#and then gained his trust whatever then fucked him over by dumping him and dating his bestie?

[huggybug]

so i don’t follow tiktokers or anything but a few tiktoks came up on my for you page and holy shit charli damelio???? she deserves a round of applause for the drama she’s caused

[diaryofanemotionalblackgirl]

Ghosted??

3.20.24

I’m not sure what this is. I’m not sure if this will ever see the eyes of others. But if it does, this is real, I’m real, and they are real too. The purpose of this is to create an outlet for me and all my emotions. I have a condition, a condition where my emotions are so intense, I don’t think I can ever control them. Do I have emotional control? Yes, but this condition is so rare and real, I’m researching it now because there is no way I can go another year living like this. 

Here’s a story for you though: about how my feelings got hurt, once again. This time it’s okay. I think. Years ago I worked at Walmart, I had a crush on a maintenance associate. I told a friend and he hooked us up. I fell for him in that short amount of time. I was a virgin then, he ate the best pussy so far in my life. Still till this very day I think he’s my #1 head giver. 

            Anyways. This was years ago. We broke up, we were young. End of Story. Fast forward to today, I’m 27. He’s 29, we hit it off again. The same feelings, the same familiarity, the same feeling of home resurfaces and I’m reminded of how badly I wanted things to work all those years ago. It feels safer this time, it feels unreal, and it feels like end game. We argue but we communicate. We’re honest or so I hope we were. Then he ignores me. The one thing I hate. The one fear I have, he does to me. The night his location is cut off and the conversation goes as so;

Me

7:33pm

Baby why your location off

Me

7:34pm

:/

Me

7:36pm

Um ok

Him

7:40pm

I’m on the toilet

My Lo not off

Me

7:40pm

It just was….

I’m turning back over

Me 

8:11pm

y is u being super weird

I’m is like real confused rn

Me

8:18pm

Imma just talk to you another time. 

You been weird since you woke up 

and you not finna ruin my birthday.

 So whatever you got going on good fuckin luck

Me

8:46pm

lol.

Me

8:47pm

Sinceeeeeee when am I not

In your favorites

you……..lol

if you gone cut your location off then just unshare it

Me

8:48pm

You just pissed me the fuck off

Him

10:52pm

??

Before we cast judgement. His location was off and I sent a screenshot of it being off. I once was in his favorites but when I called, straight to voicemail. No his phone was not dead because my messages delivered. I thought that maybe he was sleep and I was over thinking it. I went with that I didn’t assume it was another woman I was assuming that he was being distant and pulling away from me.

            Now, maybe I could’ve handled things a little better. Maybe I don’t have control over my emotions. But the ache in my heart and the numbness in my hands let me know that this familiar feeling of being ghosted was occurring once again. So why am I writing about it because I need to release, I’m sad. I’m hurt. I’m not embarrassed and this time I’m prepared. The harsh reality is that my birthday is in days and I got dumped once again…

            Nobody prepares you for dating in your 20s and nobody prepares you for when your knocking on thirty and haven’t met a single candidate that fits your criteria. But honestly I’m not ready to be a wife. I’m a kid myself, I haven’t matured. It’s a blessing in disguise he ghosted me. 

            Now reality is; if he comes back and whispers sweet nothings, I will melt. 

But I must trust in God. I trust in God. This was unexpected but according to God he expected it. His plan for me is bigger than anything I can imagine. So why am I here?

This is merely an outlet. It may never reach a humans eyes, who knows.

I am a 27 year old virgin whose love life is a shit show. Whose life is a shit show, but I am grateful because it could be worse, I could be unintelligible. Instead I know better, I’m gaining control and I’m happy despite this obstacle. I’m happy I get to experience this and I am disappointed it ended so soon. I’ll miss him. I loved him, I will always have a love for him as I do any man who has ever had me vulnerable enough to be me. 

But maybe it is time to self-reflect, but I’m strong willed. I’ll allow myself 24 hours. To cleanse, to think, to release him. I’ll hope, I’ll wish and think that maybe he will contact me again. He won’t. So I hope you look back at this specific part, this piece right here because He absolutely won’t. And that is ok.

            And maybe there needs to be some accountability on my part. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe I pushed him away. This is a safe space. 

Anonymously L.A

[nightowlfandom]

Billy Loomis and Stu Macher x Reader- 27 (Part 2)

Hey beautiful people! SOOOO I got a comment on my last Scream imagine and they said...

ok but like a part 2 where we go picking them all off one by one and tell them what happened to (y/n) before we end them? and the revenge on the parents for it too? make them feel sorry for what they did and expose them to everyone. I mean not forcing but lightly tapping an idea

and....I AM IN LOVE...SO I GOT YOU BRAH 

READ PART 1?

CHECK OUT MY MASTERLIST HERE!

Okay so you know the drill, I will let you know when to proceed with caution.

LEGGO!

... (Picking up directly after the events of part 1)

“...My parents weren’t the most loving people around.” you stared down at your fingertips. “They were overbearing...very controlling...loved to gaslight me from time to time.” you felt a lump form in your throat. “After the Hanna thing, they tried to sent me to boarding school.”

You three sat in Stu’s basement. You sat cross-legged on the floor and Stu and Billy cleaned up the dead body. Stu had given you a rag to wipe the blood off your face and hands. 

“A while back before we all met...my parents weren’t too bad. Then Hanna came along and decided to ruin that for me too. She and her friends dragged me into the woods and beat me up...I was bleeding out everywhere...she told my parents I attacked her...she told them that I-..That I tried to kill her.” you shook your head. “My parents never looked at me the same...like they disowned me without saying they did.” you sniffed.

“What about the others?” Billy ceased his activities to stare at you. He was impressed how well you seemed to be taking everything. 

“ Dylan leaked my friend’s nudes, Jennifer is Hanna’s slave...she was Hanna Number 2 when she couldn’t torture anyone else. Rachel....I just hate Rachel, and Cameron...is my ex.” you explained. “There are others...many others.” you seethed. 

“And we’ll get to all of them.” Stu finished his job of tying Hanna’s legs together. “But first...how do you feel?”

“Like I just killed someone.” you half-joked, bringing your knees to your chest. “Why didn’t you guys tell me?”

“We didn’t want to scare you.” Billy reminded you. “We know how you are Y/N.”

“Still.” you pouted. “It would have been nice to know that you two were behind all this.” you stared at the floor. “Why didn’t you guys...y’know-”

“We wanted to...” Billy dusted himself off. “We tried...then you just had to charm us with that smile of yours.” he bit his lip as he smiled at the thought. “You just had to go and be adorable.”

There he was, standing with Stu hunched over a notebook of possible victims. They had agreed you’d be next, they really did. They had introduced themselves to you and gained your trust, but along the way, your kindness, your willingness to be so vulnerable around then...accepting them (especially Billy) for their flaws, they couldn’t...they wouldn’t.

“Can I help with anything?” you asked, standing to your feet. 

“Not unless you know a place to dump this body.” Billy replied. 

“There’s a lake behind Hanna’s house...” you recalled. “I saw it when my parents used to go over there for dinner.”

“Great!” Stu skipped over and took you in a hug. “So who do you wanna get first?”

“Me? You’re letting me choose?” you stared up at Stu who swore up and down you looked the most adorable you ever have, if that was even possible. 

“This is your list, isn’t it?” Billy casually strode over. He tilted your chin up at him. “Just let us take care of it.”

“...Dylan first.” you concluded. “It’s for my friend...he has to go.” you asserted. 

“As you wish princess.” 

...(The Next Day)

   You trudged away from your parent’s car, doing your usual habits of ignoring them as they saw you off. You saw Billy and Stu waiting for you on some benches. They glared behind you, obviously getting a good look of your parents. 

“Hey cutie.” Stu threw himself at you, hugging you super tight. “How’d you sleep?”

“Shitty...” you mumbled. “Guess who just caught word of Hannas’s...untimely demise.”

“Serves the bitch right.” Billy flicked his middle finger at your parents as they drove off. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Dylan throwing around a football with his friends. His gaze darted in your direction. He looked surprised to see you and Stu so close, so much so that he hesitated to throw the ball back to his friends. “Hey asshole, you got your turn. Hand her over.” Billy flicked Stu on the head as he pulled your out of Stu’s embrace.

“Oh you’re no fun.” Stu laughed, waving him off. Billy wrapped his arms around your waist, pulling you to his chest and gingerly trailing his fingers down your back. 

“Hey Y/N...” 

You paused your momentary happy moment when Dylan came jogging up. You pulled away from Billy and faced your friend’s ex-boyfriend. “What?”

“Um...Hey.” he did that douche-bag hair flip. “What’s up?”

“I’m just spectacular.” you grimaced. He was really talking to you like he wasn’t the reason your only other friend switched schools. “Need something?”

“Yeah. I wanted to invite you to my party tonight.”

‘I’d rather-” you began, only to realize the mega opportunity you’d receive. 

“Are your other friends coming?” you shifted all your weight to one side and pretended to absentmindedly twirl your hair. 

“Um...Y-yeah.” he nodded.

“Can my friends come?” you acted oblivious and dumb, the only language he and his friends seemed to understand when it came to women.

“Sure. They can come join the fun.” he winked. “Tonight, 8:00 o’clock.”

“Splendid, you winked. I’ll be there.” 

As Dylan returned to his friends, all of them laughing about the joke they thought you didn’t understand, Billy and Stu stood at your sides.

“You’re killer is showing, love.” Stu kissed the side of your head. “Easy now.” he laughed, even though he knew he was talking complete bullshit.

“I’m gonna have so much fun slitting that one’s throat.” Billy pointed to Rachel. “This is gonna be awesome.”

...(That Night)

You had managed to make it a few hours. Without completely losing your mind. Billy had taken it upon himself to put up him brooding angst-filled sadboi attitude and Stu showed up in his honorary pimp robe. 

Now you all were sitting in a circle, playing stupid games.

“Y/N...truth or dare?” Jennifer called on you next, noticing how quiet you had been.

“Kiss, Fuck, Or Kill. Stu Macher, Cameron Kent, and Dylan Bayle.”

With a bored grin, you looked her right in the eye. She dared you to say you would fuck her boyfriend, little does she know...

“I guess I’d have to kiss Cameron...” you began warmly, recalling how you two used to date. Gross... “And as much as I love pissing you off...I wouldn’t touch Dylan with a ten foot pole...so I’d have sex with Stu.”

A few wolf whistles from the guy chorused around the circle as a few guys pat Stu on the back. Your eyes looked over at Stu whose cheeks were tinted pink. He shot you a smile and a quick wink.

“And you know what that leaves?...I’d kill Dylan.” you smirked, only to put on a front again. Before anyone could say anything else, you all heard a phone ring. Coincidentally, the phone was right next to you. 

“Y/N, get that will you. Put it on speaker.”

“I got you.” you grabbed the phone. “Hello?”

“What number is this?”

“What number are you trying to reach?” you replied.

“I dunno...”

“Sure buddy.” you rolled your eyes as you hung up.

“Okay! Dylan!” Rachel drunkenly asked. “Truth or Dare!”

“Dare baby!” Dylan laughed.

“I dare you to go into the bedroom with Y/N and do something with her!” she laughed. “You can’t leave until you do something!”

“Did anyone ask my opinion on this?” you felt disgusted as the words left your mouth. How much longer were you gonna have to put up with this? “Stu, help me out!” 

“A dare’s a dare, babe.” he laughed as he took another swig of whatever. 

“Ugh!!” you grimaced as you stood up and followed Dylan. You made sure to lightly bump your shoulder against Stu’s as you walked. You two looked eyes momentarily, sharing a discrete smirk between eachother.

The door closed behind you. (PROCEED WITH CAUTION! READ MORE BELOW THE LINE BREAK)

...

You stood there, playing with your fingers as Dylan came up to you.

“You know Y/N...I’ve always liked you.”

“Oh really?” you asked shyly. “W-well why didn’t you tell me?” you half giggled half gagged.

“I couldn’t find the right words.” he reached out to touch your cheek.

Meanwhile downstairs, everyone laughed at the hidden camera footage they were watching. They couldn’t wait to post this to the school’s website. 

“Oh my god!” you screamed at you pointed behind Dylan. Everyone watched as a dark hooded figure creeped up behind Dylan and grabbed him buy the back of his head, digging a knife into his shoulder. Then he charged for you, stabbing you in the stomach...slowly but surely he creeped up to the camera, looking directly at it. “Nuh uh uh~” he sang before he punched the camera, causing the signal to break.

This caused everyone to scream bloody murder and attempted to scream.

Back in the bedroom, you had managed to hear the screaming. “Can I get up now?” you rolled over. “Pretending to die is so weird.”

“Allow me.” Billy walked over and helped you to your feet, ridding himself of his Ghostface mask. “You look good covered in fake blood.”

“Do I?” you fake pouted. Billy didn’t answer and instead kissed you. He held your face in his hands, gently moving his soft lips against yours. He would have went crazy is Dylan managed to get that far. He was glad that he could finally show how he felt about you in a personal way. 

“You do.” he bit his lip as he pulled away.

“W-what the fuck?!” Dylan, who was very much alive looked between you two. “You’re in on this.”

“Oh shut up!” you grabbed Billy’s knife and walked up to him. “Kyla Grayson, who is she?”

“Kyla Grayson?”

“ARE YOU AN ECHO?” you snapped. “Who is she?”

“I don’t know! I swear!” he tried to cower away from you.

“You don’t remember showing private pictures of a young impressionable freshman to your fucking friends?” you glared. “She trusted you...she liked you a lot...and because of you she had to move to a different county.” you raised the knife over your head. “Any last words?”

“SURPRISE!” Stu burst through the door, also dawning a Ghostface getup, only without the voice changer. He was dragging Jennifer and Rachel by the hair.

“You’re just in time for the show.” you said, not looking up from Dylan. 

“Y/N...y-you’re-”

“Don’t talk.” you kept your eyes on Dylan. “I’ll get to you soon.”

(Part 3 will be revenge against your parents)

[bandaged-writer]

hi!! since requests are open- can i have jealousy hcs for dazai, ranpo, tanizaki and chuuya with an s/o who’s friendly and doesnt really catch on to flirting? :0

Dazai Osamu

➤ Dazai doesn’t get jealous easily. He trusts you all the way to his bandages and knows how long it takes you to notice that someone is flirting with you. Before the two of you became a thing, Dazai had been excessively flirting with you only and always threw compliments your way such as “Ah, those earrings really compliment the color of your eyes, belladonna!” and you’d just say “I think so, too. Thanks,” before resuming your way of life. Yosano had to tell you that Dazai was looking at you with heart eyes, trying to score a date with you for 2 weeks at that time.

➤ He watches with an amused smirk when the person flirting with you starts getting frustrated. To Dazai, it’s just funny how the person becomes more desperate and the flirting becomes blatantly obvious, yet it’s like you’re immune unless it’s Dazai that does the flirting (yes, you got better at catching his advances). Eventually, Dazai will smoothly join the scene with his hand resting on your waist and pull you close to his side.

➤ “Thank you for looking after my belladonna while I had to use the bathroom, but we’re on a date. If you’d excuse us.”

➤ However, Dazai won’t pull the playful side if the person makes you uncomfortable or uses inappropriate pick-up lines. He knows you’re just too nice to tell the person to fuck off and would rather sit through the experience than potentially anger them.

➤ You can actually see the light in his eyes fading into nothing and his voice drops an entire octave. You’d only witnessed that side of Dazai one or two times, but you will never forget the goosebumps that covered your skin. “Put those paws of yours on her and you won’t see tomorrow come.”

➤ I can see Dazai getting somewhat jealous when it’s someone you have good chemistry with and/or if there’s some kind of romantic background; like someone you’d once gone out on a date with, was partner other and such. He’d stay attached to your side all the time, but not because he doesn’t trust you; he doesn’t trust that person.

➤ While you’re happily chatting away, Dazai is extra touchy in that situation. May it be his arm around your waist, his hand on your upper thigh or gently caressing your knee underneath the table while whispering sweet nothings in your ear. Ngl, he wants to fluster you a bit, just enough for it to be visible or audible. Dazai is a little shit in that situation and wants to make the person feel uncomfortable enough to leave.

➤ “Dazai, you what-?!” You’d slap his arm and blush furiously.

➤ “I don’t like the way they looked at you, my love,” Dazai would say pouting once you’re home and proceeds to suck some purple bruises into the skin of your neck, so that they wouldn’t look at you twice, again.

➤ Can and will continue if you liked what he was doing.

Ranpo Edogawa

➤ That man protects his candy better than his own life and you’re no exception. Sharing ain’t caring and he sure as hell isn’t having it when someone flirts with who belongs to him.

➤ Unlike Dazai, he can’t just watch and immediately sweeps in to stop whatever the person was about to do with both of his arms around you or you behind him. Depends on how badly it rubs Ranpo the wrong way.

➤ Yes, Ranpo’s aware of your overly friendly side and appreciated it. Even flirting with you is fun, because it takes you some time to get it and when you do, it’s the most adorable thing. However, it’s definitely not adorable when someone else tries to gauge that reaction out of you. It’s only for Ranpo to witness.

➤ “Who the hell are you?” Ranpo would say in a tone that would give away that he’s definitely jealous but quickly sigh and stop the person from answering by waving them off. “Have you ever heard of rhetorical questions? Of course, I don’t want to know who you are.”

➤ The type to deny he’s jealous and be all whiny about your accusations until you stop teasing him about it, hold his hand and reassure him. “I really look up to you, Ranpo. My eyes are always on you,” and Ranpo would deadass lose it, because that’s what you said when it was your first time joining him for a murder case and he had told you to watch him.

➤ Gets soft real fast and admits that he just doesn’t like anyone else hitting on you, saying that jealousy is indeed a lame feeling that he’s not fond of. “But you’re beautiful so I can understand, but it’s still so meh.”

➤ Pls give him a forehead kiss. He treasures them so much more than kisses on the lips, cheek, neck, etc. To Ranpo, it’s like a pinky promise.

➤ Will proudly wrap an arm around your shoulder, pull you flush to his side and wanders off to the next ice-cream shop while making walking a bit hard. According to Ranpo, ice-cream cools down heated feelings (pun intended) and it’s a great place for him to show off who’s his.

➤ Can and will use his deduction skills on that person if they’re making you uncomfortable or trying inappropriate things on you. “Ah, I see. You’ve already harassed several people and had to go to the police. Wouldn’t it be a shame if you had to get actually arrested this time?” 

➤ Has that proud and wicked smirk on his face when the person gets scared and makes a run for it. Ranpo will still report them though.

Tanizaki Junichiro

➤ Jealousy-wise, he’s something between Ranpo and Dazai. It really depends on the circumstances, how the person approaches you and all.

➤ If the person treats you with respect and kindness, Tanizaki will quickly inform them that you’re taken by him. He understands that you’re naturally friendly and figures that it’s also the vibe you give off, so he can’t blame anyone for finding that attractive. Tanizaki is just relieved that the person was kind enough to understand the position they were in and even wished the two of you a nice day/date.

➤ Still holds your hand a little bit tighter, though. 

➤ “Wait, did you just get jealous?” It’d hit you out of nowhere once the scene replays in your head and Tanizaki would blush ever so slightly. Maybe he was a bit jealous, but not to a high extent. He’d rather call it protective. “Ah, [Name], it’s nothing like that, I promise.”

➤ Now, y’all have seen that man protecting his sister and he protects you just as much as Naomi. Once the person is creepy and fishy, it’s game over and it’s like a switch turned within him.

➤ When you get uncomfortable and feel bothered by whoever’s flirting with you, Tanizaki takes over faster than you could ask him for help. “I don’t care who you are or what you’re trying to achieve here, but bend even a hair of hers and you’ll severely regret it.” His eyes are dull, voice firm and serious as he gets his point across. 

➤ Feels genuinely jealous when you seemingly ignore him for someone else, though. None of Tanizaki’s tries of joining the conversation are successful, not even him touching your hand or being a bit more touchy than usually gains your attention. It’s then that his voice sounds a little bit more lifeless and gains your observance. “[Name], weren’t we on a date?” You know you messed up.

➤ You kindly say goodbye to whoever’s flirting with you and ask Tanizaki what’s wrong - it’s just not his kind and easily flustered self

➤ “You seemed to be having fun with them, don’t you?”

➤ “Tanizaki, they were just being nice-”

➤ Give him the puppy eyes and everything is forgiven, though. Tanizaki could never, in his entire life, be genuinely mad at you. Yes, he might be upset that you ignored him for good 5 minutes straight, but that’s it.

Chuuya Nakahara

➤ Chuuya rarely gets jealous. He puts 110% of his faith and trust in you and knows that you do the same. A relationship that’s loyal to the bone.

➤ He can stand it for a little while when e.g. Tachihara is getting a little too friendly and touchy with you. Of course, you return the gesture, believing that he’s just being nice to you and not actually flirting. After all, no one but Chuuya had ever really flirted with you or so you believed.

➤ We all know that man’s temper is as short as his height, so it wouldn’t take long for him to snatch you away from Tachihara and dump a load of work on him. “Chuuya, what is all that work for?!” Tachihara would obviously complain, not quite understanding why all of a sudden he was assigned to pretty lame jobs. Chuuya just waves him off, pulling you into his side and temper tested. “You don’t flirt with taken people. If you do, you’ll simply have to carry the consequences.” 

➤ Tachihara wasn’t aware you were in a relationship with Chuuya. After all, being an executive was a lot of work, he often came home late and your paths with Chuuya didn’t cross as often as you’d like, but y’all still make it work. 

➤ At that moment, Chuuya makes an effort to see you more often during the day, have you closer by his side and let people know that you’re his and his alone. He’ll then bring you along to meetings, lets you sit on his lap when it’s just paperwork he has to finish for Mori and holds your hand at the mafia headquarters.

➤ It’s not like Chuuya has never held your hand. He just never thought of it as necessary and you never complained about it either, so he assumed it was okay.

➤ Chuuya introduces you to Kouyou, knowing that word will get around faster. Now, Kouyou isn’t a woman of gossip but she will assume that Mori is aware of the relationship Chuuya shares with you and casually goes “Chuuya’s partner is pretty cute, don’t you think so, Mori-san?” and Mori stops whatever he’s doing, “You mean like a..relationship?”

➤ Mori will spread word like wildfire. Elise scolds him.

➤ “Now everyone knows you’re mine, shrimp,” Chuuya pats your head and messes up your hair affectionately. You can’t help the huff slipping your lips and look up at him with a questioning look. “Big reaction for someone so small.”

➤ “cOME HERE, YOU LITTLE-”

➤ The next day everyone knows about your relationship with Chuuya and knows better than to hit on you. Not only did Mori run his mouth, but your neck was pretty colorful and Chuuya was extra cocky that day.

[redhoodssweetheart]

Still Star-Crossed Part One

Sequel to Star-Crossed Lovers, please read Sad Ending Version Two for this to make sense) 

Pairing: Jason Todd x Fem!Reader

Requested: No

Word Count: 1.5K

Warnings: Swearing, angst, more to be added later

Description:  Jason’s been gone for nearly two years.  Y/N has taken up the Red Hood mantle, but things are about to become complicated.

A/N: *Insert devil emoji grinning here* 

Two years.

That’s how long it had been since Jason had passed.  Two years and Y/N was now wearing the Red Hood mask.  It had only felt right to take up where he had left off.  She couldn’t sit idly by while people suffered as she had all those years ago.  Red Hood had helped her, loved her, and while she may never find love again she still wanted to help.

Dick was beside her, the two of them sitting with their feet dangling over the side of the building.  They were eating something from the diner they had just rescued from some muggers.  “It’s too quiet tonight,” he said and she instantly smacked him.

“Dude now we’re going to be swamped with work,” she frowned at him.  “That’s what people who work as like cops or EMTs say and then all hell breaks loose.”  As if on queue an explosion happened.  “I hate you.”

They dumped their food into the garbage bin below and Y/N put her helmet back on before they raced to their bikes to see what the damage was.  “Oracle,” she heard Dick say over the comms.  “There was an explosion near the Dodson’s diner, can you tell us what happened?”

There was a moment of silence and then they heard Barbara’s voice, “It looks like Gotham City Bank is being robbed.  Joker’s goons.”

