#and some of you are acting like phones do not exists ffs

[imtheiliad]

i made a short post here referring to my own experiences and wanted to expand on it, you can reblog both of these posts btw. I am only writing this all down because the way some of you have spoken about chris and his decision very much bothers me. trust when i tell you i do not want to completely lay out my trauma on the internet for all of you to read, but if it makes one of you understand why this works, why it is important, then it will have been worth it to me.

When I was 12 my father was diagnosed with frontal temporal dementia. the adults in my family and his doctors decided that it was best for him to be moved to a a full time care facility. The next year, and after hearing, seeing, and understanding my father's condition and where it would go, I, at thirteen years old, made the decision to say goodbye to him, that I did not want to hear about what levels of deterioration he had reached. I wanted to remember him as he was when he remembered me, and all the adventures and fun things we did together.

I made that decision. I made it because it was easier than watching him deteriorate, forget who his sister, his brother, my brother, my mother, and me. And I knew that at twelve and thirteen. It was never a decision I ever thought I would have to make, it wasn't a decision I should've had to make.

Now, the important part, over the next few years my decision was questioned and ignored by the adults in my life and even my brother, some of the questioning I can understand now that I am older, but it should have never reached the level it did. My aunt and uncle would openly discuss his condition over dinner when he came to visit, and I would run away to the restaurant bathroom and cry my eyes out until my mom came to get me. I was forced into visiting him in his care home, which ended with it causing far more harm than good. Only then was my decision somewhat respected, it took me being retraumatized for it to be taken seriously.

Despite all of that, I do not regret that decision.

I can't know how I would be different if none of that happened. But at this point in my live, eleven years and some therapy later, I am fairly certain I would be less traumatized, carry less resentment and anger, if maybe my mom had spoken up at those dinners and made arrangements to get updates without me next to her trying to enjoy my pizza. Had I not had to see my own father forget my name and then have some sort of mini medical emergency. Had my brother heard me in a way only a sibling could.

So, yes, Christopher at thirteen made a indefinite and truly most likely temporary decision to remove himself from an environment where he doesn't fully trust his sole and primary caregiver. He knows his dad loves him, Eddie made that so clear. And it could really be 5 minutes, 5 days, 5 weeks, and so on and so forth until Christopher is ready to come home. And him knowing that Eddie respected his decision and loves him no matter what is what is going to make that time shorter. If he had walked out with his father begging him to stay, to forgive him before he was ready, the chances of him coming back would in my opinion would be far slimmer than the circumstances under which he did leave.

with that i leave you this, "yeah people go away. and it's sad. and it hurts. but you know, not everyone goes away forever. sometimes they come back. and as much as we miss them, that's how happy we are to see them again."

[tribalauthor]

THE WISEWOMAN (roman reigns ff) <chapter 8>

word count: 2.5K

Roman's POV:

These were the most painful four days of my life cause I wanted Thursday to come very fastly and see Sophia again.

I mean during the past few days we chatted and we even spoke on the phone to discuss the script for Friday but I still wanted to see her so bad.

Who would have thought I will feel like this?

I have been in relationships before. Hell, I was even married but I have never felt such a suffocating desire to see a woman again.

I can't help but wonder what has Soph been into these days - she was training, visited Paul, met some friends and went to her old workplace. That's what I know basically.

What I wanna know is has she been thinking about me. Just for a single second even.

I don't know but after this little weekend we are gonna have in Georgia, she is going to.

I have planned everything until the last detail.

Sophia's POV:

One of the things I hate most has to be packing due to the fact that I never know what to bring hence I end up overpacking.

Today is no different.

I don't know what to wear during my three-day trip to Atlanta. Roman could have planned anything. I only know he is taking me to his college.

Of course, I asked him what clothes to prepare and he said whatever I like plus swimsuit. He added if I need anything he will buy it for me, oh lord.

Another thing is that mom has been acting weirdly because she doesn't know how to feel about the thing that's going on with me and Roman.

I thought the problem was the age difference but she said that's the least of the problem while she refuses to explain what bothers her.

Whatever.

If she knew me, she would know I have never let a man deceive me and I never will.

"Is he picking you up?" her voice startled me since I thought I was alone.

"Of course." I replied as I zipped my medium-sized suitcase. Eventually, I decided to put my outfit for Smackdown, an elegant outfit, a sports outfit in case we train, pajamas and one casual outfit. I hope this is gonna be enough.

Right now I am wearing a baby pink knitted sweater and light blue jeans.

"Be careful." mom warned me and I looked at her with something close to irritation.

"Mom, I know what I'm doing." I simply said and I grabbed my suitcase.

"No, I don't think you do. Trust me when I say I know men like him." okay now I am confused.

"You do?" I cocked my eyebrow in suspicion.

"I used to date an athlete even way more famous than him. These men would make you believe you are the one but will replace you the second they see someone else...not necessarily prettier or more successful. Don't you find it weird how he is going after you just a bit after his divorce?" mom had her arms crossed.

"It's not a bit after. It's been months. Also, I recently ended a relationship as well, so I don't see where the problem is." I replied with the exact same tone she was speaking to me. "And I wonder who was the lucky athlete you sweeped over."

"This doesn't matter right now. What matters is you should be careful because Roman either sees you as a one-night or a wife. No in between for a man his age." I hate how mom is so judgemental always and I hate that I got this from her because this is exactly how I talk about men as a whole. However, I don't think Roman sees me as a one-night stand.

"Oh, so I assume you were a one-night for the athlete, is that so?"

"Worse. The mistress." she said and my jaw hit the floor. "I didn't know I was at first. The second I found out, I cut him off. Yes, he was married to an older woman back then and he used me as an escape. Secret rendezvous." I could sense the bitterness in my mom. She doesn't seem pretty over this.

"You know the pretty blonde woman, med student with my curvy body." mom in the 90s was probably the hottest chick to exist and the fact she was a med student I can only imagine the line of guys that she has rejected. Probably even bigger than mine.

"I wanna know who that man was." I said as I put my finger on my mouth waiting for the gossip.

"That's not the point, Sophia. Did you understand what I mean?" she got genuinely pissed off.

"Yeah, yeah. I will be careful, I promise. Who was he?" I won't give up until I find out. "Please mom, tell me." I begged her as I put my two hands together.

She just sighed.

"Remember when you were in elementary school you wanted me to buy you Jordans because your friend told you that they make you run fast?" mom took me back in my childhood days.

I do remember that I wanted Jordans so much but she didn't buy ones for me and that was the biggest lightbulb I just had - loudest as well.

"Michael Jordan?!" I gasped. "No way." I couldn't believe what she just told me. Michael Jordan?

"Unfortunately." mom nodded her head and pressed her lips.

"Did father know?" my eyes are still wide open.

"No. No one knows this and it better stays that way." she warned me and I just zipped my mouth.

"Now do you understand why I am so worried? Roman is divorced but we have to be sure he wants to keep you for long." she advised me and I nodded my head.

"These days you have to observe him really carefully. Every action is a sign. If he tries to get you in bed, the answer is clear. He just wants you physically." she is really giving me instructions as if I am a teenage girl and not a woman that is approaching her late 20s.

"I know that already, mom. Do you have any idea how many guys I have rejected in my life just because I could see right through them?" I asked her rhetorically.

"Probably more than me." she muttered but I heard her.

"Is the lecture over already?" I asked with annoyance.

"It is." she replied and came to hug me.

"You know I love you so much and you can't be mad at me that I want the best for you." she spoke.

"I love you too." I responded quietly.

...

As I went outside and saw Roman resting on the familiar black Lamborghini, I felt a bit puzzled since I expected him to come with the bus as he claimed he always does when he travels for work.

The second he saw me carrying the suitcase, he reached to me to grab it.

"That much stuff for 3 days?" he seemed surprised.

"Tribal Chief didn't give me much directions about the plans, so I have to be prepared." I snapped back and he laughed.

"I want it to be a surprise." Roman declared with a smirk forming on his mouth.

"And I already am. Why are we with the car?" we got to the car and he put my suitcase in the trunk.

"Because we are going with the jet." he replied. "We are gonna stay in a hotel."

He booked a hotel?!

"What about Jimmy and Solo?"

"They are coming tomorrow with the jet and then they leave after the show."

So he planned to be just us two?

"Alright." I just responded but I could feel tensing up inside. What if mom was right?

Why is he booking a hotel for three days? Also, we are definitely gonna share a room and a bedroom.

"The room is with two beds in case you are wondering." did he just hear my thoughts or I'm just that obvious. He got in the car and I followed him getting into the passenger seat.

"I figured." I laughed slightly, completely lying.

"Unless it goes like in the movies and the receptionist tells us that there was a mistake." Roman added and I could feel the grin on his face, so I turned around to confirm for myself.

"I kick a lot in my sleep, just saying." I warned him and he furrowed his eyebrows.

"You are saying this to a professional wrestler. I get paid to be kicked by people and to kick people too." he turned on the engine and we took off.

...

When Roman said he is taking me to a hotel, he definitely did not specify it's one of the most expensive ones in Atlanta.

The interior is an insane work. Imagine contemporary vintage design. I know it sounds crazy but that's how I would describe it.

Everything is made of marble - the walls and the floors and there are crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling while the spinning door is made of gold.

After we checked in, we headed to our room as we passed by the stairs in front of which there is a stone sculpture of a lion.

We are in the elevator which can store a lot of people and luggage if needed.

"I am speechless." I finally spoke and he laughed.

"Coming from you? That has to be the biggest compliment ever." he stated and the elevator stopped and opened to our floor. "Now let's see the room".

Once the room was revealed to me, I tried to keep my jaw still but I'm not completely sure did I succeed.

It's definitely more on the contemporary side compared to the reception but it's amazing. It is very spacious too - not just a room but quarduple room with two queen sized beds which are very close to each other.

There is a big TV in front of them, a coffee table, a sofa too as well as two windows with an amazing view of the city.

I couldn't help but head fastly to check the bathroom and it has a spacious shower cabin that would fit me and Roman just fine.

Not that we are taking a shower together.

Two enormous mirrors with LED lights and two enormous sinks where I can put my whole makeup and skincare if I want to.

I turned around to get out but I saw Roman was looking as well.

I just hugged him abruptly.

"This is amazing." I squealed. He put his hand on my waist and I could feel his heart almost going in mine from the beat. Not gonna lie, it feels good to be in his arms.

"I'm glad you like it." he replied and then I broke the hug until it starts to get awkward. "Okay, so now it's..." he looked at his watch that probably costs my wardrobe. "...dinner time. Are you hungry?" he looked back at me.

"Just a little." I responded.

"Great. I will order room service, you can go shower, then I will. After that we have dinner and we head to Georgia Tech. How does that sound?"

Oh, he really has planned everything. That's such a rare sight to see nowadays with younger men.

"Perfect." I replied.

"What do you want to eat?"

"Whatever a pro-athlete eats." I simply replied and he shook his head.

"Okay then when you look at the menu, whatever catches your eyes or if you see your favorite dish, order it for me as well." I finalised my words.

"You are a slick lady." Roman concluded as he raised his index finger and started shaking his hand like a typical dad.

"The best way to get to know somebody is through his favorite dish." I spoke wisely.

"Who said that?" he seemed confused.

"Me." I just replied and went to the beds to grab my towel.

"The wisdom herself. My bad." he said and I looked at him jauntily.

"Did you know that in the Bible the female personification of wisdom is called Sophia?" I asked him another unhinged fact.

"I know. And did you know that Joseph means 'God shall add'?" he asked me back.

"Great leader since very young age, revives Egypt from the famine and reconciling with his family." I added the things that I know. He really represents his name well. "Just like you revived WWE from the COVID era." I reached a realisation.

"And sticking to my family no matter what." Roman added.

"We could definitely use that in a promo." I concluded as I grabbed my clothes.

...

After the warm shower I just had I did my usual skin care routine, styled my hair and dressed up for the date. Since we are going to his old university, I think the casual outfit would be perfect for the occasion - light beige long tight off shoulder dress.

Makeup is gonna be saved for last since Roman is probably hungry and wants to go in the shower too. I tried to be as fast as possible.

As I went out I saw him just finishing putting the food on the table. Once he looked at me his jaw dropped a bit.

Roman's POV:

Sophia is a real-life Barbie doll. There is no way she is a real person.

The way the dress highlights her pear-shaped body figure drives me mad. She is literally shaped like a goddess plus her voluminous natural blonde hair and I believe she has no makeup as of now since she looks like an angel from heaven.

Barbie, goddess and angel.

That's Sophia in a nutshell.

"Hope you didn't starve." she said nervously.

"What? I suddenly forgot I'm hungry." I looked her up once again and she laughed. "The dinner came a while ago by the way so no worries." I assured her and she goy close to the table.

"So this is my favorite dish - fillet mignon with baby carrots and broccoli." I presented it to her. "Hope you like beef." I suddenly became concerned.

"I do. I eat everything." she assured me and I was honestly surprised cause women usually either don't eat any meat or no dairy or don't eat at all.

"Everything?" I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

"Yes, not a picky eater at all, also I'm not allergic to anything." she sat as I made her a sign to sit.

"This is very delicious." Sophia stated as she tried the meal. "Okay, I see why it's your favorite." even the way she holds the cutlery, the way she takes a bite and chews, everything about this woman is feminine and that's why she is under my skin.

"I am glad you like it." I responded with a soft smile. "Next time, however, it will be your turn to pick the dish, okay?" I made a condition. It's cute that she trusts me with my taste and opinion but I still wanna know hers as well.

"Deal." she replied and cut another piece of the fillet.

[midnights-wish]

okay, so. as some of you know, i'm currently looking for an apartment. and i just had an apartment viewing, and it was the weirdest situation i was ever put in. rant/ ramble begins after the thingie.

first i come in, & i get a hug and a kiss on the cheek (which, you know, fine, whatever); then the moment i enter the living room i see a-3 big porn-posters (i assume they must be from a calendar, but i'm not too sure) spread out on the couch; then somewhat dubious stains on the kitchen counter; then i see he's got the same type of posters on his bed & bedroom walls; then throughout the visit he just keeps complimenting my appearance (which also makes me wonder what kind of compliments he'd given me if i didn't bring my brother along; thank god i did); he also keeps talking about how rich he is, about how much charity he does, tells me about how he's got the energy to do so many things in his late age (he's 82), which is that he takes 2 viagra every day (dubious stains are now explained); when i ask him about the move-in day, he backtracks on what he said on yesterdays phone call, says i could move in in 4 weeks (yesterday he said i could move in in latest 2 weeks), but that i could move in in 2 weeks & i could just sleep on his couch while he sleeps in his bed or vice versa (i rejected that offer immediately, obviously); then we start talking about the rental price, he suddenly changes what he said yesterday, the price is suddenly 200€ higher than discussed, but he would chip 100€ in every month, when i tell him i want to pay the rent by myself, and that i want to know why the rental price suddenly changed (he isn't even the landlord, he's just a tenant that's looking for a 'new' tenant - not sure how it's called in english, in german it's 'nachmieter' - but even so, i'm not sure whether they can just raise the price when they're just a tenant themselves? i'm gonna google it later, but it sounds like an odd thing to me) and why he didn't just say that price in the announcement he put out or at the very least mentioned it on the phone call, but he just goes lower & lower on the price saying 'fine, i'll chip in more', so i politely but also strictly tell him that i won't take the apartment, and that i don't appreciate him telling me false things on the phone; he says some things on my way out, about how i'm losing out 'cause he's got 15 more applicants, and under what price i imagine to get an apartment in [city], to which i tell him that it's great he's still got applicants, but that that is of no concern to me.

& you know, here's the thing. i am a patient person. i don't mind someone being eccentric, i don't mind getting compliments here and there, and i don't even care much about what he did in the apartment as he'd be out and deep-cleaning exists. i also don't care about wanting to negotiate the price. but trying to butt in on my rent (which even the increased one i could've done on my own, not that he wanted to hear it), proposing to share the apartment for a bit, and also lie to me, is something i didn't expect out of todays' meeting. on the phone he just sounded like an adorable old man who shares a little too much about his life. :/ and the neighbourhood was quite alright too. there are a few bars & clubs around, but it's not a bad neighbourhood per se; my biggest worry was literally just about how noisy it might be outside on weekends, ffs. the initial price was alright for the apartment as well; there's other apartments of that size that cost about the same or even less. i dunno. all in all i'm just happy i wasn't there alone, 'cause i don't know what that man would've been like if my brother wasn't present, when he already acted like that with another man in the room.

[alonelystargazer]

3, 13, and 16 for the ask game! And for jjk obviously lol

ooh okay let's get into it hehe

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

I think that would have to be the one time I saw someone say that Maki is just Toji 2.0 and lives in his shadow, which apparently is a pretty common thing that dudebros say to invalidate Maki's personal growth as a fighter because Gege happened to make that comparison a couple of times. But he also said that Maki far surpassed him, and she achieved feats beyond what Toji managed to do in his life. FFS she took down the entire Zenin clan by herself!

13. worst blorboficiation

I'm tempted to say Gojo, just because to some fans, he either only exists as someone that's apart of SatoSugu as a ship, or they turn him into some fuckboy/slut/cheater/womanizer/whatever in self-shipping scenarios. Like yeah, I get it, his relationship with Geto was a big part of his backstory, but he also existed without Geto for 10 years and made a new (if somewhat disjointed) life after that. Gojo just has such a powerful presence in the story that it's easy for fans to just slap whatever traits they like onto him, even if it is OOC.

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

I really don't understand the insistence some fans have that Choso is incompetent and basically clueless about the modern world when his vessel is a 20-something year old man from the modern day, and he has retained information about the world through his vessel. Those people always want to uwu-ify and baby him and make it seem like he wouldn't know how to use a microwave or a cell phone or that he has no clue about dating and sex or just generally has no idea about modern day social norms.

And one more thing, I can't stand the aggressive, cold, characterization of Nanami. It's because of that hair pulling scene from the Shibuya arc, but it doesn't make sense to me that people would think he acts that way all the time. He was angry at Haruta for killing/injuring his colleagues and threatening Nobara, of course he was gonna beat his ass! And that whole scenario made self-shippers go fucking nuts and fantasized about him being aggressive and dominant in bedroom scenarios, which, no, he wouldn't act that way with a partner, not even in a roleplay situation.

thanks for the questions!

