#anyway thought of you while writing this mel

[witlesswitnesstm]

Hello tumblr, I’m having thoughts.

So, I’ve seen a billion cajillion arguments over Jayvik at this point and I think I have an opinion.

Yes, we need more depictions of intimate male friendships, but we also need more depictions of mlm romances. Most shows still shy away from mlm romances more than wlw romances because it makes men uncomfortable to see male attraction. Wlw romances are deemed to be more “palatable” for the general public because women are perceived as more “innocent and caring” when that’s not always the case. Not to mention those relationships are more easily objectified by men, which is gross. It’s a product of the patriarchy, putting all relationships into boxes just because of people’s genders, both mlm and wlw. I don’t think that’s what the Arcane team intended to do, but it still happens.

At the same time, fandom has always had a bit of a problem with viewing mlm dynamics as strictly sexual and ignoring women in fandom. It’s not fair to focus entirely on mlm ship dynamics within a show while ignoring actual characterization and pushing that belief onto everyone else. Or even blaming women for “getting in the way of mlm ships” (cough cough, looking at those Mel haters.)

This ties into a greater discussion of how men are often written more complex than women, making people want to focus on male relationships. Arcane, I feel like, does a pretty good job at making their women’s writing deeply complex and interesting, but, the finale really rushed over a lot of things to give precedence to Jayce and Viktor. (I love what we got for them, I just wish we had more time for other plots).

Despite a co-creator saying that Jayvik wasn’t romantic, I feel as though the whole team were on different pages as to how they wanted Jayvik to come across. There are so many parallels between Mel and Viktor, and hints that suggest romantic connection, that, I don’t really think you can just turn around and blame the fandom for forming logical conclusions based on what was shown. If they wanted a platonic relationship shown, they should’ve considered carefully what they were putting on screen, and considered audience interpretations. There are good depictions of friendship in arcane, and I especially like the m/f friendships like Jayce and Caitlyn or Vi, Or Vi and Loris, or Ambessa and Rictus. It shows they have the capability to make friendships that don’t have romantic tension at all, despite men and women practically always being shipped, so then, why do all these specific details for Jayvik?

Ambiguously canon mlm relationships are almost a little frustrating to me, because there’s always room for plausible deniability within homophobes. I’ve seen so many people shame others for liking Jayvik and calling them depraved losers and whatnot, and that’s just not, cool. But what’s also not cool is going after aspec people who find comfort in the fact that romance isn’t explicitly shown between Jayvik. I was frustrated at first that they kind of left their relationship up in the air, but I’ve grown to appreciate the different interpretations.

Anyway, something something at least we can all agree that they’re both smoking hot and we as the fandom should share them. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[pastel-peach-writes]

Hii, i just read all and i mean ALL of ur fics, but i saw you wrote for arcane women and was wondering if you could write headcanons abt them with a socially awkward/anxious reader?? If not thats A-Ok 👌 with me

Sure! How is everyone doing after the first three eps? I still haven't seen it but the edits I've seen... oh boy.

"I Got You." | Arcane Ladies Headcanons

╰┈➤ PLOT: How the ladies of Arcane(Jinx, Vi, Caitlyn, Sevika, Mel) act with a socially awkward and/or anxious partner

╰┈➤ WARNINGS: Spoiler Free, On The Shorter Side, Cursing, Not Proofread

⍣ ೋ Enjoy!⍣ ೋ

JINX

– At first, Jinx didn't get that you were socially awkward. She was used to people being awkward or even scared around her so she thought it was the same case with you until you two got closer.

– After knowing that your awkwardness was just you and not your fear of her, she observed you in social situations and noted what made you more anxious than normal.

– For example, she noticed you're more anxious and timid in bigger, louder spaces but if a space was quiet and quaint, you would be just fine so she often took you to quiet places for dates.

– If Jinx notices you're anxious in places you typically aren't, without a doubt she's removing you from the situation and taking you home where you can relax. No words, just grabs and tugs.

– She's tried the pep talk route before but it ended up in her rambling and somehow planning a terrorist scheme aloud... (yeah, a few patrons quickly left the area after hearing that), so she decided to scrap that idea altogether.

– At home though she would prepare what she calls, "A Safety Nest". It was a place in your shared space that had all your favorite things and trinkets, and she usually kept the space dimly lit and played your favorite music to calm you down.

– In social interactions where you take the lead in conversation, Jinx would quietly encourage you with big, almost alarming smiles and "gentle" pats on your back. Let's face it, Jinx can be socially awkward herself.

– Once the conversation concludes, she'll jump on you proudly, ruffle up your clothing, and pinch your cheeks endearingly all while calling you weird nicknames and quoting what you said while mimicking your tone and cadence.

––

VI

– Before you've had your first real conversation together, Vi could sense that you were an anxious individual.

– You fidgeted with your body while speaking, didn't hold eye contact long, and used a decent amount of filler words to casualize your sentences.

– She thought it was endearing to watch you act and move as if you thought no one truly cared about what you were saying or were afraid of boring others but you never bored her. She didn't think it was possible.

– You had tells and quips that revealed themselves with each conversation you two had. You showed more and more of your personality the more you got comfortable with her too. Vi loved it.

– When you spoke to her, especially when you went on tangents about things you were interested in, she always showed signs of active listening by nodding and asking follow-up questions. Even days later, she'll bring up the topic again to see if you have any updates.

– She made you feel seen and heard, something you've subconsciously craved. And when you went on your worry rambles, she consoled you and tried her best to stop you from spiraling.

– You thought about a lot of things and oftentimes about things no one else thought about. Vi thought your brain must've been exhausted with all the worries, doubts, and judgments that were usually wrapped up as others' but were truly your own; it was a lot for one person to handle so she strove to let you know that you were not alone.

– Is there a night you can't sleep because of your racing mind? Vi is there, holding you or reassuring you that everything is going to be okay. She can't sleep until you do anyway so why not speed the process along?

– You often had yourself stuck with your head stressing and worrying about multiple things at once and Vi was always there to bring you down to Earth.

__

CAITLYN

– Caitlyn's an encourager and a comforter with you.

– She's patient and silently allows you to take your time when gathering your thoughts midconversation but she'll also be the one to say, "It's okay, take your time," in the sweetest way possible.

– If there's an instance when you two are out and about and you really want something but are too scared to get it, she'll spring into action and get that thing for you. (Even if it was just a napkin).

– The only time she's frazzled socially is when you both are in an unfamiliar area and need to ask for directions. She'll stumble over her words and try to get someone's attention but they're moving too fast to hear her soft words.

– She'll get frustrated and you end up comforting her, but after a few backrubs, she's ready to try again. Her voice is strong and powerful, and people have no problem hearing her.

– You secretly thank whomever you have to for her determination but there was no way in hell you were going to walk up to a stranger and ask for directions like a tourist... which you were.

– Since Caitlyn's job has her socializing with a lot of people, she can get burnt out easily. Especially if work hasn't been going her way lately but even if she's burnt out and tired, if you seem to be more awkward or anxious than her, she's more than happy to step up socially.

– When you both have someplace to attend to or some event that holds significance, Caitlyn will not hesitate to stage a "social rehearsal" with you. She'll make flashcards of topics you could bring up, you'll both dress accordingly for the event in her living room, and she'll pretend to be an assortment of people so you can get used to different personalities all at once.

– It may seem like this is all for you, but honestly it helps her too. Sometimes she misses the personal cues of conversation leading the other to think she's a black-and-white thinking who has no time for pleasanties. Not true! She's very pleasant... sometimes she's just shy.

– Shyness is not a crime!

– After talking with the host and a few others she has to talk to due to her job, her social battery is depleted. She's extremely thankful you're able to recognize this and suggest leaving early. What would you two do without each other?

––

SEVIKA

– Oh, man. This lady found your awkwardness charming as hell.

– Your awkwardness was different than all the nerds and scaly-beings she's forced to be around. You were cute, looked perfect sitting next to her, and your awkwardness, as mentioned before, had a certain charming quality she can't quite place.

– She'll see you in your workplace trying to make casual conversation or small talk but none of your topics seemed to be landing. Your coworkers would give you a thin pressed-lips smile that she wanted to strike off of them to your attempts and then scoff at you behind your back.

– You were authentically yourself and those bastards didn't know what to do with it. They were scared, not her though.

– When you two got closer and comfortable enough with each other that you could tease one another or make playful jabs at the other's expense, no doubt she would tease you about your awkwardness.

– With those gorgeous eyes of yours, you would look everywhere else but her own, prompting her to say, "You know you can look me in the eyes, right? I won't bite", with the stupidest most shit-eating smirk on her face. And then when you look at her, a bit shocked and playfully annoyed, her smirk would only grow. "Unless you want me to."

– Sevika never made your awkwardness seem like a flaw. Your awkwardness came with you and she wanted all of you so she often encouraged your awkwardness.