“I really hate you, Nightwing,” Y/N said as she sped up to make it through a yellow light.  “You just had to say everything was quiet.”

“That explosion would have happened whether I had said what I said or not,” Dick fired back.

The two of them arrived on the scene and were greeted with the face of Joker who was laughing hysterically.  “Well look at what we have here,” he said as he swung a crowbar back and forth.  “It looks like the Bats have come to play tonight boys!”

“Don’t you ever just want to shoot this motherfucker in the head?”  She asked Dick as they were surrounded by Joker and his men.

She heard him sigh, “All the time.”

“We’re taking him to Arkham though, aren’t we?”

“Yep.”

She pulled out her guns and said, “I’ll take the goons on the left and you take the ones on the right.”  He merely nodded and leapt into action while she shot tranq darts into the ones that were running toward her.  If they got too close she switched to hand to hand and cracked them on the skull with the butt of her gun.

The entire time they were fighting one another Joker was watching and laughing.  The sick bastard was enjoying this way too much and Y/N gritted her teeth as she took out yet another one of Joker’s men.  When they were all on the ground she pointed her gun at Joker but he merely smiled that creepy smile and said, “I’d love to stay and play, but I’ve got a date that I just can’t miss.”  He pulled something out of his pocket and before she could shoot him he tossed whatever it was onto the ground, smoke flaring up around him.  

Y/N and Dick staggered back, coughing and fanning in front of their faces, the Joker’s laugh still echoing in their ears.  “Should we chase after him?”

Dick went to answer her, but Bruce’s voice over the comms made them pause.  “Red Hood, Nightwing, return to the cave,” that tone made both of them stand straighter. “Now.”

The two of them shared a look knowing what that voice meant. Something had happened. They sped back to the cave and when they entered there was a commotion. Barbara was wheeling toward them, a pensive look on her face as she said, “Y/N, please don’t freak out.”

“Why the hell is she wearing the Hood?!” A familiar voice snapped. She jerked her head toward an angry Jason. “Am I a girl on this earth?”  She removed her hood and the mask, letting him see her face for the first time.  Her mouth hung open slightly.

“Jason,” Bruce’s hand landed on his shoulder. “This is Y/N, she’s the new Red Hood.”

She stepped forward, a hand outstretched to touch him but he jerked back. “Jay, it’s me. It’s Y/N.”  She looked helplessly at Bruce.  How the hell was he here?  How did he not seem to know who she was? 

Jason looked at Bruce, “She doesn’t deserve the honor of wearing that Hood.”

Anger coursed through her veins. This wasn’t her Jason. “You don’t know what I deserve,” she hissed.  Turning she stalked back toward her bike, “You know where I’ll be.”

“Y/N,” Dick said helplessly but let her go. Before turning back to Bruce, “What the hell is going on here?”

“Barry accidentally traveled to another earth and picked up the Jason from there.  We’re trying to figure out how to send him back.”  That was the last thing she heard before she got on her bike and sped away.  Another Jason.  Not hers.  Of course, not hers.  Life wasn’t that kind to her.

Jason crossed his arms over his chest, “I still want to know why the fuck she has the mantle.”

Dick clenched his fists, “You know what Jason, I don’t think you deserve to know what she’s been through in order to gain our trust and that mantle.”  Dick left, leaving Barbara, Bruce, and Jason in the cave. 

“Come on I’ll show you to your room,” Bruce said at last steering Jason up to the main portion of the house. 

Y/N stumbled through the door of her apartment feeling like she couldn’t breathe.  She sucked in lungfuls of air and collapsed to the floor and before letting out a scream.  Tears welled up in her eyes and she slammed her hand on the floor repeatedly.  “Why?! Why?! Why?!”

All she wanted to do was curl up on the floor and cry, she wanted to turn on her heartbreak playlist and just sob to the depressing tunes.  She wanted to slam her fist through a wall.  How was the universe this cruel to her?  How could it take one of the best things away from her and then give it back but only a new version?  Something that would never fully be hers.

She felt around in her pocket for her phone and dialed the number she knew by heart, “Y/N, what’s wrong?”

“Clark,” she sobbed.  “It’s Jason…. he’s back.”

She heard him shift, “How?”

“Barry,” she still couldn’t believe it.  “Bruce said that he went to another earth and brought the Jason from there to here.”  She let out another sob, “He’s not my Jason.”

Clark felt so helpless at that moment, “Y/N, I’m so sorry.  I don’t know what to say.  I don’t know how to make it better.”  He knew how hard she had taken Jason’s death.  “Do you want to come back to Metropolis for a few days?  Get out of Gotham while he’s there?”

She considered his offer for a moment, “I don’t know.  I’m needed here.  Joker got away and he said something about meeting someone.  The others may need me, but I’ll come if things get too overwhelming or they don’t fix this soon.”

Clark knew she was going to be stubborn about this.  “All right, but the offer still stands.  Lois and I would be more than willing to let you stay here.”  

She thanked him and hung up the phone, pushing herself off the floor and heading for the shower.  She needed time.  Time to think and process what had happened that night.

Jason stepped into the room that Bruce had shown him to.  He looked around and noted that it wasn’t that much different from the one on his earth.  Everything here seemed the same except for the fact that he wasn’t here and some woman was wearing the Red Hood mask.  He had felt angry when he saw her in it.  He didn’t even know her so what made her think that she could wear it?

Then he had seen her face and it was as if he had seen a ghost.

Walking over to the desk he noticed several pictures in pretty frames sitting on top of the surface.  He picked one of them up and saw that it was him and her.  They were lying in bed, she was burying her face into his neck and he was smiling.  Then the next one had him and her in an unfamiliar living room, she was kissing his cheek.

“The other you loved her,” a voice said behind him.  He turned and saw Cassandra standing there.  “He died trying to keep her safe.  She’s been through a lot and she doesn’t need someone with his face telling her that she doesn’t deserve what she has.  Because she’s paid her dues and then some.”

“We all have our sob stories, Cass,” he said with a frown.

“Yeah we do, but at least you didn’t have the love of your life die in your arms,” then she turned and walked away.  

Jason looked back at the photos of them and there was a pang in his chest.  It seemed the two of them had mirrored one another in ways he didn’t realize.  

Because she had died in his arms on his earth as well.

He hung his head and cursed himself.

[not-close-to-straight]

Sugar, Sugar (Final)

Ho ho holy long break between chapters but we are back and ready to wrap this plotless thing up! 

MASTERLIST HERE

Enjoy! ***************

The door at Sweet Peach Bakery swished open, the bell tinkling merrily and Tony checked on the cooking lemon curd before calling, “Be right there! Two seconds!” 

“No rush, I’m sure you’re making something delicious.” 

Tony went very still, gripped at the counter top until his fingers went white and then forced his voice to professional when he greeted, “Oh hello. Natasha, isn’t it? I remember you from the other day at Bucky and Steve’s.” 

“Mmm.” Natasha pursed her lips and looked the little baker over. “I’m sure you do. Have you spoken to either of our favorite beefcakes?” 

“No.” Tony grabbed a lemon and zested the hell out of it, taking his aggravation out on the citrus rather than the redhead. “But you know that already, or you wouldn’t be here. And you aren’t the sort of person to bow to pressure, so you aren’t here because they made you come which means you are here for the sole reason of buying cupcakes, so in that case--” 

He took a deep breath and sent her a smile. “What can I get for you? The special today is raspberry lemon strudel.” 

“Wow. You are at least ten times more observant than that ruffled apron would lend me to believe.” Natasha leaned over the counter and studied him curiously, and Tony’s dark eyes flashed in brief annoyance before he replied, “And you are every bit the bitch that particular hairstyle makes you out to be. Do you want cupcakes or not?” 

Natasha’s pretty mouth fell right open and Tony went back to aggressively zesting. “I came here to apologize.” 

“Well you’re terrible at it, so start over.” 

“Fair enough. I’ll start over.” the redhead inhaled, exhaled then said, “I won’t apologize for telling Steve and Bucky about your past. Those two are some of my favorite people in the entire world, my closest friends and since I know they are halfway past stupid in love with you, I’m not about to let a perfect stranger lie to them, are we clear?” 

“This is your apology?” Tony slammed the stripped lemon into the juicer and forced it through. “Great job.” 

“I would break a strangers heart and face a dozen different times before letting one of my friends be hurt in any way, shape or form.” Natasha said calmly. “And I won’t apologize for that. But I will apologize for how I did it. I should have come to you privately and tried to understand who you were--” 

“-- and I would have offered you a cupcake and told you to fuck off because you and I are perfect strangers.” Tony interrupted, and Natasha smiled the littlest bit. “So instead you brought it up in front of a room full of strangers, decided to throw it in my face with a few key words that brought back two years worth of really shitty memories. Do you know what I’ve done the last three days? Eat low fat ice cream. That’s how upset I was.” 

“Low fat ice cream sounds incredibly depressing and I’m sorry for it.” Natasha agreed. “But unfortunately when it comes to broaching uncomfortable topics, my skills lie with sussing out terrible people not dealing with less than malicious bakers who just don’t trust anyone enough to open up yet.” 

“Your skills?” Tony scooped up a bit of lemon curd and tasted it, then slanted a sideways look at Natasha and offered her a bite as well. “What is it exactly that you do?” 

“Data collection.” Natasha answered evasively. “This is the best lemon...thing... I’ve ever tasted.” 

“Of course it is.” Tony took the spoon back. “And by data collection you mean you’re a spook. My Auntie Peggy says the same thing when people ask. That’s why you were able to find so much information on me even though all the records are over in Italia and not much more than out of print tabloids that don’t bother keeping published records.” 

“Whatever you want to believe.” she nodded. “And I won’t ask what happened or for further clarification cos to be quite honest, I don’t care. All I care about is whether or not you’re going to break Bucky and Steve’s heart.” 

“It’s more likely that they will break my heart.” Tony said tightly, and dumped a pile of lemon zest into his mixing bowl. “You might not want further clarification but you read enough to know I was hopelessly in love and absolutely idiotic with how I dealt with the break up. Isabella and Ranieri were fine afterwards. Clearly I was not.” 

“Were you ever going to tell Steve and Buck?” 

“I had no intention of taking this past a hookup, so I can honestly say no, I didn’t plan on ever telling them.” A block of cream cheese and butter joined the lemon zest in the bowl. “And at this point, I never plan on talking to them again so--” 

“Don’t be dumb.” Natasha peered into the bowl curiously. “Steve and Bucky have been practically feral these last few days waiting to talk to you. I know you told them to give you some space right after I ripped the proverbial band aid off, and trust me. I’ve seen an agitated Bronco or two in my day but I’ve never seen him or Big and Blond this agitated. Call them.” 

“Nope. Don’t think I will.” Tony turned the mixer on and moved to his other table to line a cupcake pan. “I’ve been feeling like maybe things were getting too commitment-y and this is as good a chance as any to just cut the ties and move on.” 

“...wait, are you serious?” she blinked at the baker a few times. “Are you serious? You’d walk away from those two just because it’s feeling like a relationship? Why?!” 

“I’m sorry, did you not see the file of my mistakes?” Tony plunked a scoop of crumbly crust into the bottom of each paper and flattened it out. “The last thing I need to do is get involved with another couple! Falling in love once was bad enough, here I am halfway through doing it a second time and I’m not looking forward to getting my heart smeared across the front pages of another half a dozen tabloids. Leave it alone.” 

“Tony--” 

“Remember how you said we were perfect strangers?” Tony interrupted. “Well perfect strangers don’t offer unsolicited advice. Would you like a cupcake or not? Take one and get out.” 

“Fine.” Natasha stuffed a few dollars in the tip jar, then a few more towards the cash register. “Thank you. Should I tell the boys anything?” 

“Nope.” 

“Alright then.” 

Natasha left the shop as quietly as she’d entered, then immediately reached for her phone. 

From Natasha: Your favorite baker is at least halfway in love with both your dumb asses and is terrified of getting hurt again. Don’t screw this up.

From Natasha: Also, he’s got lemon cupcakes today and I think I gained seven pounds just eating the frosting. Literally amazing. Marry him.

From Steve: How did you figure out he’s half in love with us?

From Bucky: WTF you went and got cupcakes with out us? Bring me a one.

From Steve: Focusing on the wrong thing, Buck. 

From Bucky: Sure am. Tasha I’m surprised he didn’t try to kill you. What the hell were you doing visiting the bakery?

From Natasha: Data Collecting. 

From Bucky: Riiiiiight. So. Half in love, huh?

From Natasha: And Terrified

From Steve: We’re on it.

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

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

“Welcome to Sweet Peach, I’ll be right with--” Tony slowed to a stop when he saw who was waiting in the lobby. “--you? Hi. What are you guys doing here?” 

“Heya Tony.” Steve’s smile was easy and soft and way to charming for how much it twisted at Tony’s heart. “How are you?” 

“Still wondering why you’re here.” Tony was too frazzled to even be polite, folding his arms and then unfolding them, playing with his apron and then smoothing it back down. “What are you doing here?” 

“Came by to get some sweet treats.” Bucky eyed the lemon cupcakes greedily. “And you know, some of that sweet peach you’re hiding in those leggings over there.” 

“Bucky!” Steve hissed. “Tony, what Bucky means is--” 

“--nah, I stand by what I said.” Bucky vaulted over the counter and came up close to Tony, wrapping both arms around the baker’s little waist and hauling him in for a long kiss. “Missed you these last few days, you doin’ okay?” 

“I’m--I’m--I’m--” Tony’s hair was hilariously rumpled post kiss, eyes wide and maybe even a little scared. “I’m fine. But what are you doing?” 

“I dunno what Bucky is doing, but our original plan was to come over and ask you out on a date.” Steve gave up on using words and pushed Bucky away so he could swoop a kiss onto Tony’s lips too. “Missed you, sweetheart. How are you feeling?” 

“Very confused.” Tony touched his mouth where it tingled after Steve’s kiss. “You’re here to ask me on a date?” 

“Well yeah.” Bucky dug his finger into a glob of frosting and mm-hmm’d in interest. “We’ve done the three months of hooking up, we’ve learned a bunch about each other and broken the ice and various surfaces while nekkid. Next step is a first date, right?” 

“What Bucky means is--” 

“-- would’ya stop tryna correct what I say?” Bucky kicked out at Steve in frustration. “I mean what I say, damn it!” 

“What Bucky means is--” Steve dodged the next kick. “-- is that we want to make us official and we’re here to ask if you want to do the same. You want to date us for real, honey? Put a label on all this and maybe just move right on into all sortsa other good things?” 

“Eh, I would’a said it better.” Bucky kept eating the frosting. “Babydoll what is this, lemon and lavender?” 

“And vanilla.” Tony corrected. “But wait, you-- after you read what happened in Italy? You still want to date me?” 

“We read what happened.” Steve swallowed and shared a quick look with Bucky. “You fell in love and got into a serious relationship, they changed their mind and broke up with you, you reacted about as well as anyone would in that situation.” 

“Came stateside t’get away from it all.” Bucky finished. “Opened the best little bakery ever and managed to get two hunky beef-cake types to be all sorts of in love with your peach.” 

“BUCKY!” 

“And the rest of you!” the big brunette was quick to add. “In love with your sweet peach and the rest of you!” 

“You guys are--” Tony audibly gulped. “You guys are in love with me?” 

“But we aren’t saying anything like that until you’re ready.” Steve held up both hands peacefully. “We’re gonna start at square one. We’re friends, we’ve already done all the ‘get to know you’ stuff, now’s the time when we ask you out on a first date to see if a relationship would work.” 

“You guys are in love with me.” The baker whispered. “Really?” 

“Don’t matter if we are or not.” Bucky shook his head. “What matters is whether or not you’re gonna let us take you out for some winin’ and dinin’ and peaching this weekend.”

“...what about Italy?” Tony asked slowly. “Aren’t you going to ask me why they dumped me? Why I spiraled out of control?” 

“The most we care about Italy is whether or not you’ll scream various Italian things the next time we get you in bed.” Steve grinned, and Bucky added, “And whether or not you’re really okay after it, or if you need s’more time. That’s it.” 

“Oh.” Tony plucked at the ruffled on his apron anxiously. “Just like that? You aren’t going to ask a bunch of questions or think I’m unstable or-- or whatever?” 

“M’gonna ask a bunch of questions about how much of this frosting I can eat before throwing up, and how much it would cost to hire you as a full time sweetie pie so you just feed it to me all day.” Bucky felt around for a ladle and dug it into the frosting bowl. “Stevie makes good money, he can afford to pay you for me.” 

“Thanks for that.” Steve scowled at his boyfriend. “Tony, you tell us you aren’t willing to take a chance on us as a couple and we’ll keep doing what we’ve been doing. Or you don’t want to do that either, that’s okay. We’ll figure it out. All that stuff Tasha showed us-- we don’t care, alright? Life can mess us up and sometimes we move on, sometimes we don’t. We aren’t upset or-- or even curious, really.” 

“You aren’t curious?” Tony asked doubtfully. “At all?” 

“Sugar, the last thing I wanna know is how bad someone else hurt ya.” Bucky said around a mouthful of lavender and lemon. “All we wanna know is how we can fix it and make sure you never look that sad again.” 

Finally Tony gave them a tiny, tiny smile. “Really?” 

“C’mere.” Steve brought Tony back in for a sweet, sweet kiss, brushing his knuckles just lightly over Tony’s cheek and tangling his other hand in the apron strings so Tony wouldn’t pull away too soon. “Tony. All that sort of stuff about Italy and whether or not we’re gonna work out in a relationship-- that isn’t first date stuff. That’s like, fifteenth date stuff we talk about when we hand over a spare key to the apartment and we start planning vacations. We don’t have to talk about anything yet.” 

“Plus, we ain’t that good at talking anyway.” Bucky chimed in. “So we could first-through-fifteenth date it up and then talk about it when you feel better and when you believe us when we say it don’t matter.” 

“I think I’d like that.” Tony finally admitted and both Bucky and Steve lit up with excitement. “I think I could handle a--a first date. With the two of you.” 

“Sounds like the best first date of my life.” Steve grinned and Bucky whooped, pumping his fist in the air. 

“When-- um when do you want to go?” Suddenly shy, and far too adorable, Tony bit at his lip and peeked up at them through his lashes. “On our date, I mean. When should we go?” 

“Should be a proper date, so let’s schedule for Friday night.” Steve said promptly. “We’ll make reservations someplace nice, pick you up here at the shop or at your place if you prefer that. Drinks first, then dinner. We can go for a walk through the park around the fountain afterwards and share a sweet but chaste kiss before saying goodnight.” 

“Sweet but chaste?” Tony’s dark eyes twinkled with laughter at the same time Bucky repeated scandalized, “Sweet but chaste?!” 

“Should be a proper date.” the blond repeated. “But uh-- there’s no sayin’ what could happen on a second or third date, huh?” 

“Huh?” Bucky waggled his eyebrows at Tony. “Right? No sayin’ what could happen!” 

“I guess not.” Tony’s cheeks were flushed bright with excitement and maybe even relief. “You guys are sure, though. Really?” 

“Really really, sweet thing.” Bucky finally put the frosting down and motioned Tony back for a quick kiss and then a long hug. “You and us-- we’re just fine.” 

“Thank you.” the little baker melted into Bucky’s arms, finally let the stress of the last several days just wash away. “Oh my god, thank you.” 

“We got time to figure it out.” Steve came over and hugged them both up close. “It’s just a first date, nothing more complicated than dinner and drinks and a goodnight kiss. You wanna talk, we can talk. Otherwise we’ll just do what we always do and uh-- maybe yell at Tasha a little bit for making you so upset.” 

“She was just looking out for you guys.” Tony’s words were muffled in Bucky’s shoulder. “I’d contemplate murder for anyone I thought was messing with Pepper or Rhodey, maybe I should be glad all she did was data collect.” 

“Yeah, we’ve really got to figure out exactly what she does.” Bucky whispered and Steve just laughed a little and squeezed them tighter and the three settled in to enjoy the quiet, the moment, together. 

But then--

“Wait, if the first date is going to end in a chaste kiss, does that mean I have to wait till date three for sex?” Tony wrinkled up his nose in complaint. “Because that doesn’t seem very fun.” 

“Damn Stevie, he’s right.” Bucky’s eyes went comically wide. “That doesn’t seem fun at all! I feel like there’s somethin’ we could do about that.” 

“Bucky.” Steve tried to sigh, but Tony interrupted, “No, I think the Bronco has a point! I have two perfectly good couches--ACK!” 

Tony shrieked when he was suddenly, unceremoniously beef-cake less, both Steve and Bucky all but bolting for the back room and pulling at their clothes as they went and calling for him to hurry up. 

“Okay!” Tony burst out laughing when Bucky’s shirt ended up flung over the industrial size dough mixer. “Okay, just give me two seconds to get all this put away!” 

He hurried around the kitchen wrapping up the untouched frosting and cooled cake, then tossed his apron away, turned some music on and sashayed back towards his office singing softly, “Honey, ahhh sugar sugar! You are my candy boy! And you got me wanting youuuuu---!” 

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

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

“What, so those two dorks just showed up and said they wanted to take Tony on a first date after three months of juicin’ the hell outta that peach?” Clint was shoveling bacon into his mouth at a truly alarming rate, and Sam smacked him upside the head before snatching the plate back. “Ow! Damn it!” 

“Yeah, apparently, they decided on a real traditional first date complete with chaste kiss and Tony went for it.” Sam ignored Clint’s grabby fingers and passed the plate to Valkyrie. “It must’ve went well cos they texted me about skipping group breakfast. Something about lavender and lemon frosting and Bucky not being willing to put it down.... I dunno. Sounds like kinky baker sex to me.” 

“I’m just glad my data collecting didn’t ruin anything.” Natasha sipped at her coffee and cut her eyes towards Bucky and Steve’s bedroom door. “I do feel bad he was so upset but...” 

“...but not enough to keep it a secret from your best friends.” Val finished. “No one blames you, Tash. Specially not since it worked out.” 

“Must’a really worked out if they aren’t out here yelling at us for breaking in and eating their breakfast food.” Clint finally got the bacon back. “Think they spent the night at Tony’s?” 

“They said a chaste--” 

“Yeah, when was the last time you saw anything chaste about the Bronco and Steve?” Sam cut in. “No way. My guess is they spent the night at Tony’s cos they would definitely be out here shouting at us for taking the bacon and making a mess in their--” 

“EDWARD ANTHONY CARBONELL STARK!” The front door to the apartment burst open and everyone in the kitchen ducked and screamed-- or rather, everyone except for Natasha who whipped a knife out of nowhere and then just as quickly tucked it away when she saw who had come in. 

“TONY!” The Colonel James Rhodes didn’t even look at the group as he stomped past headed for the bedroom. “YOU PUT YOUR GODDAMN PANTS ON AND COME OUT HERE AND TELL ME WHY YOU BUTT DIALED ME DURING YOUR HOOK UP LAST NIGHT?!” 

“Good morning.” Next through the door was Pepper, tall and beautiful and apparently wildly amused by the whole scene. “Nice to meet you all. I’m assuming Tony is in the bedroom with Steve and Bucky?” 

“Uhhh---” Valkyrie’s jaw about hit the ground. “I um--” 

“I TOLD YOU LAST TIME THIS HAPPENED THAT IF I HAD TO LISTEN TO YOUR NASTY ASS DURING A HOOK UP ONE MORE TIME---”! 

“Rhodey!” Tony was shrieking with laughter, Bucky and Steve shrieking with fear when the Colonel kicked in the bedroom door. “Rhodey, I’m sorry! You are my top contact in my phone, I can’t help the butt dials!” 

“YOU WILL HELP THE BUTT DIALS OR SO HELP ME GOD--!” 

“So.” Pepper snagged a piece of bacon off the plate. “How is your morning going?” 

“Eh. Better than theirs.” Natasha decided, and everyone went right back to eating. 

“Honey Honey, how you thrill me.” Clint sang as he poured syrup on his waffle. “Uh huh, honey honey!” 

“No singing Clint.” Sam warned, and Clint protested, “Tony sings!” 

“If you had a butt like Tony, we’d let you sing.” Natasha countered and Clint gasped, “I am hurt and offended.” 

“You are neither of those things, and your butt is fantastic.” Valkyrie informed him. “But lets leave the singing to the sweet peach, huh?” 