[pumpkinmetaphor]

kids will do ANYTHING no matter how tedious it is as long as they're happy in the end. it's adorable. ive seen literal 2 HOUR LONG gacha movies. actually insane how far they'll go if just left on their own with some stick figures for a little bit. if this present day commoner au where kaoru got access to gacha life early in his life existed then i think he would've been slightly more evil.

unfortunately in canon gacha life would only be made when he's like 35. whether he ever picks it up one day for shits and giggles when he's already full ass married to kyoya you can decide but i personally think the 100% serious angst soaked mafia boss au "save me from this neverending nightmare" ass pining.... can only be Truly displayed in the cracked samsung phone of a deranged-but-refuses-to-acknowledge-it 15 year old hiding under the covers of his bed making "broken cinderella" gacha edits of himself while hikaru snores next to him.

the bad dirkjake comparison makes me giggle i do not step on ff.net anymore since I got used to ao3. something about looking down on ff.net feels classist like i came from a broken and poor neighborhood (ff.net) and now look upon it with disgust since i got married into riches (ao3) and got used to the rich people life and don't want to acknowledge where i came from.

oh and kyoya so would. kaoru would like mention some obscure food item he wanted to try "one day" and kyoya would drive for like 4 hours straight, probably missing work, to get it for him and drive all the way back and act like he just "happened to see it being sold nearby". and it's all for nothing because kaoru ends up hating it anyway

TWO HOURS...the dedication...never get between a kid and their escape mechanism (my 80+ chapter ohshc fic I started when I was 12)

You're right, it can truly only capture the emotions of mid teens emo angst. Clarity MV part 1 of 27. He's given Kyoya a sick ass face scar to make him look more badass and Mafia-like. The cognitive dissonance is insane. And god...yeah. Kyoya would do that and Kaoru would turn around and be like eh 4/10 snack. But Kyoya's into that kind of annoying behaviour anyway so it's all fine. And canon Kyoya has staff to run those errands for him so it's basically painless.

FF dot net...I have caved and gone trawling through FF dot net for ohshc fic but it's truly a wasteland. There's some good stuff out there but can I find it? No. AO3 truly has me spoiled. How did I ever live like this.

[willow-salix]

This is going to be out of the blue and there's no need for a response to it, but I guess I feel like some of you deserve to get a peek behind my armour.

Facebook just gave me a memory from 7 years ago, showing me an album that I'd rather not see quite honestly, but you know when you're just drawn in even though you know it's against your better judgement? Yep, that was me just now.

The album is full of screenshots of the absolute shit ton of crap that I've had on the Internet over the years.

I was in the RP world for ten years, and in that time I was verbally and mentally attacked a lot, I was mentally abused, I was stalked, I was blamed for things I never did, I was used as a scapegoat for things I never did. I was the victim of unwarranted attacks that had my accounts deleted by fb so that I lost YEARS of writing.

I got my heart broken over and over again by people that claimed tk be my friends, people that claimed to love me but that were all too happy to dump me the second a better option came along. People that I sat up all night with, that I lost sleep over, that I went out of my way to help and support.

Some of them lied to me so throughly that they lied about who they were, where they lived, their job, their gender, their nationality, what other characters /accounts they had and everything else you could think of for over TWO years.

I've had one that claimed to be my best friend, sit on my couch, my actual couch, in my house and lie to my face. Lie to me and his long term partner and mother of his three kids that he wasnt cheating with a cheap bitch he met online (the third person he'd done it with I found out after) I only found out about her when she messaged me to tell me.

I stopped talking to him, after their friends started a smear campaign against me, and even then EVEN THEN, I talked it out and started talking to him again. But he turned it around and started blaming me and guilt tripping me again. So I cut him off. He stalked me. Like messaging my friend, posting things to me (actual letters through the mail) making new accounts to message me, buying new phone sims to call me. This was 6 years ago. He called me at the start of lockdown and left a message on my voicemail.

This man mentally abused me. He'd force me to talk to him when I had a problem and then he'd not like what I said, so he'd go silent and ignore me for up to three days, to the point that I'd worked myself up so much that I was apologising, that I was taking the blame for having feelings, only when he got that would he talk to me.

He was an alcoholic who worked in care if you can believe that, I supported him through him getting sober again, he still did all that to me.

I gave up on role play and let my character, my home, the one place I felt comfortable and safe, up. And I didn't go back for two years. I got talked around by someone, they made promises, I stupidly fell for it.

I then got used to bring their character back and to help them sort out storylines. I was then told they didn't want to work with me anymore because they had too much going on in their personal life, they blocked me and I then got screenshots that that had another writing partner already.

That broke me. That broke me and fandom and people and everything really.

I vowed never to go back.

Then I stumbled upon you lot. And I told myself not to get involved, not to start talking to anyone, not to start trusting again. Now look! Now bloody look!

I'm what... 500k + in a story that was never meant to be, I'm actually writing and collabing with people again and I have a character that I adore and feel just as comfortable with... And that is fucking scary.

It's sooooo scary. Like terrifying scary to me.

Because I'm having to trust again. Selene is like public property now, and I love how much everyone has accepted and adopted her and how they use her and write her too, that warms this cold, dead, suspicious heart of mine.

Because I can honestly say that Selene and John saved me and my sanity.

I am quite a sociable person, I love to chat to people and if I'm your friend I will go out of my way to do my best for you, to be there for you and to support you in every way I can. But I know I can be used and I dotn always see the bad in people. So I cut myself off and refused to allow myself to make friends again.

I was writing my novels and that was it. No interaction, no fun really. Then this loud mouthed witch blazed into my head, took one look at the spaceman and said "that one, he's mine, wrap him up I'll take him to go" and here she is.

They made writing fun again, they made it spontaneous and exciting, I suddenly had ideas again, people to talk to about the characters I love and it was hard. Because it was also good.

I had to trust the process, trust Selene.

But I'm also so wary. I'm wary that I'm gonna piss people off, that I'm going to annoy people with her and that people hate her. I know people don't like OCs' and I get major anxiety about that.

I've never had this amount of anxiety over stories before, never. Not my rp, not my novels, not the ones I did for class or competitions, nothing. This is singularly the most stressful writing I've ever done. Because these boys, they mean the world to me, they always have. They have always been my happy place since I was 5/6, they have always been my heart and home.

The problems I had in rp made me not like the books that I loved, the fandom I was in, because of peoples interpretations of the characters, the way they played them and the fact that they were so nasty to me. And I really really don't want that to happen here.

A few weeks ago I noticed that an account had bene set up that was clearly a piss take of me, of this account. And all the old fears and anxiety came rushing back. I instantly went running to Squiddy and Olliepig and basically tumbled around the group chat in a mess for a few minutes before I calmed down and realised what was going on and had a guess at who it could be.

But it's scary. Because I've been stalked, I've been badmouthed, I've had people make fake accounts of me to cause trouble, and it weighs on me.

Willow Salix is my author name, I had to choose that because my Pagan name (which I was writing under and still do on ff and a03) was too well known and my stalkers were reporting it every time I made a new account.

I had to come to love this name, come to see it as myself (willow is my actual real name btw) and feel comfortable with it. It's taken a long time, I've built my brand from it. I have five novels out under it. And to think of someone having an account with even a parody of that name gave me all sorts of chills.

I'm OK now, but yeah. Fun times.

So I guess... I just want people to talk to me. And I don't mean shine by ego lol, I mean that if I ever do anything to piss you off. If I ever say anything you don't like. If I ever annoy you with Selene or anything at all, PLEASE just come and talk to me.

I might put on a tough mask, and in general I am pretty hardy, but I'm a typical cancerian, hard outer shell, squishy inside.

Selene is my sanity in a home life that is far from easy, I won't go into major details but disabled husband, I'm a full time carer, he's majorly depressed and it's just... Yeah. Anyway, she's my refuge, she's my escape right now.

Actually making a side blog for her took so much guts, to allow her free rein to speak and act is scary as heck for me. Because I've been there and vowed to never go back.

The only good thing I took out of all my years of rp, apart from being able to make up a story pretty much on the spot, spontaneous replies, dialogue skills and character development, is my best friend in all the world @endellionaeternus who has seen it all and stuck by me through it all.

I have no real idea why I just typed all this, I guess I needed people to see where I'm coming from, and why Selene exists.

Yeah...

[sugamontana93]

Tony Montana (18+) BTS FF Chapter 1

You can also find this story on wattpad @SugaMontana93 

https://www.wattpad.com/user/SugaMontana93

"Highly Elusive and Dangerous Chinese Mafia Boss, Yong Go Sil, was found murdered four days ago in ShangHai. It is rumored that he had ties to Seoul via family, but nothing has been confirmed. He has been wanted by the Chinese Government, along with South Korean and American agencies due to the wreckless drug sales, senseless acts of violence and murders spanning from continent to continent over the last twenty years. Police believe that another crime family, also known as Blood Kings, were responsible for the mafia leaders' demise. If you have any tips leading to The Yong Mafia and The Notorious South Korean mafia 'The Blood Kings', please call our hotline at XXX-XXX-XXXX. This is Park Reina with Seoul Now News."

Yoongi smirked as he turned off the news and settled down on the leather couch in Hybe's conference room. The other members smirked at each other before their manager, Bang Si-Hyuk, entered with a stern face. Their manager, no matter how wholesome and sweet he was in the public, knew exactly who and what BTS were behind the scenes. He was the one who passed it on to them. Yoongi's knowledge of Daegu sealed their fate the day they signed the contract with Big Hit. At the beginning, not a single one of the seven knew what was happening until Bang approached them with more opportunities that life as simple idols wouldn't be able to give them. Namjoon may be the leader of BTS, but it was Yoongi that dealt with the rest.

"I see you went through with it," Bang said as he sat down at the head of the table. "Mind telling me how you managed to find him in such a short amount of time?"

"I did it," Taehyung smirked as he looked at his manager. "Yoongi gave myself and my soldiers access to some of the things you left behind. The asshole was slick, I give you that. If it wasn't for Jungkook's keen eye, I would have never gotten Hyunsoo to tail him for as long as I had. Seokjin-Hyung pulled the trigger himself."

"And you managed to go to China to do that," Bang lifted his brow. "I don't see how that's possible."

"We didn't go to China. He was here. In Seoul," Seokjin added. "We don't know why he was here, but he knew he had been made. It was actually quite easy to get rid of him."

"How'd you get his body to Shanghai?"

"Jungkook's soldiers. Most of them are based in China to keep an eye out for other mafia that may come as a threat to us."

"For him to not fight is strange to me," Bang murmured. "Yoongi, are you going to look into this?"

"Already on it, sir," The mafia leader smiled back. "I should have some results by the end of the week."

"Even though I'm not the boss anymore, please keep me informed. I want to keep the authorities away as much as I can."

"Of course, sir."

"Now," Bang said while clapping his hands, "let's move on to more calm matters. Yoongi, your stylist Jaenie has put in her notice to leave the company. She and her husband have just found out that they're expecting twins and she'll need to be on bed rest due to her pre-existing health conditions."

"Aw, babies," Jungkook cooed, making the others laugh. "Good for her. I heard her telling Yoongi-hyung that they were trying."

"I'm happy for her," Yoongi grinned. The stereotype that surrounded Mafia leaders wasn't how Yoongi was. How you saw him on stage and on candid footage, that was him. Truly him. He wasn't mean or heartless to people that worked with him, his elders, his family or anything of the sort. The only time people knew how dark he was, was when the mafia side kicked in. He had his own persona. He was the infamous 'Tony Montana of South Korea' afterall. He only made people fear him when they needed it. That's why no one was brave enough to cross The Blood Kings.

"Which brings us to our next point," Bang said while pulling out a file. "Your replacement stylist will be starting tomorrow."

"But I thought Jaenie Noona would be here for two more weeks?"

"I told her to take these extra two weeks early. I'm paying her quadruple her usual salary and a hefty bonus to help with any things she needs for the babies. I also started them a trust fund because Jaenie has been one hell of a good employee."

"She dealt with Yoongi's hormonal early teenage years. You should have just given her the presidential medal of honor," Seokjin snickered. Yoongi shot him a go to hell look and then sighed.

"Yeah, you're probably right," he chuckled. "So, who is she?"

Bang opened the file and pulled out her resume.

Name: Grei Romano

Age: 29

Birthdate: January 1st, 1992

Born: Sicily, Italy

Parent's: Luca and Soleil Romano

Graduated Seoul School of Arts 2010, Licensed Cosmetologist and Esthetician 2011, Bachelor's Degree in Communications 2015.

IQ: 148

Current Residence: Seoul, South Korea

Languages: English, Cantonese, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Spanish and French.

Marital Status: Single

Children: 0

Bank: Seoul National Bank

Bank Account Balance: 1,425,504.00₩

"Damn. Are we hiring a stylist or recruiting someone into the mafia," Namjoon whistled as he looked down at all of the information. "She's smart."

"And broke," Taehyung said while crossing his arms. "She has two licenses and a huge degree. Why so little money?"

"She lives in Hannam, so it's all got to be going to normal bills. Relax, Taehyung. I checked her out and did a thorough background check. You know how I am about hiring people that know who you are as BTS." Bang pulled out her photograph and slid it across the table. "This is who will be coming tomorrow. I've given strict instructions to the staff if anyone else comes and does not match this picture, we'll be calling the police. I can't have you all exposed to crazy fans coming in here again or have anyone snooping in BK business."

Yoongi stared at her photograph and his mouth watered. She was exquisite, breathtaking. Nothing could come close to describing how beautiful she was. Her eyes were what drawed him in. They were beautiful...but somehow familiar.

"Hyung, pick your jaw up." Jimin bursted out laughing and snatched the picture from Yoongi's clutches. "She's hot."

"Coming from you, I know not to worry about you getting yourself in trouble with her," Bang said as he looked over his glasses. "Namjoon, Hoseok and Yoongi possibly. But not you."

"How do you know I won't try anything with her, Bang-ssi?"

Si-hyuk crossed his arms and lifted his brow. "I've known you for eleven years, Jimin. I also know that you and Hoseok are dating." Jimin and Hoseok are still in their chairs and look at the other members with wide eyes. "I also know that Namjoon and Jin and Taehyung and Jungkook are dating. You boys trying to hide everything from me has been a sight. Now stop pretending." Bang motioned from them to speak while six of the members looked like their manager had just shot their dog. "Look, I don't care what you all do. Jimin, Taehyung and Jungkook, I know you're gay. I'm your second father. I know these things. Just like I know that Hoseok is bisexual, Jin and Namjoon have never thought about dating the same sex until they met each other and Yoongi's pansexual. You all know this about each other. I'm sure you've all had your private talks. It's my job to know these things, boys. I don't care. You're all happy right?"

They all nodded in response.

"Great."

Yoongi's phone began to ring, jerking everyone out of the awkward atmosphere. "Fuck," Yoongi growled as he answered his phone. "What is it, Han?" Yoongi's hand gripped the table as Han related valuable information to him. His knuckles were white, face as cold as stone as he listened to Han break down everything that has happened over the last hour. He slammed his phone down and closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath. When they opened, Yoongi was gone.

The Mafia Boss was standing still as stone in his place, eyeing the members and his manager as he tried to steady his breathing.

"What is it, son," Bang said while standing up.

Yoongi chuckled and adjusted the rings on his finger.

"Seems like Yong Go Sil has someone taking over his mafia."

"Who?" The rest all stood waiting for further instruction.

"His daughter."

[razieltwelve]

I think the people of Remnant would be extra-pissed at the people of Earth. We have the entire planet to ourselves, no deadly monsters, one dominant species and yet we still found ways to sabotage ourselves with discrimination and wealth disparity. Plus, our weapons are designed to kill humans which they might find weird. We have less of a drive to work together as we aren't constantly fighting monsters but still. Also, I wonder how the cast of FR will react after learning about FF XIII and RWBY

I’m assuming that this version of Earth doesn’t have media related to the series. Basically it’s our Earth but no media in which the characters exist. Otherwise, I have no doubt that Elsa is going to bust through my wall and demand to know why I didn’t fix Averia being oblivious earlier. 

But I agree. There will definitely be frustration. Many people from Remnant will look at Earth and ask why we haven’t gotten further and done more without the Grimm constantly attacking and laying waste to civilisation.

However, historians (e.g., Vanille) might be more understanding. Remnant’s history shows that the moment they dealt with the Grimm, civilisations inevitably turned on each other, which allowed the Grimm to regroup and overrun them. Earth’s humans constantly turning on each other will be very similar to that for them.

I think the very first thing that Remnant will do once they understand Earth’s languages is begin mining the Internet for scientific information. Remnant, as a whole, is more advanced, but there are areas where Earth has the upper hand (e.g., certain branches on non-Dust technology). They are going to want to grab those as quickly as they can.

The more interesting question to me, is what will various Earth nations do to get their slice of the pie? Australia will obviously manoeuvre itself into prime position. The gate is on Australian soil (in the desert), which means they control access to it. Nations like the US, Britain, and Australia’s usual allies will naturally  ask to have access to the gate and Remnant. Other nations that Australia is not as friendly with will immediately feel threatened, especially once some of Remnant’s technology emerges (e.g., Remnant’s solar panels are miles better than anything we can make, and the average scroll is so far ahead of a normal laptop or phone as to seem more like science fiction). The manufacturing technology of Remnant alone could revolutionise industry on Earth.

These other nations may well try to sneak their own agents in to make contact or even threaten an attack if they are denied access. This would prompt Australia’s own allies to respond in kind. It would be quid pro quo. For example, the US might guarantee full-scale military intervention to protect Australia’s interests regarding the gate in exchange for having full access to it as well. Making things more complicated is that Remnant has a relatively small number of countries compared to Earth, and the four major kingdoms are used to working together and acting in concert whereas Earth doesn’t have that sort of unity.

You’d also have to worry about things like medical travel.

Many diseases and illnesses that Earth still can’t cure can be fixed relatively easily with Remnant’s technology. Even things like reproductive science would be in high demand. After all, there are plenty of people who struggle to have children or can’t have them naturally. How much would they be willing to pay to overcome that, and how would they react if the government refuses to approve travel through the gate for those purposes?

Semblances and Aura could also cause real trouble from a military perspective. If Australia is smart, once it sees the power wielded by certain people from Remnant, it will ask for a mutual defence treaty to protect the gate and the exchange of goods, services, and knowledge. As long as trade is going smoothly, both sides have powerful incentives to protect it.

But think of how other nations might view it. We already have treaties against the proliferation of nuclear weapons. How would the international community react once they see what powerful hunters are capable of?

Just take Ruby. If you want someone - anyone - on Earth dead, she can do it. With her Semblance, there is essentially no way to protect a VIP from her. What about Jihl? Knowing that someone like her even exists is going to give governments across the world nightmares.

And then you get to the truly ridiculous people. How do you think the world will react knowing that Elsa could, on her own, usher in a new ice age?

On the other hand, the internet will love it. Real people with actual super powers? The internet is going to explode when they start streaming tournaments from Remnant. People with super powers fighting each other as a sport? Yeah. Forget the Super Bowl. Super-powered combat is where it’s at.

