broader in the shoulder, much older than the intervening years would explain, with a hook where his hand had been—wholly changed, in fact, but for the scar on his face and that smile.” - Gen is finally like a normal height lmao, but also he’s gotten bigger in general, which seems to imply IMO that re: Sophos’ assessment earlier, most of the weight (and likely muscle as Costis points outback in KoA) is the result of his time in Attolia and not weight he lost in jail. But whether THAT is due to him like, eating more potentially or having a different fighting style/routine that is bulking him up, or just a natural consequence of getting older or a combination of the two is again, your guess.
Helen:
“By far the least attractive of the women stood up.”
“She had black hair, like Attolia, and her gown was red velvet...tended to stand like a soldier. The ruffles on her shoulders made her arms seem long enough to reach to her knees. Her nose had been broken and reknitted crooked, her hair was cut short like a man’s and curled so much over her simple silver crown that crown itself was nearly invisible.” - all Gen’s point of view.
“She was short and too broad to be called petite. Her father had been broad shouldered, Attolia remembered, and not over-tall. Eddis had a serious expression.” - From QoA, in Irene’s pov. It seems the shortness of Gen is something that runs in the family.
“She’s ugly...she’s short, she’s broad-shouldered, and hawk-faced with a broken nose. I would say no, she is not ideal...I’ve seen men fall on their knees and get to walk across hot coals for her after one of those smiles.” - Gen talking about her with the Magus. I feel like it’s relevant that Gen calls her “the least attractive” when he’s with her, but only “ugly” when talking about her with other people.
“You look a little vulpine yourself.” - probably more a personality quirk than anything, but I still wanted to include it.
“Eddis reached to touch her own crooked nose. ‘If I laughed,’ she said, ‘it is only at the idea that we make a matched pair now, you and I.’” - for both her and Sophos here. Love flirting in the form of pointing out your irregularities, girl’s got game.
“The queen of Eddis is as beautiful as the day and as brilliant as the sun in the sky..he chuckled and quoted Praximeles about beauty being in the heart and not the eye..” - obviously Sophos’ opinion is colored by his love for her, but STILL, he does offer a description that she’s beautiful, is immediately contradicted by Akretenesh, and then basically thinks “it’s not my fault you’re stupid as fuck.”
Irene:
“Her hair was black and held away from her face by an imitation of the woven gold band of Hephestia. Her robe was draped like a peplos, made from embroidered red velvet. She was as tall as the magus, and she was more beautiful than any woman I had ever seen.” - Gen’s PoV in the Thief. We have a hint of his feelings for her in the way he describes her, and also there’s her Hephestia cosplay as well.
“Her hair was held away from her face by the ruby and gold headband that crossed her forehead just above her dark brows. Her skin was flawless and so fair as to be translucent. She dressed as always in an imitation of Hephestia.” - Gen calling out her Hephestia cosplay lmao. I also notice that she’s specifically not just “fair skinned” like Sophos or other Attolians, she’s described as almost weirdly pale.
Sophos:
I KNOW I forgot to mark a scene where Eugenides describes Sophos in TT as like...fair or pink-cheeked or something like that but I’ll be damned if I can find it.
“They were both obviously well bred...I wondered if they were brothers...the older one had darker hair and was better looking.” - obviously the older is Ambiades.
“One member of the crowd, a young man with a broken nose, a lip twisted by scar tissue, and dirty clothes that combined to suggest a person of violent and criminal habits…” - good description that also tells us that Useless the Younger looks significantly different since we saw him four books (and several years) ago. It’s not just that he’s older, or scarred, it’s that he *looks* dangerous now.
“I was taller than Malatesta by inches.” and “I wasn’t heavier than [Hyacinth] but I was taller and bore him to the ground.” - both give us an approximation of his height, weight, and strength.
“I felt my upper lip and rubbed my thumb against the scar tissue. I could feel it distorting my mouth. My nose had a new bump in the middle of it as well.” - scar healing badly
“Measuring myself against [The Magus], I realized we now saw eye to eye.” - considering several references to how tall The Magus is (which we’ll get to), this means Sophos is incredibly tall.
“...my hair all cut away and ragged.” and then they mention they dyed it. Once they get to Attolia however, “A barber came in to trim and shave us, taking off the last of my darker hair and leaving it tidy, if short.” So it’s gone back to his natural color, but this implies he usually wears his hair long.
There’s also a mention of him eating a lot, which isn’t a physical description, but does, IMO, imply something to his size - like how many sheer calories a lot of Olympic athletes have to eat a day.
“I smiled until I felt the scar tissue tighten...I had never let him see what I looked like when I smiled: my uncle.” - ICONIC.
ALSO - Sophos is frequently compared to animals. These animals include a lamb, lion, rabbit, bunny, puppy, and then back to lion.
Costis Ormentiedes:
I couldn’t find any description of him beyond a few references to him being tall in KoA which either means that I just missed it bc I got to emotional over KoA (which is likely) OR we don’t get a real description of Costis until TaT which is an interesting choice. ONWARDS:
“He was a very large Attolian…” - Kamet’s first impression of Costis, yet again reminding us how big Costis is
“He was a typical Attolian: sandy-brown hair, a broad face, light-colored eyes. Altogether he had a simple, straightforward look to him, and he seemed perfectly serious.” - gives us a general idea of what Attolians as a people look like.
“He was large, as I already knew, and a soldier. He had the scars on his hands and forearms and the unmistakable muscles from swinging a sword day in and day out. I had no doubt he was good at what he did - he rather reminded me of an ox, very strong, not terribly quick - but I thought killing was his work, not his pleasure….he moved easily, so he was no veteran crippled’s in his country’s service, but he was too young to have done his twenty years - my own age, or perhaps younger.” - Lots of information here from Kamet. The ones that stick out to me are: moves easily, which means Costis has likely not even been minorly injured before, but he has scars, which of course means he’s had a lot of flesh wounds. The other thing is that Kamet instinctively knows that Costis doesn’t like killing - I don’t know if that means Kamet is a good judge of character or if there’s something about Costis, whether it be the way he carries himself, or something physically like his expressions, his youth, his eyes, that tells Kamet this, but it *could* be something physical.
Kamet makes several references to Costis being hot lmao. He uses the word “attractive” several times in several different chapters and others agree with this assessment.
“She sent him to the potter to see if he could use a young man with a strong back.” - more comments about how ripped Costis is.
Kamet
Couldn’t find any description of Kamet in QoA, and he doesn’t really describe himself in TaT. I’m worried I missed something, but this is what I found:
“Normally as warm-toned as myself…” - Kamet comparing his own skin tone (undertone?) to Laela’s.
He also describes himself as small and skinny compared to Costis several times - once saying his face is roughly at level with Costis’ chest - and mentions flogging scars on his back.
EDIT: THANK YOU FOR COMMENTS, we get this like in QoA about Kamet: “The slave’s almond shaped eyes and red-brown complexion set him apart from the Attolians.”
—————
Not sure how to end this but anyway that’s what we’re given for the main PoVs. Surprisingly, we get more description for Helen than we do for Irene, and barely any for Kamet. There were some things that I had misremembered - I thought Gen was described as “brown skinned” but instead it’s “dark skinned” or “dark coloring” and I thought he described Helen as ugly more than once, but it’s just to the Magus, when they’re discussing Sounis’ potential marriage, which is....interesting to me, and sounds a lot more like Gen trying to downplay his cousin so the Magus will fuck off, especially when he offers Agape as an alternative that is, notably, prettier and also holds significantly less power. I also thought Costis was described as “blonde” or “fair haired” like Sophos but instead he’s “sandy brown” and I think the idea of him being Blonde was a fandom thing that I just misremembered.
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The Turncoat
Okay, whew, let’s dive into this again because when you edit a post that has a line break in it in mobile it...breaks the whole post, I guess? On my phone, at least? It’s fine, it’s fine...it just gave me personal feelings, is all.
“I’m trying to arrest them, Hare, not kill them! You’re being excessive!”
“It’s not excessive if it’s necessary!”
I really loved Marrow. I’m so happy to see I wasn’t the only one! Marrow struck me as a character that, and it definitely seemed this way to a lot of people, was our most likely candidate for switching sides. We’ve seen him the most out of all of the Ace Ops this volume (outside of Clover) and his lines definitely fit into that narrative. He showed the most hesitation, was constantly in the line of sight of our characters and their interactions, was the only one in close proximity to the Happy Huntresses for any length of time, and he’s also a faunus, which is important as it’s addressed...a few times. But I won’t dive into that as much. I’m going to mostly focus on the other three and what I think they mean for his character arc. So, a decent amount of guessing.
“Some of us are all asset, zero liability.”
It’s the best line in the show and absolutely true
Marrow is introduced to us as the rookie. He’s the one that’s the butt of most of the Ace Ops’ jokes and Ironwood even tells Clover not to take him on a mission in E3 as he jokingly mimics rapid firing in the distance. He’s also shown as being what I’ll assume looks like the least experienced, as his reactions are often noticeably different than his teammates’ (the fight in E12, what happened at the political rally in E6).
“We’re not actually going to slug this out, are we?”
He’s the only one of the Ace Ops, when Ironwood addresses them, that shows any amount of concern and hesitation (I mean, Vine looked a little put out but it could just be resignation of his duty?). Harriet and Elm were stone-cold committed. Marrow even vocalizes, on two occasions throughout this fight, that he doesn’t want to really hurt them, while the other Ace Ops are more than willing to use lethal force (it’s...insinuated). Their loyalty to Ironwood and his orders are not tantamount to their feelings. The former is more valued, which makes sense for them as soldiers. But Marrow functions as the Penny to their collective Winters--he’s inclined to listen to his own emotions rather than orders. Which puts him very much so in line with our heroes who he has, aside from Clover, been seen interacting with the most.
Team RWBY are introduced as the amateurs compared to the Ace Ops. Marrow might be the rookie of the team, but he is still more in command than RWBY or JNR and so, when he sees their antics, he acts a bit...like it’s beneath him. But the point is he’s still the one seeing all these interactions. Penny and Ruby in “A Night Off”, Oscar and Ruby after leaving the Schnee manor, Blake and Yang after their landing in E3. He may act annoyed at them being “kids” but Harriet even says in E3 that the other Ace Ops “babysit” Marrow all the time. He acts frustrated at this, but I think his presence during these scenes serves as an important beat.
He is...not amused. These are also the two, I think, that are most in opposition with each other.
When everything kind of falls apart in E6, Marrow is the one in attendance at the political party. Marrow is the one who engages with the Happy Huntresses, asking none-to-nicely if Robyn and the others are doing things “legally.” RWBY as a show is short on time, so I feel like these exchanges are important because they have to be done with purpose. We could have had any Ace Op in this position, but it was Marrow, and it was brought up, again, that he was a faunus, which makes him understanding of why the Happy Huntresses do the things they do, but as an Ace Op also places him squarely in the camp that the law is absolute. Even if, really, he might not entirely feel that way.
After Tyrian dancing queens his way onto our most wanted lists attacks the attendees, killing some, and hurts Fiona, instantly making us hate him more, we see Marrow try to control the situation and then immediately worry about Fiona. Ruby has to actually physically pull him away. He tells Robyn: “this wasn’t us, I swear.”
But these are all very long-winded, surface-level observations because I cannot write things short. But how exactly, is Marrow going to turncoat? What will prompt that change? I think I have an idea.
----
If there’s one Ace Op Marrow seems to admire, even if it is a brief scene, it’s Clover. He’s the leader of the Ace Ops, they all look up to him, and Marrow is trying his darnedest to be like them. And now, as of E12, that leader is dead.
And I think, given all the problems that are present in Atlas right now--Salem, the missing winter maiden, the destruction of Mantle--Clover’s death is going to be the least of our tin man’s concern. And I don’t think that’s going to sit well with Marrow.
I’m sure the Ace Ops will be affected, but they’ve stated again and again that they’re just teammates, not friends, and certainly not family (which is what Weiss calls her team) and thus, all personal feelings take a back seat to duty. Their lack of real cohesion is why they lost in E12. RWBY were there for each other. The Ace Ops were not. And that’s also a heated topic I do not want to delve into this is simply my take.
So when Ironwood and the others try to say that Clover’s death is just “what happens” I think Marrow will have a tough time with it. Because he’ll start to realize that their orders are not what he sees as right. And because he’s such a good boi person and not indoctrinated into the mindset of the other Ace Ops yet, he’s going to have a hard time coming to terms with orders that, I think, will become increasingly less humane as Ironwood grows more and more desperate. Marrow will begin to see the law as imperfect. Robyn already told him as much.
And who is in prison right now, in Atlas with Marrow, and perhaps the only ones left trusted enough to get word to RWBY or the Huntresses and try to do something about what’s happening? Robyn. And Qrow. And who else was placed at the forefront of the Ace Ops dramatically exiting the mine during E3?
Let me have my Qrow adopts the Ace Ops theory/head canon, damn it.
Marrow’s journey might be about realizing that following orders is what lead to Clover’s death and Winter’s injuries and the Ace Ops’ loss. I want to see him confront Robyn and Qrow, after they’re virtually left to rot in prison by Ironwood, and ask them what happened with Clover. Because I want to see Marrow express that he cares in a way that, maybe right now, the other Ace Ops don’t allow themselves to. So Qrow and Robyn tell him the truth and Marrow, realizing loyalty to law isn’t what matters, will enlist the help of the...you guessed it, Happy Huntresses to help break them out! Then, Qrow (his new team of ex-Ace Ops), Marrow, Robyn and the Huntresses will work to help Mantle and, eventually, RWBYJNR+ in getting Amity up and running.
Because let’s be honest if there’s one thing I think all of us want, it’s turncoat Marrow.
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Iceberg Week Day 3-Swim Lessons: Cannonball!
Author's note: The original version of this prompt, I wasn't happy with at all. Hence the sudden repost of anyone who recalls how I originally wrote it. That being said, I hope you enjoy this prompt if you are just now stumbling across it.
[Weiss sat at the rooftop pool at SDC’s Vale headquarters. Her one-piece was, you guessed it, ice blue adorned with a pink ribbon around the chest and a see-through sarong. Through her sunglasses, she was anxious for Neptune to show up already. Today was going to be some swimming lessons for him. Something that Weiss had planned on for a while.
Ruby hung with them, casually swimming and splashing with Zwei as Weiss couldn’t help but think about how she was going to help with her boyfriend’s lessons. The thought made her sigh. Yeah, he agreed to it. But at what cost would it be? Obviously, Weiss didn’t do it to make him uncomfortable or put him on the spot. But it wasn’t going to be an easy task.]
Ruby: *sits at the edge of the pool, cuddling Zwei* Weiss? Weiss.
Weiss: *looks at Ruby* Yeah.
Ruby: How much longer is Neptune gonna take? He's been in the locker room for hours.
Weiss: His hydrophobia isn't an easy thing to overcome, Ruby. Jokes aside about what happened at Vytal, we can't rush him into simply outgrowing his fears in a snap. I'm afraid it's not as simple as just learning how to properly face a Grimm on foot.
Ruby: *pets Zwei* I know. But it's been going on for so long at this point that I dunno if his Team can really focus on some missions near the water.
Weiss: Right. Hence why he asked me to teach him. I'm the one who took him to the side about it, after all.
[Ruby sat Zwei down on the surface. The corgi immediately shook himself dry and listened in on the girls' conversation, bobbing his head to the side at whoever was speaking.]
Ruby: Wait a minute, wait a minute. So Sun never talked to him about it?
Weiss: Well, he planned to- -
Ruby: Neither did Scarlett?
Weiss: Actually, he was gonna- -
Ruby: Sage?!
Weiss: RUBY! Could you please let me speak, dolt?!
Ruby: *inches back in the water* Sorry!
Weiss: No-no, that's alright. I…Kinda worded that wrong. See, the boys had debated it with Neptune after their clash with Team NDGO. But then when they moved to Vacuo after the Fall, there really wasn’t much room for swim lessons apart from the oasis they'd stop by to rest up. And since they were so high up in Mistral's mountain ranges, there wasn’t much time to discuss that, either. Especially with how they only came for farewells with how we had to get to Argus.
Ruby: *inches up* Wow, so he trusted you to teach him?
Weiss: Yes. Neptune asked me since there really wasn’t much room for the boys to teach him due to their own duties at Shade at the time. I figured we'd fly out to the company office to make this easier, as sort of a comparison to the fear of heights versus the fear of water.
Ruby: *smiles* Aww. Well, I think it was really sweet what you're doing for your boyfriend.
Weiss: Yes, he- -What?! Oh my gods, no! We are not dating right now!
Ruby: *smug look* Then why did you sneak photos of him and his teammates in the locker room one time?
Weiss: Shut up, that was Coco who took the photos and left them on my desk!
Ruby: *cat smile* Uh-huhhhhh~!
Weiss: Argh! If I had one of those Pyrrha dolls, I would throw it at your head.
Ruby: *frowns* Geez. Rub it in, why don't you.
[Just as the girls were about to resume their banter, the doors to the poolhouse opened revealing Neptune in a red speedo and a life vest. He wore water wings for good measure as he nervously smiled at the girls.
The vest, predictably, failed to hide his lean figure. If anything, his perfectly toned ass was on display more with the speedo. Neptune wasn't a Herculean titan like Jaune, Sage, Yatsuhashi, or the like. But his twink-like figure was more than enough to catch Weiss' attention, which sold quickly.]
Weiss: Oh…There you are! I figured you needed a moment to acclimate to the pool. (He's hot! He's hot! I completely forgot about this until now and he's so incredibly hot! It's gotta be a war crime to look this good!)
Neptune: You, uh…You ready to start, Weiss? *embarrassed grin*
Weiss: Y-Yeah, of course. Come here, let me help you into the water.
[Weiss offered Neptune her hand as Klein came by with refreshments for the three of them. The Schnee clan's butler wore a Hawaiian pattern shirt and shorts as he brought Ruby a cherry soda.]
Klein: Thirsty, Miss Rose?
Ruby: *takes soda* Yep. Thanks, Klein.
Klein: *bows* My pleasure, ma'am. I take it you are also enthralled with Mister Vasilias' body?
[Ruby got out of the pool, towling herself off as she sat in a chair with her soda.]
Ruby: That's not really my thing. But how often has this happened with Weiss?
Klein: Well, many boys have come to the pool with her in the past. Not in Atlas, but here. Predictably, they were interested in Weiss' money rather than her personality.
Ruby: *sips soda* I guess it's a first with Neptune, then.