“Fine.” Clint grumbled. “As long as my butt is as good as Tony’s.” 

“Aw. Sure it is, honey. Sure it is.” 

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

SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THE FIC!

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

@thanossucks @atomicfandombomb @thebuckybrigade @fanfic-up-to-my-tits @starknakedsluts @basiad @everything-is-applepie @kimstark @tulipsnbigcats @in-umbra-gratia @local1dreamer @igotsuckedintothevoid @ahufflepuffnannywriter

@ships-galore @ceealaina @izziebladez @cwar1864 @hausoffro @lookuplaughing @tonystarkisanangel @multishippinglife @girlnic @iam93percentstardust @water-colouredmemories @paranormalmoonlight5 @igotloki @moosette05 @wayward-student-philosopher @kaz-brekkers-gloves @atomicfandombomb 

[carolineworld]

10-12-2020 The Ferris Wheel FIC

 IN AO3

Thursday, December 10th, 2020  

Driving to this place feels weird. It’s his second year in University, he’s what in America they could say as a Sophomore, he’s very much an adult now. Going back to his old high school makes him feel weird like he doesn’t belong there, but that’s what it takes to have a girlfriend that is finishing high school. And if feeling weird for a while is the cost of seeing her in person for the first time in four weeks, then he’ll take it. 

Now that he thinks about it, this whole situation of waiting for her in his car brings back flashbacks. It takes him back to when no one could know about them, that was a month ago, but he’s thinking about the early days when he was still in high school and their relationship wasn’t fucked up, at least not yet. 

But now it’s different. He’s waiting for her in his car, yes, but because it’s cold outside and he wants to be cozy, so he’s staying inside his black Tesla, with the heating on and listening to a nice song. Another different thing is that everyone knows about them. After getting back together they stayed in a secret relationship for a bit, to make sure that nobody from the outside could fuck them up and to gain trust and build a healthy, solid, and strong relationship that could battle the obstacles that could come. 

And they are, and they did. They learned to communicate in a much healthier way, they worked very hard to strengthen their trust in themselves, in each other, in them, and they learned from their past mistakes. So now that everything is done and still working fine, they are out and public.

Being in University and having a girlfriend that is still in high school has good and bad things. The good things are that he can help her with most things she’s studying. It also helps the fact that it differentiates their social groups and personal interests, even though he’s quite happy that she gets along pretty well with his friends and he does with hers.

But the bad things are kind of bad. Like the mild jealousy, or frustration, like she likes to call it, that they experienced a few times when college boys, and girls, don’t understand the concept of a monogamous relationship and a no cheating policy. And it’s even worse when his finals week is just before hers and they have to spend a couple of weeks apart because of studying.

And that brings him to this moment. Zoë’s finals week has just finished and here he is, picking her up to go to have lunch and spend some quality time together after four painful weeks of studying and missing her.

That is why, when he sees her with her backpack on one shoulder and a big bag on the other one, her blue beret and a huge scarf that he can recognize as his and her baby blue face mask, he cannot help but smile. He gets out of the car to grab her bag and put it in the truck, while she gets in the passenger seat and takes off her mask, putting it in her school bag.

With his arm behind her headrest and a small “hello”, they share a quick and sweet kiss, resting their foreheads together afterward.

“I missed you so much these past weeks, you know that?” he says, massaging the back of her neck, whispering it close to her lips.

She has her eyes closed, and she’s leaning to his hand, but he can point at the exact moment the mischievous thought crosses her mind and her eyes open with a sassy spark. “We talked every night, and you said the same thing every time we did.”

“What, am I not allowed to miss you?” two can play this game.

Grabbing his hand in hers and putting them in her lap, she looks at him and says sweetly: “Yes, I was just joking”

Once the seat belts are securely tied and he has told her that they were going to have lunch at his house, cause he has cooked something nice for them, she asks if she can change the radio station to a more pop one so they can a have a karaoke ride, making him decide to take the long ride home. 

Karaoke rides are something they have discovered quite recently. Early on in their relationship, his car was mostly for makeout sessions. Even in their first summer together, when they would go on little trips, they would mostly talk and tell stories about their friends or their past. But one day, after getting back together and getting back home from a date at their lake, Senne began to sing to a song that was playing on the radio and they began to sing along, making it a small little tradition they have whenever they get in his car. And yes, he made her sing Casanova to him a few times.

***

“Did you cook this? Be honest, I’ll know if you lie.”  You could have thought that she was just hungry, but with her mouth full of tomato sauce and without even stopping to talk before eating one more bite, you can fully affirm she’s enjoying her food.

“Why are you so doubtful about it?” He’s not going to admit it, but it bugs him the fact that she doesn’t believe that he cooked this. 

See, they both love to cook, but Zoë is not good at baking and cooking pastries. Surprisingly enough, Senne is, so that’s normally what he makes, breakfast food, cookies, and desserts. Therefore, the savory stuff is Zoë’s territory. She is normally the one who cooks the lunches and the dinners at the flatshare and their home dates when they don’t do it the easy way, take out.

But this time, he wanted to give her a little surprise and cook for her something he doesn’t cook. He decided that whatever he was going to make, it had to be something easy and quick and that didn’t take him so long. He finishes University only an hour earlier than her school ends, and he had to keep in mind that he had to leave a bit earlier to pick her up, so after a bit of searching, Vegetarian Bolognese spaghetti was the best dish to do.

“I don’t know, it’s not what you normally prepare.” Well, she’s almost finished so it’s easy to say she liked it.

“I know, but that does not mean I didn’t cook it myself”

Reaching for his hand on top of the table, she smiles shily. “I know, schat. Thank you for making lunch for me today. I loved it.” 

***

One thing he adores about Zoë is how strong and independent she can look on the outside and how sweet and willing to be protected she is. 

Letting her wards down in front of him, especially after all she’s been through, hasn’t been easy, but when she finally trusted him enough to let him see her fully, emotionally talking, was one of the greatest days in their relationship, for him, at least.

In the whole process of getting to know each other again, after the breakup, regaining trust in each other was one of the most important things they did. They needed to learn to trust in each other again and more importantly, feel safe and loved in each other’s one arms. 

It hasn’t been an easy process, and there are times that they have to reassure each other and remember things to the other one in the low times, but it's so worth it if he gets to have her trust him completely.

After lunch and cleaning the dishes (the dishwasher did, but still), they decided to lay down and talk about their day, a bit more. Without even realizing it, they eventually fell asleep, taking a nap in each other's arms. And now, Senne is fully awake and looking at the love of his life snuggled up in his chest, thinking how he managed to make such an amazing woman like her, fall in love with someone like him.

With her head in his chest and her hand grabbing his hoodie in a fist, he can fully say that this sight right there is one of his favorite things ever. Only topped but her smile and kisses and his car.

She begins to stretch under his touch, making cute little noises. If that wasn’t enough to make him melt, she reaches out to kiss the closest spot on his neck and whispers a small ‘hi’, pulling him closer.

“Did you sleep well?” he says: kissing the top of her head and fixing the messy blanket, their blanket, around her body.

After hearing her “mhm” and feeling her little nod, he understood that she was not going to wake up any time soon. Not that he’s complaining. “How did your exams go? I think I didn’t ask you.”

“You did, actually, and they were okay. Aced Biology, like always, but Math was so hard. Even with your help, I felt like it was way harder than what we learned.” She’s now on top of him and is playing with his hair with one hand while biting her thumb with the other. That nervous tick she has is one of his favorite things, how she does it unconsciously, without even noticing she’s doing it.

He gently removes her thumb from her mouth and places his hand in hers, like he always does. “I’m sure it went okay, you’re smart, you have a bigger brain capacity than me, right?”

He shoots a challenging smile, giggling his eyebrows up and down, teasing her. She growls, rolling her eyes, and pulling softly the back of his hair, which makes his eyes go dark at the same time a sassy smile appears on her lips. 

***

“Can we please go out?” She’s in the rocking chair in front of the big window, looking at the lights in the street. Her hair is still dumped and she’s wearing Senne’s hoodie, the one from this morning.

It’s pretty late in the afternoon, making it dark outside. They have spent all day fooling around and showering together as he loves. After that, they ate some more, played games, and continued watching the tv show they exclusively watch when they are together. 

“Why? Outside it’s really cold and here inside the house there’s a ton of stuff we can do.”

She knows she is his biggest weakness. Not because he is head over heels for her, that he is, but because he has specifically said it. He didn’t know that saying that out loud, and to her, was going to end up being a weapon she’s able to use against him, along with her puppy eyes.

“Come on, please? I want to see the Christmas lights, they put them up last week and I haven’t seen them yet.”

Making her stand up just to take her place in the chair and sit her on his lap, he whines and says: “Zoë, it’s only 3ºC outside, we are going to catch a cold. Or even worse, covid. Do you know how many people there are on the streets because of the lights?”

Big mistake, he has challenged her. “Okay, first of all, 3ºC it’s not that cold, we can wrap ourselves warm. Second of all, we will wear our masks all the time. And third of all, we’ll go to the more empty streets. There’s a solution for everything, come on.”

He completely forgot the fact that she’s not only way smarter than he is, but she is also so freaking stubborn, and she’s pouting at him, so he knows she’s winning, like always.

“I’ll even buy you a hot chocolate to drink here if you want.” 

“Yeah, deal.”

***

Antwerp is beautiful at Christmas. This year, because covid, there’s no Christmas Market, but the streets are decorated with Christmas trees and a bunch of beautiful lights.

He was right, there are too many people for the fact that there is a pandemic going on, but as Zoë said earlier, they are walking around the less crowded places, and they are wearing their masks, so it is okay.

This global pandemic is now part of their history together. Even though it has brought so much sadness and very difficult times to a lot of people, they kind of have to thank it. 

Having to go on a mandatory lockdown, in his house, alone, made him think a lot more, as he was only and completely with himself. He had another girlfriend at the time, yes, but it was different.

To begin with, it started the wrong way. He and Zoë had just broken up, and he fell into a rabbit hole he didn’t know how to get out. He was deeply sad, almost depressed, and coping the best (worst) he knew: drinking and partying as much as he could, and ‘blocking’ his emotions, transforming himself into a man unable to feel.

Max and Daniel, his friends, tried to help him as best as they knew. First, it was partying with him, then it was trying to make him talk about it, make him bring out all the rage and sadness he had inside, even though it was pretty much useless. And then they tried what it ‘worked’ best: introducing him to girls that could get Zoë out of his mind, and him out of his destruction mode.

And that’s how he meets Nina. A beautiful and sweet girl that was perfect for his fucked up self. Different from Zoë, so he was forced to differentiate them, so easy to talk to that he could forget about everything else and be fun to be with. To be honest, she was the perfect rebound girl.

But then lockdown hit and he was forced to be with his mind and no one else. As cliche, as it sounds, being completely alone, did him so well. He was able to identify his toxic mechanisms, in his past and current relationship, and saw that he indeed needed help, as Zoë proposed in one of the many times they made up before breaking up. It also made him mature a bit more, as he had the time to analyze all his reactions and behaviors and see where, how he needed to work on.

It didn’t go as well as he thought it did, as he had to be honest and come clear to her afterward, but after all the mess he caused, he broke up with Nina and got back together with what he believes it’s the love of his life.

Now that he thinks about it, breaking up did them good. He got time to mature and work on his issues, and she got time to deal with her problems alone and become even stronger and more independent. It was painful, and it took him a long time to understand why, but it was worth it.

“Look! Do you remember?” He was so lost in his thoughts he didn’t realize where they were walking. He has his arm around her shoulders, with their gloves covered, hands intertwined. She was the one leading the way, he was just walking beside her, so it’s a nice surprise to see where they have ended up.

The big Ferris Wheel rises upon them, making memories return to their minds, and butterflies play in his stomach. That wheel means a lot to them, and this specific spot holds so many memories together. On the other side of the river, their first date, even though, till this day, she still refuses to call it a date. Right in front of the wheel, their first kiss. It’s not all happy things, this same place holds the ‘bottle’ fight and the following argument they had. But they were memories still, and bits of their rocky, but a passionate love story.

The fact that they have to wear masks bothers him, cause he would love to kiss her, recreate that mind-blowing first kiss they shared so long ago. But the mask makes him focus on her eyes, what he can see, and it’s amazing how many emotions he can see in hers.

“I love you, Zoë Loockx, so damn much.”

“I love you, too, Senne.”

A day, and especially a moment and a place like this, is worth immortalizing. 

[liveshaunted-moved]

headcanon dump; piper mclean

piper loves halloween, loves to dress up in costumes. only time she’d willingly wear a dress if it was apart of a costume. the only downside, is the racists / offensive costumes and she will call them out, more so now that she has found her voice

piper, would beat around the bush about it ‘no, i do… okay maybe i think they’re cute… or whatever, they have a nice personality. but, it’s whatever.’

piper watched avatar the last airbender as a kid, she loved katara and sokka and grew to love them more, and then all water tribe as she got older due to the representation of natives / indigenous. this is a little bit into why she wanted to learn to surf

contrary to what rick wrote, piper is NOT the jealous type.

leo was the first person that piper has actively told who her father is. everyone else either figures it out themselves, or they never knew.

piper would love to do group halloween costumes. group over couple, but would totally do couple

piper isn’t into a lot of ‘girly’ things, but the one thing she does take pride in and doing is hair. just brushing her own, or a friend’s, or just running her fingers through her, or a s.o, or friend - it calms her

piper would wear a tux to her wedding. she really isn’t into dresses, like at all.

i hope, that anyone who dates piper KNOWS they come in ‘second’ place to her best friend, leo valdez. because once she gains her memories back bc fuck rick i’m giving my kids their memories back. it was just the two of them, and she will fight tooth and nail for his happiness

reminder that piper’s eyes are BROWN

piper’s father always tried to keep piper out of the tabloids. always. the media only truly knows of her name, the rest is just ‘rumours’.

piper, will never admit this to anyone, but doing someone’s hair, is relaxing to her. something as simple as just brushing it, will relax her.

piper, upon realising she is a demigod, realises the reason her eyes never stay one colour is due to her mother. she then asks one of her siblings on how to control it. so now, most of the time, her eyes are a brown colour.

piper has almost gone to jail for her ‘stealing’

and also, she has been labelled a kleptomaniac because she simply asked for things, and was handed them, only for the owner or dealer to realise what happened and call the cops.

most times, the owners / dealers and cops she has dealt with were, white a majority of the time, and so, even though piper is telling the truth of her asking and them giving, they don’t believe her for many reasons, one where the person was racist and couldn’t look past her being native, and just blamed her away, and the other main reason is her being a teenager.

WARNING: do not leave your hoodie / sweatshirt / jumper lying around, because if piper finds it, she will wear it and end up claiming it has her own

piper got better at maths, when she had leo to help her. she wasn’t the best with that subject in general

piper totally asked leo to spend the holidays with her, knowing he didn’t have a family to truly go home too and she wasn’t sure if her father would still be out shooting, or not.

leo is the first person in a long time that piper has trusted with knowing who her father is. her telling him, meant a lot of trust went into it. piper would trust leo with her life and has done so

piper totally had watched the hercules show & movie made by disney. she even had the videos… when she got back from the war… she burned them all. bc one, fuck hercules  two, all the wrong things

piper has honestly only cut her hair twice. when grandpa tom died, and then to get her father’s attention, because it broke tradition and she remembered that cutting your hair wasn’t something that her family did unless someone died or are needing a fresh start ( which explains why her father does cut his hair for roles as a ‘new start ‘ ), so piper, fustrated with her father being away, grabbed the first pair of scissors which happened to be safety and cut her hair. it really did give her father quite a shock.

piper tends to braid her hair more often then not.

as stated before, piper has only actually cut her hair twice. once when grandpa tom died and one in an act of defiance. the next time she cuts her hair, is when she believes leo to be dead. leo is a close friend, best friend . she cut her hair into messy bob.

when leo does come back, she gives him the silent treatment for like… a day.

[angelsunflowers-fanfics]

Connor (RK800) x reader (P.A. & Detective)

