#and yet they wonder why I’ve been spending my time downstairs

[wildestheart4ever]

I have a empty room I have full ideas for and none of the money for it

[alcoris-shiz]

Touch Me (Part 1) Alastor X Reader!

A/N: I’ve known a few people (demi such as myself and myself included) who don’t like being touched (also probably my autism but we'll skip that part), but especially that little special bond you get when you find the right partner and you're much more comfortable with touches than before.

The drawing below is mine, I didn't want to keep you lovely readers waiting for today's post so I decided to just post the sketch. This an oc of mine, they're part fox if you're wondering <3

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Chapter 1: Touch Me (Part 1)

Description: Alastor notices you start touching the other guests more, though you don’t like touch, he’s hurt when you don’t touch him however, and feels left out.

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Alastor tapped his fingers on the desk slowly, you had been working for him for a month by now. Seemingly out of nowhere, you have caught his eye, he needed to figure you out. He was drawn to you. You were his every waking thought. 

From humoring him with coffee in the morning and evening chats at dinner, something he never thought he would participate in, was now the highlight of his afterlife. No, Alastor wasn’t sure what had gotten into him and that’s why he had to study you. 

Not to mention you had so much in common, the lack of physical touch that either of you could handle, to always keeping a smile on your face. You were the highlighter in a box of pencils, something that lit up his life. A beauty that he deemed would be his work with.

You were barely his assistant, unlike the aquaintances at the hotel, he refused to call them more. He did, however, want more from you.

Though something seemed off about you and that has led to him sitting in his tower, slowly tapping his fingers on the desk in front of him. You had never liked being touched, you were picky when it came to touch of any sorts, hating different textures and your sensitivity to sound, you had preferred the quiet hum of his radio. Recently however, he has seen everyone be more handsy with you.

Just earlier today, he seen Angel Dust hugging you, Charlie and you dancing (that one made his blood especially boil, how had he not danced with you yet and here’s Charlie and you!), Vaggie had of course been practicing dancing with you too (also to his annoyance…), even Husk had been holding your hands over the bar! (He was sure to skin that cat later on).

He would figure this out!

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Making his way downstairs he saw you writing in some notebook, clearly focused while Nifty sat atop your head and Angel to the right of you. “Why hello there Dear! Are you in any need of assistance?” Alastor asked happily slipping to the left of you and slipping an arm around your waist. You jumped and looked at him, confusion on your face and the blush that blanketed it. You quickly scooted away before standing up, lifting Nifty off your head and setting her on the table. “Oh uh… hey Alastor! I was just working on a script for my- ya know it doesn’t matter. I don’t really need any help, but thank you!” you said quickly as his smile twitched. 

He stood next to you and reached his hand down to grab your hand, he looked up at you with a look as if to ask if he could hold your hand. You had paused for a moment letting him hold your hand, both of you unknowingly loving the touch from each other. But to break the moment you coughed and backed away. “Really, I don’t want to be a bother Al. I’ll see you later,” you tried, smile not fading as you turned tail up the stairs to your room. 

Alastor could feel himself fuming while Angel gave him a concerned look, Charlie joining as she wandered into the room. “Hey Smiles, why smoke coming from your ears? You really wanted to spend time with them?” he asked, confused smirk on his face. Alastor looked at him with static before it went back to the normal buzz. “They’ll touch you, but not me? Why?” Alastor said, pretty much growling. 

“Uh… maybe because you’re a creepy ass radio demon?” Angel said nonchantly, while Charlie made a squeak sound. “You don’t like being touched.” Alastor’s head shot towards Charlie’s direction. “What was that?” Charlie gave a soft smile at Alastor. “They know you don’t like being touched, I may have told them, when they asked about you.”

“What did my little doe ask about me, may I ask?” Alastor said turning fully to face Charlie properly. “Just if you would be okay with touch, they uh wanted to hug you? Something about you looking upset and I had told them you didn’t like being touched, so I think they had just brought you something. That was last week!” Charlie responded quickly. 

“My doe wanted to hug me and I didn’t even get a say in this? Why young one, just point them in my direction next time, would you?” Alastor hissed before turning to go to your room. “I’m pretty sure I’m older than you-” was all that was heard from Charlie before he made his way up the stairs.

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Alastor, with a swift knock on your door, waited for you to open the door before inviting himself in. “Oh hey Alastor, to what do I have to pleasure of entertaining you-” Soon his arms were wrapped around you and you paused feeling confused, arms straight down at your sides. “Don’t move, please. You wanted to hug? Here it is,” Alastor growled his nose buried in your hair as he pulled you tightly to himself.

“It’s really okay Alastor, I know you don’t like being tou-” you had tried to say while pulling away, before Alastor pulled you tight to him again. “Say you don’t want this if you don’t, I don’t want to push your boundaries my doe. But I do want this,” Alastor said, now absentmindedly rubbing the middle of your back with his thumb. 

“I’m okay with this. Thanks for asking though and confirming you were okay with the hug.” you whispered finally reaching around his waist and returning the hug. Alastor sighed and nuzzled you. For once his mind was also quiet, a quiet radio humm signalling that as well. 

“Why them? Why would you not ask me?” Alastor asked softly, pulling just far back enough to cup your face in his hand, absently you rubbed your cheek against his palm, making his smile soften at the sight of you being so comfortable and vulnerable. “I didn’t want you to laugh, I’m sorry.” Alastor chuckled and rubbed your cheek with his thumb now.

“How about we make a deal?” your eyes shot up giving Alastor a confused and scared look, but not moving your head. “You can touch me, whenever and wherever, no need to ask, just stop if I become… uncomfortable… and I can… court you persay?” Alastor said. He knew he wanted you to be his, if this was the way to go, he’d make it go.

You slowly nodded and smiled at him, “I would like that,” you responded softly. “Good,” Alastor said as he leaned down, you glanced at his lips, he was waiting for you to meet him, for the okay to kiss. ‘Oh what am I getting myself into…’

You crushed your lips together.

The room lit green and you blushed, contract coming together. “I didn’t know you even felt that way about me?” you whispered. You had obviously come to know your crush on him, but you weren’t too sure how to go about dating someone who was ace or what they were okay with. You knew they did date, but with Alastor, that type of life was so non existent that you questioned him also being aromantic.

“Well my darling doe, there’s a lot you’re gonna learn about me. It’s not often I feel comfortable with touch, it’s even less common for someone to make me feel like this.”

“So would that make us-” you started and he chuckled. “Yes you are my partner and I am yours,” he whispered and leaned down to once again let our lips touch softly.

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Word Count: 1,272 ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ ~ Master List~ ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆

[jesssssssssica]

are we still friends? cl16

“i think that we should end this”

i knew the end was near a while back, i mean did he not think i’d seen the way he would look at my friends, the same way he used to look at me when we were just two teenagers in love who thought they could take on the whole world together. 

i miss those days a lot.  

“oh okay.”

i think he expected a much bigger reaction from me, i mean at least i think by the surprised expression he bears at my short answer. i don’t know why he thought i would give him much more than a one sentence answer though because i know if the roles were reversed he would be the exact same, maybe he would only just utter ‘okay’. 

does he expect me to empty my heart out and beg for a second chance? to say that he was the best thing i had because he isn’t, i have a life outside of him, or does he think that when i’m not attending races with him i’m crying in my room, missing his presence? i don’t know what goes on in his mind. 

i will miss him though.

i’ll miss waking up to the sunlight shining down on his face, highlighting his features as he lightly snores against the pillow.

i’ll miss christmas and spending it with his family, waking up on christmas morning and trotting downstairs, laughter echoing around the living room as we all exchange gifts.

i’ll miss his stupid accent struggling to pronounce words.

i really will miss him but if it’s really meant to be then maybe one day, whilst i’m sitting down in some random cafe i’ve stumbled across, i’ll look across the room and spot him and only then will i realise that we’re meant to be but until then we will have to part way-

“hey y/n, i hope we can still be friends.”

what.

the.

hell.

how can he ask that when he knows that in a weeks time he’ll find himself in the arms of someone i called a friend?

if i had the strength i would ask him ‘can we be friends?’ but i’m afraid that a sob might escape me instead.

is he an idiot? he had the perfect chance to just leave and get on with his normal life and yet he has my mind working a mile a minute. surely he realises that we would never work as just friends, i’d be petty that you moved on so quickly which would then cause you to make a snide comment about me which would then make me throw my drink on you and then yeah…. not the greatest friendship.

if we were still friends, i wouldn’t shake your hand or say hello or laugh at your jokes, i would probably just smile at you once or twice, though you’d be able to tell that the smile doesn’t quite reach my eyes, causing your mood to damper but i know even after that you won’t give up. 

so why, when you know the truth, do you still want to be friends? just say your goodbyes not ‘see you soon’ or ‘smell you later’ because that means you hope we have another chapter, so just say goodbye and walk away. 

i don’t exactly like you right now charles, but i’d rather we didn’t end this on bad terms. 

i look up, only just remembering the other presence in the room, somehow ignoring his beady eyes on my face. 

he stares at me, waiting anxiously for my answer, so i just shake my head. 

“no charles, we can’t.”

his shoulders sag and he walks away into the night. 

i never saw him after that. 

i wonder what could’ve been.

authors note: i’m gonna cry, i’m going back into my short pieces again :(((

[startseeingstars]

Collision Path - Mike 5lbs of Pressure

CH02 Mike POV 🎶 {My Own Summer (Shove It) - Deftones}

T/W - drugs/alcohol, sexual themes

We walked out of the club toward the car - my Uncle’s pride and joy.

“You didn’t have to talk down to me back there.” I stated, reaching the passenger door. He unlocked it and we climbed in.

“You didn’t have to make an ass out of yourself.” He said it as though it was a matter of fact, and I felt slight embarrassment.

“What was the point of me being there?” I asked him and he looked at me with defeat.

“To watch, learn. You need to start using whatever’s under that stupid fucking hat.” He took my hat off and threw it in the backseat, making me roll my eyes in annoyance.

I knew he wanted me to be like him - unfeeling, ruthless. But I couldn’t care less about his operation. I didn’t want any part of this, so of course I was reluctant to learn the ropes.

Leff had berated me many times already about how I should be grateful that he took me under his wing after my Mom died - that he’s trying to set us up for life. He was a hard ass, which is why he ran the operation. Most days it felt as though I was nothing more than a dog for him to boss around.

I bit my tongue, knowing there was no point in arguing with him yet again. I’d already been clear that I wanted to spend my life doing music, not running drugs around town for him. Unfortunately, the music scene out here was abysmal - just like at home. I’d been struggling to find a front man or drummer for my band for years now. The only other member was the other guitarist, my friend Eli.

I followed Leff out the door and downstairs. We hadn’t spoken much since yesterday but I didn’t mind. The less conversation with him, the better. To my surprise, I saw a familiar redhead in the mail room, glancing over her mail as she walked over to the stairs. My mouth went dry as I realised it was the dancer from the club yesterday. She looked different with clothes on. I guess I didn't often imagine what clothing strippers would wear day to day, but she was wearing black shorts and an oversized plain black T-shirt. I could see her tattoos more clearly now - at least the ones on her arms and legs and I wished I could ask her about some of them.

Leff opened the door and gave me a look that read ‘hurry up’. I looked at her as I was leaving and she looked up at me. I saw recognition in her eyes as she smiled politely at me. Her eyes didn’t linger on me for long before she left.

“Don’t even think about it.” Leff warned, keeping his tone low as he unlocked the car.

“About what?” I replied, curiously.

“Her.” His reply was simple and firm as he started the car.

“Don’t think I could pull her?” I asked, though I knew his answer.

“Fuck no. She’s hot and you’re … a rodeo clown.” He looked me over and shook his head with disapproval. I knew he hated my look, but it made me feel confident. It was just a bonus that he despised it.

“Besides, you can’t get attached to people in this line of work. I’ve told you this, Mikey.” He continues to talk down on me but, at this point, I had gotten good at tuning him out.

I found myself wondering about the redhead. She must be new to the building - I definitely wouldn’t have forgotten a beautiful face like hers. Or her legs… especially in those heels from the club.

I’d spent most of that deal sneaking glances at her as she danced and gave her attention to the lucky bastard who’s lap she sat in.

I was no stranger to strip clubs, especially since Leff had taken me in, but most girls didn’t have the same look at her, especially at the higher end places I’d visited on my nights off with Sicky - Leff’s right hand man.

The day goes off without a hitch, beside the casual gun pointed to my head. I refused to admit how much it shook me up - but in the moment, I genuinely thought that crazy motherfucker would actually shoot me over interrupting his game. Even if I did admit it, Leff and Sicky would laugh it off and call me ‘princess’ for the rest of the day.

I walked into the warehouse with the paper bag full of guns from the deal. I placed it on Leff’s desk as Sicky lit up a cigarette on the couch, smirking at my expense as he usually did.

“What the fuck is that?” Leff eyed the bag.

“The guns.” I shrugged, placing my hands on my hips defensively.

“And you’re just carrying them down the street in a paper fucking bag?” He snapped, snatching the bag and looking inside it.

I rolled my eyes, but I realised then he was concerned about the risk. Still, I held my ground.

“I got them here, didn’t I?” My tone was annoyed and he shook his head, opening the small safe that sat on the desk.

“You wouldn’t have if that fucking bag ripped. Use your fucking head, Mikey.” His tone was harsh as he handed me a $100 note.

“Maybe I’d care a little more if you paid better. I’m the one out there taking the risks, getting guns held to my head and shit.” I retorted, taking a seat on the couch.

I watched Leff and Sicky share a look but didn’t think much of it.

“Maybe I’ll pay you a little more when you start acting like you want this job.” Leff’s words ended the conversation. I didn’t have it in me to argue.

Eli knocked on my door and I called out to him that it was open. He came in carrying his guitar case and sat down in the armchair as I lit a smoke on the couch.

I always made sure to only invite Eli over for practice on the nights I knew Leff wouldn’t be home.

“Where’s this singer?” He asked as I exhaled, shrugging. “Dunno, man. He said he’d be here by now.” The search for a vocalist was draining and felt useless in this fucking city. “We should move to fucking Austin, Texas. The scene out there’s supposed to be way better.” I reminded him. As per usual, he ignored my comment about moving. He was a mama's boy at heart and hated the idea of leaving the city, despite the fact his brother was killed years ago a few streets over.

My Mom OD’d back home and the first thing I wanted to do was get as far away from that place as possible.

“Dude, try this shit. Best I’ve had in a while.” He scooped up a bit of coke on his key and held it out to me, effectively changing the subject. Without hesitation, I snorted it and felt the familiar burn in my sinuses. I picked up my guitar and we began jamming.

[a-hobit]

Using my tumblr account as a vent space once again!

So for reasons unspecified I’m an adult still living with my parents and grandmother. I’m almost 21 and I’ve lived in a shoebox apartment with my mom (and now stepdad and old lady) for as long as I can remember. I used to live in a house but really I don’t remember it. The fact we were pretty tight with cash didn’t really bother me growing up but as a full adult now with my own money it feels so unfairly good to spend it on the things I want. I try to spoil my mother whenever I can but she’s pretty hard to buy for. She gave up literally everything for me and my sister. She gave up everything she loved to take us away from my biological dad. I have always known that the life she has is not the one she wanted for me, my sister, or herself. She wanted a home she was proud to go back to and that her children could grow up in. She wanted to host family gatherings and have me and my sister invite guests over. She wanted to grow a seed in the backyard and watch It grow into a tree like she watched her children grow.

It really has always killed me to know that while I may not mind where we are it hurts her deeply that I do not remember that house. That I do not remember a complete family or a simple life. And that as much as she gave up for us it still wasn’t enough. I wonder how many people can say that they understand my mother — she always had friends with simple easy lives that she couldn’t seem to cry to and so she held in that grief of a broken family and that lost life by herself for as long as we’ve lived here.

Now like a gift from the greatest tragedy my mother has that opportunity to buy that home. Not the original one, not that one but a different home. Something she’s proud of. I see how stressed it makes her to have this thing she’s wanted. How she’s having such a hard time choosing.

I am definitely making this harder on her. I know that. I do have my own opinions about where I’d like to live and I’ve always kind of dreamed what that first house might look like when we got the money. Upstairs or downstairs? Dibs on which room? Where would you like your bed? Can you please mow the lawn today sweetie? Have you unpacked everything yet? Will you park the cars in the garage — I think there’s hail coming. Will you take the trash? Will you tend the garden? Will you take the dog out? Can you come home soon? How late will you be?

Do you want to see how big you’ve grown? I can mark it on the wall.

I know some of that already happened. Not the exact same but it happened. I guess maybe ive been idolizing that life in my head so much it’s strange that I now get to watch it play out…but it isn’t really how I wanted it either right?

I’m not a child anymore.

Im not going to live in this house for more than a year — maybe some months in between out of college? This is not going to be my home like it is theirs. Im not part of this like I dreamed about.

And isn’t it true? Why would it ever matter what I thought when I didn’t have to look at it for more than a year or two? Why come along to house showings? Why be nervous about my mom loving a house I hate so deeply because I can’t see myself there with her? Why voice that complaint?

Why say anything at all?

Why worry? If she loves it? If it’s her dream and it just doesn’t include you for long? You should just keep your mouth shut because of how much you’re hurting her how much you know it’s painful to hear you be excited about a house that isn’t even going to be yours — she knows she knows it.

Now you know it.

But GOD it hurts. It hurts so fucking bad. It’s so hard to know now. The reality is so painful you’d rather just stay here. And isn’t that awful? Aren’t you just awful to wish for your loving mother to stay here and rot with you because you can’t handle her being happy without you?

But it feels like rotting already.

[officerfriendlysblog]

Issues

Rick grimes X Reader

Reader has some suspicion about Rick and Jessie but will work out in the end?

Word count: 988

This is the first thing I’ve written so don’t judge and um lmk if you guys want pt 2?

My Masterlist

I was wondering, "Y/N," as I was strolling through Alexandria, how long it had been since we had last been in a setting like this. When I turned around, Rick was coming my way.“Yeah?” "I missed you," rick said to me as he went to give me a hug after not seeing me all day. I replied as he kissed the top of my head, "I missed you too." Despite being annoyed with him for spending too much time with that Jessie girl. Rick smiled and added, "How are you liking Alexandria so far?" "It's okay, I think we need to keep a closer eye on these people; they're weak, and we can't be weak with them," I said . This place hasn't earned my confidence yet. "Carl said the same thing that their weak," Rick remarked. I couldn't help but sound jealous as Rick made his way to our bedroom, "Seems like you've been a little interested in that Jessie girl," to which Rick replied, "I'm just playing the part here, Y/N it's nothing." Rick responded with a bit of attitude, "I'm just saying I mean you two seem a little close lately." I told him that I didn't like his answer, so I left our bedroom without being overly dramatic.

Rick makes the decision to follow me outside of our bedroom. "There's nothing to be jealous about Y/N I only got my eyes on you," Rick says with a slight grin as he leans against the wall. Before I went to bed, I grabbed Rick's face and gave him a quick peck on his lovely lips. "I'm going to bed goodnight, I love you," I said. "I love you too," Rick replied.