[arisu-artnfics]

A Date Before Christmas

Summary: On Christmas Eve most people spend the holiday with friends others with family or with lovers but for Marinette and Adrien they were all three. They were cherished friends, they were caring lovers and most importantly they were family and no matter what happened that day they would not let anyone separate them or disrupt there happiness. (Thank you @deadvampire32​ for suggesting it ^^ ^^) Beta by: @spider-momo (& a bit @deadvampire32). Also on: DA/FF/AO3/FB  Original published date: December 25, 2019 For: @galahadwilder as to say Merry Christmas, I’m your secret santa!! I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy creating it for you ^^ ^^ This is a gift as part of the @mlsecretsanta interchange.

Spanish version of this story

Art done by me: *Tumblr/DeviantArt/Facebook (December 26, 2019).

It was the 24th of December, in the late morning. Marinette and Adrien were sitting in a coffee shop close to the Dupain-Cheng bakery. It has been roughly six months since they started dating and since they revealed their identities. The reveal had been accidentally actually, they weren’t supposed to know. It all changed since Ladybug aka Marinette Dupain-Cheng officially became the new guardian. The rules said that if they knew each other’s identities for their own sake, they should stop being the heroes that everyone loves. Even when both of them knew this rule, it changed just after they revealed. 

Marinette knew that she couldn’t confide those miraculous to any of their friends because Hawk Moth knew already about them and couldn’t put them again in danger like that. Also, it was the fact that even when they knew the truth about the person behind the mask, not much had changed. They still had to keep making excuses and act like they didn’t know as well as keep trying to fight the akumas and of course, win. Hawk Moth and Mayura always keep them on edge and with too little time to rest. Considering all that and more, Adrien helped Marinette to decide that the correct course of action in that case was just to keep being Ladybug and Chat Noir.There wasn’t really any time to get new heroes to be Ladybug and Chat Noir, or well to become the new holders of the Ladybug and Black Cat miraculous. 

When the reveal happened not that long after Master Fu lost his memories and Ladybug became the new guardian, in that precise moment was a lot of panicking from both of them. After a couple of seconds both teens had their own different reactions, between some laughter and ‘can’t believe I didn’t notice before’ to ‘can’t believe that Alya was always right’ and reactions like some sobbing and more. Then they had a big conversation between them, explaining some of the misunderstandings, more laughter and some tension in between them as well had freed itself. In conclusion, after they actually discovered and confessed some feelings from both sides, they decide to give them a chance. Adrien actually was the one that had to bring the question and suggestion. They had to also confess that they were in a way of ‘moving on’ but not entirely as they seem to be falling again for the same person without them knowing. 

Now, six months later, - on the day of Christmas Eve - they are trying to have a not interrupted date. Marinette and Adrien were wearing their winter clothes, sitting inside of the coffee shop enjoying some hot chocolate. Their Kwamis were with them, hidden from everyone but them.

“So, Mari,” said Adrien “after here, are we supposed to go and get Alya and Nino’s gifts?”

Marinette made a face unsure, “Mmmm… I suppose so, but I thought that you already have the vinyl disk that Nino wants so much?”

“Yeah, I do,” he replied while reaching to a bag that he also had and pulling it out. “Just thought that maybe you wanted to find something else?” passing it to her.

“This is the same as the one you have at your house, the one that he used to DJ in the party, right?” Marinette asked while admiring the disk, she would never understand DJing but was happy their friend did and enjoy it so much.

“It’s the same,” Adrien replied with a smile.

“Good, because actually I don’t really want to go shopping today. I mean, c’mon Adrien it is Christmas Eve after all.” With that she returned the disk to Adrien so he could put it away.  

He chuckles a bit ,“True,” Adrien smile.

“Phew, you got me worried for a bit, Kitty,” Marinette returned the smile.

“Ahhh, poor Bugaboo,” he said with joy in his tone.

Marinette roll her eyes but also was failing to hide her amused smile. “All right, then we don’t need to worry about it. I got Alya the super special microphone that she dreamt and talked about having so much,” said Marinette.

“She definitely will love it. You are indeed a great friend Marinette,” Adrien said with a huge smile that goes from ear to ear.

“Why are you so happy about it?” asked curious Marinette knowing that Adrien maybe had something ‘funny’ in mind, well something that was probably ‘funny’ for him like a pun or so.

“Heh, nothing special… just a friend” he said and then laughs a bit.

“Oh my...” Marinette said “it was you - as I learned thanks to Plagg, - ” she looked to Plagg very fast.

“Anytime, kid,” Plagg said from one of the bags next to them who was eating a piece of cheese.

“That was calling me,” Marinette continued, “‘just a friend’” she said while making quotation marks with her fingers.

“I know,” Adrien said once he stop laughing “but still makes me laugh,” he shrugged.

“Of what?” said Plagg again, “How stupid you could be?” “Plagg!” said Tikki from Marinette’s bags, who was eating a cookie. “Hey!” said Adrien at the same time as Tikki spoke.

Marinette just laughed a bit.

After a second or so Adrien also laughed at himself again. They needed that, they need all the fun and good moments that they could get. They really didn’t get much free time even at this time of the year. Anyone else would have thought that thanks to the winter break it should be less stress or trouble and so less akumas but it was quite the opposite, sadly, for the heroes. 

Sadly, it didn’t take too much longer until what they had been avoiding to happen so far during the day was happening. An akuma was once again at the door of their school. That’s how the accidental reveal happened in the first place. Since Hawk Moth learned that almost all the previous heroes as part of the now not existent team, were indeed from there; that had been his target. Once he learned that information, even though that could mean putting Adrien in danger, Gabriel had insisted that the school was the perfer target for the akumas, it had to be there or close to it that the civilians of the heroes are. Gabriel had thought that the heroes must go to that school, it couldn’t be a coincidence for so many former heroes to be there. Even Chloe was from there, although the whole of Paris did learned that she found the Bee miraculous, didn’t mean that she didn’t find it in the school.    The heroes this time, after hearing the screaming and destruction caused by the akuma, decided to ‘hide’ in the respective toilets. They did as always, even with the knowledge that they obtained all this months ago, the superheroes were acting as just partners and nothing else. Even though Adrien and Marinette were dating, it was like a silent agreement that happened so long ago between the two. Without really a verbal agreement, they synced their replies and kept telling anyone who managed to ask them about that, they are just good friends and partners like nothing had really changed. That’s how everything seemed to everyone outside their knowledge that is technically all of Paris. Ladybug and Chat Noir were more sync than ever, they had been defeating the akumas even faster than before. It was like the knowledge of their identities only helped them grow as heroes rather than something else.

Once the battle finished and all returned to normal, they got out from their ‘hiding’ spot. They decided that maybe was time to go to Marinette’s place. They planned to go to the coffee shop and then just have a relaxing day enjoying the company of each other. They also wanted to make sure they had their friends’ presents for the present exchange that was going to happen the next day in the late afternoon. Then they would part as Adrien was promised by Gabriel to have a Christmas dinner together and Marinette was going to have hers with her family as well. 

The Dupain-Chengs had invited the Agrestes as a family (basically just Gabriel as Adrien were supposed to be there already) however Gabriel denied the invitation, but said thank you anyways, Gabriel had insisted that he be the one that gives his son the Christmas dinner and traditions that the Dupain-Chengs mentioned during the invitation.

That’s how Marinette and Adrien were back to the bakery a few hours before the big celebration started. They didn’t want to be apart, but they knew that sooner or later the ‘Gorilla’ was going to pick Adrien up from there. Marinette and Adrien decided that even when they weren’t about to spend Christmas together, they were going to enjoy as much as they could. Even when an akuma had interrupted yet again another date. They did spend their time together as they were just one happy family. Tom and Sabine were with the kids as well, as they play some video games and have some Christmas like activities that could be done before dinner time was due and Adrien had to leave.   

“Oh, sorry,” said Adrien in the middle of another round of Mecha IV once his phone sounded with a notification of a text message, that he decided to ignore, he knew well enough that it should be the Gorilla waiting from him to take him home.

“Oh no, now?” asked Marinette with a small pout, even though she knew that it was about time that his bodyguard had to come.

“Sadly, yes, but hey bugaboo, don’t be sad...” he hugged her with just one arm, they were sitting one next to the other anyway, and just like them, Marinette’s parents were also sitting next to each other. 

“Mmm...” said Marinette with a big pout and very exaggerated expression of sadness that Adrien knew well by now as the little trick to conform to her or in this case as ‘don’t want you to go, not yet’

“I’ll see you tomorrow in the afternoon, you know,” said Adrien trying to ease the feeling. He didn’t like it either.

That’s when the door bell sounded, and Sabine stood up to open the door. After a very short while, Sabine called everyone down saying that it would be a change of plans. That took Tom by surprise, who had also gotten down the stairs to leave the kids for a moment alone, but was in the back of the bakery rather than at the door. Once Adrien and Marinette got down the stairs hand-in-hand, they actually got very surprised seeing who was at the door. “Good evening,” greeted Gabriel Agreste who was standing there in from of all at the door of the bakery.

“Father?” asked Adrien very surprised to see his father outside. “Wh-?” said confused with the fact.

“Adrien” said Gabriel after a moment. 

When Sabine opened the door she never thought that she would see him outside of his mansion, less at the door of their house. To be surprised was an understatement. That’s why before Gabriel could say anything at all, she turned to see inside and called everyone else to the door. Gabriel knew to expect some kind of reaction but never thought that Sabine would get his intentions so fast. When Tom appears a couple of seconds later as he was just in the next room, he only managed to agreed in silence with Sabine when the mentioned of change of plans were done. They did wait for the kids before they opened the door completely and allow Gabriel to get inside with the Gorilla that had been driving him and Nathalie. “That’s your father...” whispered Marinette to Adrien very surprise or more so than Adrien was in that moment. She also squeezed Adrien’s hand a bit and he did the same back to her.

“Adrien,” Gabriel repeated again.

“Hey, let’s get comfortable, c'mon Gabriel, let’s get inside,” said Tom after a while before it gets weird between the Agreste - well more weird than now.

“Right...” said Gabriel after a moment and got inside.

“Father,” said Adrien with a smile understanding the intentions of why he was here personally.

“I got this,” said Nathalie given a bunch of presents to Sabine so she could put those under the Christmas tree.

“Right,” said Gabriel and then he indicated the Gorilla to help Nathalie to move the gifts inside.

“You know, you didn’t should have, but thank you,” said Sabine as she also grabbed all the gifts and made sure that everything was under the tree in order.

“Thank you Father,” said Adrien with a huge smile without letting Marinette’s hand go.

“I...” Gabriel sighed “I keep thinking on what the Dupain-Chengs said when they invited us...” That made Adrien smile even more. That had been a conversation that he wasn’t supposed to hear but he did and couldn't negate that some nice traditions are better with whole families or some very close friends. 

“Oh” was the only replied that he said happily.

And so, the Agrestes had a nice Christmas Eve, with the Dupain-Chengs. Marinette and Adrien couldn’t be more happy. Gabriel who had refused at the beginning to spend the celebrations with someone else, had changed his mind after meeting the family of the girl that had stolen his son’s heart, and who knows, maybe had softened even a tiny bit of his cold heart. The family had been cheerful even after he denied the invitation saying that their proposed activities were strictly to be just for family members and nobody else. 

What Adrien had heard that he shouldn’t have was the fact that the Dupain-Chengs had explained that family does not always mean blood, but closeness. That fact, after all the months that Gabriel had known the family was what had gotten him off guard. He is Hawk Moth and he was doing it for his family, but right now, he wasn’t so sure. Because who knew, maybe one day in a very far future, this always happy family - even when there were akumas attacking them or such things happened close by - would be his as well.   

The end :D :D ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: This was wrote before the episodes of Chat Blanc or Blanche and Felix air but after the finale of season 3. As it aired.

[ladylynse]

Part IV of Down the Rabbit Hole for the lovely @lumanae​, even though they’re currently drowning the Merlin fandom. *grins* Sometimes distractions are needed, right?

Wirt had heard a lot of stories about college, but somehow, he still wasn’t prepared for one of his roommate’s crazy friends to smuggle a hatchet into their dorm room.

(Previous) Also on FF and the AO3.

-|-

Wirt knew Danny wasn’t in the washroom, but he stepped inside and looked in every remotely feasible spot anyway, including the medicine cabinet that sat above the toilet which would be hard pressed to hold a small child.

He just…. He didn’t know what else to do. There wasn’t anywhere else to go. It’s not like Danny could have crawled out the tiny window, and he definitely hadn’t slipped past Wirt and out into the hallway. It was like he’d gotten sucked into the same black hole as most of Wirt’s socks, except obviously that didn’t exist, but—

Wirt pulled out his phone and started to type a message to Jazz, but how could he tell her he’d lost her brother? He certainly couldn’t explain it. He had no idea where Danny was. Or how he’d gotten there, wherever there was.

Wirt half-hoped Danny would text Jazz and Jazz would text him, but he never heard anything, and he couldn’t find the words to say anything about this to Jazz. He’d find Danny first. Then, if Danny hadn’t already told Jazz, he could pretend this had never happened.

He could get a proper explanation from Toby after he figured out what the heck had happened to Danny.

Wirt locked the room behind him and set off at a quick walk, looking around and weaving past anyone he saw without slowing. Danny couldn’t have gone that far. If he had somehow slipped past him—

Maybe this was a prank. Danny liked pranks. And Jazz had as good as warned him not to leave Danny by himself.

Except Danny was gone, disappearing as easily and completely as the ghosts he had apparently grown up surrounded by, and Wirt couldn’t see a sign of him anywhere.

He did, however, find Wendy.

Sitting cross-legged under a tree in the shade.

Apparently doing nothing except enjoying a cup of coffee.

Wirt slowed to a stop in front of her. “Hey,” he said, though he already had her attention since she was looking up at him with a smile. “Have you, um, seen Jazz’s brother anywhere?”

“Danny? Never met him.” Wendy rose to her feet in one smooth movement. Wirt rather envied her gracefulness; he certainly couldn’t do that, at least not in the shape he was in now. “Jazz has a psych exam today, though. You won’t see her till it’s over.”

“No, I…know that. She’s out now, anyway, but still busy.” Probably. Maybe Danny had texted Jazz to get her to text him, and she just hadn’t because she was catching up with some other friends of hers after the exam. She had to have other friends, right? They could have ambushed her right after she’d texted him and Danny. “What about Toby? Have you seen him?”

“Should I have?”

Wirt bit his lip. “I just saw him and Claire.”

“Claire’s visiting?”

So Wendy didn’t know either. Not that that meant much. Claire’s visit might’ve been unexpected. Or maybe Toby had told both of them and they’d been too busy to listen? He could believe that of himself more than so Wendy, who had a surprisingly good memory. At least compared to him, who was hard pressed to remember what he’d had for lunch the day before. Or what day of the week it was. Or what he’d been doing five seconds before, when things got really crazy.

Wirt just nodded. “Yeah. She came to help with costumes for Toby’s play. Do you know when it is?”

Wendy raised her eyebrows. “Since when was Toby in a play?”

“He’s in drama….” Wirt didn’t add isn’t he? but he was pretty sure Wendy knew it was there.

“Uh huh.” Wendy sounded like she didn’t believe it, but what other explanation was there? If it was cosplay, Wirt definitely wasn’t familiar with the source material, and he couldn’t think of what else it could be. No one went around in a getup like that just for the heck of it. And it’s not like Toby would think he needed to lie about making a cosplay for something. He already knew Wirt thought he was weird and didn’t judge him for it. He thought that was funny.

For that matter, so did Wendy and Jazz.

It was one of the reasons Wirt was so convinced they were involved in some giant conspiracy to troll him. Because they’d kill themselves laughing over it. They’d find it hilarious, and they knew he’d be laughing in the end, too. Assuming he got to the end of whatever this was.

And assuming he could find Danny.

Seriously, how he could have lost Danny?

Maybe he was in on all of this, too. Maybe—

“Earth to Wirt,” Wendy said, waving a hand in front of his face. “Did you hear me?”

“Um…no? Sorry.”

“I wanted to know if Toby’s talked to you yet.”

“About what?” It couldn’t be the play if Wendy hadn’t heard of it.

Wendy rolled her eyes. “Please tell me you’re just playing being clueless or you will die if we reach an apocalyptic situation.”

“Uh…pretend I was living under a rock and fill me in?”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Wendy muttered. Louder, “Something’s up. You know that, right?”

Was she finally admitting that they were playing a massive prank on him? Good. It had taken long enough. Wirt nodded, and Wendy relaxed. “Great. Then you’ll understand why I’m absolutely certain that Toby’s not actually in drama?”

Or not.

“Uh….”

“Seriously, this isn’t a game. College might not kill you, but there’s stuff out there that will if you’re not careful.”

The hatchet in his dorm room could technically kill him, but Wirt was pretty sure Wendy would just dismiss that if he brought it up. Or nag him about his nonexistent self-defence skills, since he hadn’t signed up for a class despite her not-so-subtle suggestions.

Wirt glanced around, but no one was close enough to overhear their conversation. That was probably Wendy’s plan. He met her eyes again, seeing no trace of a smile behind them. “You’re my friend,” she said, “and I don’t want to lose you.”

She might lose him as a friend if she kept on like this. He could only be expected to put up with so much, right? If she really believed this, maybe she needed to talk to someone. Someone who could actually help her. Which wouldn’t be him. He had zero training in that area. He’d think Jazz would be ideal if she weren’t encouraging this. Whatever this was.

“Okay, look,” Wirt said, trying to get a handle on this situation again, “if you want to be serious for a moment, why don’t you just tell me why you’re so wrapped up in all of this? Why you think I’m wrapped up in all of this?”

Anger and hurt flashed across Wendy’s face before she schooled her expression again, and Wirt knew she felt that was uncalled for. “Because I’m not stupid,” she said, her tone carefully even, “and because this isn’t my first rodeo. And because whatever you want to pretend, that Unknown of yours isn’t just a story. You wouldn’t care about all of this so much if it were, and I don’t need Jazz to tell me that.”

“You’re back on that again?”

Wendy frowned. “Fine. Keep pretending. But you can’t ignore the truth forever, Wirt. You have to know that. And even if you think it’s just to humour me, it’d be nice if you played along and prepared yourself for the day you can’t.” She pulled a small notepad out of her pocket and held it out. “Dipper transcribed some relevant spells. At least take a look at them before you throw it out.”

Wirt knew better than to ask if she was kidding. He pocketed the notepad without looking at it, and Wendy turned away without saying goodbye. He felt like a fool, but what was he supposed to do with that? If she was delusional, telling her the Unknown was real wasn’t going to help matters.

And if she wasn’t delusional….