Not requested

Fandom: Detroit: Become human

Genre: Fluff

Linktree

~~~~~~~~~~

“Oh, and that’s (y/n), secretary, PA, whatever you want to call it, they’re over there. So if you have any more of your stupid questions, you can ask them instead of me,” Hank told Connor.

A light smile graced Connor’s lips, almost unnoticeable.

“Oh, Mx. (l/n) and I have met already,” Connor replied. 

Hank let out a frustrated sigh before flopping down into his chair, further ignoring the android.

“Of course you have,” Hank grumbled.  

Connor slowly rose from his chair and strolled to (y/n), his light smile immediately depleted once he realized their stress level slowly rising. He slowly laid a hand on the desk to grab (y/n)’s attention.

“Connor! Hi, is everything okay?” (y/n) asked.

The stress level went down a little, but not much. This factors into Connor’s worry for the PA of the police department. He never thought he’d be worried about someone before, not before his deviancy.

“You’re more stressed than yesterday. Are you all alright? If work is stressing you out, might I recommend a day off?” Connor asked.

(y/n) smiled at the pureness that was Connor, but a glare pierced (y/n)’s eyes as Gavin quickly approached their desk, shoving Connor a step back.

“Hey, go down the street and get me a coffee. Fuck off, Connor,” Gavin said. 

(y/n) slowly stood up, anger coursing through their veins. As Reed turned his back and walked away, (y/n) slowly lifted up one hand and flipped off Reed. Connor stifled a small laugh, happy to see him finally get something he deserved.

“That wasn’t very polite,” Connor said.  

Connor cut in, watching (y/n) slowly put their hand down, their stress level raising slightly from Reed’s appearance. Connor’s eyes creased slightly, concerned for his… Friend.

“Detective Reed isn’t very polite,” (y/n) said. 

Connor seemed like he was thinking for a moment before he shrugged his shoulders lightly, agreeing.

“That’s correct,” Connor said, chuckling.  

(y/n) sighed lightly, grabbing the bill that Reed dropped on their desk.

“I’m heading out for coffee, does anybody else want one?” (Y/n) asked. Hank seemed to be the only one who gestured for (y/n) to come closer. Connor followed closely behind (y/n) like a lost puppy. The older Lieutenant glanced behind (y/n) to see Conner patiently waiting.

“He’s following you now? Good luck with that,” Hank laughed to himself at the predicament that (y/n) got themself in. 

(y/n) peeked over their shoulder to see Connor balancing himself on the heels of his shoes. They smiled at the small quirk before turning to face Hank, “I don’t mind it.” 

Hank rolled his eyes slightly before slowly sitting up, “Of course you don’t. Just get me a black coffee, cool?” 

(y/n) nodded slightly before heading towards the exit of the department.

“It’s currently 30 degrees outside, a jacket would be recommended before leaving..” Connor said.

(y/n) laughed lightly to themself before slipping on the sweater they arrived with.

“Okay, I’m going now. Do you… Wanna come with me? Or would you rather stay here with Hank?” Connor took a moment to think, glancing at the Lieutenant before staring at (y/n).

“Retrieving caffeinated drinks with you seems more… Pleasant.” 

(y/n) quickly grabbed one of his hands before leading him down the street, to the small café. Connor stared at the hand intertwined with his; it filled him with a feeling similar to joy. His LED flashed yellow as a curious question crosses into his current thoughts; controversial as it may be, he was wondering.

“Mx. (l/n)--” (y/n) squeezed his hand lightly, gaining his attention for a moment.

“Connor, please, we’ve known each other for a few months. Call me (y/n).” 

Connor took a moment to remember to call them by their first name instead of last, “Okay, (y/n), could I ask you a personal question?” 

(y/n) laughed lightly at the familiar question he had asked at least a dozen times before.

“Sure, what is it today?” They asked cheerfully.

Connor took a deep breath he didn’t need, trying to ignore the swirling doubt.

“Do you think… An android and a human could ever have a … Intimate relationship?” Connor asked.

The question caused (y/n) to think for multiple moments, a few minutes even. The question had peaked their mind on multiple occasions. Almost every time they had glanced in Connor’s direction.

“I do. Though it will take a long time for others to see that same way, I think seeing a relationship with an android and a human will help people see the equality of androids more clearly,” (y/n) answered. 

(y/n) stared at Connor once they finished the statement. Connor’s eyes are lit up, twinkling with something that could only be described as admiration.

“You’re so smart and beautiful…” (y/n) felt their cheeks flush at Connor’s blunt statement but decided not to say anything as they entered the cafe.

“Hi, one black, an iced coffee, and a (coffee) please,” (y/n) spoke clearly.

The barista said nothing as she made the coffees and brought them to (y/n).

“That’s three coffees. I assume you plan on drinking the third, correct?” (y/n) lightly nodded to Connor’s question as they grabbed the coffees and headed out the door.

“Yes,” They answered. Connor’s eyes narrowed, (y/n)’s level of caffeine intake was through the roof, and drowsiness seemed to seep through their body. Connor quickly stood in front of (y/n), his puppy-like eyes forcing them to halt from walking any further. “Connor, is everything okay?”

“When is the last time you’ve slept? According to my analysis, you’ve very close to passing out,” Connor asked out of the blue. 

(y/n) stared at Connor, mouth agape.

“I-- I’m not sure, a few days maybe. You know how Reed is first hand. He dumps more work on me than I can handle sometimes… I’m fine, Connor,” (y/n) answered as they continued to walk towards the police station, Connor close behind their heels.

“Why do humans insist on lying to cover up how they really feel?” He mumbled to himself. “If you don’t want to talk about your desperate need for sleep, then could I ask you something else? I’ve noticed it for a while…”

“Sure, Connor.”

“Do you hold any feelings towards me? I notice that your heartbeat and temperature go up when I’m around you. I’m not programmed to know these things and what they mean, but I’ve downloaded a fair share of books on this topic,” Connor asked. 

(y/n)’s face heated up once more. The two stood right outside the station, but (y/n) turned to face Connor, ready to confront everything.

“Connor… What do you want me to say? Yes, it’s true. I like you, I really do. A lot. I can’t help how I feel or change it, and I don’t know if androids even can--” (y/n) was cut off by Connor as he slowly closed the gap between himself and (y/n), pressing his soft, cold lips to (y/n)’s. The warm heat of the coffee drifted to their faces slowly brought them back to reality, along with the shivers running down (y/n)’s spine. Connor pulled back quickly, noticing (y/n)’s decline in body heat, he took off his jacket and wrapped it around their shoulders before slowly leading them inside.

“That was nice… I’m sorry for not asking, I’ve found that people prefer permission before being kissed. I apologize,” Connor apologized. 

(y/n) let a small smile grace their lips, Connor was definitely different than most people and androids.

“Connor, it’s fine. Trust me. It was delightful,” (y/n) reassured the android. 

He followed closely behind (y/n) as they dropped off each coffee to each individual before sitting at their own desk. Connor found himself sitting in the chair in front, staring at them.

“I’ve researched that people who like each other go on… dates.” Connor blinked a few times, tilting his head to the side in the slightest. “Would a date be beneficial to you?” (y/n) covered their mouth, trying not to giggle at Connor's strange words.

“I’d love to go on a date, Connor,” They answered.

“Your stress level has dropped down to 20%, would being near me help it stay that way?” 

(y/n) slowly brushed a loose strand of his silky hair away before answering, “Yes. Thank you, Connor.” 

[pilot-boi]

Shouting In Cafes: Chapter Five

New Impressions

A little more information gets found out, and Weiss has to be forcibly restrained from murdering Sun.

AO3 LINK

Sun came in every single day. His order was always the same- a grande white mocha -but his outfits varied from crop tops to tank tops to shorts to tight, tight jeans. Every aspect of every piece of clothing he owned seemed to share the same goal of showing off as much of his body as possible, even when that part of his body was covered. 

When he wore T-shirts, they were graphic with big bold text on them. One said REAL LIFE HORROR MOVIE. Another just read HOT BOY. He only seemed to have two pairs of shoes, which were flip flops and sneakers. He wore the flip flops more often, despite the quickly dropping autumn temperatures outside.

“Why don’t you try something new for once?” Neptune asked once while fixing Sun his daily regular.

He had gotten into the habit of leaning his entire body across Neptune’s counter while making his order. Sometimes propping up his head, sometimes just letting his arms drape over the edge. 

Today was a draping kind of day, apparently, because his entire body swayed from left to right as he thought of his answer. “Hmm. Good question! I’ll try something new. How ‘bout… Like a pumpkin spice latte or whatever?"

“Alright,” Neptune said and went to dump out the coffee he already made.

“No, you don’t have to dump it out! Just add the other thing into the first one!” Neptune felt his face twist into utter disgust. He just gave him the original, with nothing added.

Sun didn’t come in with dates anymore. He just ordered his coffee, ran past the counter at high speeds, swept up his coffee without looking, and swung into a chair near a window. Neptune would then watch him rack his brain for what selfie pose he should do that day.

He’d take the picture, then drink his coffee while looking at his phone. Every once in a while, he would bark a laugh at something he found funny, turning multiple heads at the loud noise, before going back to his ‘work.’ Weiss, who Neptune knew from some of his business classes, had all but ordered Jaune to evict Sun on more than one occasion.

Neptune honestly didn’t know how much longer it would be until Weiss took it upon herself to get Sun to stop “disturbing the peace” as she’d put it.

Sun had a habit of tipping back his chair. Once he leaned back too far and completely crashed onto the ground, spilling his coffee all over himself and generally making a huge racket. Neptune had thanked his lucky stars that Weiss hadn’t been there for once.

Once Sun caught Neptune looking at him take a selfie. He waved to him, giving him a cheesy grin. Neptune looked away.

It’d been three weeks since their first meeting and they hadn’t held an actual conversation other than little snippets of small talk, and for some reason that felt wrong. This guy was walking around thinking socks and flip flops were a good idea while also knowing about Neptune’s financial issues

Meanwhile, Neptune didn’t even know his last name. It felt weird. It made him uneasy. Was paranoid the right word?

And to make matters worse, Neptune still couldn’t read him.

Neptune prided himself on his ability to not only read a room, but to be able to read the faces in said room. He got a grasp on Jaune’s mannerisms within a day. All of his professors loved him because he could play to their exact emotions without them ever knowing.

But this fucking guy…

Some of his emotions were no brainers. Like the laugh. And the anger. And the confusion. But the in between ones… 

The ones where it looked like the regular Sun stepped away for a moment and revealed a completely different person. What the hell was he thinking during that time? Those expressions didn’t belong on the face of a rich frat boy.

“Neptune?” Jaune was tapping him on the shoulder.

Neptune fixed his posture. He had been leaning against his broom, apparently giving Sun a death stare from across the cafe.

“Did you get enough sleep last night?” He frowned and crossed his arms in a way reminiscent of his friend Nora. “Are you hungover?”

“No, I’m fine mom,” Neptune sighed.

“Okay, good. I have something to show you.” 

“What is it?”

“Nora found that guy’s Instagram.”

“Jaune?”

“Yeah?”

“Why the fuck?” he asked, bewildered. “And how the fuck does Nora know about this guy?”

“She got bored, and you know how she gets.” Jaune shrugged and Neptune groaned. He did know how Nora got. The ginger had a habit of tagging along with her boyfriend, Ren, whenever he came to the coffee shop to study. Weiss had succeeded in getting them to evict Nora on more than one occasion. She wasn’t exactly subtle, or quiet for that matter.

In other words, she’d probably get along with Sun like a house on fire. Neptune squinted at him. “You told her about him, didn’t you?”

Jaune had the worst fake-surprised face on the entire planet. “What? No! Of course not! How dare you, Neptune Vasilias!”

“Jaune.”

“Okay, fine I told her. Anyway!”

He suppressed a laugh as Jaune pushed his phone up to his face. Neptune then pushed his glasses up and the phone back at least half a foot. Jaune didn’t seem to notice.

“First of all, he has over 3000 followers on a personal account,” Jaune began. “Second, it’s pretty much all selfies.”

“Unsurprising,” Neptune said and took the phone into his hands to keep Jaune from waving it around as he tried to read. He scoffed. “Wukong?! His last name is Wukong.”

“Hey you’re no one to judge Mr. Vasilias.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

Neptune began to scroll through the pictures. They were all selfies, that was true. All in different places, never in the same place. Save for the weekly compilation posts captioned “this weeks coffee! <3” with every single selfie he took during that week there, at The Daily Grind.

“Holy shit.” Neptune was almost impressed. This took dedication. This took effort. This took a man who really admired himself.

“Okay, okay, but this isn’t what I’m talking about. Don’t be an ass.” Jaune snatched back his phone and scrolled to the top of his account. He whipped it back into Neptune’s face, tapping her finger on Sun’s bio. “Look!”

It read: 

sun wukong

Gains!

20

beacon university

“Oh my god,” Neptune muttered.

“Yeah. So, apparently the dude goes to our college.” Jaune took back his phone and pushed it into his pocket. “Nora maybe also stalked his page and apparently he lived in Vacuo for a while and just transferred back here to go to school. Which explains why we haven’t seen him until now. Didn’t you wonder why he was just suddenly here?”

“I’m going to be honest with you, Jaune. I thought maybe he might’ve just been a hellish entity that popped into existence one day to torture me.”

Jaune rolled his eyes. “Okay, well he’s clearly not. And please, you two haven’t even argued since that first time.”

“I have to put up with his dumb hair every day.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

Neptune’s mouth felt dry. He leaned back against the wall. “So, what, is it fate telling us we have to be around each other as much as possible so we can hate each other that much more?”

“Or maybe it’s so you two can, ya know, get along?”

“Not gonna happen.”

Both of their heads turned towards the sound of a squeaky chair scratching against the worn hardwood floor. Sun stood up, still texting on his phone, and grabbed his empty cup with his free hand.

He looked up, and found Neptune and Jaune staring directly at him.

Sun frowned. “What’s up?” he yelled. More heads turned. Weiss glared at Jaune as if he was making this happen on purpose.

Neptune turned away, coughing. He grabbed the broom and began to brush at an already pristine floor.

“We found your Instagram!” Jaune bellowed back, holding his phone proudly over his head like a prize. In the corner, Weiss snapped a pencil in half from the force of her rage. Ren didn’t even look from his books.

Neptune, on the other hand, was sure he was going to have a stroke then and there.

A grin Neptune was becoming all too familiar with spread across Sun’s face as he pranced over to the counter. He quickly made himself at home on the surface, kicking his legs from his seat. His tank top said I FLEXED AND THE SLEEVES FELL OFF. 

“Oh, yeah? Like what you see?” Sun asked, winking at him. How was this Neptune’s life?

“Correction. Jaune’s friend found your Instagram and I was subjected to it,” Neptune butted in.

Sun flicked his eyes over to Jaune. “Your name’s Jaune? Do you like what you see?”

“Stop flirting. He’s too good for you,” Neptune said and inched a little closer to his friend, starting to reach up and put a hand on his shoulder before stopping himself. Jaune remained looking blissfully oblivious, bless him. 

“Hey, Jaune, your boyfriend’s kinda a prick,” Sun laughed and gestured over at Neptune.

“I’m not his boyfriend,” Neptune said, crossing his arms.

“Okay, okay, jeez” Sun said, raising his hands defensively. He leaned back and his shirt rode up a little. Jesus, what was with this guy and crop tops? “So, you found my Instagram?”

“You go to the same college as us,” Jaune blurted, suddenly remembering how to speak. 

He said this at the same instant that Neptune said, “Sun Wukong really is quite the name.”

Sun blinked. “Sorry, what?”

Neptune was about to burst a blood vessel. “Jaune!” he hissed. Jaune was a great guy but… sometimes…

“What did I do?” he shouted, threatening to match Sun in volume.

“He doesn’t have to know that we go to the same college!”

“We go to the same college?” Sun asked.

Neptune failed to resist slapping a hand onto his face.

“Cool!” Sun said. “Why is that such a big deal, dude?”

“I don’t want you stalking me around campus, trying to be my friend!”

A smile spread slowly across Sun’s face, like moss creeping along a forest floor.

“Sweet Jesus.” Neptune shouldn't have said anything. Why did he say anything? Sun could not be trusted with this power.

“Why can’t we be friends, Neptune?” Sun whined and dropped his entire body on the counter again. His shirt bunched against his torso as he over balanced and nearly tumbled over the side. It was probably a health hazard that Neptune would be forced to clean up.

Neptune would have to clean it up, because Jaune was clearly too amused by this entire situation to be any help at all. 

“Because we barely know each other. You’re just somebody I met on the job,” he explained. He felt not unlike a teacher having to explain that two plus two equals four to a student who was insisting it was actually twenty-two.

“Yeah, but that’s how friendships start out!” Sun insisted earnestly.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I’m busy.”

“Then I’ll wait until you’re not!” Sun said this like it was a sudden stroke of genius.

“You’re going to have to wait two more hours then.”

“Okay!” And with that, Sun stood to his full height, pulled his shirt down, or at least as far down as it even went. Then he walked back over to his chair by the window and pulled out his phone.

Neptune stared. No freaking way.

He tilted his head towards Jaune, eyes glared to Sun as his fingers tapped against his phone screen. “He’s just going to sit there until I get off work, isn’t he?”

“It seems like it,” Jaune said, just as focused.

“What the hell.”

“He’s determined, I’ll give him that.” Jaune sounded almost impressed. Thanks for nothing Jaune.

Ten minutes in, Sun seemed to get bored.

Thirty minutes in, his phone died.

Forty minutes in, he started pestering the other customers for a phone charger. Weiss was tearing her hair out.

Fifty minutes in, he just started pestering the customers, despite Ren giving him a charger in a vain attempt to shut him up. Weiss actually just got up and left at this point.

An hour and twenty minutes in, he was chatting up an increasingly bewildered Jaune.

An hour and forty minutes later, he was chatting up Neptune, to Jaune’s relief and amusement. Neptune longed for the sweet release of death, and wished that he could follow Weiss out the door and escape.

How many minutes were left? When could Neptune go home? When could he get the scent of Sun’s hair gel out of his nose? He feared his clothes would soon be coated with it if it was strong enough to permeate the terrible coffee.

[kissmethroughthebone]

"I'm not like other girls, I don't need an allowance from my man" headass SB

"He doesn't like girls who use sugaring for financial gain or to rise up in society 💅💫"

...yeah, babe, so of course the man with two daughters older than you LOVES the fact that you fucked him at his house, TWO DAYS AND NIGHTS IN A ROW, and all you asked for out of him was a subway sandwich anf his wine cabinet.

.....

My only time EVER having a "fuck me just for fast food" phase, was with FWBs who I literally had no interest in, and, when I never had entered the bowl, nor knew of many places outside of Burger King and Chipotle for their broke asses to get me food from, so. :) thats on that.

And so imagine me, a year later, with experience and knowledge of making men old and young buy me things, clothes, food, gifts, ubers, car trips, anything in the world, and with my ass sitting pretty in the most expensive hotel in all of the city, and 400 dollars richer with pork roast and more in my stomach...

Teaching a newbie SB about the bowl.

And all the advice, tips, about manifesting her goals, funding her schooling, abstaining from sex right off the bat, meeting in public, safety advice, what to look for and avoid....

All that.

Anything you could think of, I fucking told her that.

And she.

Fucked.

Immediately.

.....

Met him at his house at 10pm for the "first date"...... stupid bitch. Strike one, but her not listening to the valuable advice of "dont go to his house, he could kill you or just hit it and dip" was telling enough of how she had viewed our friendship.

Then she saw he put out a *fruit platter* for her.

Nice..... but then didn't serve her dinner.

Smoked her out. Fine, you got weed. Cool...

And maybe an hour or two into them "really clicking", a.k.a. probably her talking while stoned and him just nodding everything on to be fucking polite... she takes him by the hand, leads him into the bedroom and fucks him totally unprovoked.

OH WOW, SIS.

I know some sugar babies still get an allowance or arrangement even after still having sex, but jesus.......

Then he left for work, and let her stay at his place. Fucked again. He gave her a subway sandwich, not even a footlong, since she "wasnt all that hungry"...

1) Cool, so she didnt even get a dinner out of it.

2) She's been rewarded for dick with half of a footlong, (NOT EVEN A FULL ONE SIS HE HAS THE MONEY AND YOU WOULD BE HUNGRY LATER????,) and with all the liquor in his cabinets. That she chugged most of the morning and night, before going "But I'm not really all that into drinking, anyways", while chugging a vodka + white wine + other intense alcohol concoction she whipped up over Instagram Chat.

And..... I was pissed. :)

And 3) She never discussed an allowance before meeting.

.....

You can imagine the screams I have, deep in my soul, after maybe four hours or MORE of straight up teaching her all I know.

Then when I told her I was disappointed in her not taking my advice, she hit me with the Pick Me level shit.

"He doesn't want a girl who uses sugaring for financial gain or social status!"..... so, hes broke, and/or you're dating a sugar daddy that won't give sugar? I hope your hands get soft from all the exfoliation caused by the rock you're trying to cause to bleed, that shit wont work sis.

"I'm a big girl, I can handle myself. Trust me, I know a bad situation when I see one, and THAT wasnt one!".... Sure, a 50 year old pathetic college professor with a slim body doesnt terrify you, but a pathetic college professor can get preeeeetty scary when he roofies and rapes you. But, she wasnt thinking that far ahead if she walked to a random mans house, in the skimpiest clothes ever, at the dead of night while claiming nothing bad would happen and she would not fuck him....

Even if nothing too terrible did, something couldve. If the thing of "i wont fuck him dont worry" did happen and she didnt think shed do it before meeting him, imagine what else she didnt think would happen could've happened....

And just several rants of her saying her intuition would tell her.

.....

I sympathized; she had been in several abusive relationships with terrible men, and wass most recently dumped by some fuckhead who was grooming her.

So the attention of an older man giving her free booze of a big selection, some pretty bomb dick, and letting her sleep over and giving her fruit???? Totally head above heels, when the bar is literally just "be white, and treat me somewhat human, even if it's rooted in selfish acts", and even her last neckbeard boyfriend from discord had her convinced that he was "the best thing to ever happen to her in life".

And.... the one that struck me the most, was the remark of "using men for financial gain" part.

I knew I had an off vibe about her when she was deadpanning and rolling her eyes hearing how good I had it anywhere in my life; but ESPECIALLY with sugaring. (Or an open relationship with two hot guys who treated me right, but alas, she could barely even find one for her.)

And yet once she got single, she was begginggggg to hear how I did it.

And... more signs came that she was interested in the fantasy and not the reality, or sometimes vice versa.

Rolling her eyes when I told her that a 25 dollar weekly allowance was so fucking low.

When I told her that anything she wanted, even a rose gold Apple Watch and a new laptop, an apartment, or whatever she wanted, could be at her fingertips if she plays all her cards right.

When I gave her safety advice.

When I told her about my life.

Anything.

She had been either repulsed, doubtful, disdainful, or nonplussed about it.

And look whar happened....

An old man was shown he could fuck a thick black girl for two to three days, nonstop, for a single subway sandwich.

What a shame.

Thats fucking sad my dudes.

Aaaaand her overall subtle hating on me showed its ass when she said what he said.

So I'M the bad guy, for actually expecting a sugar daddy to do what he says, and knows enough to know that sex too soon wont end well?

So she's gonna hate on me for caring about HER safety and not wanting her to ignore every safety precaution advised?

That's like being mad at a construction site owner for wanting you to wear a hard hat, and your reasoning being "I MISSED THE HUGE ROCK FALLING DOWN, ITS NO BIG DEAL! I TRUST MY INSTINCTS, JESUS CHRIST".

Plus, it did strike a cord.

But I just thought:

Yes, I do want a successful future.

I want rich babies, a funded college education, an apartment and a lifestyle of my own to support.

And most importantly, my fucking heart to keep beating.

So excuse me if a girl wastes my time and hers, by not taking my advice and risking her life all for the sake of a Subway sandwich, and not funding for a huge life of her dreams, and just for a subpar meal for one night.

I know how to flip my future from his shitty bunk bed, to a life of champagne and caviar.

And she knows how to flip her life from wanting to be a successful sugar baby that supposedly makes enough money to move out with me, buy groceries, and have a potentially funded college......

To..... a subway sandwich and an alcohol problem, and a number, that blocks her days after having sex.

......

I was done with her.

I never thought there'd be girls insecure enough to stoop that low.

Low enough to shun another girl, who does the same thing and gets a thousand times more thsn she does.

[slxyangel]

Pain and Noise (Duff x Reader)

Summary: I was fed up with just about everything that constituted my life, so I started playing.

Warnings: Unprotected sex, mentions of violence, swearing, panic attack.

Wordcount: Almost 5k

A/N: First fic I ever write, I am nervous and this was originally in Spanish, so be nice with my best try of a translation. Enjoy :)

REQUESTS ARE OPEN!!!

Masterlist: https://slxyangel.tumblr.com/post/189625800403/masterlist

The pain in the back of my hands was intense, searing, and growing worse with every minute I spent holding the drumsticks and unloading my rage over the drums in the studio. The accumulated tension stiffened my fingers, the muscles in my arms were numb and it had been a while since I started feeling my nails spiking my own skin because of the pressure I was putting on it. I didn’t care; I preferred to feel that rather than the anguish that had been threatening to rip off my chest these last few weeks. I don’t know how much time I spent like that. What I do remember is the pain. And the noise.

I also remember sitting on the stool during a little while the guys were out, I’m not sure what for, maybe to grab some food or take a break. They had been working on the album for months, and these days of polishing, re-recording, fixing and tuning everything up for the final version were being especially hard; they deserved a breather. “And so do I”, I told myself while I held Steven’s drumsticks and gave it a second thought, maybe it wasn’t a good idea. He, as any other percussionist, didn’t like it when someone else fiddled with his instrument, not to mention if it happened without him being around to control it. I could only hope that he didn’t show up in that very moment and caught me, because I don’t think I would have the strength to explain him every thought that was circling my head the moment I decided to play his drums, and even less not to drown the whole story with my tears. I mean, come on, it was only going to be a little while.