Before I went to bed, I began to think about the possibility that Rick is concealing his love for Jessie. She is married, but her husband is a jerk, so you never know whether she wants Rick. Can I just sleep in peace today, please? Though I say I'm trying to sleep, these thoughts take over. Following a couple of moments I feel Rick towards the bed so I cuddle with him and begin to float off to sleep.

The following morning, when I wake up, I don't feel Rick around me, so I think he went to work more shifts. After getting up, I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth, take a shower, and change into new clothes. When I was finished, I went downstairs and saw Carl holding Judith. "Good morning Carl and Judith" I said, kissing them on the forehead. "Goodmorning Y/N," Carl said with a smile on his face.

As I begin to make them breakfast, I wonder why Rick didn't wake me up before leaving; typically, he would kiss me and wake me up. “Hey Carl, does your father have to work shifts today?” I asked because Rick typically informs me of his shift times. Carl replied as he began to consume the breakfast I had just prepared, "No, Diana gave him the day off and said for him to rest for the day and spend time with the family."

I faked a smiled, "I'm gonna go look for him real quick if you have trouble with Judith I can take her to Carols for a while." I said to Carl, "No, it's okay, I don't really get to spend time with her like this." "Okay," I smiled

I began to walk outside in search of Rick. I start to think, "Is he cheating on me with her?" once more. Why didn't he inform me that he was off today? It feels like my heart breaks when I see Rick and Jessie walking somewhere.

I made the decision to keep walking and follow Rick and Jessie as they soon vanished into a house corner.

When I first saw them, my first thought was, "Are you fucking serious?" I tried to hold back tears by saying, "Wow, I can't believe the two of you," as I witnessed Rick and Jessie kissing.

"Y/N, baby, it's not what you think it is"

I replied, "No Rick, it's exactly what I think,"

"Y/N it's not his fault I kissed him, I'm sorry," Jessie said as she stood there feeling guilty.

"I'm not talking about this anymore, I'm leaving fuck the both of you assholes," as I made my way back to the house. Rick tries to stop me, "Baby, I didn't kiss her first, I'm sorry.”

"I don't care Rick you let her kiss you and you didn't tell me it was your day off" I said, trying not to yell at him, "as soon as you came I was going to push her away I swear Y/N I didn't think she liked me I was trying to help her with Pete" Rick said "whatever Rick if I asked you about her before and you knew I was a little jealous you should’ve kept your distance from her Michonne or any other person can handle Pete” I said with my voice full of anger and disappointment “Baby, I’m sorry, I was just trying to help, I want this to be a safe place for us,” Rick said as he held my face in both hands. “Alright Rick, it’s fine, I get it she kissed first, I over exaggerated a little,” i said as he pulled me in for a kiss. “You didn’t over exaggerate, it’s fine, I should’ve spent the day with you guys, not her" Rick said "I better not catch you doing something like that again with her." I said, "I ain't afraid to leave if that's the case grimes," still angry about what had happened. "Your not going anywhere baby, I’m yours and your mine," Rick said with a smile trying to make me feel better. "Start acting like your mine then" I said still having a bit of suspicion of the two as we made our way to our house. I begin to wonder still..

“am I the one he truly wants?”

[simshousewindsor]

NEW YEAR, OLD QUEST

[Beaverdam Castle, Brindleton Bay]

Prince Louis: Lovely party, Rainier!

Prince Rainier: Thank you, sir.

Lord James: (laughs) My husband can't stop eating the Beef Bourguignon. He’ll be bringing in the new year with an extra twenty pounds!

Prince Anthony: The apple pastries were my favorite. Lara said the castle only makes them at Christmas?

Prince Louis: Yes. My grandfather started that tradition.

Prince Rainier: (laughs) One we are happy to continue!

Prince Louis: So, Rainier, how has it been adjusting to life with four children?

Prince Anthony: The million dollar question!

Lord James: You know, I’m very proud of you two for managing the last few weeks here without your staff! Newborn twins, plus two more under the age of 8, running around this big ole’ castle!?

Prince Rainier: Beaverdam is quite manageable. It’s much smaller than Buckingsim. It feels like Highpark in the country.

Prince Louis: Wait! You two haven't had any help? I can't believe the palace agreed to that. The Queen Katherine effect.

Prince Rainier: None! To be honest, we needed the last few weeks to grieve in private, have the twins and adjust to this new life. The paparazzi and the palace would have given her none of that in Easton. Plus, these are our kids! We know them and enjoy spending time with them. This new royal life hasn't fully hit them yet. The last few weeks allowed Kate and I enjoy them as children and make special memories before we return to the circus tomorrow.

Lord James: Did you hear about the political scandal in Americreek?

Prince Louis: I did! There was always something off about that Vice President of hers. President McNally was here the other month on what looked like an apology tour to repair foreign relations. (scoffs) Re-election season! It’s always chaos in the West.

Prince Rainier: (stands) I should check on the other guests.

Prince Anthony: I’ll join you!

Prince Rainier: I did not want to get stuck talking with them. I got out quickly!

Prince Anthony: I took your cue. I should find my wife and make sure she saved me some apple pastry’s (laughs).

Prince Rainier: I need to find my wife also.

- - - - - LATER - - - - -

(Kate humming)

Prince Rainier: I see someone is exhausted after all those belly rubs today!

Queen Katherine: (laughs)

Prince Rainier: What are you doing, Kate? Come back downstairs to the party. No more working!

Queen Katherine: I’m coming, I’m coming. I have so much to do, and now Uncle Louis asked to speak with me.

Prince Rainier: Anthony and I just left him and Uncle James in one of the sitting rooms talking politics.

Queen Katherine: I can't believe my maternity leave is officially over. We head back to Easton tomorrow and then I open my first parliament.

Prince Rainier: Worry about that tomorrow. Your family is downstairs to celebrate the holiday right now. We’ve had such a tough year so tonight there’s no work, only happiness and fun!

Queen Katherine: You’re right.

Prince Rainier: Let’s enjoy our last night at Beaverdam with family!

Queen Katherine: I’m so glad you convinced me to come here, Rainier. The kids really enjoyed the freedom and I desperately needed the space to grieve, and the privacy to be pregnant (laughs). Beaverdam will forever hold a special place in my heart!

Prince Rainier: It’s yours, Your Majesty. You can visit whenever you want.

Prince Rainier: but since it’s our last night for now...

(kissing)

Queen Katherine: Rainier, the guests!

Prince Rainier: They can wait a few more minutes.

- - - - - LATER - - - - -

Prince Louis: This was such a lovely party, Katie-bear. You have really made Beaverdam your own over the last few months.

Queen Katherine: Thank you, Uncle Louis. Daddy rarely visited but I've grown quite fond of it.

Prince Louis: I’m sure you’re wondering why I asked to see you. I’ve been waiting eleven months to tell you this.

Prince Louis: Before your father died he was searching for the Amulet of Amethyst. It’s a rare gem that belongs to the Windenburg royal family and said to be worth §100 million simoleons. Queen Isabella hid the amethyst, and it’s powers, to protect her secret spell-caster granddaughter. Your father, along with Will Gates and the Grand Duchess of Glimmerbrook were working together to find it.

Queen Katherine: Oh my goodness. I...I...

Prince Louis: There’s more. The night before he died, he called me. He found something hidden in the floor plans of Mayfield Castle, Queen Isabella’s favorite home.

Queen Katherine: So, my father was on a secret quest to find a missing gem and didn't tell anyone except you and two other people? Why did you wait so long to tell me? This is a lot to process right now. Does my mother know?

Prince Louis: She knows. We all agreed it was best to wait and tell you. The quest had nothing to do with his death.

Queen Katherine: (angry) It had everything to do with his death! His heart was already weak! He needed to be home resting not off on some quest!

Prince Louis: It was time you knew the truth. The Grand Duchess has been giving you time but she wants to meet with you.

Queen Katherine: With me? What do I have to do with this? I don't think it’s a good idea.

Queen Katherine: I should get back to the party. Excuse me.

Prince Louis: I didn't mean to upset you, Kate. I know this is a lot. Meet with her. That’s all I ask. I know you have more questions than answers, and I believe she can help.

Prince Louis: “Think about it, Kate.”

Queen Katherine: (somber) I will.

Previous | Beginning | Next - continue Heir Ascent (story)

Previous | Beginning | Next - continue The Amethysts Quest (story)

[mermaid--bride]

Diabolik Lovers || Dark Waters - Maria Dark Route [Dark Epilogue]

Monologue

My whole life I felt stuck

Like I was trapped

My parents tried their best to give me whatever I wanted and needed

Still... that need for freedom seemed to consume me

For years I played along

I pushed all of my dreams away

My parents loved me after all

They wanted to keep me safe

So as long as I was safe, there was no reason to complain

... right?

--Scene starts in a black void

Maria: ... Where am I...?

I can’t see a thing...

???: Lilith...

Maria: Eh?

(Is someone else here...?)

???: This way... Lilith...

Maria: ...!

(Wait... There’s light over there!)

(Is that... a tree...?)

--Eden tree appears with a flash

Maria: ... Wow...

So beautiful...!

(Oh, there are fruits on it! These might be the reddest apples I’ve ever seen!)

???: Will Lilith enjoy this new chance given to her?

Maria: ... New chance...?

???: The one replaced by Eve... could ever reclaim her place by Adam’s side?

Maria: ... ...

???: Lilith...

*Black fade*

--Maria wakes up in her room

Maria: ... ...

(A dream...)

... ...Eh...?

(... A leaf? How did it get here!?)

*Knock knock*

Reiji: Maria, are you awake already?

Maria: Yes, I am!

Reiji: Good! Do not make us late! We have to be at home in time for our monthly dinner tonight.

Maria: ... Alright... I’ll be downstairs soon!

(... Guess I’ll have to think about this later...)

*Timeskip*

--Scene changes to the living room

Reiji: Alright, everyone. It is time for our monthly dinner. Please, head towards the dining room immediately.

Subaru: Why do we have to keep making those!? We don’t even need food to survive and spending time together is hella irritating!

Ayato: I’m with Subaru on this one. This is just getting ridiculous!

Reiji: If you have any complaints, I suggest you take them to our father, as it was him who determined for us to have such tradition.

Kanato: This is so upsetting...

Say, Teddy... It is unfair that we are forced to do unpleasant things even when that man is not around, is it not?

Yui: Well...I think it’s quite nice to have at least one night in the month to do something together though...

Maria: I agree with you, but they’re not exactly the kind of family who would enjoy that, if you ask me...

Subaru: She’s right. Even if we’re brothers, that doesn’t mean we have to enjoy each other’s company.

Laito: So mean, Subaru-kun~ I bet this is secretly your favorite night of the month, no~?

Subaru: Haah? What the hell gave you that idea!?

*crash*

Reiji: Haa, good grief... Yet another hole on the wall... At this rate I wonder for how long the house will stay up...

Shu: Pwah... Let’s just get this over with. I need to sleep after we’re done.

???: One moment, please!

Reiji, Shu and Subaru: !?

Ayato, Kanato and Laito: !!

Maria and Yui: ...?

*door opens*

--Karlheinz walks in

Karlheinz: Good evening, my sons. As well for the two ladies~

Ayato: ... No way...

Laito: ... ...

Reiji: Fathe... You finally made it!!

Karlheinz: Indeed, Reiji. I apologise for my constant absence.

Subaru: Would have been best if it stayed that way...

Karlheinz: Oh? Could it be Subaru is not pleased by the presence of his own father?

Subaru: Tch...!

Karlheinz: Either way, allow me to introduce myself to you both.

Komori Yui. Ramos Maria.

I am the one known as Karlheinz; King of vampires and the father of all these boys you have been living with.

I am pleased to see you two seem to be in such good state. Have you been enjoying your time in this house?

Yui: ... Um...

Maria: Err...

Yui: Well... we have some good moments...

Maria: Yeah... 

Karlheinz: Fufufu sounds like a satisfactory answer.

Well then. Let us begin our family dinner, shall we?

Maria: (So this is their father... He sure is a handsome man, but...)

(... The air around him feels so heavy and scary...)

(I should probably be careful while he’s around.)

*Timeskip*

*sounds of cutlery*

Maria: ... ...

Yui: ... ...

Reiji: ...

Maria: (I don’t think I’ve ever been to a more awkward dinner in my life...)

(No one has said a single word so far... It’s really disturbing...)

Karlheinz: ... ...

Ahem... Alright everyone! Dinner is over! Thank you for joining me tonight!

--All of the brothers and the two girls get up and start leaving

Karlheinz: Wait a moment, Maria-san!

Maria: Hm?

Karlheinz: How would you like taking a stroll with me around the garden? I would like to know about your experience in Japan, so far.

Maria: Ah... Sure, I wouldn’t mind it at all.

Karlheinz: Splendid! In that case, please do accompany me.

--Scene changes to the garden

Karlheinz: So how have you been enjoying your stay?

Maria: It’s been... quite different from what I expected...

(How do I say it without sounding rude or displeased...?)

For starters, I did not expect to be living in a mansion, let alone with vampires.

I also didn’t expect to be in such a high class school or even that I’d be studying at night.

Karlheinz: Does all of this bother you?

Maria: Not really...

(Sure, some unpleasant thing have happened... and I surely don’t like the way some of them treat me.)

(Specially Laito...)

(But to say I hate all this... I guess I’d be exaggerating.)

(Even if my life is at risk sometimes... somehow it just makes everything even more exciting.)

(Although...)

Maria: ... I do miss my family a lot... My dad hasn’t contacted me since I arrived at the house... and it’s like none of my attempts or texts reach him or  my sister...

I can’t help but wonder why... He’s always so worried about me, constantly asking for news no matter where I go...

It’s weird... for him to forget me like that...

Karlheinz: Perhaps he has decided it would be best to take some distance so you could better enjoy your experience?

Maria: ... Maybe... ...

(It still feels off though...)

Karlheinz: Relax, my dear...

Maria: Eh...?

(He is... cupping my cheek...)

(His hand feels so cold...)

(And his eyes... I didn’t realize until now, but... they have such a beautiful golden color...)

Karlheinz: I am responsible for you during all the time you stay here and I want to make sure you are as safe and comfortable as possible.

If it eases your heart, I can give your father an update on your situation so he will not worry about you. How does it sound?

Maria: ... Yes... that sounds good...

Monologue

We continued our walk through the dark garden

The moon made it extremely pleasant

That man gave me wings

He opened the doors to a new world to me

I can’t mess up

I must endure whatever comes my way

No matter the cost

--End of Dark epilogue

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 619

Today is “cleaning day”, and as I made trips up and down the stairs to put away the medical supplies that arrived yesterday I wondered… should I stop calling these days “cleaning days”? 

It seems like a weird question to ask seeing as I spend the majority of these days cleaning. One would think that as a result, it makes sense to call today a cleaning day, rather than “household task day”. The latter sounds  a bit pretentious to my ears.

However, the thought popped into my head because I don’t actually view ‘cleaning’ as the purpose as to why I do these chores in the first  place. Sounds weird right? After all, I’m wiping down shelves, vacuuming the downstairs, and doing laundry, isn’t the purpose of doing that is to keep them clean?

Technically… yes.

Yet, for a long while now I’ve been playing a trick on my brain. See, in the past, I’ve found cleaning very demoralizing. Why clean my kitchen when I am going to cook in a few hours and wreck all that hard work? Why dust, when all I hear from my mom are complaints about how the dust builds up so fast at her place? That dusting becomes this never ending battle to keep your shelves dust free?

Of course, there are reasons why you’d want a clean place. A clean place is not only good for your physical health, but it makes you mentally happy in a way that is hard to describe. It feels good to live in a clean place even if you’re dust blind like myself, you can feel the satisfaction of sitting in a place that is clean. It’s the same reason why you should wash your sheets on a regular basis. 

But I have watched my mom ever since I was little, fight the battle against dirt. Unlike myself or my dad, my mom is not dust blind. She notices when things need to get done, whether that is dusty shelves, dirty dishes or the floor being a bit on the dull side. As a result, for as long as I could remember, when something needed to be done, she would do it. Unlike me, she doesn’t clean on a schedule, she just does it. It’s one of my mom’s many superpowers. 

One that I have not inherited, in fact I find it frustrating to clean only for it to be dirty again, because my mom’s logic is, you then just clean it right away.

To battle this, for a long while now, my reason for any cleaning task isn't to clean, but rather this is the day/week I have set myself to do this task and I will do it. It is part of my household maintenance schedule. Viewing these chores as part of my household maintenance for my own physical and mental well being makes me less anxious about making things dirty. Things will always get dirty, that’s fine, but as long as I maintain a standard of living that makes me feel happy to live in my space that is all that matters.

This brings me back to my original thought, why am I calling these days “cleaning days”? Yes, most of the time it’s for cleaning, but it’s really just the maintenance of my home.

[justwritedreams]

The Baby is coming | Jeno

Jeno x reader, parents!au.

Word count: 2379 Genre: fluff, a bit comedy Author: maari Warnings: poorly description of pregnancy and labor, a very confused jeno, Note: since my sister is going to have a baby this week and somehow I dreamed about the whole story, I'm bringing this because why not. I hope you guys like! And I'm sorry if I've made any mistakes in describing labor Summary: Going into labor brought more surprises than you thought.

You had returned to your room on the second floor of the house with some difficulty. The swollen feet, the pain in the spine and the gigantic belly that was always heavy at night. You exchanged the white blouse, with great effort since it appeared to have shrunk, and the comfortable pants for a simple dress. Because of the kicks that the baby was giving, you ended up spilling the juice you were drinking and had to change clothes to go back to dinner. You huffed just remembering it would take all the trouble to get downstairs and by the time you got to the first floor your hips were already hurting. You looked for your boyfriend but he wasn't in the room, only your parents and your sister were talking to Jaemin, you approached and saw everyone stop to stare at you.