He didn’t want to think about what it would mean if she wasn’t delusional.

He didn’t want to think that there might be more out there than what he’d faced in the Unknown, that that experience hadn’t been a fluke, that finding out Jazz had grown up hunting ghosts wasn’t going to be the strangest thing he discovered about his friends.

He didn’t want to lose the control he’d have if it turned out the Unknown was only a tiny piece in everything that was unknown.

And now he felt horrible for what he’d done to Wendy.

Sighing, Wirt pulled out his phone and dialled Toby’s number. If he could at least find out more about this play while he looked for Danny, it would prove that the world wasn’t going crazy.

XXXXXX

Toby didn’t answer.

Wirt actually walked into the drama building, poking his head into any room that didn’t have an ongoing class, and found nothing. He even tried looking around education, in case the rehearsals were in that building instead, and he couldn’t find so much as a poster advertising a play—or at least not one that would require fanciful armour.

Danny, of course, never turned up anywhere.

Wirt circled back and checked the food court, thinking Danny had probably found it and bought himself a snack, but no matter how he scanned the shifting crowd of people, he couldn’t convince himself that Danny was there.

Why hadn’t Jazz given him Danny’s number? That would have made finding him so much easier. He should have asked for it, but it hadn’t occurred to him that they’d get separated when he’d been asked to spend time with Danny.

Maybe this was just one of Danny’s practical jokes. Jazz had said he was a joker. Wirt couldn’t really think of any other way to explain his vanishing act.

Although, considering where he had disappeared from, Wirt wasn’t sure even being some kind of magician-in-training would explain Danny’s disappearance. It’s not like he happened to be in the one dorm room that had a secret passage hidden somewhere in the bathroom. There was no trick to it. And he couldn’t imagine how Danny had gotten past him, even though he must have.

Wirt couldn’t remember which building Jazz’s psych class was in, so he couldn’t see if Danny had gone to meet her there. Not that that would help him much, since Danny and Jazz would probably be long gone if they had met up, but he was getting desperate, and Jazz hadn’t texted him to ask why he’d ditched Danny—or whatever story Danny might’ve told her about what happened. He did check his dorm room one more time—in the vain hope that Danny would be hiding in there, maybe sitting on his bed with a big grin on his face, waiting for Wirt to come back and realize Danny had never left—and then went to Jazz’s. He rang the buzzer.

“Yes?”

Wendy. “Um, it’s me.”

“Danny’s not here, Wirt. Neither is Jazz. Do you still want to come up?”

“Uh, no, thanks.” He wasn’t ready to face her yet. He figured he’d read whatever Dipper counted as spells before talking to her again. Granted, knowing Wendy, she’d just do a phenomenal job of pretending the conversation had never happened, and he’d feel like even more of a fool.

“Good luck with the search, then.”

Now he really felt like an idiot. Wirt headed back to campus, not even sure where he should look next.

He walked through the food court again, standing on his tiptoes in the hopes of spying Danny among the shifting crowd of students, and eventually gave up. He checked his watch again, his stomach churning as he realized he’d been running around for over an hour. He should just phone Jazz and tell her to phone Danny and find out where he was. He could swing by and pick him up and then meet her. And then be done with this.

Of course, that would mean admitting he’d managed to lose her brother in the first place.

Hopefully, she’d just chalk this up to Danny’s love of practical jokes.

After more dithering, Wirt finally made the call. Jazz picked up on the second ring. “Hello?”

“Jazz, um, I’m calling instead of texting because this is kinda an emergency? I might’ve, uh, lost your brother, and I don’t—”

She let out a sigh. “Don’t worry about it, Wirt. I’ll text him my location and he’ll find me. He has a bad habit of disappearing sometimes. And if he pulled this on you…. We should really talk. Meet me at the library.”

She hung up without waiting for an answer, not clarifying which library, but that was fine, because Wirt knew exactly which one she meant. And he didn’t plan to blow her off after what he’d done. Should he be flattered her brother felt it appropriate to pull a disappearing act on him? Did he only do it with family friends? She’d sounded exasperated enough that it really couldn’t be uncommon, but….

Jazz was at her favourite table in the library when Wirt arrived, the one off in one corner and half-hidden behind the shelves to the point that was hard to find if you didn’t know it was there. He slid into the chair opposite her, and she frowned at him as her eyes flicked over him. “Do you remember everything that happened? Can you tell me?”

That was…an odd first question. But this was Jazz, and she asked weird questions. And if Wirt tried to figure out why, he’d somehow wind up in a deeper hole than whichever one he was going to dig for himself anyway, so he decided to just go with it. “Yeah? We were in my dorm room. Surprised Toby and Claire— Did you know that she was in town? Or that he’s in a play?”

“My question first, please.”

Wirt blinked. “Um, right. Well, we surprised them, I guess. Toby must’ve cut class because Claire was in town to help him with costuming, and then they went to show everyone else in the group. And then Danny, uh, said he had to use the bathroom, except he didn’t come back out, and when I finally checked it, it was empty.”

Jazz rolled her eyes. “Of course it was,” she muttered. “Because that’s not at all suspicious.”

“Um.” She thought it was suspicious, too? What did that mean? “I, uh, never saw him leave, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t sneak by me. I mean. He must’ve. Because he wasn’t in there. And it’s not like he could go anywhere else from the bathroom.”

Jazz just nodded. “Well, I didn’t know Claire was in town, or that Toby was claiming to be in a play, but I suppose I should’ve guessed it earlier.”

“That he’s secretly a drama nut and didn’t want any of us to know?”

“No. That he might be the one I need to worry about more than you.”

Wirt raised his eyebrows. He knew Jazz was a worrywart, but that was ridiculous. “Are you kidding? He’s at least passing Wendy’s weird apocalypse classes with flying colours.”

“Which is what should’ve been my first clue.”

“Clue to what?”

“That he’s involved in something.” The answer came from behind Wirt, and he jumped. He caught a fleeting look of Jazz’s thoroughly unsurprised face as he twisted to look at Danny. How long had he been standing there? “Jazz, uh, we should talk. Not here.”

“It might have to be here, Danny. Wirt’s Toby’s roommate.”

“Uh….” Chances were Danny was right and he didn’t actually need to be here for whatever the impending conversation was going to be. Chances were—

“Yeah, but does he even believe in ghosts?”

—it would just make him feel like the only sane person in the entire world. Which he knew was an exaggeration. It just felt like an appropriate exaggeration.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Wirt burst out. Seriously, was Danny as crazy as Jazz? Okay, he probably was, but still. This obsession with ghosts was weird, even considering their parents studied it. And it’s not like Toby was involved with drugs or something bad. It was just a drama club or something like that. Wirt was planning on going to see the play, whenever it was, once he got the date and time and place out of Toby. To support his roommate.

He was really thinking he shouldn’t ask Jazz to join him. Maybe not even Wendy.

“Shh. Library, remember?” Jazz said as Danny sat down next to Wirt.

“I hate this,” Wirt muttered. He didn’t mean it, but was it too much to ask to have a couple of normal friends? He had a few acquaintances from various classes, but no one he hung out with beyond Toby and Wendy and now Jazz.

…Greg was right. He really needed to get out more. He got stuck in his own little world too often to make friends easily, and he didn’t want to think what it said about him if the only people you were friends with tended to be remotely like-minded. Becoming friends with Toby had been inevitable, and it was through his association with Toby that he’d wound up friends with Wendy and Jazz—almost without realizing it.

Except that Wendy really hadn’t given him a choice in the matter.

And he was pretty sure he still counted it as friendship now even if their first few interactions had seemed more like he’d been coerced into it.

“That’s a no, isn’t it?” Danny asked, looking between Wirt and Jazz. He rolled his eyes and turned back to his sister. “Why do you, of all people, think this is a good idea? You were pretty much skeptic of the year when we were growing up until I, uh, until Phantom started showing up regularly.”

Jazz just crossed her arms and stared at her brother.

Wirt didn’t know what that meant, but obviously Danny did. “C’mon, Jazz. He’s not overshadowed. I checked. I don’t think he’s…involved.”

Involved? In what? And what did Danny mean by overshadowed? How the heck did he check for that, whatever it was? When did he check for that?

“And Toby?”

Jazz should not be treating this like a normal conversation. It was not a normal conversation.

Danny shook his head. “Not a ghost thing. The hammer, the armour, whatever it is. That’s…something else.”

“I’ll have to check with Wendy and see if she knows anything about it,” Jazz murmured. Wirt decided against telling her that Wendy also said she hadn’t known anything about a play. Mostly because he didn’t want her to phone and invite Wendy to this conversation when it would mean explaining everything to Jazz about how he’d acted and she’d psychoanalyze him or something. As if this weren’t bad enough.

“But the girl—Claire, I guess—has a staff. Not like Freakshow’s, so don’t panic, okay?”

Wirt didn’t want to ask. Well, he did, but he had a feeling he wouldn’t like the answer, so he thought it best to keep his mouth shut. Why would Danny panic about the prop Claire had been holding for Toby’s play? It was just a prop. And he didn’t even know them.

“I caught her using it. It makes portals, Jazz. Into or through the Ghost Zone. I didn’t follow them because I wasn’t sure I’d make it back and I still can’t do that, but….” Danny shrugged. “I could check with Frostbite and Clockwork. Frostbite might have heard of it. Clockwork would know, but he might not tell me.”

“Check with Dora, too, if Frostbite doesn’t know anything.”

Fine, now Wirt was tempted to ask. “What you mean by portals?” Jazz had told him about the Ghost Zone, but a staff that was capable of making portals to the afterlife or whatever didn’t make sense.

Of course, neither did the fact that an entire town had wound up there.

Wirt really wished that had been a joke newspaper, but—

“Doorways,” Danny said flatly. “Holes in the fabric of reality. Exactly what you’re picturing.”

He shouldn’t have asked.

“Um, why do you think the staff does that, exactly?”

Danny stared at him. “What part of ‘I caught her using it’ did you not understand? I saw it with my own eyes. She’s either skipping into the Ghost Zone whenever she wants—risking Walker’s wrath and whoever else’s—or she’s taking a shortcut through it somehow, like a condensed version of the Infi-Map that she can actually control.”

Okay, he was going to pretend this conversation wasn’t completely insane. “How do you know it’s connected to the Ghost Zone?”

He expected one of them to say something along the lines of ‘what other dimensions do you know?’ or something that would make it very clear that they figured the Ghost Zone was it. Instead, Danny said, “I just know.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“I can feel it, okay?”

He could—? “That’s even less of an answer!”

“No, it’s not, and keep your voice down. I am not about to be kicked out of my favourite library.” Wirt groaned but held his tongue as Jazz asked, “You’re sure it’s the staff and not something else?”

Danny nodded as if that were the most normal question in the world. “I don’t know how she got her hands on it, but yeah. If I can get some of Mom and Dad’s tech to Tuck, he might even be able to make something that’ll pick up on where she’s been using it. We could figure this out that way.”

Right. So now Danny and Jazz were completely convinced that Toby’s friend Claire was some dimension hopper. Like it was normal for people to jump through dimensions.

This definitely explained why all his friends kept bringing up the Unknown. They really didn’t think it was just a story. But he’d sound like an idiot if he changed his story now, right? He could at least wait until they brought it up again. He didn’t have to volunteer this information right away. Especially not when Jazz’s brother was around—because even if he would clearly believe it, he didn’t need to know everything.

“How did you get past me in the dorm?” Wirt asked.

For once, Danny looked uncomfortable. He rubbed the back of his neck and slouched. “I just sneaked out when you weren’t looking,” he mumbled.

“I was still standing in the hallway when you went into the bathroom,” Wirt said, “and then I went into the room and closed the door and you weren’t….”

“I’m…good at illusions?”

It wasn’t even a good lie.

“I ducked around you when you weren’t looking. I used to do it to Jazz all the time before she left for college. It’s not a big deal.”

Wirt expected Jazz to chime in with support, but she didn’t.

He swallowed and looked at her. “The truth’s gonna sound like a story, isn’t it?”

“A story for another time,” she said by way of agreement.

He would’ve preferred silence. What the heck was really going on here? What was Toby involved in? What was Danny not saying? If the Ghost Zone and the Unknown were somehow connected, and he definitely didn’t know if they were, and if Claire and Toby could access it, why would they need armour? The Unknown might’ve had one room schoolhouses and paddle steamers and stuff, but it wasn’t so far off their own time that anyone required medieval armour.

Not that Wirt actually knew if it was supposed to be medieval armour.

Not that he was completely abandoning the idea that Toby was really in a play, either. Because he certainly could be. That would make so much more sense than all of this. He couldn’t believe he was going along with this. He shouldn’t be. And yet even Wendy had said—

Something’s up. You know that, right? This isn’t a game.

You can’t ignore the truth forever.

“I don’t know if Wendy knows anything about Toby and Claire,” Wirt said slowly, “but she definitely knows something.”

This time, Jazz read something in Danny’s expression that Wirt missed and shook her head. “She’s not overshadowed. I’m confident in that much or I would’ve had you check her out, too.”

Wait.

Wirt pointed at Danny. “Is that why you wanted me to babysit him?”

“You weren’t babysitting,” Jazz said at the same time Danny exclaimed, “I don’t need a babysitter!”

“So you’re not denying that the entire reason you wanted me to hang out with him all day was so he could check me out for whatever this overshadowing thing is?”

“Wirt—”

“What did you even do?”

“Library,” Jazz hissed, and Wirt rolled his eyes.

“Just tell me the truth! Then I’ll be quiet.”

“You want the truth?” Danny asked. “When you aren’t even telling them the truth?”

“Seriously? Is there anyone you haven’t told about that stupid assignment?”

Jazz narrowed her eyes. “Yet you’re the one who keeps mentioning it, Wirt. Not me.”

Right. He’d walked into that, hadn’t he? Fine. “You want to pretend it’s not just an assignment? Then let’s pretend it’s not just assignment. Let’s pretend it’s real. I went to the Unknown with my brother. It’s another dimension. I faced demons and made friends and nearly died trying to get home. Your turn.”

Jazz’s expression didn’t change. Danny looked around, maybe to see if anyone was looking their way after his earlier outburst. Jazz’s favourite little nook was fairly secluded, but there were tables nearby, equally as hidden, and the seclusion was more artificial than anything else. Still, apparently they hadn’t disturbed anyone, since Danny was grinning when he faced Wirt again. “I’m the tragic victim of a lab accident,” he said. “Safety wasn’t exactly our parents’ highest priority, but like I said, it was an accident.”

Wirt raised his eyebrows. “So?”

“So that’s how I got past you earlier. And that’s how come I know you’re not overshadowed. And that Claire’s staff has ties to the Ghost Zone.”

Wirt glanced at Jazz, but her face betrayed nothing. Danny was a lot easier to read. He was having fun with this. There was a definite note of sarcasm in his tone. But he also looked perfectly sincere, even though Wirt had no idea how a lab accident was supposed to explain all that. “So you, what, burned yourself on a Bunsen burner? Accidentally smashed a couple of test tubes of chemicals and stepped on the glass? And that made you the annoying prankster you clearly are?” He could think of several more choice words to call Jazz’s brother, but it was safer to stick with Jazz’s words. If Toby really was wrapped up in something, Wirt didn’t intend to burn all his bridges before he could help his friend.

Jazz snorted.

Danny’s grin widened. “Not exactly,” he said.

And then he disappeared.

He just…disappeared.

Wirt was staring at him, and then he was just gone. He didn’t move. There was no distraction to catch Wirt’s attention while he ducked under the table or hid somewhere in the stacks. He was just there. And then he wasn’t. And this was a bloody library; it didn’t have mirrors or whatever else would’ve been needed to make an illusion. And Danny had pulled out the chair to sit down, so it wasn’t some kind of high-tech hologram, and—

“I’ll call Wendy,” Jazz said, “and warn her that we’re going to reconvene at our place. You can think of exactly what you’re going to say as we walk over.”

-|-

(see more fics | next)

[ymnfilter]

He Found A Love [Klaine FF, One-Sided Sam/Kurt]

Summary: 

Set somewhere between Born This Way and Rumors. Sam is jealous that Kurt doesn't have a crush on him anymore and is in a relationship with klaine.

Sam had first noticed Kurt when he first entered the Glee Choir Room. It's not surprising. Kurt demands attention. Not in a way Rachel does, with her loud voice and questionable actions. Kurt demands attention silently. As if he knows all he'll have to do is exist and everyone will always just look at him. He dresses like he wants to impress the world, acts like royalty even when he thinks no one is looking at him. During the weeks Sam has spent in the school, he has never once seen Kurt Hummel's facade slip.

But back to the point, Sam noticed Kurt when he first performed in the choir room. Mostly because Kurt had been staring at him quite intently. But Sam hadn't known then, hadn't really thought much about the other boy's glasz eyes, paper-delicate skin, or pretty features. He had just turned his head slightly more to the left and found himself mesmerized with Quinn instead.

It was easier to pin his affections on her. Because Quinn was a her.

He should've known it wouldn't last, though. He spent most of his time, that wasn't being spent chasing Quinn, looking for Kurt, or staring at Kurt, or wanting to talk to Kurt. Kurt had one of the softest voices he had ever heard. At the same time, he also had the coldest tone. He could tear you to pieces just with a few words and then heal you back to health with even less.

And Sam soaked in the attention Kurt gave him. It might be slightly childish but Sam liked that Kurt liked him even if he was going out with Quinn. He was on the football team, had the head cheerleader as his girlfriend, and had the (beautiful) resident gay kid in love with him. It was like he was living in a teen rom-com.

Nothing could go wrong.

But then, well. Then Blaine happened.

Suddenly there was another boy for Kurt to dump his affections onto. And he seemed to like this Blaine kid even more than he liked Sam. He was positively smitten, and while the rest of the glee club might find it cute, all Sam could do was find it irritating.

Because now Sam couldn't look for Kurt and find him looking back at him. Now whenever Sam looked at Kurt, it was to find the other boy grinning at his phone.

He couldn't talk to Kurt without realizing that the softness of his voice was gone. The gentle tone of his voice was reserved for quiet phone calls to his boyfriend in front of his locker in the middle of hallways. Or the parking lot, or sometimes even the choir room.

Sam hated it, but he could tolerate it. And it was fine, because even when Kurt texted Blaine between classes, he had to look up from his phone at some point and look at Sam instead. And just because Kurt wouldn't talk softly to him anymore, doesn't mean Sam couldn't make him laugh with his mad impression skillz.

Yes. Skillz with a 'z'.

But then Finn invited everyone over for game night, and Sam had all this excitement contained in him. Excitement for some undivided time with Kurt (and the rest of the boys, but at least not Blaine) excitement for getting to talk to Kurt. Maybe if he made Kurt laugh enough, Kurt will start using the soft voice with him again. Sam was really just very excited.