I had been working with the band practically since the recording process for Appetite for Destruction began. I was in my last year of university, and needed an internship to complete my learning agreement, and, I still can’t comprehend how, my best friend’s father got me plugged-in in Geffen Records. They were the ones who decided that the best option for an audiovisuals student was in the recordings for a young rock band’s debut album. This is how I ended up being Mike Clink’s personal assistant and hanging out with Axl, Slash, Izzy, Duff and Steven. The chemistry had been practically automatic, I got along with them pretty quick and, even though I started being basically the coffee girl, I was always very comfortable in such a creative and carefree environment.

I remember those first days in which Mark, my boyfriend, used to drive me to the studio in his car. I could drive, of course, but my new job seemed almost more exciting for him than it did for me, so he insisted in getting me there, picking me up and making me tell him every little detail of my brand-new work life. He was thrilled when I told him how I had spent twenty minutes of my first day talking with Slash and he had shown interest about my studies, my reasons to be there and my general life. “If we’re gonna work together, we might as well be friends”, he said. The guy told me that he had a snake, that his parents were artists and that’s why he had always been so involved with music. He also said he got his first guitar when he was 15 and that he and the guys ended up together out of sheer coincidence, but they had realized they were the perfect combination, so they were really excited about their new project. It was there that I realized I was in the right place and, even if, worst case scenario, the rest of the band hated me, at least I had a new friend.

However, my worries couldn’t be any more unfounded. Once I had talked to Saul, the rest of it went smoothly. Axl was quite a character, for instance, a guy you felt like looking at. Wherever he was (because he couldn’t stand still for a second), your eyes would be glued to him. He had an enviable magnetism no matter what he did: singing one of their songs, bringing order to the mixing desk, finishing off half a liter of Jack Daniel’s… He was the kind of person who seems out of reach from every one of us mortals but, deep down, is a cinnamon roll. Our first interactions (mostly his, let’s be honest) were filled with double intentions. In any case, now that I see it in retrospective and compare it with the way he treated other girls, I came to think that this was his way to know women in general, his default mode. Actually, those anecdotes of conversations I had with the vocalist were worth a fair dose of laughing for Mark and me during our more than usual supermarket-pizza, Ben-&-Jerry’s-ice-cream dinners in the flat we shared. Over time, Axl’s phase of blatant flirting with me faded away, making room for a really close friendship between the two of us.

Izzy, on the other hand, treated me almost as if I was an experiment. Do you know the feeling when you arrive to a new school but the year has already started and everybody is curious about you? Well, that was more or less how the guitarist reacted to my incorporation. He had never been too talkative, or, at least, not as much as the rest of them, so my first days with the brunet can be summed up to him joining conversations between me and someone else, to learn a bit more about me without having to ask directly; to my hand-waving gestures and his responses raising his chin or his eyebrows; or to him offering me drags of his cigarette from time to time, while we waited for the rest of the guys to record their tracks so we could all go partying together. It was interesting. It was entertaining. It was even funny to see us unfolding, adapting to each other until we gained full trust. We could argue that his more reserved, almost wary personality and my own, more explosive and versatile, complemented each other as two puzzle pieces; one had what the other lacked.

And, while Izzy complemented me, Steven understood me. We were two peas in a pod: energetic, chaotic and jam-packed with energy. Basically the kids in the team. Like two naughty twins, we loved to terrorize the studio. We threw stuff at each other, we laughed like crazy, we yelled from one corner of the room to the other the dumbest, most absurd shit you could imagine… One of the activities I enjoyed the most was to scare away the chicks from him. Some afternoons when he was chilling on the couch, unaware and concentrated on hitting on whatever girl he had just met, I arrived, seated next to him on the couch and went full on clingy-ass-girlfriend with him: handsy and unbearable. I interrupted the groupie and put up with Steven’s deadly glares until, after a while, the girl took off, sometimes walking towards one of the other guys, sometimes straight to her house. The drummer always got mad at me when I did this to him, but his anger never lasted for more than ten minutes.

And then there was Duff. He was something else, something different. I had never had such a connection with anyone, and even less with anyone I had met for so little time. Duff had his own light, like an extremely bright star, and I was flashed by it but, at the same time, he irradiated a delightful kind of warmth, too nice for me to voluntarily step away. He was fun, he was compassionate, he was sensible, he was a little bit mad and he made everything unspeakably easy. The rest of the band spent their days saying that we should have sex or betting on whether we were or weren’t conscious of the sexual tension they assured was too obvious between us. At first, we either told them to fuck off or went along with it, but without giving it much of a second thought. At the end of the day, I was dating Mark, who I adored, and Duff knew it. We were nothing but friends, like the rest of the guys.

Weeks went by and I kept getting closer and closer with the bassist: we talked about everything and anything, we told each other countless anecdotes from our lives before arriving to L.A., and he even sometimes helped me with the paperwork. More than once, even though smoking was allowed in the studio, the two of us stepped outside to do it, and a break that was meant to last for 10 minutes ended up being one hour long. When this happened, Slash had to come out for him, wielding his guitar and threatening to smash it on his head if he wasn’t back inside in the following fifteen seconds. In fact, some of those days when it took me longer to finish my job he would stick around and offer me a ride home before he headed to the club, so that Mark didn’t have to come pick me up that far that late.

Of course, it was all being too good to be true. The first day this happened, when I arrived home in “some other dude’s car, instead of a fucking taxi”, Mark’s own words, I found a version of my boyfriend that I didn’t like one tiny bit: wary, silent and mean. When I asked what his problem was I already saw the answer coming, but I just refused to believe he was going to get all possessive over such a nonsense, he had never behave like that. That night we went from yelling at each other to the silent treatment in a matter of a few hours, and the next day, when I got to the studio in my own car for the first time since the guys knew me, that place looked like goddamn press conference. They took less than two minutes to notice I was a little bit off, and less than five to tell me “Dump him, fuck Duff”. I couldn’t help but laugh. I hadn’t broken up with Mark, we had just argued; I would speak to him and we would fix things; that’s what couples did. Bitch, you thought.

For the next few days everything seemed to have turned back to normal: my boyfriend and I were okay, he said he was sorry and begged me to let him apologize by being my chauffeur again. I didn’t quite feel like rocking the boat after that night, so the idea of not driving myself to work didn’t seem that bad, until the days Mark started arriving a little earlier each day. Five minutes, fifteen, half an hour before my cutoff time, as if he had to make sure I went back home with him, as if he had to keep an eye on me. In fact, one of the days in which he arrived with a bigger margin of time, he decided it was a good idea to wait inside the studio while the band was recording, and argued that “it would be a lot more boring to wait in the car”. Over the last days, the guys had noticed how pissed it made me the fact that he was chasing after me, behaving like an asshole and little more than tying a leash around my neck, so Axl stepped up and asked him to leave, since the guy wouldn’t listen to me. I have to admit I was surprised with how calmly the vocalist took the intrusion, taking into account his normally short temper. He told Mark that “it wasn’t his problem if he wanted to be his girlfriend’s chauffeur, but he couldn’t simply burst into a private property as if it was his house, and even less when they were working.” To be honest, that was one hell of a comeback, because if the singer had exposed the real reasons why he wanted him out, the other one would have clutched at straws to the philosophy “She is my girlfriend, you don’t get a saying on this.” But on his argument and on his turf, Axl had the upper hand.

Despite all the efforts, Mark told him to mind his own business and that, if the redhead kicked him out of the studio, he would be behaving like a total dick. Then, as if the destiny was trying its best to fix things, sarcasm be sensed, Duff showed up in the anteroom where we were. As soon as my boyfriend saw him, his eyes started blazing, and it only took the bassist telling him he had to leave and that I was still in my working hours so I wouldn’t go with him, for his fist to connect with Duff’s jaw in a nasty jab. And hell was fucking raised.

Axl pushed Mark, who was holding my arm with the same hand he had punched the blond with two seconds ago. Not letting go of me, he tackled the vocalist, mumbling something I can’t remember. Then he walked towards the front door, grabbing me with him. “Let’s go. Now”, he ordered. His fingers dug into my skin with such anger and despair that I could already feel the bruise forming underneath, and I was half shocked, half scared shitless. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to get in the car with him and I didn’t want any more punches either, but in any case my limbs were not responding to the commands my brain tried to make, whichever they were. It was then that, halfway across the room, before reaching the door, Mark stumbled and fell, finally releasing my arm. The first thing I saw when I lifted my eyes was Duff standing there, with his mouth covered in blood, shaking his right hand once and breathing heavily.

- If you ever touch her again like that, I’ll kill you.

While Mark was trying to get up, Slash stormed in from the recording room. He had seen the events of the last two minutes from his position behind the glass, and he wasn’t going to take any more of that shit. Right before the other one went ballistic attacking the bassist and blood started to hit the fan, Saul grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and kicked him, literally, out of the place. Once the metal door had closed between Mark and us, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I vaguely remember I started hyperventilating, on my knees, on the floor, and the sound of punches hitting metal on the outside was all but helping me calm down. As tears streamed down my face and I frantically run my fingers through my hair, a hand started trailing my back. It was a soft touch, slow, really slow. Making its way upwards and then going back down, over again. The noise level had considerably decreased, and now all I could listen to were whispers, the sweetest whispers coming from the mouth of one single person. “Shhhh, easy. You’re having a panic attack. It’s okay, you’re okay, I’m here. Breathe.” Little by little my quick and superficial breathing became steadier, and after a few minutes I was able to stand up to sit on the couch. The beating on the door had stopped, and I realized all the guys were surrounding me, worried look on their faces, as Duff, seating beside me, still had his hand in my back.

_________________

It had been two weeks since that day. After the incident, I sure as hell wasn’t going to be under the same roof as Mark, and even less with the fight still recent. Who knows what he would do to me as soon as I crossed the threshold… The guys profusely insisted that I could stay with any of them, but they let me use their phone to call my best friend when I told them I would be in very good hands with her. Laura received me with a warm hug the moment she saw me, and that night, at her home, we cried, we ranted and we ate ice-cream until we couldn’t take any more. I have to admit that, given the circumstances, she managed pretty well to get me into bed feeling kinda happy. But of course, nothing lasts forever. I was about to graduate, with no home (the foster-bed in Laura’s house didn’t count), no boyfriend and no plans of work, projects or future in general; ahead of me there was a massive precipice with seemingly no ending. Besides, the production process for Appetite was coming to an end, and so did my internship and the months of togetherness with the band. Now was the time for press conferences, concerts and, if it all went well, the tour. To be honest I was super happy for them. I had seen the birth of that album, and I was blindly certain that with such a masterpiece they were bound to success. It was inevitable. But in any case, that meant the end of what had given me the most joys in the last four months and, if apart from all the financial and emotional stability I had gained during my college years, someone took that away from me… what did I have left?

__________________

After that much time hitting the drums, I had ultimately interiorized the beat so much now I was just reproducing it on loop, with my eyes closed and breathing heavily. I was so self-absorbed that I didn’t realize the door had opened and someone had stepped into the studio. Suddenly I felt how, behind my back, two hands softly landed on my shoulders. I didn’t stop playing. My arms moved now with less vigor to the beat I had marked from the beginning, while those fingers gently traced small circles in the back of my neck, comforting me.

Duff.

It had to be him, I was certain.

Little by little I reduced the speed of my movements, gradually, until I completely stopped playing. When I left the drumsticks on the snares and turned around in the stool I saw him. He was standing there, right in front of me, asking with his eyes, a calm and expressive look on his face. An almost imperceptible sigh escaped my lips. He was worried about me.

- Good thing it was you who entered, and not Steven – I said, half jokingly, as I stood up, hoping to relax the tension built up between us.

- Yeah – he laughed softly. – Had it been him he would have ripped the drumsticks off your hands and hit you with them.

I laughed too, quietly, bitterly. This was too much for me. The words we never said were floating around, like a thousand needles falling into a tailspin above us; eventually, they would have to land. The worst part was that I didn’t know if I craved that moment or, on the contrary, dreaded it.

It looked like he had read my mind when he slowly, almost asking for permission, held my hands. I startled a bit with the contact, but I let him go on. Duff looked at them for a second before he noticed the tiny wounds I had unconsciously inflicted on myself digging my fingernails too hard a while before, at the drums. Without saying a word, he started caressing them very softly, as if he wanted to calm, more than my physical pain, the sentimental one. He was breathing deeply and slightly frowning. He was concentrated in trying to make that feeling disappear, the confusion, the guilt, the fear… the stream of emotions that had been threatening to break me for some time now. He looked me in the eyes. In that very moment, the temperature inside the room raised a few degrees. We were really close. So close I could feel his breath on me, listen to his heartbeat accelerating with every second that went by, see how his lips lightly parted, practically not at all, only a hint of the thought that filled our minds in that place, in that moment. Then, almost involuntarily, as an instinctive reflex, I stretched my neck upwards. That was the only sign he needed to make the already scarce distance between our lips disappear, and kiss me.

The contact was slow, sweet and full of longing. Our lips moved rhythmically, perfectly fitting on each other’s. Duff was still holding my hands, and I could feel my breath accelerating progressively. I released one of my hands and placed it on his neck, stroking the hair on his nape and helping myself keep balance in my tippiest toes. He saw my struggles and moved his free hand to my waist, firmly holding me so that I wouldn’t fall. All of a sudden, I felt the urge to be closer to him, even more. Everything that I hadn’t been able to do and that had bottled up inside of me was now too overwhelming, and I didn’t want to fight it anymore. Our kiss intensified, we hungrily enjoyed each other, panting. The next thing I knew was that Duff had placed his hands on the back of my thighs and lifted me up. I wrapped my legs around his waist and leaned my arms on his shoulders, so I could keep kissing him while he crossed the room and sat on the leather couch, with me straddling his lap. He ran his fingers up and down my thighs, slightly lifting the hem of my dress, as if he was testing some boundaries that I hadn’t set and, at this point, I didn’t plan to.

I was euphoric, nervous and loaded with desire. In a burst of braveness or lust, I’m not entirely sure, I started to buck my hips, back and forth, following a slow path at first, which progressively accelerated. The friction of my underwear in direct contact with his leather pants was about to drive me mad, and I couldn’t stop. His hands, which a moment ago were on my hips, guiding them, started moving over my lower stomach, tracing the edge of my panties in painfully slow motions. His breath was also heavier, somehow ragged, and I felt him hardening beneath me. His lips were stuck to the base of my neck, lightly sucking as I, with my eyes closed and lips parted into a silent “O”, gently pulled his blond hair. My core grew more sensitive by the minute, and when I thought I wouldn’t be able to hold the moan trapped in my throat anymore, his fingers touched my most sensitive spot, turning my steadily rocking hips not that steady for a moment.

In a matter of seconds, and with his hand working wonders between my legs, I got rid of the dress, which only bothered, and the perspective of my almost absolute nudity on top of his entirely dressed body made me shake with arousal. His free hand took care of my breasts, now exposed, as I dug my nails into his shoulders, underneath the sleeveless shirt he was wearing.

-  Take it off – I managed to blurb between gasps.

-  What? – Duff seemed confused, too concentrated on something else for having been able to follow the road of my own thoughts.

-  Your shirt, take it off. I want to touch you.

A shit-eating grin lit up his face right before he separated in a quick motion from that piece of clothing and threw it somewhere else. Immediately after, in a total change of the atmosphere, he laid back on the couch and, placing his hands behind his head, said:

-  Then touch me.

I didn’t hesitate for a single second. My hands flew to his shoulders, his arms, his shoulders again and went down his chest as I peppered kisses all over his lips, jaw, neck, collarbones… I took my sweet time while swinging my hips against the fabric that separated my pussy from his erection, and my nails traced a descending path down his torso, really slowly. I could notice how he was growing desperate; I felt his breath, now turned into a subtle growl, against my hair; I realized how shortly he had managed to keep his hands off me, since now he was caressing my flanks, my back and my chest. When I reached the cord of his pants with my fingers, I slowly undid the knot that tied them together and slipped my hand underneath, without stopping my hip motions. The very moment I found the base of his length, a soft grunt escaped his lips. He was driving me insane.

After a while arousing each other, we couldn’t stand the teasing any longer and Duff took the first step to getting rid of the clothes that were still around. I stood up and took off my sandals so that he could slide my panties down my legs, grazing my skin along the way. He also let go of both his pants and sneakers, tossing them on the carpet. Our moves were clumsy thanks to eagerness and anticipation. I once again sat on top of him, in our initial position, only now there were no clothes in the middle of the road. I could feel him against me. Touch. Friction. Desire. His expert fingers moved now freely over my core, as he left little love bites under my left ear. I kept on rubbing his cock, fully hard and a bit wet, while, with my other hand, I held on to his hair for dear life. We were close, really close. It felt as if every centimeter of my skin was on direct contact with Duff. He was everywhere, every corner, every goosebump, every scar… With all this overstimulation, my moans filled the room, and I didn’t have enough sanity to realize anyone could come in. I was a mess.All of a sudden, right when I was seconds away from cumming, his hands disappeared from my core. Even though I couldn’t see myself, I was sure in my eyes one would be able to read the anticipation and confusion.

-  Wait – he said in a desperate whisper -. I want to feel you, I want to be inside of you.

If he hadn’t stopped touching me a moment before, I am sure that sentence would have sent me to the wildest of orgasms, but it wasn’t the time for my sweet release. Not yet. He put his hand right next to mine, on his cock, and, with an almost unbearable slowness, he brought the tip of it to my entrance. A trembling sigh fell from my lips and we looked into each other’s eyes. Then, I gently let my hips descend on his lap, and he completely slid inside of me, letting escape an unearthly growl that gave me chills. He had dropped his head back, leaving his neck and collarbones exposed to me, but I had my eyes closed as I tried to control the delightful contractions that were about to take over me. I felt him inside of me, extremely deep. As if we were two pieces of the same puzzle, as if we had been manufactured specifically to be together. Now THAT was overstimulation. Once my body had adjusted to him, I started motioning my hips up and down, holding on to his shoulders so that I didn’t lose the limited balance I had left. He once again was looking at me, with his hands on my waist as I kept the path. Close, very close. His arms slid around me and I kissed his lips eagerly. Our moans died in one another’s mouth while the movements became faster, erratic, frenetic. It was becoming more and more difficult to keep my sanity, I was almost raving with pleasure, and the moment our lips broke away to take air and we looked at each other, nose to nose, without stopping for a moment, I couldn’t hold it any longer. I came with a flashing intensity, pronouncing his name countless times, asking God knows who for this moment to last forever. I couldn’t stop screaming, and when Duff begged my name and I felt his liquid warmth filling every bit of me, I saw white.

_______________

His hand stroked tenderly my naked back while my breath came back to normal against his neck. The same as that day, but at the same time entirely different. I was still on top of him, he was still inside of me. I hadn’t yet gathered the strength to pull him apart from me, but he didn’t seem willing to get separated either, so we stood like that for a while, I don’t even know how much, but I don’t care. This felt utterly intimate, intense, extremely ours and totally apart from the rest of people, from the rest of things. It was a parallel universe inside of a crystal ball. It was the embodiment of all that was right. What we had been, without knowing or admitting it, even to ourselves, waiting for all this time.

[jawnjendes]

but i’ll show you my teeth | shawn mendes

chapter 7/?, university au, shawn x goth oc

let me know if you wanna be added/removed from the taglist

masterlist | playlist coming soon

“Did you do this?” Shawn asked in a stern tone. “Don’t give me that look, I asked you a question!”

Henry was sat on top of the couch cushion, green eyes wide but generally indifferent. She gave exactly zero fucks about the mangled, chewed up phone charger that Shawn was holding up. She meowed and stood on all fours, getting ready to jump off the furniture.

“Don’t talk back to me!” he scolded. “You know you’re not supposed to touch this!”

The cat jumped off the couch and ran into the recording room. Then, a fit of giggling came from the bathroom, and out came Alessia. “You sound funny when you try to be a disappointed parent.”

“I’m trying! I’m still a new dad!” Shawn said as he tossed the charger onto the table and plopped down on the couch.

Alessia giggled even more as she sat next to him. “Didn’t you get her some toys or a scratching post? She’s gotta get her ya-yas out somehow.”

“Her what?” He chuckled, though the thought hadn’t occurred to him.

“I said what I said! And yeah, she needs things like that, otherwise she’ll scratch up the couch! Or worse, your guitars.”

The humor was suddenly gone. Shawn grabbed his laptop from the table and went to Amazon. “Okay, this shit better be here tomorrow.”

He could tell that Alessia was watching him through his peripherals, and he tried not to notice. She was a looker, meaning she stared quite a lot. Shawn wasn’t sure if it was only he who fell victim to this stare, and he wasn’t sure what it meant if he was. Alessia was very nice to him, she was his friend after all...

“How are your classes?” he asked as he browsed through various cat toys, keeping his eyes on the screen.

“I’ve gained at least one friend in every class,” she replied, running her fingers through her curly locks, “so I’m not suffering through coursework alone. Everyone I talk to seems to know you.”

“Really? That’s crazy,” Shawn mindlessly said.

“Some of them ask if I’m your girlfriend.”

That made him pause his typing. His eyes were still on the screen, but he wasn’t seeing cat condos anymore. Then he breathed out a laugh. “That’s funny. Wonder if people ask Ann the same thing.”

“Well, she’s not exactly easy to approach. One wrong look and she might shoot you on sight.” Alessia stuck her tongue out.

“You’re not wrong. Does she talk to you at all?” He was genuinely curious. The few times Shawn saw Ann and Alessia in the same vicinity they hardly acknowledged each other. He did want his girlfriend to know all of his friends, after all.

Alessia shifted in her seat. “I think she... tolerates me.”

Shawn couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, she’s like that. You can’t tell at first, but trust me, when she warms up to you, you will know.”

“How did you know?”

“She kissed me on the first date.”

“Oh, cool, so I’ll just wait for her to plant one on me.”

“Ha! You wish!”

The only sound in the room after that was Shawn clicking the keys on his laptop, placing an order for a cat condo and several toys. Then, Alessia spoke again, and something about her voice and the general air in the room changed.

“Wouldn’t it be easier if she just told you straight up?”

Shawn almost laughed, but he caught onto the sudden change. It would most definitely be easier if Ann practiced what she preached.

“Seriously,” Alessia went on. “Not to be mean, but I cannot figure out how you two came to be. You’re so… open and friendly and very likeable. She’s your literal opposite. Wouldn’t you rather be with someone who gets you?”

Honest to god, Shawn thought about that before. He thought about the qualities Ann had that he could do without, and how much easier things would be. She was so stubborn, and easily provoked. So was Shawn, but he knew better than to pick a fight. She’s a flight risk who will run at the first sign of trouble, while Shawn will sit down and talk about it for hours if he has to. She’ll nag him to do simple things like clean his apartment so his mother wouldn’t have to. She really didn’t want him talking about her to other people, like she was some dirty secret. Ann doesn’t want people to know her, while Shawn wanted to tell everybody about her. Ann bottled up her feelings, and Shawn aggressively felt his and didn’t care who saw.

He also knew it was selfish to think that way, and besides, he didn’t get into this relationship because it was easy.

“What are you trying to get at?” he asked as he closed his laptop. He finally looked at the girl next to him, like she better think about what she’ll say next.

Alessia didn’t falter her gaze, her brown eyes boring into his. “I’m saying, she’s not the only person who has eyes for you. You’re… you’re something else, rockstar.” Her hand fell onto his arm, and she offered a smile.

The two of them stared at each other for a hot minute before Shawn felt a fuse blow in his brain, making him lose his speech. He couldn’t explain the warm feeling in his chest or the smile that was growing on his lips. He didn’t know why his skin was tingling where Alessia was touching him.

That feeling lasted about ten seconds before reality went down the back of his neck like cold water. His expression turned serious as he pulled his arm away.

“Annalise is still my girlfriend,” he said firmly.

The look on Alessia’s face was obvious disappointment that she failed to cover up. She looked down at her lap, brows furrowed. “Sleeping with her twice a month doesn’t make her your girlfriend.”

“Look, I’m sorry if I accidentally led you on-”

“It’s not that.” Alessia looked up again, pursing her lips. “You’re just doing what she wants. You told me before that you didn’t want this break, did she even consider that? Did she ask you what you want? Or did she just wake up one day and decide to push you away?”

Shawn leaned in towards her, a hard look on his face. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t know anything about Ann. Or me, if that’s how you think of me.”

