#anyway this was prompted by me listening to an album that felt like it should be played on vinyl

[buckets-of-dirt]

Man I miss the sound setup I had in highschool. It was hodgepodged together from speakers my dad borrowed from a friend in the 90s, a hand-me-down CD player that let you load 6 CDs at once, and the record player I got for Christmas in grade 9 so it didn't have the "best" sound quality but it worked for my teenage emo purposes. Dad dismantled it when I went off to uni because he started using my room as an office and the whole contraption took up half a bookcase and somehow the speakers/cd player went missing so I'll never get it back but I think of it like a long lost friend.

[vampylily]

Transcription of Fall Out Boy's interview with Rock Sound

Since I was going to read the article anyways, I thought I'd transcribe in case it'll be more accessible to read for others. The interview with Pete and Patrick goes in depth on the topics of tourdust, evolving as a band, So Much (For) Stardust, working with Neal Avron, and more.

Thank you to @nomaptomyowntreasure who kindly shared the photos of the article! Their post is linked here.

PDF link here. (more readable format & font size)

article in text below (and warning for long post.)

Rock Sound Issue #300

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

WITH THE TRIUMPHANT ‘SO MUCH (FOR) STARDUST’ CAPTURING A WHOLE NEW GENERATION OF FANS, FALL OUT BOY ARE RIDING HIGH, CELEBRATING THEIR PAST WHILE LOOKING TOWARDS A BRIGHT FUTURE. PETE WENTZ AND PATRICK STUMP REFLECT ON RECENT SUCCESSES AND THE LESSONS LEARNED FROM TWO DECADES OF WRITING AND PERFORMING TOGETHER. 

WORDS: James Wilson-Taylor

PHOTOS: Elliott Ingham

You have just completed a US summer tour that included stadium shows and some of your most ambitious production to date. What were your aims going into this particular show? 

PETE: Playing stadiums is a funny thing. I pushed pretty hard to do a couple this time because I think that the record Patrick came up with musically lends itself to that feeling of being part of something larger than yourself. When we were designing the cover to the album, it was meant to be all tangible, which was a reaction to tokens and skins that  you can buy and avatars. The title is made out of clay, and the painting is an actual painting. We wanted to approach the show in that way as well. We've been playing in front of a gigantic video wall for the past eight years. Now, we wanted a stage show where you could actually walk inside it. 

Did adding the new songs from ‘So Much (For) Stardust’ into the setlist change the way you felt about them?

PATRICK: One of the things that was interesting about the record was that we took a lot of time figuring out what it was going to be, what it was going to sound like. We experimented with so many different things. I was instantly really proud. I felt really good about this record but it wasn’t until we got on stage and you’re playing the songs in between our catalogue that I really felt that. It was really noticeable from the first day on this tour - we felt like a different band. There's a new energy to it. There was something that I could hear live that I couldn't hear before. 

You also revisited a lot of older tracks and b-sides on this tour, including many from the ‘Folie à Deux’-era. What prompted those choices? 

PETE: There were some lean years where there weren't a lot of rock bands being played on pop radio or playing award shows so we tried to play the biggest songs, the biggest versions of them. We tried to make our thing really airtight, bulletproof so that when we played next to whoever the top artist was, people were like, ‘oh yeah, they should be here.’ The culture shift in the world is so interesting because now, maybe rather than going wider, it makes more sense to go deeper with people. We thought about that in the way that we listen to music and the way we watch films. Playing a song that is a b-side or barely made a record but is someone’s favourite song makes a lot of sense in this era.

PATRICK: I think there also was a period there where, to Pete’s point, it was a weird time to be a rock band. We had this very strange thing that happened to us, and not a lot of our friends for some reason, where we had a bunch of hits, right? And it didn’t make any sense to me. It still doesn’t make sense to me. But there was a kind of novelty, where we could play a whole set of songs that a lot of people know. It was fun and rewarding for us to do that. But then you run the risk of playing the same set forever. I want to love the songs that we play. I want to care about it and put passion into what we do. And there’s no sustainable way to just do the same thing every night and not get jaded. We weren’t getting there but I really wanted to make sure that we don’t ever get there. 

PETE: In the origin of Fall Out Boy, what happened at our concerts was we knew how to play five songs really fast and jumped off walls and the fire marshal would shut it down. It was what made the show memorable, but we wanted to be able to last and so we tried to perfect our show and the songs and the stage show and make it flawless. Then you don’t really know how much spontaneity you want to include, because something could go wrong. When we started this tour, and we did a couple of spontaneous things, it opened us up to more. Because things did go wrong and that’s what made the show special. We’re doing what is the most punk rock version of what we could be doing right now. 

You seem generally a lot more comfortable celebrating your past success at this point in your career. 

PETE: I think it’s actually not a change from our past. I love those records, but I never want to treat them in a cynical way. I never want there to be a wink and a smile where we’re just doing this because it’s the anniversary. This was us celebrating these random songs and we hope people celebrate them with us. There was a purity to it that felt in line with how we’ve always felt about it. I love ‘Folie à Deux’ - out of any Fall Out Boy record that's probably the one I would listen to. But I just never wanted it to be done in a cynical way, where we feel like we have to. But celebrating it in a way where there’s the purity of how we felt when we wrote the song originally. I think that’s fucking awesome. 

PATRICK: Music is a weird art form. Because when you’re an actor and you play a character, that is a specific thing. James Bond always wears a suit and has a gun and is a secret agent. If you change one thing, that’s fine, but you can’t really change all of it. But bands are just people. You are yourself. People get attached to it like it’s a story but it’s not. That was always something I found difficult. For the story, it’s always good to say, ‘it’s the 20th anniversary, let’s go do the 20th anniversary tour’, that’s a good story thing. But it’s not always honest. We never stopped playing a lot of the songs from ‘Take This To Your Grave’, right? So why would I need to do a 20-year anniversary and perform all the songs back to back? The only reason would be because it would probably sell a lot of tickets and I don’t really ever want to be motivated by that, frankly. 

One of the things that’s been amazing is that now as the band has been around for a while, we have different layers of audience. I love ‘Folie à Deux’, I do, I love that record. But I had a really personally negative experience of touring on it. So that’s what I think of when I think of that record initially. It had to be brought back to me for me to appreciate it, for me to go, ‘oh, this record is really great. I should be happy with this. I should want to play this,’ So that’s why we got into a lot of the b-sides because we realised that our perspectives on a lot of these songs were based in our feelings and experiences from when we were making them. But you can find new experiences if you play those songs. You can make new memories with them. 

You alluded there to the 20th anniversary of ‘Take This To Your Grave’. Obviously you have changed and developed as a band hugely since then. But is there anything you can point to about making that debut record that has remained a part of your process since then? 

PETE: We have a language, the band, and it’s definitely a language of cinema and film. That’s maintained through time. We had very disparate music tastes and influences but I think film was a place we really aligned. You could have a deep discussion, because none of us were filmmakers. You could say which part was good and which part sucked and not hurt anybody’s feelings, because you weren’t going out to make a film the next day. Whereas with music, I think if we’d only had that to talk about, we would have turned out a different band.  

PATRICK: ‘Take This To Your Grave’, even though it’s absolutely our first record, there’s an element of it that’s still a work in progress. It is still a band figuring itself out. Andy wasn’t even officially in the band for half of the recording, right? I wasn’t even officially the guitar player for half of the recording. We were still bumbling through it. There was something that popped up a couple times throughout the record where you got these little inklings of who the band really was. We really explored that on ‘From Under the Cork Tree’’. So when we talk about what has remained the same… I didn’t want to be a singer, I didn’t know anything about singing, I wasn’t playing on that. I didn’t even plan to really be in this band for that long because Pete had a real band that really toured so I thought this was gonna be a side project. So there’s always been this element within the band where I don’t put too many expectations on things and then Pete has this really big ambition, creatively. There’s this great interplay between the tour of us where I’m kind of oblivious, and I don’t know when I’m putting out a big idea and Pete has this amazing vision to find what goes where. There’s something really magical about that because I never could have done a band like this without it. We needed everybody, we needed all four of us. And I think that’s the thing that hasn’t changed - the four of us just being ourselves and trying to figure things out. Listening back to ‘Folie’ or ‘Infinity On High’ or ‘American Beauty’. I’m always amazed at how much better they are than I remember. I listened to ‘MANIA’ the other day. I have a lot of misgivings about that record, a lot of things I’m frustrated about. But then I’m listening to it and I’m like, ‘this is pretty good.’ There’s a lot of good things in there. I don’t know why, it’s kind of like you can’t see those things. It’s kind of amazing to have Pete be able to see those things. And likewise, sometimes Pete has no idea when he writes something brilliant, as a lyricist, and I have to go, ‘No, I’m gonna keep that one, I’m gonna use that.’ 

On ‘So Much (For) Stardust’ you teamed up with producer Neal Avron again for the first time since 2008. Given how much time has passed, did it take a minute to reestablish that connection or did you pick up where you left off? 

PATRICK: It really didn’t feel like any time had passed between us and Neal. It was pretty seamless in terms of working with him. But then there was also the weird aspect where the last time we worked with him was kind of contentious. Interpersonally, the four of us were kind of fighting with each other…as much as we do anyway. We say that and then that myth gets built bigger than it was. We were always pretty cool with each other. It’s just that the least cool was making ‘Folie’. So then getting into it again for this record, it was like no time had passed as people but the four of us got on better so we had more to bring to Neal. 

PETE: It’s a little bit like when you return to your parents’ house for the holiday break when you’re in college. It’s the same house but now I can drink with my parents. We’d grown up and the first times we worked with Neal, he had to do so much more boy scout leadership, ‘you guys are all gonna be okay, we’re gonna do this activity to earn this badge so you guys don’t fucking murder each other.’ This time, we probably got a different version of Neal that was even more creative, because he had to do less psychotherapy. 

He went deep too. Sometimes when you’re in a session with somebody, and they’re like, ‘what are we singing about?’, I’ll just be like, ‘stuff’. He was not cool with ‘stuff’. I would get up and go into the bathroom outside the studio and look in the mirror, and think ‘what is it about? How deep are we gonna go?’ That’s a little bit scarier to ask yourself. If last time Neal was like a boy scout leader, this time, it was more like a Sherpa. He was helping us get to the summit. 

The title track of the album also finds you in a very reflective mood, even bringing back lyrics from ‘Love From the Other Side’. How would you describe the meaning behind that title and the song itself?

PETE: The record title has a couple of different meanings, I guess. The biggest one to me is that we basically all are former stars. That’s what we’re made of, those pieces of carbon. It still feels like the world’s gonna blow and it’s all moving too fast and the wrong things are moving too slow. That track in particular looks back at where you sometimes wish things had gone differently. But this is more from the perspective of when you’re watching a space movie, and they’re too far away and they can’t quite make it back. It doesn’t matter what they do and at some point, the astronaut accepts that. But they’re close enough that you can see the look on their face. I feel like there’s moments like that in the title track. I wish some things were different. But, as an adult going through this, you are too far away from the tether, and you’re just floating into space. It is sad and lonely but in some ways, it’s kind of freeing, because there’s other aspects of our world and my life that I love and I want to keep shaping and changing. 

Patrick: I’ll open up Pete’s lyrics and I just start hearing things. It almost feels effortless in a lot of ways. I just read his lyrics and something starts happening in my head. The first line, ‘I’m in a winter mood, dreaming of spring now’, instantly the piano started to form to me. That was a song that I came close to not sending the band. When I make demos, I’ll usually wait until I have five or six to send to everybody. I didn’t know if anyone was gonna like this. It’s too moody or it’s not very us. But it was pretty unanimous. Everybody liked that one. I knew this had to end the record. It took on a different life in the context of the whole album. Then on the bridge section, I knew it was going to be the lyrics from “Love From The Other Side’. It’s got to come back here. It’s the bookends, but I also love lyrically what it does, you know, ‘in another life, you were my babe’, going back to that kind of regret, which feels different in  ‘Love From The Other Side’ than it does here. When the whole song came together, it was the statement of the record. 

Aside from the album, you have released a few more recent tracks that have opened you up to a whole new audience, most notably the collaboration with Taylor Swift on ‘Electric Touch’. 

PETE: Taylor is the only artist that I’ve met or interacted with in recent times who creates exactly the art of who she is, but does it one such a mass level. So that’s breathtaking to watch from the sidelines. The way fans traded friendship bracelets, I don’t know what the beginning of it was, but you felt that everywhere. We felt that, I saw that in the crowd on our tour. I don’t know Taylor well, but I think she’s doing exactly what she wants and creating exactly the art that she wants to create. And going that, on such a level, is really awe-inspiring to watch. It makes you want to make the biggest, weirdest version of our thing and put that out there. 

Then there was the cover of Billy Joel’s ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’, which has had some big chart success for you. That must have taken you slightly by surprise. 

PATRICK: It’s pretty unexpected. Pete and I were going back and forth about songs we should cover and that was an idea that I had. This is so silly but there was a song a bunch of years ago I had kind of written called ‘Dark Horse’ and then there was a Katy Perry song called ‘Dark Horse’ and I was like, ‘damn it’, you know, I missed the boat on that one. So I thought if we don’t do this cover, somebody else is gonna do it. Let’s just get in the studio and just do it. We spent way more time on those lyrics than you would think because we really wanted to get a specific feel. It was really fun and kind of loose, we just came together in Neal’s house and recorded it in a day. 

PETE: There's irreverence to it. I thought the coolest thing was when Billy Joel got asked about it, and he was like, ‘I’m not updating it, that’s fine, go for it.’  I hope if somebody ever chose to update one of ours, we’d be like that. Let them do their thing, they’ll have that version. I thought that was so fucking cool. 

It’s almost no secret that the sound you became most known for in the md-2000s is having something of a commercial revival right now But what is interesting is seeing how bands are building on that sound and changing it. 

PATRICK: I love when anybody does anything that feels honest to them. Touring with Bring Me The Horizon, it was really cool seeing what’s natural to them. It makes sense. We changed our sound over time but we were always going to do that. It wasn’t a premeditated thing but for the four of us, it would have been impossible to maintain making the same kind of music forever. Whereas you’ll play with some other bands and they live that one sound. You meet up with them for dinner or something and they’re wearing the shirt of the band that sounds just like their band. You go to their house and they’re playing other bands that sound like them because they live in that thing. Whereas with the four of us and bands like Bring Me The Horizon, we change our sounds over time.  And there’s nothing wrong with either. The only thing that’s wrong is if it’s unnatural to you. If you’re AC/DC and all of a sudden power ballads are in and you’re like, ‘Okay, we’ve got to do a power ballad’, that’s when it sucks. But if you’re a thrash metal guy who also likes Celine Dion then yeah, do a power ballad. Emo as a word doesn’t mean anything anymore. But if people want to call it that, if the emo thing is back or having another life again, if that’s what’s natural to an artist, I think the world needs more earnest art. If that’s who you are, then do it. 

PETE: It would be super egotistical to think that the wave that started with us and My Chemical Romance and Panic! At The Disco has just been circling and cycling back. I remember seeing Nikki Sixx at the airport and he was like, ‘Oh you’re doing a flaming bass? Mine came from a backpack.’ It keeps coming back but it looks different. Talking to Lil Uzi Vert and Juice WRLD when he was around, it’s so interesting, because it’s so much bigger than just emo or whatever. It’s this whole big pop music thing that’s spinning and churning, and then it moves on, and then it comes back with different aspects and some of the other stuff combined. When you’re a fan of music and art and film, you take different stuff, you add different ingredients, because that’s your taste. Seeing the bands that are up and coming to me, it’s so exciting, because the rules are just different, right? It’s really cool to see artists that lean into the weirdness and lean into a left turn when everyone’s telling you to make a right. That’s so refreshing. 

PATRICK: It’s really important as an artist gets older to not put too much stock in your own influence. The moment right now that we’re in is bigger than emo and bigger than whatever was happening in 2005. There’s a great line in ‘Downton Abbey’ where someone was asking the Lord about owning this manor and he’s like ‘well, you don’t really own it, there have been hundreds of owners and you are the custodian of it for a brief time.’ That’s what pop music is like. You just have the ball for a minute and you’re gonna pass it on to somebody else. 

We will soon see you in the UK for your arena tour. How do you reflect on your relationship with the fans over here? 

PETE: I remember the first time we went to the UK, I wasn’t prepared for how culturally different it was. When we played Reading & Leeds and the summer festivals, it was so different, and so much deeper within the culture. It was a little bit of a shock. The first couple of times we played, I was like, ‘Oh, my God, are we gonna die?’ because the crowd was so crazy, and there was bottles. Then when we came back, we thought maybe this is a beast to be tamed. Finally, you realise it’s a trading of energy. That made the last couple of festivals we played so fucking awesome. When you realise that the fans over there are real fans of music It’s really awesome and pretty beautiful. 

PATRICK: We’ve played the UK now more than a lot of regions of the states. Pretty early on, I just clicked with it. There were differences, cultural things and things that you didn’t expect. But it never felt that different or foreign to me, just a different flavour…

PETE: This is why me and Patrick work so well together (laughs). 

PATRICK: Well, listen; I’m a rainy weather guy. There is just things that I get there. I don’t really drink anymore all that much. But I totally will have a beer in the UL, there’s something different about every aspect of it, about the ordering of it, about the flavour of it, everything, it’s like a different vibe. The UK audience seemed to click with us too. There have been plenty of times where we felt almost like a UK band than an American one. There have been years where you go there and almost get a more familial reaction than you would at home. 

Rock Sound has always been a part of that for us. It was one of the first magazines to care about us and the first magazine to do real interviews. That’s the thing, you would do all these interviews and a lot of them would be like ‘so where did the band’s name come from?’ But Rock Sound took us seriously as artists, maybe before some of us did. That actually made us think about who we are and that was a really cool experience. I think in a lot of ways, we wouldn’t be the band we are without the UK, because I think it taught us a lot about what it is to be yourself. 

Fall Out Boy’s ‘So Much (For) Stardust’ is out now via Fueled By Ramen

[greypetrel]

Hiii 👁️👄👁️💜 Maybe: 🎄 spirits follow everywhere i go - or alternatively:🎄 oh, you fool, there are rules

Hello! Bet you forgot you sent me this, uh? 💜

WELL, it's here! After much consideration because I love the album that contains both these songs, I thought that the Yawning Grave just yelled Morrigan. A minor possible spoiler for the Arbor Wilds/What Pride Has Wrought but well. I'm not explaining whys and hows anyway.

Tis the prompt list

Oh you fool, there are rules.

[ Morrigan x Female Mahariel | 3.692 words | No trigger warnings - Hurt/comfort ]

I tried to warn you when you were a child I told you not to get lost in the wild I sent you omens and all kinds of signs I taught you melodies, poems, and rhymes Oh, you fool, there are rules, I am coming for you (You can run, but you can't escape) Darkness brings evil things, oh, the reckoning begins (You will open the yawning grave)

Morrigan didn’t stall long in Skyhold, after Corypheus was defeated.

She had done what she must. That was it. She never meant to stay much longer.

She was grateful for Aisling, for her concerned expression as she told her that she would have tried to help her if she only had let her. Tried to fix whatever was done to her at the Well. Morrigan knew guilt when she saw it. It resonated deeply in her heart, and she was at the same time grateful and repulsed. It only made her want to run.

Run from that castle, run from another series of mistakes, run from companionship and friendship she still doubted she deserved.

Old books and ruins were much safer companions. They never talked back.

She wanted to believe the Inquisitor, be sure that everything could be fixed, that if they put their mind to it, they could have found a solution. Freed her from the cage of a past that wasn’t her own alone anymore, once again. She really did.

She wasn’t fool enough to actually do it.

Aisling knew not the extent of the magic that had been bestowed upon her. The extent of the control it could exert, how much she felt it deep in her bones, like the loose strings of a puppet. She knew, painstakingly well, for all the voices of the Well whispered it into her ears, that as talented as Lavellan was, as undoubtedly bright and creative with magic, she wasn’t powerful enough to break that spell.

None of her people was. No one else was, anymore. Save for… but he had vanished after the battle.

She thanked Aisling, told her words of comfort she didn’t feel, and of trust that in spite of herself she couldn’t convince herself not to mean. She at least owed her a nice goodbye. Kieran hugged her tight, and the elf stalled, caressing his hair and recommending him to listen to his mother. She whispered something in his ear, which made the boy giggle. Morrigan smiled: it happened much more rarely these days.

And before the first light of days could tinge the sky in pinks and lilacs, she took her son’s hand and left the fortress.

“You don’t have to do that.”

Leliana had waited for her, just outside the first outpost, before the descent to the valley.

She knew she didn’t have to go. She knew it well that right now, Skyhold was probably one of the safest places in Thedas. A place run by a person who knew her, knew partially the extent of what she did, could help her should something awry happen, should the Well decide to take full control of her. A person that loved Kieran and, she knew, would have gone out of her way to keep him safe and bring his mother back.

But she missed her.