– If she caught you trying to "reel" it in or realizing that you've talked for a few seconds too long, she'll playfully scold you and tell you to continue or to "let it out". Y'know. As someone who seethes dominance does.

– There would be an instance in which you go to Sevika asking for advice to be "less awkward" and her only response would be, "Why? I like your awkwardness, you don't need to change it. Anyone else who thinks otherwise is a sad loser and don't deserve to be in your life anyways."

– like damnnnn, okay!

– Safe to say you never asked her a question like that again.

--

MEL

– Mel understands your worries about what others think and the awkwardness that can come with it so she likes to help you in any way she can.

– If you're stressed about a council meeting and afraid of what everyone's going to think about the new perspective you'd like to bring to the table, she'll reassure you and tell you she's right by your side.

– If she can't physically with her hand on the small of your back, she give you nods of encouragement, raise her brows proudly, and look at you with that sense of pride and admiration in her golden eyes.

– After the meeting goes well, which she knew would, she'll congratulate you with your favorite drink and a night in doing all your favorite things.

– Even if there were parts in the meeting that were rocky, like the council people asking questions you weren't prepared for or getting rowdy, she'll say you did an excellent job and what you presented will help the people of Piltover.

– Oh, and don't think for a second that she wasn't sending glares and daggers to those who stirred up your anxiety even more. If looks could kill.

– Mel sees that sometimes your awkwardness and anxiety result in people-pleasing and she would shut that down real quick. She's fallen into that dangerous pool before and knows how hard it feels when you disappoint others and how much harder it is to get out of that mindset.

– She can get quite spirited with her encouragement...

– "Well, if they don't like it, that's on them! They don't know something good when they see it." "I've learned that hard way that you can't please everyone. You might as well say what you have to now. They can get over themselves later."

– It's actually quite attractive to see her stand up for you, even if she was standing up for the possibility.

– Always keeping her words in your mind, you find yourself navigating through life easier and you only have her to thank.

WC: 1,705

[morgana-larkin]

helloooo!! I’ve been reading your fics for a while and I just had a prompt for Melissa that I’ll hope you will consider writing!

So it’s set in that episode where Abbott goes to a field trip to the park and Melissa is beefing with that teacher from the other school. Reader is a teacher from Abbott and that other teacher takes an interest in reader and flirts with her and tries to ask her out BUT Melissa and reader are dating so if Melissa didn’t like that teacher before, she most certainly despises her now. You can choose what Melissa does as a show of jealousy 🥰

Hi! I’m happy you’re enjoying my fics, anon! And I do love to write a good Jealous Mel fic. No there isn’t smut in this but there is a reference. And I did skip a few prompts and wrote this one first but hey you get two fics in 2 days soooo…. Anyway, not edited in the slightest and I hope you like it!

On another note: I got a big fic that I’m currently writing, I’m not saying anything about it but I think all of you will love it. 😉😏. Also I asked @babytakeittothehead to create a gif from the episode specifically for this prompt so thank you 🙏🏻

Park Rivalry

Warnings: Jealous Mel, reference to smut, a bit of swearing

Words: 3.26k

“Field trip worksheets, hot off the press!” Jacob says and hands you and Melissa a binder.

“What in the hot hell is this?” Melissa asks and you snort.

“Jacob, nobody needs this.” Barb tells him and hands the binder back to him. “You pulled off a field trip with no money and no help. Baby relax.”

“Yeah, we’re going to the park. Kids don’t wanna work. We don’t wanna work. Ava definitely doesn’t want to work.” She says and you nod as you place an arm on her shoulder as you both look at the binder.

“I never do. And today I get to not work while lounging in my air chair. I love furniture that rhymes.” Ava says and walks away.

“Yeah. So knock it off with the worksheets, or you’re gonna ruin this trip.” Melissa says to him.

“Ya Jacob, field trips are supposed to be fun, not educational and boring.” You tell him as you hand your binder back to him.

“Ah Morton. For all your flaws, I know you appreciate the value of education.” Jacob says and hands Mr. Morton a binder.

“Ah thanks buddy. You’re a lifesaver.” Morton says and then proceeds to use one of the papers as a napkin and throws the binder in the trash. You see the disappointment on Jacob’s face and you proceed to laugh and he gives you a pout.

You, Melissa and Barb get off the bus and you see Ava running around trying to fill her chair with air.

“My air chair needs air, and there’s no wind.” She says, disappointed.

“Try running north to south.” Barb says and you try not to laugh.

“Ms. Schemmenti, a kid pushed me.” A kid runs up to Melissa and you start to walk off with your kids to another spot in the playground, you do hear Melissa’s response and you love seeing her with the kids.

“Oh, no. You okay kiddo? Which kid?” Melissa asks her.

A few minutes later and you see the camera crew pulled Melissa aside and asks her a few questions.

About 10 minutes later you make your way over to where Melissa, Barb and Jacob are talking to the Liberty teachers.

“We just, you know, want to keep things fair.” Melissa tells them as you make your way over to her side and you put your hand on her lower back.

“Alright well you know, life’s not fair.” She says as you, Jacob, Barb and Melissa start to walk away. “You have to teach at Abbott so…” The teacher adds and all four of you turn back around.

“What?!?” You say.

“Excuse you!?!” Melissa snaps as she surges forward with anger.

“The audacity!” Barb says at the same time with a step forward.

Jacob holds both Melissa and Barb back and gives a reply. “No, we get to teach at Abbott.”

“Ya well I get to be lactose intolerant.” The teacher replies with and the Liberty teachers walk away.

“I shouldn’t punch someone at the park right?” Melissa says.

“No.” Jacob immediately tells her.

“You know I thought if anyone was gonna ruin this field trip for the kids it was gonna be you.” You hear Melissa tell Jacob and you giggle. Melissa hears you laugh as you stand next to her. “Hey Morton, are your students having any trouble with the Liberty kids today?” She says and Mr Morton comes up to you all.

“I honestly have no idea. I’ve been angrily texting my ex-wife all morning. She thinks she should get the grill. What’s a woman gonna do with a grill?” He says with a confused tone.

“You’re scum.” Jacob quickly tells him. “Listen, these Liberty teachers have got to be stopped.” He says and you look at Melissa.

“Wait, your students are having trouble with the other school students as well?” You say to them and Melissa turns to you and nods. “I’ve been talking with one of the teachers all morning to try and sort it out but nothing is being solved.” You say with a bit of annoyance in your voice.

“Which teacher?” Melissa asks and you point at the one.

“The one we were just talking too, Ms. Barco.” You tell her and she huffs.

“We’ve been dealing with her as well. And she keeps throwing insults at us.” Melissa tells you while Jacob is pacing back and forth.

“They’ve been insulting you?” You ask surprised and she turns to look at you.

“She hasn’t insulted you?” She asks.

“No, she’s been nice but like I said, they’re not doing anything about their students' behaviour.” You tell them and Melissa angrily looks at the teacher.

“Y’all need to let it go, it’s not that deep. I’m trying to listen to an oral history of oral history, and I can’t hear it over all y’all’s pettiness.” Ava pipes up then puts her earphone back in.

All of a sudden, a red ball comes bouncing your way and Melissa catches it. You all then look at where it came from and see one of the Liberty teachers stepping forward.

“Hey uh, that’s our ball. Toss it back? Just as far as you can. Don’t want you to hurt yourself.” She tells Melissa and you widen your eyes at the comment towards your girlfriend. You surge forward a bit but you get held back by Jacob and you then look at Melissa who seems to get an idea of what to do with the ball.

“Maybe not throw it at her face.” You tell her and she looks at you and huffs.

“Fine.” She says and then kicks the ball and the Liberty kids complain as well as the teacher who just insulted Melissa.

“Seriously?” The Liberty teacher says, annoyed.

“Slow down, you don’t wanna hurt yourself.” Melissa teases and you giggle. Melissa wraps her arm around your shoulders while she gives Barb a high five.

About 10 minutes later Melissa is watching you and Ms. Barco talking and she decides to go and see what you’re talking about. She was about to start walking when she freezes in place when Ms. Barco touches your arm and you both continue talking like it didn’t happen. Melissa balls her hands into fists.

“She ain’t getting away with that!” Melissa says angrily and Jacob and Barb turn to see what she’s looking at. Jacob runs a little to stop Melissa when she started storming off to you and Ms. Barco.

“We can’t have more conflict with that school.” Jacob tells her and she gives Jacob a glare.

“She’s flirting with my girl.” Melissa says angrily and points to you. Jacob takes a look at you and then back to Melissa.

“It doesn’t look like Y/N is flirting back with her.” Jacob says calmly.

“I know that, but it doesn’t matter. No one can flirt with my girlfriend and get away with it, especially a Liberty teacher.” Melissa says and tries to free her arm from Jacob’s grip.

Melissa sees you walking away from the teacher and start walking towards where she is. Jacob sees all the rage leave Melissa so he finally lets go of her arm. Melissa meets you halfway and puts an arm around your shoulders and sends a glare to Ms. Barco behind her.