“I know enough,” she snapped. “I know enough to see that that crazy goth chick is not good for you! She doesn’t want anything to do with you, it’s like she dumped you without actually dumping you!”

“I don’t think I should listen to you anymore.” Shawn got up from the couch, trying to cool his temper. If it was anyone else, he would have ripped their head off for talking such shit about his girl.

“Why? Because I have feelings for you it makes everything I say invalid?”

“Because you don’t know anything about why she and I are doing this!” Shawn harshly told her.

“So enlighten me!” Alessia raised her voice, jumping to her feet.

“I can’t! She won’t let me!”

She scoffed, astounded. An annoyed smile was on her face as she shook her head. “If you can’t see why that sentence is fucked up…”

Shawn sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose. He really did value and respect Ann’s privacy, but if it was making him look like he was her bitch... He needed to explain, so he did. He talked about Ann's chronic stomach issues, the trip to the hospital, and everything leading up to the separation.

Alessia listened, a serious look still on her face. “Okay, I didn’t know that. Never would have guessed just by looking at her, and I’m sorry that happened. I get that you worry about her."

"And she thinks us being apart will make me worry less," Shawn said, "but it doesn't. I just wanna know where she is, what she's up to. It's killing me, not being able to see her whenever I want."

"That's what I don't understand. Why would she just push you away when you need each other the most?" She began to ramble. "I mean, doesn't she see how loved she is? Does she not realize how goddamn lucky she is? Doesn't she know that the second she drops you, someone else will be there to pick you right back up?"

Shawn felt his face and chest warm up. He didn't know what to say to that.

Alessia's eyes met his and then darted away, cheeks flushing. "But my point still stands. She’s just messing with your feelings and your head even more by keeping you around this way."

"I know." He sighed. "I keep thinking she’ll come to me one day and break it off altogether. She’s the quiet type, but she hasn’t been this quiet with me in a long time. I don’t want it to be over.”

"You’re obviously gonna do whatever you want. But while you may not want it to be a breakup, you may need it to be.”

~

“Can I still win at any game ever if I’m high?” That was the only concern Annalise had as she walked through the doors of Bart that night. She had Patrick on her arm, and he was just as stoned.

Their pregame for the Bart adventure involved Patrick’s pen, and they both took pretty big hits before ordering their Lyft. Annalise felt surprisingly okay, given that she hadn’t smoked in a very long time. In fact, she felt fantastic. Her heart and soul felt light and fluffy… if souls are even real. Or if they are able to feel fluffy.

The two of them spotted Josh, Paul, and Chad at the bar. There were plenty of partygoers in the vicinity, so spirits were high, and plenty of spirits were being consumed. Annalise actively kept her face neutral as she approached the group, her arm linked with Patrick’s.

“You look constipated,” Chad said to her over the booming rock music.

“No you!” Annalise replied, poking his shoulder.

Chad smiled and placed his hand over where she touched him.

“Where are your bros?” Patrick asked him.

“Kyle is on a health kick, so he couldn’t come, and Jared is at a civil disobedience meeting,” Chad explained.

“At this hour?” Josh asked incredulously. “It’s almost midnight!”

“Making the world a better and safer place has no bedtime.”

“He’s right, you know,” Annalise piped up, poking his shoulder again.

Chad glanced at her again, still beaming as he took a sip of his beer.

“So, drinks?” Patrick said, flagging down the bartender.

He ordered a Sapporo, while Annalise stuck with water. She downed a whole glass to deal with her cotton ball mouth. Water never tasted so good. Music never sounded so freaking pretty. The sounds were seeping into every cell of her body. She felt like a ghost but she felt so alive at the same time. She didn’t realize how much she missed getting high like this.

After the first round of drinks, Alessia entered the bar. She had a dopey smile on her face as she looked around the vicinity, and she waved when she spotted her group. “Hiiii!”

The guys cheered, raising their glasses, and Alessia flipped hair and nearly tripped in response. She grabbed hold of the edge of the bar before she could face plant onto the hardwood.

“I knew I was gonna be late,” she spoke, “so I caught up before I left my dorm.”

“Damn, Alessia knows how it’s done!” Paul said, impressed.

She held up a peace sign and then ordered a round of shots from the bar. Meanwhile, the Nice Guys claimed a spot at the bar where Mario Kart was set up on the N64. The game was being projected on the blank wall above the bar, and the two boys were sucked in right away. Chad went over and joined them, not before giving Alessia one last glance.

“Oh, there’s Smash on the Gamecube over there!” Patrick pointed to the other end of the bar. He gestured for the only two girls to follow, and they sat on the stools in front of the controllers.

They fell into a five minute battle that seemed to take five hours. Annalise had her eyes comically wide as she tried to focus on winning.

Her Link was launched off the stage by Alessia’s Kirby. Then, she was knocked out by Patrick’s Captain Falcon. Okay, so Annalise had to focus on not dying. The colors and the sounds were just so vibrant and pretty, it was hard not being consumed by them.

Patrick won that round, and he was pleased with himself. “Beat you again, Flowers!”

“Whomst?” Alessia asked, looking around at the bar.

“It’s my last name,” Annalise said. “Flores, Spanish for Flowers.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Dude, that’s so cute and makes you less intimidating!”

“Dude, I know! I’m a bad bitch with a soft interior.”

“Hm, no wonder Shawn likes you.” Alessia patted her arm and then called the bartender, who had her plate of shots ready.

Annalise felt her heart shoot for the stars at the sound of his name. She placed her elbows on the bar surface and covered her mouth with her hands. Shawn is fucking beautiful… sculpted by Aphrodite herself… or something like Aphrodite. Fuck, he’s pretty. Fuck, he’s so fucking pretty.

“I got shots!” Alessia announced as she gestured to the plate of tiny glasses that seemed to come out of nowhere. Then she turned to the other side of the bar. “Hey, guys!”

The other three boys came over, clearly interested. Each of them took their own glass, along with Patrick. Annalise denied her glass, claiming she was fine with what she was already on.

“Oh yeah, you got a sensitive tummy!” Alessia said with a gasp. “Don’t want you in the hospital again!”

The group clinked their glasses and downed the strong liquid. Alessia took the leftover one as well, not showing any signs of slowing down. Annalise watched her, mildly surprised by her statement. How did she know about that?”

A belch came out of Alessia as she sat on the stool again. She swung from side to side contently, while Annalise continued to stare.

“Alright, I’m going outside for a smoke,” Patrick told them as he reached into his leather jacket and stepped outside.

Neither woman had any response. The Nice Guys and Chad went back to their side of the bar, leaving them alone. Annalise forgot what she was doing.

“I hung out with your mans today,” Alessia slurred. “Alone. In his apartment.”

“Henry wasn’t there?” Annalise replied, pouting.

“Oh yeah… I guess we weren’t alone. Anyways, he told me you were in the hospital and almost died! You’re such a strong lady, dude!”

If she was sober, Annalise would have felt her blood boil. But instead, her blood felt like cotton candy, so all she did was blink at the other girl. Her lash band was poking the corner of her eye.

“Oh, I also came onto him,” she continued, resting her chin in her hand. “Don’t know if you’ll hear about that, but you should know he’s obsessed with you. Like, I’m not even sure it’s healthy.”

Annalise still had a dumb look on her face, mouth open and blinking slowly. She processed every word, but all emotions were numbed out, so she really didn’t know what to do. She was looking at a girl who apparently hit on her boyfriend. What do?

“So, ladies,” said Chad, who had apparently approached them. “We having a good time?”

“I was,” Alessia said, her mood shifting completely. “But I just puked up stuff I wasn’t supposed to puke up. I’m gonna go see if Patrick has any extra smokes.”

She slid off the stool and went for the door. Annalise prodded at her fake eyelash, suddenly bothered by the itch.

“Annie,” Chad said, taking the empty seat.

“No!” she snapped.

“Ann?”

“Yes?”

He chuckled. “Okay, Ann. I gotta ask, are you single now? Haven’t seen you with your singer for a minute now.”

She looked at him with blank eyes. “Good question.”

Chad quirked a bushy eyebrow. “I’ll take that as a maybe. Are you guys seeing other people?”

Well… someone wants to see him. He was alone with another girl. This was just logic. Annalise tilted her head as she tried to figure that out. “Good… question?”

He let out another laugh. “You’re cute. You know, for a goth chick.”

“I’m a fucking catch.”

“You are. It’s a damn shame he didn’t see that. You’re so mysterious and beautiful. So strong. It’s his loss, really.”

Annalise nodded, still half lost in her static mind.

“Why don’t you smile more?” Chad asked her. “I bet I could make you smile.”

That caused a visceral reaction from deep within her body. “You smile, asshole!”

However, it was taken as a joke. He only moved in closer. “You’ll be smiling with my head between your legs.”

Normally, she would have stormed off, but Annalise only sighed. “Is that the only reason why you’re talking to me?”

He tilted his head in an almost condescending way. “Hey, you know I think you’re beautiful. And I never go out to a bar without getting some. I think you’re the same way.”

“Well, you’re wrong. You ain’t getting shit from me!”

“Oh, come on! All the other girls here saw me hanging out with some dorks, so they won’t talk to me! And Alessia looked like she wanted to shoot herself! You’re my last chance!”

Annalise laughed out loud, harder than necessary. “I promise you she doesn’t want you either!” She knew the high was starting to wear off, because the emotions were coming back with a vengeance. But she knew better than to start something in a public place. She stood up, but Chad grabbed her wrist.

“Hey-” he tried to say, but he received the palm of her hand on his nose before he could even blink. He staggered back in his seat, letting go of her to clutch his bleeding nose. “Ow! You’re fucking crazy!”

“Don’t put your fucking hands on me again,” she hissed, and she stepped away just as the bouncers came over to assess the scene. “Don’t worry, I’m kicking myself out!” she snapped as she speed walked out the door.

She spotted Patrick at a nearby planter, cigarette lit in his mouth. Next to him was Alessia, who was squatting down in front of the planter. She was retching and gagging loudly.

“You still got your pen?” Annalise asked. The emotions were definitely coming back. A lump of severe discomfort was forming in her stomach as she listened to the other girl hack her guts out.

Patrick nodded and pulled the device from his pocket. Annalise took a hit, knowing she would be the one to drag Alessia back to safety. She just didn’t want to be pissed off or anxious as she did it.

“We should go,” she said in the middle of blowing out the smoke. “I punched Chad and I’m worried he might come out here and kill me.”

The cigarette nearly fell out of Patrick’s mouth. “What the fuck? What did he do? I can kill him first!”

Annalise shook her head. “It’s best we leave. Alessia’s probably gonna need help getting back to her dorm anyway.”

“‘M fine,” she mumbled before heaving again.

“I’ll call a Lyft,” Patrick said as he pulled out his phone.

______

taglist: @normalcyisoverrated-beyou @ilsolee @mendesromano @1-800-khalid-mendussy@kitykatnumber @strangerliaa @iloveshawnieboi @poppyshawn @shawnsunflower @shawmndes@shawnvvmendes @yourdeflightfullyleft @havethetimeeofyourlifee @wronglanemendes@chillingbythesea @calyumthomas @someoneunimportantxx @ruinhoney

[yungimmortals]

doorways & discoveries | reid & jordan

date: early february 2020

summary: reid’s first day at camp (if you can call it that) gets a little more annoying when magic mixes up and brings her some company (if you can call it that)

Jordan sat cross-legged on his bed and threw a ball across the room, then teleported it back before it hit the ground. When he’d first started gaining more control of his powers, moving objects had been hard for him, but now they’d all but lost their fun. He threw the ball into the next room, tried to figure out the trajectory in a matter of seconds, then flashed over to catch it. This was always more fun; it gave his brain less time to work with more work to do. He threw the ball back to the original room, teleported, and then found himself colliding with another person. “Ow, fuck, what?” He said as he stumbled back, landing on the floor. He was sitting in the doorway between the rooms instead of where he’d intended to end up, and he looked up at the girl who was now in his cabin. “What the fuck? Who are you?”

Reid was sulking in the shade of the porch, still reeling after her talk with Chiron. The Chiron, immortal trainer of Theseus, Perseus, Heracles, Achilles. Oh, and he was a centaur. She blew a strand of hair out of her face. Can't forget that. She had always believed in magic; she'd known she was a demigod for a few years now, but living her life of travel with her mom and being the kid of a minor god - as Chiron had so kindly pointed out - had its perks. Monster attacks hadn't been an issue until earlier this year; Stymphalian birds had crashed her vacation to Venice and Reid had fresh scars to prove it. Needless to say, she was less than thrilled to be dumped at this summer camp. With a centaur for a camp director. The winding strawberry fields, while cute, were not a suitable replacement for the winding Venetian canals.

 "Stupid fucking birds," she muttered, as she stood, brushing dirt off her jeans. The immortal ponyboy had asked her to wait for some demigod (who's name she hadn't bothered to remember) to collect her so she could watch some lame orientation film but Reid had other ideas. She hopped off the porch, walking around the side of the house; she found a spot obscured by trees and looked around to make sure no one was around. Slipping her necklace over her head, she grabbed the key that hung from the chain. The metal glowed faintly in her hand as Reid tapped it to the wall of the Big House. A doorway appeared where seconds ago there had only been solid wall. 

 With a smug smile, she stepped through the archway; it shimmered and faded behind her with a pop. A second later, "Shit! Ow! What the fuck!" Reid collided with someone else and landed hard on the floor. She took a moment to gather her surroundings before looking up at the boy before her. Ignoring the fact that she was most definitely not where she had intended to be, she fixed him with her best glare. "Who the fuck are you?"

Jordan stared incredulously at the person who was now in his cabin. He scoffed, pushing himself up slowly. “Bold question from someone who literally just broke into my house?” As Jordan reached his full height, he looked down at the girl and didn’t extend a hand to help her up. He frowned, figuring her sudden appearance in her cabin meant it had a new resident. “Anyway, I asked you first. Just found out your parent got knocked up with the goddess of magic and you’re excited to try out all your new perks?”

Reid leaned back on her elbows, still on the ground, and raised an eyebrow at the boy. “Broke in?” She sputtered. “Oh no, trust me, this was not my destination of choice.” She let his words sink in, continuing to scowl at him. Goddess of magic? “Are you telling me your parent is Hecate? Yeah, uh, sorry but no. Janus for me, thank you very much. What perks are you talking about though? Do tell.” She pushed herself back to her feet and folded her arms over her chest; a curious thought pushed to the front of her mind. “Did you bring me here?”

Jordan crossed his arms over his chest and frowned at the newcomer. “Okay, well, then you’re just really bad at whatever you tried to do, I guess.” He scrunched his nose. “Janus? So you’re another Roman fuck up?” He watched her for a moment and then half-laughed, half-scoffed. “As if. I don’t even know who the fuck you are. I think you brought you here.”

“Uh, rude?” She gave the boy a very exaggerated roll of her eyes. “I’m very good at what I do. So, this? This is your fault somehow. I don’t know how, but-“ Reid jabbed a finger in his direction. “It is. And I’m not a fuck up, for fuck’s sake.” His parent must have been Hekate, not Hecate, the way he said another Roman. Reid filed that information away for another time. “So? You never answered my question. Who the fuck are you?”

Jordan laughed and shook his head, resisting the urge to slap her hand away. He moved to lean against a desk and raised one eyebrow at her. “I don’t fuck up. And, um, you never answered my question first. I could keep on like this all day, so you might as well tell me.”

“Ugh.” Reid pinched the bridge of her nose with one hand. The other went to the key on her chain as she fidgeted absently, still studying his face. “Neither do I. But fine, I’m Reid. And you’re insufferable.”

Jordan watched as she played with the key at her neck. “Huh, why were you asking who I was if you already knew?” He spotted the ball from where it was sitting under his bed and teleported it into his hand. “Okay, Reid, how’d you end up here?”

“Smart ass.” Reid’s eyes narrowed; she did not like the way he said her name. She flinched, caught by surprise when a ball appeared in his hand. “I walked through a doorway.”

"Walked through a doorway into my cabin." Jordan frowned and looked at where she was- also in a doorway. "Alright, I'll take a guess at this one: you were doing some magic freak shit and teleporting through doors and ended up here while I was also passing through a door. And we bumped into each other because magic is stupid sometimes." He tossed the ball in the air a few times and caught it. "Where were you trying to get?"

Reid gave him a razor sharp grin, her eyes following the ball as he played catch with himself . “Actually, you’ve  got it backwards. I was passing through a door while you were doing some magic freak shit, the way I see it. But,” she heaved a sigh. “I guess you’re right, about magic being stupid. Venice, not that it’s any of your business. I don’t even know your name.”

Jordan almost smirked but rolled his eyes instead. "Not all of us can see clearly, so that's fine." He bounced the ball against the floor and squinted at her. "You were gonna get to Venice by walking through a door? How's that work?"

“Better get your eyes checked then. I’ll even help you pick out some cute frames,” she countered.  For a moment, Reid debated if it was worth it to waste her breath explaining her powers. Instead, she slipped the chain over her head, holding her bronze key in one hand. She moved closer to the wall and gestured in his direction with her free hand. “Come see.” She tapped the key to the wall and an old blue door shimmered into existence in the wall, just barely cracked open.

Jordan gave an exaggerated roll of his eyes to show just how lame he found Reid's comeback. He raised his eyebrows as a door appeared, and wondered for a moment if he was about to follow a mystery girl to what could be Venice, but also obviously could be messed up, bringing them who knows where. He squinted at her, then stood fully so he could stand at her side, figuring this was as exciting a way as ever to kick the proverbial bucket. He could already hear noise from the other side of the door, and a speaker in the background was definitely rolling their r's enough to be Italian. "If this is a trick, I'll kick your ass."

When the boy stood next to her, Reid sighed and held out her hand for him to take. "If you go through without me, you won't be able to come back so..." She gave her outstretched hand a pointed look. There was the sound of waves lapping against stone in the distance and she could smell fresh baked bread. "Don't threaten me, Sparky, I could strand you in a canal." She smiled at him brightly before pushing the door open with her foot. Warm sunlight fell on her face and it took everything she had not to run through the door and leave this stranger and her new summer camp behind. Still, she hesitated, waiting for the boy to take her hand. A salty breeze lifted her hair in a halo around her head. "What are you waiting for?"

Jordan frowned at Reid’s outstretched hand. He looked when she pushed the door open, letting the smells and sounds wash over him. Something in him told him that this was probably a bad idea, too good to be true, too inviting and appealing, but another part of him... did not care. “Sparky,” he scoffed, but took her hand anyway.

"Yeah, Sparky," she repeated. "Or whatever your name actually is, let's go." Once he took her hand, Reid pulled him through the doorway, letting out a carefree laugh. She jumped down the short set of stairs they'd appeared atop and turned over her shoulder, watching to be sure the weathered door didn't disappear. The Grand Canal was a few feet in front of them. Reid turned to face him, tucking her hair behind her ear. Her eyes sparkled in the light and her face twisted into an impish grin. "This is how it works," she said, matter-of-factly, challenging him with her gaze.

Jordan jumped down the steps after her, just managing to catch himself. He kept his hand around hers, not sure if he was able to let go, or if that would leave him along a canal. He took in the sight with awe, then looked at her after a moment. “Sure, sure. But, schematics. What were you thinking of to bring us here? Does it have to be a place you’re familiar with, or can I Google Maps a place and then picture it perfectly and open a door to there? If that door disappears, are we stuck here, or can we open a new one? If someone goes through that door, will they end up where they want or in my cabin? Can I use your key or is it a focus on your power?”

Reid exhaled through her nose, grinning. "I was thinking of standing here last week, before I got dumped at camp." She scowled for a moment before her smile returned and she turned her face to the sky, letting the sunlight wash over her features. "It has to be somewhere I've been before. Somewhere I know well enough to picture where I'll stand when I open the door. Google Maps won't cut it, sorry pal." A gull cawed above her and Reid returned her gaze to the canal, just in time for a boatload of tourists to pass by. "As long as I've been there and can picture it, I can go there again. So when we go back through that door, we can go back to your cabin. Or, I can take us somewhere else. If it disappears- well, it shouldn't disappear." She shrugged. "If it did, I could get us back...probably. I'm pretty sure my key just focuses my power because-" Reid cut herself off, not about to tell this boy she'd known for 20 minutes her whole life story. "No one else has ever been able to use it."  She shrugged again and returned to soaking up the Venetian sun, addressing the boy with her face still turned skyward. "Cool, huh?"

Jordan raised his eyebrows unsympathetically. “Guess you should’ve thought a little harder about it.” He smirked and watched her speak, taking in the information and saving it for when he could write it down. He looked away from her so that he could look around again, and tugged her closer to the canal, trying to peer over the side. “No one else has been able to, but you just got to camp. Maybe it’s just mortals who can’t use it.” He squinted down at her. “It’s... pretty cool.”

"No, I mean- ugh." She scoffed at him. "My mom dropped me off at camp yesterday. I was literally here last week." Reid rolled her eyes again, grinning as the boy pulled her closer to the canal’s edge. She watched the water ripple in the wake of passing boats. "Bold of you to assume I don't know any other half-bloods, just because I'm new to camp." At his half-compliment, she smiled smugly, turning to meet his eyes. "Yeah, it is. Anywhere else you'd like to go, Sparky?"

“Ah,” Jordan said, understanding what she meant after the clarification. “You’re from here or...?” He peeked over the edge and watched the boats pass by under them. He shook his head, feeling like the entire moment was surreal. He jabbed a finger into her side. “Fuck off. Do you know any half-bloods? I was just speculating.” He frowned at the nickname. “Alright, no, you’re not gonna call me that. I’m Jordan.”

“I’m from Beacon. It’s in New York. My mother does travel journalism, so I’ve been around,” Reid swirled her free hand in the air. She let out a small shriek as he jabbed her side, nearly dropping his hand to get away from the ticklish jab. “Don’t!” Smacking his hand away, she pressed her lips together. “I know two others. Did you know any before you got to camp? How long have you been there?” When he finally told her his name, Reid smiled, pleased she’d worn him down with her terrible nickname. She looked away from the water briefly to study his face, tying it to the name he’d provided. “Jordan,” she mused, leaving the rest of her thought unsaid.

“Hm.” Jordan thought that it did sound right that a travel journalist would be appealing to the god of passageways. He noted that she maintained a grip on his hand when he poked her, which meant that he was not going to drop it anytime soon. “If I did know any, they’re not here now.” He kicked a pebble over into the canal, and watched the water ripple out from where it landed. “I’ve been there, ugh, like basically five years now?” He frowned as she looked at him and turned his face away. “Yeah, I guess my mom wanted me to be a white fuckboy when I grew up.”

She raised an eyebrow, watching the ripples from the pebble he kicked. "Noted. Five years, wow. You must really like it there," Reid's voice dripped with sarcasm, her mind focused on the way her mother had dropped her at the boundary line without much of a goodbye. His quip made her laugh. "Mm, I knew my fuckboy radar was spiking at camp. Should have known it would be you."  She looked down the paved street to her right, then back to the door on her left. "Which way? You choose, not me."

Jordan rolled his eyes, almost tempted to let go of her hand and strand himself in the middle of Italy. "Fuck off. Of course I love it there. Got to find out that Jesus Christ is my father? Amazing, beautiful, life-fulfilling." He almost smirked as she laughed. "Yes, I exude a fine air of fuckboy. It's my cologne, actually, eau d'fuckboy." He looked back at the door for a moment before he turned the other way and pulled them down the paved road. "Don't you know the way around here? I've never been outside of North America."

"Jesus Christ," Reid scoffed. "I think your parent is a little closer to Lilith." She had done a pretty good job of hiding her amusement, acting more aloof up until the words eau d'fuckboy left Jordan's mouth. Her free hand flew to cover her mouth as she burst into laughter. "Fuck," she grinned. "That was a good one, I'll give you that. Your cologne, wow." Reid rolled her eyes, though she smiled, letting him pull her down the street. "I know enough, but choices are a lot more fun when someone else makes them. A little harder to predict. Like so." The words were barely out of her mouth before Reid yanked Jordan's arm, a little harder than she meant to, pulling him out of the middle of the street. A couple on a Vespa sped by, yelling at them in rapid Italian; if they hadn't moved, they would have been demigod pancakes.

"We're all children of Jesus," Jordan muttered. He actually smirked at her this time and then looked away, in time to get pulled out of the way of a moving vehicle. As he heard wheels and yelling in Italian, he panicked and teleported them out of the middle of the street. "Jesus, rip my arm out of my socket, why don't you?"

After being teleported, Reid's eyes were so wide the whites were showing. If she were thinking straight, teleportation wouldn't really be all that difficult from crossing through her doors, but her stomach lurched, feeling like it had been left behind before they reappeared on the side of the street. "Jesus, Jordan!" She yelped, her composure slipping. She gripped his hand tightly, knuckles white, before glaring at him. "Fuck! Why? Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

Jordan sucked in a breath and almost pulled his hand away, but scowled at her instead. "No, I'm trying to keep you from being a victim of vehicular manslaughter."

“Oh, my hero,” she rolled her eyes at Jordan. Reid was caught somewhere between amusement and annoyance. She glanced down, expression smug. “Your hand is sweaty.”

Jordan poked her forehead. "It's because you're sweating on it." He looked both ways to make sure that there were no more Vespas and pulled her forward. "Do you speak Italian? Let's get gelato."

Reid blinked a few times, then narrowed her eyes. "Did you just-?" She let out a dry laugh as Jordan pulled her across the street. "Poke my forehead again and see what happens, Sparky." She spotted a gelato shop a few doors down and ducked inside, Jordan in tow. "I don't speak Italian, do you?" Reid asked over her shoulder.

Jordan reached out to touch her forehead again but was pulled into a gelato shop before he could manage. He scrunched his nose and shook his head. "Nada. I could maybe get by if there were subtitles but..." He frowned. "How do you normally get by around here? Do people speak more English or Spanish?" He paused for a moment. "Or French?"