Klein: Hmm. Indeed.
Neptune: *walks to the edge of the pool with Weiss, holding her hand* This is fine, this is fine…
Weiss: *smiles* It’ll be fine, Neptune. Just focus on me. We'll get this done together. How deep can you usually go?
Neptune: Huh?
Weiss: How deep in water can you go?
Neptune: W-Well, I can dip my feet in the water. But going beyond my ankle is where I start to panic.
Weiss: Just don't let go of me. Keep holding my hand, and we'll start with standing in the shallow end.
Neptune: Alright…
[Weiss stepped into the pool first, feeling her hand tightened by Neptune's thick grasp. She winced a little, but dipped her thighs in, gesturing Neptune to follow.
The intellectual hesitated, then nodded by dipping his ankles after his girlfriend went into the drink. He gasped a little. He then noticed that Weiss began stroking into the pool. A surge of panic went through him, diving in after her.]
Neptune: Weiss, hang on! *dives forward*
Weiss: What, Neptune- -?! *gets pounced by Neptune* GAH!
[Ruby raised her sunglasses, noticing them both falling in from Neptune's jump.]
Ruby: GUYS! *Petal Bursts into the pool, diving in after them*
Klein: Good heavens!
[As Ruby dived in after them, Klein made a beeline for the lifeguard post and grabbed the inner tube ring. Just as Ruby pulled out Weiss, she let go of Neptune who floated up, gasping for air as Ruby held up her partner.]
Weiss: Neptune? Neptune, can you hear me?!
Neptune: *shakes head* Hah! W-Weiss?
Weiss: *swims over to Neptune, hugging him* Yeah, it's me. What the hell got into you there?
Neptune: Um… *bites lip*
Weiss: Neptune. Please tell me what’s going through your head.
Neptune: I'm- - *hugs Weiss* I'm scared of the water because I shocked my friends when I was a kid.
Weiss: *looks up* What?
Neptune: Basically, my mom was taking us out for a swim after my dad was hospitalized at the time. My friends and I, we- -We were having fun for a while, but then my friend Scylla and I were hanging out by the car. I thought I saw mom drowning, but it was actually one of Scylla's relatives. I ran in, and, my mind went blank.
Klein: *frowns* Oh dear.
Ruby: How did you get out?
Neptune: Okay, I can basically cast static electricity. I can charge it over time, but I mostly can just shock my way out of some problems. It's not really lethal against Humanoids. This shock back then, though…Whew! Just as I was gonna black out, I zapped myself awake, then the whole pool lit up along with the other kids. I survived, but I was pretty much scared of water after that.
Weiss: What happened to them?
Neptune: Gods, I'm not even sure. But the last I heard when the police finally finished questioning us was that…That my friends were also hospitalized and homeschooled for a while. *lets go of Weiss* I've never been so embarrassed about one of my fears. I'm sorry, Weiss. This might not be a good day for lessons.
[Zwei gave a sad whimper, with Klein's “Bashful” personality kicking in at this sight. But Weiss wasn’t having any of his excuses today, and gave Neptune another hug from behind. Her chest sat against his rocky back. And she pillowed her head against the back of his neck.]
Weiss: Neptune. You have nothing to be sorry about. That was then, this is now. Besides, you admitted you trusted me to help you with this, right? So I'm gonna help you because I love you, and wanna help you through your pain. Don't EVER be afraid to ask for my help.
Neptune: But- -Alright. You're right, Weiss. I gotta stop worrying with you around. *takes Weiss' legs into piggyback position* Let's uh…Let's try again tomorrow. Water's getting a little cold.
[Weiss hugged him tighter, nuzzling the back of his neck and planting several kisses while brushing the side of her lengthy hair against his shaved spots.]
Weiss: Is this better, sweetie?
Neptune: *blushes* Well, uh… *smiles* Yeah, it is. *steps out of the pool, shedding water wings still carrying* Thanks, Weiss. I knew you'd listen.
Weiss: Of course, Neptune. Ruby, why don't we shower up and get lunch?
Ruby: *smirks, getting out of pool* You just don't wanna see Neptune all wet and naked right now, do you?
Weiss: *blushes* N-No! Not until we're married…Okay, maybe a little.
Klein: *switches to Doc personality, chuckling* Never a dull moment. I shall go retrieve your towels at once.
Weiss: *gets off of Neptune's back* Thank you, Klein. Could you please give Zwei a bath as well?
Ruby: He likes baths, just be sure to lure him in with some toys I brought.
Zwei: Ruff-ruff!
Klein: Certainly, Miss Rose!
[The heroes dispersed to wash up for the afternoon, before enjoying lunch together. Weiss wasn’t going to let Neptune's aquaphobia bring him down so easily, because nothing could stop a Schnee from achieving her goal with their SO. Such was the nature of Neptune and Weiss' relationship.]
#rwby#rwby shipping#rwby weiss#weiss schnee#rwby neptune#neptune vasilias#iceberg week#ship week#rwby ship week#shipping prompt#shipping
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Wet Sugar [Part 7 of 30]
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"Never understood how the trees gave us air
'Cause when you took my breath away
Trees were still there
I know that you're not in love with me
Which brings the ocean toward my eyes
Toward my eyes
See, we've all been there before
So don't you judge me
I'll never ask for more after this warning
My heart's in dumps for sure
But I'll keep on running for you, for you
So give me a pulse
Steady and deep
Now tell me the one thing you wanted from me…"
Leah Jenea – "Pulse"
Summary: Erik is in Africa and Yani deals with fall out...
A.N.: Hey all, had to split a chapter in two. My updates are averaging about 10,000 words (almost a 1/3 of a whole ass book each post, whew!]
Mature Content. NSFW. Y’all already know...
It felt different.
Sitting on the sand and running her fingers through the sugary soft grains, Yani couldn't quite figure out the sensation creeping over her spirit. Men had come and gone over the years through the compound. But Erik was the first she ever took an interest in…interacted with actually. Thinking back on it, she couldn't remember any of the men she had ever had a passing conversation with.
She touched the side of her neck. Trying her best to cover it with a cowrie shell choker, she could feel the tender bruise where Erik's lips and tongue had broken the small blood vessels there marking her skin with his love bite. Not just a hickey, but his actual teeth marks, those gold slugs digging into her flesh, the heat from his mouth branding her.
She had stood against the SUV expecting her Aunt to show up at any moment and catch that man hunched over her body like he was Vlad the Impaler turning her into a creature of the night. She gave her neck up to him wantonly, hungry for his mouth on her there and everywhere. When his fingers pinched her nipples, his tongue licked her ear and he whispered, "Your titties getting wet for me yet?"
She thought she would pass out from how gravelly his voice sounded. The possessive tone made her thighs shake and at that point, she pushed him back.
"Not in front of Sweet Pea," she gasped praying that her bra would control any leaking milk that could happen because of him.
"She needs to see her Mama getting some lovin'. Help her know what it looks like," he said trying to pull her back in his arms.
She held him back while peeking around his side looking out for Leona.
"Just one more kiss," he said.
"My Auntie will be here soon."
"Let me just hold you then."
His eyes seemed to be pleading with her.
"Okay—"
He lifted her up and placed her back on the backseat so that they were face to face. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he leaned in to hold her. His body heat seeped into her dress and made her feel secure and protected. Her nose took in the scent of his cologne, and the scent of the almond smelling oil he used for his hair.
"Give me your number," he said when he pulled back from her. He had his cell out again.
She gave him her number but he didn't share his.
Leona returned and Yani kissed her daughter while fighting back the sorrow that was filling up her heart. Being with Killmonger felt normal. Natural. She watched him check the seatbelt securing Sydette, and when they drove away, she felt a dull pain grow in her chest and a few tears squeezed from her eyelids.
He was gone.
Yani allowed herself to fall back on the sand. She stared up at the pastel colors in the sky and tried to remember every inch of Killmonger. From his dark locs and thick neck to the curves on his strong thighs and the firm girth of that heaviness between his legs.
She couldn't ignore the urgent thumping from her clit and she pulled her bikini bottom off and spread her legs, not even caring about the sand digging into her backside.
"Ahhh…" she panted when her fingers pressed into her clit. It was already swollen, the delicate hood retracted revealing the tender pink bud. She pulled open her sticky inner labia and tried to imagine Killmonger slapping his dick on her, hitting her clit hard. He would be rough with her. She knew this. When he pulled his dick out of his pants the first time he touched her and let slip that he wanted to fuck her, the coarse edge in his voice let her know he was a man who broke pussy down. He was older, more experienced, and when he picked her up and slammed her on his dick to dry hump her, the strength she felt in his arms and legs made her feel weak. Delicate. He clearly had grown man dick. And that is what she wanted. Not sorry peen from the bum ass boys she ended up with.
Her thoughts drifted and she ruminated on when he kissed her pussy, could probably rub out a good orgasm re-imagining that night, but instead, her mind went to him yelling at her in his bedroom. For some reason, re-playing the hard and rough anger that came out of his throat got her so wet so fast. In the heat of the real moment she had been terrified, but lying on the warm sand with the new day's sun waiting for the first morning breath to carry it high above her, Yani fantasized about Erik yelling at her, barking orders at her, his lips curled in that mean scowl that was profoundly sexy to her in the safety of her imagination.
She pressed harder on the slick nub of her clit, her mind's eye replaying Erik's rough words, re-living the narrow lowering of his eyelids, his lips letting his gold teeth shine. And God, his hands lifting her up and pulling her onto his strong sculpted body… Yani's fingers flicked her clit with harder pressure re-imagining the rage on his face like he wanted to snatch her up and choke her within an inch of her life--
"I'll give you this wet pussy, Killmonger!" she squealed thinking of his juicy big lips and his turbulent-looking eyes. There was a storm lingering deep within those dark brown iris' of his.
Yani's three fingers sank down into her center and she pretended it was that man's thick brown dick hitting her walls and her stomach muscles clenched tight. She turned her head to the side feeling the sand scratch her cheek. She took the fingers of her other hand and pinched her clit as she wiggled her digits in her pussy. She wished she had her ruby anal plug, wanting that space filled so her sphincter could squeeze tight when she came.
She heard herself wailing with ecstasy as her pussy throbbed around her fingers. She would never have the chance to fuck him. She would never know how much time and tenderness it would take to fit him inside of her. There would be no more love marks. No more deep bites from golden canines. No more hands squeezing and pinching her nipples to make them weep.
Her release was total and complete.
Her limbs and torso felt abandoned by something it never had before. Probably never would. She might spend the rest of her life comparing imaginary fucking with a stranger to whomever she ended up with in life.
Her index and middle finger stirred around the inside of her vagina, the sloppy wetness there was profound. It dripped down her inner thighs and ass cheeks. The tears from her pleasure gathered down on her neck, but they soon turned to tears of sorrow.
"Him no come back," she said out loud, needing to hear it out in the open so she could accept it. For a brief moment, she thought she couldn't breathe. Couldn't feel her heart beating within her chest. She placed a warm hand against her neck. There was a pulse there. She was alive. Life would continue as it always had.
Flinging her bikini top on top of her clothes she picked herself up and waded out into the sea. She swam so far out that when she glanced back to look for her clothes, she could barely see the shadow of them on the sand.
Sinking down…
Her eyes searched below the surface for fish or sea turtles or anything that could distract her. When she allowed herself to float on her back, she remembered yelling at him when she first saw him. He floated in her waters and she wanted him gone, banished from her sanctuary. But now…all she wanted was for him to be floating on his back next to her, naked, his dimples flashing only for her and her baby.
She stayed in the water for as long as she could. When the sun began to shift, she dog-paddled toward shore, then body surfed all the way back.
She heard the cell alarm chime from her clothes and she knew it was time to finish up the work she had left at the compound. Once they were all gone, she and her Aunt would close down shop and wait for Klaue to return or not. She would have to collect a few more hours at the restaurant or at the Eco Tours to make ends meet again. Chez needed to come through with the money he owed her because she had to pay for tuition in another month.
Dressing quickly, Yani headed over to Klaue's. Pausing, she once more heard the stirring sound of Tahir's voice. The morning call to prayer.
She walked to where she could listen and watch him without disturbing his time. Tahir was in white again, his skull cap covering the wavy curls on top of his head. When he prostrated himself, Yani tried to hum the beginning parts of the prayer under breath. She had looked it up online on Kendall's laptop, finding a web page that gave a phonetic translation that she could follow.
"You need more of a nasal sound on that last part, Yani."
Startled, Yani glanced up and saw Tahir looking down at her.
"What?" she sputtered, confused as to how he knew she was there.
"Your voice…"
Confusion.
Oh, shit.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know I was singing out loud, I was humming it and then—" "It's alright, you sound wonderful."
She walked up to where he was and he stepped down from the veranda.
"Listen… Bismillaahir Rahmaanir Raheem. Alhamdu lillaahi Rabbil 'aalameen…"
Yani listened closely to his words and watched his lips and tongue move. He touched his throat.
"A little vibrato in there helps," he said, "bring it up through the diaphragm."
"Bismillaahir Rahmaanir Raheem. Alhamdu lillaahi Rabbil 'aalameen…" she sang. She could hear the difference right off.
"That was perfect, my Goddess."
Yani felt herself smile.
"Oh, there it is, at last. I was worried you had forgotten how to do that since Killmonger left," he said.
Her eyes darted away from his gaze and her smile faltered.
"I miss him too. He is my one true friend in this world and I barely know that much about him except that I miss his presence and his leadership. The prayers brought us closer together. He said that it gave him peace. Looks like it gives you peace too, yes?"
She nodded.
"I want to learn how to say them…the words," she said.
"For yourself?"
"Yes."
Tahir held out his hand.
"Come with me."
She hesitated.
"Up to the veranda. I will teach you."
She took his hand.
###
Tahir sat with Yani in the dining room of the front house. Leona was down in the apartment watching tv. It was their final hour with Klaue and his crew. Yani knew she was ready for a break from all the men. It was a hectic month of work for Leona and Yani knew her Aunt was ready to slow down and spend some time in her own home back in Red Hook.
She sipped the can of coke she drank with Tahir. He guzzled down two cans and Yani sized up his face.
"What does Killmonger do when you are not working for Klaue?" she asked.
"He travels."
Tahir kept his answers enigmatic when it came to Killmonger. Gave no specifics to where he traveled to. All of her questions asked for the last twenty minutes were answered without real answers.
"Does he have a woman?"
Tahir put down his drink.
"You should forget him, Yani."
His answer surprised her.
"I'm just curious—"
"No…you're not curious…"
Tahir's eyes were a solemn brown and they swept over her face.
"You are so young. Your life is in front of you. Killmonger is not a man to…he's not…"
Tahir's eyes broke away from hers and he took another drink from his soda can.
"Say it, man," she said feeling anxious watching him. She squirmed in her chair. She hated how cryptic he was being with her.
"He's a dangerous man. Much too dangerous for you to be mixed up with. Be happy that he is gone."
"It would be easier just to tell me he has a girlfriend," she said.
"He has many women. Whenever he wants. He had several while he was here. Where he is now, he will have some there if he wants. That's how life is in this work we do. There is not one woman. No girlfriend. We use women when we want to have sex or a good time. That is all."
Yani felt her face get hot from his words. So blunt.
"Will he come back here?"
Tahir shrugged. He glanced at his watch and stood up.
"Goddess, it was a pleasure knowing you. I must get some sleep now—"
Yani jumped up.
"Can you give me his number? An email?" she said.
"I won't do that. I can't."
"Please?"
"No. I'm sorry. It's safer if you leave him alone."
He crushed his cans of coke. His eyes were gentle regarding her face.
"I can pass one message to him, but that's it. One message."
"I want to give it to him myself."
"Sorry, Yani. We have rules."
Tahir was not going to budge. And she didn't want to pass on an intimate message through this man.
"Goodnight, Mr. Tahir," she said.
She walked down to her Aunt's apartment under the front house. Leona sat with her reading glasses on watching Wheel of Fortune.
"Why the sour face?" Leona asked.
"Just tired, Auntie. Can I have the car keys?"
"Inside the bowl," Leona said.
Yani walked over to the ceramic candy dish by the tv and grabbed the keys.
"You worked very well, Yani. I'll have your money for you tomorrow. You have enough for tuition now?"
Yani grinned.
"I'm going to pay for both of my first two semesters next week. All I have to do is get through the first year and my grades by this time next year should help me get a scholarship. Any word from Klaue?"
"He hasn't said anything to me yet. I'll let you know what he decides."
Yani nodded and walked out of the apartment. She went back to the front house to make sure things were locked up.
"Yani."
She froze when she saw Klaue standing out on the patio.
"Yes, Mr. Klaue."
"Let Kendall and the guys know that I won't need them here until the end of the month. Things can go a little wild while I'm gone."
"I will tell them."
"You and Our Lady did well."
"Thank you."
Klaue always made Yani feel insecure. He could be irascible toward anyone, his moods often shifted from moment to moment, and right now, he looked a little tipsy from the beer he drank with his dinner. He stepped past her and she couldn't resist asking him a question.
"Will you be coming back soon, Mr. Klaue?"
He turned back toward her, his bloodshot eyes looking curious. His lips pressed tighter together.
Shit. He probably thought she was prying.
"I'm starting nursing school in the fall. I just want to know if there will be work available any time soon before I attend my classes."
She gave him a tepid smile, not sure if she had offended him by asking about his schedule. She had never done that before.
"You're going to be a nurse?"
"Yes, Sir. I want to help women who are having babies."
"Ah, well, you have experience with your own daughter. Good for you. Education is important. You want to better yourself."
He wiped a hand across his jawline.
"I will let your Aunt know for sure, but I may need extra help later in the summer. Can't say for sure."
"This job really helped me save up money for school. I probably won't be able to work here as much when you come back."
"I see. Well, you will be missed. Perhaps you can do some things on the weekend instead of during the week."
She smiled at that.
"Goodnight," he said leaving her.
Late summer.
Maybe…maybe Killmonger would be with him.
###
Yani parked her Aunt's car and checked her cell. There was a missed call from Zachary. Her nerves kicked up. There was no text or voice message. She quickly checked Zachary's IG and snapchat feeds. His other social media timelines were pretty quiet, just postings of joke memes and few music vids. She slipped the thin phone into her back pocket again.
Running up the stairs she was surprised to see Chez sitting on the top step. Scowling, he stood up when he saw her.
"You brought me the money?" she said, a hopeful tinge to her voice.