“What did she say to you?” Melissa asks you and you look at her.

“Not much, we were just talking about what we do outside of school.” You tell her and you feel her grip on you tighten. “But how about we just have some fun. They’re over there and we got the good side of the park.” You tell her and she smiles at you as you continue to walk where all the kids are.

At lunchtime you all walk over to the trees where you put your lunches.

“Ok kiddos. Let’s go get us our lunches and get in the shade.” Melissa says with you walking right beside her.

“Oh thank goodness, let’s get out of the sun.” Barb says while trying to fan herself.

You then all look at the shady spot and see Liberty school there. You see Ms. Barco there as well and she sees you all looking at her.

“Oh, we had to move your little lunches. I hope it’s not a problem.” She says with a fake apologetic tone while pointing to where they put Abbott’s lunches in the sun. The kids start whining at that as you all walk to your lunches.

“That was supposed to be our spot.” Jacob says furiously.

“They threw our lunches into the sun!” Barb says dramatically.

“I have never known evil like that, and I have been to a cowboys home game.” Melissa says and you hold her hand to help calm her down. “You two.” Melissa says as she spots Janine and Gregory. “Where have you been? We’re at war here.” Melissa says and she takes a deep breath when she feels you squeeze her hand.

“War?” Janine says confused.

“With the park?” Gregory asks, just as confused.

Jacob then ushers Gregory to another spot to chat while you and the other teachers make sure that all the kids get their lunch and sit somewhere.

You, Melissa and Barb sit on one of the benches when everyone starts eating. “You know hot PB&J is considered a delicacy in a lot of places. It’s like a panini basically.” Melissa says and takes a bite. “So we’re being fancy.” She adds on and chuckles. You giggle at her actions from right beside her and she looks at you with a smile.

“Ha! Y’all did this to yourselves.” Ava says with a laugh.

“Ava, you’re deflating.” Janine says unimpressed.

“Hey, how are your warm, toasty sandwiches?” Ms Barco says as she walks over with a cold drink in hand and takes a sip.

“What did you say about our sandwiches?” Melissa says while standing up, anger activated immediately. She goes to stand in front of Ms. Barco while you and Barb join her so she doesn’t do something stupid.

“I just wanted to come and ask if Y/N wanted to come join us in the nice shade.” Ms. Barco says confidently to Melissa then looks at you with a flirty smile. Melissa immediately moves you to go stand behind her.

“I’d rather eat with my friends in the sun.” You tell her, half behind Melissa, who is giving a death stare to the teacher.

“You know what, why don’t we just not interact for the rest of the afternoon?” Barb suggests.

“What if I want to interact with Y/N?” Ms. Barco asks while looking at you and winks.

“Like hell you will!” Melissa says, almost with a growl to her voice.

“And why can I not interact with her?” Ms. Barco says and crosses her arms.

“She’s an Abbott teacher not a Liberty one, and most importantly she’s MY girlfriend!” Melissa says with a lot of anger.

Ms. Barco chuckles. “You’re together?” She asks in disbelief and you nod. “Must be slim pickings at Abbott, how about I take you out on a date instead?” She says with a flirty look in her eyes. You and Barb had to hold Melissa back when she began to charge forward, wanting to punch the teacher that just asked you out.

“Melissa, no punching anyone.” You tell her in a whisper. She glares at the teacher while still seething inside but you keep a firm grip on her arm.

“Look, we are about to take our students to the slide, so you all have a nice day.” Barb tells Ms. Barco. Ms. Barco looks at you and Melissa then back to Barb.

“Actually we’re going to the slide right now. So…”

Just as she says that, Melissa scoffs and Barb says “say what?” At the same time.

“Although I’ll make an exception for Y/N and her class.” Ms. Barco says, she just keeps digging a bigger hole for herself.

“She ain’t going anywhere with youse.” Melissa says while pointing her finger at her.

“Oh my god, let it go. This is stupid playground beef. Y’all are being more childish than the kids.” Ava says annoyed.

Then Crystal, Ava’s arch enemy shows up and Ava declares a relay race.

“Winner takes all! The slide and the pride!” Barb shouts in excitement.

“Yeah, so just those two things!” Melissa says and you can’t help but giggle at her comment.

“Today! These two crews: Abbott Elementary…” Ava says loudly so everyone can hear.

“And Liberty rings!” Crystal says and all the Liberty teachers and students cheer. Ms. Barco makes eye contact with you and winks at you. You get nervous that she’s not backing down since she was told that you’re in a relationship, if anything, she’s flirting with you more. Melissa saw the wink and she slips an arm around your waist while glaring at the teacher. You lean into her touch and Melissa sends a smirk to the teacher.

“Will battle it out, will battle it out, park style!” Ava adds. “A relay race through the playground. You all know the risks. It’s what you signed up for.” She finishes.

“And winner gets dibs on the big wooden slide!” Crystal adds and then everyone cheers.

You’re all in a huddle before you have to do the relay race. “Clear eyes, full hearts, elbows out, hip checks, whatever it takes. Let’s be aggressive out there.” Ava says and Melissa nods in agreement.

“Yeah, especially with Ms. Barco.” Melissa says.

“Wait. Where’s Janine and Gregory?” Jacob says as he looks around.

“Oh, who cares? Janine would just slow us down. She’s got little limbs.” Melissa says and you send her a look.

“Melissa!” You scold her and she gives you a confused look.

“Do you want to beat them or not?” Melissa asks you.

“And let’s be real, Gregory’s never really been one of us.” Ava adds.

“Look, we need everybody. I can’t carry this team all by myself.” Barb says

“Mmm. All right.” Melissa says and then Ava goes looking for them.

“Y/N! Why don’t you join the winning team!” Ms. Barco says and motions for you to go over and join their team and you look at her and blush a bit. You weren’t attracted to her but she keeps singling you out, and in front of Melissa.

“That’s why she’s with us! We’re gonna beat your asses!” Melissa tells her and Ms. Barco rolls her eyes.

Ava returns a few minutes later with Janine and Gregory and you go over what everyone is doing.

“Alright, everyone know what they’re doing?” Ava asks.

“Yeah.” Barb says.

“Wait. I want the monkey bars.” Janine suddenly says.

“What? You got a bet on the other team or something?” Melissa says and you have to agree with Melissa.

Janine ends up getting the monkey bars and you all go to take your places around the playground. You know Melissa is going to be standing next to Ms. Barco for a few minutes so you lean into her before you part.

“Don’t punch or kill her.” You tell her and she sighs.

“I’ll try, but only because you’re asking me too.” She tells you and you go over to the hopscotch place that one of the kids drew. As you see the relay race start, you look over to Melissa and she keeps glaring at Ms. Barco and then she looks your way and then watches the relay race. You see Gregory on the tricycle, pedalling towards you and he claps his hand with yours and you do the hopscotch perfectly and quickly before Liberty and then you run towards Melissa and tag her.

“Go Melissa!” You cheer her on and then she tags Janine and you run towards her. Ms. Barco is near you guys and she puts an arm around your waist as soon as you’re next to her.

“Hey baby.” Melissa says and then smirks at Ms. Barco. You both watch Janine do the monkey bars. “Go Janine! Come on Janine!” Melissa yells.

“Go Janine!” You yell as well. “You got this!”

You both watch Janine finish the monkey bars before the Liberty teacher does and then she starts dancing and you look taken back.

“Stop dancing, Janine. Stop!” Melissa yells and then Janine tags Barb. You and Melissa run to the finish line to cheer Barb on and to see who will win. “Go Barb go!” Melissa yells as she exits the small tunnel.

“Wooo-ohh, let’s go Barb!” You shout as she’s ahead of the other teacher. She then starts slowing down, thinking she’s got this.

“Satan right behind you, girl!” Ava yells.

Barb looks back and immediately starts running full speed again and makes it to the finishing line before the Liberty teacher and all of the Abbott teachers cheer, hug and high five each other. You and Melissa hug each other and then you give her a kiss.

“You’re welcome kids!” Melissa says and then you all look around and notice all of your kids are missing, even the Liberty ones.

“Kids?” Jacob says and you all go off looking for them.

“Let’s check out the slide, maybe they’re there.” You suggest and you all walk to the slide. Sure enough they were all there and both the schools were getting along just fine.

“Looks like the children can get along quite well without us.” Barb says with a smile.

“Okay, but her kid shoved my kid.” Melissa says, almost sounding like a 5 year old.

“No, your kid shoved my kid.” Ms. Barco replies back with.

“We’re done.” Barb says, not bothering to turn around.

“I guess the adults are to blame here.” Crystal says. “I’m sorry, soror.” She says to Ava.

“And I’m sorry.” Ava says. “That we had to beat your ass!” She says after a second and all the Abbott teachers begin to cheer again.

“Boom!” Melissa says as she gives Jacob a chest bump, causing him to stumble into another teacher. You and Melissa then kiss again and then Melissa looks over at Ms. Barco who was looking at you two and she crosses her arms and huffs before turning to face the kids. Melissa smirks at her actions, knowing that she got the message. Melissa puts her arm around your shoulders and rubs her hand up and down your arm and smiles at you.