She missed her and that choice of old, the separation, seemed now the biggest in a long list of mistakes she made. She had gained the knowledge she craved, and for what?

“I miss her.” She just told Leliana, too tired, to battered up to bite back something.

Leliana nodded, smiled in a knowing way that brought back memories, made her look like the young person she once was, and stirred some irritation.

“It was plenty of time you did.”

“Don’t tell the idiot.”

“Oh, I’m saving this bit of information for a special occasion, worry not.”

“If you hear from her…”

“You’ll hear first.” Leliana smiled. “You always hear first from her. You know it, yes?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” She sneered, the pang to her heart finally enough in bringing some old bite back. “I wouldn’t dare implying I know more than the next Divine.”

“It’s been nice to meet you again, Morrigan.” She looked down, and smiled at Kieran. “To meet you both. Come say hi if you are in Val Royeaux.”

She travelled south for a couple of days, just to mislead any possible person who followed her.

And then, she headed straight to Amaranthine.

---

Nathaniel welcomed her warmly and ruffled Kieran’s hair, complimenting on how much he had grown.

Morrigan saw him frowning as the boy answered with a smile that was there for politeness, but didn’t offer any explanation to the fact. She couldn’t, not now. Not with him first.

“Is she here?”

“No.” He sighed. “Still Maker knows where. The last letter came from the Anderfels, but it was five months ago.” A pause, he looked into her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

Of course.

It was no surprise, after all: when she came to bid her goodbye in Orlais, Alyra had said she would have been gone for a while, and that communications would have been difficult. She had built a net of spies, but it wasn’t so widespread as to reach desolate places. In the Anderfels, Morrigan knew she had a handful of people in Weisshaupt, but nothing more. And, she couldn’t risk getting found or tracked.

Hoping she would have been there, waiting to magically fix her mess, had been childish and stupid. She wasn’t living in a fairy tale, she was no Vassilissa, as much as she had liked to pretend she was, as a child. As much as Alyra had made her feel like that. Such mishaps had already happened: the first time she reached her in Vigil’s Keep, Alyra had been in Denerim, impossibilitated to move before a week. They had managed three days together. Nothing more, and it wasn’t the only time they had missed each other. It was foolish to hope things could go differently.

“Very well. Can we stay the night, before leaving again?”

Kieran looked at her, snapping his head quickly with a face of disappointment. Morrigan knew perfectly well what he was about to say, and shook her head at him.

The room was found, and there were not many things left to do save opening the window, get a fire going, and bring their bags there, their cloaks to be washed. The same room she had occupied every time she had visited, finding it in the same level of readiness to be occupied.

She observed a dapple of sun shining over the white of the fresh linens. The air smelled like clean, as clean a that place -the whole castle actually- was. Kieran shook Nathaniel’s hand, very politely, and Morrigan wished him a nice afternoon and thanked him for his hospitality. He scoffed the formalities, but hesitated on the door before leaving. He turned towards her.

“She left orders, you know.” He told her, with a smile. “You both can stay for as long as you wish. Not a word of your presence will leave the walls, she described in no lack of details what will happen to snitches to all the recruits and the staff.”

“It sounds like mamae.” Kieran convened.

“The recruits still have nightmares.”

Morrigan joined the other two laughing at that, in spite of the glomp in her throat that rose knowing that Alyra had, in fact, thought of her. Of them both. She clutched one hand in the other and told Nathaniel that she would have thought about it, when Kieran asked her if they could stay.

“Just until mamae is back. Please, mother.”

The room was warm and comfortable, and no servant batted an eye when she asked for dinner to be brought in her room, leaving Kieran to go dine with the others in the great hall. She just walked him there, watched him taking place on a bench close to Nathaniel and in front of Velanna, answering politely to the question the others asked him. Smiling.

Some normality, at long last, or whatever normality she could ever hope to offer him.

The image only made the glomp in her throat grow.

And the glomp grew further when, back in her room, the servant returned with her favourite dish.

“Lady Warden-Commander left a list of what you and your son like to eat, my lady. Just in case.” The old woman smiled, sympathetically. “If you have other preferences, please let me know.”

Morrigan closed the door behind the maid, thanking her, and with all the dignity she had left, walked to the bed and sat down, elegant as a queen.

And then she let go, falling heavily back on the bed. It was fresh and plush: a room well taken care of, as if she was expected. Alyra left orders. Alyra said to the cook what to prepare her.

She wished she never went through that eluvian, all those years ago.

What god to pray for Mahariel to come back to her safe and sound and please, come back soon, she didn’t know anymore, but she was tired. Bone-deep tired.

Maybe she could rest. For some days, at least.

Kieran would benefit from a familiar place to cope with the lack of part of his soul. Faces he knew and who loved him to help him through the change.

Yes, she decided. They both would use some rest.

For some days, at least.

If that was yet another mistake, at least Kieran would have been happy about this one.

She ignored the voices telling her to go.

---

The days became weeks. And months.

Morrigan thought they were past hospitality, but looking better she realized both her and Kieran were a part of the Keep. Expected and wanted. Kieran had his spot in the Library, and everyone in the Keep, Wardens and not, automatically started to teach him whatever knowledge they possessed as if the child was a part of their environment too.

It wasn’t Skyhold, with the Inquisitor and Lord Pavus struggling to cut a free hour for lessons in busy schedules. No, here he was welcomed and expected during activities, at very regular timings Morrigan knew were something Alyra had started in the Keep. Everything happened at a precise time, as she would have wanted.

Her absence was a presence in itself, and it was soothing. It relaxed her, and the boy as well.

Kieran still cried because at night he felt the air too silent, and often crawled in her bed, to be soothed with a hug. He was growing old for that, Morrigan knew, and yet she had not in her to shun him away, nor to scold him because it was unbecoming for a young man his age to seek his mother when he had a nightmare.

No, she hugged him tight and caressed his hair until he felt asleep against her shoulder, like she did when he was but a baby. Everything felt more bearable, more worth it, when she held him like so, alive and breathing and free.

She missed him tenderly when he was a baby, those days. She soothed him and soothed herself as well.

She missed tenderly the exact look Alyra made when she first saw him: she had melted down, the usual air of harshness crumbling in something tender and marvelled. She never looked smitten, not with her and not with Alistair. She had looked so with Kieran. She had smiled, and poked the baby’s nose with such delicate tenderness that Morrigan had burst in tears.

“If you haven’t heard from her… But I’ve written her, too. Told her you’re here.” Nathaniel said, one day when she asked again whether he had news or not. “You know her safe spots, she’s gonna return as soon as she’ll read the letters.”

“Is she?”

He sighed, deeply, stopping to look at the Wardens training in the courtyard, at Velanna crouching in front of Kieran to correct his grip on the staff. Everything went on like normal, like one would expect. A clockwork fortress that stood its ground, brought to discipline by a missing Commander and kept so by her lieutenant. Nathaniel looked that much older, and it wasn’t just the Blight paling his skin, starting to paint his black hair in grey at the temples. Command didn’t really suit him: he could do it, he had been grown for it. It was clear as day, knowing him, that he didn’t like it.

“I hope she is.” He answered, tone lowering. “What are we going to do if she isn’t?”

Morrigan considered. She didn’t want to, but it’s been seven months since the last time anyone had any news from Mahariel. The whispers in her ears told her nothing useful: tales and whispers of Deep Roads, and creatures slain, something stirring, deep down. The possibility that it was too much, even for Alyra, was concrete. More than concrete.

But she knew perfectly well what she would have answered.

“We stop being stupid about it and go on.”

He laughed, bitterly, and couldn’t but agree with her.

They went on, but Morrigan still didn’t feel like leaving, even if everything told her she should not stay any longer, she was being stupid about it, waiting for a person that would have never come back.

She once thought that her plans wouldn’t have allowed her to stay more than a handful of months in one place, but as per now, she wasn’t sure what were her plans anymore.

So, she just listened to the voices from the Well, concentrated on them and tried to interpret them.

Maybe it was wishful thinking, but all she could devise was one word.

Stay.

It seemed a fitting excuse to be stupid about it and listen.

---

Something was  on the bed, crawled into her arms.

She sighed and shifted, still more than a half asleep, she shifted her arms on the figure, rested her chin more comfortably on the head, thinking it was Kieran.

“Another nightmare?”

“He had one, but he’s asleep, right now.”

It was enough to make Morrigan jolt awake, every trace of sleep instantly gone. She snapped her fingers and a ball of fire started in the air, balanced on the palm of her hand to illuminate the rest of her bed.

Red hair, glinting orange and golden in the firelight, carefully braided in an intricate motive to stay out of her face. A practical style, a travelling one. Dark tattoos marking her brow, making her features less minute and delicate than they were. Beside her eyes, usually, but tonight those eyes were mellower than their usual.

“You’re-” There were at least ten thoughts in her head, but the whispers were loud and insisting, hissing about alarms and danger and wrongness, and she grew distracted. “Am I still dreaming?”

It was all that she managed to spit.

Alyra Mahariel, the Warden-Commander, the Hero of Ferelden, survivor of yet another mission everyone with some brain would have deemed impossible, frowned at her. She rose on one elbow, the shoulder of her nightsuit daintly slipping off a shoulder. Muscly, but less than Morrigan remembered. She looked thinner, more ghastly, the bags under her eyes were darker and her cheeks looked hollow, and the Witch knew it wasn’t just the light. If all, the light masked how more grey-ish her skin had gotten.

“it depends.” Alyra extended a hand, hesitating just a moment, just to see a nod from the other, before cupping Morrigan’s cheek. “Is it a good dream?”

A thumb caressed Morrigan’s cheekbone with tenderness, the pressure barely perceptible. The elf slid forward, very slowly and carefully as if she was afraid of startling a wild animal. Her face grew closer, her lips parted, but still she stopped at but a breath space from a kiss. She brushed her lips with her own, and waited for the other to consent. As she had done from the start, inviting but never pressing.

It made the glomp in Morrigan’s throat only bigger, as she realized that it was really Alyra, not an impostor. Her breath on her lips, the gentle pressure of her hand on her cheek were not a dream. The whispers were more pressing, insisting on the verge of deafening: they spoke of decay and death and wrongness, and danger. Morrigan had seen her slice so many throats, kill enough people in cold blood to say the Well was wrong.

But that wasn’t the whole of it.

The Well knew many things, but the Well didn’t know everything. Not the care in which she cupped her face, not the love in which she still waited for Morrigan to take the first step, without forcing her or making her feel trapped or pressured. That little choice she gave her, knowing how important it was for her.

She waited in Amaranthine for 7 months, and for 7 months she endured and kept strong, hid under the carpet all the negative.

Only then, 7 months after Corypheus had been slain, 9 since she drank from the Well and lost her freedom yet again, in front of that little tenderness, Morrigan allowed herself to cry.

She folded forward, and the fact that she was met with a solid shoulder and arms that held her, made her cry more. She circled the other woman’s bust and held her with all she had in her. She didn’t remember the last time she cried like that, so loud and intensely. She held Alyra like she would have disappeared again if she let go, and squeezed her past the point of comfort. She had missed her, missed her so much that the voices in her head felt more distant, more quiet.

“What happened?”

She asked her, tenderly combing her hair with her fingers -stiffer than her usual, Morrigan didn’t want to know whether she was just tired or her mission had failed and the Blight was starting to get hold of her. She couldn’t face it, now. As the elf patiently waited for an answer. Morrigan felt the deep, satisfied sigh, her frame melting against hers, as if she too hadn’t relaxed in ages and was waiting for it.

“I-” She started, but the words died in her throat. She didn’t want to know, but she had to. She needed at least one thing to go right, in the grand scheme of things. “… Did you succeed?”

She didn’t need to specify in which exactly. And she hated the whiny tone the question came out from her mouth with. It was pitiful and pathetic, and she wasn’t a person who begged. She could care later, tho.

“Avernus has it. A last round of control.” Alyra answered, her arms holding her tighter. “… I have the Cure.”

Morrigan started crying again, fat tears surging instantly to her eyes, as some weight she didn’t realise she was carrying lifted from her shoulder. Alyra disentangled from the hug, still as quick and agile as ten years ago in her prime, and moved to cup her cheeks and delicately pull her head so she was looking in her eyes. Her eyes were shiny too, and she looked tired. Bone-deep tired. But less stoney than she had seen her ever since she first met their son. She pushed forward and gently nuzzled her nose with her own, stopping as usual but a breath away from her lips. Morrigan, this time, didn’t hesitate: she filled the distance and kissed her, her taste all so familiar and soothing. Finally, after three years.

“What happened to you?” She broke the kiss, but didn’t stray far, delicately kissing tears away from her cheeks. “You’ve missed me before, but you haven’t ever cried like so. Not even when I told you I couldn’t follow you through your mirror.”

Morrigan sighed, pressing forward until her face drowned in the crook of the other’s neck. Alyra shifted, urging her to lie down after a while that they hadn’t moved. Her back ached, she said: she had ridden fast and hard all day, and they weren’t all that young anymore.

She settled them under the covers, tugging the hem on Morrigan’s shoulder with just one hand. The other arm held her close all throughout, as if she knew she needed to be this close, hear her steady heartbeat under her ear, when she moved.

Satisfied, she settled more comfortably around the witch, holding Morrigan as she kept combing her hair with her fingers, absent-mindedly. Tracing circles on her skin. Pressing a kiss where she could, every now and then. On her cheek, jaw, neck and shoulder. She even started to humm a song: a familiar tune she had sung to Kieran every time she was there to tuck him to sleep.

Three years since they last saw each other.

Morrigan could have written more, or could have travelled to meet her. She could have travelled with her, even. She could have stayed in Amaranthine, 10 years ago when they met for the first time after the Blight. Alyra couldn’t move, but Morrigan could have stayed. She wondered what could have been, if she had. Kieran growing up happy with people he could have called family.

She could have done so many things more for the woman in her arms, the woman she loved.

And yet, as cruel and ruthless and unforgiving as her fame said, Alyra Mahariel never put an ounce of blame on her. She was crying, so Alyra held her and soothed her until tears stopped.

She wondered if she would have done the same knowing what she did at the Well of Sorrow. Knowing that she took the Well away from two Dalish. The Well and the voices whispered she was theirs, that the illusion that she belonged with her was just that. She belonged to them, now. It was foolish to hope anything else. Such was the price she paid.

Bile rose in her throat, the thought of losing her love unbearable and anguishing.

But once again, she had to know.

Hunger for knowledge was what would have brought her demise, ultimately. And it was better now than later, she thought. Even if it was the most terrifying thing she had ever done.

Her hands fisted in the cotton of her shirt, a silent plea not to go, to stay where she was. Four words that weighted like the whole castle slowly creeped out of her lips.

“I made a mistake.”

[corset]

1, 16 & 23.

1: A song you like with a color in the title BLACK CHERRY // GOLDFRAPP Arrghhhh I love Goldfrapp. Felt Mountain is one of my favorite albums ever made (this song is not off of that album but I will always take the excuse to bring it up don't even worry about that)

16: One of your favorite classical songs

QUARTET FOR THE END OF TIME (MOVEMENT 5) I don't listen to as much classical music as I want to. This is mostly because I have to be in a really particular mindset to listen to certain kinds of music, and then, by the time I get to that mindset, I often just legitimately forget to try out specific areas of my interest. Especially because music can be a really overstimulating experience for my brain, and it can make it very difficult for me to really listen and calm down and sit with a song that's more than 5 minutes long, which I hate. What kind of problem is liking music too much to the point that you can't always properly listen to it? Bizarre. But anyways, I really like this one, and I am a sucker for violin. It makes me feel Some Kind Of Way, if you will. (Also I can't help but drop where I answered this question in another ask if you want to also check out the song I linked there, as it's one of my favorites in general.)

23: A song that you think everybody should listen to

WATCHING ME FALL // THE CURE I could answer this question with a lot of different songs honestly, so here's one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands.

My friend also sent me this song last night (specifically this version), and it definitely fits the prompt so I'm linking it as well. BALL AND CHAIN // BIG BROTHER & THE HOLDING COMPANY/JANIS JOPLIN

Thank you very much!!! ^_^

Send me music asks! :3

[baekhvuns]

HEEEEYYYY i am finally FREE from spring quarter EVERYONE CHEER !!! but then i am going to have summer classes starting from next monday so crying and laughing T^T so i hope you do not mind that i will talk about school rq

i just turned in my art final last thursday after i flew in to washington ... jfc i was going through it honestly ... the art final was like a "art history" final. i had to answer 43 questions for multiple choice, do 4 short answer prompts and then a whole essay like what is wrong with this professor ... mind you not, this class is an online, lower-division ge so like why am i putting my whole ass into this

also my ochem prof released grades for the class overall and let me tell you i seriously was gonna cry bc i was so scared if i was gonna pass the class or not ... but ... I GOT A C yk what i am fine with that bc i did horrible on two exams (below avg) and pretty decent on the other (above avg) ... but i feel disappointed that i have been getting Cs on my chem classes so far :( but i think i will be getting my first ever A in the bio class tho !!! which is like kinda bad but i am proud of myself at the same time :")

ok now ... we talk about exo and ateez hehehe (the most important stuff duh) honestly speaking ... took me like 3 listens to fully get bouncy, like i was ok with it on the first listen but yk what i mean? like you just need to listen to it more in order to fully get it ... i also really like this album, like i am so excited to be getting the albums in store when i go back to california YEAAHHH but my faves are dune, django and wake up !!! wbu bff ??? exo is making me CRY with let me in and the fact that they are gonna release ANOTHER mv is crazy like ... ik 2018-2021 me would be CRYING bc exo didn't release that much group stuff back then :(( but i am so happy that they are having a comeback like i need to prepare myself ... i just KNOW i will be SOBBING when i watch the last mv as their like "title track"

anyways i hope you are doing well bff <3 i sometimes read your works whenever i need a pick me up (or i just wanna cry ahem the one inspired my moon lovers i will forever be scarred) and that you are taking care of yourself !!! love ya lots :D

🧸

HELLO !!!! AAAAAA wait omg ur spring quarter just ended??? i thought it was the summer one 😭😭😭

no bc i DONT GET WHAT ART HISTORY PROFESSORS PROBLEMS ARE I HAD THIS EXACT EXAM AND I FLUNKED IT WHFJQHDKWSH & iTS ONLINE???? 🤨🤨

u know what getting a C is underrated relief, like what matters is that we made it 🫡 A & B are overrated grades atp,,, BUT LESSGOOO??? U MADE IT !!!!! it’s not sad that it’s ur first one!! it’s so hard to get A’s in uni and like for what im still waiting for mine but i know that A looks so good on ur transcript 🫡 u should be proud!!!!! u did great!!

i get what you mean completely,, i also don’t mind it now?? like the slow it down make it bouncy is the only part that’s stuck in my mind, it’s a nice song but it has its moments! the album is nice! i just wish ateez do different genres bc this one felt like a guerrilla album dupe to me 😭😭😭 OOO OKAY MY FAVOURITE IS OUTLAW BC THAT BEAT IS NAASSTYY

EXO LAND FINALLY GETTING THE THINGS WE DESERVE????? let me in was so good, their vocals is what was missing 😭😭 AND ANOTHER MV AND ANOTHER MAIN MV FOR THE CB??? 19 VERSIONS OF A GOD DAMN ALBUM???? hoping the sales for it actually goes to the members 😭😭

i hope you’re doing well tooo!!! hope u have time to rest after ur semester <333 AND 😭😭😭😭 UR STILL READING MY FICS THANK U SO MUCH FOR THAT SCREAMING I LOVE U FBWKDJWK

[4dtk]

heloo! can I request hand-holding (3), kisses (6, 12) hugs (32) and touching (12) with renjun, thank uu^^

why do my renjun drabbles always end up so long LOL . btw age old kiss under the mistletoe <3 never too early for x’ams imagines i guess LOL, enjoy!!!

hand-holding, 3: cold hands in warm hands

hugs, 32: long-lasting hugs

kisses, 6 & 12: slow kisses, kisses on the corner of their mouth

touching, 12: pushing a strand of hair behind their ear

renjun’s eyes couldn’t leave yours. well, more of your body as you talked with mark, gesturing grandly about his new single that he dropped. he remembers you playing it whenever you met up, rapping the lyrics back to him that only had renjun groaning in embarrassment. staring around the room, he scans over the members in the party with a smile. having had taken a rest from the all the alcohol earlier, he was glad to be left alone to his… indulgences where no one could interrupt him.

“hey.”

“gah! wh- what the hell?” haechan shocks him out of his stupor, easily avoiding a smack on the back from renjun. his laughter gains attention from others, but otherwise they just return a cheeky laugh back while conversing. soon, the other is able to pick up on his loneliness, partially blaming it on the crazy challenge he dared renjun to do earlier. the partial reason, however..

“are you ever going to confess to (y/n)?” haechan raises a brow.

“keep it down! christ, hyuck. just because some members here have their partners on their arms doesn’t mean i should rush to make (y/n) mine.”