Chez snatched her up by the front of her shirt and raised his hand up until the cotton material was pressing against her throat and her belly was naked to the world.
"You stupid Bitch!"
Her hands flailed out scratching his wrists, but he held onto her tight. He dragged her back down the steps, her feet tangling up trying to keep him from breaking her ankles. Once he had her down by the parking lot, he slammed her body onto the hood of her Aunt's car. The pain in her back flared up and she kept still while his eyes glared at her, his face close to hers, the smell of hard liquor on his breath offending her senses.
"Chez! Stop it! You're hurting me!"
"Why the fuck am I getting a call that you have some other nigga claiming my child? You crazy? You married now?"
Fucking Kim.
"It was a joke!"
"No, it wasn't! You were seen kissing all over him. He had his hands all over you in front of the baby! Fucking slut!"
He lifted her up and slammed her back down, knocking the breath out of her.
"Who the fuck is he?"
Yani tried to ease up from the hood, but Chez was too strong.
"My Aunt works for him," she gasped, "He was playing, I swear! He was just joking with my boss!"
"Is Sydette mine?"
Yani was scared, but she felt anger seeping into her veins. It strengthened her resolve. She slapped at his face, scratching him.
"How dare you ask me that! You fucking bastard! I never cheated on you. I was always with you and you know Sydette is yours! Fucker!"
Her arms did windmills, striking him in his face and chest.
"Yani!"
Twyla came running out from the apartment. She bounded down the steps and lunged at Chez, putting him into a headlock and lifting his neck up. Yani took advantage when he released his hands from her and proceeded to punch him in the face with her fists.
"Alright! Stop!" Chez yelled.
They all heard Sydette crying from the open apartment door. A few neighbors stuck heads out of windows to watch the wild scene unfolding before them. Chez broke away from Twyla and darted up the steps.
"Chez!" Yani shrieked, running behind him.
Chez ran into her bedroom and grabbed Sydette from her crib, pressing her screaming little body against his chest.
"Let her go, Chez!" Yani shouted.
Her entire body was shaking watching him hold her baby. Chez peered down into Sydette's face.
"Is she mine? Don't lie to me, Yani! Kim said that man had dimples like her and he was holding her like she was his—"
Chez dropped down to one knee, almost losing his balance and dropping Sydette.
Yani fell to her knees in front of him grabbing for her daughter. Chez shoved her flailing arms back.
"Let me have her, please! Let her go!"
Chez's eyes looked haunted. There was fear there. Yani wiped tears from her face and held her hands out to him.
"She's yours! Everyone knows she's yours. You can do a blood test if you want, I don't fucking care…let her go…!"
Twyla flew into the room ready to beat the shit out of Chez again, but Yani held her back. Twyla grabbed a baseball bat from behind the bedroom door and held it in position.
"People are talking shit, Yani. Saying you played me!"
Chez'z eyes swam with tears. Sydette kept screaming. Yani crawled closer to him and took Sydette from his rigid arms. She sat back on her backside and pulled up her shirt, releasing a breast from her bra. Sydette latched onto her nipple and it had an immediate calming effect on her. Yani breathed deep, her eyes watching Chez.
Her back muscles shot jolts of pain and she grimaced. Chez watched her feed his baby. His tear-streaked face broken.
"You tryna find a father for her?" he asked.
"You should just pay your child support on time, Chez and not worry about who Yani sees. You cheated on her and ruined your relationship. She nuh have to tell you nothin' 'bout her personal business. That baby is yours and you are a shitty faddah—"
"Twyla…"
Her cousin glared at her face. She closed her mouth when she realized Yani wasn't in the mood to have Chez lectured about his failings.
"Chez, I got into nursing school. I need Sydette's money now. I will be going to school full-time and I need you to help me."
She could feel herself tearing up again and she was upset about crying all the time. She was forever crying over some man. It was tiresome.
Chez crawled to sit next to her. He took a finger and stroked Sydette's cheek.
"I'll have your money soon. I promise."
A sharp biting pain pinched her lower back and she groaned a bit. Chez reached behind her and rubbed her back gently. She tensed up when he touched her.
"Easy," he said.
"Why would you do that to me?"
She was pouring waterfalls from her eyes and her free hand reached up to cover her eyes.
"I messed up…I messed up…" he whispered.
He pulled her in close to comfort her and Sydette clutched onto her other breast trying to hold Yani in place.
"You ever put your hands on my cousin again, I will bust your head open to the gray meat Chez. Don't test me! Sydette will visit your bum ass in the grave next time," Twyla hissed.
Yani gave her a look to try and calm her.
"Him make me so vex. I want to hit him right now, right in front of his daughter!"
Yani lifted Sydette up and pulled down her own shirt.
"Hey, Sweet Pea. Mommy is okay now."
She rubbed the baby's back trying to soothe the anxious bouncing in her daughter's legs.
"Time for you to go, Chez," Yani said.
She stood up and held Sydette securely against her and moved away from Chez. He picked himself up from the floor. Wiping his eyes, he glanced at Twyla still clutching the baseball bat in her hand.
"I'll call you in a couple of days with the money."
He leaned over and kissed Sydette on the cheek. When he tried to kiss Yani on her cheek, she pulled away from him
After he left the apartment, Yani flopped down on her bed and really let the waterworks go. Twyla put away the bat and took the baby from her arms.
"How bad is the pain?"
"Just get me some ibuprofen—"
"We should call the cops on his ass. File a police report—"
"And how would I get my money then?" Yani whimpered.
"Just take him to the courts, let them garnish his pay—"
"He don't work regular jobs like that—"
"Can you call Killmonger to whoop his ass again?"
The sound of Erik's name made Yani cry harder. Sydette wailed along with her.
###
Luanda.
The capital of Angola.
Erik could hear Portuguese and Kikongo spoken around him as he sat with Klaue eating a simple meal of muamba de galinha. It was a tasty aromatic chicken stew and the woman who brought them their plates was happy to see Erik eat like he was at home, not scared to lick his fingers and ask for more. The garlic and chili made the meat and sweet potatoes hit hard with the palm oil it was cooked in, and he ate until his belly was bursting at the seams. Homestyle foods with beer always made him happy, and he thanked the woman in Portuguese and English.
"Estava uma delícia," he said. The waiter smiled at him, and when she tried to converse with him further, Klaue gave her a look that made her leave the table quickly.
"Chill, man. She can talk to me," Erik said.
"We're not here as tourists. Do that on your own time," Klaue answered with a brusque voice.
"I done told you about your tone with me. I'm not one of your little minions, bruh."
Erik gave back what he was given with this man. Klaue seemed to respect that. He didn't allow the other men to come at him like that, and Erik knew it was because Klaue really and truly needed him more and more.
Erik swiped the last bit of bread on his plate through a smear of stew gravy and gobbled it up. Licking his fingers again, he wiped his hands on a napkin and reached for a small cigar in his shirt breast pocket.
"You got a light?" he asked Klaue.
Klaue reached into his vest pocket and tossed Erik a green lighter.
"I'll be out front."
Pushing away from the table, Erik glanced at the waiter.
"Make sure you tip her well," he said.
It was already hitting ninety degrees outside and it was already eight o'clock at night. He lit his cigar and savored the spicy tobacco taste on his tongue. A few people watched him as they walked past him. On a purely physical level, he fit right in among the locals, until they noticed his keloids. He did his best to take on the nuance of the Portuguese spoken there, but there were several linguistic differences in the Brazilian Portuguese he knew and the Angolan version surrounding him. He tried his best to catch onto local slang to help blend in, but once he spoke, people knew he was from some other place. Most thought he was Brazilian.
Things were incredibly expensive there. For a country with large oil reserves and heavy foreign investment, Erik could taste poverty in many places. There was no real development in infrastructure for the poorer citizens, and he felt his jaw get tight knowing that once again, so many people struggled for basic chances at life. Being on the continent made him incredibly angry. All the wealth in the world coming from this land, and yet…pockets of struggle life. And to be that close to Wakanda only infuriated him more. It would be so easy to slit Klaue's throat, bleed him out like a stuck pig, and drag his body before the Wakandan court. Take what was rightfully his and change the trajectory of the shitty world he saw around him.
His temples throbbed and he took another drag on his cigar. Pulling out his cell he checked Kendall's social media. His round-about way of checking in on that girl that had his nose wide open like some horny teenager.
Kendall's performance at Rush had gone viral weeks after performing there, and right along with his new-found clout, Yani's appearance there had generated some major heat. Both vids on Kendall's social media platform had over a million views which were impressive considering they came from a small island. The comments under Yani's vid had Erik cracking up until he started noticing men and a few women posting links to Yani's personal page. She had an open IG feed, and two other social media platforms that she used. They all had the same handle, Black Gyal Mermaid. Erik used a burner handle and an old Goku avatar to lurk on her pages.
Yani posted things like pictures of Sydette and her other family members, and Erik soon discovered lots of pictures of her at the beach in various swimsuits that did not hide the imagination. He scrolled through several and had to switch back to Kendall's page to keep himself from getting aroused. Kendall mentioned several times about being excited about performing for J'ouvert festivities and Erik made and note to find out what that was all about later. From what he could tell, things were okay for Yani back on the island. He saved a few pictures of Yani and Sydette on Kendall's page, his favorite being a solo shot of Sydette sitting on some sand wearing the outfit Erik bought her. It made him smile to know Yani had her wear it in a lot of photos.
He pulled up the picture that he had taken the last night he saw the two of them.
Sydette's little face giving Yani a toothless grin and Yani's round cheeks lifted in a beautiful reflection of her daughter. The other photo he took always centered him because Yani's face when it was just her eyes looking at him, those eyes held so much longing. He had to stop looking at it because it made him want to drop everything and jump on the next plane out of Luanda. He had a job to do and he couldn't afford the distraction of a woman and child that weren't really his.
"I gave her a big tip," Klaue said, joining Erik outside for a smoke. The robust odor of Klaue's cigar overwhelmed the pleasing aroma of his own. Typical.
"You set for Benin?" Klaue asked.
"Yeah."
"You sure you don't want me to go with you?"
"Just scouting man. Checking on some speculations."
"Just be back and ready to meet these Boko Haram clowns."
"Thought we were dealing with the Nigerian government first."
"Yeah, well the rebels are on the move and we have a short window to make the exchange and get out before the Big Dogs move in on them. Quick turnover and then we're off to Abuja. I'm serious, bru, do not miss your flight back."
Erik's cigar was burned down to the band. He took another drag. Selling arms to Boko Haram that could kill civilian Naija populations, while also providing arms to the government to attack Boko Haram, that might also end up killing civilian Naija populations. Erik shook his head at the fuckery he participated in.
"How soon can you start experimenting with the vibranium we already have?"
"I have some design mockups made…I just need some space, some privacy to work…"
"Our Lady's Manor…"
"What-?"
"The island compound. You transport the vibranium back to St. Thomas. Stay there. Take the time to perfect the weapons we need in complete privacy. Experiment there and also watch over some other goods I want transported back there."
"How much time you talking?" Erik took a long drag of his cigar and blew it out toward Klaue's face. With bated breath, he watched the man's expression. St. Thomas was the perfect spot. Isolated. Private. Tranquil.
Yani and Sweet Pea…
"We finish the Kabul job and you can have the summer."
He kept the smile fighting to break out on his face under control. A whole summer in paradise. Working at his own pace and his only real responsibility was protecting a small cache of vibranium and whatever else this man wanted hidden. Plenty of time to play too…
"Bet."
He stubbed the last of his cigar against the restaurant wall and tossed it in a public trash can.
###
Erik chartered a private light plane to take him into Benin.
He brought specific clothes and his fake glasses that made him look like a visiting academic. He kept his hair tied back the entire three days he spent there. He was happy to be away from the Luanda compound, the work there finally complete, the arms delivered on time and with few complications. Erik forced Klaue to cut half a dozen men loose from the crew that he felt were a hindrance. He suggested Hunstman, but Klaue was adamant on keeping the man and Erik eased up his pressure to bag the troublesome mercenary.
Erik sat in a café enjoying a honey-sweetened espresso and scrolling through a small computer tablet. Feeling secure where he was seated, Erik sent a poke to his play Aunt in London. He nibbled on some muffins and ordered another espresso from his server when his Aunt hit him up.
"JaJa!"
"Auntie Serah!"
Erik secured his earbuds so he could hear her privately.
"Let me look at you!" she said.
Erik held his tablet from different angles so she could see all of him. He missed the sound of her Cameroonian French accent.
"Nephew, you look so good! I spoke to Bakari last week and he said you haven't been back to D.C. for a long time. What's going on? Where are you?"
"Doing some business. Been busy this year."
"Clearly. Have you seen your grandfather? How is he?"
"Doing well. Aunt Rolita is staying with him now, so he's in good hands…"
"And Disǎ? Have you spoken to her?"
"No—"
"Tu es un imbécile!"
"She cut me off Auntie, what am I supposed to do? I'm not begging her to take me back again. She won't. Ever. So don't ask me about her…please. That's old news."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. Auntie…c'mon. You sound like Auntie Shavonne and Soliel—"
"Fine, fine…I won't ask about her again…even though she was the perfect one for you—"
"Auntie—"
"Ça ne fait rein…you are too much like your father, stubborn…too arrogant to try and patch things up."
"But you used to like that about him when you were dating him back in the day."
"Ooh! Watch your tongue! You are grown, but I am still your elder."
"Okay, I hear you."
"She was a good woman."
"I can find another good woman."
"Oh, so you are open to—"
"Stop. How is Uncle?"
"Addae is well. You just missed him."
Serah's face studied him hard. Her aristocratic-looking face looked a bit disappointed. Her sharp cheekbones and slightly graying sculptured twists made her the Queen she was whenever he saw her.
"Where are you?" she asked again.
"About to step into The Royal Benin Museum."
"You actually flew there? What are you looking for now, JaJa?"
He grinned.
"There are some Benin sculptures and pre-colonial art I want to look at, but I need you to help me with some confirmation dates. For research purposes. The last collection you told me about never made it here. It's on hold."
"That sometimes happens with private collections. I told you that."
He swiped some tabs and sent her the data he needed clarification on. He watched her receive his file of pictures. He sipped on his fresh espresso while she looked over his attachments.
"These are pre-Dynastic artifacts, JaJa. East African—"
"Wakandan?"
"Possibly. There has been speculation that the reign of Queen Shuriyah of Wakanda allowed some pieces to get into the hands of the British and French through the black market."
"What dates should I be looking for to get me in the ballpark, Auntie?"
Serah lifted her index finger to her chin, her eyes downcast studying the photos.
"The ones you have here…"
She enlarged three pictures and threw them back on his screen.
"…Edo. Looks to be fifteenth century, sixteenth at the latest."
"Could they be mistaken for other tribes?"
"Sure. Ashanti. But for any chance of pieces being mislabeled Wakandan, you have to find some Fula artifacts. Anything between the seventh and eighth century. There are records of some contact between Wakanda and ancient Central Africa and parts of Western Africa."
Erik's eyes caught sight of his waiter and he waved him over to pay.
"I need to get over to the museum now."
"Call me when you have more free time."
"I will—"
"Don't say you will and don't. You do that to all of us a lot, JaJa."
"I promise—"
"JaJa…"
His Aunt's eyes gave him another once-over.
"Be careful," she said.
"I always am, Auntie."
"I worry about you. When will you come see me?"
"How about Christmas?"
Her eyes sparkled.
"I don't want a layover visit young man. You come and stay through New Year's."
"We'll talk about that later."
"I love you," she said. Her eyes shimmered with tears.
"Hey, c'mon now—"
Her hands fluttered around her face and she wiped her tears away with her index fingers.
"You cry every time you see me," he said.
"I can't help it. The older you get, the more I see them in you. I wish—"
"I know what you wish. I'll see you in December. No fly-by. A real visit."
"I'm holding you to that. I will let Addae know. When I see you, I can show you things that will help you track what you are looking for. Deal?"
"Deal. I love you too, Auntie. I don't say it enough, but I do."
Serah nodded and a few more tears pricked her eyes.
He swiped the screen and her face was gone. Sitting still he thought about what his life could've been. His father had dated Serah in grad school before he met Erik's mother. From what she told him, once his father met his mother it was a wrap. What he found interesting about that little history was that Serah became pals with his mother. He always wanted to know more about that turn of events, but it was often difficult to discuss his parents without Serah weeping about the past. If his father had stayed with her, she could've been his mother. He could be living a normal life in London with her. Maybe his father would've chosen a different path with her.
Or maybe, he would never have been born.
Erik paid his check and walked to the museum, keeping a close watch of his surroundings. His clothes were neat and he carried a gray crossbody bag with a fake passport as well as a tiny camera hidden within the lenses of his glasses. He stood in front of another café and pretended to glance over a menu posted in the window. He took a few test photos with the glasses. They worked fine when he checked his computer tab.
The museum was not a happening place in the middle of the week, and Erik explored freely without worry about being watched by too many eyes. There was a docent available, but he wandered aimlessly, admiring sculptures and paintings. He found the section he was interested in scoping out and his camera glasses uploaded pictures to a private network.
Surveying a few ironwood masks and some intricate copper weaponry from the past, Erik knew right away there was nothing there with vibranium. He didn't feel the itchy sensation on his inner lip where his vibram tattoo would alert him of the prized metal. Disappointing. However, he spent the rest of his visit mapping the layout of the entire museum and uploading it through his glasses.
Ninety-minutes passed and he approached the docent desk to ask a question.
A sharp-looking man wearing an elegant steel-gray suit greeted Erik. Although there was air-conditioning in the space, it wasn't strong enough to cool Erik down. Neither the docent.
"Quick question. I'm curious to know when you will be having other pre-dynasty collections in here."
The older man, his silver hair making his dark skin more dynamic, handed Erik a pamphlet.
"There is a collection returning here next Spring," the man said.
Erik surveyed the pamphlet.
"I was told before I left New York that there was a traveling global exhibit making the rounds."
"Ah, yes, in conjunction with the Museum of Great Britain. Unfortunately, young man, unless you plan on coming next fall, you will miss out."
"Do you know what that exhibit will have?"
"It is still being put together, but there is a website you can look up from the pamphlet that will give you some idea of what may be curated."
"Thank you for your help," Erik said.
He stopped by the small museum gift shop and bought his Aunt Serah a pink sweatshirt. He checked his watch. He debated staying the extra day he planned on, but it was better to get back to Klaue and have more time to flesh out his proposal of allowing Erik to stay in St. Thomas alone. He texted the charter pilot he hired to fly him in and changed his departure schedule.