“English, they’ll realize we’re tourists and switch over. Or-“ She fished a handful of silver coins out of the pocket of her jeans, letting them jingle in her palm. “These.” Reid grinned, tossing one of the coins to Jordan. “My mom speaks Italian and we always travel together.” She looked up at Jordan. “Exactly how many languages do you speak?”

Jordan took the coin and examined it. “What’re these?” He nodded and then shrugged one shoulder. “Fluently? Less than I’d like. But I’d say a soft seven. Or at least, that’s what I can understand and get by in.”

“Aren’t you Roman? Denarii.” Reid rolled her eyes, as if it had been obvious. She quickly diverted her attention to the menu on the wall, trying to decipher any familiar words. “Only seven? Huh,” she scoffed. “I though you were going to say something actually impressive. Like twenty.”

Jordan scoffed. “One, I never said I was Roman, and two, like I’d actually know their currency when I don’t use it, dick.” He smirked, resisting the urge to poke her forehead again, then scanned over the menu, having an easier time translating when reading the words. “Okay, you know what you want? Can we actually use these coins here?”

Reid made a face at him, "You asked if I was another Roman fuckup, sorry for the assumption, ass. And if you have drachmas, you should have some denarii." In lieu of answering, she stepped up to the counter, standing on her toes to make eye contact with the cashier. Stacking a few of the silver denarii on the counter, Reid placed her order with the sweetest, most angelic smile she could muster. She sent a quick prayer to the gods that her money would be accepted before turning to Jordan, nudging him to go.

“Um, you’re not forgiven, I could have just been asking in general. Plus, I may be an ass, but that’s just because you’re making one of you and–“ He was cut off by Reid stepping over to the counter. He had half a mind to hover her up a bit to both help her out and make fun of her, but instead thought better of it and left her on her toes. Jordan ordered in his best Fretalian and placed his coin on the counter as well, and, after a moment, the cashier accepted it with a glazed look. Jordan pulled Reid to the side so that they could wait for their gelato. “Man, if that didn’t work, I was gonna just take a tub and run.”

Reid listened as Jordan ordered in his bastardized mashup of languages. "Wow," she said as he pulled her to the side. She looked over at the counter in time to see the cashier wave his hand over the silver, watching them shimmer and disappear into thin air. "Ugh, with your weirdo powers, we totally could have. Why didn't you suggest that sooner?" She pouted.

Jordan raised an eyebrow. “Because you gave me money and I’d rather not become an international criminal.” He paused and considered this. “Or... not now.” He stepped forward to take his gelato once the person was holding it out for them. “Fuck, so where else have you been? Can we just go anywhere in the world? I can’t believe I’m in Italy wasting my time getting ice cream.” He licked his gelato and hummed. “Okay, at least it’s really good.”

"If I'd known you could teleport a whole fucking tub of gelato out of here, I would've saved my denarii." She raised an eyebrow in return, smirking. "Not now?" Reid moved to accept her gelato and flashed the cashier another blinding I've-never-done-anything-wrong-ever-before-in-my-life smile before turning to lead Jordan out of the shop. Her expression shifted back to one of begrudging amusement as she licked her gelato. "Of course it's good, do you think Venetians eat bad gelato?" Some gelato ran onto her hand and she licked it off, debating what cities sounded the most impressive before she began to rattle them off. "Rome, Amsterdam, Florence - well, most of Italy, really. Prague, Milan, Corinth, Athens, Kyoto, Capetown..." Reid glanced over at Jordan with a cocky smirk. "I could keep going. Better if you say where you want to go and I tell you if it's possible, hm?"

“Well, sounds like a you problem.” He smirked at her and shrugged one shoulder at the question before following Reid out of the shop. He licked his gelato again and exhaled a laugh. “You think I know shit about Venetians? Sorry not all of our moms were into touring Italy.” Jordan raised an eyebrow, impressed by the travel. “Kyoto?” He raised both eyebrows now, looking around as they walked down the street. He had enough of canals, he decided. “Let’s go there. Your key works on any doorway?”

"Sounds like a you problem, blah blah blah," Reid mimicked Jordan's voice and stuck out her tongue at him, before licking her gelato again. "I barely know anything about them, I just know they love their gelato. Duh." She raised her eyebrow in return, a satisfied smirk on her face. "Kyoto, yeah." She nodded, then opened her mouth to correct him but paused to have some more gelato. "Any wall. I can create doorways, not just travel through them. Although I can do that too. How do your teleportation powers work? You can't just jump to Kyoto?"

Jordan scoffed incredulously at her imitation of him but smirked to himself. "Alright, way to stereotype." He tried to sound annoyed. "Wall? Fuck, that's pretty dope, actually." He licked off the gelato that was running down the side of the cone and shrugged one shoulder at Reid. "Uh, think, like, Nightcrawler. I don't like teleporting places I can't see, because I don't know if something'll be there that puts my teleporting off or makes me, like, go through something, I dunno. And long distances are tricky. If I know a place well enough, I can go there easily, but if I've never been there, I don't know, I think of it like the spell. Or, uh, do you know D&D at all?"

Reid rolled her eyes, trying not to laugh. "I know because I've been here, remember? Yeah, wall." She grinned, knowing full well exactly how dope her powers were, but pleased at the recognition nonetheless. She nodded, understanding the Nightcrawler reference, as well as Jordan's hesitation to teleport somewhere unseen without proper knowledge of all the elements in play. She blinked away the vision of getting stuck in a wall while teleporting, shuddering slightly. "Do you have to say a spell every time you do your thing? Mm...I'm mildly familiar. Tell me more, warlock." She cocked her head, trying not to laugh and focused on her gelato, waiting for Jordan to elaborate.

Jordan rolled his eyes right back and didn't comment. He licked his gelato more, already starting to get full with over half of his cone left. "Uh, I do if it's a longer distance, or a place I'm less familiar with, but to teleport me or things around me a few meters? I don't have to say anything, it's pretty innate." He laughed quietly and shook his head. "Okay, I would not be a warlock. They're cool and all, but I do too much research to have an other-worldly sugar daddy. Catch me as a conjuration wizard, baybee. Maybe a few levels in sorcerer, like, one though.”

"Other-worldly sugar daddy! Fuck," Reid almost choked on her gelato, laughing. "Conjuration wizard, or sorcerer, okay. Noted." She nodded, appreciating Jordan's knowledge. Not wanting him to think she found his abilities too impressive, she added,"You're a nerd." Halfway done with her gelato, Reid held the cone between her teeth and quickly ripped her key from her neck. She lead Jordan to a wall and tapped her key to a brick, grabbing her gelato again and biting a piece off the cone as a bloodred door shimmered into existence where bricks had once been. Reid nudged the door open with her foot and it swung inward, revealing a bustling nighttime street, lit by paper lanterns. "You ready?"

Jordan grinned at Reid and then looked away from her. “Tell me that’s not what a patron is anyway.” He nodded, then scoffed. “For knowing shit about DnD? One, that’s mainstream now, motherfucker. Two, you understand all my references, so what’s that say about you?” Jordan licked his gelato once more before he grinned when a door appeared. “So cool,” he whispered under his breath, only half embarrassed showing how impressed he was with her powers. “Fuck, what? This is so nice, yell ha I’m ready,” he said as he moved to pull her through the doorway.

Reid couldn't deny it, patrons and sugar daddies weren't all that different. Still, she rolled her eyes at him. "Yeah, okay, I understand your nerd references. Gods, sue me." She heard his whisper and grinned, letting herself be pulled through the doorway by Jordan. "Yell ha, truly." The door faded seconds after they stepped through it, a wave of fatigue passing through Reid's body, making her dizzy. Jordan was ready to pull her down the street, but she stalled for a moment, waiting for the feeling to pass. "Hang on, give me a second."

Jordan snorted. "Sue you. As if." He looked around in awe as they stepped through the doorway, too invested in the view to notice that Reid was acting strange for a moment. He drew his brows together as he frowned at her. "You good?" He tilted his head at her. "Power comedown?"

"Low battery," Reid quipped, exhaling a puff of air. The feeling passed and she shook her head. "Don't look at me like that, Sparky. Let's go. I think there's a festival this time of year. Probably why there are enough lanterns to see this place from across the galaxy." She took a step forward and swayed a little bit, not as recovered as she thought. Before Jordan had time to comment, she snapped, "I'm fine," and began to pull him down the street.

Jordan shook his head when she swayed and resisted as she pulled him. "Nah, man. Eat some of the ice cream and recharge. I've had my powers fucking zip out on me like that too, and if you pass out while you're my ride, I'm SOL in Japan, so take a sec."

Reid made a face at Jordan, but secretly she was relieved for the extra time to collect herself. She ate the rest of her gelato and looked around, debating which way to go. A few minutes later, she said a grudging 'thanks' to Jordan. "I'm good now. For real this time," Reid laughed. "I won't have you stranded in Japan, though I'd be impressed if you figured out a way home." She looked down the street, watching the tide of the crowd, then glanced up at Jordan. "Which way?"

Jordan licked the gelato that was dripping down his hand and looked around for a garbage can. He was only about halfway through his cone, but he was full, and he'd heard that it was rather frowned upon to eat while in public in Japan. "Kay, dope." He shook his head. "Dude, I'd just slap you awake and make you take me home. Or I'd test out just how good my powers are, but that might end up leaving you here." He smirked, then tilted his head. "Hmm. Let's go up? Follow the crowd and look at the lights?"

Reid scoffed, "You ever slap me, I'll kick your ass in a second. Got it?" She was fully aware that her height - a tall five foot jack shit - didn't exactly inspire fear in her opponents, but still Reid fixed Jordan with her best glare, but the corner of her lip twitched upwards in a smile. "Or it might end up with your powers burning out over the ocean and you fall to your death. But, you know, optimism." In lieu of answering, Reid pulled Jordan into the crowd, walking through the lanterns that cast a warm glow on their faces. "This is so cool."

Jordan mumbled something along the lines of “I’d like to see you try,” but didn’t actually want to see her try, because he didn’t want to get his ass kicked. He took in the glare, glancing over her face before he registered the slight smile, and returned it with one of his own. “I don’t think that’s how my powers work, but hey, if you imagine me an Icarus, so be it.” He looked around in awe, moving forward with the crowd slowly, trying not to look too out of place or get in anyone’s way. He nudged Reid with his elbow. “Do you want the rest if this?” he asked as he held out his gelato. “Cause I’m gonna chuck it before it melts all over me.”

"Please don't go Icarus on me. We've only just me but it would be tragique." Reid bumped his shoulder with a smirk. She eyed his gelato and shrugged. "Thanks, but I'm full. There's a trashcan right over there." She pointed, still walking. "So...how'd you figure out you were a demigod weirdo?"

Jordan shrugged and pulled Reid with him as he threw out his ice cream, then licked the remaining gelato from his wrist and wiped it on his pants. “Uh, some satyr told me, and I was like ‘fuck, that explains why I can teleport’. You?”

Reid exhaled a laugh through her nose. "Satyr, figures." Those goat-men were all around camp. Initially, she had been surprised to have never seen any on her travels, but after her talk with Ponyboy - Chiron, Reid's mother's voice chastised her - she figured that she had encountered a few, either in disguise or hidden with the Mist. Her expression turned stony, but only for a moment before she was back to her smirk. "How old were you when you first figured out you had powers?" She asked, skating past Jordan's question. 

Jordan sighed. “Yeah, figures.” He tried not to think too much about his time getting to camp and the circumstances surrounding it. He turned his head, listening to the chatter around them, then narrowed his eyes at Reid. “Pretty young. What about you?”

"I think I was, like, seven? I walked into the kitchen but I actually walked into the garage. Doorways," she made a face as if the word personally offended her. "It was hard to tell who's powers were who's when we were younger. Still not sure who's were the ones fucking everything up though, between me and-" Reid caught herself and stopped mid-sentence. She pressed her lips together, scowling at Jordan for catching her off guard and scowling at herself for bringing up her brother so easily. She fell silent, unsure if she really wanted to share more with this rando she had only known for an afternoon.

Jordan smirked at her story, busy watching the way that the scenery lit up around them. He glanced back at her when she stopped suddenly, unsure as to why she didn’t want to finish her story. He frowned at her expression, gleaning that she had someone else to mix her powers up with, but that was where the information ended. He was quiet for a few steps. “So how’d you learn to control your powers? Oh, wait, I guess you haven’t.” He smirked, teasing her about their earlier encounter.

Reid blew a puff of air upwards, moving her bangs with the force of it. "Maybe I haven't." She glanced at Jordan, still scowling, but less intensely. Strangely, she appreciated being teased and his smirk didn't grate on her nerves the way she thought it would. With his joke, he'd provided her with an out she could take, or she could outright lie but- no. She didn't feel that he'd lied to her during their conversation, and she didn't want to be the one to start. Reid turned her face away from Jordan, taking in the lights around them. "My brother. He taught me."

Keeping people at an arm's length and not talking about things was something that Jordan was (ironically) well-versed in. Sarcasm was a good out, as was making fun of someone in a way that let them know that you were making fun of them, but in a funny way. Someone like Reid seemed to be able to get this concept, but she surprised him with her answer. He scanned his eyes over her face carefully before he responded. "He have the same powers as you? Or could he do it without a key or something?"

"He had the same power, but," she shrugged, eyes still scanning the street as they walked. "No, he didn't need a key." Reid chewed her lip and nodded, expression softening for a moment. "I think he could do a lot more than he let on. Different powers too, I mean." She shrugged again, "He wasn't always big on sharing, so. Guess I'll never know." Her face turned stony again, before she forced a sharp smile onto her face. "What about you? Any siblings?"

Jordan looked away as Reid's expression grew soft, feeling as though he was intruding on a moment he shouldn't, even if it was just happening in her mind. "Hm. Guess you'll just have to fuck around and try to find them out for yourself." He let his eyes skim signs and made a mental note to not let Reid get away with just taking him here once. Travel without the jet lag or expense? Jordan was in. "Yeah, I got a sister, not a halfblood though." He frowned. It was over a year since the last time he'd seen her in person, and he didn't miss her often since they kept in touch, but something about being so far from camp and yet not with her felt wrong. He looked back at Reid intensely. "You've ever been to Victoria? In BC."

Reid fiddled with the gold chain around her neck, momentarily lost in childhood memories of practicing magic with her brother. "Yeah," she sounded wistful when she spoke. "It'll take some trial and error but, I'm sure I still have plenty to learn. Oh, cool." She scrunched her nose at Jordan's intense stare, feeling like her answer would let him down. "Not Victoria, no. I think the closest to there that I've ever been is Seattle. Why? Is that where she is?"

Jordan shrugged. "S'how it was with my magic. It all kinda developed in surges. Really helped after I started using tomes that laid everything out for me like a goddamn instruction manual though." He looked away from her, his face growing hot was something that felt like shame, annoyed at himself for getting his hopes up. "Ugh, yeah, doesn't matter though, I guess."

"Any chance one of those tomes happens to say something about doors? Portal magic? That sounded so nerdy." Reid pinched the bridge of her nose, exhaling a laugh. Something in Jordan's demeanor changed and she looked away, letting him have a moment, as she tried to pick out a secluded spot to use her key. She glanced back at him, "I'm sorry. Guess you'll just have to fly there. Or a door to Seattle and you teleport to BC?" Her hand dropped back to her chain as she shrugged.

"There's lots of tomes," Jordan answered seriously. "You're welcome to look through any." He frowned at himself, unsure as to why he was offering a stranger some of his most important possessions. "But you have to stay in the Hecate cabin when you read them. Otherwise just play, like, Portal 2 or something, get a feel for that shit," he added, not wanting the moment to feel too serious. He glanced back at her and felt the corners of his lips twitch upwards. "Yeah, maybe. I don't mind Seattle much." He shrugged, giving Kyoto one last glance around. "Alright, I'm kinda crashing, so can you get us back to New York?"

Reid's eyes widened in surprise. "Are you serious?" She pressed her lips together, taken aback by his offer but very grateful. "Thanks, damn. I won't take them out of the cabin." She snorted, running her tongue over her teeth. "Surprisingly, Portal 2 didn't really unlock any secret powers I might have. But I'll keep you posted on that one." Nodding in confirmation, Reid pulled Jordan around the corner of the next building they passed. Grabbing her key again, she tapped it against the wall and another door shimmered to life - this time inky black. In the center of the door, an emblem of two crossed torches blazed silver before the door swung inward, revealing the inside of the Hecate cabin. "Does this answer your question?"

Jordan rolled his eyes in response to her gratitude and smirked at her mention of the video game. He followed her to the building and pulled her through the door that led to a place that he begrudgingly called home, a cold feeling washing over him as he stepped through. "God, fucking wild." He shook his head. "I swear that this is a fucking fever dream, and I don't even care." He finally dropped her hand and wiped his own on his pants, looking to Reid again. "So, about the book thing. I'm thinking equivalent exchange." He motioned toward her with his hand. "You can learn about magic shit, but you gotta take me around the world in eighty seconds again. Lemme practice Spanish or Arabic or try real Thai food. Consider it a tax. Deal?"

"I can pinch your arm if you want to test that dream theory," Reid snorted, amused with his reaction to her powers once again. When he dropped her hand, she rolled her eyes and shook her own hands out, flexing her fingers idly. "A tax, huh?" She pressed her lips together, taking a moment to mull it over. With a smirk, she tilted her head. "I'll have to think about it. We've only just met."

"You touch me, and I'll sue you." Jordan bared his teeth in a grin and then crossed his arms, moving to sit back where he'd been originally, before she showed up in his cabin unexpectedly. "Sure. No skin off my back either way. Catch you around, freak?"

Reid blew her bangs out of her face and used her key to create yet another door. She turned back to face Jordan as it materialized, silhouetting her in a red glow like an exit sign. She sucked her teeth, then raised an eyebrow. "Sure, yeah. See you later, loser." At that, she turned on her heel and stepped through the archway. The door shimmered and disappeared in her wake, all evidence of her presence disappearing without a trace.

[roonil-wazlib-at-221b]

Don’t You Believe Me?

Request: Could you write a klaus imagine where it’s a couple years post-canon. the reader has been pining for him for ages but swallows it cus they don’t believe he returns their feelings. when he tells them that he loves them they’re just like “lmao sure” cus all of their friends and partners have left them and no one has ever loved them enough to stay so they don’t believe him. They aren’t like sad about it either, just resigned and making light of it to deal with how much it hurts to not be wanted.

Pairing: Klaus x Reader (Oneshot)

“He’s probably lying, though,” you mutter to yourself, chewing on your thumbnail as you pace around your small room, bare feet sinking into Emily’s plush carpet with every step. Your phone is in your hand, screen glowing as it displays the nine-word text that’s causing you so much anxiety. When the screen dims, you tap it again. You just need to look at the text in order to get a feel for it.

“What does he have to gain from lying to you?” your roommate, Emily, asks from where she’s laying on her stomach on her bed. Her hair is curled perfectly and her clothes are fashionable and look cute. You don’t know how she does it. You always look terrible no matter how hard you try and your hair can’t hold a curl to save your life. It’s especially impressive considering how just yesterday she’d been bawling her eyes out.

“He could humiliate me!” you exclaim, your voice loud. Someone in the hall down yells to shut up, which in turn makes other people yell at them, until everyone’s yelling and then it lapses into stony, brooding silence. You hiss, “He could be saying it to stand me up or something!”

“Y/N, we’re not in middle school anymore,” Emily responds. “Trust me, no one’s going to be putting in this much effort in order to stand you up.”

“I don’t know,” you say, your phone screen dimming once more. You tap the screen and accidentally on the new message, which means now Charles will be able to see that you’ve opened up the text. “Shit!” You drop your phone like a hot potato. The offending text glares up at you: You know, you’re actually rly cute. Wanna meet up?

“Haven’t you guys been talking for, like, weeks?” Emily asks, blowing a large bubble and sending her friend a SnapChat. “Yeah, trust me, guys like that lose interest after three days on average.” She should know; she did an actual study on the habits of boys and girls when talking to people on instant messaging, and if the male isn’t interested he apparently gives up after three days. You guess she hadn’t studied how many guys cheat on their girlfriends or she wouldn’t have started dating her boyfriend, but she hardly looks worse for the wear.

“What about the outliers?” you ask miserably. Charles is active on Instagram right now, which means he’s probably waiting for your response. He’s seen that you’ve seen it. He might be getting annoyed that you’re taking too long. He might be laughing with his friends about how they’re guessing you’re freaking out.

“The most extreme outlier was a week, Y/N,” Emily says not-so-patiently. She’s normally pretty good at handling you when you’re like this, but recently she found out her boyfriend’s been cheating on her, and she had to pull an allnighter last night to study for her Calculus quiz. Now she’s plotting her revenge on the cheating Michael. “Trust me. Nobody even finds that all that entertaining, anyway. You’re not going to get stood up.”

Your phone screen hasn’t even turned off before you decide, “No, I’m canceling it. Nope. Nope. I’m blocking him.”

“Y/N!” Emily jerks her head up to look at you, brown eyes widening with horror, but you’ve already done it. Her voice is surprisingly shrill when she exclaims againn, “Y/N!”

“Shut up!” somebody yells again, followed by multiple people shushing them.

“Oh, jeez,” you say, your hands shaking as you shove your phone in your pocket. “Nope, nope, nope. Did not like that.”

“You’re pathetic,” Emily sighs, shaking her head. “He was cute. He seemed sweet. You’re just being crazy.”

“I’m sorry, are you standing up for boys in general now?” you ask, putting your hands on your hips. “Last time I checked, your boyfriend’s a douche.”

“First of all, no, I wasn’t talking about all boys, just Charles. He seemed nice. Second of all,” Emily glares at you, “low blow, dude.”

“Sorry,” you groan, dragging a hand down your face. “I’m just… not good at this.”

“You just need to get over him,” Emily says, standing up. She puts a perfectly manicured hand on your arm and crinkles her brow at you. “Trust me. Pining over Klaus for eternity isn’t going to make you feel any better. Rebound dudes are the absolute best to date, because everything they do feels so crazy amazing!” She’s already got her rebound dude from Michael picked out.

“I know,” you insist, folding your arms. “I’m getting over him. It’s just… I had a bad feeling about Charles,” you invent wildly.

Emily crosses her arms and raises one skeptical eyebrow. “Mmm-hmm, sure.”

“What about you?” you ask, sitting down heavily on your bed and wiping your phone screen on your jean pants. “What are you thinking for Michael?”

“Honestly, I was thinking about cutting three inches off my hair and posting a selfie with the caption ‘Not gonna miss those three inches, Mike’.” Emily flips her hair over her shoulder and sends another photo to a friend. “What do you think?”

You laugh. “That sounds really funny. I’ll be the first to like it.”

“Honestly, now I think about it, why’d I stay with a guy that barely hits four inches?” she muses, tapping her chin with her pointer finger.

“I believe I asked you that when you started dating him,” you mutter. “And you responded that he was sweet.”

“Character is out,” Emily decides. “The length of the dick is all that matters now, as long as he’s not a total asshole and, like, a wifebeater.”

“As you do,” you nod.

It was the whole ‘your boyfriend’s a douche’ comment, you’re sure of it.

Emily has moved out of the room you shared together.

It’s not like you weren’t expecting it, either; since when has anyone ever wanted anything to do with you? Your own parents abandoned you and when you tried to track them down, they had another little girl and were not interested in talking to you. The rare times you’ve gotten a boyfriend he’d dumped you quickly, unable to handle your fears of abandonment.

Even the goddamn cat you adopted from the shelter ran away.

So no. You’re the opposite of a magnet. Nobody ever wants to be with you. They don’t even want to be in the same room as you.

Your phone buzzes. It’s Klaus Hargreeves, your oldest friend, and you’re trying to calculate how long it’ll be until he leaves you too. Everyone else has. It’s only a matter of time.

Klaus: Hey, Y/N, wanna come over? I’ve got a surprise for you!

Honestly, you’re surprised he’s texted you. He hasn’t in the last three days, which frankly isn’t very unusual for him, but your anxieties are in overdrive and have been since coming home and seeing the ‘Goodbye’ note on the door.

‘Y/N, I’m going to be living with some other friends for the rest of the semester.’

Translation: I’m finally ditching you for my better friends.

‘No hard feelings, right?’

Translation: I’m trying to be as polite as possible, don’t get mad at me for ditching you, you loser.

‘I’ll still see you around!’

Translation: But only in passing; don’t try to talk to me in public.

‘—Emily’

Translation: You were super fucking annoying. Thank God I’m out.

Within seconds, you text Klaus back, saying, What time? And what sort of surprise?

You good to come over like rn?

You don’t have any other classes for the rest of the day, and though you have an essay to write, you can do it when you come home later or tomorrow.

Yeah, sure, I’m on my way, you text back and slip on a pair of shoes before hurrying out the door. On the bright side, you won’t be able to get into any loud conversations and get yelled at anymore. You’re pretty sure the rest of the hall hates you and Emily for occasionally shrieking the most.

Come to my bedroom when you get here ;), Klaus sends you, and you have to stifle a grin. Maybe his teasing is what made you fall for him initially, and the way he’s so carefree. It hurts a little bit, though, whenever he makes a joke about being with you. You know you’re not even an option, but still.

Like Emily had said. You need to get over Klaus. Maybe you should have told him you had to write the essay, but…

It’s too late now for that. Plus, Klaus may get annoyed if you cancel plans with him and not want to hang out with you later on.

The Umbrella Academy mansion is quiet when you push open the doors. Grace must be cleaning elsewhere, and Pogo must be doing… whatever Pogo does when he’s not taking care of the kids. You barely even notice your extravagant surroundings anymore; far too used to them after visiting Klaus whenever you’re worried he’s OD’d on drugs or whenever he’s a little less high and wants to hang out.