When you and Melissa get home, Melissa begins kissing you roughly and you know exactly what she wants right now. She then picks you up bridal style and carries you to the bedroom.

The next day, Gregory comes walking in, with Jacob limping behind him. Gregory looks at Ava with a cast around her neck.

“Shut up, Gregory.” Ava says while pouring a bunch of sugar in her coffee.

“I said nothing.” He says as he takes in all your injuries. “But I did tell you all to stretch.” He says with a smile on his face.

Just then Mr. Johnson comes in with his pants way up to his chest.

“You all look ridiculous.” He says with a smile.

“Us? What about you?” Melissa says as you all take in his outfit, you try to hold in a laughter. “Where does your waist end and your neck begin?” She says with a small chuckle.

“If that’s supposed to be a pick up line, it’s working.” He says while looking at Melissa and then walks out.

Melissa gives a weird and confused look to the camera and you burst out laughing.

Taglist: @esposadejoyhuerta

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[picklypickle]

- The only one -

a/n: hiii everyone!! this is my first little story, I hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it, if you want to see more of my writing feel free to send me a request!! Enjoy! ;) words: 1.9k

warnings: tiny bit of swearing, I wrote this with a fem reader, kinda jealous Melissa

When you walk into the staff room in the morning, the first person you notice is your beautiful girlfriend, sitting at her usual table, sipping her coffee with her work wife, Barb, right next to her. At first, she doesn’t notice you, being way too preoccupied by whatever story Barbara is telling. But when she does turn to you, with a frown still on her face from the conversation that was happening prior, her gaze softens and she gives you a soft smile only you can recognize as an “I love you”.

“There she is!” you hear Jacob saying from across the room “Where were you? How come you didn’t get here at the same time as Melissa? Oh no, did you guys fight?” He nervously says as he quickly makes his way over to you.

“Nooo!! No no, I was just running a little bit late so I told Mel to leave without me, thank you for your concern tho!” you laugh.

Everyone at Abbott knew you and Melissa were together, infact, they were the ones who had gotten you two together in the first place, six months ago and they were the biggest fans too. If anything ever happened between you two, your colleagues would probably be more crushed than you and your own girlfriend.

You hear the teacher’s lounge door open and turn around to see who it might be. Suddenly, one of your very close friends and fellow teacher at Abbott, Lauryn, bursts into the room with her usual smile plastered on her face. When she sees you waving, she makes her way over to you.

“Hey girl!! Such a nice day today huh?” she says.

“It is! Oh my god I love your dress!!” you exclaim as you look up and down at her outfit. She is wearing the most beautiful flower patterned dress. You make a mental note to look online for a similar one when you get home tonight.

“Thank you so much!! You know, I bet it would make that perfect ass of yours stand out, you should get one.” She says and proceeds to lick her lips.

You blush out of embarrassment. Did she forget you are with someone? Even worse, that Melissa is literally sitting not even 2 meters from where this very awkward interaction just took place and heard it? You quickly try and look at Jacob, trying to see if he heard the same thing, but unfortunately, he has already left and is talking to Gregory. You quickly glance over at your girlfriend who you can tell very well, has her fists clenched so hard and is fuming right now.

“Uh, thanks!” you try to say as normally as possible, trying to hide the confusion in your face.  “Um anyways, I really have to go, the kids are going to get here soon.” You quickly say and wave goodbye, smiling at her. You rush out of the room, wanting to get away from this whole situation as fast as possible. However, Melissa notices this weird behavior, as she is getting up to come check on you Barb sits her back down. 

“Melissa, you heard what she said, the kids will be getting here soon, she probably just wants to prepare everything.” she says “And besides i'm not done with my story yet, so sit back down.” she adds, while tugging at her sleeve to bring her back down.

When you get to your classroom, you start writing everything you need down on the board, such as the date and the kids schedule that they can rely on during the day. While you’re writing with your favouite purple dry erase marker, your mind starts to wander off. You start to think about how everyone has been telling you for weeks now that Lauryn might be in love with you, but you’ve just been denying it and shrugging it off. But now, you’re starting to wonder if it’s actually true. It’s not like you’re into Lauryn or anything, you have the best girlfriend in the world! Infact, Lauryn’s flirty comments are starting to make you feel uncomfortable, you thought she knew that you were dating Melissa…maybe she forgot?

Before you know it, the bell rings and your little kiddos are running in and hugging you like they normally do every morning. You snap out of your thoughts and start your lesson, you’ll deal with the issue eventually, but for now, all that matters is your students.

★

After lunch was your free period while your students were in gym class. Today, you preferred to avoid everyone and stay in your classroom to do some grading on the most recent test.

Just as you put a sticker on the last copy, you hear a soft knock at the door, you turn arround expecting to see Melissa but you’re met with Lauryn’s grin, holding her cellphone.

“Hey! Am I bothering you?” She asks, peeking into your classroom to see if anyone else is there.

“Nope, I just finished grading these papers.” You reply, gesturing to the stack of documents on the corner of your desk.

“Ahhh alright well, I need to show you this video, it’s so us!” She says excitedly and comes to stand next to where you’re sitting down.

You start to watch the video but quickly realise it’s dedicated to couples… you stop paying attention and focus more on the reflection of the glass of the phone, when you see Lauryn, she’s not.. looking at the video? You try to see what she’s looking at and realize that she is staring directly at your cleavage, practically drooling too. You get red. You get uncomfortable. You start to pray for her to leave or someone to wal-

Someone knocks at the door, again.

“Am I interrupting something?” You look up, recognizing the voice. 

Melissa is standing at the door, hands on her hips.

“Oh hey Melissa!” says Lauryn “You aren’t interrupting anything, I was just showing Y/N this video.” She goes to show Mel the clip.

Your girlfriend clearly also realizes the video is meant for couples and clears her throat, crossing her arms. This makes you look up at her. You can see that she’s jealous, she is part of the group of people that think Lauryn is in love with you and she is also not having it right now.

“Well, I’ll leave you two lovebirds to it!” Says Lauryn, she waves goodbye at the two of you and walks out of your classroom. Clearly she knows that you and Mel are together, so what is this all about?

You and your girlfriend stare at eachother for what feels like forever, until you decide to speak up first.

“Look I d-” You start.

“What the hell was that?” Your girlfriend cuts you off.

“Listen Melissa, I have no idea she just, ugh!” You say, being exhausted from this whole situation “Please don’t be mad, I don’t feel like fighting, I’ll talk to her later.” You finish.

“Hon,I'm not mad, heck if anything I'm jealous!” she says, uncrossing her arms and slowly walking towards you “She’s always making these comments and remarks about your body and undressing you with her eyes! I’m the only one who gets to do that here. And the worst part is, I can tell you hate it, it makes you extremely uncomfortable.” She continues, bending down infront of you and resting her hands on the armrests of your chair. You blush, she knows you perfectly.

“It does.” You say, getting more and more red. You quickly look down at her lips, unknowingly licking your own. The redhead in front of you notices.

“I know it does” she answers, bending her face down to yours, your mouths are inches away from each other “And no, i’ll be the one to do something about it.” 

You smile before kissing her softly, she kisses you back with just as much softness. After a moment, the kiss starts to turn more and more hungry. She places her hand on the back of your neck, pulling you closer. You smile into the kiss. The school bell suddenly rings, signaling that you have to go get your kids from the gym. 

You groan as you pull away from her mouth

“Fuck, I have to go get my kids at the gym! I’m so sorry Mel, I'll talk to you later!” You quickly peck her lips before exiting your class.

Melissa stays there for a moment, smiling to herself, thinking about how much she loves you. 

★

It’s the end of the day, you students have alrea dy gone home and all that’s left to do is go down to the teacher’s lounge to collect your things that you had left there. 

When you get there, you’re greeted by all your friends who are also gathering their things.

“Hey girl, did you have a good day? I didn’t see you around much?” Asks Janine, with a small frown, her face slightly coated in worry.

“Yes I had a good day, I just had a lot of grading to do and preferred to do it in my own space.” You reply reassuringly.

“Oh okay!” She smiles at you.

“Hey, uh, Y/N?” You recognize the voice, it’s Lauryn “Do you think maybe.. you’d wanna um, get drinks or something tonight?” She asks nervously.

“Uh, um” you have no idea what to say “I uh..”

Melissa, who was talking to Barb as per usual, notices you and Lauryn right away and decides that this is her time to shine, this is where this little Lauryn thing stops. 

“Hey, Lauryn?” Melissa says while approaching you from behind “Have you ever noticed in the last six months that, I don’t know, me and Y/N are dating? Or did you just think we were joking?”

“Oh! Well..” The girl in front of you says 

“Save it glasses, and save up that money for a new pair because this one isn’t working” Mel says “Now back the fuck off before I throw you down the stairs and the only drinks you’ll be getting are jello cups from the hospital” She finishes, before quickly turning around to grab her things and you by the arm and dragging you out the door.