Catching a cab to his hotel room, Erik bought a to-go meal for his dinner. The four-star hotel he stayed in was cooler and his skin drank in the coolness when he stripped off his clothes. He checked the room for surveillance bugs and found none. A notification clicked on his tablet and he peeped it.
Kendall had a new live-vid update on his timeline.
Erik stretched back on his bed and opened the vid.
Kendall wore flashy sunglasses as he frolicked in beach water.
"Yo, what's going down with my K-Town fans?"
Erik smirked at the posturing Kendall was doing in the vid.
"I'm here in Megan's Bay chillin'. Wanted to let you all know to download and stream the new single that just dropped today…"
A stream of water was splashed onto Kendall's head disrupting his live stream.
"Aye! Chill, Cuz!"
Erik felt his heart palpitate when he saw Yani running into view kicking up water. She wore a baseball shirt and cut-offs with sunglasses hiding her eyes too.
"Buy his single!" Yani yelled.
Kendall kicked water at her and she ran away. Erik felt a bit disgruntled when Kendall didn't move his cell to capture more footage of Yani.
"Do what she says, Fam. Get the new single, support ya boy and oh yeah, check out the cover for the new D.J. Junior compilation. My cousin Yani is on that cover so show her some love too! I've seen the comments, so I know it's fiyah! I'm out!"
The live stream ended. Bummed that there was no more footage of Yani, Erik swiped over to Yani's feed. Nothing new was posted. He googled the D.J. and pulled up a link that sent him to the album cover.
"Shit," Erik groaned when he saw it. He enlarged it.
Yani.
It was the type of shot that he could expect to see on a hip-hop compilation cover, or a thirst trap click-bait photo to garner page and streaming clicks.
The front cover was Yani simply sitting on the beach in a blue velvet bikini. She was facing away from the camera, looking off in the distance, her skin forever sun-kissed, but the bikini bottom…it was nearly a thong except for the tiny triangle that rested right over the crack of her…
Erik sat up so he could breathe a little better. He had seen this girl naked, but she looked more naked with a scrap of velvet clinging to her ass. And there was a big handprint made of sand on her right ass cheek. Her whole backside just sat there all juicy and fat, and…and whose fucking handprint was that? She leaned slightly forward and he could see sand clinging to the underside of her cheeks. All he could think of was her sitting on his lap like that.
His dick chubbed up right away. He flicked his fingers on the album cover and made it bigger.
Jesus. Fucking. Christ.
Before he knew it, he had a full-blown erection on his hands and he wasn't ready for it. Not really. Not when she was thousands of miles away frolicking on a beach, hauling around a fatty that needed to be on his sack with a quickness.
He squeezed the photo back to thumbnail size so he could look at the back of the cover. A listing of artists was on the left side of the cover with Yani in another bathing suit, but this time a gun-metal colored one piece. She stood in some thigh-high water, her left hand resting on her left thigh, her eyes cast down, the fucking curves, the slight swell of her belly, pebbled nipples poking through…
He started reading the comments under the photos. They were full of water splashes, peaches, eggplants, eyeballs, and tongue emojis. Over five thousand comments and the album just dropped earlier on island time.
At first, the comments were amusing, the usual sexually-charged bravado that happened with pictures like that. But then there was a hashtag he saw trending with many of the later comments. The Big Nut Challenge. He clicked on some of the links and was struck by the boldness of some men and a lot of women who were sharing x-rated clips of themselves masturbating to Yani's pictures.
"Look at these wild mofos right here," he said out loud. He skipped many of the men and peeped the women who were openly sharing explicit vids of them playing with their pussy in front of Yani's picture.
Another notification chirped, this one from Yani's timeline and Erik wasted no finger time swiping open her avatar. It was another live stream.
"Lookie, I appreciate the love from so many fans of D.J. Junior, but man, I am shocked by this Big Nut Challenge."
Her eyes were glancing down at the live comments flooding her page. She took off her sunglasses and let her eyes look directly into her cell camera.
"Doing too much people!" She giggled and the angelic sound of her voice pulled him into her so quickly again.
"The comments are coming so fast…I'm trying to read them you guys…lemme see…Did you have fun taking the photos? Yes! I actually did. Those of you who follow me already know I post pictures of myself at the beach or showing off new swimsuits. I wasn't doing it for a while since I had my baby, but a girl is getting her snap back a little bit…"
She laughed and he closed his eyes, imagining holding her again, feeling the vibrations of her voice tickle his ears.
"Will you be out for J'ouvert? Of course! I wasn't able to go last year because I had my baby then, but I'm not missing this year. My cousin Kendall is performing so be sure to come out and support!"
She looked confident, sounded confident.
He sent her a message with his avatar. He knew she was a Goku fan, so there was no way she would ignore his avatar.
Sure enough, she read his question.
"What does your husband think of the album cover? Um, I'm not married…"
Her eyes scanned more questions as they peppered her timeline and she answered as many as she could.
I heard you were married.
"You heard wrong."
Do you have a boyfriend?
"I am very single."
The jovial expression on her face shifted to a cautious one. She read off more questions. Some were asking if she was on the album. Did she plan on doing more covers. Who cut her hair. Did she exercise...
Would you go out with me?
She ignored that one. He eased up realizing it came off creepy.
More comments and questions flew at her. Some really out of pocket ones popped up and he felt his teeth grit together. She started ignoring the comments and talked about her life.
"I got into nursing school, so I will be busy this fall, so you all need to enjoy my posts because I will be studying hard and not posting as much."
Congrats on nursing school.
"Thank you," she says reading his post.
Who will take care of Jerome while you are at school?
Her face froze for a second. Staring at the question, she swiped her cell and he knew she was dragging his question and avatar back down to read it again.
"Bye now!"
Her live stream went dark.
His computer made a chirping sound. His burner notification showed he had one new follower. His only follower. Yani's thumbnail picture stared at him. Ten seconds later she was in his DMs.
Killmonger? This you?
He jumped out of his feed.
He shouldn't have communicated with her like that. He was safe lurking on her timeline and Kendall's, but he blew it.
He couldn't help it. Hearing her talk, seeing her face..., he'd been gone a month and he couldn't wean himself from her like he thought he could once he had left.
He brought up the two pictures of her from the album cover again. Shit like that was titillating, and his dick was still thick between his legs. He reached down and gripped his shaft, stroking it harder than he meant to. He enlarged her photos, that ass of hers dragging him by the balls. His eyes flicked back and forth between the photos. He was beyond excited by them…but he was also feeling the tendrils of anger building up too. Irrational anger in a way, but the type of anger he had when he felt that something that belonged to him was taken away.
It was that damn Big Nut Challenge. That stupid social sharing that had his woman at the center of it. That was his woman niggas were jerking off to. Bitches were out there flicking their beans to his shit. The same fat ass he was beating his meat to also. His pre-cum coated his fingers while his eyes became half-lidded and burned with the image of her thick cheeks teasing the world. And that goddamned handprint on her ass. Who the fuck did that to his woman? He was the only one allowed to put a hand there. He imagined her in reverse cowgirl dropping that good weight on his heavy dick. He knew them cheeks would clap hella loud for him.
"Daddy is gon' be all in that shit, girl. You wait and see," he growled at the screen, still feeling a low-level rage in his belly knowing he wasn't the only man with their dick in his hand yanking hard on the stick. Only one big nut counted and it was his.
"Pound Daddy's dick, baby…fuck…!"
Hot ropes of cum shot out onto his screen, drenching Yani's photos.
"Yani…shit," he gasped, still feeling more ejaculate drip down from his slit onto the bed.
He fell back on his back panting hard and started laughing at himself.
"Girl, when I get back to that fucking island…I swear to God you in trouble."
He left the bed and padded over to the tiny bathroom and grabbed a hand towel. He cleaned himself up in the sink and grabbed another hand towel to clean up his tablet.
He was wiping the last of his cum off of the bed when a sudden knock on the door froze him in place.
He didn't order any room service.
And no one knew he was there except for Klaue.
With extreme stealth, Erik reached for his belt sitting on the hotel dresser. He slipped on his fake glasses. He wound the non-buckle part of his belt around his hand once and inched his way to the door. Staring at the door with the glasses from the side, he could see the heat signatures radiating behind the wood. Two people. Tall and wide. Men.
Uninvited.
[Part 8]
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Chapter 3
AN: So I've decided to post 2 chapters this week for being gone. I’m currently making a schedule and I’ll be posting 1 to 2 times weekly. Ya girl went and got a job and got distracted. But i’m back, a little rusty but none the less i’m back. Please leave any and all kinds of feedback, all is welcome. Thank you to everyone who supports me, it means the world to me! I hope you enjoy this chapter!!
DISCLAIMER: I DON’T OWN ANYTHING ABOUT THE SHOW ON MY BLOCK, JUST CHARACTER/S DAISY. Also please ignore any mistakes, i’m sorry.
WORDS: 1500+
Driving like a mad woman I make it to Ruby’s house in 10 minutes. Jumping out the car I just about run to the door. Before I even have a chance to knock the door swings open.
“Finally, we’ve been calling you all morning.” Ruby announces as I walk in past him.
“Well excuse me for wanting to enjoy my day off for the first time in 2 weeks. Plus, I don’t really want to spend all my time around teenagers.” Shaking my head, “I also had plans today.”
“Well if you ask me this is more important!” Jamal says waving his arms around. “Like hello Cesar joined the gang!”
“FORCED....he was forced.”
“We don’t know that Monse.”
“Well it makes sense if you ask me. Oscar got out, Cesar started following him around and then boom Cesar is “in” the gang.” Monse spits back.
“First everybody calm down, do we even know if it’s true?” Looking around I lock eyes with everyone. “Not everyone speak at once.!”
“He was jumped in, I saw the bruises on him the other night.” Monse responds looking everywhere but at me.
“And how did you manage to see his bruises?” I ask squinting my eyes and pointing my finger at her.
Swallowing thickly, “His eyes were pretty bruised and his arm when I touched it.”
I don’t believe her, I’ve had an inkling about her and Cesar ever since she left to go to writing camp. When she left all Cesar would do was ask about her, what she was doing, how she was doing. Which is very normal they’re friends, or was friends I'm not too sure now. But then he started asking if she had met anybody, made new friends, and if she had a boyfriend. That’s when I knew things between them had changed. Then when she got back the whole, he said she said fight they had. If you ask me, I think it happened. When Monse is trying to hide something, she diverts the conversation and then again she never denied what Cesar said. Hmm!
“Besides that, he told me why he joined.” There she goes changing the topic, “Oscar tried to claim me.” What the fuck!
“Wait what?”
“He told me the reason he said that we hooked up was to protect me. That Oscar tried to claim me when I got back from camp.” Monse shrugged.
“He tried to claim you? You’re freaking 14, that’s illegal. He thinks that little bit of time he served before was long. Whew he has no idea!” Jamal said putting his hands on his hips turning to Ruby and Monse starting their own conversation.
Fuming I tune them out. Of all people he wanted to go after fucking Monse. She’s a minor for gods sake. You wait until I get my hands on him. I’m going to wring his neck!
“Daisy? Earth to Daisy?”
“Sorry, um what did you say?” I ask shaking my head to clear my mind of my murderous plan.
“How do we save him? We need to get him out. He won’t survive in there, plus he doesn’t want to admit it but the gang life isn’t him.” Ruby said.
“No, don’t plan anything yet until I talk to if stupid brother,” They all wince at the same time. “Then I'll help you, but I'm telling you now any plan that you’re thinking of wont work. In order to “get out” of a gang is only 2 ways.”
“Well what are they?”
I stay silent for a bit before responding, “Either way isn’t a way that I'll let Cesar take if I can help it. Just let me talk to Oscar then I’ll let you know. Until then stay out of it and act as if nothing happened. Go to school, make good grades, and kind of stay underneath Cesar.” Looking at Monse I back track. “Actually, you two,” I point at Ruby and Jamal. “Stay underneath Cesar, watch him but don’t make it so obvious.”
“What why not me?” An offended Monse asked.
“Because I don’t trust you, plus you’re kind of like a honey badger. You never stop, and you take things way too far.” Turning around I start towards the door. “I’m leaving, im going to enjoy the plans I made for today then I'm going on a hunt for Oscar. Have a good day!” I yell slamming the door behind me.
~~~~~
You see the plan was to enjoy the things I had planned today but I decided to jump ahead of those plans and go find Oscar. I spot his red impala parked behind the fence of his home. Parking in the driveway blocking his car in, and immediately hop out. I approach some of the homies sitting out front.
“Where the hell is Oscar?” I ask stepping in front of them and crossing my arms.
“Who the hell is Oscar? And why you coming up here like you own the damn place? Matter of fact who the hell are you?” Some guy jumped up getting in my face. Instead of backing up I get closer in his face and smile. But before I could respond a deep loud voice interrupts.
“That’s my girl now back the hell up before you get backed up!” Oscar says coming out the house and stepping down a step. The guys eyes get big as he backs up and steps to the side. Smirking at him, I lock eyes with Oscar and start stalking towards him.
“Pinky I told you before that that was his ole girl. What the hell were you thinkin?” Someone told him. Scoffing I grab Oscar by his ear and drag him inside to the living room.
“Everybody out...NOW!” I shout when no one starts moving. They all haul ass when I let Oscar go and he stands up straight behind me. Walking in front of me and sitting down on the couch me looks me up and down, then leans back stretching his arm along the back side of the beige couch.
“What is it you needed?”
“Firstly, you tried to claim Monse?” I ask standing above him with my hands on my hips.
Laughing he replied, “Do you really think I’d want a little girl?”
“I don’t know you’re so unpredictable Oscar. What do you expect me to think? She’s a fucking minor, and you’re, if you haven't noticed, over 20!” My voice is getting louder the longer he sits there smirking.
“She’s also your sister. Now, why do you think I “tried to claim Monse”?” He air quoted. Of course, that came to mind. He was only doing that in hopes of me coming around once I got word of it. Then it hit me, I did fall for it. Here I am standing in front of him confronting him about it and then here he is smirking knowing he got his way.
“Secondly, why Cesar?” At this question his smirk falls and he looks at me with hard eyes.
“Stay out of it.” Standing he goes to walk past me but I grab his arm and manage to push him back down on the couch.
“No, you’re going to listen to me damnit. I understand you and your family, but Cesar? Everyone knows that he’s not for that lifestyle. He’s going to end up like-”
“Like who? Me? I’m telling you right now Daisy stay out of it. I don’t want you involved.”
“Okay well when 3 scared kids call me worried about their friend I'm going to get involved. So, whether you like it or not I'm involved. I’m not going to argue with you nor will I waste my time trying to convince you that jumping him in was a bad idea. But the first time that any of those kids get hurt behind this bullshit, just know I'm going to raise hell.” Standing again, he walks to stand in front of me this time.
“Stubborn, headstrong, dedicated, god why did I let you go?” Reaching up to touch my face he leans his forehead against mine. “But just know if anything happens to you or the kids, I kill everybody. No harm will come towards any of you, and I protect what's mine.”
Closing my eyes, I sigh, “I’m not yours Oscar...and don’t make a promise you can’t keep!” Pulling away I walk to the door with him following close behind me. As we make it to the steps on the porch everyone goes quiet and all eyes goes to us. We continue to the car and as I'm reaching for the handle a hand lands on top of it and I feel warmth cover my back and warm breath on the back of neck.
“Drive safe Daisy! I’ll see you ‘round.” Surprised I turn to look at him. Shaking my head, I get in the car and slowly back out the driveway. I feel like I just got played. Now that Cesar is part of the Santos and I've made taken it upon myself to make sure he doesn’t end up dead that just means I have to deal with Oscar more. Groaning I slowly make my way to the salon deciding then that I was going to give myself the day to relax, after all I do deserve it. Picking up the phone I call the salon to add on a hot stone massage to my mani and pedi then I make another important phone call.
“Hello? You’re on speaker”
“Good. Friday. My house. After school. Just the three of you!”
“Wait, what? Did you find Spooky? Did you kill him?” A boisterous voice asked.
Snorting, I answer, “No Jamal I didn’t but he’s got one angry woman on his hands. Don’t be late.” Hanging up I get out the car and make my way into the yellow and blue doors of the salon. “Daisy!” I respond when the front desk receptionist asks for a name. Leading me to the back and into a room, I hear my phone ding signaling an incoming message which I ignore until after I get undressed and I’m lying face down on the massage table with a warm towel on my back. Picking up the phone I groan and open the message from Oscar.
‘Friday night, 8pm be ready’ I shoot right back.
‘I already have plans, and who said I even accept your not so welcoming “invitation”?’
‘It’s not up for discussion. Be ready!’ Comes in a minute after I hit send. Groaning loudly, I silent the phone, toss it on my folded pile of clothes and slam my face a little too hard in the hole on the table, which causes me to groan and whine in pain. Someone knocks on the door and then comes in.
“A stressful day I take it?”
“Oh, you have no idea!”
Tag: @izraahh1 @shesbriaanayy @aka-eb @mbaku-babygirl @yxseminx
#on my block#oscar diaz#spooky#omb#monse finne#cesar diaz#jamal turner#ruby martinez#oscar diaz x oc#spooky x oc#spooky fanfic#oscar diaz fanfic#on my block fanfiction
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GG 2.06 THOUGHTS
Whew.... That... that was quite the episode y’all. I still need to calm down. Let’s unwrap, yeah?
SPOILERS AHEAD (LONG POST)
Let’s start off with the wonderful Ruby. Can I just fuckin say? I am so, so, SO happy she came clean to Stan. That was the best decision, its late, but its definitely appreciated. The whole montage of him listening and asking, it really helped them in the long run. As much as I love me fuckin Rio, STAN IS THE MAN I NEED!!!! HE THE TRUE RIDE OR DIE.
Annie, first off her whole thing with Sadie, Nancy, and Greg really hurt my heart. It isn’t easy to hear that from your kid, and it DEFINITELY wasn’t easy for her to come clean either. I think what really hurt for Annie was that in that moment she wasn’t sure if she was ever going to see Sadie again, because SHE MIGHT BE IN JAIL SOON, and the last thing she wanted was her daughter to hate her while being in bars. (or even hate her more with bars).