“oh, but you’re so obvious that it’s tiring to watch,” haechan sighs, taking a swig of his drink. the both of them admire the theme of the party for a little bit, red and green decorations hung from the spacious dorm, held on the fifth floor because they were the ‘cleanest’ (against jungwoo’s wishes and with kun’s agreement, they settled for an early celebration on the 23rd).

the speakers blasted christmas music, no doubt from the talented mr. bublé who was a compulsory artist to listen to, along with other renditions of christmas songs that just felt good. fairy lights from the members’ rooms were brought to be set up. plus, with ten’s recent sunset light purchase that he bought for the felines, the room was soon bathed in joyous lighting that could rival decorations outside.

“dude. the members had to have their partners fly in because they’re both so busy. (y/n)’s already there, c’mon the opportunity is right there — and this is the one time you’re able to unwind and relax. just go for it, man,” haechan is relaxed and laid-back, haven’t yet experienced the palpitations whenever one looks at their crush. the only exception was probably a rookie idol back then, but that was old news.

“if you happen to want to cuddle or fuck later, we’ll leave you alone.” this time, renjun was able to land a punch to his shoulder, expression turned into a scowl.

“you’re right, i guess. i’ll see what i can do.”

a gasp, “renjun admitting i’m right? rare.” renjun gives the other a lighter smack with a smile, chugging down the last bit of his water before heading over to you. he feels like he’s walking through snow whenever he wants to get to you, the resistance strong with each step. curling and uncurling his fingers, he loosened his freezing hands as you wrap up the conversation with mark.

“renjun! have a good rest? donghyuck was trying to avoid you for the past fifteen minutes, because he knew you’d get another headache if he talked to you.”

“i’m having one right now,” renjun jokes, emphasising his point by rubbing some fingers on his temple.

your laugh is like first snow. or like the heater that’s currently fuelling the house with heat. he isn’t sure what to choose, but he knows he likes it and wants to make you laugh more.

“do you need to rest again? i’ll promise i’ll be quiet-“

“delivery?” someone calls out. with a shout, you’re already at the door, receiving another batch of booze since the grocery shopping you went on earlier severely underestimated how much these boys can drink. “oh- uh-“ renjun swoops in like prince charming, hand brushing over yours while he steps forward to help you. they tingle like electricity, deciding against pulling away which would leave you to struggle.

“miss (l/n) (y/n) and mr huang renjun. please freeze in your place,” haechan’s annoying voice penetrates throughout all the conversation happening and you swear the man beside you mutters a curse as you two try to haul the booze past the member. “place the beer down. you aren’t going anywhere, anyway.”

before any of you can ask for an explanation, he points above you which displayed a mistletoe. “surprise!”

the delivery man’s voice scares you, until you realise it’s johnny, hidden under a very smart disguise of a fake moustache and a replica of the uniform. your mouth hangs open even when johnny squeezes past you with the booze effortlessly hanging from one arm, sighing inaudibly at the absence of the heavy drinks.

“so?” the members are looking at you expectedly like they’re watching a movie. there’s endless thoughts swirling in your mind even when renjun grabs your hand with his timid one, but it calms you down just a little when he brushes a thumb over your skin. it’s like you’re waiting for the director to yell out ‘cut!’; even you thought you’d do better on a movie set.

“(y/n)-“

he’s cut off by your lips crashing onto his, garnering a few ooohs and ahhs, including the satisfied smiles and sighs of relief. renjun’s lips taste like a mixture of the candy cane drink he spat out earlier, and some whiskey with coke. it’s a confusing taste, but with the pace your lips are moving with each other, it allows you to draw out every other time you imagined kissing huang renjun.

it doesn’t even come close, if you’re being honest and even if you’re standing in front of countless other men he calls his members in a ridiculously sized k-pop group. renjun deepens the kiss when he turns his head, cold, but clammy hands coming up the cup your cheeks. they shock you for just a bit and there’s a shameless smile into the kiss as renjun continues to deliver pecks onto your own.

he chuckle and it sounds like well-written christmas movies, or the very first listen to michael bublé’s christmas album. you aren’t sure what to choose, but you know you like it and want to make him chuckle more.

in a blink of an eye, you’ve grabbed his hand, heading straight for one of the rooms that you often see when renjun’s gaming with haechan. you recognise it straight away from the set-up and in a rush to shut the door, you stumble just a bit before meeting the hard wood of the door in a roar of laughter.

“great, now they’ve locked two people out,” haechan nudges johnny.

“three!” johnny’s partner calls from the doorway, which makes the living room shake in another round of cheers, getting back into the natural flow of things before everything got interrupted by a plant. faintly, you hear them ask if the plan worked, and haechan’s prideful answer right after.

slowly, you peek out of your hiding spot being your hands. renjun’s eyes shine, “so you like me.” it comes out flatter than he expected and he winces.

you snort, taking a step closer to him on the door, half leaning on it. without any prompting, the other’s arms encircle your waist, now pulling you flush against him while your head rest on his front. the next moments are spent in comfortable silence, the rowdy party going on outside giving you a little of a main character moment. your breathing syncs up, chest expanding and contracting with the deep breaths you take. there’s always a puff of mist leaving your lips, but it appears less now that you’re in your crush’s arms.

“yeah. i like you,” you nod, coming to face him after the tight embrace. his fingers touch your cheek experimentally and you flinch, the pads freezing cold to the touch. maybe it’s because he didn’t touch whiskey for the past half ’n hour. gently, you take his hands in yours. “why’re you always freezing?”

“ugh. you figured me out. tactic to get you to hold my hands.” throwing your head back in a silent laugh, you shake your head in disbelief.

“at least you haven’t caught on to me, holding your hands down so you won’t have to-” a kiss to one corner of his mouth. “restrict me from-” another to the other. “doing this.” lastly to his lips.

renjun entertains your dramatic flair with his jaw hung open. it doesn’t last long, though. “why would i restrict you from doing that?” you shrug, letting go of his hands now that they gained sufficient warmth. renjun silently decides it’s not enough, but first, he wants to kiss you again. his fingers are less freakishly cold now, brushing against your skin to tuck a strand of hair behind your ear. it sits there obediently, dissimilar with the way you did it. ‘it always falls out!’ you want to tell him later, but first, you want to kiss him again.

“huang renjun, you drive me crazy.” grinning, renjun knows it’s your way of confessing before his lips collide with yours with the fervour that hallmark movies lacked, and ironically, a plot which hallmark movies embodied. and just like that, you wish you could hold a pause icon over your head, because you wanted this to last for as long as it could.

[itsallyscorner]

For Tom x

Pairing: Tom Holland x singer!reader

Summary: You have a surprise for Tom:)

Warnings: none, just pure teeth rotting Fluff:)

A/n: Hello my loves! This is literally a rewrite because I accidentally deleted the original version of this story on Tumblr RIGHT before I was gonna post it😭 Anyway here it is, I hope you all like it! Ally x

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

look at my sunshine🥺

꘎♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡꘎

Your giggles filled the hallway as you lead Tom into your makeshift studio. Since you were quarantining with him and his mates in their shared home in London, you were miles away from your crew and studio. Which, yes, made it difficult to record an entire album on your own—but it did give you the creative freedom to do whatever you pleased for the album.

The boys had their own creative outlets; for example putting together a puzzle or having a movie marathon. While you found those activities enjoyable, the inner singer in you couldn’t stop thinking of beats or coming up with lyrics in your head. You needed the studio—you needed to bring those beats and lyrics to life before you could forget them. So with the help of the houses’ tech lord himself, Harry made it possible for you to have your own little studio in the spare guest room of the house. There, you spent endless days writing and recording things like harmonies and building melodies. Little did you know that this would lead to the creation of your sixth album. Now a couple months later, your latest album is currently in its final stages and would soon be released to the world.

Tom adoringly watched your figure, which was drowned in one of his oversized jumpers, excitedly skip towards the guest room. As soon as you were both inside, you rushed to close the door and eagerly pushed him to sit on the edge of the bed.

“What have you been up to, lovey?” He teasingly asks you. He knew you were up to something, he just didn’t know if it were bad or good.

Your figure was bent over the desk where your laptop was located. Turning over your shoulder you tell him, “It’s nothing bad, I promise!” You’re met with an amused grin on his blush pink lips.

Gathering your laptop into your arms, you move to sit beside Tom on the bed. He curiously leans forward, trying to get a glance at what’s on your screen.

“Nuh uh, it’s a surprise, Thomas.” You playfully scold him and gently push his face away from your laptop. He responds with a pout against your palm before pressing a kiss onto your skin. You continue to click around on your laptop, looking through your documents for the specific file.

Meanwhile, Tom shuffles further up the bed, getting comfortable. He notices the new distance between you and him and decides that he’s unsatisfied with the additional inches. He choses to snake his arms around your waist and lifts you up, happily placing you on the empty and lonely space on his lap. Laying down on his back, he takes a moment to admire the way you look in his jumper. It was a few sizes bigger than you and stopped right above your knees. The jumper may have looked good on him, but it looked absolutely perfect on you.

“You look so cute in my jumper.” He hums, hands lazily rubbing up and down your thighs. Your nose scrunches up as you lightly slap his chest; your silent way of saying “shut up” whenever Tom would say something that made you blush.

You finally find the file you were looking for and place your laptop on your lap. You nervously glance at your screen, biting down on your lip out of habit.

“Ok, so I did something.” You started. Tom squints his eyes at you, “That sounds like the beginning of a really bad something.”

You huff, “I just told you it wasn’t anything bad! Do you want your surprise or not?”

Tom chuckles and grasps onto your thighs, “Yes—yes, sorry, keep going.”

“So you know how I’ve already finished my album?” You question him. Tom nods, staring up at you while you sit on his thighs.

“Well, I wrote a few more songs that were supposed to be on the album. But I don’t know, I felt a bit greedy and decided to keep them for myself.” You explain. Tom raises a brow at you, “Baby, you don’t have to feel guilty about keeping songs to yourself. If you don’t want to share them, you don’t have to.”

“No, it’s just that, they’re about you.” You pause, staring down at your fingers that fiddled together. “Like I wrote them specifically for you to listen to. I wanted to include them on the album, but it just didn’t feel right to share something that was meant only for you.”

You place your laptop on the bed and turn it so the screen is facing Tom.

“So...as a solution, I made you your own album.” You were too busy avoiding his stare, that you missed the twinkle in Tom’s coffee colored orbs. He carefully sits up, his arms around you getting tighter, as he pulls you closer into his chest. Tom ducks his head down to yours, nudging your nose with his to get you to look at him. When your eyes finally meet, the lopsided grin on his features grows wider.

“You made me my own album?”

“Yeah.” You shyly answer. Tom softly coos at you, cupping your face and pressing a chaste kiss onto both of your cheeks.

“You are the most precious thing in the world, sunshine, I swear.” He squishes your cheeks together and began to cover your face with butterfly like kisses. Sweet laughs erupt from you, the sounds making Tom’s heart swell.

You stuff your face in the space between his neck and shoulder, using it as a place to hide from his lips. Instead, Tom opts to lay his kisses along the side of your face, your neck, and your shoulder.

“Lemme kiss you!” He whines. You chuckle at him, finally moving away from his neck. His attention darts towards your lips more than once, prompting you to lean forward and connect them with his. Tom’s lips were soft against yours, like clouds or cushiony pillows. The kiss was short and sweet; though it didn’t prevent you from feeling the adoration and passion he felt for you in that moment. In fact, he felt it all the time, but right now, his love for you was coursing through his veins.

He finally pulls away, leaving the taste of him linger in your mouth. “Can I have a listen?” He motions his head towards your laptop beside him.

“Go ahead.” Tom’s arms unravel from your waist, the area they once occupied left cold and yearning for his warmth. He uses one of his elbows to hold himself up and the other to control the touchpad. His eyes scan the file.

For Tom x

someone like u

test drive

worst behavior

main thing

He glances at you, “I start with ‘someone like u’, right?” You reply with a quiet “mhm”.

Tom clicks on the link. The opening notes of ‘someone like u’ begin to play followed by your angelic voice. You hear him release a content sigh, making a small smile to form on your lips. His arms make their way around you again, this time holding you closer against him. He rests his head on your chest and sneakily presses a kiss onto your neck. You fondly run a hand through his curly hair and rest your chin on the top of his head, listening to the songs you’ve made for him.

The two of you listen through the album in one go with no stops. You found joy in Tom’s reactions towards every song. Sometimes he would make little comments or sounds of shock whenever he heard you hit a certain note. He nodded along to the beats of ‘test drive’ and ‘worst behavior’, dancing around in his seat and making you join him. This time, you didn’t miss the twinkle in his eyes when he listened closely to the lyrics. ‘Main thing’ got him the most, leaving him with a goofy-lovesick grin plastered onto his face.

When ‘main thing’ came to a close, the room became silent, leaving Tom enough time to process the four songs you wrote about him and the meanings behind them.

You were the first to speak, “So did you like it?” You scan his face looking for any signs of dislike.

Tom’s eyes widen, “Are you kidding me? That was bloody fantastic—that was the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard! I’m obsessed with it, oh my god!” He expressed, arms moving around as he spoke.

His face was radiating with happiness, “You are the most talented and loving woman in the world. And I honestly don’t know what I did to deserve you or your love—but I just love you so fucking much.”

“I love you so fucking much too, you dork.” You laugh, pecking his lips.

“No, but seriously, thank you so much. I know you’re used to writing songs, but the fact that you actually took the time to write songs about me means a lot. They’re just a bunch of songs, but they mean the world to me and I cherish each and every one of them.” He admits, taking one of your hands and placing it onto his heart. Your palm feels the faint rhythm of his heart beating against his chest.

You tilt your head at him, mirroring the smile on his face, “I’ll always write songs about you. You somehow manage to inspire them anyway.”

Tom smirks, “Well I am Tom Holland.” You snort and roll your eyes at his humble brag.

“You’re still a dork, Tommy.” You comment.

Tom shrugs, “I’m a special dork because I’m your dork. Therefore making me superior to the other existing dorks—there’s a difference, darling.”

“And where did you come up with this hypothesis, Mr. Holland?” You question him, playing along with his antics.

“It’s Tom’s Theory.” He answers with feign seriousness. You burst out laughing, “Oh is it?”

Tom leans down to your laptop and restarts his album. “Yes, and now Tom’s Theory, believes that we should listen to the album again until I learn all the lyrics to every single song.” He proclaims.

“Babe, you don’t have to—” Tom stops you, “I’m dead serious.”

It was going to be a long night.

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

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[bluebird-imagines]

Hi :) can you do all the members(separately off) with a s/o who doesn’t really like their music?

[I can for sure give it a shot! This is my first ask so i do hope you enjoy it ^_^. Also I apologize for taking so long, my second vaccine shot kicked my butt]

Prompted: S/O who doesn’t like Gorillaz Music

Trigger Warnings: I can’t think of any for this one. Maybe I should state my horrible 2D accent! I apologize in advance. Of and I bring up the s*x, m*rder, party song. But all and all I don’t think there is anything else. Anyway enjoy!

~Murdoc Niccals ~

Let’s start this off with, at first he doesn’t even realize that you don’t like the Gorillaz music. He never even pieces two and two together. Why might you ask? Well for the first while you tolerated it for the Bass players sake.

After a few months, you decided it would be best to maybe leave Kong whenever the band you as practicing or rehearsing. You did a lot of stuff in this time. Coffee, read some good books, even went bowling on your own a few times. It was just nice to get away from that horrid music.

You didn’t have anything against the band members themselves! All of them were nice, it just you found the songs to be tedious and annoying.

When Murdoc finally started to take notice, he would ask you why you would avoid the band. Not seeming to understand the distaste of their masterpieces.

You lied most of the time, saying something stupid like “oh I am meeting up with friends” or “oh I would just be in the way”.

After a few more months, Murdoc finally forced you to sit and listen to their newest album. Mainly wanting to get your take on it before the official release.

You didn’t even get halfway through the first song before standing up and tuned off the player. You honestly felt like your ears would jump off your head if you ever heard that again.

“What the Bloody hell was that for?! We have like 43 more minutes to go”

“Murdoc, I don’t know how to tell you this. But babe…your music is a flaming hot dumpster fire and I don’t like it”

“……what? Why the hell are you with me then if you don’t like our music?”

“Because I may have underlining daddy issues according to the internet, but in reality I really love you Mudz…for you!”

“So playing bass isn’t sexy….underlining what? No wait getting away from the real point here. You never heard if Feel Good inc.? Or you know Clint Eastwood?Those were some of our best songs! What about To Binge? Empire ants? Any of them.

“Hmm, Feel Good inc? Let’s see it’s repeats itself a lot. Clint Eastwood? Haha other then the opening your song had nothing to do with Clint Eastwood. You posted To Binge aka forced 2D to sing it. Empire Ants? It just sucks”

“You suck! Are music is an art! It’s great! you are the problem here.”

“Never said I was! Your music is an art and it makes a lot of people happy. But to me, my ears did like it…but I can say this, I do like you a lot Murdoc.”

“ I am pretty great! Fine no more of our music…around your at least. But maybe sometimes”

“I can handle sometimes”.

~Noodle~

Noodle would completely understand your distaste for their music. She understands that not anyone is up for what they produce and she thinks that is okay!

For her as long as you don’t listen to any overly annoying songs around her. She really doesn’t care what you listen to.

She does however like to get your input on songs, even if you don’t like them. She just likes hearing different peoples ideas.

But with that being said, there is a 100% chance that she may try to convert you into liking Gorillaz. Of course, just simply by showing you different songs they have done. Like Punk or Humility, Feel Good inc. or El Mañana. Hell she has even shown you Latin Simone.

When she realized she was doing this, she quickly backed off and apologized.

“Sorry (Y/n). I didn’t mean to do that…I just kind of got excited and thought you would like the different genres we have done.”

“It’s okay Noodle, you realized your mistake! Honestly it’s not that the songs themselves aren’t inherently bad…it’s just well Murdoc’s bass playing is well…pretty bad in my opinion”

“Oh? How so if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Well to me it sounds like well, a crusty old man who doesn’t know how to cut his nails and proceeds to scratch the surface of everything he touches. Also while we are at it 2D’s singing is really hard to understand!”

“Well Murdoc does forget to clip his nails from time to time and he doesn’t seem to like using a pick for his bass. But now you confused me with 2D”

“Listen I love you all! Especially you Noodle, but ooo boy, if you guys weren’t careful in sex murder party…it kind of sounds like 2D is singing dissolve the kids…which isn’t a pleasant image”

“Ah, I see what you mean, anything else?”

“Nope! Your guitar playing is wonderful! Love everything about you! Just your band is a bit much at times haha”

~Russel Hobbs~

Much like Noodle Russel would understand that their music wasn’t for everyone. Everyone was entitled to their own opinion. For example he was really into rap and it took a while for him to talk the whole band into listening to it.

Regardless unlike Noodle or Murdoc he wouldn’t make you listen to a single song of theirs if you didn’t want to.

Of course you would every now and then for their demo’s you just wouldn’t voice your opinion on it, since you couldn’t stand it.

Russel would also try his best to get into music that you like! Of course, if he doesn’t like one of the songs you like, you make a mutual agreement to not play it around him.

He even at one point turned it into a game that he really enjoyed playing with you! It was a game that helped the both of you set up playlists!

He would pick one of his favourite songs, if you thought it was okay, it went into the playlist. If he liked one of the songs you picked into the playlist!

“Okay how about, this song?”

“Let it go…from frozen? Really, we ain’t putting that in the playlist”

“Yeah you are right it was a stupid idea, it’s just been stuck in my head.”

“Haha fair enough, how about Rainforest by Noname?”

“Hmm, that’s actually not a bad one! We can throw it in! Alright space jam?”

“What is with you in movie songs tonight? Yeah we can throw in space jam”

“Sweet!”

“I can’t believe space jam beats our music out in that mind of yours…”

~Stuart “2D” Pots~

At first, 2D can not wrap his mind around the fact that you hate their music. More so he has never really had someone be with him for well just him before. Most of the one nightstands he had in the past was because of his popular singer status.

He does try his very best to get you into their music, of course, walking the fine line between shoving it down your throat and giving you air to breath with your own tunes.

That being said though, he doesn’t overly mind the fact that you like your own selection of music. He does find some of your songs enjoyable.

When he realizes most of the bands travel playlist consisted of a few of the bands own songs. He secretly takes the phone and changes up the playlist. He removes the Gorillaz songs and replaces them with songs you like.

Although you don’t like the bands music, that never truly stopped you from liking 2D’s singing. When he found that out he made a special song just for you. One where it was only on his keyboard and singing. He keeps it hidden so Murdoc doesn’t find it.

“(Y/n) I made yew something!”

“Oh sweet Satan please don’t tell me it was breakfast and that you burnt down the kitchen again!”

“What no! Besides that was a one time fing and I got a four month ban from going in fere fanks to Russel”

“Sorry…shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions. What did you make 2D? You seemed really proud.”