Nothing’s changed when you see Klaus’s room. Well, things have definitely changed; there are balloons around the doorway like he’s celebrating something, but that’s just Klaus fashion. For all you know, he could be celebrating something—maybe this is his anniversary of getting addicted to drugs or something like that. Something like that would kill you a little bit to see happen, as it would kill all his siblings, but Klaus is just like that.

And you really do love him.

You push open the door cautiously, half-expecting him to throw something at you as a prank, but all that greets you is Klaus standing in the middle of his room, exclaiming happily upon seeing you.

“Hey, Y/N!”

You can’t respond. You have to take it all in for a second.

For one thing, his curtains aren’t drawn for once to keep the sun from hurting his hangover headache. For another thing, he’s shaved and cut his hair a little bit. The last thing that really stands out to you is that he’s wearing color. In all your life, you’ve never seen Klaus wear any color apart from that pink feather boa, but he’s wearing a tie-dye tank top and loose green cargo pants.

You laugh a little hesitantly, stepping into the room and looking around. He’s certainly seemed to embrace the color; confetti’s everywhere. “What’s going on, Klaus?”

“I’m sober,” he beams, holding up his arms. “Ta-da!”

You’re speechless.

“I know it’s taken me a long time,” he continues, “and I’m really glad you’ve helped me through all the years. But I’m sober and I’m planning on staying sober for the rest of my life. Ben’s helping me realize that I can’t just drink away my problems, you know?”

“Are you serious?” you manage to squeak out.

Klaus nods.

You squeal and launch yourself across the room, latching onto Klaus like a koala. “Klaus, I cannot believe it! Why didn’t you tell me you were getting sober?”

“I didn’t wanna let you down if I couldn’t,” he mutters, squeezing you so tightly you can’t breathe for a second. “And I was planning something.”

“What?” You pull away from him, already regretting the hug because it just made you love being in his arms more. Spending time with somebody probably isn’t the best way to get over them.

“Well, I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, but I knew I wasn’t gonna be able to until I was sober.” Klaus sits down on his bed, pulling you down with him, and looks in your eyes seriously. It’s unnerving. You’ve never really seen Klaus serious. “Y/N…” He swallows. “Please don’t say anything until I’m done, okay? I just need to get something off my chest.”

You nod. Oh God, is he going to tell me he’s murdered someone? Can you honestly keep a secret like that for him? You nod, squeezing his hands tightly.

“Y/N, I’ve loved you for a long time,” he says, blushing a bit but refusing to look away from you. “I wanted to get sober for you. I want to have a future with you. You’re my best friend and you make me laugh. You’re supportive and kind. I know that people have left you before, but I promise I won’t. I don’t know if you feel the same way, but if you do…” He squeezes your hands for a second. “I’d love to spend the rest of my life with you.”

You want to vomit.

He’s really making fun of you in this way? When he knows how sensitive you are about being abandoned? When he’s probably the only person who knows about your parents and relationship struggles throughout your life?

You swallow around a lump in your throat and croak out a laugh. “Ha, good one, Klaus.” You stand up, avoiding his eyes. “I’m happy you’re sober, though.” You start to turn away, saying, “I have an essay to—”

Klaus grabs your hand gently and spins you around. “Y/N, I’m not making fun of you. I really do love you.”

“Yep, mmhmm, sure,” you say, nodding too quickly, clenching your jaw too tightly. “I know. I’m sorry; I’m not really in the mood for jokes right now; I’m stressed out about this essay that’s due—”

“Y/N, don’t you believe me?” Klaus asks, staring at you. He’d honestly not expected it to go like this—he’s sober; isn’t life supposed to start going right?

You wrench your arm out of his grip. “Sorry, Klaus, I really have to go. I’ll talk to you later.”

“No, you won’t,” Klaus mutters as you escape the room. He’d imagined that going in a million different ways except that one. “Shit!”

“Go chase after her,” Ben instructs. “We both knew she wouldn’t believe you. At first.”

Umbrella Academy Taglist:

@fentanvl @deathswretch @lightningidiot @five-hg @iamsnek666@ameliatrh @ihatecheesyusernames @dora-the-grownup @emilyt0314 @idklol707

Forever Taglist:

@lemirabitur @annymcervantes

Guys, take a look at the prompt list on my page—I’d love to take requests for them; it’ll be fun writing practice!

[bentaylorrogerhardy]

As The World Crumbles (Chapter Eight)

Collaboration with @hystericalrogertaylor

Pairing: Ben Hardy x Reader

Word Count: 4489

Summary: Ben and (Y/n) have been dating since Bohemian Rhapsody’s release. Everything seemed perfect for the young couple, until the night of the Golden Globes. Russia has bombed the United States, destroying everything and implementing a ruthless dictatorship. With the country in tatters, Ben, (Y/n), Rami, Lucy, Joe, and Gwilym form the Killer Queens, a vigilante group aimed on destroying the new government, and the cold-blooded dictator, Cornelius Vanzant.

Warnings: pregnancy, violence, mentions of firearm use, DEATH, DECAPITATION, KIDNAPPING, injections/needles, use of knives, verbal violence

A/N: We’re so sorry in advance. Virtual hugs to everyone reading. Enjoy!

Our masterlists, along with the masterlist for this story, can be found in either of our descriptions!

(gif may not work on computer. Sorry!)

Four months later....

Ben shook his head. “Maybe we tell them now?”

You put another shirt on over the two you already had on, trying desperately to hide your belly. “I don’t want to stress everyone out!”

“They’re gonna be more stressed if you just randomly pop out a baby two months from now.” He stopped you from grabbing one of his jackets. “We can’t hide this anymore.”

You sighed. “All right, all right. Let’s go get breakfast.”

You and Ben walked hand-in-hand to the cafeteria, seeing that everyone had beaten you there, as usual. You noticed everyone was eying you funny, but you weren’t sure why. You looked down at your belly; it could be less noticeable, but you could probably pass it off as something else. Definitely not a baby.

“Hey, (Y/n),” Gwilym started. “We had a question for you.”

You sat down while Ben went to get both of you some food. “What’s up?”

“Well, you’re...um…” Gwilym patted his own stomach, trying not to be rude.

Your eyes went wide; despite your best efforts, they had noticed. Not that your stomach wasn’t very obvious at this point, you were just irrationally hopeful. “Oh yeah...I’m bloating. Period, gaining weight. I’ve been eating a lot of salty food.”

Gwilym frowned. “No, you haven’t. Nothing here is salted.”

“There are salt shakers.” You were suddenly very interested in the napkin dispenser in the middle of the table.

“No?” Lucy stated, sounding more like a question than a regular phrase. “There aren’t?”

You looked to the side and saw Ben returning. “Ben, sweetheart, thank goodness! I’m starving!” You grabbed a plate from him, which had some random fruits and a breakfast bar on it, and started chowing down. “See?” you said with your mouth full. “Crazy appetite.”

Gwilym turned to Ben. “Ben, you wouldn’t lie to me, would you?” You choked on a blueberry.

“No, why?” Ben asked.

“Why is (Y/n)’s stomach growing?” Gwilym asked.

Ben set down his spoon, hesitating. “Ummm...fatty foods?”

“Everything here is--” Gwilym stopped himself, going back to his meal. He knew he wasn’t getting anywhere.

Joe drummed his fingers against the table awkwardly, playing dumb. You gave him a look, very thankful that he hadn’t said anything.

---

Rami held a hand up to his face, trying to shield himself from the guard. Both eyes were almost completely swollen shut from repeated blows to the face, his extreme lack of sleep not helping either. He hadn’t slept in days, but it felt like years.

“You worthless piece of shit.” The guard kicked Rami in the ribs with his steel-toed boot, causing him to cough up blood. “Scum!”

“Stop!” Rami rasped. He’d lost his voice a long while ago. “Just stop.”

“He can do whatever the hell he wants.” Rami didn’t even look up to see who the voice belonged to. Vanzant was a frequent visitor to his cell. “He is a high officer, you are but a lowly prisoner. You have no power like you did with your friends.”

Rami coughed more blood onto the floor. “What do you want?”

“I wanted to see my favorite trophy.” The dictator kneeled down next to Rami, using a finger to tilt his chin up. “How are you today, Rami?”

Rami spat in his face, causing Vanzant to cringe and stand up. He wiped the spit onto his sleeve, almost cackling. “Ah, such a useless fighting spirit.”

“I’m gonna get out of here one day,” Rami started. “I’m gonna be free, and you’ll be sorry. Mark my words, you’ll regret everything you’ve done.”

Vanzant snorted. “Oh, you’ll be getting out very soon...but you won’t be alive.”

Rami’s head shot up. “What does that mean?”

“It means your execution is scheduled for Friday.” Vanzant stepped out of the cell, closing the bars with a loud clang. “And I’m going to tell the nation. Your little posse can’t possibly resist an attempt to rescue you.”

Rami pulled himself up with the help of the bars. “No, you can’t! You can’t do that!”

“I already have.” Rami felt as though ice had been dumped through his veins. “The message went out this morning.”

It felt as though an invisible force had pulled him to the ground; Rami’s knees just couldn’t support him anymore. He hit the ground and fell to the side, leaning on the wall. He felt the tears pour down his face, but he was shaking too violently to move his hands to wipe them away. “Lucy!” he screamed at no one. “Lucy! Stay away! Don’t come for me!” He knew she couldn’t hear, which only made him sob louder.

---

“As you may know, a few months ago my men and I were able to capture the elusive leader of the Killer Queens, the terrorist organization polluting your brains.” Vanzant stood on screen, looking crisp and evil. “Well, I’m happy to announce that Friday will be the date that your nightmare can end. Rami Malek will be publicly executed on that day. He and his clan will no longer pose a threat to you, and I can assure you of that.”

Vanzant’s signal cut off, leaving the five of you to stare at the static. You couldn’t believe what you were hearing. Rami was going to die.

Everything was silent for a minute before Lucy began to cry. She turned to the person nearest her, which just happened to be Gwilym, and grabbed him in a weak yet desperate hug. Gwilym held her in his arms, trying to calm her down.

“This is our opportunity,” Joe said quietly to you and Ben. “If he’s going to be out in the open, we can nab him and get the hell out of there.”

“Joe’s right.” Lucy, still blubbering, broke away from Gwilym. “We can get him back. I know we can. We have to!”

Gwilym sighed. “Lucy, it’s too risky for you. You’re seven months pregnant, what if something happens?”

“I don’t give a shit!” she yelled. “I will not sit idly by while the love of my life is murdered!” She calmed down, letting out a sob. “I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”

Gwilym sighed. “I feel like we’ve had this conversation before.” He looked down at his feet. “When Rami was captured. It was the same deal.”

“But this time it’ll work.” Lucy grabbed Gwilym’s hand. “Gwil, please. We have to try.”

You stepped up, grabbing Lucy’s other hand. “I’ll fight with you until the day I die,” you said, looking her in the eyes.

Ben grabbed your hand, and Joe grabbed his. “We’ll do this, together. We’ll get Rami back.”

Lucy sniffled. “I love you guys. You mean the world to me.” Everyone bunched in for a group hug, solidifying the resolve to get your friend back.

---

Friday, the day of Rami’s execution. Everyone was a little off that morning, but Ben seemed as though he didn’t want to talk to you at all.

“Hey.” You put a hand on his shoulder after you’d gone back to your room after breakfast. The plan wasn’t set to start until later that afternoon. “What’s wrong? Why won’t you talk to me?”

Ben hesitated. “Ummm...nerves?”

You nodded. “Yeah, me too.”

Your husband turned around. “Okay, you’re not going.”

“Whoa, what?” You were taken aback. “Ben, you can’t make that decision, I’m going to rescue Rami with the rest of you.”

“You’re heavily pregnant.” Ben put his hand on your stomach. “I can’t afford to lose either one of you.”

You scoffed. “Oh, because I’d be okay if I lost you?”

Ben sighed. “Look, two pregnant women is not the best idea for a rescue mission team.”

“So you’re saying I’d be useless?” you asked.

“No! It’s just…” Ben made a noise of frustration and grabbed you around the waist, pulling you into him and kissing you. You grabbed his face, holding him there.

Ben broke away first, keeping his forehead pressed against yours. “My whole reason for living revolves around you and the baby you’re carrying. I don’t know what I’d do without either of you.”

You sighed. “Me neither.” You gazed into his eyes. “If we get Rami back, we have a better chance of surviving this war together and being able to live happy lives as a normal family.”

Ben gulped. “Okay, but just know that I will take a bullet for you without hesitation.”

You shook your head. “And I won’t let you because--” You stopped when you felt the baby kick. “Ben! Ben, the baby’s moving!”

Ben’s eyes widened as he pressed a hand onto your stomach, right as the baby went still. He frowned, moving his hand around a little to no avail. “C’mon tiny squishy! I want to feel you move too!”

You laughed. “It’s momma’s baby.”

Ben knelt down so his face was at your stomach. “Hey, I feel like I deserve to feel you kick too. I’m your daddy, you can trust me.”

“Ben, the baby doesn’t speak English.”

“Shh!” he hissed. “Oh well. Just know that I love you, little squishy, and I can’t wait to meet you and hold you and…” He trailed off, letting a few tears run down his cheeks. “Holy fuck, I’m gonna be a dad.”

You pulled him up, wrapping your arms around him. “Our child is gonna love you.”

He sniffled, pulling you into a gentle kiss. It was as if you could feel all of his emotions radiating off of him, and you felt the love he had for you and your unborn child. It almost made you cry right along with him.

“Hey, are you guys ready to--oh, my God, every single time.” You and Ben broke apart, looking over at none other than Joe. Again. “Why does this only happen to me?” He shook his head. “Anyway, we’re leaving.”

You grabbed Ben’s hand, following Joe out the door. “Let’s go get our boy back,” Ben whispered, squeezing your hand.

---

The prison building was quite tall. Your group stood at the back, in the shadows, while Gwilym tried to find a place to break in.

He jiggled the bars of another ground-level cell, but it didn’t budge. “Well, now what do we do?”

Lucy looked around, finally looking up and spotting an open window. “There!” She immediately headed for some vines, grasping one and beginning to climb up the building.

“Lucy!” You moved to stand under her. “Lucy, you’re gonna fall!”

“I’m good!” She continued to climb.

Joe went up next, clumsily making his way upwards. Gwilym followed Joe, you followed Gwilym, and Ben followed you so he could break your fall if you lost your grip. Somehow, you all ended up through the window safely.

“Nice work everyone.” Ben gently slapped your behind, which he had been able to stare at the whole way up the vine. You slapped his arm, causing him to chuckle.

Joe facepalmed. “Guys, now is not the time or the place.”

“Right, sorry.” Your group bolted out the door of the room, off in search of Rami.

The first part of the plan was to break him out of jail. It was still hours before the execution, so you were hoping to get to him on time. If that didn’t work, however, plan B was to interrupt the execution and rescue him there.

Since you were at the top of the building, your only option was to work your way down. It took a few hours to get down to the basement-level cells, where almost no one was kept. But Rami still hadn’t been found, and Lucy was trying as hard as possible to avoid plan B.

Standing at the foot of the stairs, your group tried to decide which way to turn. The decision became easy when you heard a man sobbing down one of the corridors. It sounded like Rami.

Everyone sprinted in that direction. As they got closer, you could actually discern what he was saying. “Lucy...Lucy…” He was groaning, and he sounded like he was in a lot of pain.

“Rami!” Lucy shouted, against her better judgement. “Rami, I’m here!”

You heard what sounded like a body collapsing to the ground. “Lucy?” he said more urgently.

You came upon his cell, coming to a wheeling stop. Lucy dropped to the ground, where Rami lay. “Rami! Oh, my God, you’re alive.”

You gasped, leaning over to Ben. “He looks awful.” Both eyes were completely swollen shut, he had lost a lot of his weight, and he hardly looked like the man you knew anymore.

Lucy reached through the bars, holding his face in her hands. “What have they done to you?” she whispered.

Rami chuckled. “It’s so good to hear your voice. You know, before I die.”

“You’re not going to die.” Lucy pulled a bobby pin out of her hair and began to pick at the lock for the cell. “We’re getting you out of here.”

Once the lock clicked, Lucy threw the bars open and grabbed Rami, pulling him to his feet and wrapping him up in the biggest hug. “I missed you so much,” she said, on the verge of tears.

“I missed you too.” Rami slowly moved his hand down to Lucy’s belly. “And you, little bub. I missed you as well.” He moved his hand over her belly before trying to pry his eyes open to look at Lucy. “You’ve gotten so big. I mean, not in a bad way, but a good way.”

Lucy smiled. “I knew what you meant.” Suddenly, both of them gasped at the same time. “The baby just kicked Rami’s hand!”

Rami smiled for the first time in months. “Wow...I just felt my son move.”

“We don’t know if the baby’s a boy.” Lucy put her hand on top of Rami’s, lacing their fingers together.

Ben set his hand on your stomach. When you gave him a confused look, he explained, “Well I wanna feel my baby move too.” You laughed, shoving his hand off your stomach.

Lucy put Rami’s arm around her shoulder. “We have to go, now. Before--” She was cut off by loud yelling at the end of the hall.

Guards.

Gwilym knew Lucy wouldn’t be able to run fast enough with a pregnant belly and Rami on her shoulder, so he picked up Rami and sprinted down the corridor with him in his arms. The rest of you followed him, dodging the bullets being sent your way.

Your group sprinted up the stairs, down another hallway, and straight into a dead end. Ben grabbed the doors you’d found and tried desperately to open them, but they wouldn’t move an inch.

“We’re gonna die,” Joe said, fiddling nervously with the hem of his shirt. “We’re all gonna die here!”

Gwilym, with his hands full, kicked Joe in the shin. “Shut the hell up and maybe we’ll have a chance of surviving.” He peeked around the corner you’d just run around. “No guards. If we make a break for it--”

The doors flew open and several guards poured out. While everyone was distracted, one of them took Rami from Gwilym’s arms and dragged him away. You saw the whole thing and decided to run after them. You sprinted past the doors and after the guard with Rami.

“Hey!” you shouted. Right as you were about to body slam the guard, a different one grabbed your hair from behind, pulling you backwards. You yelped, reaching your hands up and trying to grab anything you could to get this man off of you. “You douchebag, let me go!” you screamed. He tightened his grip on your hair, shoving you roughly at the wall. You collided with said, and the force caused you to fall onto the floor. You lay there, breathless, terrified of what would come next.

You heard what sounded like something cracking, then someone falling to the floor and screaming. A few seconds later, Ben knelt down next to your head, helping you sit up. “Are you okay?”

You took a deep breath. “Yeah.” You looked over at the guard, who was lying on the ground, holding his face. “What did you do?”

“I think I broke his cheekbone.” He helped you stand up. “We have to get out of here.”

You pointed in the direction Rami had been taken. “They went that way. We can catch them!”

Ben gave you a sad look. “There’s no hope for him here. We have to go to plan B, if we can even get out of this building.”

The rest of the group came up to you. Gwilym was carrying Lucy, who had her head on his shoulder, letting the tears stream down her face. “We were so close…” she murmured. “We almost had him out…”

“We have to get to plan B.” Gwilym started walking, followed by everyone else. There had to be an exit somewhere, he figured.

After another quick brawl with some guards, your group found an exit at the side of the building. You knew where the execution was going to take place, so you all hurried in alleys and side streets to get there as quickly as possible without being seen.

A large crowd was already gathered around the circle. You could see the top of the guillotine, with the blade glistening in the burning sun. You could hear Vanzant’s booming voice over the crowds, which could only mean one thing: Rami had beaten you there.

The five of you pushed to the front of the crowd until you were able to see. Rami was face-down on a wooden plank, his neck directly under the blade. It was then that you realized: everything you’d done over the past few months was all for naught. You were too late. Rami was going to die, and you had to watch.

Vanzant was talking, but you didn’t hear him. You could only look back and forth between Rami and Lucy, who was now standing. Right before the executioner released the rope that would bring the blade down, he brought his head up to look directly at Lucy. You saw the tears falling from his eyes as he looked at his girlfriend. You saw him mouth something to her, “I love you.”

The blade fell, and Rami’s head went tumbling down into a basket below.

You buried your head into Ben’s chest; you couldn’t bear to watch. He held you close, allowing some of his tears to fall onto your head. You were soaking his shirt, but it was the least of any worries you had. Rami was dead. One of your best friends was dead.

Everyone was crying but Lucy. Her eyes were fixated on the decapitated head. She was mouthing the same words he had, “I love you”, over and over again. It was almost as if she were in a trance.

Joe and Gwilym had each other in a tight embrace, crying onto each other’s shoulders. One of their best mates was dead only a few feet from them. You knew none of you would get over this, ever. You were incredibly sad, but also absolutely livid. If you knew you wouldn’t be killed for it, you would’ve jumped onto that platform and strangled Vanzant yourself.

“We have to go,” Ben whispered. “He’s looking at us. We have to get out of here.” You looked at Vanzant and found him staring directly at you. Or, more specifically, your stomach.

Gwilym grabbed Lucy’s hand, pulling her away from the front of the pack. She didn’t even protest, she just moved her feet in whichever direction Gwilym was pulling her. Ben kept an arm around your waist protectively, making sure nothing happened to you.

The further away you got from the execution circle, the more real the whole ordeal seemed. Rami wasn’t coming back. He’d never record another broadcast, eat another meal, or even meet his baby. You couldn’t even imagine what Lucy was feeling.

---

You got into the hospital through the parking garage; it was the easiest entrance to get to with the lowest chances of detection.

You all walked as if you had a large weight on your shoulders. Life would never be the same. And none of you were ready to face that reality.

Suddenly, you felt the baby kick. Quickly, you grabbed Ben’s hand and placed it over your stomach. The baby kicked right on Ben’s hand.

“Oh, my God.” Ben stopped, holding his hand in place. The baby kicked a few more times so he was able to feel. “The baby’s kicking! I can feel the baby!”

You laughed, despite everything that had just happened. “See? The baby likes you.”

Ben began to cry, this time with tears of happiness. “My baby, my little squishy. She’s in there, I can feel it!”

You grabbed him in a hug, letting your tears fall as well. “The baby loves you, Ben. I love you.”

Your husband laughed. “I love you both so much. God, I can’t wait for this family to be complete.”

You smiled, but it quickly changed to a frown when you noticed someone walking towards you and him. Someone you didn’t know. “Ben…”

Just as Ben let go of you, the person grabbed him by the back collar of his shirt, yanking him backward violently. You looked over to the rest of the group and saw them all standing there with men in black holding hands over their mouths.

Someone grabbed your arm and twisted it behind your back, putting a knife to your throat. “Well well well.” Vanzant chuckled. “Thank you, Killer Queens. You led us right to this very spot. Well done.” Ben’s mouth twisted in anger, but Vanzant spoke again before he could spit anything out. “Ah ah ah. Blondie, I wouldn’t try anything if I were you. I could kill her in an instant.”

“You son of a bitch!” Ben screamed, wrenching against the person holding him.

Vanzant shook his head. “Tsk tsk.” He pressed the knife down further on your throat, almost making a cut.

“Ben, stop it,” you choked out, scared out of your mind. Ben stopped moving, his face showing almost every bad emotion all at once.

Looking down, Vanzant was able to actually look at your stomach up close. “Well! What have we here?” He moved the knife down, sticking the point into your stomach. You cried out in pain as you felt a little bit of blood trickle down your skin. “This makes everything interesting!”

You grabbed onto his wrist with your free hand a twisted his arm away from your body. Vanzant shouted, shoving you to the ground roughly.

“Seems like you need a lesson on how to treat authority with respect!” Vanzant flung his leg back, kicking you right in the stomach. You screamed, grabbing onto your belly for dear life.

“You motherfucking--!” Ben didn’t even finish his sentence before bringing his elbow up into his captor’s nose, forcing him to let go. Your husband charged at Vanzant, almost running into him and knocking him down before two other men in black grabbed his arms. One of them had a taser, which he shoved into Ben’s side, causing him to fall to the ground with convulsions.

“Ben!” You tried to sit up to go help him, but Vanzant shoved his boot down on your throat.

“Shut up, you bitch!” Vanzant used enough force to almost completely restrict your airway, causing you to begin to choke. He looked between you and Ben, as if contemplating something. “Just take Blondie. He’s all we need for now.” The dictator stepped off your throat, but threw the knife down so it landed right next to your head. You cried out, scared to move.

You turned your head to the side. Ben had stopped convulsing, but he was unconscious. They tied his arms behind his back, stuffing a piece of cloth into his mouth for a gag, and began to drag him away. You sobbed helplessly, watching the love of your life slip away from you. You didn’t know if you’d ever see him again.

Once he was far out of view, the men in black let go of Joe, Gwilym, and Lucy. Lucy sank to her knees, staring upwards, while Gwilym and Joe ran to help you.

“Ben,” you gasped in between sobs. “They took Ben. The baby, they almost killed the baby.”

“So you are pregnant?” Gwilym asked, almost shocked even though he’d already suspected. “Ohhhhhh, fuck.”

“We have to go,” Joe said. “We can’t stay here. They’ll come back.”

You quickly stood up, running towards the hospital. “Joe, come with me?”

“Why?!”

“I need Frankie and a few other things!” You heard Joe’s footsteps following you.

You burst into your room, immediately seeing Frankie on the mattress. She began to wag her tail, but stopped when she noticed it was Joe with you, not Ben. You grabbed her and her leash, pointing Joe towards the record player. “I need that. And those boxes of records.”

Joe frowned. “Why?”

“Because they remind me of Ben!” Joe nodded, picking up what you told him to.

You ran back to the parking garage, finding Gwilym and Lucy standing there, waiting nervously. Gwilym grabbed one of the boxes from Joe to help, and you all quickly made your way back to the surface, unsure of where to go.

---

Ben woke up in the back of a government vehicle of some sort. He was dazed and groggy, so he couldn’t entirely tell what was going on. Only that someone who looked like Vanzant was sitting next to him.

“You...bastard…” he managed to get out. “Where’s my...wife?”

“How am I supposed to know?” Vanzant chuckled. “Probably far away from your hospital home by now.”

Ben was waking up more with each second. “What is this? What’s happening?”

“You’re my prisoner now.” Vanzant stood, walking over to a table next to Ben. “We’re going to have such fun together, aren’t we now?”

“You’re a monster,” Ben growled. “You sick, despicable, pathetic excuse for a person!” Ben tried to move, only to discover he was strapped to a table. “Let me go!”

“I’m afraid we can’t do that.” Vanzant had a syringe of green liquid in his hand. “You see, we need guinea pigs for our new...experiment. And I figured your group would work perfectly. When this inevitably kills you, we can just replace you. No harm done.”

“What the hell?” Ben screamed. “Let me go!”

Vanzant shoved the needle into Ben’s neck, eliciting another scream. Ben immediately felt himself calm down, but he knew it was a deadly calm.

“Now, do you know who this is?” Vanzant held a picture of you over Ben’s face.

“Yeah…” Ben slurred.

“I need you to kill her for me.” Vanzant smiled. “Understand?”

“Yes, master…”

Ben’s brain shut down, and the simulation took over.

Tags: @florencewelchmybiggod @xquiet-thoughtsx @virtualsheepeat @pietrorunsforme @stella2445 @dovexparker @amostpeculiarmademoisellerp @harrysniallpolish @mr-stank-i-dont-feel-so-dank @thewinchesterchronicles @kellysimagines