Beth. “It was a warm body. It was anyone, but me” That hurts the most, knowing that the one you thought you loved, that you knew, that you made a life with, didn’t want you. AND EVEN BLAMED YOU FOR IT. DEPRESSION REALLY FUCKIN SUCKS AND POST PARTUM IS A REAL FUCKIN DEAL. Honestly fuck Dean, I don’t care if he helped Beth, because Beth was still the one to get shit rolling. She got shit on the ball, and despite all this fuckin heart break she came out as a BOSS BITCH and is now going to be running the dealership YAS.
BRIO
We got fed. Well. Not like fucking last week with a feeding tube suddenly shoved in our throats and us gasping for air, but oh shit did we get FED. We can all agree that Beth has lowkey BDSM fetishes. I bet if this show was on HBO we would get whips, chains, ropes, cuffs, gag balls, THE WORKS OKAY? That scene though was just:
The light hand touches, the eye contact, between them, THE ENDING SCENE OF THEM AT THE DEALERSHIP WHERE HE LEANS IN AND TELLS HER TO PICTURE THEM NAKED, GODDAMN ZADDY FUCKKKK!
*Addition: also the statement of “let just see how this goes, yeah?” IS SO FUCKIN LOADED. it’s a “let’s see how business goes.” It’s a “let’s see how the FBI goes.” It’s a “let’s see how we go.” SO LAYERED AND NUANCED IM CRYIN’*
And the reactions from Annie and Ruby about it?! A+ fuckin Ruby, I was Ruby. We were all fuckin Ruby. But also Annie’s reaction to Beth and Rio? That was honestly to be expected. I have had anons, and others have told me too in their experiences with the subject, tell me/us that NO WAY ANNIE WOULD STAND BY BETH SHE WOULDN’T BE MAD. like y’all. Either you don’t have siblings, or you just have a really good relationship with them, but believe me, as the youngest in my own family I GET PISSED when my sister has had to put the moral high ground on me, and then when you find out your sibling is a complete hypocrite? Oh honey. No. (Ruby’s reaction was golden though. I’m looking forward to the gifs!)
Honestly this whole episode was about coming clean, about telling the truth, that everything must go. Ruby to Stan, Annie to Sadie, Dean to Beth, and Beth to her girls. Everything will come out. And now fucking Mary Pat just outed Ruby and Stan. And I have anxiety all over again (not that it every went away.) Overall, well done writers. You got me quaking again till Sunday.
Before any questions, theories, thoughts, and predictions about any of this shit let’s just be clear:
#spoilers#rio x beth#beth x rio#brio#nbc good girls#good girls nbc#i don't trust these writers yall#they feed me#they clothe me#they keep me warm#BUT THEN STAB ME IN THE HEART#GG 2.05#Everything Must Go
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Long Post Alert
This idea has been buzzing away in my head since the last Sanders Sides video and the most current one has finally ignited the flames of my motivation to follow this through. I’m going to try writing out detailed meta posts on each of the Sides, starting to with my abosute favorite boy, Logan.
Note, I am a lowly mobile bound user, so the “Read More” function is completely out of my whelm of power, as far as I know. I’ll be sure to tag this as “long post” because I have a lot to say. I apologize in advance for your dashes.
I mentioned in a previous post that I believe the main conflict with Logan vs his true role as “Logic” is that he misunderstands just how subjective one’s individual logic truly is. He denies his ability to have emotions, in a misguided attempt to appear as impartial as possible; however, one’s logic is not necessary fueled by purely objective reasoning. With more time to reflect on this theory, I’ve only grown more confident in this observation, and it’s not just by his obvious emotional outburst, but also by his behavior in general.
The point I would like to highlight first is his determination to keep up with social trends. This is not only relevant to him keeping flash cards of various slang words. Throughout the series Logan has displayed knowledge of internet culture such as him being the one to heavily advise Thomas make a clickbait title for his video about his time on a Disney Channel show, to the infamous dab for his “styling pair of Ruby Parkers.” While these can be seen as simple personality quirks to keep him from being too one note, I believe they also show off his (and by extent, Thomas’) unique brand of logic.
There are definitely people out there who do not share the same logic that they have to stay on top of the ever changing culture of slang, memes, and etc when it comes to internet culture. However, as someone whose main source of livelihood is social media, it makes perfect sense why Thomas would feel the pressing need to learn all the new ins and outs of his platform as well as his fanbase. This explains why Logan, who is someone who can seemingly produce a lecture of various philosophers and sciences on the fly, feels the extra need to break out the flash cards to sprinkle in as much correctly used slang as possible. He has the knowledge to teach, but he understands that he must make the extra effort to connect to Thomas’ audience.
Another example of his subjective nature is his love for learning, and in particular, science. In “Why Do We Get Out Of Bed In The Morning” Logan’s insists that the reward for living is experiencing life itself. Unlike, Roman, Logan does not want Thomas to strive for “something more”, but to appreciate this vast “biosphere” that is the world he has been born in. Obviously, this (plus his desire to want Thomas to keep improving himself academically) is tied to Thomas’ past desires to be a scientist (a biologist to be more precise). It also seems like Logan is much more comfortable with the academia side of things because Thomas had been pursuing that field for a great amount of time and the change of careers is still something Logan is getting used to accepting.
In turn, his bias for science also plays a role in Logan’s “random” love for rapping. Back in the Nostalgia episode, Thomas revealed that he was inspired to be a scientist from “The Rainforest Rap.” The moment Logan hears the song his eyes widen in excitement because to Thomas, it’s only logical that what inspired him is deemed as important and whole holding onto. Not only that, but rapping also ties into Thomas’ current profession as a performer/artist. Some believe that rap is strongly tied to poetry, as it is a form of artistic expression and creativity. This is later driven home with Logan and Roman being the ones to sing along to The Rainforest Rap together since it is a bridge between both of their values.
Now, onto the most important example, Logan’s love for Crofters. Oh yeah, I’m seriously going to tie this random gag that morphed into a permeant quirk with my analysis. Surprisingly enough, the reason I believe Logan attaches himself to this delectable fruit spread is pretty simple, although one could say a lot of his reasonings are simple if you think about it. Both Thomas and Roman have admitted that they were not normally jelly people, so it’s not that big of a stretch to say Logan is not one either. However, Crofters, startling enough, became the exception to all three of them. This means, “logically”, something has to be SUPER special about Crofters and deserves to be treated as such.
So now that I’ve gone over a few examples showing how Thomas’ own experiences and properties shape his logic (aka Logan), my next issue is ‘why?’ Why does Logan feel the need to put up a front to seem as objective and emotionless as possible? What motivates him to put a clear difference between him and the other sides, and why hasn’t he already dropped it after it’s been proven to be restrickening his ability to both learn and convey information, the two things that matter the most to him?
I believe the reason for this counterproductive mindset actually lies in how Thomas himself views logic. You must be asking me “how Thomas could be the one preventing Logan from accepting his emotions when Thomas himself has tried to get Logan to be more in tune with his feelings?”, but we must remember that all the Sides are just different parts of Thomas that he has personified in order to better understand himself. If Thomas truly wanted Logan to be more open to having emotions, surely the moment he thought about wanting him to, it would have already happened. I think there’s something in Thomas himself that’s holding Logan back, whether intention or otherwise.
With Deceit being a active player and having proven that Thomas does indeed have the power to hide parts of his personality he doesn’t necessary like away, it doesn’t seem like a stretch to assume that Thomas may not truly want to accept that Logan (aka his logic) can be swayed by emotion and/or is not as objective as he wants him to be. There is a sort of romantized notion that logical thinking is universal, that “common sense” is indeed common amongst the majority, and it’s the most perfect form of critical thinking, but that is just not the case.
Thomas chose to portray Logan as a teacher, a profession that, in theory, is expected to teach facts without personal biases getting too much in the way. He was made up as a seemingly perfect image of a sound and analytical mind. However, I agrue ever since Deceit was introduced, has become less and less his ideal vision of logic because Thomas became actively aware of his deceitful side and it paying more attention to the slips and noticeable inconsistencies. I think his way of doing so it calling Logan out on his denial of his emotions more seriously than ever before, but there is a part of Thomas that at least, isn’t ready to completely cross that bridge.
From the very beginning of the series, Thomas’ main goal was to see if he actually knew himself as well as he thought he did, and in light of recent events, I’m sure the results have been decided as no. Learning new things about yourself is scary and the more you question your morals, logic, hopes, and etc, the more it sets in how little you actually know about yourself. However, I believe, especially with the Deceit Arc picking up speed, we will be seeing Thomas continue this bumpy road, and maybe we shall see if his idea of Logan or all the other sides change as he delves deeper.
Whew, this turned out WAY longer than I expected it to be and it wasn’t even nearly as much as I wanted to go over with Logan, but perhaps that can come later, if people are interested. That being said, I hope people enjoyed my little ramblings on Logan and maybe be interested in hearing more about the others? If you are, how about suggesting one to me? Only if you want to of course, I could easily see this being an one and done sort of deal, but hey, I enjoyed writing all this out, so it’s not that big of a lost. Thanks for reading!
#long post#neo muses#thomas sanders#sanders sides#ts spoilers#sanders sides spoilers#logan sanders#deceit sanders#tw deceit#logic ss#deceit ss#character analysis#sorry again for the long post#my computer is literally broken#so i’m stuck on mobile#logic sanders
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This is a snippet of a fic I wrote that I doubt I’ll ever finish so I’ll post it ... i hope you enjoy! I miss this show :0
Fingers ran delicately over the green crystal ball, its swirling contents currently unreadable. The ball had a mysterious tendency to go eerily silent before it broke out into bad comedic lines. Hildegard Gloom pressed her palm against the cool rounded glass, blowing a hair out of her eyes and sighing. Weirdly quiet moments like this one were so torturous to her, she so wished Grim would come home soon with the potion ingredients she had sent him to go fetch for her.
The silence provoked long trains of thought, which usually lead to memories of past failed plans. Which, of course, lead the young witch to grind her teeth and scratch her nails against the green glass ball. Hard. She pressed hard enough to make a loud scraping sound, after which she groaned and threw her head back onto the dark colored couch, forcing a pillow over her face.
“Hey, hey, what’s with the property damage? You’re hurtin’ the merchandise!”
The crystal was awake.
“That bumblin’ husband a yours do something big and stupid again?”
“No.” Hildy replied, her voice muffled by cushion. What couldn’t be muffled, however, was her clear tone of disgust. “I was… thinking. Icky.”
“About how you’re not Queen of Jollywood, by the slime that’s just dripping from your words, there.”
“Don’t you rub it in,” Hildegard let out another whine of protest and frustration, the pent up anger from so many losses suddenly gathering together at once into a single sound. “I try over and over, but those stupid Jollywoodians just can’t be taken over! Most of all, those seven… argh!!!” She dug her nails into the pillow now, nearly ripping the thing to shreds.
“You’re soundin’ like a bad book, Hildy. A really cliché one.”
“Thank you, all knowing crystal ball. You’re very helpful.”
“Haha, hey, listen. If you wanna be Queen so bad… I’m going to let you in on what may or may not be a good idea.”
Hildy sat up, attentive, but the expression crossing her brow was skeptical. He hadn’t guaranteed success with this one. She eyed the ball’s smirking face, as it looked around the house with a bit of trepidation. Was this actually serious?
“I’ve had this in my back pocket—figuratively—for a while now. If you wanna be Queen, why not call an experienced evil Queen and ask her? I happen to see… a future for a nearby kingdom… having an especially evil woman ruling it. Ruthless lady. Pretty foxy, though, if I do say myself. Whew!”
The witch gaped at the orb for a moment, the new information processing slowly. She knew her crystal ball knew a lot, but it usually kept from telling her future events. Maybe it felt bad for her, since it had watched her horrid attempts of taking over the kingdom.
“That’s a brilliant idea!!!” She suddenly hopped up, her leg nudging the table which jostled the ball a bit.
“Whoa, whoa, careful!”
“I’ve got to find a spell to call someone back from the future.” With a steadfast determination, Hildy threw open her spellbook, ignoring the dust that flew off the giant tomb. Certain pages were never turned to, and were all stuck together. She had to peel apart two pages to reach the spell, excitedly reading it until she saw the ingredients for the cauldron that needed to be used over the incantation. Luckily enough, those were the ingredients that Grimwold was out getting, but it meant she had to wait. Hildy was impatient to get what she wanted, that was a clear trait about her. She spent the next several minutes pacing back and forth across the living room until her ears caught the faint footsteps of Peaches coming up the drive.
The witch burst out her front door into the swamp air, and scurried over to the carriage where her husband was happily holding the reigns.
“Grimmy! Oh, I’m so glad you’re back. I need those ingredients you bought for a very important spell. You did get all of them, didn’t you, darling?” She gave him her best little puppy dog pout, clasping her elegant hands together under her chin. Thankfully, he nodded his head.
“Yup, all things on the list accounted for Hildy-Wildy!” He had on a proud smirk. Pretty charming, the witch silently admitted to herself, before breaking out into a huge grin and squealing loud enough for the whole kingdom to hear as she climbed up into the slowly moving carriage and grabbed the grocery bags.
“Oh, Grimwold, my dearest dark delight, you’re going to see me take over Jollywood soon enough, just you wait!”
--
She eagerly poured the last bit into the pot, rubbing her hands together, cackling darkly. Hildy wasn’t sure why she was so convinced this was going to work, but it was a special bit of advice from her crystal ball, so she couldn’t help but be just ever so excited about it.
Taking a long, deep breath, Hildy held her hands over the boiling cauldron and took a look at the spell, thinking of a good way to modify it to her liking, so that she would get the person she so desired. Grim sat on the couch on the other side of the room, watching carefully. He was not permitted to move an inch during this whole thing.
Hildy let out a long sigh, and immediately re-inhaled all of the air. Here went everything.
“Calling, calling, from times past, a future Queen is what I ask, bring her here, bring her quick, so I may have my greatest wish!”
It was a near rhyme. But it would work. Near rhymes worked.
A flash and a spark emitted from the cauldron, and a light, starting form around eye level for Hildy, slowly took the shape of a slim woman clothed in royal robes. The silhouette certainly looked like a Queen, and the witch let out a squeak of anticipation.
Which turned into a gasp. Her face melted into confusion at the equally confused woman standing before her.
She was a Queen alright, her crown told that much. But she was oh so young, and oh so fair. Her skin was pale, but not a sickly pale like Hildy’s own. Her hair was perfectly dark. She was quite beautiful for Jollywood standards. But she was certainly not evil.
“I… where am I?” Her voice sickeningly coated in sugar hurt Hildy’s ears. She cringed, and looked at the woman in disgust.
“You are not what I was looking for.” The woman was gathering herself, examining her surroundings.
“Oh, are you a witch? Have I been called here for a reason? Whatever it is, I’m sure it can be settled at the castle—“
“I wanted an evil Queen, not some prissy princess like Delightful!” Hildegard stomped her foot, her voice rising steadily in pitch with each word.
“Delight—“ She stopped in the middle of her word when she saw the fire in the eyes of the purple haired witch. This was not a wise road to go down. “I will… depart. If you do not require me.” She backed away to the door, while Hildy fumed endlessly.
“I’m going to try that AGAIN.” She said through clenched teeth, holding her shaking hands above the pot.
“Calling, calling, from times past, a future EVIL Queen is what I ask, bring her here, bring her quick, so I may have my greatest wish!”
The spark was giant, this time, Hildy was pushed backwards as the shimmering silhouette made of a dark essence formed in front of her. Now THAT was more like it!
The second woman was gorgeous. The first thing to notice was her crown, atop a hood she had tightly over her head, hiding any notion of hair color. A long black cloak with a large white collar was securely fastened to her dress, and a large ruby necklace encircled her neck.
She was clearly an evil Queen. An evil green mist surrounded her. A sense of greed and hatred was just FILLING the air.
Hildy’s eyes grew wider, and a tear of joy slid down her face.
“I have… so much to learn.”
--
The evil Queen was from a less distant future than the first one called backwards in time, and this one was making her way carefully through the swamp until she exited the forest, coming upon the quaint kingdom of Jollywood.
“Jollywood. I have heard of the place." She whispered to herself. “I know not much of the family who hails here, however. I wonder…”
She stepped down the hill and walked cautiously through the town of small people. The quaint clothes and lack of height gave her warm memories, memories of stumbling upon a tiny house deep in the woods…
They were whispering to each other as she walked by. She was on her way to the castle, but taking in the surrounding sights was always a nice way to pass the time. The kingdom had a large amount of hanging buckets taking people to and fro, a famous gadget she had heard about so many times, that had been present in Jollywood for so many years. She wondered, then, why they seemed a bit polished, a bit newer than expected.
With a few more glances around, seeing a large clock tower and a strange looking cottage on the hill on the edge of town, she made her way across the castle’s bridge.
--
--
“Well, you’re not getting home to the future any time soon, miss.” Starchbottom crossed his arms, but he looked apologetic all the same.
“Oh, Starchbottom don’t say that! We just need a little help on this one—“
“No, no your majesty she can just stay here in the castle—“
“No! I’m going to have the 7D build her a lovely house. I’ll have to ring the Bing Bong Bell!”
The future Queen perked up her brows. “The seven… what?”
A rope, descended quickly from the ceiling, and Delightful gave it a gentle tug, and a ringing from the sky could be heard throughout the kingdom.
“You… may want to move, miss.” Starchbottom directed her away from the tubes.
One could hear a rumbling from beneath the floor. Seven holes opened, and through them jumped the previously mentioned 7D, all of them standing straight and saluting, minus one, who was flat on the floor. Still saluting, though.
Her mouth dropped open, her eyes sparkling in recognition. “Oh my, it simply can’t--!”
“Your majesty, the 7D reporting for—who’s this?” She heard Doc’s voice waft into her ears, through her astonishment.
Someone was hiding behind her. She quickly recognized Bashful’s little embarrassed laugh as he ran away from her the moment she noticed him.
“7D, my task for you today is of the highest importance. Please build Miss White a house!”
#the 7d#fanfiction#drabble#writing#its like a semi finished narrative with a gap in the middle#disney
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@kmomof4 Let me tell you, I was glad where last chapter left off that I didn’t have to wait a whole week for this one!! Poor Ruby was all disgruntled and upset and uncertain at what might happen next and how it would all turn out, and I was feeling pretty torn for her. Let’s just say, you picked the perfect time to start posting two chapters a week!! 😍
This one gave us a lovely treat on getting to see the Emma we adored in your connected “Mistress to No One” fic, and to discover happily just wonderful married life with Killian is treating her. 💖 (Not that any of us really had any doubts!!) I loved Emma’s agreement with Ruby about the Jones brothers’ drunken shenanigans and her “fiends” comment giving Ruby a bit of sympathy and making her feel better. I chuckled aloud at her assessment of feeling badly for poor Mildred “all that attention and how it must hurt her back”! 😂
I also loved that when Emma saw Graham walking toward them she commented on how handsome he was 💕😉💕, how lovely it was that he’d brought her flowers (botanist or not) and the hopeful reminder that it would make a quite romantic story for them if all worked out. Emma has been through enough herself that her hopeful tone toward Ruby’s situation has to help Ruby feel at least a bit encouraged.