“Oh well Um…I know yew don’t like our music and all…but I uh, I made yew a song, do ya want to ‘ere it?”

“Of course 2D, just because I don’t like your music, doesn’t mean I can’t be supportive of you”

“Well, this song isn’ really goin’ to be on an album, because I made it for yew”

“Aww 2D you didn’t have to~”

“But I wanted too!”

After he plays the song, you state that you adore it! This puts a huge smile on his face!

[maraudereestauderelb]

Touched

A Duff McKagan smut One Shot

Prompt: You go to a concert with one of your friends and band mates, who's having a thing with no other than the band's guitarist Slash. After the show you get to meet Duff McKagen and somehow end up having your first time with him.

MASTERLIST

Warning: sex (duh)

"They're good aren't they?", Y/F/N shouted over the loud music. "Amazing!" "Told ya!"

We were dancing along to the loud music and enjoying ourselves. It had taken her quite some time to convince me to come with her instead of heading for the Troubadour with our other two band mates. Apparently coming with my bassist had been the right choice though.

After a world tour, a successful album and quite a bit more money in my bank account than before we had left LA, I still felt more at home right here. In a rundown club on the strip with a still upcoming rock band on stage.

Y/F/N and I had fit in perfectly. Nobody would recognize just the two of us having a great time and getting drunk. Except maybe the group of aspiring musicians and rising rock bands of the strip. In this circle everyone knew everyone, knew in which bands they had played, who they were associated with, had partied together before and so on and so forth.

That was exactly the reason why we had ended up here. The lead guitarist used to play in a band called Road Crew and had surely attended one of the parties at our trailer before. Y/F/N knew him and she had told me he was in a new band that was very close on getting a record deal. "You gotta check them out! Heard they're fuckin good", had been the argument that had won me over in the end. Not so much her initial reason to come here. That being the fact that apparently the guy had been an awesome fuck and she wanted to get laid by him again.

Now being here, I didn't regret it. I was having fun! And I was back in my usual habitat and in a situation that was familiar. If after the concert she wanted to leave with her black haired curly-head she was free to do so. Either I'd bump into someone I knew or would simply head home and call it a night.

The singer seemed familiar as well and if I remembered correctly Nikki had left his ass outside at one of their parties.

"Yo, what's the lead singer's name again?", I asked Y/F/N. "Oh that's Axl. Hollywood Rose, remember?" "Oh yea, right!"

I got why those boys were apparently very close to making it. Shit, was Guns n' Rosesgood!

Y/F/N had successfully gotten us all the way through the crowd to the stage, where we danced and sang along some more until the band was finished.

A few moments after the last song had ended the club put on some generic rock music and blasted them through the speakers.

"You gonna head backstage or wait here?" This wasn't the type of club in which the band would go off stage and head backstage never to be seen again. They had a small room for all of them to change and would then most likely come out to party. I knew, because we had played here before.

"He saw me, so trust me, he's gonna come to me", she grinned, and I once again admired her confidence.

It didn't take too long before Slash really showed up. He greeted me as well and congratulated on our album, so I told him what a sick guitar player he is. I give credit where it's due.

But I also understood that it was probably best for me to piss off now. So that's what I did. I figured I'd get one last drink and keep my eyes open in case of seeing anybody I knew. And for real I spotted a few people I knew from college who quickly waved me over.

After telling them the generic shit everybody wanted to know coming back from tour, it actually turned into a lot of fun to party with them. No coke but sure as hell a lot of alcohol.

It was hours later when they decided to leave and I had actually planned to leave with them

when I spotted a barkeeper, I knew. He had also attended a bunch of our parties and was a cool guy. So I sat down at the bar and joked around with him some more as the club kept getting emptier.

The club surely was anything but empty at one point, neither was it packed. It wasn't so crowded anymore, and I had completely lost track of time when someone sat down on the barstool next to me.

I didn't pay much attention and simply took another sip from my vodka lemon until he said: "You know, your friend's already gone, right?"

I turned to face him and recognized him as one of Slash's band members, right after I had been speechless for a moment because of how handsome he was.

"Yea, I know", I nodded and added grinning: "So is your guitarist, right?" "Obviously", he answered laughing: "Should've seen him backstage after the concert, couldn't get to her fast enough!" I joined his laughter, finished my drink and looked around. "Your remaining band member's left with a groupie as well, huh?" "No, fuckin idea where they are", he smiled and waved over to Jimmy, the barkeeper: "Another one of these for the little Rockstar here and I take whatever she has."

"Thank you", I told him with a soft smile. He waved it off: "I'm Duff McKagan by the way." "Y/N Y/L/N", I replied. "I know, was at one of your trailer parties before ya guys became famous." "Oh were you?", I asked surprised. I would've bet I'd recognize such a pretty face. Blond, tall, bassist. I was in fuckin heaven.

"You then ones with the trailer with the IV in the living room, right?" "Yupp, that's us", I nodded with a smirk: "Then I'm sorry for not recognizing you..."

"Don't worry bout it", he smiled: "Doubt we got the chance to talk...not that I wouldn't have wanted to..."

"We should have! Then I probably would've listened to you guys sooner! And Oh. My. God. You're amazing!", I gushed excitedly. "Thanks! Hoping it'll get us where you are now." "You'd have to be a complete idiot not to fuckin sign you!"

"I fucking hope so", he sighed and took a big gulp from his vodka: "You the song writer, right?" He suddenly changed the topic.

"Yes, why?" "I dunno", he shrugged: "When I first saw your music video on TV I couldn't help but fuckin wonder what complete asshole hurt this beautiful girl..."

His words hit me like a fucking train, because they reminded me of my former best friend Nikki Sixx, whom I had been stupid enough to fall for, but soon my drunken brain focused on something else: He thought I was beautiful...

"An asshole that's no longer a problem", I laughed. "Well cheers to that", the blond guy smirked and clicked our glasses: "Lucky me."

I returned his smirk and soon felt his hand on my thigh.

"How come you didn't leave with a groupie?", I tease him and sip on my glass. "Not my thing..." "What an utter liar", I thought. "And also", he went on: "I saw you in the crowd dancing next to your friend and knew exactly who to go for."

The way he looked into my eyes send chills through my body and I quickly took another sip from my drink.

"You alright?", Jimmy asked from further away to make sure I was fine, and I quickly nodded.

"You're pretty confident, huh?", I asked Duff. "Why?" "Well, what if that one girl you decided to go for wasn't interested?", I teased him.

Was I interested? I mean...damn he was hot and watching him on stage had been hot! His touch on my thigh made me feel hot! But for fuck's sake I didn't knowhim!

"That would be pretty sad for both of us", he shrugged and winked at me before looking at his glass and away from me.

Was he right? God, I could already feel the heat inside of me rising and a quiet voice in the back of my head reminded me that I had seen him shirtless on stage and wondered what it would feel like to touch him.

But damn it, I was drunk!

He lit a cigarette and I gave my everything not to stare at his lips for longer.

"I liked you better when you were funny and not seductive", I shrugged as well with a smirk and made him laugh. "Ouch, thanks!", he replied smiling: "In that case you'd have loved to see me lookin like an idiot when I got to Slash and your friend hours ago just to realize your gone."

"Maybe you should've hurried more, you know, the way your friend Slash did", I teased him more and calmed my nerves.

"He's just a funny guy", I told myself: "Joke around with him some more and then get your ass back home."

"Well, in the end you waited here for me anyway." "Rockstars don't wait for anyone", I joked and took the cigarette from him to take a drag as well. I could tell he was staring at my lips this time but was ripped out of his thoughts when I handed it back.

He cleared his throat and said: "Always wanted to fuck a rockstar."

I almost choked on my drink. That was my sign. The cards were on the table. I should tell him that this certainly wouldn't be the night he'd get what he wants and leave! But I was curious... so damn curious...

I couldn't deny that I was attracted to him! Maybe I could at least make out with him...find out what his lips felt like...there was nothing wrong about that.

"That's what the girls always tell you?", I tried to mock him but was too nervous to sound convincing. "You're quite a joker, huh?" "At least tryin to..."

"It's cute", he admitted. "Good, because I never run out of stupid jokes..."

"Trust me, I'd know a way or two to shut you up", he grinned to himself and took a last drag before he stubbed the cigarette out.

God, his words went straight to my core and put pictures in my head I hated but at the same time desperately wanted to happen. I wanted to find out what he wanted to do!

"Ya know what I always wanted to find out?", I asked without thinking about it twice. "What is it, gorgeous?" "If it's true that bass players don't just have skilled fingers when it comes to playin instruments."

I cracked the joke before I had thought about it. Why? Because I always had to listen to idiots tell me that and because I somehow really wanted to find out.

His smirk grew winder than I had seen it all night and it made me knees weak. "I can definitely show ya that."

"How about you first make me shut up?"

I had barely finished my sentence before I felt his free hand in my neck and soon enough his lips on mine.

I felt like melting right then and there! His lips moving against mine felt so good! But what started as a rather innocent kiss quickly became more heated. I grabbed the hem of his leather jacket, not to pull him closer but because I needed to hold on to something, anything."

His lips were moving against mine before he gently captured my lower lip with his. It was hard not too moan on the spot! And even harder when I tasted his tongue.

I damned those stupid barstools! I wanted him closer, needed him closer.

When we finally separated again my entire body was totally antsy!

"Speechless?", he asked teasingly. God, he was so damn hot!

I tried to think of something witty and fun, but I couldn't summon a single proper thought.

"You know...to prove the other thing we should probably move this somewhere more private...", he whispered into my ear and hadn't goose pumps already covered my entire body they definitely would have after he seductively kissed my neck.

I should tell him no. I should move my fucking ass back home.

But when he leaned back again and all I could think about was how I buried my fingers in his blond hair, I just nodded...

He had his arm around my waist when he let me out of the club and down strip. It was still dark and it wasn't hard to tell that there were still a bunch of parties going on in other places as well. Like I said, I had long lost my sense for time.

"My place ain't far from here", he told me and I nodded. Excitement was bubbling inside of me and gosh, I couldn't wait to kiss him again!

All worries and negative thoughts had been long gone as we walked through the cold night. I kept looking at him from the side and tried to hide the excited smirk on my lips. But

damn, he was even taller than I had guessed and looked so handsome in the dim glow of the streetlights.

I didn't know what to say. Where words needed?

I realized how he eyed me as well and a smug smile appeared on his lips. Shit, I wanted him. I had never felt this need for someone before, but I had also never allowed myself to get this carried away.

I bit my lower lip and tried to clear my thoughts but that attempt was quickly thrown completely over board when he suddenly pressed my back against the closest wall and kissed me. The kiss almost took my breath away.

Here I was standing on the strip with my back against the wall of some club and making out with a complete stranger. And it felt so right.

"Duff", I whimpered against his lips in a needy tone. "We should probably keep going, huh?", he smirked a little out of breath himself. "Except you consider this somewhere more private", I said with a grin on my lips but felt how he led me on with his arm around my hips once again.

"Wouldn't mind", he shrugged and lit another cigarette: "But I wanna take my time with you."

I swallowed hard and accepted the cigarette he wanted to share with me.

The next five minutes of us walking passed mainly without much talking but then I found myself in his one-bedroom apartment.

Alone with him now I felt the nervousness set back in.

So this was how it's gonna be?

"You want somethin to drink or anything?", he asked from behind me and I shook my head. Soon I felt him against my back with his arms around my body and his lips on my neck and shoulder.

I suppressed the low moan that had wanted to escape my lips and simply leaned back against him.

He had soon gripped the hem of my dress and pulled it over my head. A shiver ran through me but his warm hands that travelled my body soothed me and quickly found the clasp of my bra and opened it.

He was still kissing my neck when he whispered: "Turn around to me." I obeyed immediately.

The sight of my bare breasts exposed before him made him fight to contain his arousal as he hardened in his boxers. He lowered his head and wrapped his lips around my nipple. He sucked gently and I failed to find something to hold onto.

It was weird to be almost naked in front of him while he was still fully dressed, at the same time it made me feel excited.

"Get on the bed, I got something to prove", the blond haired told me smirking and I nodded. I tried not to run to the bed and could barely believe how caught up in the moment I was. My entire mind was foggy!

I watched him take off his leather jacket before he walked over to me and moved my thighs apart so he could lay down between them.

I could feel him hard against my center through our clothes but before the nervousness consumed me he had his lips on mine again and consumed my senses instead.

His body was pressed against mine and he traced his fingers down my body. He stroked over my thighs and spread them even more before moving to my panties.

Through the fabric he pressed his hand against me and gently rubbed me. A soft moan left my lips and I stirred underneath him and spread my legs further. Duff smirked against my breats and took my nipple in his mouth again as he began to rub me through my panties. His fingers ran over my slit as heat began to pool and I whimpered.

"Duff", I moaned softly.

He pulled away from my titts and brought his lips to mine while his fingers rubbed at my clit.

My eyes were closed, and I was lost in the moment, but I managed to bring my hand to his head and tangled my fingers in his blond, long hair. My lips parted as another soft moan left them and Duff pushed his tongue inside my mouth, massaging my tongue with his own.

His fingers were moving in circles over my clit and I whimpered against his lips as my panties became more soaked with each move he made.

I moaned and writhed on the bed as his hand travelled beneath my panties. Both of us moaned as he ran his middle finger between my folds, feeling how wet I was.

I whined his name again and lifted my hips to meet his hand.

He pushed his erection against my thigh and instinctively I reached down and stroked him through his pants.

"God you’re so wet for me", he growled in in my ear.

I bit my lip and raised my hips when suddenly he pulled away from me.

He knelt on the bed and smirked at me before ripping my panties down my thighs and tossing them to the floor.

My heart felt like it was about to pump out of my fucking chest.

He moved between my legs and crashed his lips against mine.

His fingers made their way back to my core and he pushed his middle finger inside me with ease, making me gasp.

"You want me to fuck you?", he pulled his finger out teasingly slow.

I bit your lip and without thinking I nodded as he pushed his finger back in.

He added a second finger, stretching me slowly: "But not yet."

He pulled his fingers away and I whined at the emptiness. But before I could protest Duff spread my legs apart and laid between them.

He ran the flat of his tongue along my slit, making me gasp and clutch at the sheets.

His tongue ran over my clit in two slow strokes.

I quickly covered my mouth with my hand and let out a moan.

His tongue ran over my clit in slow circles and he reached his hands up to squeeze my breasts. When he sucked at my clit I let out another moan into my hand and Duff pulled away.

"Oh No, baby", he told me and moved my hand from my mouth: "I wanna hear you."

I bit my lip and watched as he went back to his slow licks and his eyes never left mine as he ran his tongue over me. I felt like I was burning.

I squeezed my eyes shut and reached down, wrapping my fingers in his blond hair and raised my hips to meet him. He pulled back, only slightly and ran his fingers over my slit. He let out a growl as he watched, pushing two fingers into your throbbing pussy.

"Duff", I gasped and already felt extremely full. "Don't panic", I told myself and threw all worries away when he began to pump his fingers in and out of me, slowly at first before he increased his speed.

"You like that, baby girl?"

I moaned in response and he stopped his movements. He sucked at my clit and the change in pleasure made me squirm.

I whined and lifted my hips to meet the strokes of his tongue.

He moaned against me and the vibrations sent pleasure soaring through my veins. He began pumping his fingers once more, curling them against my wall and rubbing against my gspot.

I writhed on the bed, clutching at the sheets because of the amount of pleasure.

"Fuck..."

"You gonna cum for me doll?", he growled against me.

I sunk my teeth into my bottom lip as my orgasm coursed through me. MY walls clenched around his skilled fingers and his tongue didn’t stop running over your clit, making my legs tremble.

When my orgasm started to slow down he got up and took his clothes off, throwing them anywhere. Before he sat back down between my thighs, I watched him put on a condom through barely open eyelids.

Without a warning and therefor without giving me the time to over think this he plunged his cock into me. I gasped at his size and raked my nails down his back.

The pain was sharp and unknown.

"God you feel so good baby."

He crashed his lips against mine, stifling my moan as he pulled out of me slowly.

"So tight." He pushed into me again. I was frowning and pushed my eyes closed as I was trying to adjust to him. Fuck, he felt so good at the same time this hurt so bad but in the best way possible.

I moaned and ran my hands over his back as he set a pace with deep and slow thrusts. He wanted me to feel every inch of him entering me and he lost himself in the little whimpers I made as he pushed into me. After a few more thrusts when the pain was starting to die down, he pulled out of me and knelt on the bed.

"Rollover", he ordered.

I bit my lip and obeyed, kneeling in front of him on all fours. Duff let out a breath as he looked at my ass.

I felt him run his cock over my center before he pushed into me once more.

"Duff...", I hissed.

His change of angle set a whole new sense of pleasure and he set a faster pace. It hurt but felt so good... His cock slammed into me and I collapsed against the mattress, falling onto my elbows, arching my back more in doing so.

He brought his hand down swiftly, slapping my ass and making me gasp.

Duff gripped my hips and I moaned between breaths as he picked up a fast and hard pace, slamming into me hard and fast. He leaned forward and pulled my hair into a ponytail, his thrusts never slowing down. With a gentle tug at my hair he pulled me back onto all fours and with his spare hand he reached under me.

His fingers found my clit and he rubbed clumsy circles. I bit my lip, trying to contain my moans and arched my back. He leant over me, his breath on my shoulder and hearing his staggered breathing sent me into overdrive. He released his grip in my hair only to wrap his hand around your throat gently and pull me back enough so he could turn my head around to kiss him. Just what I needed.

"You gonna cum for me?"

I attempted to nod, which proved difficult with his grip on my throat. He didn't wait for an answer though and rubbed his fingers over my clit faster.

"Cum for me, babygirl."

I lost all control, my eyes rolling back as the waves of pleasure rolled through me, sending shivers all over my skin. His pace was sloppy now and I knew he was almost ready as well. He slowly pulled away and turned on his back so I knelt down on wobbly legs. I removed the condom and licked along his throbbing cock and he let out a low moan. I took him as deep as I could and began to suck him off until he grasped his cock and pumped it a few times before coming in my mouth.

I swallowed his load and his deep moans send a few last chills through me.

Both of us collapsed against the sheets, a sheer layer of sweat covering my skin as I tried to catch my breath.

"Shit that was good", he exhaled and placed a lazy kiss on my shoulder. "Yes, it was", I thought and grinned to myself, trying to process what had happened.

[my-head-is-an-animal]

Beneath The Skin

Relationship: Remus Lupin x OFC

Summary: This is the story of one young woman's struggle with pain, inner pain, mental pain, physical pain, psychological pain, every kind of pain you can imagine. Remus Lupin understands pain, he wants her to understand that it doesn't mean you can't feel anything else, he wants her to understand that pain has absolutely nothing on love.  

Warnings: TRIGGER WARNING, heavy mentions of self-harm and suicidal tendencies, pain, angst, loss of parents, trust issues. 18+ Minors DNI

Chapter 36 - Epilogue

I’d been woken up early by Tonks and I hated it, much preferring to sleep in, but she was adamant that now I was old enough that I could see her most treasured possession. It was a box, plain and simple, wooden, no bigger than a large shoe box, but it was heavy. She had a tear in her eye when she gave it to me, like she was giving something away or saying goodbye to an old friend. It was only when I opened the box that I understood why.

I sat down on the bed in my small room in the small cottage belonging to Ted and Andromeda Tonks, they couldn’t afford to give me much more than their small spare room, but I loved them for giving me a home nonetheless, they didn’t have to, but they always said that it was their pleasure and their honour to have me. I never understood what that meant, but I would always nod and thank them anyway.

Tonks told me not to open it until she came back with a cup of tea for us both so that she could explain a few things. She sat down in her bright pink pyjama t-shirt and white trousers and smiled a little sadly at me.

‘If it was up to me, I would have shown you this years ago,’ she said, a lump forming in her throat. ‘But I was under strict instruction to wait until the morning of your seventeenth birthday so that when you go to Hogwarts next year, you can think on what it is you really want to do with your life.’

I frowned, opening up the small wooden box and looked down at the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my whole life. My parents. It was a photograph of my parents holding me on the night they died.

‘2nd May 1998.’ Tonks wiped away a tear that was threatening to fall. ‘I’ll never forget that night and I’ll never forget taking that picture. We were all so scared at the time, but your parents… Rosie was my best friend and Remus was so perfect for her. When they had you, it was like everything felt right with the world… and then the idiots asked me to be godmother and I knew it was all downhill from there.’ Tonks half laughed, prompting me to do the same.

My mother was so beautiful, the same green eyes and smattering of freckles that I had, but unlike her, my hair was a sandy colour that I’d always been told came from my father who was handsome enough, but when he looked at me and my mother with that loving smile, he was as perfect as her.