“Oh, bye guys!!” She loudly says to everyone else in the room to make sure everyone heard.

“Bye Melissa!” Janine awkwardly says and makes her way towards Lauryn to check on her, not to comfort her, just to make sure no one ends up hating her in the future.

★

When you get to Melissa’s car, you can’t help but smile at her, and then well, laugh. You had no idea she was going to do this right then and there but she did. She joins the laughing fit after a few seconds.

“Oh how I love you!” You kiss her passionately before turning to your own car “I’ll see you at home sweetheart!” You yell at her before shutting your car door and starting your engine.

“I love you more hon, i’ll cook you your favorite pasta for dinner!” She yells back before shutting her car door as well.

With that, you both drive away to where was originally only Melissa’s house, but is now yours too, and you plan on it being for a very long time. Plus, you get to look for that new dress you want! 

[ilovehugslikealotalot]

The Woman she Is

gif by azertyrobaz

req: maybe just a tiny one-shot? I know you’re win the middle of writing many fics so no pressure. But Ava Coleman x fem!reader? Where r and Ava have been in a relationship and no one knew bc it was secret, r has a daughter and just loves Ava, even calling her Mom. You can decide the kids name maybe she could be mixed? but basically one day the kid has like a bad day and won’t talk to Miss Howard and finally gets r to try and talk to her but she wants to talk to Ava. (I haven’t seen anyone write for mom!ava) idk what else. But I’m just in the mood for mom Ava. Also, please put mom figure Melissa to y/n and Mel has her happy ending in relationships :,)

Been waving this one off for a while so here ya go anon! :)

Their daughter’s name is Hallie and it’s implied that she’s mixed.

————————————

“I even cut your strawberries into hearts!” Ava exclaimed placing a plate of pancakes in front of Hallie, she also put some fruit on the plate and a placed a small glass of orange juice on the table. “Tank you, mom!” She smiled, she ate her breakfast quickly, throughly enjoying her strawberries and taking nibbles of her pancake at a time. Y/n was upstairs getting ready, already having eaten. Ava was packing the little girls lunch, making sure to put her water bottle in the pocket of her backpack.

“Good morning to my two favorite girls!” Y/n smiled, placing her bag down on one of the chairs placing a kiss on Hallie’s bunny cheeks. “Good morning, Mama!” “Good morning, baby”

Y/n also placed a small peck on Ava’s lips, she might’ve been stubborn and might not do her job sometimes, but she really cared for the kids, she always wanted to be a mom.

Now, that dream has come true, she’s a mom to the cutest daughter, though, she might not be hers biologically that didn’t stop the little girl from calling her Mom. The best part was she gets to help raise this little girl with the love of her life. She may have been a player but she knew when she saw y/n that she was the one. As cheesy as it sounds, Ava couldn’t have fallen faster or harder. Falling for y/n was like falling face first into pavement for Ava.

They all got into Ava’s car, Hallie sat in her booster seat and happily played on her iPad as they drove to the school. Her backpack, sat next to her the sequins shining in the sunlight. Ava never thought that she was gonna actually fall in love with one of her Co-workers. She’d flirt, yes, but never actually date any of them. That was were y/n came in, she transferred to Abbott as a new first grade teacher. She charmed everyon

Ava was playing ‘Pick Up Your Feelings’ by Jazmine Sullivan, it was one of her favorites, actually. Even Hallie seemed to have learned some of the lyrics from how many times Ava’s played it. Though, if anything, Ava listens to Beyoncé the most.

You need to hurry and pick up your, ooh, feelings While I'm up cleaning

Boy please (boy please, oh) I don't need you (I don't need you)

Y/n let a smile take over her face as she looked out her window, nothing could’ve ruined this moment. Everything she could’ve needed was right here. Her life was perfect as it was and she wouldn’t change it for anything.

Her job might’ve not been a six figure paying job but it brought her memories that were priceless, her job might’ve been stressful but it helped the next generation. She couldn’t have wished for anything more. “You okay, baby?” Ava asked, placing a hand on her thigh, the principal’s brows furrowed, stealing a glance at her girlfriend.

”Yeah, just a little tired, I could go for some coffee right now” The woman yawned, regretting her choice of just drinking orange juice. Ava smirked, she made a U-turn to Starbucks, “We have some extra time anyway so why not make a pit stop?” Hallie giggled in the back, “Can I get a cake pop, pwease!”

Y/n nodded, she thought it was cute when she got lazy and forgot to pronounce the ‘L’ sound. It seemed like yesterday she couldn’t talk at all. “Well, I already know what to get everyone, then!”

——————

Ava made jokes about how the barista looked like 50 cent the whole ride to Abbott. They arrived a little bit early but they didn’t mind, Getting out of the car, Ava unbuckled Hallie out of her seat. “Ready for school, lil’ curly fry?” She smiled, chuckled as she tousled the little girl’s curly hair that was nicely slicked back into a half up, half down hairdo.

Hallie threw up a thumbs up, holding Ava’s hand and y/n’s in the other, not many cars were parked in the lot. The three entered the only person visible was Mr. Johnson.

He nodded at the to grown woman and smiled at the little girl. It was safe to say that Mr. Johnson was Hallie’s favorite person at school, besides Mel and Barb.

Ava gave y/n a soft kiss, and gave Hal a peck on the forehead. “Have a good day, you two” she said before walking to the break room, y/n unlocked her classroom door, letting Hallie in, she flicked on the lights. She usually just let her color until the bell rang signaling that she needed to go to Barb’s class.

“I have to go to the break room, will you be okay by yourself for a few minutes?” Y/n asked, placing a hand on her daughter’s shoulder. The little girl nodded, her attention not faltering from her coloring page.

Leaving her classroom, she trusted her young daughter to finish the coloring page, quickly coming into the break room she grabbed a donut happily munching down on the sweet treat, “There ya are! Was wondering you was! Where’s the kid?” Melissa questions, looking around to make sure she wasn’t hiding. Y/n laughed, leaning against the counter, “In my room, I’ll go grab her for you”

Being a woman of her word, the teacher walked back to her class, before she reached the door she heard a thud and a “uh oh..”

Y/n hurried into the room to see Hallie standing next to her desk, a cup in hand. She tried hiding the coffee puddle that was clearly on the ground, even her clothes were stained a dark brown color.

“Hal..what did you do!” She exclaimed, picking up the little girl and sitting her on the chair, quickly cleaning up the mess. “I’m sorry Mama, I didn’ mean to” her little head fell to her lap, seeing her clothes now ruined, she pouted, hating when she made her mama upset.

“It’s alright, sweet girl. Just be more careful, okay?” She cooed, kissing her cheek with a smile to let her know she wasn’t upset. “Go see your Mom while I clean this up,” the girl nodded, hopping off the chair and hurriedly running out of the classroom.

On the way, Hallie saw Melissa she waved and hugged the second grade teacher, “Mornin’ to you too, kid” she said sweetly, missing the coffee stains on the child’s clothes. Continuing her journey to her Mom’s office, she knocked and spoke in between the crack between the door and frame. “Mommy!” She called, the sounded muffled by the metal, shuffling was heard on the other side, Ava opened the door with a sweet smile.

A cough was heard behind the girl, The principal lifted her head to see a whole camera crew behind her. “Oh, damn” she let her jaw drop, ushering her daughter into the office, she stared the crew down as they all wore shocked faces.

“Go on doing whatever it is y’all do”

Ava closed the door, turning to the little girl who was sitting in her chair looking at the picture of Y/n, Hallie, and Ava. It was the picture they took at when they had gone on vacation last year. “You like it, baby girl?” She chuckled, grabbing some news clothes in the makeshift closet The principal made in her closet. It was quite impressive how she could hardly do her job as a principal but somehow renovate a old storage room into a high fashion closet in less than a day.

Hallie quickly got her clothes on, hugging the taller woman tightly. “Bye Mommy!” Though the morning was joyful and peaceful, since the coffee accident Hallie’s little day went tragically wrong. She had miss placed her lunch, hurt her knee during P.E., she couldn’t color inside the lines, She couldn’t even sleep during nap time because this girl in her class sleep kicked, At lunch time. Miss Howard had sat the little girl down.

“Sweetheart, what’s the matter? You’ve been upset all day!” She exclaimed, listening intently for an answer, the little girl only crossed arms and huffed, realizing she had no other way to get her to crack due to y/n being in a meeting. She brought her to the break room, “Melissa, help me with this one. Do you want to tell Aunt Mel what’s the matter?” Hal only, hugged into the red headed teacher, “Oh, hon..what’s got you in all worked up, huh?” She asked, Hallie finally spoke up huffing, she really did have her mothers attitude.

“I want my Mommy!” She pouted, crossing her arms, Barb groaned, “She’s more stubborn than her Mother, but we can’t get y/n she’s in a meeting!”