“Hey, do you know where Jeno is?” "He said he was going to talk to the boys outside." replied and you took a deep breath. He didn't even have 24 hours of his vacation and he was already out of the house. You smiled at the guy and went outside, it was quiet which was unusual. Jeno was coming towards you with the smile of someone who has just heard a joke. "Hey, babe." he stopped when saw you and you put your hands on your hips. "Change clothes?" "I spilled the juice on my shirt, you might as well be in there and help me. It's very tiring having to climb all the time while I look like a kangaroo." you complained. "You are the most beautiful kangaroo in the world." Your hormones were going crazy from the pregnancy and even though the most wonderful man was in front of you, you were still mad. "I'm serious, Lee." he stopped smiling, seeing that you were really annoyed. "We hardly spend any time together and when we finally have a little bit of it at dinner, my boyfriend is hanging around outside with his friends." "But honey I'm off duty, I'm here now." He reached over to stroke your arm. "Yeah, and until when?" you felt your eyes fill with tears even though you didn't want to, because the reason was silly. You knew about your boyfriend's busy schedule, you never complained and understood. But since you found out you're pregnant, things have changed. Of course, he was more careful and paid more attention than usual to you, sometimes too much. You've been together for 3 years, hidden from the fans because that's how things were supposed to be, but ever since you discovered the little slip you had - and that was growing in your belly - Jeno's career was hanging by a thread. You were still living with your parents, so as not to arouse suspicion and because you needed company, and although you had already talked several times about officially marrying Jeno, the proposal had not yet been made. You didn't know if it was because of the company or his decision, you didn't like to charge but got anxious every time you thought about it. Jeno just said that when the baby was born, everything would be sorted out the right way. "Don't do that, you know it doesn't do any good for you and the baby . I don't want either of you to be worried about it." You didn't answer, just nodded while trying not to cry. You were in the last week of pregnancy, your little boy was due to be born in 4 days. "Come here." He hugged you tight and you laid your head on his shoulder. You missed him so much. "I love you both, isn't that enough? Just trust me." You remained silent, sobbing in his arms. You trusted him with all your heart and couldn't understand why you were crying so hard over such a stupid thing. Jeno broke the hug to get a better look at you and placed his hand on your belly, you wiped your face with your hand and saw him frown as he looked down. "Darling, wouldn't you rather go to the bathroom?" What? "Huh?" you asked and kept looking at him. "I know you have an uncontrollable urge to go to the bathroom but…" he lowered his voice. "Did you have to pee out here?" Confused, you looked down and stared at the water running between your legs, pooling at your feet. You felt your body go cold and your heart start beating faster. "Oh my God." It couldn't be. "What's it?" He asked, visibly concerned at the desperation in his voice. "Jeno, the water broke." "Whose?" "Mine!" "And?" You stared back at him and saw how he had no idea what was going on. "What do you mean and?" you asked and he shrugged. "Jeno, the baby is coming. Now!" Your boyfriend's expression changed from confusion to extreme concern and shock, you've never seen his eyes so wide. "...But, didn't he have to be born in four days?" You've heard that boys usually get ahead, but didn't know it would happen to you. "What do we do now?" he questioned himself more. "We have to run. My son will be born." Without another word, he started walking and left you there. "Lee, you're not forgetting anything?" You asked loudly and saw him turn around, running to catch up with you. "Do you want something?" Feeling a pain in your hip, you just spoke out loud. "I want my mom!" "Guys, guys. Somebody help!" Jeno's voice came out squeaky and loud, it didn't take long for everyone to reach you. "What happened?" you mother asked and looked at you. "The baby is coming!" Jeno responded desperately. "Now?" your father spoke. "She needs to go to the hospital." "The maternity bag?" Your sister asked and you leaned on Jeno, the pain was still not unbearable but it really hurt. "It's next to my bed. Jisung, can you get it for me?" You asked and saw the boy approach scared, he agreed and ran into your house. "Let's go in my car." your father warned and Jeno agreed. "It's a good idea, yeah." A good idea because even if he liked to drive, he couldn't afford it right now. "We'll go behind you." Mark spoke and the boys went to the entrance. "I need a towel." "For what?" Jeno asked and helped you walk slowly. "So I don't pee in the car!"

(...)

Seoul's traffic was worse than you'd thought, and it didn't help your current condition. You had already read reports about childbirth, you didn't need to be desperate because the water broke but you couldn't be too calm either. It was such a fine line that you couldn't think straight, in fact the contractions were getting worse, the pain was still bearable but very strong. Jeno, the poor guy, was sitting next to you with his hand clasped in yours completely bewildered, he didn't know whether to look at you, your father driving or the traffic. You would have been amused if you weren't too busy squeezing his hand or arm when you were in pain, in your defense it was your own boyfriend who had suggested it to do it.

"Finally!" your father spoke as soon as the light turned and he drove fast, in a way you've never seen before. Jeno looked at you and you returned with a nervous smile, he caressed your face in a sweet way. "We’re almost there." you nodded and soon the car was pulling up in front of the emergency entrance. Your parents got out of the car quickly as Jeno cautiously opened the door and helped you down carefully, the liquid was still pouring out of you and at this point you didn't even bother to dirty the hospital. You walked in, Jeno practically carrying you by his shoulders as you tried to control your breathing. “My girlfriend is going into labor.” he told the reception nurse and she got you a wheelchair. “Hurry up, lady. She's giving birth.” Jeno spoke, this time irritated by the calm that seemed out of place for the nurse. “Boy, stay calm. I know how to do my job, all right?” She replied and looked back at you after you sat down. “How long ago did your water break?” “About 10 or 15 minutes ago.” you replied while squeezing the arm of the chair tightly. “Alright, the family can accompany me, please.” The nurse took you while Jeno held your hand, your parents following close behind. You went into a room and the nurse gave you the apron to change into, you didn't even bother to take it off right there in front of everyone, and then you were lying in bed with the devices on to monitor you and your baby. Your doctor didn't take long to arrive and smiled at you, trying somehow to calm you down. He was expecting you to be there in four days but of course he had warned you about the likelihood of the baby coming early and what hospital and time he would be in if it did. "I'm going to do one last ultrasound, all right?" you agreed and he started. You became calmer when you saw your baby on the screen. The doctor explained that everything was fine, your son was perfectly positioned and he warned that he would have to do a digital exam to know how dilated you were for delivery. Jeno remained by your side the entire time, looking quite anxious. “You are 7 cm, by the time your water broke, in a few minutes you reach 10 and we can start delivery. I’ll prepare the room, the nurse will come to proceed with the procedures.” "Thank you, doctor." Jeno went after the doctor as soon as he left and your parents approached. You didn't know why your boyfriend had gone but you couldn't worry about it, you were anxious, you couldn't contain the happiness of knowing that you would soon see your baby's face, holding him. Jeno came back after a while you didn't even count, he was holding the maternity bag and that was a sign that the boys had arrived. He was sweating as he held his hands in a nervous way, he couldn't stop moving his fingers. You thought it was funny, you've never seen him so nervous like that, not even when you kissed for the first time or when you confessed that you were in love, or even the first time you slept together. It was strange how the whole story of the two of you played like a movie right before your eyes. There were many fights and joys, many resignations and much news. A roller coaster that, in the end, was worth it. The doctor came back and you felt your heart beating faster, was it time already? “I came to warn that whoever is accompanying the birth needs to get ready.” Everyone looked at Jeno and he laughed nervously. You had already talked about it several times, he was afraid to accompany the birth but he wanted so much to be there by your side. "And that your baby brought a surprise along." the doctor said and held out a folded paper to you. You looked confused at him who just smiled, you took the paper and opened it, in a hurry to find out what was there. You felt tears form and a silly smile appeared as you read what was written.

"Babe, I wanted to make a big surprise like in those romantic movies you've been watching often, but I confess I didn't have time to organize it. Not when you have a baby on the way. Ever since we met, I've been delighted. The relaxed and light way you lead your life captivated me, and you know it didn't take me long to get involved to the point of being completely in love with you. I know I've made a lot of gaffes around you, our first kiss, as amazing as it was, was pretty embarrassing. I never expected to slip into that puddle of water and land right on top of you. But for some reason you didn't think I was weird and also fell in love with me, it's ok my beauty helped. I will never forget the day we became one for the first time, how nervous we were and how I prepared everything to make it a perfect night. And it was, it was there that we conceived our treasure that is in your womb. I know we've had many ups and downs, and that your parents still expect me to do more for you and they're not wrong, I know I've left something to be desired and waited a lot. Your parents aren't the only ones worried about our future, I'll never forget the fact that my mom ran after me with a shoe after I told her you were pregnant. I know everyone wonders when I'm going to ask you to marry me, because they're afraid I'm going to abandon you or leave our relationship like this for the rest of our lives, and I can assure you that won't happen. Because I want to marry the most beautiful woman in the world, have many children with you and grow old by your side. I was just waiting for the right moment to do this, so if you can look at me right now…

Seriously, babe, look at me.”

You looked to the side behind Jeno, barely seeing him kneeling by the bed with a ring, the tears weren't helping either. You wanted to get up but the pain you were feeling stopped you, so you just brought your hands to your mouth to hold back a sob, feeling your heart beating much faster than normal. "I can't believe it..." your voice was muffled and you saw him smile widely, the twinkle in his eyes that always attracted you. “Love of my life, will you marry me?” he asked and you noticed how he was just as anxious as you are. If he asked you a million times, the answer would always be the same. Yes.

[angstysebfan]

The Past Can Break You - 2

Pairing: Bucky x Reader

AU: Avengers

Summary: You and Bucky have been dating for aa few years. As far as you’re concerned he is the one. But what happens when a blast from the actual past shows up?

A/N: Ive seen a lot stories of Bucky getting his first love from the 40′s back. And I’ve always wondered... what would happen if he was dating someone already? Reader is from this time. Not proofread.

Warning: Smut 18+ only please

--

When Bucky made it up to your shared room he slowly and silently opened the door. You were sitting on your bed, your back facing the door, but he could tell you were crying by the shaking of your shoulders. It broke his heart to see you so upset.

He closed the door behind him and walked over to sit next to you. He wrapped his metal arm around your waist and pulled you into his embrace. You then openly sobbed into his chest. Bucky caressed your back and kissed you on the head, allowing you to cry.

When you started to calm down you sighed deeply, sniffed, and said, “Are you going to break up with me now?”

Bucky’s heart completely broke. He put his finger under your chin, forcing you to look at him. “No, baby. Of course not. I love you. I love you so much! Why would you think that?” He asks.

“Because before we started dating you told me about Dot and how much she meant to you. You were going to propose when you got home from the war. Well here is your chance to live the life you wanted with the girl you wanted,” you say as tears again start to leak from your eyes.

“Baby, I’m not the same man I was then. Yes, I still have love for Dot, but I’m so madly in love with you. I promise,” he said, kissing your forehead, nose, and then lips.

“I’m going to help Dot become acclimated to the world now, and help her settle. But I promise I will always be here for you, ok?” He asks.

You nod, feeling slightly better. “I love you,” you say.

“I love you too. I’ve gotta get down to the lab. I promised Dot I would be down there with her. But I won’t be long,” he says before kissing you again and then leaving.

You sit and wait for him, hoping it wouldn’t take too long. But after 4 hours you give up on him and go to sleep. You hope that he will keep his word on still loving you. You don’t want to lose him. You love him too much.

- -

1 month later

Over the last several weeks, you’ve only seen Bucky’s about a handful of times. He’s always off with Dot, helping her learn the ways of today, and helping her deal with her “trauma”. Every time he tries to give you a little time she always calls for him saying how upset she is or that she’s about to have a panic attack. You try and be understanding but at the same time it’s really starting to annoy you.

One of the worst things is that he barely even sleeps with you anymore. This morning you woke up to an empty bed, yet again, and head downstairs for breakfast. When you got down to the common room you heard the sound of Dot’s giggles and saw her sitting on the couch with Bucky, her feet on his lap. At that point you lost your appetite, so you went up to the roof instead.

After an hour you hear the door to the roof open as you’re staring off into the distance. You feel arms wrapped around your waist as a stubble chin rest on your shoulder. You decide to ignore him and continue staring off into the distance and several thoughts past of your mind.

“Was looking for you,” Bucky said as he kissed your shoulder. “Why you up here all alone?”

You sigh, “well I’m used to being alone a lot these days. And I guess I didn’t feel like sitting there watching you and Dot flirt in the common room,“ you say annoyed.

You hear him sigh behind you as he puts his forehead on your shoulder. “I know, and I’m so sorry that I haven’t been around much. I’m just trying to do my best to help her,” He said.

“I promise I’ll try and do better at managing my time so that I can spend more time with my girl,“ he says as he kisses the back of your head and trails kisses all the way down to your neck.

He turns you around in his arms and rests his forehead on yours. Before you know it you are both swaying to no music, until Bucky starts singing your song. You wrap your arms around his neck as you both slow dance to your song as Bucky sings. When he finishes you kiss him passionately.

“Tonight we will have date night. No Dot, no interruptions, just you, me, and that new lingerie you bought a few weeks ago,” he says as he continues to sway you.

You smile widely at the thought of spending a night alone with your boyfriend. “Oh Bucky, that sounds amazing! I’ve missed you so much, and I get what your doing, but it’s hard,” you say.

“I know. I’ve been neglecting you and it ends now. You are my priority, not Dot. And I’m sorry. Let me make it up to you. Tonight,” he says.

You kiss him in reply.

- -

Later that night, after dinner and another bout of dancing, you come out of the bathroom with your new lingerie set. You stand in the doorway staring at your half naked boyfriend. Bucky’s eyes darken with lust as he starts to stalk towards you like a lion about to pounce.

“You look good enough to eat, baby,” he says huskily. He then pulls you into his arms with a searing kiss.

He leads you to the bed and throws you on it, before jumping on top, connecting your lips again. His hand travels down to your core and he moves your panties to the side, putting pressure on your clit. He starts rubbing at an intensely fast pace, making you lose your breath. Very quickly he pulls your first orgasm from you.

Before you come back to earth you feel your new panties being ripped from you, as well as the bra. Bucky loved to rip your underwear all the time. He kissed his way down your stomach to your wet core and dove in. Your back arched off the bed.

“Oh my god, Bucky!” You moaned as your hand pulled his hair.

He then stuck two metal fingers into you and started pumping. You knew it wouldn’t be long now. You couldn’t stand the amazing sensation of his fingers and tongue. You started to feel the build up of pressure in your belly.

“Bucky! I’m going to cum,” you cry as you again orgasm on his face.

After a moment Bucky kisses his way back up your lips. You taste yourself on his tongue, which makes you wetter, if that’s possible. “You are the best thing I have ever tasted, Doll. Truly exquisite,” he says.

He then pulls off his pants and boxers before lining up with you. He slowly starts to push in, which feels amazing. After a moment he completely bottoms out in you. He kissed you, and just as he is about to thrust, you are both interrupted by FRIDAY.

“Sergeant Barnes, Ms. Jones is requesting to see you sir,” she says.

Bucky groans into your neck, “Tell her I’m busy and we’ll talk in the morning,” he says.

“I’m sorry sir, but she appears to be having a panic attack and having trouble breathing,” FRIDAY says.

“Shit,” Bucky says as he pulls out of you and grabs his sweats. He looks at you guiltily, “I’m sorry. I’ll be back in 10 minutes tops, and then we can finish what we started,” he says before running out the door.

You stare at the door as it closes in shock. He just left you in the middle of sex for his ex. What the hell! You lay there and wait, but after 2 hours you decide to get dressed in sweats and a t-shirt. You take your ruined lingerie and throw it out. You lay back on your bed thinking about how you will have a stern discussion when he comes back.

Before you know it, another 2 hours go by and it’s the middle of the night. You’re more than angry, now you are hurt. You grab your pillow and your blanket and leave your shared room with Bucky, and head to your old room. After locking the door, you inform FRIDAY not to let anyone, especially Bucky in. You climb into bed and allow a few tears before falling asleep.

- -

Bucky woke up the next morning disoriented. When he realized he was still in Dot’s room he panicked. After he finally got Dot to calm down last night he went to leave but Dot begged him to stay until she fell asleep. He must have dozed off too. He quickly got out of the bed and quietly exited the room.

Steve was coming down the hall and saw Bucky’s coming out of Dot’s room. “ why are you in Dot‘s room?” Steve asked.

“She had a panic attack last night and I came to calm her down and fell asleep. Y/N is going to be so pissed at me,” Bucky said.

“Wasn’t last night date night?” Steve asked.

Bucky nodded, “Yea and Dot interrupted right in the middle of sex. I left Y/N there naked on the bed like a jackass,” Bucky said angrily.

“You left her in the middle of sex to deal for your ex!? Why didn’t you ask me to deal with it?” Steve yelled.

“I don’t know. Dot says she only feel comfortable with me. I’m just trying to help her. But I’m going to lose my girl in the process. I’ll talk to Dot later about it, but things have to change. I can’t keep ignoring my girl,” Bucky said.

Steve nodded, “Yeah, we’ll good luck with talking to her after last night,” he said before slapping Bucky’s shoulder and leaving.

Bucky sighed and went to your shared room, only to see that you weren’t there. He checked the kitchen, common room, roof, gym, and lab but couldn’t find you. The last place he went was to your old bedroom. He found the door locked, which told him he found you.

“FRIDAY, can you please open the door?” He asked the AI.

“I’m sorry Sergeant Barnes. But I was requested by Agent Y/L/N to not let anyone, especially you in,” FRIDAY said.

Bucky’s heart dropped. He really messed up.

- -

Chapter 1 / Chapter 3

A lot happening in this chapter. Bucky being stupid, but at least he is aware. Now can he fix it? will the reader let him? And what else will Dot do? Feedback is appreciated!

Permanent Taglist:  @hailmary-yramliah @tuiccim @comedictragedy @cap-n-stuff @thefridgeismybestie @swiftmind @aleaisntcreative @lookiamtrying @pinknerdpanda @morganclaire4 @iamvalentinaconstanza @verygraphicink @im-squished @joannie95 @peace-love-hobbitness @connie326 @amandamdiehl @harrysthiccthighss @its-izzys @roserose26 @rebekahdawkins @elegantobservationstudentsblog @broco8 @shinykoalacat @white-wolf1940 @jessyballet

Story Taglist: @afuckingshituniverse @wintrfld 

[msgroupieluv]

Temporary Fix (H.S x Reader)

Series Summary: After a brutal hiatus away from her closest friends all due to her toxic ex boyfriend, reader is in distress. She decides to call up Harry hoping he may pity her enough for comfort. What happens when he shows up confronting her for her disappearance? Will they rekindle their friendship or will Reader make things worse? After a long much needed chat, Harry realizes the feelings he’d been harbouring for the entirety of their friendship hadn’t yet burnt out only further complicating it all.

Pairing: Harry Styles x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Mentions of abuse, mentions of violence

Authors Note: I’m really hoping this does well, keep in mind this is my first time actually posting something I’ve written! I’m a little rusty, but I’m always open to criticism if need be. I plan to add more to this if anyone even wants it! Enjoy 💛

______________________________________

Harry never thought he'd hear that voice again, not after contact was completely cut only a year and half ago to this day. He could feel the way his chest tightened when she spoke his name as if no time had passed between the two, it was almost painful. All Harry wanted was to know why (Y/N) had cut him off so suddenly with little to no explanation other then she needed to focus on her relationship at the time with their mutual friend Vic. It had tore Harry apart having to keep away from the one person he felt completely comfortable around, even his fellow band mates could see the difference in their friend. Now with a new found hope filling the singer, he wondered if she had changed her mind about the distance the way he wanted to even just a week into it all. That's how he found himself driving to her rescue.

Coming back to this place was muscle memory at this point. Harry knew he could find it with his eyes closed if you started him off nearby enough, having spent almost three years driving down this very same street.