My heart just completely squeezed right for Graham though, once Emma had left them, and he was so intent making it clear to Ruby that he does NOT overindulge in drink as he had the day before. He was so concerned, I couldn’t help but bet that must have been when his own father did his worst - when he had been drinking. My guess is, just as in so many other ways - Graham has been certain not to do the same himself.
Of course, by the next paragraph or so, you had me laughing out loud again, with Graham watching Ruby ready to explode at her meddling brothers and wondering if she’d be able to restrain herself from hitting Liam. By the time he thought each of the Jones siblings should have their own muzzle you had me cracking up completely!!!
And then - good gracious!!! 🔥🥵🔥I know I won’t do this justice, but in the scene where he pulls Ruby away from her brothers and shows her just how well they do “suit”, just how sure he really is in his attraction and feeling for her - WOW! That was amazing!! Whew! I don’t know how else to rave about it- just wonderful!! “Shut the door,” he repeated. It wasn’t a tone 0f voice he used often, but after a year of feeling lost with no direction in life, he finally knew what he wanted, and he was going after it. “Shut the door, Ruby,” he repeated in a low voice, taking slow and deliberate steps toward her.
She appeared frozen as he approached, her mouth dropped open in a small O of surprise. “Graham, you…” She trailed off as he reached behind her and shut the door himself, then turned the lock. “What are you doing?” Her voice was no more than a whisper as she looked up into his face as if she didn’t know him. Hell, he wasn’t sure he knew himself any longer.
“You were worried that we might not suit,” he said gently, running the back of his hand along her jaw. “And I thought it was time to show you that we do.”
Ruby had only a moment to take a deep breath before his lips were on hers. And it was a good thing she did, because if the passion of his kiss was any indication, he didn’t intend to release her for quite some time. Perhaps sometime in the next century.
But then he stopped and she gasped in astonishment, unable to take her eyes from his. His large hands cradled her face and he simply stared at her, cataloging her every feature, his eyes bouncing between hers then moving on to her forehead, then nose, and finally her lips, his thumbs brushing gently against her cheeks.
“Graham?” she whispered.
“I just had to look at you,” he explained, his voice but a whisper between them. “You’re always moving. I never have a chance to just see you.”
Her knees nearly gave out at his words and her lips parted, but she had nothing to say. All she could do was stare up into his blue eyes and try not to drown in them.”
And oh goodness, the tender way he smoothed her hair, and how he has her “blossoming like one of his beloved blooms” just gorgeous and so SO perfect!!! 💖💖💖
I love that he understood now that he had been waiting for her; he had been alone so long and stayed without a woman’s touch because it was Ruby he was meant to find!! (I can only hope she will soon be coming to feel the same way!)
The shooting contest was perfection as well! I loved that Ruby was so good that her brothers tried to cut her out of the contest! (You should read the Hellions of Halstead Hall series of Regency romances by Sabrina Jeffries. I couldn’t help thinking about the youngest sibling’s book here - she also trounces her brothers at shooting! 😉 It made perfect sense that Graham could hold his own though; that felt like a neat little nod back to his Huntsman aim and skill in canon. 🐺❤️
I loved this chapter too, as I have all of them. I am so excited for the next, and yet I will hate to see this story end too. You have completely spoiled me with this one!!!
To Sir Graham, With Love Ch. 6
And we are back!!! Thank you all for coming along on this journey with me! I hope you enjoy this chapter and let me know what you think!
Thank you again to @jrob64 and @whimsicallyenchantedrose for their beta services and to @motherkatereloyshipper for her INCREDIBLE banner up above!! I love it so much, babe! Thank you!!!
And once again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to @snowbellewells for whom this fic was written!!! Love you, darlin!!!!
We earn our rating in this chapter, y'all! If you want to skip it, it begins and ends with double scene change lines. Like this.
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And now, on to the new chapter!
Summary: After a year long secret correspondence, twenty-eight year old spinster Ruby Jones decides to accept Sir Graham Humbert's offer of a visit to see if they might suit for marriage. Unfortunately, he failed to mention that he was the father of twins, and they are not thrilled with Ruby's appearance.
Rating: M ( for smut and mentions of physical abuse)
Words: Almost 7100 of 68k
Tags: Red Hunter Fic, Birthday Fic, Inspired by Eloise Bridgerton's Story, Smut
On ao3 From Beginning / Current Chapter
On Tumblr Prologue Ch1 Ch2 Ch3 Ch4 Ch5
Tagging the usuals. Please let me know if you'd like to be added or removed.
@jrob64 @winterbaby89 @hollyethecurious @the-darkdragonfly @jennjenn615
@donteattheappleshook @undercaffinatednightmare @pirateherokillian @cocohook38 @qualitycoffeethings
@booksteaandtoomuchtv @superchocovian @motherkatereloyshipper @snowbellewells @djlbg
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@kymbersmith-90 @suwya @veryverynotgoodwrites @myfearless-love
Under the cut, unless Tumblr ate it.
… cannot abide a man who drinks to excess. Which is why I’m sure you will understand why I couldnt not accept Lord Wescott’s offer.
– from Ruby Jones to her brother Killian, upon refusing her second proposal of marriage
~*~*~*~*~*~*
“No!” gushed Emma Jones, Killian’s very pregnant wife and one of Ruby’s very closest friends. “They didn’t!”
“Oh, yes, they did,” Ruby said grimly, as she sat back in her lawn chair and sipped a cup of lemonade. “And then they all got drunk!”
“Fiends,” Emma muttered, leading Ruby to the realization that what she’d really had enough of the evening before was the horribly chummish and collegial manner of men. Clearly, all she’d truly needed was one sensible female with whom she might disparage the lot of them.
Emma scowled. “Don’t tell me they were talking about that poor Mildred woman again.”
Ruby gasped. “You know about her?”
“Everyone knows about her,” Emma said, rolling her eyes slightly. “Truth be told,” she continued, moving closer, her voice dropping to a whisper though there wasn’t another soul around to overhear, “I feel sorry for the woman. All that unwanted attention, and it can’t be good for her back.”
Ruby tried to imagine and simply couldn’t.
“Regina once even asked her about it.”
Ruby’s mouth fell open. Regina was Emma’s stepsister who’d lived with the Jones for several years before she wed the rather merry village vicar who lived just five miles from My Cottage. She was also, quite honestly, one of the sweetest, kindest, and most welcoming people of Ruby’s acquaintance and if anyone was going to befriend a tavern wench with large bosoms, it would have been her.
“Mildred and her husband are in Robin’s parish,” Emma continued, referring to Regina’s husband. “So of course Regina knows them.”
“What did she say?” Ruby asked, still a bit astonished.
“Regina?”
“No, Mildred.”
“I don’t know,” Emma said, pulling a face and rubbing the side of her swollen belly. “Regina never told me. Can you believe that? I don’t think she has kept a secret from me her entire life. She said she couldn’t betray the confidence of a parishioner.”
Ruby thought that was quite noble of Regina, though she really wouldn’t have expected any different.
“Not that it concerns me, of course,” Emma said, with all the confidence of a woman who knows beyond any shadow of a doubt that she is loved. “Killian would never stray.”
“Of course not,” Ruby rushed to agree. Killian and Emma’s love story was legendary within their family - the two of them initially meeting at Alice Jones’ masquerade ball nearly a decade ago and falling madly in love that same night, but being the bastard daughter of the Earl of Glowerhaven, long dead by then, Emma had had to return to her life of forced servitude in her own household, until fate intervened and Killian and Emma met again two years later and were able to overcome secrets, lies, and the ton’s expectations to find their well-deserved happily ever after. Their story played no small part in Ruby’s desire for a love match and was a prominent factor in why she’d turned down so many proposals of marriage. She wanted that kind of love, drama, and passion. She wanted so much more than three homes, sixteen horses, and forty-two hounds, which were actually words said to her by one of her many suitors when he’d asked for her hand.
“But,” Emma continued, “I don’t think it’s so much to ask that he manage to keep his mouth closed when she walks by.”
Ruby was about to add her firm and vehement agreement when she saw Sir Graham walking across the lawn in their direction.
“Is that him?” Emma asked, a smile on her face.
Ruby nodded.
“He’s very handsome.”
“Yes, I suppose,” Ruby said slowly.
“You suppose?” Emma snorted inelegantly. “Don’t you play coy with me, Ruby Jones. Don’t forget that I was your ladies maid and know you better than just about anyone.”
Ruby couldn’t help the amused twist of her lip, but she did manage to bite her tongue instead of reminding Emma that she’d been Ruby’s ladies maid for a paltry fortnight before she and Killian had come to their senses and married.
“Very well,” Ruby allowed. “He is quite handsome, if you prefer the rough, rural sort.”
“Which you do,” Emma said pertly.
To her complete mortification, Ruby felt herself blush. “Perhaps,” she muttered.
“Oh, look,” Emma said approvingly. “He brought flowers.”
“He’s a botanist,” Ruby said.
“That doesn’t make the gesture any less sweet.”
“No,” Ruby grudgingly agreed, “just easier.”
“Ruby,” Emma said, turning to her, the disapproval in her voice exceedingly hard to miss. “Stop. Don’t you do that.”
“Do what?”
“Cut that man down before you even give him a chance.”
“That’s not what I was doing,” Ruby protested, though she knew she was lying the moment the words left her mouth. She hated that her family was running her life as if she had no say in the matter and it left her feeling sullen and uncooperative. It didn’t matter in the least that she was the one who’d brought it on herself.
“I am not even going to dignify that statement with a response,” Emma snorted. “The flowers are lovely and it doesn’t matter if he had eight thousand varieties to choose from. He still thought to bring them.”
Ruby had no answer. It was true. And even though she knew she was pouting like a child, the gesture did make the corners of her lips lift in a small smile, and a sense of well being enveloped her. Maybe things would be alright after all.
“Killian didn’t give me all the details…” Emma hedged.
Ruby laughed. She just couldn’t help herself. “What do you want to know?”
Emma looked over at Sir Graham, gauging just how long they had left to talk before he arrived at their sides. “Well, for one thing,” she began, conspiratorially, “is it true you’d never met him before?”
“In person? No,” Ruby replied. Her sour mood was back again. It sounded so silly when she said the words out loud. Truly, what had she been thinking? Running away to a man she’d never met.
“Well,” Emma mused, “if it all works out in the end, what a romantic tale it will make.” A soft smile graced her face and it wasn’t hard to guess what her beloved friend and sister-in-law was thinking. “Much like mine and Killian’s.”
Ruby swallowed hard. It was too soon to know if it would work out in the end. She was quite certain she’d end up married to Sir Graham, but she didn’t love him and she knew he didn’t love her. Being here in the home of her other favorite brother and sister-in-law, witnessing the love and affection between them, just made her even more afraid that she’d made a terrible mistake.
But the only way to answer that question was to marry Sir Graham and see what happened.
“Miss Jones, Mrs. Jones,” Sir Graham greeted them upon his arrival. He held out a bouquet of white and purple orchids toward Ruby. “I brought you these,” he said, unnecessarily.
“Thank you,” Ruby replied, a smile spreading across her lips at the little flutter her heart gave at the lovely gesture. “They’re beautiful.”
“Where ever did you find orchids?” Emma asked, the delight in her voice clear. “They’re exquisite!”
“I grew them,” he informed her. “I keep a greenhouse.”
“Ah, yes,” Emma exclaimed. “Ruby mentioned that you are a botanist. I do love to garden myself, but am simply miserable at it. The gardeners would be quite happy if I simply stuck to enjoying their efforts rather than trying to join them.” Both Emma and Graham chuckled lightly at her statement and Ruby realized she needed to make introductions, even if he’d correctly guessed who Emma was.
“Emma,” she said, clearing her throat and motioning between them, “may I present Sir Graham Humbert. Sir Graham, this is Killian’s wife, Emma.”
“I am very pleased to meet you,” Emma said, holding her hand out gracefully. Graham bowed over it and brushed her knuckles with his lips.
“The honor is mine, Mrs. Jones,” he murmured.
“Oh, please call me Emma,” she gently corrected him. “Since it seems you’re part of the family already.”
Ruby and Graham both flushed and Emma realized her faux pas at once. “Oh, no! That’s not what I meant. Not for you two…” The words poured from her lips like a dam breaking and her eyes bounced between the two as she sought to assuage both their discomfort. “I mean, amongst the men.” Her hands fluttered aimlessly and she could feel her cheeks heating. “I mean… Killian said, well, there was quite a bit of wine last night…”
“A fact I’d rather not dwell on,” Graham mused, the self-deprecation in his voice clear.
“The fact that you remember at all is quite remarkable, if you ask me,” Ruby mumbled, but not quite low enough that her companions were unable to hear her. “Does your head ache terribly?” she asked, louder this time.
“Like the devil,” he replied.
“Good,” she mumbled again, churlishly. She shouldn’t be acting this way and she knew it - especially when presented with the lovely and rare orchids - but she just couldn’t help herself.
“Ruby!” Emma scolded.
“How is Killian this morning?” she asked sweetly.
Emma sighed. “He’s an absolute bear. And Henry is still abed.”
“I seem to have fared the best then,” Graham observed.
“Except for David,” Ruby informed him. “He never feels the aftereffects of alcohol. And of course Liam hardly had anything.”
“Lucky man.”
“Would you care for something to drink, Sir Humbert?” Emma asked. “Of the non-intoxicating type, of course. I’d be glad to arrange for some lemonade to be brought out.”
“If I’m to call you by your Christian name,” he began, “then I must insist you do the same. And that would be most appreciated, thank you.” When she began to struggle to move off the chaise, Graham hurried to her side to help her.
“Thank you,” Emma puffed. “I always forget how hard it is to get out of these chairs by this point of my confinement.”
“I shouldn’t have asked for the lemonade,” Graham admonished himself.
“Nonsense,” Emma replied. “I offered. It’s only a short ways to My Cottage and the walk will do me good. I’ll return shortly.” She offered them both a sharp nod and began waddling toward the house. Ruby smiled.
“She’s as stubborn as I am,” she informed Graham, “if not more. Don’t concern yourself,” she continued, laying her hand on his arm as he sat on the lounge Emma had just vacated. “She would have insisted no matter what.”
Graham nodded, looking down at his hands for a moment before meeting her gaze. “It’s good to see you this morning.”
“And you,” she replied.
“I must apologize for my behavior last night,” he said, clearly uncomfortable.
She scrutinized him as he fidgeted on the seat. He seemed sincere. She didn’t know him well, but he didn’t seem the sort to apologize without really meaning it. She shrugged indifferently. “I have brothers,” she said, blandly. “I’m used to it.”
“Perhaps so,” he allowed, “but I am not. I assure you, I am not in the habit of overindulging.”
She looked back at him, observing the distressed look in his eye. Somehow she knew that he was telling her the absolute truth and she forgave him with a nod of her head in acceptance of his words.
“I have been thinking,” he said.
“As have I.”
He cleared his throat and tugged at his cravat. “We will have to marry.”
“I’m aware,” she bit out.
“I am sorry that it’s occurring under these circumstances.”
Ruby turned to him in surprise. “What?” she breathed.
He looked confused for a moment, his eyes darting everywhere but at her. “These… circumstances,” he repeated. “I’m sorry that I didn’t have a chaperone in place when you arrived. I’m sorry that your brothers descended when they did - though I had decided we’d suit and was planning on proposing marriage with a ring and whatever else it is that I’m supposed to do before they arrived - and forced the issue before you were ready for it. But I’m not sorry it’s happening.”
“You’re not?” She couldn’t keep the shock out of her voice. How was it possible that he was able to discern that particular character quality after only knowing her for less than three days? There was nothing she valued more than her independence, about having choices in her life, and she was profoundly grateful that she was part of a family that allowed her to do so. There were many brothers within the ton who wouldn’t have stood for Ruby rejecting as many offers of marriage as she had. And while she had thought she was exercising that independence and control over her own life in running off to Gloucestershire, it had done no more than brought her to the place she was now. And there was no getting around that, no matter how much Ruby wanted to ignore her own part in it.
But how could Graham have known that it wasn’t the fact that Liam was making her marry him, it was the fact that she wasn’t ready for it yet? She couldn’t deny that she found him extremely attractive, and even though she’d only met him three days ago, she was quite sure in the depths of her soul that he was a man she could love. She just wasn’t there yet. And not knowing how he felt about her - beyond that he clearly thought she’d be good for Nicholas and Ava - was the only other true reservation she had.
So it wasn’t that she was being required to marry him, she simply wanted more of a say in when and how it happened.
“No, I’m not,” he replied, finally meeting her gaze. “I’d be willing to wait as long as you needed, but I’m afraid -” here his eyes looked up the hill toward Liam and David who were making their way towards them, preceding a servant laden down with more food than Hercules himself could carry - “your brothers won’t allow that. Quite frankly, if you were my sister, I’d have marched you to a church last night.”
That, more than anything, went a long way toward assuaging her distress over the entire situation. As much as she hated Liam dictating her future to her, she knew he did it out of a place of love and honor - for her and for their family - and the fact that Graham agreed with the principles underpinning Liam’s actions told her with certainty that he was also a man of honor.
Ruby glanced at her brothers and then blurted out. “Why did you decide we would suit?”
Graham blinked in surprise. “I beg your pardon?” He couldn’t have been more surprised at her question. Although heaven knew why not. This was Ruby after all.
“Why did you decide we would suit?” she repeated, her tone insistent. Of course this would be how she would ask. No beating around the bush with Ruby. Why be coy when she can just be direct and move on to the next thing that much faster?
“I… uh…” he stuttered.
“You don’t know,” she interrupted him, and if he wasn’t very much mistaken, she sounded disappointed.
“Of course I do!” he protested. No man liked to be told he didn’t know his own mind.
“No, you don’t,” she insisted. “Otherwise you wouldn’t be choking on air.”
“Good God, woman!” he exclaimed. “Don’t you have a single charitable bone in your body? I simply needed a moment to formulate an answer.”