No one on the staff had figured out y/n was dating Ava let alone it was serious, Hallie had done a pretty good job keeping it on the down low too. Everyone didn’t really put two and two together when they’d see Ava coming out of her car with y/n. Now that Melissa thinks about it, maybe they’re not bestfriends.

Though, Melissa couldn’t jump to conclusions, “Well, I dunno, I guess we’ll-” Melissa was interupted by the sound of a familar sound of yawning as the breakroom door opened, “Oh hello, you three! Everything alright?” Y/n said, dropping her keys and lanyard on the counter, ripping open a granola bar that she had grabbed from the shelf.

“She’s been upset all day and won’t tell anybody the reason why..” Melissa cooed, booping th kindergarteners nose, she only cuddled closer and pouted even more, “she says she wants her Mommy, so here ya go!” The redhead stood up placing the little girl in her mothers arms, y/n sighed knowing it wasn’t her that she wanted.

Y/n comtemplated fessing up, Ava and had had been keeping it under wraps for so long, so surely, they’ll understand. Melissa was like y/n’s work mom, or real mom actually.

”Okay, don’t make a big deal out of this..but i’m dating Ava! Surprise!” Y/n smiled, Barb’s face dropped in shocked, Mel lit up, “I KNEW IT!” she exclaimed, clapping her hand together and jabbing her finger in the younger teachers direction.

Really, the young woman thought their reactions would be more complicated, Well, at least Barb’s. She just kept standing their with her mouth agape. As if the two had been stalking, Janine and Jacob stumbled in, “GREGORY OWES ME!” Jacob squealed, Janine happily shuffled from side to side with that big smile. Gregory stands speechless, looking at the two who’ve dragged him into another one of their adventures.

“Well, I’m gonna take this one to Ava, see y’all!”

—————

“Well, a knock would’ve been nice but come in wit’ yo’ fine self” Ava smirked, biting her lower lip as she eyed her up and down. Y/n rolled her eyes, “what? Acting like you can give me attitude knowing I can eat that body up like Megan Thee Stallion” She slapped her hand on her desk, laughing hard at her own joke. Y/n huffed, closing her eyes trying to hold onto any piece of patience she had left with her girlfriend, someday she really might explode from these jokes. In the mean time, she’ll secretly like them.

“Why you huffin’ and puffin’ like a choo-choo train?” She asked, y/n went to go tell her the reason why she was even in here but Ava was determined in finishing. “Chugga, Chugga, CHOO CHOO!” She howled and slapped her knee, almost falling out of her chair, Hallie began to laugh too. “You kinda do soun’ like a train, Mama” Ava smirked as y/n groaned, “That’s my lil’ curly fry!” She laughed, opening her arms up for the little girl. Hallie giggled, squealing when the principal would tickle her sides.

Y/n’s frustrations quickly disappeared, it had only been 6 months, yet, Ava’s changed so much. They’d been dating for 4 months, only recently did Hallie start saying Mom to Ava. Now that y/n takes a moment to see the impact this woman had on her life and the little human she called her daughter she melted.

Maybe Melissa was wrong for once. They may think that Ava’s rude or stupid for not doing her job, but she cared, no doubt about it. She’d Show softness here and there but never frequently, Lord help them if she ever was caught being nice to Janine.

Y/n noticed too, Ava seemed a little nice since they’d gotton together. Melissa just thinks she’s up to something but y/n couldn’t help but think it was because she was changing as a person, principal, and now…parent.

“She wanted her mommy” Y/n mocked, smirking as Ava’s eyes lit up. She loved that little girl more than any other little girl. She would knowingly drop everything for that girl. “Really? Oh, come ‘ere you cutie!” She hugged her tight, y/n playfully sighed, looking away with her hand on her forehead. Ava chuckled, “You too, doofus” the woman opened her arm out for her girlfriend kissing her lips softly.

A shriek was heard at the door, they whipped their heads around to see the same familiar faces at the door. Melissa’s face was most likely impressed (then again you never know), Janine was probably the one that shrieked as she jumped up and down, Gregory’s eyes were wide, Jacob was frozen like Barbara.

“Uhm, suprise?” Y/n chuckled, looking at Ava kissing her cheek sweetly turning back to them with a large smile.

———

The two women explained to them how long they’ve been dating, the Abbott crew listened carefully and happily. Barb was still in shock, Ava and y/n wasn’t something they thought would actually get together. Sure, they were polar opposites but they fit so well together. The rest of the school day was quite interesting with Melissa lecturing Ava on how if she ever hurt y/n she’s got a guy who take care of the principal real quick. “I got my eye on you, Coleman” Melissa said, with a stern tone, slowly walking back to her class while staring the tall woman down. Y/n snorted, “don’t mind her, she’s just trying to scare you” y/n smiled, hugging Ava tightly, “I know, but I don’t think I’d ever willingly leave you, baby. Someone would have to physically restrain me, I love you and lil’ Hal too much” She admitted all too easily, to her this was all she wanted for the rest of her life. Of course, someday she’d get down on a bended knee, she planned on getting married, maybe even get a dog?

Who knows, only time will tell.

But maybe this won’t even work, then someday they’ll see this as a learning experience. But if there was one thing they everyone knew, was that they were meant to be together, whether or not if it was the right time, place, or even moment.

They’d up together, that’s how it was in every universe. So, whatever happened in this one, maybe they’d mess up and separate or even just drift apart. They needed each other, in every universe.

Time is something no one is Master of, but this story surely ends happily.

——

As the day ended, Melissa waved bye to her colleagues, smiling as she saw y/n and Ava give each other a small peck on the lips, they were cute together that was for sure. Maybe someday she’d-

“Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry!” A voice apologized profusely, Mel had been too focused on the couple in the distance she wasn’t even focusing on where she was walking.

“It’s fine, really” Melissa chuckled, fixing her hair before looking up to see..damn. The woman in front of her was absolutely gorgeous, she felt her heart flutter for second. “Erm, hi, I’m lissame! No, sorry, Melissa! Melissa Schemmenti” she gave a bashful smile, securing her bag onto her shoulder once more.

“I’m Georgia Prescott, the new librarian”

huh. Looks like Abbott’s in for another love story.

———————

the whole thing was rushed 😭

forgive me for this 🙏

[g1rld1ary]

omg hiiiiii! just saw your requests opened, so excited! i was hoping you could write something for lockwood with the enemies to lovers trope. anything you feel like with that is awesome! and ofc if you don’t want to feel free to not write it 🩷🩷

-mel

what once was ; anthony lockwood x reader

➻ synopsis: you and lockwood hated each other, you had since you were just starting out as agents. when your team is made to work with his on a big case, deeper feelings might just get revealed

➻ word count: 10K (exactly, what are the chances?)

➻ warnings: swearing, mentions of kissing, angst maybe?, injuries

➻ thank u so much for this request lovely!!!! i am SO sorry this took almost a month, but it's the longest fic I've ever posted here so hopefully that makes up for it a little?? if this isn't what u had in mind pls let me know and I'd be happy to write something different! ik it might not be exactly enemies to lovers but I hateee when the dynamic has no respect or reason to be lovers. anyway thank u for the request lolol!!!! xxxxx

════ ⋆★⋆ ════

You thought you were a good person. You dedicated your life to fighting ghosts, you helped old ladies cross the street, you recycled when you could. That was enough to be considered a good person, right? You were almost totally convinced, except for the all the vile things you had to say about Anthony Lockwood.

He was, with no exaggeration, the bane of your existence. You had known him all your life, but hadn’t been friends with him since you were both twelve, just beginner agents. And yet, despite all of this hatred burning up within you, it seemed like the universe wouldn’t give you a moment of peace.

You understood running into his company every once in a while — agency events, maybe the occasional case, but lately it seemed like it was every week you had to face Lockwood’s nauseating grin and infuriating attempts at being charming. Whether it was your respective teams being sent on overlapping missions, picking up more supplies or just trying to pick up a coffee after a draining night, you had started to see Lockwood everywhere.

When you saw him again whilst you were picking up some doughnuts for your team you couldn’t help yourself snapping at him.

“God, are you obsessed with me or something, Anthony?” You barely spared him a glance as you finished the transaction with the cashier, quietly thanking him as you left. Lockwood did the same, practically throwing down his cash to catch up to you.

“You wish I was obsessed with you! I am just as unhappy as you are, trust me.”

“So what, you chased after me just say something we both already knew? Or do you have something you’d like to say, an apology perhaps?” You chanced a look in his eyes. Hurt flashed through them, and you felt a sick sense of satisfaction.

“I’ve told you before and I’ll tell you again, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” He cried, almost dropping his own box of pastries when he ran a hand through his hair in frustration. You didn’t try to hide the rolling of your eyes.

“Whatever,” You huffed, before being struck with an idea. “By the way, did you hear that I’m now a team leader? That makes me the youngest in at least ten years — maybe ever. Pretty good for someone not fit to be an agent, don’t you think?” You feigned an interest in his opinion. His face dropped for a moment, then contorted to become almost polite.