It was this same street he'd driven away from with the intentions of never returning. That was the part that hurt about this trip, reliving all of those memories he had managed to bury deep inside with hopes of moving on. The driveway he pulled up into was occupied with one other vehicle, feeling relief wash over him knowing he wouldn't have to deal with any other socializing this evening. It had been a very taxing day for the singer, spending most of it cooped up in a hotel room where he tried and failed to perfect a new song. Harry was almost grateful to receive this distraction not necessarily under these circumstances of course.

The familiar usually lively colonial home stood before him, only one light on in what he remembered to be the kitchen downstairs. After parking his car and sitting in it lost in thought for about ten minutes, he decided it was as good a time to go inside before she assumed Harry had skipped out on her. He was never one to break a promise she knew that. Treading up the pathway he began to get second thoughts about all of this feeling an uneasiness settle within his stomach. What if she decided she didn't want to see him, sending him off with yet another rejection. That was something Harry never could deal with properly. Nevertheless Harry nervously stood before the dark blue door wondering how terrible of an idea this truly was, completely lost in his head he didn't realize the door had opened up revealing the one person the singer had been thinking of for a little over a year.

"You really came..?"

Her voice barely above a whisper while she stood in utter shock unsure of what to do next.

Harry stood there dumbfounded, green eyes trailing over her familiar features he'd memorized over the years. Admiring her was always a pastime of his when they were together, it was second nature. He realized then that she hadn't changed much at all those same (h/c) locks framing her face perfectly, (e/c) eyes peering up at him through curled lashes. Suddenly he felt his dinner might pay a visit now that the nerves had truly hit full force.

(Y/N)'s body moved before she could muster up any other words, tugging the fumbling man in a death grip of a hug that was much needed. This drew Harry out of his head for only a moment.

The two shared this long awaited embrace for what seemed like forever until Harry pulled back, hands staying put just above her waist while he took in a deep breath wondering when his heart rate had gone up that drastically.

"You haven't changed very much, (Y/N)." He breathed trying to find the right words to greet her if he could.

With a soft giggle (Y/N) ushered Harry inside peering out into the darkness of her front yard for any prying eyes. She was aware that when it came to Harry, paparazzi loved to nose their way into any interaction he had.

Shutting the front door the two were met with a sort of uncomfortable silence while they moved throughout the front hall and dining room towards the only other lit up room within the quiet home.

(Y/N) grabbed the kettle from on top of the stove before it could shout, pouring the steaming liquid into two different tea cups.

The silence became unbearable for Harry, you could hear a pin drop and it was almost deafening.

"You sounded awfully upset on the phone." Harry spoke up almost hesitantly surprised by his own voice.

(y/n) seemed to flinch lightly at his words not yet turning to face her old friend. She was embarrassed, calling Harry had been a last resort she hoped to avoid after all she had put him through. She almost felt guilty for bothering the busy man knowing how his schedule could get when the band was doing shows.

With a soft sigh she said, "I'm sorry to call you like that, Harry. I know I'm the last person you wanna hear from." her voice quiet as she did up Harry's tea the way she knew he enjoyed it.

"I've been waitin' to hear from ya for a year, (Y/N)." A frown taking over his once soft features, his tone bordering on annoyed at her observation. What did she know? The man had spent so long checking to see if she'd called it was almost pathetic now that he looked back on it.

His mind was racing with different scenarios now, how this evening could go. Truth be told Harry missed their friendship unlike any other. He still felt betrayed by her absence knowing that she'd made the decision to cut him off and toss him away as if their friendship had meant nothing. It wasn't something Harry was over just yet, her standing there in front of him only brought these emotions to the surface again.

(Y/N) took a seat at the kitchen island both teas in hand as she sat them down, motioning for Harry to sit in the empty stool alongside her.

"I'm so sorry, Harry... really and truly I never wanted to leave you behind. I never wanted to leave any of you boys behind."

This caught Harry's attention, slipping into the empty seat with a concerned expression now softening his features hearing the way her voice wavered with the threat of tears. He noted the way her usual bright eyes were now glossy, blood shot and puffy from crying. Something just didn't sit right with him when he allowed her strange apology to sink in.

"But you did leave us all behind, you tossed us away like we were nothing and now you've called me crying out of the blue as if nothing happened." Harry kept his tone even not wanting to lose his temper seeing how vulnerable (y/n) already seemed.

It was almost eery how calm Harry seemed on the outside, it didn't match the whirlwind of emotions within him fighting to make themselves known. He wanted her to understand how hurt he was being tossed aside like that. Harry had put his everything into their friendship, as did Louis considering she and him had been best friends before everything.

Unable to stop the waterworks (Y/N) sniffled, fresh tears streaming down her reddened cheeks. She'd spent most of the day crying while she packed all of her ex boyfriends things tossing them out into the yard for him to pick up. That had been her breaking point, leaving Vic for good after she'd seen some messages between him and one of her girl friends. Now she was realizing just how heartless she'd seemed with her only true friends even if ghosting them had been Vic's idea. He had been terribly jealous over the boys (Y/N) spent most of her time with, it got so bad they'd often fight when they were alone.

She covered her face with her hands feeling embarrassed for being so emotional in front of Harry. (y/n) thought she could keep it together long enough for her to get the story out, however that proved to be difficult when todays events came rushing back along with her mistakes she'd made.

"Oh angel-"

Harry was quick to console her taking her into his arms the way he had so many times before, brushing aside his previous hostility when the tears finally hit. He could never sit here and watch her cry like that, it broke his heart to pieces and all he wished to do was break whoever caused this hurt.

"I'm sorry- I didn't think..." she sniffled against his chest, hands gripping the fabric of Harry's grey t shirt as she tried to find her words.

"I thought I could keep it together but I just can't..." her voice was now muffled by the fabric. She inhaled that familiar scent of his feeling already at ease just being in his protective arms.

With heavy sigh Harry tightened his light embrace around her, wanting to offer some sort of comfort if he could.

"I need you to tell me what happened, we can worry about all of that later." Harry requested softly, running a hand through her hair while he held her close unable to let go.

She pulled back just enough to look up catching Harry's eyes, "Me and Vic- we got into it this morning. He's been seeing Cate behind my back for months, I-" a sob broke out before she could finish her explanation.

Harry cooed whispers of reassurance hoping he could calm her enough she could talk about it without breaking down too bad, his hand cupping her face gently.

"Just breathe, angel." He spoke slowly, thumbs swiping away the tears before they could trail too far.

After she managed to calm herself down she went into detail the best that she could, explaining how she found out and Vic's reaction.

"H-He's never raised a hand to me until then, it was like- a whole other side to him or something... I didn't know what to do I just had to leave." (y/n) explained through shaky breaths staring down at her hands unable to meet Harry's strong gaze in case she broke again.

The knowledge that he'd gone at her like that all over (y/n) answering Vic's phone made Harry's entire body tense with anger. He almost felt he wanted to leave right then and track down Vic so he could deal with this himself. The idea that anyone could look at (y/n) and think to hurt her was beyond Harry, she rarely even raised her voice let alone got physical with others during an altercation.

There was a beat of silence when (y/n) finished her explanation, peering up at Harry through wet lashes expecting some form of communication after such a story. Before he could even get a word in she immediately began explaining herself for the hiatus on their friendship.

"B-Before you say anything, Harry. I know what it seemed like.. when I disappeared and stopped coming around everyone." She said sadly, "I didn't want to leave you guys behind, but the fighting- the arguing it was getting to be too much. He made me choose." (y/n) whispered the last few words looking away out of embarrassment for even listening to Vic in the first place.

She could've saved their friendship if she'd just left Vic behind after the first of many jealous comments he'd thrown her way about Harry. Vic said on many occasions that (y/n) was too affectionate with her friend, even going as far as to accuse her of secretly seeing Harry. What she didn't know was that Vic was voicing those insecurities out of guilt because he actually was seeing other people when (y/n) wasn't around.

"I want you to know I'm so sorry, I love you all so much I just want to fix things. Will you let me fix things?" Her words pleading with Harry.

He could never refuse her anything not after all that he'd learned tonight about someone Harry had considered a very good friend. Vic was long done being brought around now that Harry knew his true nature.

"Nothin' needs to be fixed, love." Harry reassured her with the faintest of smiles dawning on his face, "nothin' except maybe Vic's face once I'm done with him..." he added casually with a small shrug of his shoulders.

There was no lie in what Harry said not after (y/n)'s tearful explanation, it wasn't something Vic should just get away with. Even if Harry could just talk to him, warn him.

(y/n) was quick to laugh, "no oh my gosh don't, just leave it alone okay? I know you mean well." She finally smiled wiping away the dampness on her cheeks with the sleeve of her grey hoodie.

"I don't want anything to happen to you either, Harry." She commented a little quieter.

Harry scoffed, "Vic's nothin' on me, baby." He teased gently punching her cheek with a grin playing on his lips.

This earned another giggle from (y/n) which was all that Harry wanted after having to watch her sob for a half an hour. She deserved to smile, and it was his favorite thing to look at on top of that. He truly admired her so much he only wished he could make her laugh like that more often.

(Y/n) pulled out of Harry's embrace standing up from her seat she took her now cold tea with her over to the sink. Dumping it out, she rinsed the cup lost in her thoughts as she turned the faucet off reaching for the hand towel hanging from her oven's door handle.

"Think you'd be up for a drink?"

Her question came as a surprise to Harry while he watched her grab the neck of a brand new bottle of wine, holding it up for him to see.

He wasn't opposed to loosening up a little bit after such a heavy subject, so he agreed following after her into the living room where the two got comfortable on the couch. It didn't take them long to pass the bottle back and forth deciding against glasses after (y/n) realized she'd forgotten about them.

The subject was soon much lighter as the two reminisced about their past share together, all of the trouble they remembered getting into.

"Pretty sure I remember you locking Louis up in his dressing room..." Harry smirked tipping the bottle back to meet his lips as he took a long sip of the bitter red liquid.

(Y/n) giggled already feeling a buzz from the liquor, her cheeks a permanent shade of red as she continued to indulge loving how light and happy it was making her feel.

"First of all, I was trying to scare him! But it all went wrong and then it was actually Niall who locked the door-" she explained tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she spoke.

Harry's eyes followed her hand as it made itself comfortable back against her jean clad thigh. The alcohol muddling his more logical thoughts made him wonder how warm she felt, picturing his own hand there while they sat closer. In this little scenario he'd come up with they were kissing passionately, bottle of wine discarded onto the coffee table in front of them.

(Y/n) broke Harry from his thoughts before they could get any more inappropriate,

"You okay, Har?" She asked innocently offering the faintest of smiles his way.

Harry breathed out a quick, "'course." Finally reading his eyes away from her taking another long swig of their shared drink.

She didn't quite believe him, noticing the way he'd occasionally get lost in thought while looking her way. She wondered what he was thinking about after a while. It had to be something interesting considering he'd long stopped paying attention to her ramblings only offering the occasional hum of agreement even when it didn't make sense.

"What's on your mind?" (Y/n) scooted a little closer reaching for the bottle from Harry's hand.

Their fingers brushed lightly for a fleeting moment Harry wondered if they'd even touched at all. That familiar shock he often felt when they'd touch was the only proof it did, turning his brain to absolute mush. All he could focus on was the warmth throughout his body that he felt with her now pressed closer than before.

(Y/n)'s knees were pressed against the side of Harry's leg while she sat facing him on the couch, legs tucked beneath her as she now took her own long sip chasing that weightless feeling that was consuming her entirely with every single drop.

Harry cleared his throat running ringed fingers through his long messy brown hair trying to answer her question without giving himself away. However, the alcohol running through his veins had other ideas.

"You." He answered simply almost as if it were obvious.

(Y/n) faltered bringing the bottle back down from her wine stained lips unsure of what to say to that. She hadn't expected that of all answers, assuming maybe Harry had just gotten sleepy considering the time of night.

Eyes darting over to her friend she meekly said, "me?" Now sitting the half empty bottle onto the coffee table alongside them.

Harry chuckled, "yes, angel. I'm thinking about you.. how much I'd really like to kiss you." He admitted softly unsure of his own words even if they left his lips already.

He knew deep down this could end up being a mistake, (y/n) was still freshly dealing with Vic's disappearance surely she would be offended that Harry even brought such a thing up. Yet the few drinks he had brought out a boldness Harry usually kept at bay around his close friend. This was the reason he always refused to drink around her in fear of spilling his secrets he'd kept so near and dear for quite a long time.

(Y/n) blinked in shock eyes wide after a moment while she took this all in. Now she wanted to know if she had heard Harry right, because there was no way he'd just said he wanted to kiss her. She refused to believe that her friend Harry had been staring at her like that with a glow in his green eyes because he had been thinking about kissing (Y/N). Blushing deeper if that were been possible, she stammered unable to speak.

Harry turned to give her his full attention hesitantly placing a hand on her knee, "can I?" He inquired curiously, eyes darting down to her full lips once now that he knew he didn't need to hide it any longer.

"Yes you can." Was all she could muster up quietly.

The two leaned in, Harry bringing a hand up to cup her cheek while she kept her hands firmly in her lap feeling how clammy they'd gotten all of a sudden. Harry stopped just a breath away needing to be sure this was actually happening because there was absolutely no fucking way. When their lips did finally touch (y/n) swore it was straight out of one of those cheesy romantic movies she'd binge watched a million times with her friends. Sparks might as well of actually flied out around the two, joined by some fireworks to indicate how she was genuinely feeling inside. Her once anxious thoughts brushed aside by a simple kiss which only left (y/n) yearning for more. She felt a warmth much like Harry's spread throughout her entire body engulfing her in this desire, driving her to deepen this kiss with a slight tilt of her head.

Harry was in just as much of a bliss finally able to taste her the way he'd only ever dreamt of before. Even just a simple passionate kiss much like this had him reeling inside craving more, he needed to taste her further if she'd allow that much. His lips parting only slightly, allowing his tongue to poke out gliding along her bottom lip asking for entrance. (Y/n) allowed it craving his taste as well.

They explored each others mouths never straying much further than that, staying in their positions on the couch up until (y/n) made the bold move shifting on top of Harry's lap. Her knees resting within the cushion on either side of his thighs never breaking their kiss throughout her switch in position.

Breathless as she was (y/n) refused to break away first getting drunk on Harry's lips and the skilled way his tongue explored her mouth licking into her with a desire that couldn't be put out. His hands rested on her thighs slowly moving upward before they came to rest on her hips beneath her large hoodie, the pad of his thumb brushing against her warm skin beneath the flimsy tank top she had on underneath.

Harry was the first to pull away smirking when he watched the way she chased after his lips.

"We need to stop." He panted, hands rubbing along her sides in comforting motions while he admired how pretty she looked straddling his lap the way she was.

Harry had fantasized about this too many times to count on those nights he just couldn't get himself to sleep. It often led to dirtier things, yet he couldn't push her that far knowing how vulnerable she was right now. Pushing aside his own selfish desires Harry needed this to stop before he didn't have a rational thought about it.

(Y/n) pouted moving her hands along his chest where they'd been resting beneath his open button up shirt. She leaned in a little closer breath fanning against his lips as she spoke,

"You don't want wanna kiss me anymore?"

Harry would be lying if he said he didn't want to kiss her breathless all over again, he wanted so desperately the chance to kiss her all over her body. Worship every single inch of the girl he'd been falling for since day one, but it just wouldn't be right.

"You're drunk." Harry stated matter of factly chuckling when he felt her lips brush against his cheek in a chaste kiss, "come on, love..." he whispered patting her hip.

She knew he was right however thinking straight just wasn't happening right now for her. Instead she was driven by that warmth pooling in her belly wanting so badly his lips against hers, possibly more but she hadn't thought that far ahead yet.

"You're drunk too, silly." (Y/n) laughed softly pulling back so she could get a good look at Harry.

Kiss swollen lips stained with red wine, his cheeks matching the color of his lips she noticed eyes taking in every detail of his flustered expression. His hair was a slight mess from her tugging, shirt unbuttoned as it had been when he arrived allowing her to see the beginnings of his tattoos that decorated his chest. She pressed a hand against one of the inked swallows with a small smile.

"You're so pretty, Harry." She cooed softly still admiring every bit of him where he sat beneath her.

He hadn't been expecting that only furthering how flustered he'd been.

"Let's get you to bed then, yeah?" He suggested disregarding her compliment in fear of only making this harder for himself.

(Y/N) suddenly yawned not realizing how tired she was until he mentioned it. With that she decided it might be a good idea to go and lay in her comfy bed, missing the warmth of her favorite fuzzy blanket she slept with every night. Surprisingly enough, it had been a gift from Harry a while back. She leaned in pushing closer so she could hug him needing that comforting embrace, also hoping he might just carry her upstairs.

The movement cause Harry to grunt feeling the way she brushed against him, god was this difficult.

"Want me to carry ya, angel?" He questioned softly rubbing her back.

She nodded in response burying her face in his neck inhaling the cologne she loved so much that just screamed her Harry. He used to steal his sweaters simply because of how amazing they smelled.

After a beat of quiet Harry stood up the best he could gripping her thighs so she wouldn't fall, he maneuvered around the furniture making his way toward the stairs. It was a lot more difficult carrying (y/n) when Harry was just as tipsy if not more given how often he was sucking on that bottle earlier, that didn't stop him though.

Once they reached just outside of (y/n)'s bedroom Harry kicked the door open easily with the toe of his boot carrying  her inside. He didn't bother with the lights able to move around from memory, not to mention the curtains were pulled wide open allowing the moon to cast a natural light within. He laid her down on her bed with another grunt when he felt her tug him back on top of her.

"Angel please." He laughed brushing some of the hair out of her face.

The small smile he got from her was all he needed, feeling his heart soar knowing he was the one making her smile like that. Harry was the one here with her comforting her, allowing her to cling to him as she pleased. It made him feel needed.

She began to pout watching Harry peel himself off of her in favour of standing close instead. She missed his warmth and his protective embrace already.

"Lay with me, I don't want to be alone.." (y/n) pleaded quietly, her hand gripping his their fingers now intertwined together.

Harry was finding it more and more difficult getting her to sleep when she looked up at him like that. Those big (y/e/c) eyes casted up at him while her bottom lip jutted out in a pout. He was crumbling already with even just that even if he knew he should have more self control, he wanted that smile back again.

"If I lay here with you I need you to be good, alright?" Harry warned kneeling onto the bed.

(Y/n) smiled happily pushing over for Harry feeling triumphant that she'd won that battle at least.

"I'll be good, promise!" She reassured him patting the spot beside her.

Harry wasted no time getting comfortable beside her, he soon pulled her into his arms letting her rest her head on his chest where he was sure she'd feel the way his heart sped up just from her presence.

They laid like that until (y/n) drifted off into a deep drunken sleep, unable to ramble on anymore about how excited she was to have Harry back in life again. Luckily for Harry, she hadn't tried anything while they cuddled not even once. But he was finding it even more difficult to peel himself away from her so he could go home and sleep as well.

That's how Harry ended up tutting around (y/n)'s kitchen when he noticed the sun's presence in the pink hue of the sky, after staying up worried she'd wake up and need him. Whatever happened today he could deal with, only if it meant he could have (y/n) back for good.