‘Amara,’ Tonks said, I looked up at her eyes now filling entirely with water. ‘I am so sorry that you never got the chance to know them, but this box is everything they left for you that was important. They both wrote you a letter,’ Tonks pulled out two envelopes addressed to me. ‘I think in some way, despite them always saying that everything would be okay, they knew the war would be the end for them. They left a letter for me as well with the instructions to give you this box on your seventeenth birthday, to make sure that Remus’s books got published so that you always had a bit of extra cash and the one thing they made me promise was that I give you a list of their albums in the order that they should be played. No one knew music like your parents and I don’t think any of us really appreciated that until it was too late.’

I was only half listening to Tonks, I couldn’t help but stare down at my parents, to know that on their last day on earth, they smiled. They loved me.

The only real thing I had that told me what my parents were like was the stories people told me and my father’s books, which sold at a phenomenal rate the year they came out; the second one was my favourite, because he made footnotes about my mother and how they fell in love. They were small and seemed somehow irrelevant to the actual documentation of the war, which Tonks said was a publishing decision, but to me they were everything I ever had to know my parents were real. She had given me the original manuscripts, the second one was unfinished, but she and Ted filled in the blanks that related to the final battle against Lord Voldemort.

‘I’ll make us some breakfast while you read their letters.’ Tonks said and laid the two letters down next to me.

Amara,

My darling baby girl. You will never know how much I love you, or how the love that made you, saved my life. Your father was the only thing I ever needed to allow me to keep my faith in life, because before him I had none.

My mother, your grandmother, Margaret Carter was a Death Eater by public knowledge, but along with Severus Snape, she was a spy for the Order of the Phoenix and she was the bravest woman I ever knew. She taught me how to be strong, to survive and have courage, but she never got the chance to teach me how to live. Your father was the one who did that and he did so without any hesitation.

We spoke only last night about how we can’t wait to drop you off at Platform 9 3/4 for your first day at Hogwarts, of course, we don’t care that much which house you end up in, we were both Gryffindors, but that doesn’t mean you should feel any pressure about that, every house has its qualities, my mother was a Slytherin and she turned out very well in the end.

But, if we don’t get to see that day, I don’t want you to be sad about it, I want you to be happy and know that your father and I wouldn’t change a single thing we did. We will fight if called upon because we believe that by doing so, we are affording you the life we wished we had when we were young. Your father’s lycanthropy started when he was just four years old and I was attacked and cursed when I was seven. I think it best that one of your godparents explain a little more about it as I don’t really like to think on it.

We were worried when you were born that you would inherit my curse and we couldn’t imagine a worse fate for a baby, but it seems like you only feel joy, because all you ever seem to do is smile up at us, except when you’re hungry and then we’re both convinced you’re some form of devil child. But I expect all parents feel like that.

When the first full moon came along, I can’t deny how scared I was, I stayed with you all night just in case, but you just slept soundly and quietly. Your father came back frantic and asking me all sorts of questions, but I assured him you were fine and got him into bed to rest. The only strange occurrence was that you were exceptionally tired, we concluded that only some of Remus’s attributes were passed on to you, so possibly you’ll end up with wolf-like qualities without any of the pain, which makes me so very happy to think about. I’m excited to find out how you like your steaks, your father likes them a little on the raw side, in fact, he’s got a particular liking for all meat, that and chocolate which I constantly tell him he needs to cut back on otherwise he’ll rot his teeth, but he doesn’t listen or seem to care much, because he just laughs and eats some more.

Amara, I want you to know that I love you, with all of my heart, I love you. I didn’t know if I wanted to write this letter because I knew what it meant, your father is even less pleased about it, but I’m hoping through his annoyed looks it means he’s doing it for me. We’re writing these letters in the living room by the way, in our cottage in Yorkshire, your first home. Your father is sitting in the armchair and I’m laying across the sofa and trying not to laugh at his grumpy attitude, it was a hard transformation this month and I’m sure it was because he was exhausted from putting up so many protective charms, we've had to move around a lot recently. You’re sleeping on top of me, because we couldn’t get you to sleep in the cot for some reason, so I suppose I’m stuck until you decide you’ve had enough. I feel if we don’t survive then giving you that information might be important.

Anyway, I don’t know what more to say, I suppose if we do die before this war is over, no one will let you grow up without a few stories, I just hope they put us in a good light, but then you can’t have everything and we wouldn’t be human if there weren’t a few horror stories in there.

I hope you don’t cry reading this, I know if my mother wrote me a letter, I would ball my eyes out for how much I miss her. But I want you to think of this as a happy thing. After all, I’m writing this so that you can have something of me to keep with you through the hard times, of which I’m sure there will be many.

I love you my darling girl, more than you could ever know.

Keep your faith in life and have courage.

Your mother

Rosaline

I couldn’t breathe, the tears were too much, blinding me, making it hard to read the words my mother wrote all those years ago. It was too much to think about, too much to take in, she was real, she really did exist and this letter was the proof. All I ever had of my parents before this moment was a few pictures from their wedding and one of the entire Order standing together during the war. But this was real, living proof that my parents were more than a faded photograph.

I wiped away my tears and took a deep calming breath, reciting the old mantra Tonks used to encourage me to go through when I was finding life difficult. Breathe, just breathe, relax and take a deep breath.

I picked up the next envelope, breathing steadily and as calmly as I could. The writing was slightly more scrawled and it only made me smile to know that my father was a little grumpy when writing it.

Amara,

You mother knows full well that I’m not in the right mind set to write this and I can see her trying to stifle a laugh which is only serving to annoy me more. Having said that, she is beautiful with you laying across her chest and I think she might be right.

This war is taking its toll on the both of us and I am worried for what it means. When she asked me to write this letter, I was at a bit of a loss, I wasn’t sure what to put into it or what would have been appropriate, but she smiled and said “what do you think she’d like to know about us?”. In truth, that hasn’t helped very much, but I will do my very best.

When I met your mother, I was so scared for her, this beautiful, radiant, smart and funny woman was in constant pain and I knew she needed help. I hope you don’t think poorly of me, but we met when she was in her seventh year of Hogwarts and I was teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts. Of course, please don’t think that we were those types of people to cause a scandal, the very last thing I expected when I took that post was to fall in love, especially given my condition, it was most inconvenient. But I was professional and I did my best to help her see that her life didn’t have to be about pain.

In fact, the very first time I met your mother was about a month into the school year if I remember correctly, she didn’t turn up to many classes because her intelligence superseded anything her teachers could give her and the boredom only made her feel the pain she was trying to distract herself from. But she made a promise to the Headmaster that at least once a week she would make the effort to go to each class… I’m not so sure if this is really what she intended for these letters, but I think it would be nice for you to know how we met and the circumstance under which we fell in love.

Over the course of the school year, I taught her the patronus charm, not that I thought she was incapable in the slightest, but because of the dementors who guarded the school at that time, I thought she would suffer more because of what is in her past; your mother is exceptionally skilled and I feel you would only know that through other people’s telling of that. She often smiled the most beautiful smile and went the most wonderful shade of red whenever anyone complimented her, so once we were out of Hogwarts, I made it my intention to compliment her as often as I could.

I suppose it’s important for you to know that when she was a girl, her mother was a spy for the Order and once the war was over and Voldemort was defeated, Death Eaters went after Maggie Carter and so in turn, Rosaline. Her mother died that night protecting Rosaline and for years she never knew who saved her, as it turned out, it was my father – who you should visit as he gets lonely and he’s always asking about you – I took your mother to Hogsmeade to meet with my father so that he could shed some light on the events of that night, it gave her some comfort, but like with everything else, she didn’t speak much about it for a long time.

Anyway, at the end of the school year, my condition was ‘accidentally’ revealed, and it forced my resignation, your mother was understandably upset, but she was optimistic having been scouted by Kingsley Shacklebolt and offered a job as a crafter for the Aurors department. And then I did something monstrous, I made her a promise that I wouldn’t leave her of my own accord and I did just that. I felt her association with me would only harm her career or any opportunity she had to live a good life, but of course, as she often reminds me, I was wrong.

A year later we met again and she was understandably angry and upset. It took a very long time for us to reconcile, but I didn’t give up because I knew despite her frustration and anger, we loved each other and that in itself was always worth fighting for.

We eventually got married – I often wonder if it was more impulsive than right, given that everyone was panicking over the war, any day could have been our last – and then you came along and it was the single greatest day of my life. Your mother was so strong, I’d never seen anyone give birth before, there was no real reason for me to have done so, but to go through that on top of the pain she feels daily was a truly courageous act and I am ever proud to call her my wife.

I broke just one more promise to her, I swore I never would, but when I told her she just laughed and accepted that this was just one promise that was bound to be broken by your arrival. I swore I would never love anyone more than I love your mother, but the second you came into the world, my love for you superseded my love for her.

We promised each other that no matter what, your safety came first, if one of us is killed during this war, the other will run to protect you, because that is the way it should be and that is the way it will always be.

I don’t know what the future holds, we may die tomorrow or fifty years from now, but I hope I get the chance to know you properly, I hope I get to spoil you with chocolate and listen to your mother shouting at me for doing so, I hope I get to meet the person you fall in love with and I hope you devote yourself to them as fully as I have devoted myself to you and your mother. I hope to walk you down the aisle, I hope to meet your children and watch you grow into the most beautiful woman you could possibly be. I hope you keep your freckles, they’re starting to show on your cheeks now as we approach your first birthday, you have your mothers eyes and those freckles made me fall so deeply in love with her.

Your mother has finished her letter and she’s looking at me, I’m not sure I like how amused she is.

I hope this has been enough for you, I’m not sure what else to say to be honest. Except that I love you with all of my heart and I will do my utmost to survive this war for your sake.

Stay strong Amara, love with all of yourself and know that no one will love you as much as I do.

Your father

Remus

P.S. I forgot to say, just in case we don’t survive and there is no one else to tell you: during the full moon, if you feel especially tired, drink Wolfsbane. While I am exceptionally happy that you haven’t inherited mine or your mother’s curses, you will feel some lycanthropic effects, so make sure you look after yourself, be a little selfish where your health is concerned and don’t be afraid to ask for help if you’re unsure of anything. I love you.

It was so hard to keep a hold of my tears, I just couldn’t believe that my father’s entire letter was about me and my mum, I couldn’t believe that the last things he wanted me to know was how much he loved her and looked forward to seeing who I grew up to be.

Tonks came back with some breakfast, a bacon sandwich and I asked a question which seemed somehow important.

‘Did my dad like his bacon this way? Only just cooked?’

Tonks just smiled, her pink hair somehow brightening. ‘He used to get annoyed if you left it in the pan for more than a couple of minutes.’ She nodded. ‘Your mum always used to laugh at him for it, is that what he talked about in his letter? How much he disliked overcooked bacon?’

‘No,’ I shook my head, feeling my tear flooding my eyes again. ‘My mum said my dad loved his meat and… so do I.’

‘Yeah, I remember him mentioning that when Bill was attacked by Greyback, told Fleur he’d probably like his steaks on the raw side.’ Tonks laughed, remembering the day. ‘Anyway, let’s go through some of these pictures, I cannot wait to tell you about some of the things your mum did!’

Tonks showed me some of the pictures taken by Sirius Black, he was my parents friend and a man who had really only recently been cleared of any crimes. Kingsley Shacklebolt, the Minister for Magic had done the right thing in clearing a lot of names since the war, giving out Order of Merlin’s to those who’d lost their lives, including my parents, my father being the first werewolf to receive the award. It sat on my chest of drawers and it was yet another reminder that my parents were brave.

‘Not just brave,’ Tonks smiled. ‘Your father was the kindest man I knew, he’d never say no to anyone who needed help. Everyone treated him like crap for so long because of what he was, everyone except Rosie, who just fell all the more in love with him. And Rosie was so funny! She was quiet and had a temper to be reckoned with, much like yourself,’ I had to laugh at all the times I’d lost my temper at school for one reason or another, Tonks never seemed too upset by it though, she just smiled like it was an old memory and now I knew why. ‘Mind you, your dad, as calm as he was, had his limits as well.’

‘Do you think they’d be upset that I get in trouble so much?’ I asked, strangely imaging getting a howler from my mother and secretly rejoicing that I could hear from her.

Tonks thought for a moment. ‘I think, were they alive now, they wouldn’t exactly be happy that you misbehaved so much, but your dad was a bit of a prankster in school so I don’t think they’d be surprised.’

‘He was a prankster?’

‘Yeah, him Sirius, James Potter and Peter Pettigrew were best friends in school, called themselves the Marauders.’ Tonks laughed and I couldn’t help my smile. ‘Of course, Peter turned out to be a coward and was responsible for a lot of the stuff that happened in the first war, I think your dad talks about it a bit in his book, but no one really knew that at the time, they all thought Sirius was the traitor.’ I already knew about this, having skimmed my copy of ‘The First Great War by R. J. Lupin’, but nowhere did it mention how close the four boys were at school.

‘What about my mum?’ I asked, hoping there was some great epic story about how popular she was.

‘Actually, Rosie didn’t really have many friends in school,’ Tonks said sadly and I felt my hope diminishing quickly. ‘I know that she was on the Quidditch team as a Chaser, but she sometimes played Seeker when Harry was injured. Oliver Wood was the closest friend she had, but I don’t think they knew each other too well.’

‘Oliver Wood?’ I exclaimed. ‘The England Keeper!’

‘Yeah, you a fan?’

‘Erm, yeah!’ I said, gesturing to my Puddlemere United poster. ‘So my mum liked Quidditch? Who did she support?’

‘Actually…’ Tonks looked a little awkward. ‘Rosie hated Quidditch.’ Once again I felt my heart sinking. ‘Well, I should clarify, she hated playing Quidditch, I think opinion on the sport in general softened over the years, but because of her condition, playing such an intense sport took its toll and she was always in a lot of pain from playing and any injury she got, big or small always felt so much worse than it actually was… but I think she’d be really happy that you love it so much, so don’t feel too bad about it.’

I nodded, feeling a little more distant from my parents than I had only a few moments ago.

‘Thing is Amara,’ Tonks rummaged around in the old letters to find another picture of my parents. ‘Your mum and dad were both cursed,’ she finally found the picture she was looking for, it looked like Christmas time and a big branch of mistletoe had been put up between them, my dad was looking at my mum who was trying to contain her smile, before he kissed her. It was like something out of a cheesy love story, but to me it felt so important. ‘They suffered so much pain in their life and I know that all they really wanted was for you to grow up better than they did. They wanted a warm home for you to come back to, they wanted you to experience all the best things in life, they wanted you to fall in love with some stupid boy and they wanted you to know how loved you are… I think as long as you remember those things, you’ll make them so proud.’

I couldn’t help my crying, I couldn’t help how much I missed them, I never knew them, but I missed them and now, through their old letters to one another, through the pictures people took of them and through the music they left behind, I would finally understand them.

Kingsley had been looking forward to this day for sixteen years, no one had managed to keep the post of Minister for Magic for so long, but it was important that he keep it for at least this long so that on the Day of Remembrance, he could tell a new story, one he’d been dying to tell since the war was over.

Tonks told him that Amara wanted to come to the service of her own accord, understanding how important it was to remember those who gave they life during Voldemort’s downfall. He had never really spoken to the young woman, having only turned seventeen a couple of weeks ago and knowing she would have received her parent’s letters, but he’d kept tabs on her, much like a few others in the ministry and watched her grow into a fine young witch.

The people all filed into the ministry reception and Tonks made sure that Amara was seated close to the plaque where her parent’s names sat next to each other.

‘Thank you all for coming here today.’ Kingsley said, his voice booming through the reception at an increased volume so that he could be heard by all. ‘Today we remember the sacrifices made by those who fell during the first and second wars, we remember our fallen heroes and we remember what was given so that we may continue on. Many of you will be expecting me to talk about the political and strategic side of those wars as I usually would, but this year marks a very special anniversary, sixteen years on and a young orphaned girl turns seventeen,’ Kingsley caught Amara’s eye, she was staring up at him, mouth slightly agape. ‘The daughter of two of the bravest souls I ever had the privilege to fight beside and two of the kindest and wisest individuals this world has ever seen. Today I would ask you to think on these heroes with extra care, I would ask you to honour the memory of their achievements, their sacrifice and take wisdom from the lives they lived. These heroes were Remus Lupin and Rosaline Carter. Two of my friends, my heroes and two people I think about every day of my life.’

Kingsley took a moment to compose himself, he could feel the lump forming in his throat.

‘I first met Rosie when she was at school, the smartest witch of her age, built a pensieve out of books she found in the school library, I asked her to come and work for the ministry and do some good with her talents as a fine crafter. She agreed.’ Kingsley sipped a little water from the goblet next to him. ‘Remus Lupin was a teacher for one year at Hogwarts, he taught with enthusiasm and with as much wisdom and kindness as any man could ever possess. I am proud to have fought with such a warrior. Together, they fell in love, married and had a beautiful baby girl who bore her mother’s eyes and her father’s smile, they were asked far too many times to leave their daughter at home and join the fight against Voldemort and they did so, without hesitation, without questioning and without fear. Why? Because they believed in the future, they believed in life and they believed more than anything in love. They died during the final battle, leaving their one year old girl to navigate this new and better world alone, but far better they died leaving behind the foundation for us to build a better world, than died in vain. My greatest sadness is that they held so much hope that they would see their daughter grow, to die at the very end of things, hours before it was all over at the hands of truly evil men and women is the foulest crime ever committed. Remus Lupin was a werewolf, attacked when he was child of four by the now deceased werewolf Greyback, he the bravest man I knew and the kindest soul to walk this earth. Rosie Carter was cursed with living with the Cruciatis curse in her very skin, she was attacked when she was seven by a group of Death Eaters and stayed in her mother’s arms who died trying to save her daughter’s life, Rosie felt that pain every day of her life. Their daughter, while still young, has gone on to become the finest student at Hogwarts, a brave Gryffindor by nature, inherited her father’s compassion and her mother’s resilience and as I hear it, she has also inherited a fierce and short temper, something I always feared in her mother more than her father, especially when it came to the protection of those who could not protect themselves.’ Kingsley smiled down at Amara who was close to tears. ‘Rosie Carter was a hero, Remus Lupin was a fighter. If I could have one more day with them both, I would make sure they knew how much I appreciated their wisdom, I would tell them that they didn’t need to worry,’ Kingsley was beginning to lose himself, he’d never been one for showing emotion, but this was getting to be too much. ‘I would look after their daughter to keep their memory alive, to keep them in the hearts of all those who they sacrificed themselves for. My only thanks is that they no longer have to live in pain and no one will ever again ask too much of them. Today I ask you to remember all those who died, but especially the Lupins, to remember what happens when you stand up to evil and you say no to the darkness, remember what happens when you choose love over hate and anger, when you treat those around you with compassion and you show kindness even during your darkest hours. You remember our fallen heroes and don’t you dare let them die in vain. Remember Remus Lupin. Remember Rosaline Carter.’

Kingsley nodded and listened to the sounds of the reception area politely clapping, most of them probably wouldn’t take the time to remember the Lupins, but Kingsley could never live with himself if he didn’t at least tell people about them.

Tonks was standing with Amara who was crying and trying to hold herself together, when Kingsley gestured for them to come over to where he was standing.

‘Amara Hope Lupin.’ He smiled down at the young woman. ‘You look so like your mother, except the hair, your father had hair like yours and you’re a little taller than Rosie.’ She tried to smile, but her tears were stopping it from reaching her eyes.

‘You… you worked with my mother?’ She asked, her tears silently streaming down her face.

Kingsley sighed and nodded sadly. ‘Rosie was the best at what she did, she built and repaired our equipment, even making improvements that kept us safe and in the fight. She didn’t have the best start, people didn’t understand her because she was quiet, but Tonks soon got her to open up a little and much the shock to everyone else, we found your mother was quick, she was strong and she was so incredibly brave. Would you like to see the office where she worked?’

Amara nodded immediately and Kingsley snuck them out of the reception with Tonks’s help. The office was a lot different than it used to be, now it had four crafters all working at the same pace Rosaline worked at, no one could quite match up to her skill and Kingsley was hardly surprised.

‘She used to sit about here,’ Kingsley demonstrated. ‘Her record player sat in the corner over there and she spent all day repairing old sneakoscopes, dark detectors, even vanishing cabinets and the odd dark object. She was a damn fine crafter and one of a kind, much like you.’ He watched Amara frown slightly. ‘Werewolves aren’t supposed to breed Amara, the risk of passing on their condition is too great and far too much pain to put on a child. Having said that, I suppose Rosie’s curse was much the same, it’s a wonder you’ve turned out as well as you have done.’

‘What do you think happened?’ Amara asked, looking at all the instruments that were in need of repair.

Kingsley inhaled deeply and thought about it. ‘Well, I’m not healer, from a magical stand point, I think the two curses cancelled each other out, but I’m no expert, I’m just glad you don’t suffer the way they did.’

Amara nodded a little sadly, the same way Rosie used to and it sent a sharp pain through Kingsley heart.

‘Everyone always tells me how much they suffered,’ Amara said quietly. ‘They all tell me how much pain they were in and I think about how much I miss them, it makes me feel so guilty to want them to have survived, because if they did, they’d still be in pain wouldn’t they? So, maybe in a way, it’s better that they died… they were so in love with each other and now they get to be in love without the pain.’