And then all his excitement turned to shit when he rang the doorbell to the Hudson-hummel household and a completely unfamiliar boy opened the door.

Sam had never seen him before, but he knew who he was. And he hated him for it.

"Who're you?" Puck asked from behind him, and the boy smiled, all straight white teeth and crinkled laugh lines. He looked like a fucking showman. Sam hated him more.

"I'm Blaine. Kurt's boyfriend."

"Ah. You're the boy my boy is smitten with. I'm Puck. This is Sam, and this is Mike." Puck made the introductions as Blaine opened the door wider to let everyone in.

"It's nice to meet you all. Kurt talk about you. I hope you don't mind Finn inviting me for game night too."

Finn invited him? Finn? Sam felt betrayed. With the way Finn always rolled his eyes whenever Kurt brought Blaine up in conversation, Sam was sure Finn hated the guy. And now he's inviting him to sacred game nights?

"Nah man, the more the merrier." Mike said with a smile, and Sam wanted to gasp dramatically in outrage.

"But the real question is, are you any good?" Puck asked with a smirk.

"I board an all boys private school. Trust me when I say that before Kurt, video games were the only way I could spend my nights and stay sane."

Sam bristled. Before Kurt? How did he spend his nights now then?

Sam was about to open his mouth and say something that was no doubt offensive. Maybe something about the guy's crazy curly hair, or how no matter how dapper he looked or acted, it still wouldn't change that he was still at least half a foot shorter than Sam.

Thankfully, they reached the living room by then, and Sam's attention was completely directed towards Kurt, who was sprawled across the small love seat, his head on the cushion and legs dangling from the arm of the chair. Those beautiful eyes looked up from where he was reading some girly magazine and smiled at Sam (and the rest of the guys, but really at Sam.)

"Hey, Kurt." Sam said and casually took a seat at the front of the sofa closest to the one Kurt occupied. Hah. He inwardly cheered, where you going to sit now, Blainey boy?

"Hey Sam." he said and smiled and Sam preened. Kurt turned to the others, "Hey, you guys."

Sam was still smirking silently as the others answered the greeting, but it dropped pretty fast when he saw Blaine making his way to the love seat Kurt was laying on. There was no space. Where was he going to sit? On Kurt's stomach? But then, Kurt silently raised his upper body up a bit, and Blaine sat on the space cleared, only for Kurt to drop his head on Blaine's lap the next second.

No.

Sam looked around, no body was looking at the two of them. Why wasn't anyone looking at the two of them? Mike just put on the Call of Duty 3 CD of the play station and Finn casually passed the controllers to everyone, including Blaine.

Why wasn't anybody going to say anything about those two essentially cuddling with each other on sacred game night?

"Dude, where's your mom? I thought you said she had a day off?" Sam said after a while. It was to mostly serve as a distraction whilst he tried to shoot at Blaine as subtly as possible. Sure, it wouldn't be good for their team (Blaine was a good player, for someone who's gay) but it was the only thing Sam could do not to snatch Kurt's hand where it was lightly caressing the back of Blaine's neck.

But then again, maybe if Kurt's dad and Finn's mom were home, they wouldn't let their son and his boyfriend act so couple-y and cozy in the middle of the living room.

"She and Burt went grocery shopping. They should be back in a bit."

From where he was sprawled on the couch, Kurt pouted,

"I really wanted to go too. I heard there's a sale on sea food this week."

"Dude, you always grab stuff that no body's even heard of before. And you won't let Burt get the good beer." Finn said as an explanation.

"That's because I would really like my dad to hit his 90s." Kurt snapped back, and before Sam could say anything to back Kurt up, Blaine piped up,

"Maybe they just wanted to spend some alone time together. It is the weekend."

"Grocery shopping? They wanted to spend some alone time together grocery shopping, Blaine?" and Sam snickered. Mike looked at him weirdly for a moment but Sam payed him no mind.

"Hey, come on. You love getting groceries with me."

Kurt was silent for a moment, and Sam's heart dropped, because when Kurt spoke next, it was a whole new level of soft voice.

"Well yeah, but it's shopping with you." Blaine looked away from the screen to grin at Kurt, and on screen his avatar died. Sam killed him. No body noticed.

"I rest my case." Blaine mumbled, and Sam cursed himself for sitting so close, because from this distance, he could hear the awe in Blaine's voice. He could also hear a soft, pleased , almost silent hmm that Kurt let out as a response.

"Hey Kurt, how's the French homework going?" Sam blurted out the first thing that came out of his mouth. And it was a very reasonable thing to ask, in his opinion. After all, everybody knew French was Kurt's favorite subject in school, a school that he didn't share with Blaine. Sam couldn't have thought of a better conversation topic to freeze Blaine out. But it back fired. Again. Because of course it did.

"You don't take French, Sam?" Kurt asked him with an adorable head tilt. Sam's mind went into overdrive,

"Yeah, but my friend, Brett does. He told me that your teacher was kind of really dragging you all through the mud this week."

Kurt scoffed,

"Brett? You mean that boy that smells homeless? I would hardly expect him to enjoy a language as sophisticated as French. I have no idea why he's taking it if he finds even the basic tenses difficult."

Sam didn't know what to say to that, but apparently Blaine did,

"You guys are still on tenses? In your junior year?"

"The rest of the year is. I myself, am already quite fluent. But, I really wouldn't mind someone I could practice it with. I can only talk to myself so much in French."

"You do know that you have a boyfriend who's also fluent in French?" Blaine teased him, glancing at Kurt for a moment before going back to looking at the TV screen,

"You wouldn't mind doing that for me?"

"Of course not. I'll just hit you up whenever I'm studying it, and we can practice together."

How does Sam manage to kick himself so thoroughly?

Before Sam can say something that would inadvertently end up with Blaine and Kurt spending even more time together, he hears the lock of the main door turn, and Mrs.H's voice calling out a sweet we're home! to the boys. Blaine deliberately dies onscreen and both him and Kurt get up to help Mrs. H and Kurt's dad with all the bags. Sam feels like he should help to, but it's probably like his 2nd time at the Hudmel's , and he is predominantly Finn's friend (who himself is still playing) even though he'd much rather be here as Kurt's boyfriend, so the whole thing would probably just be super awkward,

"Oh, Blaine dear, I didn't know you were coming over today! I would've made some of that custard you like so much."

"I hope it's no trouble, Carol. Finn invited me to game night. Plus, dad's off to Costa Rico on business." Blaine grins, "As for the custard, I was hoping you could teach me. Just in case I start showing withdrawal symptoms."

Carol laughs, "Oh honey, if I taught you how to make the custard, I'm afraid we might just not see you again."

"Yes." Kurt drawls, good naturedly, "That's why Blaine's my boyfriend. Because of custard."

"Darn it, you figured me out." Blaine retorts, but pulls Kurt closer to press his lips to the other boy's temple.

"My, aren't you too just the cutest!" Carol sighs and turns to Kurt's father just as he's coming in through the garage, "Aren't they just the cutest, sweetie?"

"Yes. That's how I'm going to end up in the hospital again. Diabetes from my son's relationship." Burt grunts before turning to Blaine with a grin, "Hey, kiddo. Didja watch the game yesterday?"

"Hell yeah. Buckeyes won 25-11. It was awesome."

"Yer damn right, it was. You staying over for dinner?"

Blaine smiles cheekily, "If you don't mind."

"Of course not, we haven't seen you in a bit over a week."

"Yeah, school's been a bit rough. Mid terms are coming up."

And the conversation continues between the four members as they put away all the grocery. They sound like a regular family, with Blaine blending seamlessly with his boyfriend's parents. It's all Sam can do to not groan out loud. If Mr. And Mrs Hummel are so supportive of Blaine and Blaine and Kurt's relationship, Sam can't really see any way to break them up so that Kurt would pay attention to him again.

It's a childish thought anyway. Sam thinks. It's not like he wants to date Kurt anyway. Sam's straight. He is. It's just, attention and hero worship directed towards him is good for his self esteem, regardless of the gender of his admirer.

And Sam admires Kurt, Kurt is beautiful and strong and elegant to the point where it's almost regal. To have someone like that admire Sam had gone to his head way too fast.

And yeah, maybe watching Blaine and Kurt together hurts Sam's stomach a little. But he's pretty sure he'll get over it eventually. Maybe he'll skip some of the Hudmel house game nights from now on. It'll be a step in the right direction.

[thebrownssociety]

Toons Headcanons 2

1. Toons don’t age. This is a known fact however because they don’t age they can be a bit up and down in how they act on a day to day basis. For example a toon can be created to be about thirty, but due to being younger/older than that age at any given point they won’t nessesarily ACT like they’re thirty when off set.

2. The above is partly why the founding fathers (And Walt Disney for Mickey) had such a big impact on them. They basically brought them up. (Or dragged them up as some of the FF’s liked to joke)

3. The House of Mouse does exist and boy is it way bigger than you’d ever believe from watching the shows. As well as ‘The Cartoon Room’ there’s a ‘Party Room’ where the toons can dance and a Bar Room (You heard that right) which actually serves proper alchohol and everything. The Bar Room is the smallest and only over 21’s (decided from date of creation, not physical look) are allowed in.

4. The House of Mouse is not exclusivly for Disney charecters. It’s not unusual to find the Looney Tunes charecters in their as well. The Hanna-Babera charecters tend to stay away - with the exception of Tom, who sometimes gets dragged in by Sylvester.

5. Talking of Tom and Sylvester they are great friends, and Tom is an honurary uncle to Junior. They met at a Toon-Only bar back in the late fortys and pretty much hit it off straight away.

6. Jerry and Tweety don’t get on as well, and it’s nothing to do with the fact they arn’t the same species. Jerry dislikes Tweety’s voice and ‘sweet act’. Tweety knows this and hates him back on principle.

7. The first ‘inter-lot’ party the toons had took place at Bugs house. It was during the early 50’s and came about after Bugs - after an argument with one of his directers - sent a letter to Mickey asking him, and whichever friends he chose to come to his house for some ‘light refreshments’.

8. (Continuation of 7) When Bugs sent the invitation he wasn’t actually expecting Mickey to turn up on his doorstep on the correct date at the correct time. Let alone with Minnie, Donald and Goofy in tow. He quickly pulled himself together invited them in and then had to start a mad rush through the cuboards for some ‘light refreshments’ before procceding to phone Daffy, Porky and Sylvester and beg them all to come round so it wasn’t totally awquad. Thankfully they all came and everyone had a really nice time - even if it was a little weird at times - and thus a beautiful friendship was born.

9. Mickey and Bugs have never actually gone sky-diving before. That was just a way for them to work within the bounds of their contracts for Who Framed Rodger Rabbit. They have however does loads of other stuff like go bowling, play golf, go camping (by both accounts that was quite an experince). They’ve done absailing, canoeing, obstacle courses - both inside and outside - and in short just done loads of stuff together. Sky-diving however - either indoors or outdoors - is not one of them.

10. Donalds speech impeciment isn’t as bad as it’s made out to be. Don’t get me wrong, it definetly exists and it’s definetly noticible, but as long as Donald puts a bit of effort into speaking and doesn’t rant he can be understood by people who arn’t Daisy, his nephews, Mickey or Goofy. (And yes Mickey can understand him - that gag was developed purely for comedic effect and has no basis in reality)

[onepunchmiss]

OPM s2e6 Live Blog

“The Monster Uprising”

Sorry this is later than usual. I’ve been having some personal issues lately that have been rather time consuming. But anyway yall ain’t here for that! So let’s get on with the episode. As always, I’m watching from the perspective of someone who has read both the manga and web comic

Once again, picking up right where we left off! Suiryu finally makes his fighting debut. He’s been introduced like what, 3 episodes ago? But honestly idgaf about him nearly as much as

MAX MY BOI I KNOW HOW THIS ENDS FOR YOU BUT I’M ROUTING FOR YOU ANYWAY. Oh god I gotta say, I forgot Suirya has a couple nightmare faces yikes. Also, I love how the Sea King keeps having an impact on heroes so long after his defeat. First Prisoner during the alien invasion, then Max and I know in just a bit Snek too. What a villain. Jeez, the mildly ominous music really isn’t subtle about making Suiryu out to be antagonistic, yeah? Also, this is the most we’ve heard him talk so far- Suiryu’s voice is exactly what I imagined I love it. MAX NO ITS OK I LOVE YOU ANYWAY AND SUIRYU IS A DICK ITS FINE YOU DID GREAT

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh this is the sixth episode this season and i STILL pause every time Zombieman is in the intro. Even his tiny silhouette at the end. just

NGAH BEST ONE YET MY BBY GIRL

Ok ok back to the action. Genos makes a good point and I wonder that, too. Saitama broke his limiter through sheer willpower right, like thats crazy but also not THAT crazy. Is he REALLY the only person EVER to have done that thus far (aside from probably blast)? Thankfully no monster ever has otherwise we’d surely know about it. Is Saitama really just THAT insane? Its not even like he had an extreme desire his whole life, he just beat some crab guy and snapped one day? OH OH GENO’S PHONE OS RINGING MONSTERS! MONSTER! MO N S T ER S ! aw wait no go to the monsters hey

OH WAIT NEVERMIND THIS IS OK SNEK SNEK S N E K OK I actually really like him?? He’s like they show’s resident butt-monkey but also just a good guy.

OH HEY THAATS DIFFERENT!?!? Wow ok so in the manga, it just happened by chance that the cheering in the stadium was so loud that no one heard the monster evacuation alarms, but here they’re setting up Bakuzan preemptively as an asshole who actively disregarded the alarm and everyone’s safety (although he kinda has a point?). Because the way he acts later on is clearly not evil enough already? I feel like that’s unnecessary but it doesn’t add or detract from anything really so whatever I guess?

FUCKIN KEK DAVE. Top tier humor ffs the random mundane name joke will never get old fite me ooh Oh good god OK Choze’s face is also terrifying oh no. Dude you don’t need a monster cell you ALREADY LOOK LIKE ONE but OK

YASSS GENOS SLAY YAAASSSSS He finally wins a few rounds WITHOUT losing any limbs! IM JUST! SO EXCITED TO SEE HIM FIGHTING YASSS WAIT NO GO BACK HEKK so much jumping around is making this more difficult to maintain any semblance of coherency asdfghjk

HAH you know what? When I was rereading the manga and came across face ripper, I thought to myself he looks like he would be some tan/ olive/ pale purple color or something so I bet the anime will be like HAHA RED BITCH. and looky here. I’m catching on finally. hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Genos my boy my son you are such a bad ass and I love you hhhhhhhhhhhhhh HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AAAAAAAAAAA AWAKENED COCKROACH AWAKENED COCKROACH ALREADY FUCK THIS EPISODE IS HAPPENING FASTER THAN I ANTICIPATED HECK HECK THERE GOES MY HEART RATE I THOUGHT I WAS PREPARED ALAS I AM BUT A FO O L

HAH I think this is anime-only too?? I dont remember it Why is this so funny what the fuck?? “Dark Hell Killing” Juijitsu omg calm down you absolute edgelord literally half of that name would have been sufficient.

FFFFFFFFFF The slowly building intense music just cut off like- I was so distracted by Bakuzam’s freaky murder face i forgot this happened DAMNIT SAITAMA i NEED my LUNGS to BREATH but no i LAFF and then the silence in the stadium turns to TRIUMPHANT MUSIC as if that was some valiant victory and THAT SOUR FACE FACE FUCK IM DEAD ITS TOO GOOD IM DEAD

Aw Tareo Sweetheart its ok noooooo also side note don’t they also mention Metal Bat is hospitalized? Hey! HEY! TALK ABOUT MY OTHER SON WE DONT EVEN SEE HIM FOREVER HEY oh oh I spoke too soon my b my b

Well shit it’s Shiny vs Shiny jeezus. I don’t have a particular issue with the coloring of Genos’ arms and such but this is just very noticable- Roach could’ve done without the SHINE. Eyyyy a complimentary Sonic for all yall SOS fans out there HAH “No matter it’s still fatal” r u sure about that child r u sure

AAHHH THE WIFE AGAINNNN yo I have A Lot Of Thoughts ™ about the females in OPM that I think I’ll make a separate post about because of the inevitable backlash of Super-S’ design.

OH FUCK COOL SHOT COOL COOL OH FUCK THAT WAS COOL TOO OUT OF NO WHERE hey wait was that supposed to be the Hell Storm attack? WHAT REALLY. AW MAN I was getting hyped about how that would look cmon

Super-S with messed up hair is perfection just saying

Also, Tatsumaki is the definition of Yandere and its terrifying jeez.

Terrifying, but also this. HEK

Aw snekm nooooo I BELIEVE IN YOU OK HES A DICK DONT LISTEN TO HIM YOU JUST WAIT A FEW EPISODES SWEETHEART THEN YOULL SEE

Oh weird dude seeing the Madhouse animation in the middle of season 2 is weird  not jarring which is good because at least to me that means JC staff is keeping up well enough but still weirdddd

“Everything about you disgusts me” me too snek DONT LISTEN TO HIM HES A DICK

((((((((((((((((((((ew amai mask go away)))))))))))))))))))))

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I SCREAM FOR THE FIRST TIME OUT LOUD I WAS HONESTLY DOUBTING HED BE SHOWN CAUSE THEY SKIPPED SOME OTHER MONSTERS BEFORE BUT THERE HE IS NYAN NYANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

OOF OUCH I FELT THAT KICK THE IMPACT IN MY BONES

ok post credits scene i have an idea of what it might be and I’m shaking in my seat but hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

HECK HECK HECK HECK HECK HECK HECK HECK HECK HECK HECK HECK HECK HECK HECK HECK HECK HECK HECK

yoooooooooooooooooooooo I WAS NOT IMAGINING GYOROS VOICE LIKE THAT HONESTLY I WAS READING IN ALL IN URSULA’S VOICE LIKE FROM THE LITTLE MERMAID BUT OK THIS IS GOOD OH FUCK GOUKETSU OH HECK OK HEY AT LEAST HES NOT RAINBOW COLORED BUT HECK OH GENOS NO

OH HEY BITCH YOU DIDNT DO SHIT AGAINST METAL BAT YOU GOT LUCKY HE DOESNT COUNT

THERE IS LITERALLY NO AVOIDING IT NOW NEXT WEEK CHILD EMPEROR MY DEAR AND DRIVE KNIGHT AT THE VERY LEAST LIKE THIS IS LITERALLY CONFIRMED AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Good Episode GOOD EPISODE OK so my least favorite thing easily was the cop-out on Fubuki’s Hell Storm attack but otherwise my favorite thing was??? I dont know?? Like this episode was a lot of build up for next week’s episode but also so much happened anyway?? I loved seeing Genos in action and also BDSM Wife AND OROCHI AND GYORO and also also I know a lot of people have an issue with the existence of the tournament thing in general but I don’t mind it because its hilarious honestly and all of the happenings otherwise feel well balanced enough sooooooooo yeah I’m SO PUMPED for next week like bring me THE S CLASS BRING ME BRING 

[neshabeingchildish]

Hello Stranger Part 3

At this point, I don't even feel like redoing the final authors notes. Thank y'all all. Edit: So, okay... I’m feeling better, so lemme say that I am trying out deadlines and discipline for ff WIPs. This one I planned as a three parter. So, hopefully you like the conclusion.