That was all Harry ever wanted.

[watchmegetobsessed]

Waiting for you - Harry Styles

❄️ FANFICmas 2020 ❄️

Read more about FANFICmas here!

i wrote it over like a month ago, but kept it for today, i hope yall will like it! it’s a cute bestfriends to lovers fic, so yeah... happy holidays, hope you are having an amazing time!

word count: 13k

masterlist

Harry Styles has been a household name around your home, but not for the reason many would think. While for the rest of the world he was the famous singer, former member of One Direction and recent solo artist, the guy who performs at the biggest arenas, wins awards and sings his heart out through the radio, for you and your mom he was the goofy, curly haired boy who lived across the street with his mum, sister and stepdad.

You still remember all too clear the first time you met him. You and your mum just moved into your new home after the nasty divorce of your parents, ready to start a new life. You’ve barely turned twelve, it was quite the awkward stage of your teenage years, you were still trying to find yourself on the rocky road of growing up. Moving to a whole new town and switching schools were terrifying and you had quite a few nightmares about possible outcomes of being the new girl in the neighborhood.

You and your mum just finished unpacking the dishes in the kitchen when the doorbell rang. She rushed to answer it and you wandered behind her, curiously peeking at the guests under her arm as she held the door open.

“Hi! We saw the trucks and thought we would say hi! I’m Anne and this is my son, Harry,” the nice woman greeted your mum and stepping aside she gestured towards the teenage boy standing next to her.

His green eyes fell to you almost immediately and you forgot to breathe for a moment. You were not the kind to crush that easily on guys, well, not until you laid your eyes on Harry. He smirked at you, nodding in your way in such an easy-going manner and you could feel the heat crawling up your neck to your cheeks and ears.

Anne and your mum quickly became good friends. She was the rock your mum definitely needed after such a bad year behind her and you were glad she found support in such a wonderful woman as Anne. Their newly funded friendship got stronger day by day until the two families just… simply felt one.

Growing up the Styles siblings and Anne came and go in your home as if they lived there too. On many occasions you came home from school only to find Anne in the kitchen while your mother wasn’t even home. Anne always knew when your mum was working the night shift at the hospital where she was a nurse and always made sure you had a warm dinner on those evenings, often inviting you over to just stay at theirs while your mum was away working. Birthdays, graduations, Easters and Christmases, they were all spent at either yours or at the Styles home, strengthening the bond between the two families.

You have always had a strong friendship with Gemma, but maybe because you were closer in age or for something else, but you became the closest with Harry. Two peas in a pod, as your mums liked to call the two of you. You weren’t just neighbors or good friends, it was clear to anyone and to both of you as well that you were the best of friends. You were there for each other at the best and worst of times, before and after Harry’s launch to stardom. You were there with him all along, sometimes physically, sometimes just through text messages and reassuring calls when he just needed a piece of his home away from home. Late night calls and talks were your usual when he was on the road and he made sure to only talk about his life after you’ve told him everything about yours, even if the most interesting thing was that you were able to buy three socks for the price of two. Harry listened and cared for everything that happened to you, not letting you think even for a moment that he would forget about his best friend when he is on the other side of the planet.

The two of you grew up together and while his life consisted of concerts, screaming fans, telly appearances and award shows, your mundane everydays went on the same was as any normal young girl’s: you graduated from high school, went to uni and then started a career for yourself. As time was moving it became a little more and more complicated to stay as close as you used to, though, both of you terribly busy with your own personal lives, so the calls, texts and meetings became less frequent, but you were always able to pick up from where you left, it was as easy with him as it could be.

Maybe that’s why you grew to love him in a more than friendly way through the years. Slowly, but surely you started to realize what an amazing man he really was –is. It was impossible not to fall for him, however you valued your close friendship more than to just ruin it with dropping a bomb on Harry. You always thought he doesn’t feel the same way, so you were sadly left with your daydreams and fantasies about him only your bedroom walls heard.

This year it’s gonna be the tenth Christmas you get to celebrate together, quite the anniversary. There were only two years when you didn’t see each other during the holidays, the first one because you and your mum spent it in Canada with some relatives that live there, and the second one was because Harry couldn’t come home a few years ago, having a too tight schedule. But this year, everyone made sure to make it back home in time. Harry called you three month before Christmas to check in if you are still gonna coming home.

“Would be an idiot not to. Can’t wait to stuff my head with cookies!” you chuckled.

“Have you found your sweater yet?” Harry questioned, the muffled noise of the traffic around him broke through the line as he was on his way home when he called.

“Not yet. But I’ve been looking. I’m pretty sure I’m gonna win this year,” you smirked in victory.

“Oh, not so fast with the assumptions, little girl!” he warned you making you laugh.

The two of you had a kind of tradition. Every year, you go on mission to find the ugliest Christmas sweaters one could find, and then perform a chosen song at the karaoke machine after dinner, entertaining the rest of the family. Those performances are the best memories you nurse. Your absolute favorite one was just a couple of years ago when Harry’s sweater was filled with weird looking reindeers in quite inappropriate poses, he even added a glittery pair of sunnies and he sang I Want To Break Free from the Queen. Everyone was on the floor laughing as he took the living room by storm as if it was the Maddison Square Garden filled with thousands of screaming fans, while it was just the five of you.

He won that year, Hell, even you voted on him, giving him the cleanest win of all times, but you swore to live up to that performance and you really feel like this year is gonna be your chance to live up to that promise. You have quite some tricks up your sleeves.

These past couple of years you were anxiously waiting for the holidays to roll around, because you knew you would get to spend so much time with Harry and through the year, even with several occasions of the two of you meeting, you missed him dearly. Sometimes you selfishly wished he would have just stayed the boy across the street so your lives could take tracks that run at least close to each other, but you always reminded yourself that his work was his life and you would have never taken away his true passion and happiness. Besides, you love watching him perform from time to time, that was just one of your favorite sides of him, see his eyes shine so bright as he sang to his fans. You used to envy the fangirls, it always seemed like he had a special connection with them, but you realized that you were one of them. You felt the same excitement when he stepped on the stage, you bought all his albums, even though he made sure you’d be one of the first people to get your hands on it. You had a second copy of them, because buying it gave you the extra jolt of happiness and the feeling that you were a tiny part of his success too. You watched all his music videos, knew the lyrics to his songs and cheered on him whenever he won another award. Difference was that at the end of the day you could call him and tell him how proud you were of him and he stared back at you with that beautiful grin, his dimples digging deep in his cheeks, telling you that he wouldn’t be here without you. You always knew he just said it to make you feel special, but he insisted it was the truth.

“I’m telling you. It you weren’t with me I would have gone crazy already, pulling a Justin Bieber or summat. Don’t think you are any less than what you are, that’s just daft.”

Every time he said something along those lines those damned butterflies in your stomach went crazy and you tried your best to ignore them. You didn’t always succeed, but the effort was there.

 Now it’s two days before Christmas and you are already standing in your old room after coming home from London, leaving your small but cozy little apartment empty until the next year. The walls are still the same lilac color you chose when you were fourteen, a twin bed is pushed against the wall under your window, the wardrobe’s door is littered with old pictures from high school and ones you cut out from magazines. You just never got around to take them down and after a while it brought you a comforting sense every time you came home. A warm nostalgia took over you when you saw them, so they eventually stayed.

Your suitcase is lying on the floor as you unpack some stuff you’ll be using often during your stay, but you don’t get far in the packing when you hear an all too familiar voice coming from downstairs. Leaving your stuff as it is you rush down and throw your arms around Anne from behind, who is standing in the kitchen with your mum.

“My sweet angel! How are you?!” she cheers turning around in your hold to hug you back, giving you a tight squeeze before she pushes you away so she can have a good look on you. “Swear you get prettier every time I see you!”

“Stop it, my head’s gonna get big,” you chuckle feeling yourself blushing a little.

“Never gonna stop praising my daughter,” she smiles and gifts you with a cheeky wink.

Anne was never shy to let you know that she thought of you as a second daughter and you still remember how it felt when she called you that for the first time. It felt nice to know that you could count on her no matter what.

The three of you chat in the kitchen, Anne asks you about your job and how things have been going, she hasn’t seen you in a while. You missed the times when you could just go across the street and have a talk with her whenever you wanted, but since you’ve moved to London, Harry wasn’t the only one you didn’t get to see as often as you would have wanted. Your job and life overall got you so busy sometimes, you barely had time to call your own mum.

“Harry is arriving this evening. Wanna come with us to fetch him up at the airport?” she asks you and of course you say yes. You wouldn’t miss the chance to greet him with a bone crushing hug just after he lands.

However, as the time nears when you’d have to leave to the airport, Anne calls you up and asks if you could go on your own.

“I didn’t finish cooking and Gems is in an online meeting. Would you mind if you went alone?” she asks and though it sounds a little made up, you don’t question her.

On your way to the airport you are nervously drumming on the wheel, the thought of seeing Harry excites and worries you a little. It’s been months since you last seen him in the flesh and though you’ve talked plenty of times on the phone and in video calls, it’s just not the same. You find yourself wondering if he still smells the same, if you’ll fit the same way into his embrace as before. When you were younger you often liked to think about the two of you as two pieces of legos when you hugged. Your frame just fitted so perfectly against his body, he was your absolutely favorite person to hug.

Standing in a corner at the terminal, you keep checking the board until his flight’s status changes to landed. Then your eyes are glued to the sliding glass doors, knowing well it’s gonna take him some time to get his bags and walk out, but you are just way too excited to finally see him again.

People start walking through the doors and your head perks up every time you see a slightly tall frame, only to realize it’s still not him. Until it is.

You can’t bite your growing smile back when you spot him, a beanie and the hood of his hoodie covering his mop of hair, sunnies hiding his eyes, but you’d recognize him even from just the tiniest detail. You push yourself away from the wall as you see him look around, probably searching for his mum and sister, because he was already on his way when Anne decided it’s gonna be you who fetches him up, so he doesn’t know about the change.

“Excuse me, can I get a picture?” you ask teasingly walking up to him and for a moment you can tell he believes it’s a fan who recognized him, but his face quickly changes once his eyes land on you.

“Fo’ fuck’s sake, you had me for a second,” he breathes out, his arms already reaching out to pull you against him and you gladly envelop yourself into his hold. “What are you doing here?” he mumbles tightening his arms around you, and you don’t mind it. As you face is pressed into his shoulder you smile when you realize that he still smells the same. Like home.

“Your mum asked me to come and get you because she didn’t finish cooking. But if you ask me she just wanted to surprise you with me. You happy to see me?” you smirk up at him letting your head fall back so you could look into his eyes.

“Always,” he grins before placing a soft kiss to your temple and letting go of you.

The two of you leave the terminal before anyone could recognize him and packing his stuff up into the car you head back home.

You hand your phone over to him once you hit the road so he can be in charge of the music and it’s no surprise when he starts playing Christmas music straight away. Grinning to yourself you glance over at him and see him scrolling through your camera roll like the nosy little gremlin that he is.

“Hey! I did not give you permission to snoop around my phone!” you warn him, but don’t try to snatch it away from him, there’s really nothing he shouldn’t see, besides, half of those pics have been sent to him through messages.

“Just tryna catch up w’ you,” he mumbles under his breath, continuously opening up photos he is interested in. “New couch, eh?” he asks showing you the screen for a second.

“Yeah, bought it a few weeks ago. You like it?”

“Looks comfy. I should try it out sometime.”

“You never sleep on my couch, what are you talking about?”

“Right, you always drag me t’ your bed,” he snorts and you gasp at him, smacking his chest gently.

“That’s so not true! You always just arbitrarily make yourself comfortable in my bed and I don’t have the heart to kick you out,” you correct him.

There hasn’t been many times when Harry crashed at your place, but when he did, he always slept in your bed with you, and the two of you have shared a bed a few other times prior too. It’s nothing new, though it does have a deeper meaning for you than for him, you think. Waking up with Harry snoring lightly next to you, admiring how peaceful and beautiful he is in this intimate state, you just wish you could see him like this all the time.

Harry smirks at you cheekily, scrunching his nose as he chuckles.

“’Cause I wouldn’t want to sleep anywhere else, Love,” he says before turning his attention back to your phone while you try to ignore the butterflies in your stomach at the nickname.

It’s quite late by the time you get home, you’ve run into some traffic, but it just meant more time with Harry. You gladly listened to his stories and you are happy you got some alone time with him. Parking up to your driveway you help him unload his bags before locking the car.

“Wanna go to the Christmas market in the morning? Promised Gemma I’d go with her and Michal,” he asks, slowly walking down the driveway towards his home.

“Uh, sure,” you nod smiling. Not that you had any other plans, the holidays are reserved for family and the Styles’ are family.

“Great, I’ll be here at ten. And thanks for the ride,” he smirks waving goodbye and you watch him cross the street before he disappears in his home and you do the same.

“Y/N? Is that you?” your mum calls out when you walk in.

“Were you expecting anyone else?” you ask, hanging your coat before you join her in the living room.

“Not,” she smiles giddily. “Was everything alright at the airport?”

You throw your legs over her lap and she squeezes your ankles playfully.

“Yeah, everything fine.”

“How is Harry?”

“Cheeky and smug, as always,” you huff smirking.

“Can’t wait to see him. I feel like I haven’t seen ‘im in ages.”

“When are they coming over tomorrow?”

“Anne said she’ll come around four to help me cook, the rest I don’t know. Dinner will be done around seven though.”

“I’m pretty sure Gemma and Harry will be here along with Anne,” you snort, knowing well they wouldn’t miss a chance to come over, especially Harry. He has been talking nonstop how he’ll be glued to your hip once he is back home, making up for all the time you’ve spent apart.

“They surely will,” your mum chuckles before you both turn your attention at the telly.

You go to bed way after midnight and finish up the packing you left abruptly when you left to get Harry. Shuffling around in your room you glance out the window and see that the light in Harry’s room is on too. Peeking out you lean against the window’s frame, thinking about the times when the two of you sat in the window, talking on the phone after curfew, keeping your voice down so your parents didn’t wake up, sharing secrets and your silliest thoughts. With Harry, you never felt like you had to keep anything back, he would have never judged you for anything, you could be your true self around him and vice versa.

A tall figure appears at the window and as Harry glances out his window he is quick to see you sitting on the window sill, your head resting against the frame. The two houses are not far away from each other and you see him grinning as he sits at the window as well, pulling out his phone, a moment later yours starts buzzing on the nightstand. You quickly grab it, and go back to the window.

“Creeping on me, eh?” he hums into the phone and you roll your eyes at him.

“Was just admiring the street lights, don’t flatter yourself, your head is getting too big,” you huff, but you can’t push your smirk down.

“Admit it, you were hoping to see me roam around naked, weren’t you?”

“As if I haven’t seen you like that before,” you snort making him laugh too. It’s true, Harry has never been shy to get rid of his clothes and he also doesn’t bother to draw the blinds whenever he is changing. You once saw him butt naked when he was nineteen, and when you told him to close the blinds next time he is changing, he just shrugged with a smug smile.

“’M not ashamed of anything, Love,” he told you and you had to turn away because you were blushing for sure.

“Right, you’re a fan of putting yourself on full display when you’re naked, almost forgot,” you chuckle shaking your head. “Millions of girls have the picture of you, lying naked on their walls.”

“You one of them?” he cheekily asks.

“Nah, doesn’t go well with the vibe of my apartment.”

“Shame. Though I think it would definitely look amazin’ above your bed, Love.”

“Now would it? I don’t know about that.”

“I’ll get you a copy framed,” he smirks and you can see it clear even from the distance. “Y’ know what? I’ll make you an exclusive one. One that nobody else has, how does that sound?”

“I can’t believe you, Styles,” you chuckle shaking your head. “I’m not gonna answer this, just gonna head to bed. You should too.”

“So we’re not sharing any secrets like we used to? Thought you’d have something fo’ me.”

“You know everything, Harry,” you sigh with a soft smile, though your heart skips a beat. He does know everything, except one big, fat, heavy secret you’ve been carrying around for way too long, that will probably stay with you forever.

“Right. Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow.” “Night, Harry.”

“Good night, Love,” he murmurs and you know he is smiling, thought he steps away from the window as he says goodbye and you do the same before ending the call.

 ***

 “Hey! That’s mine!” you protest as Harry steals another roasted chestnut from your little paper bag, but you can’t stay mad at him when he is smiling at you so sweetly.

“Sorry, tastes better when it’s someone else’s.”

“Sure,” you snort and just let him get as many as he wants. You wouldn’t have eaten it all anyway.

It’s quite cold out in the town, but at least there’s no rain or storm, so the weather didn’t try to ruin your little trip to the Christmas market.

Gemma calls out for Harry to show him something and you just keep wandering between the booths, enjoying the atmosphere quite a lot, you have no idea when was the last time you got to come to the market, though you always loved coming when you were younger.

Finishing up your chestnuts you throw the paper bag into a trash can and turn around to find the rest of your little group, spotting Harry and Gemma deep in discussion next to a booth that offers handmade ceramic mugs. As you walk closer it almost seems like as if they were having a fight, which is just odd, they rarely do that.

“Just get your head out of your arse!” you catch Gemma telling her brother who only groans in frustration before he spots you, a smile plastering across his face.

“Hey, there you are!” he beams.

“Everything alright?” you ask looking at them.

“Sure, just Gemma is being a little nosy, is all,” Harry waves in dismiss. You glance over to Gems, but she is already back in discussion with Michal so you decide to drop it. “You ate all the chestnuts?” Harry asks offended, throwing an arm around your shoulders.

“Well, it was mine, so of course I ate them!”

“Selfish,” he narrows his eyes at you, but you both know it’s just a joke.

You walk further down in the aisle, occasionally stopping at some of the booth when you spot a place that offers hot chocolate in cute little mugs that you can take home with you if you’d like, or just take it back and get your money back.

“Oh look!” you gasp excitedly and head towards the hot chocolate booth. The old lady smiles brightly at the two of you as you take a look at all the choices. “Oh my god, they have caramel flavored!” you cheer, basically already drooling at the thought of a good, caramel flavored hot chocolate.

“What can I get for the lovely couple?” the lady smiles warmly at the two of you and you freeze at her assumption.

“Oh we—“ you start, but Harry cuts you off.

“A caramel flavored and a plain one, please,” he orders, without even batting an eye about how the lady just called you a couple. You can feel your cheeks heating up at the thought, but you try to calm yourself. He probably just didn’t want to get into explaining that you two are not an item and let her think what she wanted.

The nice lady hands you your mug and you take Harry’s as well as he pays for both of them. You would try to argue with him and pay yours, but you are already used to how stubborn he is and he never lets you split anything, it’s always on him.

“Thank you, have a nice day!” Harry calls out to the lady before the two of you leave. You peek at him handing him his mug, looking for any clue that would give away if this little scene got him just as bothered as it did you, but he looks perfectly fine and relaxed, so you decide not to bring it up. You’re sure he didn’t think much of it.