“That was never—” You interrupted him with another sigh.

“Anthony, I really don’t care to listen to you discredit my achievements anymore.” You left him on the side of the street, marching back to your dorm at Fittes. You didn’t need to hear him tear you down and ruin your self-confidence more than he already had — not that you would ever tell him that. Lockwood was similarly disgruntled. Every interaction between you two turned into a fight regardless of what he said; he just couldn’t win.

You had a week of blissful distance from Lockwood and Co before you ran into them, quite unfortunately. You and your team had been assigned to an apartment that allegedly housed a few Type Ones, nothing serious but the residents had complained of hearing noises at odd hours. You held a bit of doubt — living in the dorms had forced you to become accustomed to the most bizarre noises at night, and those were most definitely not ghosts. Plus, adults tended to be paranoid; the noise could be anything from rodents to their little children being awake in the early hours of the morning.

Still, you had a job to complete, so you trudged your small team up to the apartment in question, ready for a quick job and to be cozy in bed before midnight. When Lockwood and Co were standing outside the apartment next to your appointed one, your face dropped into a scowl.

“What are you doing here?” You snapped, talking directly to Lockwood. He hesitated for a moment before turning to face you, brilliant smile shining.

“Lovely to see you again too, sweetheart, we’re actually here on a job? Nice of you to come as our clean-up crew, but that really won’t be necessary. Run along now.” You had to hand it to him, Lockwood had perfected his condescending tone. You were going to respond when the girl behind him began to talk.

“Hey, I recognise you! You’re—” Lockwood cut her off quickly.

“Alright, Luce, I think it’s time we go inside, don’t you?” He was shepherding the girl through the apartment door before you could process what was happening. George, to his credit, looked highly amused at the whole thing. You always liked George, even when he was at Fittes, and seeing him was usually the only upside to your interactions with Lockwood and Co.

“Who’s the girl?” You asked, nodding your head to where she and Lockwood had disappeared to.

“Lucy Carlyle,” He answered, “She’s a Listener — still learning the ropes.”

“And she knows me how?” George just smiled, and you could tell he was keeping secrets.

“I’m sure you’ll find out one day.” He began to follow the rest of his coworkers and you pouted.

“I hate when you side with him!” You called after him, before composing yourself and directing your own team to start the night. They just went along with it, used to your behaviour, and set up your equipment for the mission.

It was not going well. You could all feel a supernatural presence, but no ghosts and no signs of what you’d thought might’ve been the source. Plus, all you could hear was the apartment next door — their stompy footsteps, their laughter over the tea you knew they always had, and one of them wouldn’t stop knocking on the fucking wall.

It was supremely childish, and you would put all of your bets on it being Lockwood trying to throw you off your game. Unfortunately, it was working. And your bad mood was spreading to your teammates. The mission was certainly not going well, all four of you picking fights and throwing digs at each other as you searched uselessly for what could possible be the source, all with no confirmed supernatural presence.

Just as you were about to say something really cruel to your favourite member of your team, the words died in your throat. The temperature rose a few degrees, and you could practically see all your negative thoughts floating away. By the looks of it, your teammates all felt it too. When the freezing shock of the change wore off, you all resigned to embarrassment, realising exactly what had just happened.

This was only furthered when Lockwood waltzed into the apartment, cocky grin practically blinding you.

“Guess that another successful mission for Lockwood and Co now includes saving the careers of egotistical Fittes agents too now,” He crowed, and you rolled your eyes so hard you thought they might disconnect from your face.

“Clearly,” You tried to keep your tone level, “The source wasn’t in this apartment, so we couldn’t have found it regardless of if you were here.”

“Plus they were just Type Ones. You didn’t save any lives, Lockwood,” Your best friend, Sarah, piped up and you smirked.

“Maybe not in the physical sense,” He conceded, “But I definitely saved the career of the ‘youngest ever team leader’ — don’t think you would’ve kept the position for very long if you couldn’t fight a simple Type One.” You turned red in humiliation. How dare Lockwood act so high and mighty, like you owed him the career you fought so hard for? You wanted to express all the seething fury that burned your tongue, but the only thing that came out was a vicious declaration.

“I hate you, Anthony Lockwood.” Lockwood at least had the decency to look somewhat hurt. Although you’d been arguing for years with the insults only getting meaner as you both grew up and developed more precise vocabularies, neither of you had ever vocalised any hatred before. It cut deeper than Lockwood thought it would. You didn’t wait to observe the intricacies of his reaction, storming out of the apartment, making sure your kit bag hit him heavily as you passed.

“Well,” Lockwood broke the awkward silence that fell over the apartment, “I think we’re all done for the night. Let’s go.” Lockwood and Co began packing up their kit bags and gear, Lucy sweeping some leftover magnesium dust under an armchair. Lockwood paused in the doorway, looking back to Sarah with a curious softness.

“Make sure she’s alright, yeah?” Sarah nodded, swallowing a curious look. With a final nod he was gone, leaving the rest of your team to wonder what had just happened to shift the dynamic.

Back in your dorm at Fittes, you were still fired up. Pissed off by Lockwood’s ego, his audacity, you had practically already paced a hole in the floor upon your short return from dinner. All of these years and he still didn’t believe you were a capable agent, let alone team leader! You may not have really hated him; it was hard to truly hate someone who you shared so much history with, but you were glad you said it. Glad you hurt him, even a little. Maybe then he’d know how you felt.

He had — probably unwittingly — saved you arse though. It was one of your very first missions and unfortunately Lockwood was right; a team leader who couldn’t defeat a simple Type One, or realise that their case was a goose chase in the wrong apartment, wouldn’t last. So although he was the one who had told you you couldn’t be an agent in the first place, you probably owed your current position to him, which only mad you more mad. It was an endless cycle of being angry at Anthony Lockwood.

When Sarah came in to sit on your bed, you still weren’t done, taking the opportunity to verbalise your stream of thought.

“He is simply the worst person in the whole world and has no respect for me! I mean, he wouldn’t have helped at all if it didn’t serve his own inflated ego ,” You said, throwing your hands in the air in anguish. Sarah simply watched, barely concealing her amusement.

“Ok, but have you considered maybe he just argues back because you hate him? I mean, where did it start?” You huffed, vaulting yourself back onto your mattress.

“When we were twelve years old, he told me I couldn’t be an agent. I said ‘fuck you’ and have worked my bloody arse off to be one despite it, and to become the youngest team leader at Fittes, and yet every time I see him he still tries to sabotage my career or make me look stupid! God, he drives me up the wall!”

“So you’ve said all these horrid things because he didn’t believe in you?” She laughed a little, eliciting a deep frown from you.

“You don’t get it,” You said, tone solemn, “He was my best friend. He was supposed to believe in me even when everyone else said it was dumb.” The dampened mood brought a premature end to your conversation, Sarah leaving you to your thoughts and feelings as you dwelled on the past in a way you would usually forbid yourself from.

You pulled a framed photo out from behind your stack of books on the shelf. You and Lockwood as children, smiling brightly on a day at the beach, a spade in your hand and a bucket in his, your free ones intertwined as kids often do. You didn’t know why you’d kept it after all these years, looking at any photo of Lockwood typically made you mad, but you felt a bit guilty discarding the keepsake, especially the handmade frame his parents had given you one birthday before they passed. Plus, the memory untouched was one of your favourites — one of the last of your carefree days in childhood when you and Lockwood were best friends and both your families were whole. You held it softly for a moment, indulging yourself in being swept away by memories before deciding enough was enough and returning to the present, distracting yourself with a novel you’d picked up.

You were given a few weeks to cool down, blissfully free from any trace of Lockwood. You thought he must’ve been aware of the heightened tension between you recently, since you’d seen Lucy shopping around Arif’s and ran into George whilst getting your usual Friday night takeaway.

Hearing your name being called from around the corner of an aisle you turned quickly, reflexes on edge. Seeing it was just the redhead you relaxed, making yourself smile.

“Oh, hi, Lucy. How are you?” You made polite conversation, continuing on with your shopping. She replied cordially, a vague awkward air between you that you were both trying your best to overcome.

“We’re all really sorry about the case the other day, by the way. We didn’t mean to take it over or jeopardise your job or anything.”

“It’s nothing,” You assured, “I shouldn’t have let my emotions get the best of me, every agent knows that.”

“Yeah, but if Lockwood hadn’t—”

“Lucy,” You interrupted, “You don’t need to condemn Lockwood, or defend him. We both know where we stand with each other and that’s ok. I hope that doesn’t stop us from being friends either; you’re sweet.” Lucy managed a smile, revealing a pretty sparkle in her eye.

“I’d like to be friends too. Maybe we just won’t tell him,” She giggled, and you nodded gravely.

“Sounds like a plan.” You left Arif’s with a bag full of groceries and plan for coffee sometime.