Hello Stranger Part 3

Henry had woke up on the couch with a start! He had been transported into the past while he slept, and was right at that moment where he let Charlotte walk out of his life. That day he didn't know he wouldn't see her for 10 years. Now that he did, every time she walked away was a nightmare. He checked his phone. He'd only gotten about 2 hours of sleep. But he still got up and headed straight to the florist shop.

Making floral arrangements gave him some peace of mind. The decision to open a real store occupy his time and set appointments for people had been one of his best ideas. Most people ordered online anyway. And it was nothing to hire a few people to just man the shop, for when he couldn't be there because of his real work as Captain Danger.

None of the staff knew of his lifestyle, nor did they have access to the Man Caves. Schwoz reprogrammed the elevator to be code activated, and they replaced a few of the damaged caves with other burrows that Henry needed. His gym, his spa, a man cave for Schwoz, one for Jasper, and Ray's retirement home… which was currently the active Man Cave, because he didn't have friends or plans but didn't want to work as Captain Man anymore.

Henry's biggest concern about Ray retiring was that he didn't want Ray to "Jason Todd" him. "If you want to relinquish Captain Man, I take up the mantle-hood for sure and for good. Schwoz works for the Man Cave, meaning me and you can't have the right or even the ability to take anything over from me." Ray had agreed to that, only because he assumed Henry would be lax about it.

Sometimes he would try to threaten Schwoz to get something his way, but Henry had given Schwoz the option to escape Ray's threats by grounding him in the Man Cave until he calmed down. The first time was a doozy. The fight that Ray and Henry had when he came to see if he'd cooled off was their biggest yet. At the end of the conversation, Henry clarified, "As long as I'm in charge of the Man Cave, you don't get to attack, threaten or violate Schwoz or Jasper. They work for me and it is a hostile work environment that I won't allow on my watch. If you can't deal with that, Schwoz will bring Halley back to babysit you, if need be." He had his tough dad voice that he sometimes had to use with his own dad and when Ray stormed to his retirement cave, he locked him out of the Man Cave for a while,just in case.

But, seeing Charlotte and recalling their argument, his words, and recollection of examples of her truth over the years… he had to make it right. He built her a bouquet and sent it to where the search engine told him her office was. The high point of his day,nope.. his decade, was seeing the reaction she posted and all of the replies.

Followers trying to guess who the mystery man was. All the heart eyes and jealous drooling. The compliments on the bouquet itself because he appreciated respect for his craftsmanship.

.

Taking things slow, Charlotte soon realized meant that Henry needed them to work at his pace. Not necessarily slow in general, but he seemed more at ease whenever he could make the first move. She could handle that. She didn't like to chase anyway, so that was preferred to her.

They were spending time together, going on dates, talking about themselves and their worlds, and not dwelling on the fight and forgiveness between them - just the future. They were helping Jasper with wedding plans, both silently thinking and wondering what their own might look like if that was ever an option. Charlotte absolutely lived for Jasper's engagement ring and whenever they went to help him pick out Don's wedding ring, she couldn't help but notice Henry looking at various other ones. So, just for laughs, she said, "Be sure to consider that it's either an ethically sourced diamond, if not just crystals, something that says she's sift and dainty, but also don't get it twisted, she's a god-damned boss."

Henry blushed and giggled, "I don't even know what that means but I'll repeat it for the vendor if I'm ever in the market. I'm more of a 4 c's, reputable jeweler with genuine care for the buyer… I feel like just like with food or with flowers, the gift of a ring has to have all of the steps outlined in love. Like… I agree with ethically sourcing, and raise you ethically selecting. The jeweler needs to help the fiance find the perfect ring for their spouse,to feel that energy in that little piece of jewelry. But also, the jewelry has to consent. She has to call you and let you know that she's willing to be that symbol for the rest of her existence…" He looked at a particular ring whenever he said that. Charlotte definitely peeped it. It was perfect. It was probably the most visible representation of her desire for a ring that she had ever seen.

Whenever Henry caught her staring at it with him, he noted the expression in her eyes. She blinked it away and smiled, saying, "Well, Henry Hart, you and some ring are going to make some person… to be honest, if anybody proposed to me having said some stuff like that, they'd better have the entire ceremony in their pocket because how do you not just marry them on the spot?" He laughed.

Jasper fussed from across the store, "I really am happy that you found love, and I'ma let you finish, but I'M the one trying to buy a ring right now!"

Both friends blushed and, and bumbled over their words, and got back to business. Henry gestured to the jeweler at the ring when Charlotte was devoting her visible attention to Jasper. He didn't know when or if he'd ever actually use it, but seeing that look in her eyes, he certainly couldn't just leave it behind… not that he was letting either of his friends see him take it today. There were so many conversations and milestones before… he could even fathom breaching that subject.

Months passed of something that he couldn't put into words. Charlotte gave him the space and speed he needed all of the time and didn't seem pressed about it. They were going to be each other's dates to the wedding, even though they were both actually in the wedding as part of Jasper's wedding party, and he was simply floating on air lately.

Three months into their relationship, he was finally ready to be sexual with her. He'd explained the first time that they got physically intimate that he "didn't really get around to gaining any experience." It took quick work for her not to facially respond to Henry admitting to her that he was not only a virgin but sort of a prude. "I just couldn't for a long time, then after a while, it was pretty embarrassing and I've never met anybody or gotten close to anybody that I could be vulnerable enough to admit this to. I hope you don't think I'm as much of a loser as I feel right now."

She collected him and strummed his face, "There's no reason for either of us to feel like you're a loser. So you haven't had sex yet. So what? There's plenty of people who haven't for various reasons and all of them are valid. The reasons and the people."

The months of kissing, cuddling, and watching Henry figure out what he liked and loved and wanted was really satisfying for her. She had forgotten what it was like to have longer journeys than a fling and sometimes forgotten how it felt to feel something for the person that she was physically connecting with. Besides that, by the time he was ready for her, she was working with a combination of 10 years of him longing, 28 years of him waiting, and the 15 years of hero physical training and working that had his body magnificent to her. Plus, she was super in love with him at that point. It was hands down the best she had ever had and as they grew, it just kept getting better.

For him, it was the fulfillment of everything that he had waited for. Charlotte was always careful not to make him feel upset or unsure. She didn't make him feel inadequate. She was clear and concise about what she could do for and to him, always making certain that he was comfortable and consenting. It was way more beautiful than he thought his first time would be. He expected her to look annoyed when he fumbled or chuckle uncontrollably when he asked what he felt like were stupid questions. She was the perfect partner though - equal portions companion and friend.

It was like he'd been living in a bubble. It was like he forgot that real life had a way of bursting bubbles. It was like he forgot that just because Ray wasn't around her, Ray didn't exist on the same plane. He had definitely forgotten that Ray had agreed to give Jasper away…

.

From the moment that he and Charlotte came into contact, Ray was pretty much at her neck. The thing about it was that they hadn’t seen each other in 10 years and the last time that he’d done this to him, she had told him about himself and didn’t take it back nor regret it a single moment. So, on this day, she certainly wasn’t going to have any of his shit.

“Ah, if it isn’t world renown problem solver Charlotte. Are you here to make sure nobody has any fun at Jasper’s wedding?”

Henry sighed threw his head back. Why hadn’t he considered that Charlotte and Ray would have bad blood.

“Oh, look - Ray Manbabychester. Riding fifty and still going on fifteen,” she commented right back. He fumed and she smiled and added, “Great to see you, Old Man.”

“I don’t look a day over 35,” he said, and while he did still look pretty good for his age, she couldn’t resist.

“Maybe not, but you don’t act a day over 5. Moving on to rehearsal, because we do want this to go on schedule, right Jasper?” Jasper fought off laughter as he nodded. For the rest of the rehearsal, Ray and Charlotte had it out. He’d try to get under her skin and she’d redirect him to what he could kiss. By the end of it, she announced to everyone, “Okay. People that we all claim to love are getting married on tomorrow. Hundreds of thousands of dollars, hundreds of hours, and immeasurable dedication has been given to this event. If I am the fun police, I’ll be that, because I’ll be damned, if anyone,” she looked directly at Ray, “jeopardizes Jasper’s special day.”

“Bridesmaid of Buzzkill, everyone!” Ray cheered.

“That doesn’t even make sense, you MASSIVE idiot!” she fussed, finally losing her cool. “I can’t believe that you’re still exactly the same as you always were...” Her voice was high pitched and screeching and she was honestly ready to sock him in the face, now thinking about the fact that he was pretty much the reason that she and Henry hadn’t spoken in as long as they hadn’t and she knew that even though Henry never said it that he probably spent that time bad mouthing her, just like he was currently doing. And now that she was thinking about it, she was a little bit mad that Henry hadn’t defended her today, not once and was getting ready to drag his ass for that too, as soon as she got him alone, but he injected himself into her fussing at Ray.

“Dude, you’ve been on her all day, and everybody is exhausted with it. Just stop.”

Ray scoffed. “Don’t. Don’t do that. Look, when I was an 18 year old kid, I let that stuff fly, but you know what she means to me and even if you don’t like her or don’t respect her, I’m not gonna just stand here while you bash her. It’s offensive to her, to me, and to Jasper, who we’re all here for… And you know… His spouse-to-be too…”

Ray folded his arms, “You’re siding with her after everything that she did to you?”

“Everything she…?” Henry clenched his fists and said to Jasper, “We’re gonna go, okay?” Jasper nodded. Ray moped as he stomped out of the building and Charlotte tried to keep steam from exploding from her ears. Henry gently pulled her aside, shook his head and said, “I am so sorry that I let that go on for so long. I promise, I was gonna get him together when he first jumped off, but you seemed like you had it and I didn’t think he was getting to you until that part. I would’ve protected you if I thought you needed it..”

She nodded, “I did have it at first. Then, he just kept taking jabs and I thought about all of the years that I put up with that kind of stuff from him. I thought about all of the realizations that I came to in my self discovery of how toxic and traumatic a lot of his verbal and emotional abuse was and the times that he literally almost killed me multiple times while I was a kid at a part time job. Then, I thought about everything that he’s done to you, and I just snapped. I know you love him. I know that I don’t fully understand your relationship. I just…"

"You're right. You were then and you are now. It took me awhile to realize it, that over the years as I was coming into myself, I saw examples and I know that you were spot on about a lot of it, even if I couldn't handle hearing it yet. I do love him and I always will, but I'm not letting those feelings get in between you and me ever again.I'm still working on me and I'm working on him. I'm working on us. I let my loyalty to Ray make us strangers, once. We were never supposed to be that. Look, I know that you don't believe in "the one" or forever, but whatever it is that you think about journeys, I think that you have to know that some of those don't end until you die. And that's what I want, with you. This journey until I'm done."

She leaned into him with a smile and said, "Henry Hart, that sounded suspiciously like a proposal."

"Well, it was definitely the set up to one. Certainly can't ask any time this weekend. Do you realize the level of Bridesgroomzilla that Jasper would unleash?"

"Oh, he would kill us."

"Precisely, and I'm not in any position to die, now that I've finally found my reason for living."

It would be an utter lie to suggest that he didn't frequently make her gush. This eas above and beyond that, though it was interrupted when Ray yelled from the door, "Henry, are we leaving or not???"

Henry groaned, forced a smile and said through his teeth, "He might wind up getting killed."

"Yeah, by Jasper if he keeps it up," she said and they parted ways. A couple of hugs and kisses later, that is. "Good luck getting Gramps settled."

He met up with Ray, scolding him while he pouted and Charlotte waved at them and watched them bicker from the window of the venue. Ray was a lot, but Henry said that he was working on him, on them,so maybe there was hope for him yet.

As for her hope, she was staring at him. He looked back, smiled and the world stopped for a while. Maybe she hadn't believed in soul mates because at the time, hers was a stranger and they were estranged. She didn't know that it could ever be this way. But, it was and her next journey just might be the longest. The stranger was gone now and her soul mate had entered the journey with her and he wanted that journey… for life.

The End.

[punkscowardschampions]