Your little stroll stretches into the afternoon, the four of you decide to have lunch out there too, then you just opt for a walk in town as Gemma wants to do a quick last minute Christmas shopping, so by the time you get home Anne is already over at yours helping your mum with dinner. Tonight you are all eating at yours, then tomorrow it’s the Styles’ turn to host, this is how you agreed this year.

“Woah, it smells amazing!” you call out walking into the house. The delicious smells fill up the whole place and you hear the two women giggling in the kitchen.

“Hi Honey, how was the market?” your mum greets you, a glass of red wine in her hand and the same goes for Anne.

“Great, we have a new mug,” you say holding up the emptied out hot chocolate mug. Stepping to the sink you wash it quickly and drying off you put it away in one of the cabinets.

You stick around in the kitchen and not so much later Harry comes over, the two of you leave your mums alone and get comfortable in front of the telly.

All channels are filled with holiday movies and you don’t mind, really, you like them all even if you’ve seen them a million times, you still find them funny and cute. Harry feels the same way, so when you settle on Love Actually he doesn’t say a word.

What startles you is that he grabs your ankles and pulls your legs over his lap, a small shriek escaping your mouth since you weren’t expecting him to do that. You’re sitting sideways, your legs are bent at the knee and Harry is kind of hugging them as his eyes are glued to the screen.

You find it rather hard to focus on the movie when Harry’s fingers keep fidgeting on your legs, they keep running up and down, sometimes he lays his hands flat on your knees, there’s no spot he hasn’t touched since you started watching the movie.

About an hour into the film he turns to you and you look at him in question.

“’M in the mood to cuddle,” he announces and starts moving around, not even letting you protest as he basically crawls to your lap, resting his head on your stomach as the two of you lay on the couch.

“Am I now your personal pillow?” you ask chuckling, but you wouldn’t want him to move for anything. Feeling him weigh down on you just feels so warm and simple but amazing.

“The best one,” he mumbles, bringing a hand to your side as you let your fingers comb through his curls.

You keep massaging his scalp and he lets out soft moans when you go over a soft spot, you can’t help but chuckle as he melts under your hands. His fingers start drawing circles on your side and the movie is long forgotten by you, all you can focus on is how great it is to have Harry so close to you. He is known to be a physical person, you are used to hugs and touches, but it seems like he is a little needier now than the usual.

You don’t mind it though, you just try to enjoy the moment, because it can end anytime.

Gemma and Michal come over a little before seven, and while your mums finish up the cooking the four of you set the table. You grab the crystal glasses and start placing them to the table, Harry lending you a hand. Once the table is all set you shuffle into the kitchen to see if there’s anything you can help with, Harry following you behind, placing a hand to the small of your back.

As you stand and wait for you mum to finish up the meals so you can help carry them to the table you feel Harry’s hand wander over to your hip, giving it a squeeze as he stands closer, so his chest is pressed against your back.

“Harry?” you ask a little out of breath.

“Hm?” he innocently hums.

“What’s with you today?” Turning your head to the side your eyes lock with his, but he just shrugs smiling.

“Guess I just missed yeh a lot.”

“You’re weird,” you chuckle shaking your head, but don’t make an effort to push him away. His touch feels way too good to put an end to it and you just want to be selfish a little longer.

His hands leave you when the two of you help to bring the food to the table, and you almost wish they would just return, but you gotta swallow the thought.

The food is amazing, as always. You all sip on some wine, just having a genuinely good time, enjoying that all of you are back at one place, something that rarely happens now that all three of you kids are all grown up.

At one point Harry rests his arm on the back of your chair, no one seems to notice but you. All these little things have been driving you crazy all day and your mind seems to be playing a nasty game with you. There’s no way Harry thinks of these details more than what they are, a friendly gesture towards an old friend of his.

When Gemma is telling a story about some weird guy she met at work Harry reaches up and pushes your hair behind your ear, his finger lingering over your neck a little longer than you would have expected. Turning to face him you give him a questioning look, not sure what to think about his needy and touchy self all of a sudden.

“What?” you mouth him, but he just smiles at you absentmindedly, curling a strand of hair around his finger, playing with it for a moment before letting go of it and going for another lock. You reach up and pull his hand away, feeling yourself heating up from his touch, but when you are about to let go of his hand he grabs yours, lacing your fingers together with yours as he rests them on his thigh.

“Harry…” you breathe out, glancing at the others, relieved to see that they are not paying much attention to the two of you.

“What? Am I not allowed to touch you?” he asks with a smug smirk and you roll your eyes at him.

“As I said, you’re weird,” you mumble under your breath looking down at your now empty plate. Harry gives your hand a squeeze.

“But like, the good kind of weird, yeah?”

“Shut up,” you chuckle shaking your head at him.

You try to tell yourself he is just needy because it’s been so long since you last saw each other. It can’t be more, you push even the smallest thought to the back of your mind, though it surely lingers there throughout the evening.

He helps you with washing the dishes, you stand arm to arm at the sink as you scrub the plates and hand over to him for drying. He gently hums to himself all along, swaying his hips, bumping against yours. At first you resist it, but then you catch the rhythm and start moving along, so your hips meet in the middle before swinging to the opposite side.

“What’s the song?” you ask finishing up the last plate.

“Just something random,” he shrugs smirking over at you. You hand him the last plate, he is still singing, making up gibberish lyrics to his song and once he puts the plate down he throws the kitchen cloth to the counter and easily grabs your waist pulling you against him as he starts swaying with you to his impromptu song. You let out a small shriek at the sudden movement, but eventually melt into his hold. The humming slowly turns into an all too familiar melody as Harry starts singing Sweet Creature into your ear, slow dancing in the kitchen while you hear your mums and Gemma laugh outside somewhere.

Your hands run up his arms and stop behind his neck as you lock your fingers and let him hold you close, his palms are pressed to your waist, fingers gently stroking you through the fabric of your shirt. You take a deep breath and his cologne fills your nose, one of your favorite scents, sometimes you just wish you could spray it on your pillow so it would always smell like him.

“Sweet creature, wherever I go, you bring me home…” he softly sings, leaning back just enough for your eyes to meet. It feels like your heart is about to burst out of your chest, it’s not the first time you feel so intimidated by him, like you could pass out any moment, but this is a little different. As if his eyes were telling you another story, but you can’t completely make up the words.

“Sweet creature, when I run out of road, you bring me home, you’ll bring me home.” He finishes the song, hums the closing melody and you watch him in complete awe. Your lips part when you catch his gaze move down to them and you swear you see him leaning closer, as if he is about to kiss you. Your breath gets caught in your throat, he is so close, just a few more inches and you’d taste those perfect lips of his, the ones you’ve been dreaming about for way too long.

It almost happens, it seems, but just when that last push is about to set in Gemma waltz into the kitchen and you step back faster than light, pushing him away even though the sudden lack of his touch is more painful than you were expecting.

“You guys—Oh, what’s up?” she asks stopping at the door and you feel yourself getting redder with each passing moment, the heat crawling up your neck, ears cheeks, right to the top of your head. What were you thinking? You let yourself believe Harry would ever kiss you, this whole scene was nothing more than just a friendly moment the two of you were sharing.

“I’m—sorry,” you breathe out making your way out of the kitchen, right up to your room to have some well needed space.

“Way to ruin everything,” Harry snickers at his sister.

“You joking? You wanted to kiss her in her mum’s kitchen?” Gemma snaps at him in disbelief.

“We were having a moment,” he mumbles rubbing his face with his hands. “Up until you stomped in with your big mouth.”

“Well, if you were havin’ a moment, just make it happen again.”

“As if it’s that easy, Gemma!” he scoffs throwing his hands in the air.

“Man up and tell her how you feel, don’t have to complicate it too much,” she shrugs before walking out and leaving her brother alone. Harry growls in frustration, the gears in his head turning wildly as he is trying to figure out how to come clear to you about his feelings.

 Meanwhile, up in your room you get out your laptop and busy yourself with checking up on messages and emails you’ve been ignoring, hoping that the uneasy feeling in your chest will ease very soon. Your hands were shaking when you locked yourself up in your room, but as you get focused on other tasks you slowly gain your balance back.

You kind of even forget that the Styles’ were over, you only realize that you abruptly pulled yourself out of the evening when there’s a soft knock on your door.

“Come on in!” you call out and a moment later Harry’s head pops in, eyes softly falling on your sitting figure on the bed. “Hey,” you smile at him faintly.

“Hey. Thought you were sleepin’s or summat.” Coming inside he closes the door behind him then sits on your plush rug in the middle of the room.

“Just… sorted some work related things out,” you sigh.

“Working during the holidays? Tha’s not healthy.”

“I know, I’m done,” you smile shutting the laptop down and putting it aside. “Sorry I disappeared, I just—“

“No worries,” Harry shakes his head. “Mum and Gems went home, they thought you were sleeping too, tha’s why they didn’t say goodbye.”

“Oh, alright.”

“But I thought we could have a sleepover,” he peeks at you with a boyish smile.

“What, like we did in middle school?” you chuckle.

“Yea, thought it would be fun.”

“Well, I don’t think my bed would fit us comfortably and we don’t have the mattress anymore that you used to sleep on,” you tell him looking around.

“Nonsense, I’m not tha’ big,” he insists hopping to his feet and throwing himself on the bed, ignoring that you’re already there. His body takes up more than half on the bed , limbs wrapping around you as he brings you down to the mattress next to him, you can’t help the laugh that leaves your lips.

“You’re like a gigantic baby, Harry!” you laugh as he keeps you down on the bed with his arm.

“It’s perfectly fine for two people,” he mumbles with a smirk, closing his eyes as his head sinks into your pillow.

“Do you ever get no as an answer?” you ask looking at him in awe. You can never get used to seeing him so up close, like not many get to.

“No,” he huffs in satisfaction, his arm bringing you closer to him and you just giggle at him.

“I’m not sleeping just yet, gotta have a shower first.”

“Do what you want, I’ll be here,” he mumbles but you snort at him.

“You’re not sleeping in my bed without having a shower,” you tell him before you grab your pajamas and head to the bathroom.

You have a quick shower and get done with all your evening business. Returning to your room you find Harry sitting on the floor, his back against the side of the bed as he is scrolling through his phone.

“Does mum know you’re staying over?” you ask him as you throw your used clothes into the hamper, moving around the room while feeling his eyes on you.

“Yeah. ‘S all good.”

“You need a towel?”

“Yes please,” he says pushing himself up from the floor.

“Clothes?” you ask with an arched brow. He just grins at you and it’s enough of an answer. “Here,” you give him the shirt and sweats he has left at yours quite some time ago, along with a clean towel.

“Thanks,” he smirks before leaving to occupy the bathroom.

He doesn’t take long in there, you’re lying in bed already when he returns, smelling like your shower gel, strawberry and melon.

He throws his clothes to the chair in the corner and then lies beside you on the bed. You scoot over to the wall to give him space, but he is quick to bring you closer to him once he has made himself comfortable. You lay your head on his shoulder as you are both scrolling through your phones.

When you had enough, you throw yours to the nightstand, and stay cuddled up to his side.

“Do you remember the last time I slept here?” he asks tossing his phone to the nightstand and bringing his arms around you.

“Mm, was it at my twentieth birthday?”

“Yeah. You were so wasted,” he chuckles and you smirk to yourself

“But you took good care of me.”

“I did. You were so cute, rambling about how much you love me when I took you home from the pub.”

You bite into your bottom lip. You still remember that night vividly. Your birthday party had gone a little wild and you had gotten drunker than you intended to. Luckily, he was there to bring your home and he stayed in the bathroom with you as you threw up everything you ate and drank that evening. Then he made you take a shower, got you fresh clothes out and helped you get into bed. He slept next to you that night, holding you in his arms, gently caressing your back and upper arm as you fell into your drunken slumber. In the morning you told yourself he just did what any other friend would do, helping you out when you were clearly knocked out, but he made you breakfast in the morning since your mum was working all night and morning and he stayed over later the afternoon to make sure you were alright.

What you told him in your drunken state about loving him, it wasn’t just your friendly side, it was your drunken self coming clear to him, telling him that you are in love with him, but he didn’t take it seriously and you were too ashamed and awkward to even bring it up to him after that, so it was all forgotten very soon.

Following that you planned on telling him how you feel, several times. You even wrote a little speech you planned to give him when the time comes, but you couldn’t do it. The fear of losing him if he doesn’t feel the same was stronger than you expected and every time you had the chance to come clear, you chickened out. The thought of losing him as a friend is way worse than having to push your feelings down... forever. You just can’t imagine your life without Harry in it and you can’t risk losing him.

The two of you talk for quite a while, laughing about the good old times, until you both fall asleep. Sometime in the middle of the night you wake up and feel Harry wrapped around you, his head lying on your chest as he is snoring softly. He truly is like a big baby, an arm thrown over your stomach, his legs tangled with yours. Good Lord, how amazing it feels to have him so close to you!

Reaching up you tangle your fingers through his hair gently so he doesn’t wake up, his soft curls glide between your fingers easily and lifting your head you kiss the top of his head before letting yourself drift back to sleep.

When you open your eyes the next time the situation is the opposite, you are the one cuddled up to Harry’s side who is scrolling through his phone with one hand, keeping the other one on your arm.

“Mornin’, sleepy head,” he chuckles softly when he sees you awake.

“Mmm, what time is it?” you ask letting your head rest on his chest a little longer.

“Quarter to nine. You can sleep a little more if you want, it’s not that late.”

“No, I promised mum I’d help her wrap gifts,” you sigh rolling over to your stomach as you push yourself up to your elbows to look at him. “Love the double chin you got going there,” you tease him sleepily and he just smirks.

“Yea? Quite cute, right? Worked a lot on it,” he jokes running his finger over it before letting out a chuckle. “Ready for our battle today?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be. You are going down this year, Styles,” you tell him pushing yourself up into a sitting position. Harry only pushes himself further on the bed enough to rest his head against the headboard.

“Oh really? I wouldn’t be that sure about tha’,” he warns you, but you are feeling pretty confident about your performance this year. There’s no way he can top it.

“We’ll see. Alright, I need a coffee. Want something for breakfast?” you ask him crawling out of the bed.

“Yeah, that would be nice.”

Your mum is already in the kitchen, sipping on her morning coffee while reading the paper. She doesn’t find it even a bit weird that Harry spent the night at yours, it’s been quite the usual for you. Harry helps you make eggs and bacon and the three of you eat together, having a lovely time and you genuinely feel like it’s just like in the good old times when you were still living home and Harry wasn’t Harry Styles, but the boy from across the street.

He goes home after breakfast to help his own mum with the cooking for tonight’s dinner and you don’t do much for the rest of the day, just spend time with your mum, watch movies and relax. It’s nice to unwind after such a busy year behind you.

Not long before five you go to take a shower and get ready to head over to the Styles’ and you pack everything you’ll need for the evening: gifts, ugly sweater, accessories. Harry is going down this year for sure.

It’s a little past six when you and your mum walk across the street, Anne’s Christmas lights are putting the little town house into the spirit for sure. You don’t even ring the bell, just walk straight in, like you always do. The Christmas tree stands tall in their living room and the table is already nicely set. Gemma and Michal are snuggled up on the couch while Harry is helping Anne in the kitchen with the finishing touches.

“I’m rooting for you this year,” Gemma winks at you when you set down your bag in the corner that has everything you’ll need for your performance.

“He’s gonna lose this round,” you smirk proudly, very sure in yourself.

Harry greets you with a bright smile and a tight hug when he walks into the living room, as if you didn’t just see each other a few hours earlier.

When the food is ready you all sit down to eat, and though you’re trying your best to focus on the conversation, you’re getting excited about tonight’s karaoke battle.

“Anxious much?” Harry asks you quietly.

“Why are you asking?”

He doesn’t answer, just places a hand to your thigh stopping it from shaking, making you realize you’ve been probably bouncing it all along. He smirks at you as you just roll your eyes at him.

“’S okay, you can handle one more year of losing,” he teases you and you give him an arched eyebrow.

“Don’t be so full of yourself, Harry,” you warn him, but he just squeezes your thigh again before bringing his hands back up to the table, leaving you a little breathless with his touch.

You all help clean up the table after dinner and when it’s done, you gather in the living room to open gifts.

When Harry’s career launched, the first few years you felt anxious about gifting him, because you felt like you couldn’t give him enough. He had all the money and bought everything he needed for himself, there wasn’t much you could give him. But when one time, you admitted to him this struggle of yours he assured you that it doesn’t matter what you give him, it’ll always be precious to him.

“You thought about me, you took the time to buy something for me, and that’s more than enough, Y/N,” he told you and though it took you time, but you got used to it. Especially when you saw the same excitement in his eyes every time you gifted something to him, you slowly but surely realized he wasn’t expecting a Gucci suit, but a thoughtful gesture.

Gathering in the living room you open the presents one by one and just as always, everyone was quite creative with the gifts. You can’t help but still feel a little anxious when Harry grabs his gift from you. Giving you an excited look he unties the little bow on the top and tears the wrapping paper off.

“Y/N!” he breathes out, eyes softening as he pulls the knitted cardigan out of the box.

“I always saw you wearing all sorts of cardigans and so I finally had a reason to learn how to knit, so I thought I would make one for you,” you ramble as he holds up the baby blue cardigan that has little daisies all over the front. It took you an entire week to just make the daisies, you worked on the whole cardigan for more than two months, usually in the middle of the night, staying up until unholy hours to finish in time.

But Harry’s smile is worth it all, he is beaming, clearly so in love with what you made him, so you breathe out relieved. He then puts it aside and wraps his arms around you pulling you into the tightest hug.

“Thank you, I love it so much,” he mumbles and kisses your temple and you breathe in his sweet scent, burying yourself in his embrace, hugging his waist.

When you part, Harry reaches for a box from under the tree and hands it to you, a nervous smile tugging on his lips. You can tell he wrapped the gift himself, the silver wrapping paper is a little uneven, but the huge rainbow colored bow on the top is the perfect touch that makes it like a piece of him.

You carefully tear the paper off, peeking inside you just see a plain box that doesn’t give much away. Glancing up at Harry you see how he is anxiously biting his bottom lip, even though you’d be happy with a gift as small as a candle. It’s the thought that counts.

“I-I wasn’t sure if this was the one you mentioned to me, so I hope it’s gonna be alright,” he mumbles, eyes fixed on your hands as they open the box, while you try to think back what you have told him about that caught his attention, but you just can’t recall what you wanted to get so badly you told Harry about it.

As you open the box you don’t process what it is immediately, the plastic wrapper making it hard to figure it out, but when you carefully pull out the object, you gasp in surprise.

“Harry!” you breathe out as you pull off the plastic of the old, vintage polaroid camera. It’s not one of these new types you can buy in stores easily, this is a classic, must have quite a history behind it.