‘Amara,’ Kingsley couldn’t help but smile. ‘You are so much more like your parents than you know. You’re right to miss them and to wish they were still around, Merlin knows I wish it had been me instead of them, but you’re also right that now they aren’t in pain anymore… they’re somewhere better and you get to live a life surrounded by people who loved them so much. That would be more than enough for them.’

Kingsley was suddenly taken aback by the young woman hugging him and crying into his shoulder. He held her tight and couldn’t help but remember the moments her mother cried and needed him to hold her, he was never very good at it, but he tried and for Rosie that was enough, so he did his best for Amara and hoped it was enough.

‘Thank you,’ she whispered. ‘Thank you for remembering my parents.’

‘Always.’ He whispered back.

The last train back to Hogwarts, Tonks had dropped me off around eight o’clock because she needed to get to work early that day. I didn’t mind, it was the same every year, except first year where my grandfather, Lyall, had come along and stayed with me for three hours before the train left Platform 9 3/4.

It was a strange sight now, not just because this was my last year at school, but because I suddenly noticed the crowds of people, first years being seen off by their parents for the first time. I wondered what it would have looked like if my parents had been there for my first day, would they have cried? Would my father have even been able to come? I wasn’t sure what the moon cycle even was around that time. I was being silly, of course he would have come, he wouldn't have let something like being a werewolf stop him from seeing me off for my first train ride to Hogwarts, not after he so looked forward to it.

I imagined that my mother would be quiet, trying not to let me know how upset she was to say goodbye, I imagined my father would give her knowing looks and sympathise and I imagined them standing hand in hand waving me off as the platform got smaller and smaller until I could no longer see it.

All my friends found me sitting in our usual carriage and they asked me why I was crying, I didn’t even realise I was until they said it. I told them about my parents on the way to Hogwarts and it led to us all crying over what we’d all lost during the war, some of us it was aunties and uncles, others it was family friends, but no one else had lost two parents and no one else had parents like mine.

I remembered Kingsley’s final words during his speech, it was never more important that I take those words to heart.

Remember Remus Lupin. Remember Rosaline Carter.

END

Author’s Note: I wanted to say thank you once again to everyone on Ao3 who read this and left such beautiful comments on the work. I cannot express how grateful I am that you all read it and connected in some way with it. Thank you.

A personal thank you goes to @gemstone-roses​ for encouraging me to post the story in the first place, had that not happened, no one would ever have read my little story. 

For anyone struggling with mental health issues, I am with you, I feel your pain too. Please never forget that you are so loved and my inbox is always open to anyone who wants to chat or vent or even just talk about the weather. There is no one like you on this Earth and that, my friends, is the most beautiful thing in the world. 

All my love,

J.D.

[vanillann]

luke or luke? (luke patterson x reader)

a/n: so i’m adding my own twist to this prompt because i had this FABULOUS idea

word count: 1.2k

luke patterson masterlist

I barely made it through the doors of the studio before I felt my feet sliding. I managed to stop myself from falling, just barely, as I surveyed the room.

The band was splashed around, Reggie messing with the bass while Luke pointed out something with a string, Alex sat almost upside down in a seat, then Julie sat in front of her opened laptop.

“Are you ready for the drop!”

Luke almost fell off the piano at the call of my voice but I ignored it and pranced next to Julie who had Spotify pulled up, refreshing every few seconds.

“Of course I am, I wouldn’t miss a 5SOS album drop,” she leaned back, attempting to keep her cool but I could tell by the energy around her she was just as excited.

“5SOS?” Alex sat up straighter, letting his chin rest in his palm as he spoke.

“It’s this band Julie and I’ve been obsessed with forever.”

I moved beside Julie, resting my feet on the soft cushions while the other two boys slowly gathered around us. 

“Well you have a new band to be obsessed with now,” Luke pointed this thumbs to his chest, a goofy smile spread wide over his pink lips as he baked in his own glory.

“Hate to break it to ya Luke, but you are (Y/N) second favorite Luke in a band,” Julie giggled to herself.

I felt my jaw go slack as I looked at Julie, but she didn’t look ashamed at her words. The studio was no longer quiet as Reggie and Alex asked question after question, some normal and some weird. I looked at the time lit up on Julie's laptop and wasted no time pulling out my phone.

“It’s out!” I jumped from the couch with my fist in the air, smiling as each song downloaded then slamming my finger into the shuffle button.

Julie stood up beside me, Alex on her side and Reggie was almost leaning on me as we listened to the riff of a guitar strum echo off the walls that surrounded us, Luke’s humming made my heart melt just listening to it.

“I can do that!” Luke jumped up in front of me, his classic pout carved into his face as he looked to me but I pushed it aside. The lyrics filled the room, each person feeling differently towards the masterpiece.

“That doesn’t even rhyme!” I held my finger up, slamming it over Luke’s mouth and giving my best smile as I listened to the song. Reggie started tapping his foot, stepping on mine in the process, and Alex drummed his fingers on his thigh.

That’s when something in me broke, because the drumming came so naturally to the two band members and as they taped longer the more it sounded so similar to something I heard. Nothing close enough to be copied, but where it had an energy to it, like you’d hear it back to back on a playlist and think it was the same band.

I paused the song, which made Luke smile and the rest groan as they noticed the glitter in my eye.

“Luke, grab your guitar and play C Major,” I pointed to the sixth string in question.

“Want me to prove-”

“I want you to grab your guitar and play C Major,” I rolled my eyes, watching his smirk only grow wider as he basically bounced to his sixth string and easily played the chord I asked for. He kept basic strumming patterns and it was making more sense by the second.

“Reggie, play the same chord progression from Bright and Alex you play Now or Never,” the Flynn in me was lit up like a million candles, watching as the boys easily picked up their instruments without a second thought. Once the melody rang through the room, Luke started smiling and walking closer to Julie and I.

“You should have told us to play Crooked Teeth if you wanted,” he grew shoulder, winking at me but my head was so caught up as I turned to Julie.

“Sing the new 5SOS song.”

Julie shrugged, singing the few lyrics we heard seconds ago and within a few seconds Julie was smiling and nodding at me.

“I hear it!”

“Thank God,” I fell back to the couch, laughing as Reggie and Alex slowly picked up what I was putting down, Luke on the other hand was pouting more and more by the second.

“They copied us!”

“No, but you both sound similar,” Julie pointed out, taking the seat beside me with a little giggle after her words.

“We were playing before they were born!” Luke took on his sixth string, sitting on the glass table in front of me and grabbing my knee, his way of begging me to hear him out.

“Luke was born in 1996, what if he’s your reincarnation?” I wiggled my eyebrows, enjoying the rise I got out of him with such a simple topic. Alex clapped his hand on his shoulder, his smirk matching mine as he caught on.

“Good thing he kept the first name!”

Luke gasped, looking over his shoulder at Alex with his hand placed over his chest.

“I thought we were friend Mercer!”

“We are, unfortunately.”

Luke stood up, his pout never leaving as he stomped out like a child from the studio, our laughs filled behind him as he left us with our jokes and music. Once the laughter died down we realized he left, and it didn’t seem he was coming right back as we thought.

“Think we went too far?” Reggie rocked on his heels, his face dropping immediately.

“No, I think he’s just a little jealous. I’ll go after him,” I shrugged, not thinking much of the topic. Luke wasn’t this shallow, I had no doubt he just didn’t want to snap and make the situation worst so he left.

I left through the open garage doors, finding him slowly walk down Julie’s long driveway, shocked he didn’t poof away already. I jogged to the place beside him, smiling when I kept an easy pace with him.

“Do you really like that Luke more than me?”

“Nah, I like mine dead,” I smirked when he held back a laugh, I knew he would be perfectly fine.

The silence was nice as the breeze brushed our skin, the comfort of the little drumming from the distance and the perfect weather almost didn’t feel real.

“They do sound like Sunset Curve,” Luke kicked a small rock, finally turning to look at me for the first time since I raced after him.

“They do, but must I say I’ve listened to Sunset Curve more often. I’m like their groupie!”

Luke laughed, reaching his arm out so I joined him at his side. I always forgot how cold he could be whenever we touched, but I suppose that came with death. His finger trailed up my arm in comfortable shapes, a smile on both our lips.

“I still had a crush on Luke Hemmings first.”

That earned me a rough pinch to my arm, but the little smile on his face was worth it. I suppose I had a type anyways.

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[officialwittek]

pt. 1

*gif is not mine*  

word  count: 2,097 

please forgive me if this is rough. i been outta the writing game for a minute. enjoy! 

7:30 am.

The obnoxious ring of my alarm disturbs my peaceful sleep. I groan and move the blankets off my legs, stretching my arms to the ceiling. After my morning stretch I walk to my bathroom and turn the water to the hottest it can go before stripping my pajamas off. I quickly step in the shower, welcoming the warmth on my skin. I let out a sigh as I felt all the tension from my restless night glide down the drain. After a good 15 minutes I finally muster the strength to step out and wrap my towel around myself. I finally dry off and go to my closet to pick out an outfit for the day.

My eyes scan the closet before finally landing on a black pinstripe blazer dress with a zipper slit on the thigh, a thick belt around my waist with a chain in the front, and some knee high boots with black beret. After getting dressed I started on my hair and makeup. I went for a natural but full beat with my favorite pair of falsies and put my hair in a simple French braid down my back. I walked out to meet my roommate Carly.

“Good morning sleeping beauty” I says, she acknowledges me with the wave of her hand and walks back to her room as I smile and start making my matcha latte

I boil some water and grab the oat milk from the fridge. After making my latte I settle on some Oreo cereal for breakfast. I glance up and see my roommate exiting her room, looking ready for the day.

“Whatcha got planned for the day?” Carly asks, I shrug and look at her casually

“I might have a meeting to discuss signing with Arista, and making my own album” I comment casually, watching her eyes widen with excitement

“Are you fucking kidding me right now? Is David hiding somewhere with his camera?” Carly replies, I shake my head and watch her eyes fill with excited tears

“Baby!!! We have to tell everyone” she exclaims, I shake my head and cross my arms in an X shape

“We will tell them when I finish the meeting, I don’t wanna jinx myself” I whine, she nods understandingly

“Alright I should get going, let me know where you guys are so we can meet up after. You can ONLY tell Erin. I’ll see you later” I say, grabbing my work bag and keys from the counter

After a nerve wracking drive to the office I finally arrived. I take a deep breath and walk into the building where an assistant meets me. We take the elevator to a conference room.

We finally finished the hour long meeting. I brought a friend, who happened to be a lawyer to look over my contract before signing it. I shook their hands and said we would let them know in a few hours. After our meeting my friend and I headed out to get some boba and take a look at the contract. I quietly drank my black milk tea and sent a few texts to my friends.

“Looks pretty good, initial here and here... ok and just put your signature here” She said, I nodded signing and initialing away

They called the label and let them know we had signed the contract. My friend went and dropped off the contract while I headed to David’s. When I opened the door I noticed almost everyone was here, except for Jeff and Scott. I took my shoes off and quietly headed into the house.

“Soo.. what’s the verdict?” Carly asked, everyone looked to me in confusion

“Signed, and I’ll be starting my music journey with Arista today” I yell, my friends jump up in celebration and crowd around me

“We celebrating tonight bitches” Zane exclaims, and at this point who cares that it’s a Monday morning and they’ll most likely forget tonight

“Make sure you guys invite Jeff, and we’ll get Sage so drunk she can tell HIM how horny he makes her” Carly says, prompting David to take out his camera again and makes Carly repeat it

“God I tell Carly ONE time that I would get Jeff crush my head between his biceps and suddenly I’m being crucified for being horny” I retort, earning loud laughs from everyone else

“Tell David what you told me last night, after seeing Jeff’s insta post” Carly commands with a wide smile, I sigh and look right at David so I’m not looking straight into the camera lens

“Allegedly when I was a little litty last night, I was stalking his instagram and I saw the picture of him spraying water on himself in your merch… and allegedly I said that I would let him knock my cervix into my lungs and I would apologize for simply being too weak to handle it” I whispered, but everyone heard me anyways and as if on cue the devil himself walked in through the front door

“Jeff come listen to this” Jason says, showing the footage he recorded of me saying what I just said, I stood there in shock, Jeff quickly turned to me and smirked

“Come here baby” Jeff says, throwing me over his shoulder and carrying me to a bedroom while our friends laughed

“Finally, I’m getting the dick I deserve” I yell, Jeff puts me down gently after we round the corner

“Also Todd told me we’re celebrating for you, what happened?” He asks, I tell him the news and he lifts me up again

Jeff and I had been close from the minute we met, it really felt like I met my platonic soulmate to be completely honest. We’re always jokingly flirting with each other for the vlogs and if I’m not with the girls I’m usually with Jeff. Although, lately he’s been too busy to hang out or workout together, on the contrary he’s always free for David and the rest of our friends but when I want to hang out one on one there’s always something. It felt nice, just being the two of us. But alas, as soon as he finished the hug he waltzed right back to our other friends.

“Yea I’ve been doing good, how about you?” I mumble to myself, walking back to our friends as we talk about what to do until the rest of our friends are free to go out for the night

Natalie, Zane, David, and I decided to go somewhere and film some stuff and have a little photoshoot while we were at it. We took some videos of us fucking around in the parking lot of some mall. Zane decided to provide some commentary for the vlog as Nat and I took pictures.

“Look at these whores, won’t take no fucking pictures with me. I’m SAgE anD i’M a FaMoUS MuSICiAn, FuCK YALl” Zane yells, I hand my phone to Nat and walk over to David’s Tesla, grabbing the small paintball gun in the trunk

“Fuck with me again little bitch” I said, walking up to him and shooting him two times in the leg with the paintball gun, he cussed me out on the floor while the three of us laughed our asses off

“Alright let’s get going so we can collect everyone before we go out... or we could have it at  David’s house so I don’t have to worry about flashing my ass to random people?” I ask, making puppy eyes at  David as he reluctantly give in

“Fine, but you’re helping clean up after” He says, I nod eagerly as the four of us pile into the Tesla

“I’ll let Suzy and Jonah know, everyone else will probably be at the house anyways” Natalie says, quickly typing on her phone  

We arrive at David’s house as the sun is setting and we start getting ready for everything. Toddy and Jeff go on an alcohol run, while the rest of us started setting everything up. Natalie and Zane go to get more solo cups and some extra things. I’m helping David put away some valuable things while everyone makes the house presentable and work on making it Zane and Heath proof, which could be impossible.

“Can I be in control of the music king?” I ask, David rolls his eyes at the horrible nickname and nods I connect to the speaker while pouring shots for everyone with the alcohol we have at the house

After I was done pouring the shots the ones who went to run errands came back and we all huddled in the kitchen. I put the down the bottle and we all hold our glasses up.

“May we all get absolutely plastered, and some of incredibly high. Maybe both? And may Zane stay away from the hospital for one fucking night, amen” I yell, we all cheers and take shots

After smoking with some of our friends I go back in the house and find it absolutely packed with people. David is multitasking with taking disposables and filming an incredibly drunk Zane and Ilya. And above all the talking and yelling I hear the familiar beat.

‘Do it, baby. Stick it, baby. Move it, baby. Lick it, baby...’

I scream and run to the make shift dance floor, my girls behind me as I start grinding on Corinna as she smacks my ass. I’m screaming the words, someone hands me a drink and I slowly start to feel myself get loose. Everyone making a circle around Corinna, and myself. We switch and I fall on the couch while Corinna gives me a lap dance.

“PUSSY SO GOOD HE GOT MY NAME ON IT” We scream, grabbing each other as  Zane somehow finds himself on my lap too

After the song I make my way to the bar with Zane and Heath, my favorite drinking buddies. After getting a lot more alcohol in me than my entire being can tolerate we go back and start dancing. I was swaying to the music, occasionally dancing with our friends when I feel someone grab me.

“What do you think you’re doing? Shaking your ass for everyone to see” the faint linger of that Staten Island accent makes me smile, but it quickly changes to a frown when my brain registers the words he said

“What do you think Jeffreyyy? I’m-” “Zane what the fuck” I turn and see our friends huddled around the bathroom

“Watch out everyone” Natalie says, backing up and taking a running start towards the door and successfully kicks it down

“Zane why didn’t you say anything? We thought you were dead man” Jeff laughs, I walk into the bathroom and laugh at the sight

After a few more hours the strangers have left the house and our friend group is still going strong. I quietly nurse my water that Jeff forced me to have. David taking some disposables of the rare quiet moment.

“Zane.. I bet you won’t try and fight Jeff right now” I slur, my world still spinning from the poison in my body  

“For what?” Zane replies, I smirk and look at Jeff

“Dude I’ll straight up kiss whoever wins” I say, David immediately bringing his vlog camera out and quickly explaining the situation

“Wait I wanna fucking get in on this” Ilya says, the three of them getting up... well Zane and Ilya could barely stand let alone fight Jeff, the most sober one here

The three of them start pushing each other, I’m a little too drunk to really understand what was going on. Before I know it Jeff had them both on the ground and was declared the winner

“Sageee... you gotta kiss Jeff” David teases, shoving the camera in my face as I chuckle

“Oh y’all know I wanna do more than kiss. Come here dumb bitch” I say, turning around on the couch as Jeff stabilizes me and plants a kiss right on my lips as our friends scream and jump around. I pull away and David turns his camera off for the moment.

“Can I pleasee have more shots.. Zane, Ilya get your dumbasses up we’re getting more drunk so David has content” I yell, the two of them immediately getting off the floor and walking with me to the kitchen

“David, come here I have a secret to tell you” I yell, stumbling over to meet him halfway

“Closer, closer..... I’m so fucked up”

[kitty0boy]

Marichat May Day 9 prompt: Blanket

As per my usual fics, Marinette is 17, Adrien is 18. Nothing smutty, just goofs being goofy.

—————————————

It had been a long ass day.

5 am photo shoot, 6 am akuma attack, 6:30 am back to the photo shoot because they “couldn’t seem to capture his likeness today”, 7 am they gave up, 8:45 am rushed off to school, 12 pm another attack, 3 pm photo shoot.

Now finally, at 5 pm, he was back home and able to take a break. Much to Plagg’s disappointment however, Adrien didn’t feel like sitting around at home.

“How is it that you have so much energy? I’m exhausted and I’ve been sitting in your bag all day.”

Adrien laughed at this remark, “I’ve had to sit at home and do nothing for 14 years of my life, I’ve got time to make up haven’t I?”

Plagg rolled his eyes. “Time that can be made up after I eat my well deserved camembert, go and shower or something. Listen to the, what was it you said? ‘The model in you’.” With that he flew into the smelly cupboard by his desk.

He did have a point. The hairspray from this afternoon made his hair stick up in odd angles. Today’s theme had been, ‘Punk Rock’ for the Agreste, Jagged Stone collaboration. His father and Jagged teamed up for his new album debut to create a new clothing line of merchandise and stuff like that. Adrien hadn’t really been paying much attention to that bit.

His attention was drawn towards his cute little classmate who, by personal invitation of Jagged Stone himself, had helped his father design Jagged’s on stage looks.

Marinette was involved for the sole purpose of “a youth opinion” which meant that she did most of the designing herself while Gabriel’s company did all the handy work by making all the garments. Of course she was supervised by Gabriel when it came to the concepts, but as his father had admitted over dinner, “She didn’t need much of my help. Audrey was right in saying that she has potential. Possibly, more potential than myself.” To which Adrien had beamed, proud of his princess.

By the time Adrien had finished in the shower, Plagg had completely emptied the stock of camembert for the next month. “We need to start limiting you camembert intake. I can hear my bank account screaming.” Plagg burped “You’re famous and rich, as long as you keep that up you’ll be fine.” Adrien crossed his arms, “I might not be rich and famous forever you know. How old is Master Fu now, 190? You might not have unlimited camembert when I get into the 70s.” Plagg smirked. “You will when you defeat Hawkmoth and people find out who you and Ladybug are. The pair of you will be rolling in riches for life.” Adrien shrugged. “Maybe I’ll refuse to take them, being the humble hero that I am.” Plagg frowned.

He laughed, “Well Plagg, how about we go check in on your favourite mouse hmm?” Plagg bolted out of the cupboard and shrieked “Hurry up and transform Adrien.” He blinked. “Wow Plagg, I didn’t know you could actually like a person more than cheese.” Plagg crossed his little arms. “Well the sooner you and Marinette get together, the sooner I’ll have pastries with my cheese. Besides, you already know you’re my favourite stinky sock.” Adrien’s face contorted in gratitude at hearing his approval of Marinette, and slight disgust at being called a stinky sock. “Thanks Plagg, Claws Out!”