“Ah, there’s the happy couple,” David proclaimed, sitting himself down at the table a few yards away.
“Good morning,” Graham rose and greeted the brothers, never more happy to see another human being in all his life.
“Hungry?” David asked. “I took the liberty of ordering breakfast al fresco.”
Liam sat down and glanced toward his sister. “How are you this morning?”
“Fine,” she replied.
“Hungry?”
“No.”
“Cheerful?”
“Not for you,” she informed him haughtily. He chuckled and picked up a napkin and placed it in his lap as the servant relieved himself of his burden, apologizing profusely for his clumsiness when everything on the tray rattled alarmingly.
After assuring the flustered man it was no problem, Liam turned to Graham. “She is usually more prone to conversation than this,” he said.
Graham raised an eyebrow as he cut his eyes toward her. She looked like she wanted to hit her brother and Graham was quite intrigued to see if she’d be able to master the impulse or not.
The two brothers served themselves then Liam turned to Graham and Ruby. “The two of you seem particularly well-suited this morning,” he informed them.
Ruby’s glare could have curdled fresh milk. “And when did you come to that conclusion?”
Liam shrugged nonchalantly. “It wasn’t hard to see.” He paused for a moment, smug mirth dancing in his eyes. “It was the bickering, actually. All the best couples do it.”
Graham nodded thoughtfully.
“Elsa and I often have similar conversations before she comes around to my way of thinking,” he said. Graham was starting to worry about Ruby. If she glared at her brother any harder, her eyeballs might pop right out of her head. “Of course,” Liam continued, completely unaffected by Ruby’s ire, “she might offer a different interpretation. I allow her to think I’m coming around to her way of thinking. It’s easier that way.” Graham glanced briefly at Ruby, amazed that there wasn’t smoke pouring out of her ears. “When did you arrive?” Liam asked him, pulling his attention away from the food and Ruby and back to the viscount.
“Just a few minutes ago, actually,” Graham said.
“Yes,” Ruby interjected smartly, “You’ll be pleased to know he proposed marriage.”
Graham coughed loudly when Ruby made the announcement. She glanced briefly at him before continuing. “He said, We’ll have to marry.”
“Well,” Liam said, looking directly at Ruby, “you do have to marry. And my compliments to him,” he continued, darting his eyes to Graham before settling back on his sister, “on not beating around the bush. I’d have thought you of all people would appreciate that sort of directness.” His gaze settled on Graham then. “She’s just irritated about having her choices dictated to her. She’ll be fine in a few days.”
“I’m fine now,” she snapped.
“Yes,” Liam agreed affably. “You certainly look it.”
“Don’t you have somewhere else to be?” she gritted out.
Liam raised a single eyebrow. “Now that is an interesting question. I guess you could say I should be in London with my wife and children. But I’m not, am I? I’m here. In Wiltshire. And why am I here again?” he asked blandly, spreading honey on a scone.
Ruby snapped her mouth shut. Before Liam took a bite, he reached in his pocket and withdrew a small letter. “Mother sent this for you,” he said, handing it to her. “I regret it slipped my mind to give it to you last night.”
“Do you want to read it?” Graham whispered to her.
She answered him with a small shake of her head as she continued to look at the missive in her hand. “Not now,” she whispered right back. Graham realized exactly what she meant - she didn’t want to read it in front of her brothers - and suddenly knew what he had to do.
“Lord Jones,” Graham said, standing from his seat. “May I request a moment alone with your sister?”
“You just had a moment with her,” David said, in between bites of bacon.
Graham ignored him. “My lord?” he asked Liam again.
Liam glanced at Ruby before answering. “Of course, if she’s agreeable.”
Graham grabbed Ruby’s hand and hauled her to her feet. “She’s agreeable,” he said.
“Hmmm, yes,” David mused. “She does look agreeable, doesn’t she?” Graham decided right then and there that all of the Jones’ should have their own muzzles.
“Come with me,” he said briskly, hopefully before she decided to argue with him. Which, of course, she would since she was Ruby Jones. He might not know her well, but he did know she’d never trot obediently behind him, not when she could argue instead.
“Where are we going?” she gasped, once they were out of earshot of her brothers. His long and powerful stride had her nearly running to keep up with him, so she was utterly unprepared when he came to a sudden stop.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“I’ve never been here before, Ruby,” he informed her, rather incredulously, she thought. “Of course I don’t know where I’m going.”
She raised an eyebrow at him in question. “Perhaps you’d like to go inside the house?” she asked, sweetly.
“Yes, capital idea,” he replied. He grabbed her hand again and didn’t release it until they stood next to a side door of My Cottage. “Where does this go?” he asked.
“Inside,” she cheeked. He raised an eyebrow at her and Ruby bit back a chuckle, feeling immensely better now that they were away from her brothers, but particularly Liam. “Through Emma’s writing room to the hall,” she continued.
“Is Emma in her writing room?”
“I doubt it,” she said. “Didn’t she come inside to fetch you some lemonade?”
“Good,” he said, trying the door and raising a prayer of thanks when it opened easily. The room was empty, but the door on the other side leading to the hall was open. Graham strode across the room and shut the door firmly. When he turned back to Ruby, she still stood in the open doorway, the expression on her face a cross between curiosity and amusement. “Shut the door,” he ordered.
Her eyebrows rose in surprise. “I beg your pardon?”
“Shut the door,” he repeated. It wasn’t a tone 0f voice he used often, but after a year of feeling lost with no direction in life, he finally knew what he wanted, and he was going after it. “Shut the door, Ruby,” he repeated in a low voice, taking slow and deliberate steps toward her.
She appeared frozen as he approached, her mouth dropped open in a small O of surprise. “Graham, you…” She trailed off as he reached behind her and shut the door himself, then turned the lock. “What are you doing?” Her voice was no more than a whisper as she looked up into his face as if she didn’t know him. Hell, he wasn’t sure he knew himself any longer.
“You were worried that we might not suit,” he said gently, running the back of his hand along her jaw. “And I thought it was time to show you that we do.”
Ruby had only a moment to take a deep breath before his lips were on hers. And it was a good thing she did, because if the passion of his kiss was any indication, he didn’t intend to release her for quite some time. Perhaps sometime in the next century.
But then he stopped and she gasped in astonishment, unable to take her eyes from his. His large hands cradled her face and he simply stared at her, cataloging her every feature, his eyes bouncing between hers then moving on to her forehead, then nose, and finally her lips, his thumbs brushing gently against her cheeks.
“Graham?” she whispered.
“I just had to look at you,” he explained, his voice but a whisper between them. “You’re always moving. I never have a chance to just see you.”
Her knees nearly gave out at his words and her lips parted, but she had nothing to say. All she could do was stare up into his blue eyes and try not to drown in them.
“You’re so beautiful,” he murmured, his thumbs still stroking her cheeks. “Do you know what I thought when I first saw you?” Ruby shook her head silently. “I thought I could drown in your eyes. I thought I could drown in you.”
She swayed toward him and his thumbs moved from her cheeks to her bottom lip. The gentle feathering touch sent ripples of pleasure shooting down her spine and she realized that she’d never understood the power of desire until this very moment. Never knew how it weakened one to the point of collapse and strengthened to the point of never letting go at the same time.
“Kiss me,” she whispered.
Graham smiled. “You always order me about.”
A coy smile touched her lips. “And I’ll do it even more as your wife,” she said. “Kiss me.”
“Are you sure?” he asked, still smiling. “Because once I start, I might not be able…”
She couldn’t wait any longer. She grabbed him by the neck and pulled him down to meet her waiting lips. He chuckled against them as his arms tightened around her. When his tongue touched the seam of her lips, she opened to him with a groan deep in her throat, welcoming his invasion as he explored every inch of her mouth. He held her closely, stirring the fire he’d kindled, pressing her closer and closer to the heat of him until she could feel it burning through the morning dress she wore.
~*~*~
~*~*~
His hands moved down from her waist to her bottom where he squeezed and kneaded and tilted her up until…
She gasped when she felt the hardness against her. She’d heard whispers, of course, and then there’d been the time she and her sister Tink had used their pin money to bribe one of the servant girls to tell them exactly what to expect, so she knew what his hardness meant, but she’d never imagined it would feel so hot, so insistent.
“I want to be inside you,” he groaned, peppering her jaw with kisses. Her knees really did give out that time, but he held her securely then lowered her to the sofa and stretched out atop of her. His weight was heavy, yet thrilling at the same time and Ruby’s heart beat double time as his lips trailed down the column of her neck, sending shivers to all of her extremities.
“Graham,” she moaned. It was her only coherent thought, the only word she had.
“Ruby, yes,” he groaned in response. Her name seemed to be torn out of him, and Ruby nodded vigorously in reply. Whatever he wanted, she wanted. Whatever he desired, she desired. She wanted it all. She wanted everything. Everything he would give her. And she wanted it now.
His hand reached down and touched her ankle, the calluses rough against the silk of her stocking. She gasped as he continued nuzzling and kissing her neck while his hand slid steadily upward until it reached the edge of her stocking. He didn’t stop, but Ruby didn’t want him to. She opened her legs to him until he settled himself firmly in between them.
She was on fire for him and the incoherent moans and gasps that fell from her lips were the only language she was capable of uttering. His fingers tickled the inside of her thighs and she thought she’d die from the anticipation driving her higher and higher. She was a taunt bow string, ready to sing for him at the slightest provocation.
And then he touched her.
Touched her where she’d never been touched before. Her mouth dropped open on a silent scream and she knew one thing beyond any shadow of a doubt.
She was his.
His touch was feather light against her folds and she squirmed beneath him, mewling cries as she felt herself blossom - like one of his beloved blooms - beneath his tender and almost reverent touch. And when he reached inside, his name was ripped from her lips on a cry of ecstasy that left her riding the crest of a wave of pleasure inside her she’d never known, filling every corner, to the very tips of her fingers and toes.
It seemed to last forever, and when she finally collapsed in replete exhaustion, she didn’t think she could lift her pinky finger if her life depended on it.
“Oh, Ruby,” he groaned. “Do you have any idea…” He removed his hand from underneath her dress and very deliberately, never taking his eyes from hers, licked his fingers. “Delicious,” he murmured. Ruby released a shocked gasp at the brashness of his action, but why now and not when he was touching her so intimately, she’d never know.
He smoothed his hand over her hair in a gesture so tender and loving, Ruby could feel her eyes filling with tears. She still couldn’t move, so when he moved off of her and smoothed her skirts back down, she felt bereft.
“Oh, Graham,” she breathed. She was sure she had the silliest grin on her face, but she just couldn’t help herself.
~*~*~
~*~*~
“Is there a washroom?” he asked, his voice rather hoarse to her ears. It was only then that she noticed he held himself rather stiffly and his features looked strained.
“Uh, yes,” she said quickly, pointing toward the door to the hall. “Out and to the right.” It seemed odd that he’d have to relieve himself after such a breathtaking encounter, but who was she to try and understand the working of the male body?
He rose from the sofa and walked to the door. But before he opened it, he turned to look at her, his gaze alone threatening to consume her once again. “Do you believe me now?” he asked.
“Believe you?” she replied, “About what?”
He smirked as he turned the knob. “We’ll suit.”
Once alone in the washroom, Graham needed less than a minute to finish himself off. He was that wound up after his encounter with Ruby.
Dear God, she’d been magnificent in her passion. And she had no clue what she’d done to him. He thought back to how she looked still sprawled out on the sofa when he’d left her. She’d just looked at him with a blissful smile on her face, completely oblivious to the fact that he was ready to explode.
He had no earthly idea about the intricacies of a woman’s toilette, but he was quite sure she’d need to redress her hair at the very least before rejoining the others outside.
He’d known that if and when he ever found a woman he was interested in bedding, that his body would react strongly. It had been that long since he’d known the pleasures of the flesh with anything other than his hand. The feel of a female body responding to his touch was pure bliss.
But now he could see why he’d never indulged with the local whores and barmaids who’d expressed interest, or found himself a discreet widow. He’d been waiting for her.
He’d been waiting for Ruby.
He needed her. More than he’d ever needed anyone. He wanted to sink into her and never leave. He wanted to possess her as she possessed him.
He’d had fantasies, of course. Every man did. But now his fantasy had a face, and he’d better get himself under control or he’d be walking around with a constant erection if he couldn’t get his thoughts directed elsewhere.
He needed a wedding. And fast.
He emerged out onto the lawn to see all four of the Jones brothers gathered around the table.
“Ah, there he is,” Killian said as he approached. Graham stopped when he saw the pistol in the man’s hand. Was it possible that he knew what had just transpired in his wife’s study?
No, Graham thought, swallowing hard. There’d been no one around when they’d entered the room, nor when he left. He’d made sure of that. Besides, Killian was smiling. Though, he supposed, it could be possible that he was the type of man who’d enjoy picking off the spoiler of his sister’s innocence.
“Uh, good morning,” he replied, glancing at the others, trying to gauge the situation.
“Do you shoot?”
“Of course.”
Killian motioned with his head toward a target some thirty yards away. “Good,” he said, amiably. “Join us.”
Graham noted the target was firmly in place, which meant that he would not be serving in the role.
“I didn’t bring a gun.”
“Of course not. We’re all friends here, right?” Killian was still smiling, but it wasn’t the type of smile that inspired confidence in one’s well being.
“I would hope.”
“We’ll provide one for you.”
Graham nodded and approached the table. If this was to be the way he proved himself to Ruby’s brothers, then so be it. He was quite accomplished in the skill, after all. It was one of those manly pursuits his father had insisted on him learning. He’d lost count of the hours, days, and weeks he’d practiced shooting on the lawn of Romney Hall. His arm held out straight until his muscles burned with the exertion, breath held until he’d taken his shot, always praying his aim was true.
If it was, his father wouldn’t beat him.
It was as simple, and as desperate, as that.
He murmured his hellos to the rest of the men and examined the pistols laid out.
“Let’s get on with this,” Liam said, “before Ruby returns.” He glanced up at Graham. “Where is she, by the way?”
“She was reading the letter from your mother,” Graham lied smoothly.
“I see,” he said. “Well, that won’t take long. We’d better hurry.”
“Maybe she’ll go ahead and pen a reply,” David mused. “She’s always writing someone a letter. That will give us a few extra minutes.”
“A very few,” Henry groused. “She’s fiendishly fast.”
“At writing?” Graham asked.
“At everything,” Henry said, rolling his eyes. “Let’s shoot.”
“Why are you all so anxious to start without her?” Graham asked.
“Uh, no reason,” Killian said at the same time Liam mumbled, “Who said anything about that?”
Graham raised an eyebrow as he looked at each of the brothers in turn. He decided it’d do himself no earthly good to remind them that they all had.
“Age before beauty, old chap,” David said, slapping Liam on the back.
Liam stepped up to the chalk line drawn in the grass, aimed, and fired.
“Well done!” Graham exclaimed when the footman brought the target near. Liam’s shot was only an inch off of dead center.
“Thank you,” he said. “How old are you?”
“Uh, thirty,” Graham replied.
“That puts you behind David,” he said. “We always do things like this by age. It’s easier to keep track that way.”
“I see,” Graham murmured. Killian and then David both took their shots. They were good, but not perfect, but still good enough to kill a man, if that was their intention.
Graham selected a pistol and tested its weight in his hand before he stepped up to the chalk line. It’d only been recently that he realized he liked to shoot, that it wasn’t a chore. And when he realized that, his father’s voice in the back of his mind - always yelling, always criticizing - was gone.
He raised his arm, his muscles rock steady, and fired. He squinted. It looked good. When the footman brought the target near, they all saw he missed the bullseye by no more than half an inch. Closer than anyone so far.
They all murmured their congratulations to him before Henry stepped up to shoot. When he did, he proved to be Graham’s equal.
“We do five rounds,” Liam explained as he stepped to the line again. “Best out. If there’s a tie, the leaders face off.”
Graham nodded his understanding. David looked at Graham with deadly serious eyes. “We take our games seriously.”
“I’m gathering,” Graham replied.
“Do you fence?”
“Not well.”
The corner of David’s lips lifted in a smirk. “Excellent.”
“Be quiet!” Liam barked, shooting an irritated look over his shoulder at his brother. “I’m trying to aim.”
“Such need for silence won’t serve you well in the middle of a crisis, brother,” David called cheerily.
“Shut up!”
“In fact, if we were attacked,” he continued, completely unbothered by the glare Liam was sending him, “it would be quite noisy, and I, for one, am rather disturbed to think…”
“David!” Liam bellowed.
“Don’t mind me,” David said jauntily.
“I’m going to kill him,” Liam said to no one in particular. “Does anyone mind if I kill him?”
No one did, but Emma, sitting about ten feet away with her nose stuck in a book, did look up and mention something about the blood and the mess it’d create.
“It does make for an excellent fertilizer,” Graham interjected, trying to be helpful, since it was his area of expertise.
“Oh, well then, by all means,” Emma said, turning back to her book.
“How’s the book, darling?” Killian called.
“It’s quite good, actually,” she replied.
“Would you all please be quiet?” Liam’s cheeks colored slightly as he glanced at his sister-in-law. “Not you, of course, Emma,” he amended.
“Glad to be exempted,” she said cheerfully, rubbing the side of her stomach.
“Do try not to threaten my wife,” Killian said mildly.
Liam glared menacingly at his brother. “The lot of you should be drawn and quartered,” he mumbled.
“Except for Emma,” David reminded him.
Liam turned to him with a deadly expression. “You do realize this gun is loaded, don’t you?”
“Luckily for me, fratricide is considered far beyond the pale.”
Liam clamped his mouth shut and turned back toward the target. “Round two,” he shouted, taking aim.
“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaait!!!”
All four Jones men sagged and turned around, groaning when they saw Ruby careening down the hill toward them.
“Are you shooting?” she demanded, hands on her hips.
No one answered her. No one really needed to.
“Without me?”
“We aren’t shooting,” Henry piped up. “We’re just standing around. With guns.”
“Near a target,” David interjected.
“You’re shooting,” she accused.
“Of course, we’re shooting,” Liam ground out. He flicked his head over toward Emma. “Emma’s reading a book. You should join her.”
“A very good one, in fact,” Emma called.
“Reading books is very improving, you know, Ruby,” Killian said.
“I don’t need to be improved, Killian,” she snapped. “Give me a gun.”
“I’m not going to give you a gun,” he retorted. “We don’t have enough to go around.”
“You can share, you know,” she said, smartly. “Have you ever heard of sharing? I hear it’s very improving.”