Now you vaguely remember talking about longing for an oldschool, vintage camera, but it was months ago and you’ve forgotten about the whole thing since these devices cost a fortune because there aren’t many left from them. But now there’s one in your hands, because Harry not only listened to you, but he remembered and went out of his way to find you one in amazing condition.

“This must have cost a fortune!” you huff, your heart pounding in your chest, though you already know it doesn’t matter to him.

“This face is worth every penny,” he smiles at you softly before you throw yourself at him for another round of hugging. This man surely knows how to have you wrapped around his fingers.

The two of you sit on the floor as you figure out how to make the camera work, Harry bought everything needed, so you have a few packs of films as well. When it’s all done you bring it up to your face and aim it at Harry. It takes him a moment to realize that you’re about to snap your first photo and he tries to snatch the camera away, but it’s too late, the flash goes off and the device pushes out the undeveloped picture.

“You wasted your first snap on me?” he protests rubbing his eyes after the flash blinded him for a little.

“It’s not a waste,” you tell him as you patiently wait for the picture to finally appear.

Slowly, the colors start to show and in a couple of minutes Harry’s face appears, his hand reaching in the direction of the camera, looking out of focus, only his face appearing clearly. He looks so delicate, his eyes dazzling as a soft smile plays on his lips. This moment now will live forever not just in your mind, but on this photo.

 Harry goes out with his karaoke performance this year for sure and you’d be actually anxious about him winning if only you didn’t have the absolutely best performance right in your pocket.

His sweater this year features some really ugly looking penguins and a horroristic reindeer on the back, it’s really ugly and you can’t even imagine who thought it would be fine to make it and then sell it. His choice of music is also excellent, he has a great eye for songs you’d never imagine him perform and then shock everyone with it. This year, he chose Rude Boy by none other than Rihanna, and it’s fantastic, no one can make it through the song without crying. Harry makes sure to put on his best show, even dancing and twerking unapologetically, trying everything to win the battle and you are amazed by his effort. Above all the fun and jokes, he nails the song, that’s undeniable. It always baffles you how he can just slay any and all genres, even the ones that stand a million miles away from his style.

When the song is over, you all cheer for him, because he truly deserves it. He grins down at you in victory, but you just give him a challenging smirk.

“You can just give up now, if you want,” he teases you as you stand up from the couch and the two of you trade places.

“Oh, I think you should be the one to worry about losing,” you warn him grabbing your bag. Stepping to Gemma you whisper into her ear, instructing her to put on your song when you call out from the bathroom, since you are planning on do a grandiose entrance. When she hears what song you’ll be singing she gasps.

“Oh my fucking God, no way!” he looks at your with wide eyes.

“What? What is it?” Harry asks, dying to know what you just told his sister, but you shake your head at him.

“Patience,” you tell him before locking yourself up in the bathroom.

This year, you didn’t find the sweater, the sweater found you. On one of your thrift tours, you were digging up a huge pile of clothes when you came right across it and you knew what you needed to do.

Putting on the sweater you fix up your hair quickly before putting on your party glasses, the one that lights up if you switch it on. You take one last look at yourself in the mirror and smirk at your reflection knowing well you’ll have everyone dead when you walk out.

“Gemma! You can start it!” you call out with your hand on the doorknob, waiting to hear the music. Gemma quickly starts in and you haven’t even stepped out, you can hear a round of gasps.

Best Song Ever blasts through the speakers and you walk out trying your best to imitate a younger version of Harry, wearing the absolute ugliest Christmas sweater ever, that has the faces of One Direction all over it, filling up every inch of the fabric, and all of them have poorly photoshopped Santa hats on, it’s just literal trash and ridiculously perfect for the battle.

You grab the mic and start singing as everyone screams in the room. You jump, sing and even do the dance moves the boys do in the original music video, and when you look at Harry you see him staring at you in disbelief and total defeat. Everyone knows you won, nothing can top this performance ever and you could burst from the sweet feeling of victory.

By the end of the song everyone is up on their feet dancing and singing with you, a mini party forming in the middle of the living room and you all scream the last lines as the song comes to its end.

“I think we don’t even need to vote this time,” you say when the music stops, everyone screaming in agreement while Harry stares down at you, trying to hide his growing smirk.

“Where did you even find this?” he asks chuckling as he takes a better look at the sweater.

“At a thrift store, it called out my name, knew it’d be perfect.”

“It really is ugly, if I’m being honest,” he sighs, his eyes meeting yours again. “And the song… I accept defeat, you earned this victory, Y/N,” he tells you bowing and admitting your victory.

 Later that night everyone is so keen on watching Holiday, you agree to stay even though you feel your eyelids heavily weighing down, threatening to close with each passing moment. You let your head rest on Harry’s shoulder and he presses his cheek against the crown of your head.

It’s not a surprise you fall asleep halfway into the movie, but what you weren’t expecting is to wake up and find yourself not on the couch anymore, but in Harry’s bed. It’s dark, only the moon is shining through his windows and as you turn to the right you see that he is sleeping peacefully next to you on his back, one arm spread next to him, hand hanging from the edge, the other one resting on his stomach, rising and falling in a slow rhythm.

Squinting your eyes you look at the digital clock on his dresser, it reads 3:23 am so you’ve been asleep for quite a few hours now. You don’t even remember him bringing you up here, but you’re definitely not mad that he didn’t bring you home, just up to his room.

Rolling to your side you give yourself a moment to adorn his beauty without fearing he would catch your wandering eyes. Everything seems so perfect about him, the line of his nose, his cupid’s bow that delicately rolls into her lips. The crease between his eyebrows, his soft skin on his cheeks, down his neck that runs into his broad shoulders and inked, strong arms. You truly think there’s no man that could compare to him and you are lucky enough to live your life so close to him, be able to touch him, hear his voice whenever you miss him, see his smile and share a connection with him.

It’s so silly, but you think of him as your personal ray of sunshine in your life. Just the smallest things about him can brighten your worst day, he’ll always have a special place in your heart, no matter where life takes the two of you.

Watching him sleeping you allow yourself to break free from your doubts and fears and scooting closer you shyly curl up to his side, your head resting on his shoulder, but you can’t even make yourself comfortable before you feel him moving under you.

Sucking on your breath you think he’ll push you away, not wanting you so close, but instead, he pulls his arm from under you, curling around your frame as he pulls you tight to him, almost making you lie on top of him. Your whole body is pressed against him and you mingle a leg between his long ones under the soft sheets. You let out a long huff at the warm touch of his body against your skin, completely lost in him.

“You alright?” he mumbles in his sleep laced voice, his eyes remain closed.

“Yeah. Is this okay?” you nervously ask as you lay your hand flat on his stomach. He brings his hand that was hanging from the bed on his other side and covers yours, as he squeezes you tight to his side.

“’M all yours,” he breathes out, his words sending a shiver down your spine. You’re sure he didn’t mean it like that, but it warmed your heart to hear it from him and you let your mind play with the thought that there was more behind his words than a friendly manner.

Nuzzling your head into his chest you close your eyes and listening to his steady heartbeat you let yourself fall back asleep.

 Your morning is filled with coffee, pancakes, laughter and great company. Harry doesn’t let you leave without having breakfast with them, so you sit with the Styles family and laugh about the craziest stories from your teenage years.

“Remember when we tried to run away?” Harry grins at you, his red mug that had white polka dots all over it in his hands as he eyes you.

“Oh, how could I forget that?” you huff and Gemma turns to you with surprise in her eyes.

“Wait, I didn’t know about that!”

“Because we didn’t get too far,” Harry laughs. “We were, what, like fifteen?”

“Yeah, it was a few weeks after my fifteenth birthday,” you nod smiling.

“I had a fight with mum about God knows what, then stormed over to Y/N’s and talked her into running away. So we packed our backpacks and left.”

“Where did you go?” Michal asks with an amused grin as he listens to the story.

“We didn’t want to go into town, running into anyone we know, so we thought we would just go straight out to the meadow that’s there,” Harry says gesturing towards the window. The edge of the town is not so war, and a huge meadow lies there, a little stream running across it. “We walked for quite long, but then it started to get dark and we had nowhere to go, so we just ended up coming back home. No one even noticed we were gone, they thought we just went out to bike or something,” he finishes laughing.

“You knew about this?” Gemma asks Anne.

“Yeah, he came clear the next day, thinking he would piss me off with it, but I didn’t care, he came back for dinner, so it was alright,” Anne explains laughing.

It’s been so long since it happened, but I still remember it vividly, only that it was a more dramatic memory back then, now I can only laugh at it.

“We should go for a walk today,” Harry prompts to you.

“Wanna run away again?” you tease him.

“Always,” he chuckles.

You help cleaning up and agree with Harry to meet outside in an hour to take a walk to the meadow. Going home you take a shower and wash the dishes your mum left in the sink when she left for her morning shift. You put on a pair of boyfriend jeans, a warm sweater and your jacket with your trusty boots and you walk out the house right when Harry steps out as well. He grins in your way as the two of you meet in the middle of the street. He holds his arm out for you.

“M’ lady?” he smirks as you link your arm with his and the two of you head out for your little walk. It’s a gloomy day, might rain later as well, but it’s dry so far, so you’re just hoping to get home before it starts raining. Your runaway attempt wasn’t the only time the two of you came out here, it was kind of your place when you felt like having a break from everyone else. You biked out here, brought your favorite snacks and just ran around, enjoying the stillness.

However it also holds a bitter memory as well.

A little further down among the trees happened Harry’s first kiss and you witnessed it, feeling your heart break to a million pieces when you saw him lock lips with someone who wasn’t you.

Debby Hamilton was a friend of yours in sixth grade, you’d say, your only friend beside Harry and the three of you often hung out together around that time. Debby was a delight, you always desired to be more like her, boys liked her and she knew it damn well, but it didn’t make her cocky and egoistic. You always thought Harry had a crush on her, why would have he? They kind of looked cute together.

It was a Friday afternoon and Harry asked if you wanted to come out and listen to his new cassette he got for his old Walkman he refused to get rid of as technology was evolving. You figured he’d want Debby there as well so you invited her along, but didn’t tell Harry. He never made a move on Debby and you thought he was just looking for the right time.

That afternoon, you were supposed to meet them out there at five, but you didn’t leave until half past five and it takes about twenty minutes to get out there. Though you gave them the alone time technically, it still startled you when you found them under one of the oak trees, Debby leaning her back against the tree as Harry stood in front of her. She was smiling up at him sweetly, saying something to him and you were just about to call out for them and apologize for being late when Harry ducked his head and kissed Debby right in front of your eyes.

That was your first and probably worst heartbreak and you were only twelve. You felt betrayed, hopeless and naïve to think Harry would ever have a thing for you when there were girls like Debby. You left without letting them know you were there. When Harry asked you later why you didn’t come you told him you felt sick to your stomach, which wasn’t a total lie, you had quite the nausea after seeing Harry with Debby, but he didn’t have to know all the details.

He later told you about kissing Debby and you pretended like you didn’t know about it. However they never dated and not long after their kiss Debby drifted away from the two of you. Not that you minded, you had a bitter feeling every time you had to look at her after that, jealousy raging in your chest knowing that she got Harry’s first kiss.

He didn’t bring it up after and you weren’t keen on talking about it, but you still know which tree they were standing under and now as you near the area you see that it still stands tall near the tiny stream.

Peeking up at Harry you see that his eyes are focused on the same tree, but then he catches you looking.

“Memories?” you innocently ask, feeling your chest tightening. You don’t even know why you asked. It’s been over a decade since that kiss, you are both adults, but you still can’t help the sadness that washes over you at just the thought, why would you want to get him talk about it now?

“’S just… that’s the tree I kissed Debby when I was twelve,” he mumbles with a shrug. Biting into your bottom lip you look at the old oak tree nodding your head and before you could stop yourself, you speak up.

“I know.”

“What? How would you? I never told you,” Harry asks stopping, a puzzled look pulling on his face.

“Well I… It doesn’t matter,” you sigh, regretting ever opening your mouth.

“It does. Tell me!” he pleads standing in front of you.

“I know it, because… I was here.”

“You what?”

“I came, I was just very late. And when I arrived you two were standing there and I saw you kiss. I thought I shouldn’t interrupt whatever was happening so I went home and let you two be,” you explain, changing it up a little bit.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Why is it important that I saw it? It doesn’t change anything, right?” you ask with a smile that you intended to look innocent, but deep down it’s filled with pain.

Harry opens his mouth as if he wants to say something, but then remains silent and you are done talking about it, so you just quietly keep walking, Harry catching up with you a few moments later.

It’s awfully quiet after your revelation, it seems like Harry is deep in his thoughts and though you’re dying to know what’s occupying his bright thoughts, you’re kind of afraid you’d hear something you didn’t want to.

The two of you soon head back home and slowly, but you forget about the whole Debby thing. Harry starts talking again, but he looks a little keyed up still when you reach your street.

“Wanna come over later?” you ask standing on the pavement in front of your house, it’s just an innocent question. Harry nods his head.

“Sure. Is your mum working?” he asks glancing at the house, though he knows she is, the car is not on the driveway.

“Yeah. She’ll be home around six.”

He nods again and you want to ask if he is alright, but you decide not to. You share a quick hug before he heads over to his home and you do the same. The house waits for you in silence and when the door clicks behind you, it weighs down on you heavier than you were expecting. You hang your jacket, kick your boots off and throw yourself to the couch, covering your eyes with your arm as you huff out in frustration. You feel silly for getting upset about such a small thing even after so much time, but you just can’t help it.

You barely realize the sound of the front door opening, taking your arm off your eyes you see Harry walk in, eyebrows furrowed, a worried look on his handsome face.

“Harry—“ “I was waiting for you that day,” he simply says as you sit up with wide eyes, confused about what he is really talking about.

“What?”

“That day, we agreed to meet out there to listen to my new Stevie Wonder cassette, but you didn’t show up, Debby did even though I didn’t invite her out there.”

“Well, I did, thought you wanted her there too,” you explain, startled by the situation.

“I would have invited her if I wanted her to be there, but I wanted to be with you. Only you.”

“I-I’m sorry?” you breathe out, not seeing where he is going with it.

“Y/N, you don’t understand,” he huffs and he is right. You don’t. “I wanted to meet you, but you never came, or at least I thought. Then Debby showed up, I was frustrated that you weren’t there and she was being all nice, telling me how cute I looked when I was worried and it all just happened so fast and… I didn’t even want to kiss her.” He looks properly upset telling you the story and he takes a deep breath before his eyes meet yours with a hard stare. “I wanted to be with you,” he repeats.

“Harry, I’m sorry, I didn’t—“

He shakes his hair, not even letting you finish, because he knows what you wanted to say and that you still don’t understand the meaning behind his words.

“Y/N, I wanted to kiss you,” he then finally says and you suck on your breath as he continues. “Well, not right then and there, but I’ve been meaning to kiss you, I just didn’t know when. I thought that if we have a moment that afternoon I’d do it, but you never came and I was mad and disappointed. I hated myself for kissing Debby, because I didn’t really want to, it just… happened. I wanted to tell you, and I intended to do it when I told you we kissed, but you acted so happy, I figured you didn’t feel the same way about me as I did for you. So I didn’t tell you the rest, but…” He sighs in defeat, looking for words, but he ran out.

“Why are you telling this to me now?” you ask a little out of breath, your head feeling heavy at the new information you just heard.

“Why didn’t you tell me you saw us and why did you go home without a word?” he asks ignoring your question.

“I… don’t—“

“Don’t try to lie.”

Gulping hard you lick your dried lips as you stare back at him.

“Because I was… jealous.” Your voice comes out only as a whisper. Harry’s lips part as he takes two steps closer to you.

“You had feelings for me?” he asks and you just nod your head, not trusting yourself with your voice. “Do you still have feelings for me?”

“I do,” you whisper your answer and Harry lets out a sharp breath as he leaps across the room in your way. You jump to your feet, thinking that he’ll lash out on your for keeping it a secret and you open your mouth to explain yourself, but you never get to speak up because as Harry reaches you, one hand snaps to the back of your neck, the other one to your waist, yanking you against him as his lips crash to yours.

You gasp in surprise, but it doesn’t take long to kiss him back, your numb mind blindly reacting to his sudden action. Your hands snake up to the back of his neck as you pull him closer, returning his hungry kisses. His soft lips feel so smooth and warm against yours and when his tongue runs along your bottom lip you whimper letting your tongues meet in the middle.

He is intoxicating and it doesn’t help that your adrenaline level is up in the sky, you’ve fantasized about it way too many times, and now that it’s happening your body is burning in flames. He kisses you all over and over again, his body pressing against yours hard and when he even leans in making you lean back, you lose balance and the two of you fall to the couch, both of you gasping as you are forced to part your lips.

“Fuck,” you chuckle as Harry is basically lying on you, holding himself up on his arms, but you feel him everywhere.

“’M sorry, I got a little carried away, but I’ve been dying to do this since forever,” he admits chuckling as he lifts his head and looks down at you with those bright green eyes of his.

“Really?” you breathe out, only slowly processing what’s really just happened.

“Y/N, I’ve been in love with you since I first saw you hiding behind your mum.”

“Idiot, you were just a kid, you weren’t in love,” you chuckle, running up your hands to the back of his neck, your fingers playing with the soft curls. He smirks and nuzzles his nose against yours.

“Oh, I was, I just didn’t know it yet.” Leaning down he pecks your lips softly. “I’ve been meaning to tell you so many times, but I didn’t want it to ruin our friendship. Though I was growing impatient these last few years.”

“Yeah?” you chuckle.

“You can’t imagine,” he huffs shaking his head. I almost kissed you the other day in the kitchen, but Gemma completely ruined the moment.”

“I’m sorry I ran away, I was just—“ “No need to apologize. I guess it all played out well after all, right?” he smirks and you can’t help but chuckle.

“I guess,” you breathe out and the smile slowly fades from your lips. “And now what?” you ask quietly, staring up at him.

“Now… We’ll try to make things work. Test the waters. I’m very serious about this, Y/N,” he tells you. “I’ve been waiting for this my whole life so I’m not gonna let go of you now.”

“You have no idea how happy this is making me,” you choke out feeling the tears forming in your eyes.

“Oh Love, please don’t cry,” he begs and leaning down he kisses your tears away. “I’m right here, with you. Sorry it took me so long you get here, but I’m here now.”

“I know,” you huff blinking away the tears as you pull him down and press your lips to his. “I love you, Harry,” you whisper against his perfect lips. You feel him exhale sharply as he keeps kissing you before he lifts his head so your eyes meet again.

“I’ve always loved you.”

 Thank you for reading, let me know what you thought about it!

[lucy90712]

cravings/mood swings (pregnancy series)

Series masterlist

George:

The hormones from pregnancy have made me an entirely different person at times which was a huge shock to both me and George when they first started to hit because I've always been pretty good with my emotions and hormones even when on my period. To me it isn't as bad because I only notice after my mood swings but poor George has to deal with me during.

George came down the stairs after filming a video and came to join me sat on the sofa. I was eating salty crisps (chips) some of which George stole as he sat down, this really set off my hormones for whatever reason and I looked at him with just pure anger that he would even dare to steal my food that I had been craving.