The journey wasn’t far. A hop, skip, and a jump later he landed on Marinette’s balcony. He stomped on the floor to get her attention but he didn’t need to. The second his hands touched the balcony railing, something heavy came crashing down, pinning him to the floor. He thought it might have been Marinette at first, but she wasn’t wide enough to cover his entire outstretched form. He looked around and saw her peep out from behind her lounge chair with a great “Surprise!” He smiled

“Hello there purrincess, fancy seeing you here.” She strode over to him and kneeled down behind his head. “I had a feeling that you might pawsibly show up.”

“So, this is a nice blanket you’ve chucked on me, did you make it?” She shook her head, “I bought it. It’s a weighted blanket.” He laughed, “Yes I could tell, I’ve never had one before but it feels heavy.” She stood and pulled the blanket off of him. “Imagine if the news saw this. Paris’ superhero, defeated by a weighted blanket.” He propped himself on his elbows. “And Paris’ prettiest girl. Here we quote him.” And he stood to continue, despite her pink face. “I simply couldn’t resist her charms.” He dramatically draped the back of his hand over his forehead. “I fell under her spell and she trapped me, I’m sorry that I’ve let Paris down but I would do it again.”

Marinette seemed to have taken his word to heart, she threw the blanket back towards him with strength he never knew she was capable and he got hit square in the chest. He fell to the floor again. “Even see how, how her grace wounds me, a fatal blow to the chest.” She huffed and, it seemed despite herself, she smiled. “Oh come on Marinette, just teasing. No need to get huffy with me.” She crossed her arms and turned.

He pulled the blanket off and snuck towards her while her back was turned. In one swift motion, he wrapped the blanket around her front and behind his back so the were both wrapped up. She gave a startled “What?” Before he fell backwards making her fall with him. She squeaked as they hit the floor, making sure she didn’t get hurt of course.

His arms had remainder outside of the ‘purrito’ so he placed them on her stomach. “Chat Noir!” She huffed and squirmed under the blanket. He laughed. “Heavy, isn’t it little lady.” She turned over inside so she could look at him, which made him also squirm because it was kinda ticklish. “Foul play kitty.” He ruffled her hair.

“So, how’s the collaboration going? Gabriel Agreste’s little assistant, big big oppurtunity.” She beamed at him and went into full detail. How Jagged Stone had come to her house to ask, how Gabriel had an interview with her and how pleased he was to work with her, how she and Adrien worked on concepts after she took his measurements, how they played UMS after, how she and Gabriel went over the concepts and gave her tips. He of course knew all of this but she was so excited about it. “I’m proud of you little mouse, this is a really big achievement. Next thing you know, you’ll be strolling down red carpets to your own fashion shows.” She flushed and thanked him.

“Anyways, how do you purrpose you’ll get out of this one?” She smirked, “You gave that away while I was turning,” he felt her fingers on either side of his ribs. “I didn’t know cats were ticklish.” He tried his hardest not to laugh as she teasingly poked him. Then she went for it, he squirmed and giggled until he snapped back to his senses and rolled them over.

He grabbed both of Marinette’s wrists and held them above her head with one hand. “Payback time princess.” And he started tickling her. She shrieked, squirmed, and kicked under him. “C-cat!” She tried to protest and bargain with him but to no avail. It wasn’t until he heard a gaps from the trap door, that he stopped.

Who should intrude but the entire gang of secrets. Rose, Juleka, Mylène, Alix, and Alya all stared at their very suggestive position.

Chat Noir had her hands pinned above her head and was straddling her. Her hair was messy and her shirt slightly crumbled and exposing part of her stomach. His face went pink as he looked from a laughing Marinette, to her friends who were taking pictures and cooing at the pair of them.

Unbothered, Marinette turned to her friends and said “Help me out girls! He’s ticklish!” To which he was tackled by all five of them, he howled with laughter. “S-six against one! That’s unfair.” Then they scattered as Marinette flopped on him, blanket in hand, and wrapped him up. She sat on his back and held the opening of the blanket closed. “Good work girls. Cat’s in the bag.” He turned his head to look at them, his cheek against the floor of the balcony. The six of them were high giving and shooting Marinette suspicious looks.

“So Marinette, care to explain this?” Alix crossed her arms. Marinette gave her a quizzical look. “Explain what? Why me and Chat Noir are having a tickle fight on my balcony?”

Alya approached her. “Well to start, your lip gloss is smudged, your hair is a mess, your shirt is crumbled and we found you and Chat Noir in a very suggestive position when we came up.”

Marinette went slightly pink before recalling what had happened. Rose chirped “Oh, that’s so romantic.” And Juleka, who had become more outspoken with the help of her girlfriend, crossed her arms and smirked. “Maybe we should give them their alone time.” Mylène piped up. “We do have to proceed with celebratory girls night though. After all, Jagged Stone and Gabriel Agreste, that’s a crazy good achievement.” Chat Noir smiled, “That’s what I was saying!” He panted slightly, recovering from the laughter.

“Do you want to stay cat?” Marinette asked. He looked up at her. “Well I’d love to but I don’t want to intrude on your celebration.” All at once the girls protested and encouraged him to stay, declaring that he wouldn’t get in the way and that they’d love to have him join in the celebration. He wouldn’t fall for this though. He had the nagging feeling that the girls would turn Marinette’s celebration party into a Chat Noir interview night, he didn’t want the attention pulled away from his princess.

Marinette hopped off him and helped him go his feet again. He brushed dust off of his suit while Marinette held his hand. “No seriously girls it’s alright. My Kwami is bound to be starving by now.” Marinette shot him a sharp look. “How long have you been transformed?” He raised his hands in surrender. “Not long, not long. I transformed and came straight here. Besides he was really eager to see you Mari.” She gapped. “He was? But he’s only worked with me once.” Chat chuckled. “Not sure, you must have left a good impression on him. Besides,” he leaned down to whisper in her ear, “he says that the sooner we get together, the longer he gets to enjoy pastries with his cheese.”

He stood straight up and stared at her. To his surprise she wasn’t flustered in the slightest, in fact she started to laugh. “Well then kitty,” and before he had time to think she pulled him back towards her so their noses brushed, “we shouldn’t keep him waiting.” His face went scarlet. He never thought a whisper could make his face burn. He considered teasing her back, but before he could straighten his expression, there was a cough beside them.

“So should we leave and come back later or..” Alix stated. She already knew Adrien’s identity and was sure she would tease him about this later. He grinned seeing Marinette’s face who was an identical shade of scarlet that his had been seconds before. “Well I’d better be of then.” He wrapped an arm around Marinette’s shoulder and bent over so his face was sideways in front of hers. He dropped his voice to a whisper, “We can celebrate alone later.” Her face flooded with more colour than he thought possible and she buried her face in her hands.

He smiled and gave her a peck on the forehead before addressing her friends. “It was lovely to see you all again, I’ll be taking my leave now. Enjoy your little party.” The he leapt onto the railing, gave a salute, and jumped way.

-

“Kid, if you want to visit your princess undisturbed, then do it on a day where her friends won’t show up.” Adrien crossed his arms and smiled. “Well we’ve agreed on your pastries at least.” Before the two could settle in, Adrien’s phone chimed. “Oh Plagg, looks like we can’t relax at home just yet.” Plagg groaned. “Not another akuma, I’ll go kill Hawkmoth myself if he doesn’t stop taking away my free time.”

“Nope, not Hawkmoth this time. Girls night has turned into a party and Adrien just got an invitation.” Plagg groaned again. “Can’t we just skip this time?” Adrien shook his head and transformed for the fourth time that day and made his way back to the bakery, where he detransformed and saw his princess again.

———————————

That’s all for day 9. I think you’ll notice that the prompts aren’t the entire focus of my stories but they are a part of them. I like them better this way.

Thanks for reading!

[blush-and-books]

🥳🎉 Congrats on 1.5k followers!!!🎉🥳

My four word prompt for you is

One: famous au

Two: fluff

Three: meeting

Four: autographs

And anything you come up with will be amazing 💕💕ily

once again i got carried away. but who is surprised??? this was so much fun!!!

Luke Patterson was excited to be at the Grammys for many, many reasons -- but only part of it (a big part) was because Sunset Curve was nominated.

Best Rock Album, Record of the Year, and Best Rock Performance were their three nominations for their third album, Demo Tapes, and specifically their singles Now Or Never (rock performance) and Unsaid Emily (record of the year). It was all that the boys had been working towards, seeing as this was their first time around after a near revolt towards the academy last year for snubbing their sophomore, self-titled album. The four of them were beaming with excitement in their custom suits -- God, custom, as uppity as it was, Luke couldn’t deny he looked hot. 

However, besides the fact that the four boys were rocking their suits and were going to be honored to perform Now Or Never on the same stage that their inspirations had done decades before -- Luke couldn’t help the bubbling in his stomach that he might run into Julie Molina on the red carpet. 

Yes, the Julie Molina. 

After revealing during a round of Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts on the Late-Late Show that Julie was Luke’s raging celebrity crush, and she exposed the same truth about him while playing Plead The Fifth on Watch What Happens Live, Luke had been itching to meet her in person. 

Both of them seemed to be on the other sides of the country -- hell, even the world -- at different times, from running the talk show circuit to world touring. He knew they were both from LA, but it never felt like they were home at the same time. 

Tonight, she was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album, Best Pop Vocal Performance, and yes; Record of the Year, too. And this was only for her sophomore album, Wake Up, and her leading single of the same name. The single had debuted at #1 on the charts and knocked Now Or Never to #3 (it was competing with All Eyes On Me, by Dirty Candi), while the album had been switching with Demo Tapes on the charts for the last month. 

He was honestly hoping that they would get the chance to communicate, or even collab, at some point -- as many avid fans online were urging -- because he was pretty sure she was one of the most talented songwriters in the next generation of the music industry.

He thought they could make each other even better. 

His plan was honestly to try and track her down on the red carpet, and if that didn’t work, he would find her in the auditorium. She would probably be in the front row next to Adele or Beyonce anyways, seeing as how she was (as deserved) America’s Darling. 

“Dude,” Alex elbows him in the gut and gestures to the line of paparazzi and reporters with flashing cameras in microphones. “Stop staring into space and smile. And walk us on, lead guitarist.”

The nickname is said with spite and a smirk, but Luke is overall grateful that Alex centered him in the moment once again and got him to quit looking for Julie. 

She probably wasn’t even there yet, so he shouldn’t worry about it. 

(Even though he’s definitely been fantasizing about how stunning she’ll look tonight.)

Him and the boys walk up to a few reporters to hyperactively answer a few questions while finding time in between to pause for photos of all of them together, and some individual shots. They are in the middle of being ushered down the red carpet when he hears it:

“Julie! Julie Molina! Come here darling, I would love to talk to you!”

There are a few people in between them, but she’s there -- in a stunning, bright purple dress covered in sparkles and small diamonds. Her curls are flawlessly pulled back but still twirling down behind her head, and to be blunt -- she takes his breath away, even though he can’t see her clearly. 

“Luke! Luke!” A photographer is calling out to him, so he is sure to face back and sling his left arm around Reggie as the band poses for a few more group shots. Once again, a technician is guiding them to walk right to proceed along the carpet, and Luke catches that Julie is still being interviewed. 

He doesn’t realize he’s staring when a reporter, the same reporter that’s interviewing Julie, is calling him over. 

And Julie is still standing there, visibly blushing under layers of makeup and sending him a sheepish, apologetic smile. 

Without hesitation, he jogs over, and hugs the reporter. 

“Hi, Grace! It’s good to see you!”

“Luke Patterson, you are the talk of the night -- besides my other guest, Miss Julie Molina, of course.” Grace gestures to both of them, and Luke sees that Julie is still avoiding her eyes, and even though they are currently broadcast on national television he just wants to talk to her. 

“Yes, of course, I’ve been looking forward to getting to officially meet her all night.”

Julie’s head whips to the left to look at him -- he meets her eyes with his classic, joyous Luke Patterson grin. When she reflects it, he feels like the final nail has been hammered into his coffin. 

“No, you have not!” She slaps his arm playfully. “I should have known you’d be a flirt when I met you.”

“So what you’re saying is… You’ve thought about meeting me too?”

Their moment is interrupted by the reporter. “Wait, you two haven’t met before? That’s impossible!”

“And incredibly disappointing,” Luke jumps in. “All of our fans keep asking us to meet but we’ve been touring at the same times, and the timing’s just never been right.”

“I just told Marie Claire last week that Lu- Sunset Curve, sorry, was my dream collab for the future. Our sounds could blend so well!”

Luke’s heart just about shoots out of his chest, so he tries to control himself by biting his lip with a smile. The reporter doesn’t miss it. “Luke, you look happy about that!”

“I- I-” His stutter emerges, but he quickly swallows and changes directions. “It’s just really cool to hear that, we listen to Julie’s music all the time at home, and I have spent an unhealthy amount of time imagining a collaboration, so hearing she feels the same way tells me already that we would creatively blend really well.”

At his side, Julie beams at him. His cheeks hurt from smiling so much, and she’s giggling at his sweet words, and in the split moment that the reporter tries to regain their focus -- their hands brush together as they spin back to face Grace. 

In a bold move, Luke raises his fingers towards hers like they are magnets, and holds his breath while he waits for a reaction. 

He can finally breathe when her fingers link in his; her soft skin brushing along and sending sparks up his arm. 

“Well, I should let you guys go,” Grace says with a sigh, “but thank you both so much for taking the time! Can we expect a possible Julie Molina/Sunset Curve collab anytime soon?”

Surprisingly, Julie takes the lead on this one, her fingers tightening around his hand. 

“If it’s not the next song that I release, then somethings wrong and you guys will need to send help.”

You have a band, Luke tells himself, a band that you need to talk to about-

“I second that,” he finds himself saying with a squeeze to Julie’s hand. 

As the reporter hypes up their announcement while facing the camera, they start to walk away, and Luke realizes he has to rejoin the band on the carpet and not get to stand here and hold Julie’s hand and tell every reporter that he is holding Julie Molina’s hand! 

Julie turns to him. “See you in there?”

“See you in there,” Luke smirks, “I’ll be the one on my feet when you sing.”

“And I’ll be the one holding the Grammy.”

And with a wink, as Luke shakes his head with an awed grin, she makes her way back to the carpet.

--

As it turns out, they do find each other later. Shockingly, Julie asks the band for an autograph, because -- despite Luke’s teasing -- her little brother is apparently a huge fan.

She is the victor in the competition for Record of the Year, but Sunset Curve pulls away with two trophies from their other nominations, and Luke can’t find it in him to be anything but overjoyed for themselves and Julie -- especially as he watches her sing, captivate the entire audience, and get everyone on their feet at the end. 

In a burst of impulsiveness, she joins them in their van after the ceremony; but instead of going to an afterparty, they drive to the boys’ house on the beach and Luke finds himself curled up on the couch in his custom suit right next to Julie (who is almost on top of him), furiously writing down new songs and beginning their collaboration then and there. 

It turns out, they were wrong about one thing. 

The next song released by the two artists isn’t the collab -- the next album is. Julie and the Phantoms becomes their official collaboration project, and spirals into more of a hit than their individual groups. 

Twelve months later, they are back at the Grammys, and everything is the same -- only they are no longer competing. They are a team. And Luke couldn’t be happier about it; especially when he shows up on Julie’s arm.

@willexx @unsaid-emily  

[massivedrickhead]

Loving your series of one shots bud!! I, myself, am a massive fan of fluff and happiness (tooth rotting), how about a prompt where Beca is in LA with Khaled (post PP3) and she is finding it really tough, physically and mentally, especially knowing Chloe isn't there, she hasn't spoken to her in a while, and she believes her to be happy with Chicago elsewhere... and when she returns home... She finds Chloe there. Waiting. (Or the equivalent, where Chloe is engaged, Beca hasn't spoken to her in a while, and she comes home to see her there) xxxxx

Hi, thank you so much! 

I might have gotten away from the prompt a little, but I hope you like it anyway.

I’m kind of tired and emotionally tonight so I don’t know if this is any good, and it’s kinda long so I hope that’s okay haha

Read on AO3

------

“Beca, are you listening?”

Chloe Beale is single.

“Mhm,” Beca said, pulling her eyes away from Facebook on her phone and looking back at Theo. “Sorry.”

“Everything alright?” He asked, knowing it wasn’t like Beca to zone out in a meeting like this. 

“Yep,” Beca said, turning her phone face down. He raised his eyebrows. “It’s Chloe.”

He closed his eyes with a sigh. “Is it an emergency?”

“No,” Beca said, putting her hands in her lap to resit the urge to pick her phone up again. “I am super focused and professional.”

“Can we talk about your album for, like, ten more minutes?” Theo said, trying to keep up his face stern.

“Absolutely,” Beca said, her eyes dropping again, briefly, to her phone.

The meeting felt like it lasted a lifetime, but eventually Beca hurried out and back to her own office, puling Facebook up on her phone.

Chloe Beale is single.

Chloe’s profile picture had changed from the sickeningly sweet picture of her and Chicago showing off her engagement ring, to just a simple selfie.

Beca clicked into her contacts list and her thumb hovered above Chloe’s name.

She should call her, right? 

She scrolled down further, and hit call on Aubrey’s name.

“Aubrey Posen,” Aubrey said, using the same tone of voice she would use to greet a stranger, and not one of her closest friends.

“Aubrey what’s going on with Chloe?”

“I’m doing great Beca, thanks for asking,” Aubrey replied.

“Aubrey.”

“I don’t know,” Aubrey said, her tone softer. “She’s been unhappy with him for a while.”

“She has?”

“Yes,” Aubrey said. “When did you last speak to her?”

“It’s… It’s been a while,” Beca said, sounding guilty. “Work has been a bit much.”

“I know,” Aubrey replied. “You should call her.”

“Yeah,” Beca said. “Thanks.”

“Speak to you later, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Beca said. “I’ll call you.”

She ended the call with Aubrey but once again hesitated before calling Chloe. Apart from the occasional surface level text or exchange of snapchats and memes, she really hadn’t spoke to Chloe for a while. Not properly. Not the way they used to. 

She was scared that if she called her now, Chloe would be mad at her. 

She drummed her fingers against her desk, her stomach twisting slightly, as she tried to decide what to do. She never handled confrontation very well, it’s why she’d spent so much of her life just walking away from situations.

Beca picked up her phone again, and typed out a text.

Beca: Hey Chlo’. I’ve just seen Facebook, are you okay? xx

She hit send and closed her phone before she could overthink it, and tried to focus on her work again. 

She had a bunch of album art she needed to look through and pick her favourites. (Yes, her job was pretty awesome.)

She also had twenty unread emails that had popped up in the ten minutes she had spent on the phone to Aubrey/deciding what to do about Chloe. (Yes, her job was also pretty demanding.)

As her phone buzzed on her desk with Chloe’s reply, Theo poked his head through her office door.

“What’s up?” She asked, resisting the urge to pick up her cell to read the message.

“Have you got plans tonight? Because you need to cancel them if you do,” he said, looking stressed.

“Why?” Beca asked with a sigh.

“The head of the label is coming in for a meeting tomorrow morning and he wants to hear your new album and it is nowhere near ready for that,” he said.

“Isn’t he in Europe?” Beca said with a groan.

“He is literally flying in for this meeting. There is a lot riding on this album, Beca,” he said. “He took a big risk when he signed you as a solo artist after the Khaled collab.”

“I know that,” Beca said, running a hand through her hair. “I know. But it isn’t getting released for another two months, why does he need to hear it now?”

“I don’t know how his mind works, I just know we need to impress him tomorrow,” Theo said.

“Okay,” Beca said. 

“No distractions tonight, okay? Take an hour now and we can get started at,” he glanced down at his watch, “5:30.” He closed the office door behind him, and Beca immediately picked up her phone, pushing away the sudden wave of nerves.

Chloe: I’ve been better xx

Beca: Are you free right now? xx

Chloe: Yeah, I just finished work. xx

Beca called Chloe, this time without hesitation, and the redhead answered on the second ring.

“Hey,” Chloe said, her voice sounding heavy.

“Hi,” Beca replied, sinking back into her chair at the sound of Chloe’s voice. She hadn’t realised how much she’d missed hearing it. “What happened?”

“Can we not talk about it?” Chloe asked. Beca could hear the sound of New York traffic over the phone and she felt suddenly homesick.

Not for New York specifically, but for that tiny apartment she and Chloe had shared in Brooklyn. For that level of closeness and intimacy. 

She liked L.A. fine, and her new home was, on paper, a thousand percent better than the Brooklyn apartment, but it still didn’t feel like home. She would trade her state-of-the-art kitchen, king-sized bed, hot-tub - all of it - for one more night in that apartment. One more night sleeping beside Chloe. One more night where Chloe’s arms would snake around her waist and pull her close, mumbling that she was cold. One more morning eating breakfast together before they parted for work. One more evening making dinner and watching trashy TV.

What made it hurt more was that she knew there was no going back to that apartment. Chloe had moved in with Chicago, Beca had moved out to L.A., and Fat Amy was somewhere in the Bahamas. Someone else was living in their apartment now. Sleeping in their cramped bed, making food in their kitchen.

“How’s work?” Chloe asked, breaking Beca out of her thoughts.