Killian scowled at her as only an older brother could, and in a way that wasn’t particularly reflective of his years.
“Here,” Graham said, magnanimously, handing his gun over to Ruby. “You can use mine.” All four Jones brothers groaned in annoyance, but Graham didn’t care. He found that he rather enjoyed annoying them.
“Thank you,” Ruby said graciously. “Since you just called out Round Two, I assume you’ve all taken one shot?”
“Indeed,” Graham replied. He looked around at her brothers, all of whom wore a dejected look on their faces. “What’s wrong?”
Liam just shook his head.
“She’s a freak of nature,” Killian volunteered.
Graham raised his eyebrows and turned his attention back to Ruby. She didn’t appear particularly freakish to him.
“I’m dropping out,” Henry muttered. “I haven’t had breakfast yet.”
“You’ll have to order more,” David informed him. “I ate it all.”
Henry groaned. “It’s a wonder I haven’t starved to death with you around, David.”
“Did the two of you grow up in a barnyard?” Liam asked.
Graham bit his lip to contain his smile.
“Are we going to shoot?” Ruby asked.
“You certainly are,” Henry groused. “I’m leaving to eat.” He didn’t move from his place leaning against the trunk of a tree as Ruby lifted her arm and fired.
Graham blinked in surprise as the footman brought forth the target.
Dead center.
“Where did you learn to do that?” he asked, trying desperately not to gape at her.
She shrugged. “I didn’t,” she informed him. “I’ve always been able to do it.”
“Freak of nature,” David repeated Killian’s words from earlier.
“Well, I think it's splendid!” Graham exclaimed.
Ruby looked at him, her eyes aglow. “Really?” she asked.
“Absolutely,” he affirmed. “If our home is being attacked, I know exactly who will join me on the front lines.”
She beamed at his praise, then looked around at her brothers. “Where’s the next target?”
Henry rolled his eyes as he pushed himself away from the tree. “I forfeit. I’m getting something to eat.”
“Get something for me too,” David called.
Ruby turned to Liam. “It’s your turn then?”
He took the gun from her hands and laid it on the table to be reloaded. “As if it matters,” he mumbled.
“We all have to do five rounds,” she informed him haughtily. “You’re the one who made the rules.”
“I know,” he muttered. He took aim, but he clearly was past caring. He was off by several inches.
“You’re not even trying!” Ruby cried, indignant.
Liam turned to Killian. “I hate shooting with her.”
“Your turn,” she said to Killian.
Killian, then David, took their turns. They both performed better than Liam did, but still missed their marks.
Graham stepped up to the line. “Don’t you give up, too,” she admonished him.
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he said softly, a smirk on his face.
“Good,” she said, spearing her brothers with A Look. “It’s no fun shooting with poor sports.” She turned her attention back to Graham as he took aim. “They do this every time. They perform badly until I quit because it’s just not worth it, then they all come back and have all the fun.”
“Be quiet,” he admonished her lightly. “I’m trying to aim.”
“Oh, sorry,” she apologized quickly and shut her mouth, watching him intently as he took aim and fired.
“Perfect!” she cried when the footman arrived with the target. “Oh, Graham, that was wonderful!”
Liam grumbled something under his breath before turning his attention to Graham. “You are going to marry her, aren’t you?” he asked. “Because if you will take her off our hands and shoot with her, I will gladly double her dowry.”
Graham was quite certain by then that he’d marry Ruby for nothing, but he just grinned and replied, “You’ve got yourself a deal.”
~*~*~
Thank you for reading and sharing! I'd love to hear what you think! Next ch will be up Tuesday night before I go to bed.
#to sir graham with love#chapter six#krystal writes#art by motherkatereloyshipper#red huntsman ff 🐺❤️🐺#Bridgerton OuaT au fic#birthday fic for marta#major OuaT fic rec#such a talented shipmate 💕⚓️💕
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whew this idea came so spur of the moment so scuse the reused banner. so it’s christmas right? i hope you’re all having a wonderful day regardless whether you celebrate or not, and to those having rubbish days: don’t worry, it’ll be over soon, and in the meantime there’s always wholesome videos of an elderly british gay man who loves dogs on yt! this christmas also marks a year (ish, since i don’t remember the exact day we opened blogs) since me and @gainhope joined rwby rp on tumblr. back then we were just a yang and a ruby, now we here covering most of the cast between us!
now, i know the rwby rpc has had its up and downs over the last year, but for me (despite the few months where the hiatus totally got the better of me) it’s been a majority of ups. i don’t think i’ve ever connected with a community so strongly since 2012 dragon age rpc before inquisition came out. i don’t think i’ve ever made so many close friends so fast, and it’s those that make an rp experience, in my humble opinion. so here’s a little list of the people i personally want to thank. please don’t be sad if you’re not mentioned!! this isn’t a follow forever, it’s not a bias list, it’s a shout-out to the friends that have made the last year in rwby rp as fulfilling as it has been.
best friend squad
@gainhope / you’re the ruby to my yang, the rose to my white. there’s so much i could say about you that can’t fit in a single paragraph. i wouldn’t be here at all if it weren’t for you, but it’s so much bigger than that, because our friendship has been a staple in my life long before you introduced rwby to it. i wouldn’t be half the person i am without the love and support you’ve given me, and it’s been a damn pleasure to watch you grow in every aspect of your life too. we’ve seen each other through some tough times in the last year, and we’ve had some of the most fun i’ve had all year too. life isn’t nearly as big and scary, no matter what’s going on, while i have you by my side. i love you more than anything, and here’s to another year writing infinites together.
@galateian / again i cant fit everything i could say about you in one paragraph. you’ve supported me through some incredible bollocks, you’ve suffered through glasgow on friday night with me, and our discord pins are a source of such utter joy i’ll never be sad again. i can talk to you about anything, and i fcuken do, and i don’t know where i’d be through more than just this last year without you. can you believe it’s been what, six years? i sure can’t, and here’s to six more, possibly in guam, definitely with no less than 16 dogs and an absolute shed load of ugly furniture, loved like only we can. ily jen.
@nvvrrmorr / holy shit can you even believe it’s been almost a year since i drunkenly dragged you into a long conversation where i danced around the ‘hey maybe winter and raven should fuqqq 👀’ thing? we got so close so fast and i can’t thank you enough for sticking around past some Weird Relationship Drama you got roped into so early in our friendship, cause frankly, this year would have been a lot emptier without you in it. i love you to bits, i love our late night overwatch sessions, i love the unerring support you give me even when i’m legitimately being shit, and i love how easily we write,,, anything and everything together. bring on 2019 aye?
@liluura / we’ve come so far from me (anxiously) and jess dragging you into some cracky banter (and you being too dang FAST for our punchline) to walking down the streets of amsterdam telling you about the last time i took a shit. it’s incredible how quickly we became close, and even more incredible that not an inch of that closeness has been lost in a year where our interests have aligned, and then not, and then come together again. thank you for being you, and for being there for me, especially through one of the scariest few days of my life. i would have made it home without you after the netherlands debacle, i’m sure, but not nearly as calm having spent almost the whole day with you. i love you, soph, and i hope we’ve got many more years of friendship ahead of us.
the rarest of peeps / @washuman, @herguidance, @thuskindlyiscatter / you guys are absolute treasures to me. we don’t talk every day, but i’m always comfortable approaching yous with the most ridiculous of things. all three of you have written such fantastic stuff with me from sad siblings, to multiple developed ships. the things you have in common? fucken rarepairs man. pour one out for cinwin, glynter and catrilia to be quite fucken honest. also, all three of yous support my need to talk about charlie nonstop, so thank you.
horny bastards / @gcrdens & @hoardofheroes / ofc i had to mention you two together. it’s been pretty recent that i’ve gotten to know you two, but i couldn’t not include yous on this post because of the sheer impact you’ve had in such a short amount of time. you’ve both made me a braver smut writer. it’s not the only thing i love about your writing by far, but there’s something so refreshing about seeing yous unashamedly write your muses making babies (literally) all over the dash. yous are inspiring, and i hope we stay friendly for a long time.
team rryp! / @veiliisms, @paramithi, @ancestryfated (and dee, whose blog i can’t fucken find) / listen guys, we might not all talk as much as we did once upon a time, but team rryp will always hold a special place in my heart as being a time i dove into social interaction with (almost) strangers and lived to tell the tale. it might not seem like a big deal, but sending dabbing asks of all things as part of a group made it so much easier in the long run to approach people in future and man, what a great way to do it. i love you guys so much.
special mention / @lunyrd / not only have you been like a happy cheerleader behind me constantly throughout my rp experience, you’re a gem in my twitter feed as well. a day i wake up and you’ve tagged me in a tweet is a good damn day. lets do more writing this year, aye? i’ll get my finger out and get some starters up!
honorable mentions! / last but not least, maybe we don’t talk a lot or rp a lot (which should change js), but you guys have blessed my rp experience in some way, be it liking mosts or just filling the dash with inspiring content. i love you guys. / @tadmean, @wellbloomed, @canefought, @tyriannical, @becomeshield, @becomestorm, @gracedly
#long post#WOOOOFFFFT#merry shitmas bitches#bias list /#its NOT A BIAS LIST#but im tagging it for ppl who dont like seeing stuff like this on their dashes
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Welcome to another edition of TINTYPE TUESDAY! This week, we’re off to see The Wizard of Oz again on the big screen, courtesy of TCM and Fathom Events. For tickets, just click here!
But before you head out, let’s take a peek at what was really going on behind the wizard’s curtain.
The tornado in Kansas was nothing compared to the blizzard of cast and crew changes—not to mention the many mishaps, including a couple of near-fatalities. Even Toto didn’t escape unscathed…
So hang on to your hamper—here we go!
Dorothy: Both MGM unit head Arthur Freed and music maven Roger Edens fought for Judy Garland, but Louis B. Mayer—who often derided the painfully insecure teenager as “my little hunchback”—pressured producer Mervyn LeRoy to do whatever it took to land Shirley Temple for the lead. Fortunately, all attempts to get 20th Century Fox to loan out the wildly popular moppet went nowhere. (However, the long-standing rumor that MGM offered to swap the services of Clark Gable and Jean Harlow for Temple is false; Harlow succumbed to renal failure in June 1937, before MGM even had the rights to the book.) Deanna Durbin, whom Mayer openly preferred to Garland, was also considered—but because the film initially had a sub-plot involving Betty Jaynes, another operatic singer, she was dropped from the running. So Mayer had to “settle” for Judy. (Oh and her ruby slippers were originally silver, as they were in the book. But in the age of Technicolor, red won out.)
The Scarecrow: Buddy Ebsen was the first loose-limbed, lanky dancer to step into the role, which would have worked out much better for him, as we’ll soon see… but Ray Bolger ultimately carried the day (and the hay). He also carried lines on his face from the rubber prosthetics for more than a year after filming ended. For that kind of grief, you’d think they’d have left his original dance number—longer, trippier, and choreographed by none other than Busby Berkeley—in the film:
youtube
The Tin Man: Much to his disappointment, Bolger was first cast in this clunkier role. If he’d only had the heart… but he longed to be the Scarecrow, the part he’d seen his childhood hero, Fred Stone, play in the 1902 Broadway show—which is what inspired him to hit the boards in the first place. “I’m not a tin performer—I’m fluid!” he reportedly pleaded to LeRoy, who finally caved in, allowing Bolger and Ebsen to swap roles. Ebsen was an absolute peach about the whole thing, even teaching Bolger the “wobbly walk” he’d perfected in rehearsals. But no good deed goes unpunished, and this one almost killed him: after about a week of breathing in the toxic aluminum powder that covered his “tin” face, Ebsen was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. (At first, Mayer—who assumed other people’s morals were as low as his own—thought the actor was faking an illness as some sort of contract ploy. So he dispatched his minions to the hospital—where they found Ebsen strapped into an iron lung.)
When Jack Haley, on loan from Fox, arrived to replace him, the make-up artists were much more careful: they protected his face with a thick layer of white greasepaint and diluted the aluminum powder into a paste. (Oh, and they never told him why his predecessor left the film—on a stretcher.) Ebsen didn’t vanish entirely, though: his voice can still be heard in the group vocals, as there was no time to re-record them.
And given all the gruesome drama surrounding the Tin Man, perhaps it’s appropriate that they used chocolate syrup to produce his tears—a technique later used by Hitchcock for the blood circling the drain in Psycho.
The Cowardly Lion: Bert Lahr’s costume was made of actual lion pelts—and weighed almost 100 pounds. The valiant wardrobe team did their best to rinse the sweat out of the sopping-wet suit at the end of each day, but, in the words of one unlucky staffer, “it reeked.”
The Wicked Witch of the West: Initially, the witch was fashioned along the glamorous lines of the evil queen in Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. When she morphed into something decidedly more hag-like—including green skin, a long, pointy nose and a wart or ten—Gale Sondergaard, MGM’s original choice, pointed her pumps toward the exit. Margaret Hamilton was cast just three days before shooting began. Told by her agent she was up for a part in the film, she asked which one. “The wicked witch—what else?” he helpfully replied. (That 10% they get? It ain’t for morale-boosting!)
She didn’t get much more respect after she signed on: her dressing room was a makeshift canvas tent, while Billie Burke had a hideaway that MGM dreams are made of. “She had a pink and blue dressing room, with pink and blue powder puffs and pink and blue bottles filled with powder and baby oil—and pink and blue peppermints,” Hamilton later recalled, admitting that she sometimes popped in for a nap on the glamorous Glinda’s days off.
And God knows she needed the rest, as she proved to be the second casualty on the set: In the scene where she seems to disappear in a cloud of fire and smoke, she very nearly did. At the last minute, a moving platform was supposed to lower her out of harm’s way, but her cape got snagged and she was trapped amid the flames—which fed on the greasepaint and copper makeup slathered on her face, arms and hands. Before she could be pulled free, the fire had seared into her skin, leaving her with second- and third-degree burns. Wise woman that she was, she later refused to do a post-production pick-up scene that involved a flaming broomstick. So they had to make do with maiming her stand-in: the smoke mechanism exploded, burning and permanently scarring Betty Danko’s legs.
The Wizard of Oz: After Ed Wynn refused the part because it wasn’t big enough, MGM turned to W.C. Fields, who thought the paycheck wasn’t big enough. During a few protracted rounds of haggling—they offered $75,000, he wanted $100,000—the producers burned while Fields fiddled. They finally gave and offered the role to Frank Morgan.
Oh and here’s a story you might have to close your eyes and click your heels together to believe, but some swear it’s true, and if it isn’t (which is probably the case), it should be: When wardrobe staffers went scavenging through second-hand stores to find the perfect tattered coat for Morgan, they returned with an armload of samples for Victor Fleming to choose from. He settled on one he thought conveyed just the right touch of “shabby gentility”—and, idly turning out the pockets, found a label with L. Frank Baum’s name on it. An MGM publicist reportedly contacted the tailor and Baum’s widow, who confirmed it was his (he did live in L.A. for a time), and the studio presented her with the coat at filming’s end.
Toto: Shirley Temple may never have made it to Oz, but she did meet Toto five years before Garland did. Terry the terrier appeared in 16 films, including Temple’s Bright Eyes, as well as Fury, The Women and George Washington Slept Here. In Tortilla Flat, she re-teamed with Morgan and Fleming, and in Twin Beds, she reunited with Hamilton. Her $125 weekly salary for Oz was more than double than that of the Munchkins, who each earned $50 a week. And as it turned out, Terry should have gotten combat pay: one of the Wicked Witch’s heavy-heeled henchmen stepped on her tiny paw and broke it, sidelining her for several weeks. After filming, Garland, who’d fallen in love with the dog, wanted to adopt her, but the owner wouldn’t… surrender Terry.
All of which bring us to the director. Or directors. Richard Thorpe, whose previous work consisted mainly of quickie westerns, was first at the helm, but LeRoy felt he was shooting the film more like a low-budget oater than a lavish fantasy, rushing scenes along and not giving the production the care it deserved.
While he searched for a replacement, LeRoy left the project in the tender hands of George Cukor—who, in his brief stint as caretaker, made some critical changes. First, he ditched Garland’s blonde wig and heavy glamour-girl makeup, which made her look ridiculous and feel worse.
He also told Garland to relax and simply be herself—a lovely, vulnerable teenage girl—which was just what the part called for. Then he did something less crucial but pretty fabulous: he brought in Adrian to design the Wicked Witch’s costume. Which, if you peer beyond the black-on-black, is a real work of art, with its lace bodice, cut-out mutton sleeves, and pouch dangling fetchingly from the hip. To her pointy hat, Adrian added a long, silky-sheer scarf that floats menacingly behind her, like an ill wind.
Cukor was never meant to stay on when production began in earnest; he was due over at Gone with the Wind. Victor Fleming took the reins in October 1938, and oversaw everything but the sepia-tone scenes (including the Over the Rainbow number) that book-end Dorothy’s adventures in Oz. But the following February, he was called away suddenly… to direct Gone with the Wind after Cukor was fired. Fleming’s close friend King Vidor came aboard to gently shepherd the crucial Kansas scenes through to completion, but never publicly acknowledged his involvement until after Fleming’s death in 1949.
And as if Fleming didn’t have enough on his mind during the shoot, he also had to protect Garland from her scenery-chewing companions on the Yellow Brick Road, seasoned old vaudeville pros who were none too excited about surrendering the spotlight to her (as she laughingly recalls in a clip from The Jack Paar Show, below). Ironically, her only close friend on the set was Hamilton, a former kindergarten teacher who gave her some much-needed mothering.
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Whew! There’s enough material behind the scenes of The Wizard of Oz for a whole other movie… but in the meantime, enjoy seeing the original again on the big screen!
TINTYPE TUESDAY is a weekly feature on Sister Celluloid, with fabulous classic movie pix (and backstory!) to help you make it to Hump Day! For previous editions, just click here—and why not bookmark the page, to make sure you never miss a week?
TINTYPE TUESDAY: Head Off to See THE WIZARD OF OZ Again on the Big Screen! Welcome to another edition of TINTYPE TUESDAY! This week, we're off to see The Wizard of Oz…
#betty jaynes#bright eyes#buddy ebsen#clark gable#deanna durbin#fathom events#frank morgan#fury#george cukor#george washington slept here#jack haley#jean harlow#judy garland#louis b. mayer#margaret hamilton#mgm#ray bolger#richard thorpe#shirley temple#tcm#terry#the wizard of oz#the women#tortilla flat#toto#twin beds
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