"George what the fuck I wanted those" I almost shouted

"I'm sorry love I didn't mean to I can get you more if you want them" he said panicked slightly

I gave no reaction to what George said as I came down from my rage because I realised I was being way too over the top. I always feel awful when I yell at George because he doesn't deserve it at all but he just happens to be around all the time so he's the one who bares the brunt of all my emotions. I apologised to George and gave him some of my crisps to make up for it and we cuddled on the sofa for a bit.

Later in the evening George was showing me cute videos he has of cat from when he was in his office which were just so adorable and made me so incredibly happy but then the sadness came over and tears started to fall down my face.

"Hey what's wrong?" George asked

"It's just so cute like how can one small animal be so cute" I sobbed

He comforted me and we spent the rest of the evening doing things that didn't provoke any emotions in me.

Dream:

My cravings have been very strong though my pregnancy so far which is a combination of normal things and weird concoctions just whatever I was feeling in that exact moment and I mean that exact moment. My cravings are things that have to be satisfied within the hour or else it's too late and I get over it.

It's about 10pm and I'm just chilling waiting for Clay to get out the shower so we can watch the office together. At that exact moment a craving for pickles came over me, its not a craving I've had before but its one that I know is kind of common. I checked all the cupboards and fridge to see if we had any but we didn't which made me quite sad.

Clay came down the stairs to see me staring at the empty cupboard with a few tears in my eyes. He came over to me looking at what I was before becoming very confused at what exactly was going through my mind clearly wondering if I was going a bit insane.

"Is everything alright?" He asked

"We don't have any pickles" I whined

"Do you want me to go and get you some?" He asked

I nodded my head and we went to the car to drive to the store to go buy pickles mainly because I didn't want to be left alone. Clay actually went into the store while I stayed in the car because he didn't want me getting cold but he soon came back with two jars of pickles just incase I wanted more another day.

Back at home I ate half the pickles in the jar and very much enjoyed it and so did baby which was the whole point of going to get them. I imagine just like every other craving I will get over it and move on to a new one.

Sapnap:

My mood swings have been insane so far during pregnancy like way morse than they would be before my period is due to arrive. I feel so awful that Sapnap has to deal with me because he used to hate it when I got so very emotional before my period and now its constant and like x1000.

I have been slightly more emotional than usual today which has just been ruining my day because I can't seem to get anything done without crying or raging at myself but I've yet to spend much time with Sapnap so he has been spared from my disastrous day so far. This soon changed when he came downstairs and sat with me on the sofa.

He attempted to cuddle with me but something in my brain told me that I didn't want that and I should be mad at him for even trying to be affectionate even though I love him so very much.

"No get off me" I said a bit too harshly

"Oh I'm sorry baby is there anything you want?" He asked trying to be accommodating

I shrugged him off still slightly angry but getting over it very quickly and feeling bad for half yelling at him. My anger soon completely dissolved and was replaced by sadness at the fact that I had yelled and now wanted to cuddle but he wasn't going to want to now right, I mean I've just yelled at him so why would he want to cuddle.

A few tears started to form in my eyes and soon spilled out onto my face wetting my cheeks which I tired to hide by facing away from Sapnap but of course he knows me and tried to see what I was hiding. As soon as he saw I was crying he put his hands on my face to wipe the tears and gave me a kiss.

"What's wrong babe? How can I fix it?" He asked

"I feel bad for yelling and I want cuddles but you don't want to give them to me because I was mean" I explained

"You are so silly of course I'll still give you cuddles if you want them" he said

He pulled me into a big bear hug where we stayed for the rest of the day and night.

Quackity:

I have been having a lot of odd cravings over the past few weeks most of which are completely unnatural and Alex thinks are gross but they actually taste really good. To me at least.

Tonight I was really feeling like eating chicken nuggets with honey, I really wanted to eat it but I was scared to ask Alex to come to the store with me because he would think it was weird and judge me which my fragile little heart couldn't take.

"Alex will you go to the store with me please?" I asked

"Of course love what do you want this time?" He asked

"Chicken nuggets and honey" I whispered

"What was that" he questioned

"Chicken nuggets and honey" I said a bit louder

"That sounds interesting lets go" he said

He grabbed my hand and pulled me up and to the car where we went to McDonald's for the chicken nuggets and then target for the honey before going back home. Alex was interested to try this combination too so the both of us sat down to try it. At first the flavour was really weird but once you got used to it it was really good actually and now I think I'm obsessed and by the looks of things so is Alex because his face looked like he had just had the best thing ever.

Karl:

Oh my has it been a rollercoaster so far, I've been so over emotional and have been craving so many different things it is so hard to keep up with for me let alone Karl.

This morning I was trying to make breakfast and I couldn't open the milk which upset me but then the bowls were up too high so I couldn't reach which made me even more upset but the last straw for this morning was when I had just sat down after struggling with everything and someone rang the doorbell just as I was about to eat the cereal I had really been wanting. I answered the door to collect the parcel the man had before going back to the living room with tears starting to slip down my face.

I'm not sure why I was so upset but I was which stopped me eating my cereal because I was crying which made me cry more because I really wanted the cereal, it was just an awful cycle. Karl walked in as I was staring at my full bowl of cereal sobbing which caused him to run over to see what was wrong.

"Hey hey whats wrong?" He asked

"Nothing is going right and all I want to do is eat my cereal but I can't because I'm crying which is making me more upset" I ranted

"Oh honey I'm sorry how about you follow my breathing to calm down and then eat your cereal ok?" He suggested

He helped me calm down enough to be able to eat my cereal which was kind of soggy by now but I still very much enjoyed it and soon got back to my normal self.

Wilbur:

My hormones are all over the place which normally I can handle but every now and then I get too overly emotional and just cry over random things, this usually happens when I'm alone so I just deal with it myself.

Today Wilbur took the day off from working so he's here to see the rollercoaster that is my day and believe me it can be a rollercoaster. I had a breakdown this morning when doing chores I was unloading the dishwasher and I kept almost dropping everything I touched which made me so mad at myself and really sad at the same time. I just left the room and sat down for a minute talking to myself to sort my brain out then went back to doing chores.

Later in the afternoon we were watching a nature documentary which we do a lot and there was this lizard and her babies that were being hunted by a large bird, I was willing them to get away but the bird caught the babies and the mother got away. This made me so sad that the lizard lost her babies while I was sat there carrying my baby. I started crying thinking about the fact that anything could happen to little bean once their here.

"It's ok love its just natures way" Wilbur said

"But what if bad things happen to bean when their here obviously not like that but anything could happen" I sniffled

"We will protect bean as best we can to stop anything bad happening but for now their safe where they are" Wilbur said

This made me feel better and luckily the rest of the documentary wasn't sad at all and there was some cute moments which made me forget about all my worries.

[inkandpen22]

Dazed and Confused (S 1: 4/?)

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Female!Reader

Warnings: mild language and violence

Word Count: 3.1k

Part Summary: Steve and Y/N spend the weekend together and on Monday, Nancy can’t remember a thing... 

Masterlist

I woke up early with a headache and decided the best course of action is a hot shower. I let Steve stay in bed, after the tough night he had he deserves it. 

After hopping out of the shower, I turn down my radio and quietly bop to 

Culture Club. I wipe down the foggy mirror and start my hair routine. It takes a lot to get the voluminous hair of the decade. Once I'm done, I emerge back into my bedroom to grab a change of clothes, leaving my radio going. 

"Morning," Steve voices, staring up at the ceiling. 

I jump, squeezing my towel around me. "Oh uh, hi, sorry! I thought you were still asleep!" 

He lifts his head and realizes I'm in a towel. His eyes grow wide. "Oh shit! No, my bad! I uh... I'll go downstairs!" He rushes to climb out of bed. 

"No! No! It's okay! I'll go get ready in the bathroom! Let just me grab some stuff!" I hurry over to my dresser. 

Steve settles back down with a sigh, clearly happy to be able to rest after the night he had. 

"Have you been up long?" I ask. 

"Nah, just thinking about last night and what happened with Nancy..." he states solemnly. 

"Well, it's Saturday," I remind him of the perk. "My parents are gone to Chicago for a business trip for a few days, which means we can hang out here. A nice big chocolate chip pancake breakfast," I suggest, heading back toward my bathroom door. 

"Sounds nice," he grins. "And then we could go to the mall, maybe rent a movie?" 

"Splash?" I request. 

He nods, meeting my gaze again. "Deal." 

I move to head back into the bathroom to get ready with a content smile. 

"Hey Y/N?" He rushes out, flying up from his laid position.

I hum, turning over my shoulder. 

"Do you-" oddly, he stops himself, shaking his head. "Never mind," he laughs. 

"You sure?" 

He nods, "yeah. Don't worry about it." 

I shrug and head back into the bathroom. Weird. 

________________________________________________

Steve and I are curled up on my couch, watching Splash, one of my favorite movies. A bowl of popcorn and M&Ms shared between us, along with a blanket. 

I shake my head, immersed in the movie. "I love- 

"Tom Hanks," Steve chuckles, tossing some candy into his mouth. "How many times have you seen this movie?" 

"At least a dozen," I confess. 

He glances over at me. "You have a problem." 

"Tell me about it," I smirk proudly. 

Abruptly, the phone in the hall starts to ring. I huff, hopping up off the couch to get it. 

"Want me to pause it?" Steve checks. 

"Nah, I've seen it," I giggle and pick up the phone.  "Hello?" I greet. 

"I need you to come over, right now!" Dustin panics. 

I frown, glancing at Steve through the archway in confusion. "Now? Why? What's wrong?" 

"I've found a giant slug!" He rushes out. 

"A slug," I repeat in annoyance. "Seriously, Dustin." 

"I've named it Dart!" 

"I'll see it on Monday," I move to hang up. 

"No! You have to come over now!" He insists. 

"Kinda busy here," I grumble under my breath. 

"Busy? How are you busy? You're never busy." 

"I am too! I have company!" I tell him. 

"You don't have company, Steve is over," he argues. 

I hurry over to the window, the phone cord following behind me. Steve watches me in curiosity as I scan up the road at Dustin's house. "Are you watching my house again?" 

"That's not important!" He shouts, clearly guilty. "Why are you hanging out with Steve?" 

"Why do you have a giant pet slug?" I fire back. 

"Fine, just bring him too!" 

"We can't, we have plans." 

"Son of a bitch, you're really no help at all you know that?" 

I scoff. "Oh save it, I drive you to school every day. Bye!" I hang up the phone. 

Irritated, I walk back over to the couch and pull half the blanket back over me. Thankfully, I didn't miss anything good in the movie. 

Steve hands me the candy bowl. "What was that about?" 

"I don't have any biological siblings but I do have a little brother," I remark, making him snicker. 

_________________________________________

On Monday morning, I blast Night Ranger through my Walkman as I unload my bag into my locker. Dustin wouldn't shut up about his stupid slug all the way to school. He was pretty annoyed that I didn't come in and see it this morning. I assured him that I would stop in when I drive him home. Suddenly, I feel a hand on my shoulder and I spin around, removing my headphones. 

Nancy nervously rocks on her heels, gripping her books to her chest. "Hey, have you seen Steve?" 

I frown. "Not yet, why?" 

"Have you seen him since Tracy's?" 

"Yeah..." I reply hesitantly, wondering where this is going.

"Well, he hasn't answered my calls all weekend," she tells me in a hushed tone, glancing up and down the hall for eavesdroppers. "Whenever I left a message, his mom called back and said he was out. Do you know what's going on with him?" 

"I don't..." I drag out, debating on if I should tell her the whole truth. "After a certain point, all I remember is Billy hitting on me and Steve driving me home." I stick to what I know for sure happened. 

Her face changes from concern to confusion. "Wait, he drove you home? I thought he drove me home." 

"No, I mean unless he drove you home and came back."

She whines, glancing down the hall anxiously. "I better go talk him. I'll see you later!" 

I nod and mumble an 'okay.' I watch as she hurries down the hall toward the gym where Steve likely is hiding. I slip my headphones back on with a sigh. This won't be good. 

____________________________________

I walk out of Algebra with my friend Veronica, gushing about the newest Elton John album. Abruptly, a hand wraps around my wrist and I yanked away from her. 

"Woah! Jesus!" I blurt out and my eyes land on Steve as he hurries me down the hall. "Okay Harrington, where are we going?" I laugh nervously. 

He releases my wrist and presses his hand to my back. "McDonald's, a park, anywhere, I don't know! I just want to get out of here." 

"But I still have chem before lunch," I remind him. 

"You can afford to miss one class," he laughs. "Your GPA is what 3.9999-" 

I roll my eyes but comply nonetheless. "Well, there goes my perfect attendance." 

Steve and I run by McDonald's and enjoy our milkshake and fries in the parking lot. Steve has the radio quietly going in the background as he fills me in on the details of his talk with Nancy. In summary, it didn't go well. 

"So she doesn't remember any of it?" I clarify. 

"Appears not." He rolls his eyes, shoving some fries into his shake. 

I nod, processing it all. Then, I remember what happened Friday morning. "I forgot to tell you. Jonathan came up to me on Friday and accused us of sneaking around behind Nancy's back." 

Steve nearly chokes on a fry. "What?" He coughs. 

"He saw you climbing out of my window," I explain. 

"Well-" He starts to panic. "Well did you tell him we're just friends?" 

"No, I told him we're having a wild, passionate, affair," I sass. "Of course, I told him!" 

He releases a sigh of relief, holding his chest. 

Geez, he's so dramatic. 

"Maybe I should apologize to her," he determines. 

My brows scrunch together. "For what?" 

"Good point... Do you think he'll tell her?" 

I shrug, how am I supposed to know? "I don't know. Probably not," I remark a tad more annoyed than intended. "Have they talked lately?" 

"He drove her home that night. I told him to," he tells me. 

"Oh..." I mumble, allowing my focus to wander outside. 

Steve shifts in his seat to face me. "Do you think he knows I was at your place?" 

"I don't know..." 

He huffs, tossing his head back stressfully. "How did things get this fucked up?" 

I reach across the divider and place my hand over his gently. "It'll work out." 

He sighs, his eyes meet mine worriedly. "You really think so?" 

I hum to reassure him, but frankly, I have no idea. I just don't have the heart to tell him the truth. Plus, it hurts to watch him worry about Nancy when a piece of me is selfishly happy that they're over. 

__________________________________

Masterlist

[catsandmiracles]

Camellias and Cosmos

A glimpse into the year 2175

You can't see the sky anymore.

I look up knowing that I won't see the awesome colors of a sunset. The sky is dark as ink, but I'm sure there will be sunlight in a while. I'm not used to it yet. While I water the lovely camellias that I planted weeks ago, I find myself thinking about how different things are nowadays.

I usually wake up to my artificial curtains making my bedroom smell like a fresh morning at the beach, telling me with a softly spoken voice the time in the six languages that I know and advising me tenderly if I'll be able to go out or if the streets will be too crowded to even walk around.

Today was one of those days, when half population can't go out due to the lack of spare space in some places. Fortunately, I love to be home.

My camellias are growing healthy, so I water the bunch of chocolate cosmos next. Its perfume brings back memories of my first weeding making me feel nostalgic. While Immortality has brought darkness to some aspects of our lives, it has made chunks of our lives brighter too. Even though I'm utterly aware of the negative stuff, I have a great life with lots of positive things happening to me and around me.

As I walk downstairs to clean my dusty living room, I think about the drawbacks of living in 2175. I can tell they are quite notorious. Even though I've learned to deal with them, they are immeasurably maddening.

My cleaner robot vacuums under the bookshelf and it hands me a photo it found under the furniture. It's a photo of my second wedding, almost a hundred years ago. While I put the old picture back in place, a loud sigh is heard in the solitude of the room.

Time flies, but I don't think we've growth as a society at all. The overall concepts of marriage and lifelong agreements have disappeared because we take time for granted. People forgot how to appreciate these things, becoming presumptuous and impetuous. I even had to hear how two chilly ladies with up-to-date hairstyles and absurd green dresses were gossiping about who would be the next husband at my own wedding! It's so nauseatingly common that mocking attitude towards marriage. I'm not sure when its meaning changed radically, but it saddens me every time I think about it.

Moreover, there are more reasons why I think we haven't growth as a society: We still have some of the same issues we had 100 years ago, but worse. You can smell the damage we're doing to our planet if you just walk outside the hermetic dome above our city. The fetid smell is barely tolerable. I look through the nearest window to the huge dome that protect us from the pollution up there, my lips tightening inadvertently.

I can catch a glimpse of some parts of the new houses in the sky. We call them 'raindrops' and 'crystal towers'. They were built above our domes, so we can spend weeks without sunlight because of the waste they produce. At least the colors of the sky will be seen again next week, hopefully.

What a life.

However, not everything about 2175 is negative. Living for so long and having no illnesses has so many positive things to show off. Poverty isn't a thing anymore, since there are more jobs and people are desperate to make a difference with all the time they have, there are more home shelters and job offers than houses under a dome.

Furthermore, I had gotten married and divorced twice before I decided that I wanted to be single. In the past 100 years, I've met so many interesting people thanks to the places I've visited and the languages I've learned. After my second divorce, I had time to know myself better and my journey has been disparate and exciting.

Also, I had three beautiful boys. I may be old, but I don't look like it at all! So I've made wonderful memories with my three sons, and their families. I get along pretty well with all of them, as a result they visit my old domed city all the time. All of them are happily married and have children, even some of my grandchildren are parents now. I'm fond of each one of them, specially my oldest grandchildren, her curly hair and big black eyes remind me so much of my grandmother, who died before things changed.

I smile thinking about my little girl; not so little now; coming home tomorrow with her mother, punctually as always. I can almost taste the delicious carrot cake she will surely bring tomorrow.

I'm sure I have the silliest smile on my face but I don't care, I love my family so much. The fact that I could be there with them in the hospital, when my last great-grandchild was born a couple of years ago, despite being 176 years old myself is a miracle and I'm grateful to have witnessed so many wonderful moments in my loved ones' lives.

A sudden loud noise startles me, but I can't help laughing at what caused it. My robot just hit the wall. It is cleaning vigorously while dancing without music, so I suppose my mood is influencing our shared microchip. Instead of turning it off, I think of an old jolly song of a boy group from my youth and I press play in my wrist screen. It's funny how I have in a small bracelet everything I used to have on my old-fashioned cell phone. Listening to the upbeat music, dancing with my robot and thinking of my wonderful family it's easy to say that I wouldn't change anything.

All in all, while the negative things of living in 2175 exist and are worrisome, I think is a fair price to pay for having the wonderful life I have. Humanity has now more time to develop and to improve, so inevitably we were going to make lots of mistakes causing the many drawbacks that we have to put up with today, but I hope that the negative things that we have to face now will be just sour memories for the future, while the positive experiences we're going through remain as joyful as they are today.

I haven't forgotten how to appreciate the good in life and I won't ever take the precious time I have for granted.

~Mlih