“Busy,” Beca said. “It’s… It’s a lot right now.”

“Are you taking care of yourself?” Chloe asked. And Beca thought just how like Chloe that was. While she was going through a heartbreak, she’d rather make sure Beca was okay.

“I thought that was your job,” Beca said, smiling at the soft laugh Chloe gave. She could hear the sounds of keys jingling and a door opening.

“That’s kinda hard to do when I’m all the way in New York,” Chloe said. “God it’s so cold outside. I need a vacation.”

Beca glanced at the sun streaming through her office window. “Maybe you should come to L.A.,” she said, without really thinking. As soon as the sentence left her mouth, she realised this was something she wanted more than anything right now. 

“That would be nice,” Chloe said with a laugh.

“I’m serious,” Beca said, feeling a mixture of nerves and excitement. 

“Come on, Becs. I can’t do that,” Chloe said. “I have work.”

“Take some time off?”

“The flights are expensive-”

“-I’ll pay for the flights,” Beca said, cutting her off. “I think… Chlo’ I think I need this. I need some time off. And I think you need it too?”

“Yeah, I need it,” Chloe said. “Are they even gonna let you have time off?” 

“I can ask,” Beca said. She looked down at her watch and saw she only had ten minutes before she had to get back to work. “Look, if you want to come, I can make it happen. I’m working for the rest of the night, but give me a call tomorrow afternoon.”

“Okay,” Chloe said. “I’ll call my boss.”

“So you want to come?”

“Yeah. Yeah I want to.”

——

Beca glanced around her nervously as she stood at the arrivals gate of L.A.X. airport a week later. She was wearing a baseball cap and a pair of sunglasses but she was still afraid someone would recognise her.

Then she caught sight of ginger hair and suddenly Chloe was walking towards her and Beca felt her nervousness drain away.

Chloe grinned when she spotted her, and started walking more quickly, practically running by the time she got close enough to hug her. She dropped her case and flung her arms around Beca, squeezing her into the tightest hug she could manage.

Beca was going to make some sarcastic joke, but the feeling of Chloe’s arms around her caused her voice to die in her throat and her eyes to fill with tears. 

“I’ve really missed you,” Chloe said, squeezing tighter and planting a kiss on her cheek and releasing her.

“Missed you too,” Beca said, grabbing the handle of Chloe’s case. “How was your flight?”

“It was fine,” Chloe said, grinning. “Why are you dressed like a spy?”

“Um, because I am?” Beca said, laughing. “I just don’t wanna get spotted.”

“Right,” Chloe said. “You’re a big deal now.”

Beca laughed and shook her head. “It’s a lot,” her voice was a little quieter. 

Chloe frowned slightly, and then her eyes widened as she saw a few men with cameras hovering outside the entrance to the airport.

Beca sighed. “Just ignore them and stick close to me.”

They walked out of the airport quickly, and as soon as the men spotted her, they started yelling. 

“Beca! Beca! How’s the album going, Beca?!”

“Beca! What do you say about the rumours that you’re dating your producer?!”

“Holy shit,” Chloe muttered under her breath as they made their way to Beca’s car, the paparazzi following them, continuing their barrage of questions.

“Beca! Introduce us to your friend!”

“Beca is it true you’re dating-”

Whatever name he was planning to say was lost in the sound of Beca slamming her door shut, and starting her car. She honked the horn a few times to get them to move out the way.

“Beca, what the fuck was that?” Chloe asked, pulling on her seatbelt as Beca pulled out of the parking lot. 

“Fun, right?” Beca asked, glancing in her rearview mirror, making sure they weren’t going to follow her home. 

“Does that happen every time you go out?”

“Not always,” Beca said. “To be honest they were probably there just hanging about to see if anyone would turn up. I don’t think they knew I was there before they saw me.”

“Jesus,” Chloe said. “I forget you’re like a legit celebrity now.”

Beca pulled a face. “I’m not. Not really.”

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” Beca said, glancing over at Chloe. “Yeah, just… Just really looking forward to this time off. I had to work a lot of late nights to get Theo to agree with this.” Chloe frowned. “You know that guy was full of shit, right? There’s nothing going on between me and Theo. I haven’t been dating him. I haven’t been dating anyone.”

“Why not?” Chloe asked.

“Why not, what?”

“Why haven’t you been dating anyone?”

Beca shrugged. “I haven’t met anyone I liked.” They were quiet for a little while longer as they continued to sit in L.A. traffic. “So, can we only talk about my love life or are you going to tell me about you and Chicago?”

“There’s nothing really to tell,” Chloe said, turning to look out of the window now they had gotten off the highway. “I just… It wasn’t working. We were fighting a bunch. I wanted him to be different and he wanted me to be different.”

“I’m sorry, Chlo’,” Beca said. 

“It’s okay,” Chloe said. “It’s better in the long run. At least we weren’t married with kids before we figured it out.”

They sat in a comfortable silence as Beca drove them the rest of the way to her house, the radio playing quietly. 

When Beca pulled up to to her house, Chloe let out a low whistle.

“Right, you live in a fucking mansion now,” she said.

“It’s hardly a mansion,” Beca said, feeling embarrassed. She took Chloe’s bag from the trunk and they made their way into the house. “You want the tour?”

“Please.” 

Beca showed her around, dropping her bag into the guest room. The tour ended on the deck, and Beca grabbed a bottle of wine and two glasses from the kitchen on the way. They sat in comfortable loungers and looked out as the sun set over L.A.. 

“I’m really glad you’re here,” Beca said, pouring them some wine.

“Me too,” Chloe replied, cheers-ing her glass against Beca’s. “Thank you for inviting me.”

“Anytime, Chlo’.”

As they sat in silence watching the sunset, Beca felt a warmth spreading through her chest. For the first time since moving to L.A., she felt like she was home. And then she realised something.

Something she’d known all along, really.

She glanced across at Chloe, who was smiling with her eyes closed, letting the sun soak into her.

Chloe.

Chloe was her home.

She placed her hand on top of Chloe’s and squeezed, softly.

Chloe opened her eyes and looked over at Beca, still smiling. She adjusted her hand so her fingers were threaded with Beca’s. 

Beca looked away, blinking against the sun and feeling tears stinging her eyes.

If Chloe noticed, she didn’t mention it. She just carried on smiling, and turned back to face the sunset, their hands still linked. 

“It’s beautiful out here,” she said. 

“Yeah,” Beca said. “I feel like I never actually get to relax out here. I spend so much time just sleeping at my office these days.”

“I knew you weren’t taking care of yourself,” Chloe said.

“There’s just been a lot of pressure at work. This is my first solo album, and if it fails… If it doesn’t do well everyone will know that my last one was only a success because of Khaled,” Beca said. “I can’t fail at this.”

“You won’t fail,” Chloe said, softly. “You’re so talented, Beca. You’ve got this, I know you do.”

Beca smiled. “I wish I didn’t have to do it without you.”

“You don’t,” Chloe said. “I’m only on the other end of the phone. You can call me anytime.”

“It’s not the same,” Beca said. “Sorry, I just miss how things used to be.”

“I know. I miss it too,” Chloe said. 

“If I’d known things wouldn’t stay that way forever, I might have done things differently,” Beca said.

“What do you mean?”

Beca shrugged, feeling like she should stop talking before she said something she’d regret. She didn’t want to cause an awkward situation that they both had to live with for the two weeks of their vacation.

“Don’t go quiet on me now,” Chloe said.

“I just wish I’d been more honest. Braver,” Beca said, avoiding looking at Chloe.

“It’s not too late,” Chloe said.

But Beca shook her head. “Sorry. I’m… I’m rambling. I’ve probably drank too much.”

“I guess it’s getting late,” Chloe said, letting Beca’s hand drop. “We’ve got a long day of relaxing ahead of us, right?”

“Yeah,” Beca said. She stood and stretched and helped Chloe to her feet. “If you get hungry or anything during the night just help yourself.”

“Thanks,” Chloe said, kissing Beca on the cheek. “We’ll finish this conversation tomorrow, okay?”

Beca laughed, and felt her cheeks burn. “I dunno what you’re talking about.”

“Night Becs,” Chloe said.

“Night.”

Chloe woke a few hours later, her head hurting from too much wine and sun and not enough water.

She made her way to the kitchen and drank what felt like her body weight in water. As she was about to head back, she heard noises coming from Beca’s office. 

The door was open and a dim light was creeping onto the landing.

Chloe peaked inside to see Beca sitting cross-legged on her chair, her hair tied up messily, the light from the computer screen the only light in the room.

She was talking to someone on the phone, her voice a little hoarse.

“No, I get that Theo,” she said, her hand resting on the back of her neck. “But when I spoke to you yesterday, the track was fine.” She watched as Beca tucked the phone in between her ear and shoulder and the began typing into her computer. “Uh huh. So like, more bass? Less bass?” She stopped typing. “I don’t know what you mean by the same bass but different.”

Chloe had heard enough and stepped into the room. 

She placed a hand on Beca’s shoulder and tried not to laugh when she jumped. She held out her other hand for Beca’s phone. 

Beca sighed and handed it over.

“Hi Theo,” Chloe said, smiling. “It’s Chloe. You remember me from the USSO tour, right? It’s 2 am, and Beca’s on vacation. I know. I’ll pass your apologies on. Goodnight Theo.”

She clicked end on the call and passed the phone back. 

“Theo said sorry.”

Beca laughed and put the phone down. “Thank you.”

“Does this happen often?”

“Oh yeah,” Beca said. “Theo and I are both kinda nocturnal so sometimes he’ll call me with ideas.”

“No wonder you look so tired,” Chloe said.

“Gee thanks.”

“Come on, it’s bed time.” Chloe took her hand and pulled her up. “This room is off limits while you’re on vacation, okay?”

“Yes ma’am,” Beca said, smiling. “How are you finding the guest room?”

“It’s nice,” Chloe said, as they hovered outside Beca’s room. “Why?”

“No reason,” Beca said.

“Becs, you can just say it you know?”

Beca laughed, and looked down. “I can’t. I’m not good at this.”

“Okay,” Chloe said. She pushed Beca’s bedroom door open and gave her hand a tug. “Come on.”

“Chloe,” Beca said softly, closing her eyes when Chloe cupped her cheek with her hand. “Wait.”

“Hey,” Chloe replied, her voice just as gentle. “Look at me. Tell me what you need.”

Beca swallowed hard, tears burning her eyes. “I’ve… I’ve been waiting. That’s what I wanted to say before. Why I haven’t dated anyone since Jesse. I’ve been waiting for you. I… I waited to tell you and I waited too long.”

“It isn’t too late,” Chloe said, pulling Beca into a hug. “You can tell me now, it isn’t too late.” She felt Beca take a deep breath, and when she spoke her voice was muffled by Chloe’s shirt.

“I’m in love with you. I’ve always been in love with you. And I know you and Chicago just broke up. I don’t need to hear it back.”

Chloe ended their hug and cupped Beca’s face in her hands again, her thumbs brushing away the tears. 

“I wanted Chicago to be different than he was. That’s why we didn’t work out. I wanted him to know what I needed without me having to ask. I wanted him to know when I needed a tea instead of a coffee. I wanted him to bring me an aspirin when I was two hours into a study session because he knew I’d have a headache by then. I wanted him to know when I wanted to talk, and when I just needed to sit and listen to music. I wanted him to know me. I wanted him to know me the way you know me. I wanted him to be you, Becs. And… And when I realised that… When I realised it was you that I wanted… You that I was in love with… That’s when we broke up.”

“You love me?” 

“Yeah,” Chloe said, swallowing the lump in her throat. “Yeah I love you.”

Beca let out a teary laugh. 

“Can I kiss you?”

Beca nodded, and Chloe’s mouth was on hers, and Beca knew she was home.

[marsmoonqueen]

Gentle

Bucky Barnes x Reader

Warning: Mentions of blood, wounds and Bucky thinking he is bad. If you find something, send me a message.

Prompt / Summary: Bucky gets hurt on a mission and goes to the medical wing where he meets the nicest doctor with the most gentle touch.

Note: Hi everyone, I’m alive and still here.

Bucky arrived to the compound pretty late, and pretty hurt, at night. It had been a complicated mission, or better said yet, it had been a complicated mission the minute they were ambush. Long story short, Bucky “nearly died” (Sam’s words, not his) shielding Sam while he got the work done, which was recovering some files from a hydra base.

         “It’s just a little scratch” He tried to argue.

         “I don’t care, you’re going to the medical wing anyway, Barnes” Bucky rolled his eyes, but let Sam accompany him to the door anyways.

           The nurse that opened the door for him was shacking. Bucky wanted to think that it was because of the cold, the rain or even the lack of light, but he knew he was the reason behind the nurse´s shacky hands and fast breathing.

         Now, miserably seated in the stretcher that looked more like a dental chair, and that energetically reminded him of the one he used in the hydra base; the nurse’s moves were even more hectic. Bucky didn’t blame her though, he blamed himself for causing those shivers that made her erratic. How could he blame her for being afraid of him?

         With that thought in mind, he let the nurse wander around him and patch him with fast, careless movements, that more than once made him want to cry. He tried not to look at her, to avoid making her more nervous, but when he turned around for the first time to watch her work, he stared to regret listening to Sam.

The young woman was not even half done with patching his wound, and he felt like it was more painful being handled by her that the wound itself. But as usual, he decided that he probably deserved that and stayed quiet, and he would probably have stayed that way if he didn’t have had heard the girl sob. He gazed at her again, now moving something around the table next to them.

         “Are you alright?”

A tray with surgical tools fell from her hands to the floor; as a bigger and louder sob also fell from her lips.

         Bucky didn’t know what to do, should he leave? Should he help her? And as he thought of his next move, a weight settled in his chest. He indeed was a monster. But before he could fall in that abyss of self-pity and hate, a door was opened.

         “What was that? Is everything alright in here?” A soft voice asked. A step ahead of the door another girl, probably another nurse, was standing with her hair in a ponytail, and her eyes fixed on them. “Oh, it’s just the tray” she said once she saw it, and the state of the other nurse. “Abby, my dear, you look quite tired. Let me help him, you can go to rest now” her voice was painted with sarcasm, but Bucky couldn’t point to whom it was directed.

         Without more than a nod, ‘Abby’ stepped away from him and nearly ran to the door from which the other girl had come out.

         “Good night Sargent Barnes, I’m Dr. (Y/l/n), how can I help you?” Even if the line was practiced, the softness in her voice wasn’t, it felt natural and warm. “I’m pretty sure my mate already examined you, but if you don’t mind, I’ll like to do it again, just to make sure this is all we need to fix” Bucky couldn’t tell her, that in fact, he hadn’t been examined before, it really didn’t matter anyway, he was fine, it was only a scratch; so ignoring that fact, he simply nodded, giving his consent.

And with that the gloved hands of the doctor, that had made her way to him, flied to his head and started delicately touching him, as she narrated what she was doing. “I’m searching for the raccoon sign, just to discard a cranioencephalic trauma, now let’s check your eyes… please follow my pen with them… yes, yes, very good.” It took her less than 3 minutes; 3 minutes that Bucky enjoyed very much.  “Well, now that we discard anything else, let’s get your wound attended.” She made a funny face. “Going be honest, I don’t like the sutures you have in here, I mean, they are not bad, and they are doing their job, but it looks like a rough work” The soldier was speechless. Couldn’t tear his eyes from her face. “Did she give you some morphine? Does it still hurt? It should have kicked in by now.”

         “No” his voice came out rougher than what he wanted.

         “No what? No, it doesn’t hurt or no, she didn’t give you?” She teared her gaze from his arm to his face, connecting with her eyes. A serious expression on her features, daring him to lie to her.

         “The latter” An eye roll was all he received.

         “Did she even clean it?” He stayed silent, looking at her eyes.

         “I’m surrounded by amateurs, what is wrong with her?” (y/n) stepped back, tearing her hands from his figure; she walked to a cabinet near her and took out a syringe and a glass bottle, the she moved to a desk nearby and checked a chart. “Barnes, Barnes Barnes, oh, here you are, weight… yes now that times the dose… okay, got it”

         With Bucky’s eyes glued to her at all times the woman prepared the syringe and took an alcohol socked cotton, and walked to him again “Okay, lets clean this, and then you won’t feel pain anymore… shoot coming in one, two… three. Very good.” The soldier didn’t feel a thing.

“Please Mr. Barnes come with me, we’ll clean that old school because alcohol will do nothing to dirt and then we may continue, serves that we give the morphine time to fully kick in” she took him to some stainless-steel sink and gave him a new soap bar and a fluffy sponge “Do you mind if I put some music? It’s kind of late, I’m pretty sure you are just as sleepy as I am”

         “Its okay” was his only response, as he opened the water tap and started cleaning his arm, first it was gently, nearly mimicking the hands of the doctor, but then he remembered the nurse and became rougher with himself.

Bucky was so consumed in his thinking, tearing apart the sutures and making himself bleed that he couldn’t notice new sounds wrapping the room, or the young woman standing next to him.

Sunflower Sunflower My eyes Want you more than a melody Let me inside Wish I could get to know you

         “Oh, dear, someone is very excited, but I’m afraid that will only hurt you more” (Y/n) told him, as she took the sponge from his strong grip and started cleaning him. “Oh, the sutures are ripped, what a shame” the fake sadness in her voice nearly made him laugh.

After rinsing, he found himself, again, uncomfortably seated in the dental-chair-like stretcher as he watched her taking the long-fallen tray, and its content, to the sink; and putting out a new one from a chest of drawers along with what he thought were her tools.

Sunflowers Sometimes Keep it sweet in your memory I was just tongue-tied

And I don't wanna make you feel bad But I've been trying hard not to talk to you My sunflower (sunflower, sunflower)

         “That it, now we have all we need to close up that nasty scratch” (y/n) must have felt his discomfort “you know Mr. Barnes, we can switch chairs if you want to, I know that being in the ‘patient chair’ can be scary sometimes” At this point Bucky’s eyes lighted up, she was offering all the comfort warmth and gentleness he was craving. Something told him that this wouldn’t happen again anytime soon.

I couldn't want you any more Kiss in the kitchen like it's a dance floor I couldn't want you any more tonight (tonight, tonight)

Wondering headshake Tired eyes are the death of me Mouth full of toothpaste Before I got to know you

         “But where- where would you sit?” he saw her taking a stool with wheels from under a table.

         “In the stretcher, of course” she brough the tray to the stretcher “c’mon, c’mon, that wound will not close up alone” Bucky got off the table and changed places with her. “Okay now, put your arm in my legs” she said once she took seat, the soldier obeyed her. “listen to the music, and relax a little, I promise this won’t hurt, and if you feel uncomfortable at any moment, you can tell me and we’ll see what we can do”

I've got your face Hung up high in the gallery Out of this shade (sunflower, sunflower)

Bucky could hear her sing softly, but he didn’t feel a thing in his arm. Even though he knew it was because of the medicine she had given him, he couldn’t stop blaming her for the painless experience he was living. Her touch, gentle and soft, over his naked skin was all he needed to relax and shut up the voices in his head.

         “Bucky”

         “Sunflower, sun-… sorry, what?” she asked when he interrupted her soft mumbling.

         “Bucky, you can call me Bucky” he said, now looking at her, ignoring the feeling of her knees pressed gently to his right side.

Your flowers just died Plant new seeds in the melody Let me inside, I wanna get to know you I don't wanna make you feel bad But I've been trying hard not to act a fool My sunflower (sunflower, sunflower)

         “Well then, you can call me (y/n)” she smiled.

         “I liked the song” he wanted to hear her voice.

         “Oh really? Then you should hear his album, it's called ‘Fine Line’, is a masterpiece”

         “Is it?” his eyes hadn’t left her.

         “Yes” she answered, now connecting their eyes and smiling. “Very well Bucky, we are done”

I couldn't want you any more Kiss in the kitchen like it's a dance floor I couldn't want you any more tonight (tonight, tonight) I couldn't want you any more Kids in the kitchen listen to dancehall I couldn't want you any more tonight

Bucky was the first one to stand up, even though he wanted to stay there a little longer, and the offered her his hand to hop off the bed.

         “Thank you very much, gentle sir” both of them smiled, looking at each other “I would like to say that I hope to see you again; but I really hope no to see you again here… hurt, so stay out of danger okay?” she asked him, once they were in front of the exit door.

Sunflower My eyes Want you more than a melody Let me inside Wish I could get to know you

         “I’m not promising anything” he gave her a boyish smile he didn’t even know he still had and left. The last thing he heard before the door closed was her laugh and a little “silly”.

Sunflowers just died Keep it sweet in your memory I'm still tongue-tied Sunflower, sunflower Sunflower, sunflower Sunflower, sunflower

As he made his way to his room, he couldn’t nor wanted, to erase the smile on his face. After a quick shower he fell to his bed, but before he could fall sleep he realized he didn’t ask her the name of the singer, and ignoring the fact that he could search for the album without his name, he concluded that he would make Sam accompany him to see her tomorrow and ask her.