Buster & Rio

Buster: [fam christmas woooo when you ain't talked to your sister in 4 months either just to make it more awks] Rio: [what a fun time for all, when you are constantly on your phone so much 'cos Ryan won't stop messaging you and wants a play by play Buster: [he'd be drunk before he even got there ffs boy] Rio: [when it's that point in the evening when everyone is playing stupid games tipsy and you just cannot so you go hide in the kitchen] Buster: [let's say he bumps into her literally cos yeah what you need is another drink boy] Rio: [when you literally jump back like 'oh'] Buster: [when you do the thing peeps do to me & go twenty miles out of your way round her] Rio: ['Don't fall, McKenna'] Buster: ['Only for you, babe' too drunk & voice too loud] Rio: [When you swipe his drink off the counter 'fore he can stop you can take a sip and put your finger to your lips like 'shh, idiot' and hand it back to him, shaking your head] Buster: [When you down that drink so you have to get another & be in there longer] Rio: ['tis the season' when even when you're talking you're constantly on your phone and not that bitch and they love eye contact but she's not smiling like 😍 it's more like 😑] Buster: [when you take her phone before she can stop you & put it down where she can't reach it] Rio: [the lowkey panic in your eyes that you try to mask, 'Come on, don't be a dick'] Buster: ['Don't be rude'] Rio: ['Your territory, I know'] Buster: ['You trying to come for my crown now?'] Rio: ['Maybe' trying to move a chair to wherever he's put her phone] Buster: ['Antisocial is closer to the other twin. Try harder' Lifts her up so she can get it cos drunk & shameless] Rio: [When you stop breathing 'til you're back on the ground and then you breathe out so heavily, 'You wanna be social now? Party's in there' points to the lounge] Buster: ['Hopeless romantic is more her thing too' throws the words over his shoulder as he leaves cos he knows about the bf through stalking them socials] Rio: What are you talking about Buster: You love him Buster: It's cute Rio: It's not even been a month Buster: Moving fast is more of a lesbian thing, like I said, Nance will either be thrilled or threatened Rio: Talk to her and see Rio: though you've definitely got better things to catch up on than my dating history Buster: Put your phone down & try it yourself Rio: I see her every day Buster: Run out of shit to say then? Understandable Buster: Probably don't tell her that though Buster: So rude Rio: I'm not trying to take away from your sibling bonding time Rio: soz Buster: You can't take something that don't exist Rio: It exists, you both just choose to ignore it Rio: least it's mutual though so Buster: Nah, it's been scratched out the schedule instead of penciled in Buster: Still siblings no time to bond Rio: Hmm Rio: you're SO busy, yeah Buster: Yeah Rio: Lovely Buster: Not the word Rio: Not so miserable I'm here to listen to the 'stresses' in your life, tah Buster: Never said it was negative, I just don't use old lady vocab, like Buster: You sound like a teacher Rio: 🙄 Rio: Now you're gonna chat shit on my vocabulary, alright private school Buster: I am a pleasure to have in class if you wanna let my parents know Rio: That was the whole point, remember Rio: how would I know Buster: Play really well with others too but probably don't let 'em know how you know that Rio: You'll be wanting to delete that, I presume Rio: surprised you've even got the balls to talk to me at all Buster: How many convos did you start? Buster: I weren't expecting you to jump out of a cake but a happy birthday would've been polite Rio: Likewise Rio: Expecting or fantasizing, you'd have to make a booking Rio: not showing up uninvited, heaven forbid Buster: Mine was first, babe & I ain't never pretended to be that Rio: So if I'd have said it to you, you'd have returned the favour Rio: You're so childish Buster: We'll never know now Buster: What I might've said Buster: Or gifted you Rio: Save it up for sweet 16 Rio: maybe you'll be allowed to talk to me then Buster: Maybe I'll show up in time to stop the wedding Buster: Fingers crossed you don't get knocked up like your mum Rio: Shut up Buster: Only so much your good looks could do to beat the odds of it being an ugly kid Rio: What would you know Buster: Flawless + Fuck ugly = you're right I don't know Buster: Don't wanna Rio: You've never even seen him Rio: don't be so judgmental Buster: Wrong again, babe Buster: Factual more like Rio: Well I clearly don't think so if I love him so much, do I Buster: That'll be all the cum in your eye Rio: So mature Buster: They don't age check on those vids, it's fine Rio: should run a basic IQ test on you Rio: someone who claims to be such a pleasure in class, like Buster: I've done one but I know you hate when I brag about numbers Rio: That's universal Rio: no one but your hanger-on mates wants to hear that Buster: Your friend loved it, she thinks hers is lucky Rio: I'm glad you found someone officially more stupid than you then Buster: That's universal Buster: Applicable in every case, like Rio: Sure she loved being told that too Rio: such a bullshitter Buster: We didn't do that much talking Buster: Once I'd told her what to do, not much else left to say Rio: Why are you still talking Buster: Why are you still replying? Rio: Gotta be on my phone ain't I Buster: Not in this convo though Rio: Well you're blocking my notifications Rio: you'll pussy out soon enough and be gone Buster: Well I'm drunk. Mute me Rio: Take some responsibility for yourself Rio: you always want me to do everything Buster: So you don't want a line then? More for me Rio: That explains why you're talking so much shit Rio: go on then Rio: have to be here so Buster: [brings it to her cos gentlemanly] Rio: [goes off to the bathroom, 'cos learnt something about getting caught, humming white christmas like] Buster: [lols] Rio: Cheers Buster: Merry Christmas Rio: Merry Christmas, Buster Rio: [bringing the baggie back, assuming there's plenty to go around here] Buster: [does his off the kitchen counter cos wants to be where she is] Rio: [rolls her eyes but licks a finger to clean up the excess and sucks it off] Buster: [is 😏] Rio: ['still like danger, do you?] Buster: ['Don't you?'] Rio: ['Obviously'] Buster: [picks her up & puts her on the counter cos throwback & is standing between her legs like close af 'good to know'] Rio: ['How gone are you?' cos what else can you say rn] Buster: [whispers 'depends who you ask' in her ear and puts a finger to his lips like its such a big secret okay boyyy] Rio: [lols, 'thanks for inadvertently answering my question there' but is just looking at him still like #conflict] Buster: [reaches round her to take her drink cos left his in the other room] Rio: ['oi!' pouty face] Buster: [rather than just giving her it back like a normal person, feeds her the drink like this is crepes 2.0] Rio: [into it.com, 'sharing is caring today, huh?'] Buster: [a nod because so much eye contact so much tension who can speak] Rio: [when you're so close now your phone is the only thing between you and then it goes off and you shit yourself] Buster: [angry.com idk whose house they are in but blatantly walks off & punches the wall in potential full view of the fam cos coke ain't your friend boy] Rio: [when you gotta go outside to have that call 'cos not only not wanting him to hear but everyone tbh] Buster: [when everyone's like umm wtf buster but you ain't having it so you storm out & are also outside but the front while she's in the back] Rio: [when every convo is like talking him off a ledge 'cos he's that bitch do not need this Ryan, even a little bit, going back in finally to get a drink 'cos 1. need and 2. hoping he's had the same idea] Buster: [when you're just having a meltdown lowkey] Rio: I'm just sending this in case you want anything but me to fuck off Buster: I can't Buster: Want anything but that Rio: I'm sorry Rio: genuinely Buster: Don't Buster: Just fucking do not Rio: What can I do Rio: tell me and I'll do it Buster: Nothing Rio: that's what you need? Buster: Don't talk to me, don't talk to me, fucking none of it Buster: *Look Rio: Okay Rio: I will Rio: I'm not gonna give out totally empty promises it'll be hard but I will Buster: [When you just yeet like where do you think you're going at Christmas babe] Rio: [Later] Rio: Tell someone where you are Buster: Why would I do that? Buster: & Why would you ask me to? That's a broken promise already Rio: That's what I do Rio: I'm a shit person, like you don't know by now Rio: but they're gonna go out looking if you don't soon so heads up Buster: Let 'em, I don't care about ruining their fun in case you didn't know by now Rio: Alright Rio: if you don't wanna stay where you are Buster: Why? Rio: Know they'll find you Buster: No, why do you love him? Rio: Honestly? Rio: I don't, you can believe that or not but I don't Rio: I'm just trying, you know Buster: I believe it, if only 'cause I want to Buster: That & I've seen him Rio: Alright 😂 Rio: it's not all about looks, general statement, not a declaration of love Buster: He's got that good of a personality, yeah? Rio: Well Rio: said I weren't it love with him, didn't I Rio: he's alright but it really don't go much deeper than that right now Buster: There's no chance he knows that Buster: Unless he's just that chatty with everyone Rio: Yeah Rio: he's a lot Rio: just that type, you know Buster: Do you want me to chat to him? Buster: I can be a lot Rio: Don't think that means you should be besties Rio: it's fine though, honestly Rio: I can handle him, and whoever else Buster: Alright Rio: are you Buster: Don't ask me questions you already know the answer to Buster: You ain't meant to even be talking to me Rio: Yeah Rio: just want the answer to be different Rio: can't be acting surprised, notoriously bad at keeping any kind of promise, and leaving you alone Buster: Maybe Santa will bring you what you want next year, babe Buster: Don't waste your birthday wish though Rio: 🤞 Rio: Sure some other fucker's got to the wishbone too Rio: keep an eye out for shooting stars Buster: Do my best Buster: Any less isn't an option, like Rio: Nah Rio: what can I say if you don't? Rio: see, best gift of all yeah Rio: room to breathe Buster: I know that ain't yours to me, someone's fucked with that tag Rio: Yeah, I just got you socks but worth trying to claim it Rio: you got me Buster: Socks have their uses Buster: Cold feet or otherwise Rio: Yeah, think of me whenever your feet are cold Rio: 😂 Buster: Obviously Rio: Where are you then Buster: You're not getting an invite Rio: Just curious Rio: Anyway, with you gone and them out looking, I've got the drinks to myself now so tah Buster: Shame it's not the house Buster: That'd be worth coming back for Rio: Stay gone a few hours more maybe the search party will include rugging up all the kids Rio: keep you posted on how special you are Buster: Cheers Rio: it's just your da and granddad Rio: which I did point out probably wasn't the best team when assumedly you've found a pub that's open Rio: might have to stop for a pint, even if you ain't Rio: rude not to Buster: & I had my money on mum & Nance, gutted Buster: The fan club's a fucking sham Rio: shit state of affairs, honestly Rio: where's janis when you need her Rio: sure she'd find you Buster: Only if you'd started searching first Buster: & Were about to find me Rio: That would've been a well good excuse Rio: just tryna find enlightenment it's okay Rio: my ma would buy it and she's the nosiest so Buster: There was a ticket to Heaven on offer so Rio: should've come on the search, like Rio: knew I'd fuck up the talking one so reckoned I could at least go a day or two without looking Rio: if I played it right Buster: I still haven't been found Buster: If you wanna do the honours Rio: Hide and seek Rio: what do I win? Buster: I told you not to ask when you already know the answer Rio: Okay Rio: wish its me that finds you 'cos awkward if it's them Buster: I don't need hope or wishes, remember Buster: Neither do you Buster: Not for this Rio: Okay Rio: no cheating, I'll know Buster: I swear Buster: Head boy's honour, like Rio: are you actually head boy now Buster: Did you actually think I wouldn't be? Rio: Didn't doubt you for a second Rio: hot Rio: in a nerdy way Buster: I'd have brought the badge if I'd have known you were so into it Rio: I know this christmas was going pretty shocking but you've really ruined mine now Buster: [sends her a pic of him when he was wearing it] Buster: You bring me problems, I offer you solutions Rio: 😍 Rio: If you ever go proper missing, make sure they use that Rio: well inspiring Buster: I can do better, but they can't show that level of inspiring on the news Rio: not even the 10 o'clock one Buster: Probably keep 'em your eyes only, babe Rio: Fine by me Rio: I wanna be the one to find you anyway Buster: I want you to Rio: Lemme sniff this out Rio: did you have your keys on you Buster: I always have my keys on me Rio: if you've gone home that's so funny Buster: You know I'm hilarious Rio: Your dad is Rio: if we wanna keep ruining the festivities tell your mum how dumb he is Rio: be a hoot Buster: Will do Buster: Hold on Rio: Alright? Buster: Depends who you ask Rio: Well if you've had an empty house this whole time and you're only just telling me Rio: don't know if this is even you tbh Rio: convincing serial killer maybe Buster: I just needed Buster: That breathing room I got as a mystery gift Rio: Makes sense Rio: I don't have to come Rio: if you still wanna be left alone, I won't tell Rio: they can worry a bit longer Buster: You do have to Buster: I wanna be alone with you Rio: I want that too Rio: hold on Buster: Okay Rio: Promise you'll take my phone away when I get there Buster: If you promise not to tell anyone that I think my hand is fucked Rio: How fucked Rio: like, if you show me how to strap it we can do that or sneaky trip to A&E fucked Buster: Like I can already hear the lecture about punching walls instead of bags Rio: We'll sort it Rio: I won't tell anyone Buster: Thanks Rio: doesn't mean I don't get to fuss though Buster: Such a mum Buster: I ain't got that many issues that its a turn on for me, you know Rio: Shut up Rio: so rude Buster: You're cute Rio: 😒 yeah and as unsexy as a mum Buster: You couldn't be unsexy if you tried Rio: swear you got just enough issues? Buster: Talking about them would take all night Buster: But so would what I'd rather do Rio: Well Rio: think they'll clock before then but Rio: take whatever time we can get Buster: Well then I swear I'll make it worth it Buster: Even if we have to be quick Rio: Jesus Rio: I know it'll be worth it Rio: how could it not be Buster: Yeah, but you don't know how worth it yet Buster: You will Rio: You too Rio: I swear Buster: Tell me this is actually fucking happening this time Buster: I need you Rio: It has to Rio: 'cos all that's happening is I'm caring less and less about the risks and more and more about just making it happen Buster: I know I'm drunk but I never cared about anything but this Buster: I don't Rio: We're both drunk but it's still true Rio: I can't stop, Buster Rio: whatever the fuck this is Buster: You don't have to Buster: Be with me, that's all I want Rio: I'm coming Rio: I'm sorry but even if your family walks in at this point I ain't fucking stopping Rio: I'm so sick of not getting what I want Buster: I can't not give it to you Buster: Everything you want Rio: You Rio: that is all I want right now Buster: I'm not even offended that you don't reckon I'm everything Buster: Easily proved wrong Rio: Exactly Rio: show me Buster: Fuck Buster: Say that again Rio: Show me, baby Rio: I want you to be everything, 'cos you're all I can think about Buster: Rio Rio: Buster Buster: Hurry up & be at my house for fuck's sake Rio: you know I live in the middle of nowhere Rio: [cos figure cali gaff has the most space so logic they'd have been there] Rio: it's the biggest cockblock, modern day princess in a tower basically Buster: 😂 Buster: I'm surrounded by princesses all day, you ain't Rio: Bit rude but I've been called worse Buster: It's the opposite of rude the way I mean it Rio: Let you off then Buster: Don't you know that you're on another level? Buster: Doesn't he tell you that in all those texts you get? Rio: He says a lot of things Rio: I'd be lying if I said I was always tuned in, like Buster: Of course not, like you said, I'm all you can think about Rio: Literally Rio: it's stupid Buster: Nah, 'cause if it was it'd be shared stupidity & I'm too smart for that Rio: 😂 Rio: very self-serving, but I'll take it Buster: Plus, I fucking hate sharing Rio: I know Rio: but you know you don't have to with me Rio: not really Buster: You're gonna dump him, yeah? Rio: I can Rio: we can talk about that later though Rio: what we wanna do for the rest of the time and all that Rio: don't think about it right now Buster: I can't think Buster: Not properly Rio: Then don't Rio: you know I want you more than anyone else right now Buster: Yeah Buster: More than anyone else ever Rio: Yeah Rio: Whatever it is Rio: I know I ain't felt it before Rio: wanting someone so hard all the time Buster: Me either Buster: Wanting someone this hard Buster: Never mind all the time Rio: I know it's crazy Rio: but I don't care Rio: can't Buster: Folie à deux, like Rio: You and your French obsession 😏 Buster: I had to learn to kiss somehow, you didn't teach me shit Rio: You wouldn't let me Rio: so NOT a pleasure to have in class Buster: You could've made you move any time Buster: Including before I was dared to make mine Rio: You take the piss enough that I was in love with you without that Rio: you'd have been even more unbearable if I had, like Buster: No Buster: I only was 'cause you made me do it & then it went like that Rio: I didn't dare you Buster: You didn't have to Buster: Don't act like there weren't loads of chances before that Buster: You could've took one Rio: Better late than never, ain't it Rio: be there in 5 Buster: Of course Buster: Be here now though Rio: Could hardly ask for a lift like hey, think he's here but give me like 15 alone, k dad Buster: Can't your boyfriend drive? Perfect way to dump him Rio: Yeah that'd go well Buster: You'd soon forget all about him Buster: We don't need 15 minutes for that Rio: Not gonna time you, like but Rio: hold you to it Buster: You don't need to, give me one second & you won't remember his name Rio: Fuck Rio: I'm so ready for this Rio: for you Buster: Show me Buster: I'm done waiting Rio: [when you show up and see 'em like hell no] Rio: This is beyond an actual joke Buster: [when you can't even answer cos you're beyond angry like if you thought he was mad before peeps] Rio: Fuck this Buster: [later cos you have to deal with them] Buster: Meet me tomorrow Rio: I can't Rio: we go to see my da's family Buster: Fuck's sake Rio: I know Rio: can't get out of it though we stay over Rio: there's no way they'd let me stay home Buster: When are you back? Rio: 30th Rio: you're staying for new year's eve, aren't you Buster: Barely but yeah Buster: My flight's next day Rio: We'll make it work Rio: they'll all be so gone Buster: We're gonna have to, it ain't no commuter flight this time Rio: Yeah Rio: you're so lucky Buster: Not how I feel right now Rio: No, me either Rio: really not in the mood, they're all in my face constantly Buster: My dad's lucky he ain't going to A&E Rio: Not condoning that but I could've easily jumped 'em myself so Rio: this is bullshit, swear they left us alone constantly as kids Buster: I'd lift you up, babe. Teamwork Buster: & Yeah, you can swear to that 'cause they did Rio: 😂😍 Rio: #goals Rio: getting my own place as soon as I can Buster: See, I do play well with others Buster: Come to London, I'm always on my own there Buster: Fucking typical Rio: I will Rio: and you can't be mad because that's an invite Rio: however casual Buster: Mad ain't the word Buster: You're always trying to put the wrong ones in my mouth Rio: Don't make my mind go there Buster: If your mind is anywhere else, tell me how you did it Rio: it ain't Rio: but your mouth specifically now Buster: Shame my mouth ain't specifically where it wants to be Rio: Shame ain't the word Rio: for a white boy you got really good lips, you know Buster: I know Rio: ugh Rio: be here Buster: I'm here, that's all I can do Rio: I'm glad we're talking Buster: You missed me, yeah? Rio: You know I did Buster: Tell me Rio: I missed you loads Rio: I thought about you all the time Buster: You're not gonna go see that lad now are you? Rio: No Rio: he wants me to but I don't have time anyway Buster: Don't. I didn't turn you on for his benefit Rio: I don't want him Rio: you don't either, okay Buster: Okay Rio: Not today Rio: you were mine Buster: I still am Rio: Buster Buster: Rio Rio: it feels so good saying your name Rio: I wanna say it for you Buster: Call me Rio: [does, 'cos you gotta do something poor bastards] Buster: [you deserve this lads] Rio: [when even this is gonna be fire] Buster: [literally better than anything I could ever do] Rio: That was Rio: I feel a bit better now Buster: If you think you feel good now, wait until NYE Rio: I don't wanna wait Rio: but fine Rio: try my best Buster: I don't wanna either but I do wanna make up for lost time so behave & I'll make you cum for every day you've had to Buster: Hold me to it Rio: Damn Rio: you're really daddy, huh Rio: 😇 Buster: It's not that high of a number yet Buster: You can be impressed when I make the offer after being away for ages Rio: You better Rio: gotta have some incentive to come back, right Buster: Yeah Rio: I'm so jealous Buster: Put your teacher voice on & come with Rio: 😏 I'll get the 'fit Buster: I look forward to seeing it Rio: You're there to actually learn, babe Rio: maybe I'll tutor you, if I have time Buster: You're saying you don't have enough to teach me full time? Disappointing Rio: Plenty Rio: 'nuff to take it stateside Buster: Start packing then Rio: When we going Buster: Why not now Buster: Fuck it Rio: That's what I need Rio: you, distance from this fam and a place no one knows us Buster: Exactly Rio: One day Buster: Hold me to it too Rio: Can we stop doing the thing where you leave and we don't talk for months now Rio: like, it's exhausting pretending I hate you and don't wanna fuck you, you know Buster: I have to leave, but yeah, we also have to talk Rio: I know you're going Rio: I mean like I see you for a week or something and then that's that 'til the next family function Buster: I know what you mean Buster: It's not like that's how I want it Rio: Why'd it always end up happening, like Buster: What can I say? Buster: What do you want me to? Rio: I ain't blaming you Rio: it's both of us Rio: just, let's not let something happen between now and when you go so you won't talk to me alright Buster: Whatever happens, I still wanna Buster: It's not that black & white though, is it? Rio: nah Rio: I dunno Rio: we got separate lives to live Rio: obviously, and that's cool Rio: but idk why that means we have to end up hating each other Rio: like it is black and white, all or nothing Buster: I can't hate you Buster: Don't be stupid Rio: alright, pretend then Rio: you're quite convincing sometimes Buster: Well I need to be Buster: Sometimes Rio: Yeah Buster: Just don't break my fucking heart, yeah? Buster: Simple Rio: Why would I do that Buster: All or nothing Rio: that's not how I want it either, I'm telling you Rio: we can do better Buster: Obviously Buster: I can always do better & you always keep up Rio: 😏 Rio: thanks Rio: I think Buster: It's a compliment Buster: Nobody else can Buster: Not that I've found yet anyway Rio: Maybe you'll find yourself an American girl who can Buster: Maybe Rio: just don't get married Rio: can only deal with the accent for so long Buster: Before I've done uni & got a career? My mum would kill me Buster: She'd turn up with a shotgun to stop it, fuck encouraging it Rio: 😂 Rio: Nance is the hopeless romantic, I remember Buster: Good Buster: I don't do repeats never mind wedding vows Rio: Never? Buster: Like I said, they can't keep up Buster: I'm not running a charity Rio: You are funny Buster: I'm also too good at it to be having shit hook ups Buster: Tell your friends Rio: 🙄 Rio: No one's forcing you, to my knowledge Rio: so don't think you can complain Buster: I ain't Buster: You asked & I answered Rio: I did not ask you to specifically tell me how good anyone is Rio: let alone people I know Buster: I haven't Rio: Come on Rio: I know what that comment implies and about who Rio: not seen her for ages anyway so can't say I'm heartbroken over her, like Buster: I'm just saying for future reference, let you friends know that anyone can always do better Rio: It is truly amazing anyone wants to sleep with you Buster: They don't want to talk to me Buster: I told you it ain't easy Rio: It ain't hard Rio: stop flattering yourself for a sec, babe Buster: Start flattering me then, babe Rio: 😏 Buster: Can you really not meet me tomorrow? Rio: I really wanna Rio: but we leave so early Buster: You should go then Buster: Sleep Rio: but Buster: I know Buster: But I'll be there, won't I, you always dream about me Rio: Hmm so you reckon Buster: Come on Rio: You Rio: don't you wanna offer to make me sleepy? Rio: amateur Buster: Sleepy ain't the word Rio: I don't reckon you can get me to pass out from there but alright Buster: You don't? Rio: Nope Rio: don't feel bad, like 😉 Buster: Answer your phone & do exactly what I tell you, let's see how we both feel then Rio: [does, duh] Buster: [opened pandoras box here lads] Rio: [least you can do this to your hearts content no matter where y'all is, 'cept when Ryan is around, which is sadly too often] Buster: [god bless technology especially the waterproof phones of the future] Rio: [defs a thing] Buster: [they should fall asleep on the phone together though] Rio: [deffo]

[accio-ambition]

Today’s the day! After months of toiling, blood, sweat, and tears, I can finally share with you my second Captain Swan Big Bang! A huge huge huge thank you to my beta @sotheylived for keeping up with my mess of thoughts and outlines and both artists @shipsxahoy and @queen-icicle-fandom for creating beautiful pieces that I couldn’t have ever fathomed into existence. The lovely image you see above is a creation of shipsxahoy and it’s jUST SO PRETTY.

Summary: Bouncing around with her son for the majority of her life, Emma Swan has told herself she's happy in the city. It's where the most camera operating jobs are, and that's how she makes her money. But when an old friend calls her and asks for her help on a new project in small town Maine, Emma finds herself in a place she's never been with people she doesn't know filming a profession she knows nothing about. But with the captain of the ship she's filming begins taking a keen interest in her and her life, she finds herself wondering whether she might just catch something other than fish. Deadliest Catch AU Rating: T Content warning: Character death, some violent situations

You can read it on FF or AO3 or below the cut assuming tumblr decides to play nice today. And afterwards, go and check out the other CSBB stories over on @captainswanbigbang

Chapter One

“No, Anna, you’ve got to – no, the other way.” Emma groans, waving her hand in front of her face, careful to miss the expensive camera equipment below it. The woman in front of her scoots five inches, bewildered face smoothly appearing on camera. “Yes, thank you, now you’re in frame.”

“Oh, your left, not mine.”

Emma sighs and straightens up. She can already feel the ache in her back forming. “Yes, Anna, my left.” Glancing over her shoulder, Emma nods solemnly at the director.

“Alright, let’s get this scene started,” he says. Emma backs away from the camera, slowly weaving her way around the rest of the crew. She’s done her job for now. It’s too early and there are sprinkled donuts and bearclaws on the catering table that call her name.

For something that seems like such a low budget gig, this YouTube series employs a surprising amount of people. She’s constantly impressed by it – the sheer number of familiar and unfamiliar faces she passes by in the hallways. Hell, they’re even big enough to have a catering table that asks for requests every once in awhile.

She’s worked for productions with much less.

From the moment Anna cheerfully walked up to her yesterday afternoon as she was packing up, asking for any requests, “because my sister’s sending some things from the bakery,” Emma knew today would be better than most. A bearclaw: the one love/hate relationship she enjoyed in her life.

She spots it 20 feet from the table. It’s got her name on it, literally – a note on blue paper has her name scrawled elegantly across it.

(Elsa really is the best thing about this whole series. God, she should just ask the girl out, that’s how much she likes her.)

The bearclaw hangs right before her mouth, the sugar nearly on her lips, when the devil chimes in, sounding suspiciously like her cellphone.

Groaning, she removes it from her back pocket, sparing a glance at the caller ID. Her interest piques when she reads the name scrawled across it.

“Jefferson?” she answers. “What’s wrong?”

“I call you for the first time in four years and you automatically assume something’s wrong?” the man from the other end asks, too dramatic for his own good.

“Yes,” she says shortly. “The last time you called me, you asked me – broke, mother-of-a-six-year-old me – to bail you out of jail and lend you enough money to pay back that casino you got caught in.” She pauses for effect, then adds, “And then asked me to drive you home.”

“Oh,” Jefferson says on an exhale. “I’d forgotten about that. How is Henry these days?”

Emma sighs, tucking her phone between her shoulder and ear so she can rest her hand on her hip. “Jeff, what do you want?” she asks. “I’m at work right now, they’re going to call me back any minute and I need to e-"

“That’s actually what I’m calling you about,” he interrupts her excitedly.

“What? Jeff, this series is wrapping up, they’re not hiring.”

“No, I’ve got an idea for a show and I’ve gotten the okay for a trial season.”

“What?” This time, her question expresses more disbelief than anything. “That’s great, Jefferson! What’s it about?”

“It’s reality, sort of adventurey,” he explains. “Trawling for lobster and seafood up at the Georges Bank in Maine. Imagine Ice Truckers but with boats.” Her friend goes quiet for so long that Emma takes her phone back in hand to make sure that the call hasn’t dropped. “And I want you to come and shoot it, if that wasn’t obvious already.”

Shaking her head, she mutters, “I don’t like how this sounds.”

“No, Emma, trust me,” Jeff reassures her. “This is gonna be great.”

She sighs, turning away from the food table reluctantly. “Jeff, I can’t just up and move in the blink of an eye, I’ve got Henry.”

Even in the slight din of the studio, Emma can hear her friend mimic her sigh. “I know,” he says resignedly. “I called up David Nolan. He’s in. He and the missus just married and were trying to find a nice place for them.” When she doesn’t immediately respond, Jeff sighs again. “Look, we wouldn’t start filming until after Fourth of July. That gives you a couple months.”

It could work. She wouldn’t have to worry about taking Henry out of school. This project should wrap up by the end of next week. She’d actually have time to find them somewhere nice to live unlike previous times where producers have expected her behind the camera by week’s end. And David – who acted like her big brother when they were in school, always texting her to make sure she got home in once piece – and his girlfriend, now wife apparently, Mary Margaret would be there. For once, they’d be moving to someplace where familiar faces await them.

This could actually work.

“When do you need an answer by?” she asks. Now that the wheels are turning in her head, the plausibility of the whole idea works. She’s got to check with Henry first. No big life decision like this can truly be set in stone until her son has his word.

“I’d like one now, if that’s possible,” Jefferson responds with a chuckle, “but I’ll need it by the end of next week at the latest.”

Nodding her head, Emma concedes. “I’ll get back to you by then, if not sooner.” She hesitates only for a moment before asking, “Everything else alright there, Jeff?”

(They were kind of close, back in the day. Met each other in their first film class, kept in touch and always were down to hold the camera or act in front of it for whatever project caused their headaches at the time.)

“Yeah, great, actually,” he answers. “Grace is doing well. She’s getting really good at math.”

Emma smiles. She recognizes the strength and pride in another parent’s voice. It’s a sentiment that often tinges her own. “She’s a great kid, Jeff. You should be proud of her.” She could go on for days, swapping stories of Henry’s successes and Grace’s troubles and vice versa. It’s been a long time since she’s had a conversation with a good friend of hers. All Emma wants is for this phone conversation to just devolve into a catch up session, but she hears her name from set. Rolling her eyes, she groans. “I’ve got to get back to work, Jeff, but I’ll let you know my answer as soon as I have one,” she says.

“Thanks, Em,” Jeff tells her softly. “Tell Henry Grace and I say hi.”

“Of course.” Her name bounces off the artificially lit walls again, louder and more agitated. She sighs, again. “Bye, Jeff. Take care of yourselves.”

“Always do.”

Ending the call, Emma looks from her darkened phone screen to the uneaten pastry. She looks at it forlornly for a moment before shoving it in her mouth with one hand and her phone in her back pocket with the other.

No such thing as free time in show business.

0000

Broaching the topic of moving – yet again, for what’s probably the third time in as many years – proves more difficult than Emma’s expecting. Jefferson’s offer is somewhat ideal: the opportunity to meet up with old friends, as well as provide her son a more stable environment to grow up in. Or, at least, finish growing up in.

She picks Henry up from school that afternoon and, like any good parent, takes him out to ice cream for dinner.

“Where are we going this time?” he asks, chocolate raspberry swirl dripping off the tip of his nose.

Stopping her tongue mid-lick on mint chocolate chip, Emma reels back. She’s stunned, to say the least.  “What do you mean?” she asks, lowering the cone in her hand to rest it on the table.

Her son sighs, his shoulders rolling forward just the slightest bit. “We only get ice cream for dinner when you’re trying to tell me we have to pack and move in record time.” Henry shrugs, nonchalant, and renews his attack on his ice cream. “So,” he says between licks, “where are we going now?”

“Nowhere, yet.” Recovering from her brief shock, she too returns to her dinner. “Jefferson called me earlier today and said he’s got a gig for me up in Maine.”

“Maine? Like next-to-Canada Maine?”

“The same one,” Emma chuckles. Her son’s always had such a way with words. “Also, he told me to tell you that he and Grace say hello.”

Henry makes a face, scrunching up his nose, and waves off the hellos like they’re a bug buzzing in his face. “Mom, do you realize how far away that is?” he asks.

“I know kid, but I think it’s got potential,” she reasons. “It’s for a TV show about the ocean and boats.”

That catches his attention. “Like pirate ships?” he asks excitedly, eyes wide and ice cream temporarily forgotten.

“No, like fishing boats,” she explains, leaning forward to wipe at some of the ice cream that’s melted down his chin. “Filming doesn’t start until after the Fourth of July, so you wouldn’t miss any school and you’d have some time to acclimate and find new friends before it starts up again. We can find a place we both like up there.” Settling back into her seat across from him, Emma sends him a small smile. “What do you think?”

She watches her son process the information, sees the cogs turning about in his head. He’s quiet for a minute, staring off into the space his ice cream occupies. Then Henry shrugs.

“I don’t know, Mom,” he says. “Doesn’t it get really cold up there?”

“Yeah, but think about it. We can find a house with a fireplace and when it snows, we can curl up and drink cocoa and marathon Star Wars until we can’t see straight.” At the mention of winter weather, she watches Henry’s eyes grow wide and glossy. She can tell he’s lost in his own active imagination.

And then the thought strikes her: “You’ve never seen snow before, have you?”

Henry shakes his head. “Maybe once in real life, but mostly on TV,” he admits sheepishly. And then, like kids tend to do, his tone does a 180. “We could build a snowman!”

“Exactly!” Emma shouts, nearly throwing her ice cream at her son in the process. There’s more of the dessert on the napkin around her cone than in it, but she quickly finishes it up before speaking again. “You don’t need to tell me what you think right now. Give it a couple days.”

“When do you need to tell Jefferson?” Henry asks, his tongue making a round about the edge of his cone, trying in vain to catch all of it before it falls on his hand.

“By the end of next week,” she answers. “So instead of daydreaming in class about the next Uncharted game, think about this instead, alright?”

“Okay.” Henry finishes up his ice cream, shoving the last bite into his mouth and sighing contently as he chews. Once he swallows, he matches her gaze. “Does this mean we’re going to have something else for dinner too?”

Emma laughs despite herself. “Are you still hungry, kid?”

“I am a growing boy, I need my nutrients,” he quips back.

As her laughter dying down, she shakes her head. “We can stop at McDonald’s or something on the way home.”

Stretching and closing his eyes, Henry says, “I was thinking more along the lines of pizza.”

“Oh yeah?” she chuckles.

“Yeah. A large half cheese, half pepperoni.” Opening his eyes again, he grins slyly when he says, “And then you can get whatever you want on your pizza.”

Emma laughs so hard that her stomach begins to hurt. Henry’s already on his way to the car, but she manages to catch up, grabbing him by the shoulders and ruffling his hair. He’s still small enough that when she pulls him into her side for a hug, he can’t resist her strength. But she can’t lift him anymore, can’t hold him when he’s tired and falls asleep in the backseat of the Bug.

It always strikes her how quickly her little boy is growing up. She just never seems to realize it. It feels like only yesterday she was taking her first steps as a free woman, a newborn cradled in her arms and no idea of where to go from there.

Ten years later, Henry’s growing taller, looking more and more like his father every day. It hurts her heart, being reminded of her first love every time she looks at her son and the long line of mistakes that gave her him, but then he sasses her back or crinkles his nose like she does and the aches are soothed.

Though he may look like his father, Henry is most definitely her son.

0000

When the TV’s off for the night and Henry’s sitting at the kitchen table scribbling out his book report, Emma scrolls through her phone on the hunt for a number. She’s sure she still has it somewhere in her contacts, it hasn’t been that long since they’ve talked.

Or has it?

With how close the three of them were back in her short college years, she assumes that she would have been invited to David and Mary Margaret’s wedding. They were as thick as thieves until she took the fall for an actual one and spent her second year of college in a jail cell instead of the library. But they came and visited her when time afforded it. Emma tried to call David at least once every couple of months just to make sure everything was okay for them.

But thinking about it now, with her and Henry moving much more often and the crazy shooting schedules she’s always forced to adhere to, Emma can’t remember the last time she actually spoke with David.

“Aha!” She finds his number under the name Darlingest Charmsicle, the name she and another friend came up with when Mary Margaret first called David her “Prince Charming.” Before she can second guess herself, Emma presses the green call button and brings the phone up to her ear.

It rings and rings, and with each passing tone, she contemplates hanging up altogether. How long has it been since she talked to David? The longer she considers it, the more she wishes that the ringing would just end in an automated voicemail.

Alas, she’s never been that lucky in her life, for just as she senses the voicemail robot about to pick up, the man himself finally answers.

“Hello?”

“Hi David. It’s me,” she says meekly. Emma then starts to clarify. It’s not like she calls him every day. “It’s-”

“Emma,” he interrupts her happily. “God, how are you? How’s Henry? Is everything okay?”

The relief that floods her body is welcome, even if she didn’t realize how tense she was. “Yeah, everything’s fine with us. We’re down in Phoenix while I finish up a YouTube series.”

“That’s wonderful.”

“How about you guys?” she asks suggestively, settling her hip against the kitchen counter. “Heard through the grapevine that congratulations are in order?”

David chuckles. “Thank you. It was small, just us at the courthouse and family. Mary Margaret wanted to save some money and have a huge party instead without the trouble of an actual ceremony.” He sighs contently. “We got back from our honeymoon last week.”

“And how is marital bliss treating you two?”

“Perfectly.” And with that earnest sense of genuity he always manages to embody, David says, “She’s the love of my life and now I get to call her my wife.”

She can’t help the scoff that falls from her lips. He was always like this, even before he and Mary Margaret officially started dating. He just spewed chivalry helplessly and, just as uncontrollably, she always teased him back.

(Emma may not know how much time has passed since they’ve spoken, but falling back into old conversation habits makes her heart warm.)

“Aww, David, that’s so sweet, it makes me want to puke.”

“Ha, c’mon, you can’t expect me to say anything different.” They both laugh, and once they calm themselves, David asks, “So what has you calling me this late at night after so long?”

“Right, time zone, I forgot you two were on East Coast time.” She mentally scolds herself. Now she understands why he sounded a bit worried at the onset. It’s got to be close to 11 p.m. for him, and no good call comes that late at night.

“It’s fine, really,” he reassures her, “it’s not that late and we’re probably going to be up late anyways.”

Grimacing, and even physically recoiling, Emma mutters, “Gross.”

David sighs on the other end of the line. She can imagine him rubbing his forehead out of frustration. “Mary Margaret’s grading and I’ve got some pictures to edit.”

“Oh.” To be fair, she hadn’t explicitly been thinking about her friends crawling into bed together to dance the horizontal tango. Then again, what else do newlyweds do late at night?

Shaking her head to rid her mind of the image, she changes the subject to the real reason she dug so far into her contacts. “Well, Jefferson called me the other day.”

“Did he recruit you for the Maine trawling project?” he asks.

“Tried to. I still haven’t given him an answer yet.”

“I think it’s going to be fun,” David says. “I did a little bit of research on the town he wants to focus on and it’s…” He goes quiet before finding the word he wants: “Quaint.”

When he doesn’t explain further, she prompts him. “Meaning?”

“Small,” he says. “Real small. Everybody-knows-the-dirt-on-everybody small.”

“Oh,” she says softly. That could be both a blessing and a curse, given what’s happened to her in her life. She’s got secrets, just like everyone else, which could either stay excellently hidden or come out in a flash if the town’s anything like she’s imagining. The former would be her choice, but with all these strangers digging for information on the new folks in town…that latter one could be detrimental not only for her, but for Henry.

“It’s got its own harbor and a nice forest just outside of town,” David continues, oblivious to her inner turmoil. “We think it’d be a great place to raise a family. We’ve been in the city so long that we both kind of forget what it’s like to live like that.”

“Huh.” It’s all she can really say while processing her friend’s reasoning.

Seems solid enough.

“What’s keeping you from deciding, Emma?” David inquires. “Henry?”

She’s shaking her head before she realizes that his voice comes from the phone at her ear and not a physical being in front of her. “I told him about it and he didn’t say no off the bat, but…” Tongue poking out between her lips, she clucks at herself. “I feel bad. I’ve uprooted him too much in his life. I don’t want him to have to wait until college to make real friends.” And when she gets to the root of her problem, it hits her ton of bricks.

“I don’t want him to feel alone like I did,” she whispers.

“I’m sure he doesn’t, Emma.” Like it always was, David’s voice is calming. It keeps her from trying to strangle herself, her arm wrapping tightly around her waist. “He’s got you. And if you come out here, he’ll have us and Jefferson and Grace and the rest of the kids in town.” He pauses and she can’t tell if he’s trying to think of other benefits of this town or he’s run out of things completely. “If Henry says yes, then would you come?”

“Probably.” Emma shrugs and sighs. “I just want him to be happy, David.”

“I know, but don’t forget about your happiness as well,” he advises. That’s what he does: David always put things into perspective for her. “Look, I’ve gotta go, Emma. My wife is calling for me.”

Shuddering, Emma pushes off the counter and slowly makes her way back to Henry and his homework. “Ew, ew, I don’t want to know,” she mumbles. Then, more genuinely, she adds, “I’m glad you guys finally tied the knot. Tell Mary Margaret I say hi.”

“No problem. Good luck with the decision. Call me when you’ve made up your mind.”

“Okay. And David?” Emma hesitates to put her emotions into words, but if she doesn’t acknowledge the elephant on the line, she won’t be able to sleep soundly until she settles it. “Sorry I haven’t called in a while.”

She really is. It’s her fault, much like a lot of other things in her life, that they’ve gone so long without talking. Those first couple of weeks, maybe even months, after his graduation, David had tried to call her. Had called her maybe once a week, if not more. But the more time she spent with Henry, traveling around and looking for jobs to make ends meet, the less he tried to call until finally, one day, the calls stopped all together.  

“Nothing to apologize for. I’m just glad you finally did.”

“Me too,” she says with a small smile.

“Goodnight,” David bids her.

“Night.”

Her conversation leaves her in a weird state of content and confused. David has a point in everything he said. But then again, she’s been on the move – or may be more accurately, on the run – for so long that even attempting to settle down would harm more than help her.

She ponders her friend’s words for another silent moment before clapping her hands and approaching Henry. The apartment has only grown darker while she spoke with David, so now the kitchen light dangling above her son is a spotlight on his apparent struggle.

“So how goes the homework?” she asks.

Henry leans forward and taps his head against the table before lolling it back to look at her upside down. “My brain is fried, I’m dying, all the blood is going to my stomach,” he groans. Throwing an arm haphazardly in the air, he has the gall to scold her. “See, this is what you get when you feed your son ice cream for dinner.”

“Uh, no,” she laughs aloud. “This is what you get when you claim an entire large pizza for yourself.” Gently, Emma pushes his head back up and sits down next to him. She peers over at the journal before him, half written thoughts on the lines and little doodles in the margins. “C’mon, this looks like a good start. Talk to me. Talk me through it.”

As Henry begins explaining the prompt, she tries – really tries – to focus on it. She wants to help her son with his report, but David’s words and Jeff’s offer still simmer in the back of her mind.

Seems like Henry isn’t the only one who can’t mold his thoughts into coherent ideas tonight.