George was less forgiving than Lucy. As you bickered over who got the last can of Coke in the restaurant’s little fridge, he imparted some of his very much unwanted advice.

“You should apologise. I think you crossed a line,” He said and you rolled your eyes.

“He questioned my right to even be where I am — I think I have the right to be pissed at him.”

“He didn’t mean it,” George said quickly. Almost too quickly.

“How would you know?” You narrowed your eyes. George recoiled — he’d been caught.

“You know,” He trailed off, “Lockwood’s not like that. You should know that better than anyone.” You huffed again, fed up.

“I knew,” You corrected, “He’s shown me exactly how he feels about me now. And I am absolutely fine with that. I’m taking the Coke.” You ended the conversation abruptly, snatching the can out of George’s grip.

“But Lockwood doesn’t like any of the other flavours!” He called after you. You exaggerated a laugh, not looking back as you opened the restaurant door quickly.

“I know!” You yelled over your shoulder. George watched you leave, calculating look in his eyes. You said you hated Lockwood, he didn’t doubt you believed it, too. But he knew that most people didn’t remember which fizzy drinks their enemies liked.

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Thankfully, you got just the distraction you needed. Your team had been given one of the most exciting cases on the Fittes roster. One of those old boutique hotels with funnily named rooms and a long, terrible history that had you buried in fascinating research. You couldn’t believe your team had been given the assignment, it was a sign that you were really beginning to be respected as a team leader in the agency. So, you couldn’t screw it up.

You and your team had been practically camped out in the Fittes archives, researching as much as you possibly could about the old hotel. There were a smattering of unfortunate deaths across the years — some darker than others, but you were confident it was nothing you couldn’t handle. The owners hadn’t specified exactly what supernatural experiences they had seen around the hotel, just that it was clear there were several presences around and they wanted them all gone to reopen the hotel as soon as possible. This did admittedly make you a little apprehensive — you didn’t actually have a solid idea of how many ghosts you’d be dealing with, and it was anyone’s guess how many of them would be Type Twos.

Finally, you were confident you and your team had done as much research as you could, and you were prepared for anything. And so you packed your kit bags, took the train ride and rocked up to the hotel mid afternoon, confidence overflowing. By nightfall you’d been on a tour of the grounds, set up your base and had started brewing some tea to get you all in the zone. You took a glance out the front window, seeing movement in one of the windows of the house next door. It was owned by the people who ran the hotel and they intended to open it as a second venue, but delegated the job to some smaller agency since the stakes for it weren’t as high.

It was all going well for a while. You had a plan to go room by room, making each ghost free before finishing in the majorly haunted kitchen. You were inclined to believe there’d be a cluster of Type Twos there since it was set alight years ago, and the accident had been swept under the rug in favour of saving the business.

The entryway was easy; a few Type Ones that practically led you their sources, clearly just wanting to finally be laid to rest. There was one nasty Limbless that gave you all a fright, but your researcher, Ben, was always miles ahead of the rest of you and knew exactly who the ghost was and therefore how to put him to rest. You told him you owed him a beer later and moved on, crossing a single room off the floor plan and shifting into the library, which was not so easy.

You started to think things were not as great as you originally anticipated when you turned to face the mass of Type Ones. Not the end of the world, a little bloody annoying though. Sarah seemed to agree, kicking the leg of a couch in frustration. The four of you figured your way out of it, though significantly depleted of supplies.

You returned to your home base to recoup, physically and mentally battered.

“What’s the plan?” Sarah asked, chugging down mouthfuls from her water bottle. You bit the inside of your cheek as you thought hard, tapping your fingers insistently on the old wooden table.

“Alright, I think we’ve got enough for one more safely. Kyan, you go outside and get the rest of our equipment whilst we hit the second bedroom.”

“If we’re right then there should only be the one ghost there, right? The strangled woman?” You nodded in response to Ben, mentally drawing your plan.

“And if you’re wrong?” Kyan asked.

“We won’t be,” You affirmed, tapping twice on the table to get you all moving.

Kyan left the building to go fetch the spare supplies and the remaining three of you ventured into the second bedroom. Everything was as it should be; lower temperature, creeping feelings of unease and miasma. You’d put together your chain circle and were feeling good about the Type Two woman you were facing, well, as good as you could in those circumstances.

That was, until it wasn’t just one Type Two. Despite the research and preparation you’d undertaken, there was definitely more than one Type Two enraged by your presence in the room at that moment. There was the woman, an angry apparition of some sort — you didn’t have the time to exactly figure out which subtype she fell into when a man also appeared. Shit. He wasted no time showing you he was aggressive too, and your heart sunk into your toes.

Doing some quick mental calculations, you announced the new plan — to get out. As team leader, you refused to be responsible for an injury or something worse because you wouldn’t back down when you knew you didn’t have enough defences left.

“Soon as it’s safe, get the fuck out of here,” You said, feeling to make sure they were still both in the circle with you as you stood with backs inward. “Use your defences as liberally as you feel you need to — we’re all getting out of here tonight.”

“What about the sources?” Sarah asked nervously, “We’ve only got one or two so far.”

“Who cares? Most agencies get one or two a mission and we’re in a giant bloody hotel. We’ve got more nights to get this done. We can’t get it done if you lot go off and die, can we?” Ben shrugged.

“S’pose not. Let’s go.” With that the three of you made a run for it, bolting out the bedroom door and into the corridor.

“Oh fuck!” You yelled, dodging out the way of another phantom headed your way. Evidently your previous endeavours had attracted the attention of some of the other ghosts inhabiting the hotel, none looking all that happy.

Your swear words didn’t falter as you continued the escape, ducking and jumping and making an utter fool of yourself to ensure you all made it out alive. You’d been covered by Sarah a few minutes ago with one of her magnesium flares, and so returned the favour without hesitation, only faltering slightly when you realised it was your last. You tried not to worry about it too much, you were nearing the laundry where there was a back door you could get to.

The closer you got to your escape the fewer visible apparitions there were. That was a good thing, your chances of ghost touch reducing greatly. However, that didn’t mean you weren’t still being hunted. A poltergeist had found you somewhere along the way, and the stream of things being thrown at you hadn’t ended yet. You’d vaguely felt something heavy hitting the back of your head and shoulders, but the adrenaline pumping through your veins was withholding the pain for the moment.

You’d crossed the threshold into the laundry, the back door within your sights. Maybe you got complacent, believing the end was nearer than you thought. Maybe it was just awful timing. However, as your feet hit the tiles of the room, you were being swept off your feet by the washing machine sliding into you, crushing you between it and the wall. You cried out unintentionally, feeling a sickening crack inside your chest. Your teammates turned back, door wide open and safety in sight.

“Don’t you dare come back for me,” You croaked, the wind pushed out of you. “Or I swear to God I’ll come and haunt you.” Ben took the threat and ran, ducking out the door into the fresh air of the night. Sarah hesitated, turning back to lock eyes with you, regret painted across her features. With a final threat she left too, leaving you to try and push the machine away from you in order to make your own escape. However, in an unfortunate series of events, the adrenaline started to wear off after your chase and you felt the sharp pain running along your skull, a thick drop of blood making its way down from a strand of hair into your left eye. Plus, you were pretty sure the machine had broken one of your wrists as any pressure you put onto it trying to move the machine set your nerves on fire, leaving you just your legs to try and make an escape. Turns out it’s harder than it looks to push a stupidly heavy washing machine away from you with your legs when you’re incapacitated on the floor.

Seeing your best friend the strangled woman approaching you sighed, trying to resign yourself to your fate. There was no way you were making it out without a miracle, and you were never the lucky kind. As she spotted you, you sealed your eyes tightly closed, unwilling to watch your own demise. It never came. When you chanced one eye open all you saw was sparks, the unmistakeable smell of a magnesium flare filling the room. You didn’t know what to feel. Relieved, of course, pissed off that your team had disrespected your wishes and endangered themselves, faint from the adrenaline and blood loss. Mostly faint, you decided, as you lay your head back against the tile, a sleep sounding like the nicest thing in the world suddenly.

You must have passed out for a minute or two as when you opened your eyes again you were in the air, distant voices yelling over the explosions and lights, but you felt a million miles away. You cuddled yourself into the body of whoever was carrying you — they were warm and your body felt ice cold. Everywhere you looked appeared blurry (and slightly pink, presumably from the blood in your eye), so you granted yourself some mercy and simply closed them. You thought you heard a mumbled “Hold on for me,” But you couldn’t be sure, everything was ringing in your head and the weight of staying awake was heavy on your foggy brain.

The next time you woke up was about half an hour later, or so you guessed. The sky was fractionally lighter than you remembered seeing, inching towards dawn, and you were laid down on dewey wet grass. The cool of it was nice on your skin, though you knew it would do major damage to your hair. Not that that was your greatest concern at the moment. You pushed yourself up on your elbows slowly, looking around at the scene that was coming into focus. Your team were on one side of you, looking exhausted but mostly physically fine. Straight ahead of you was Barnes, not looking as disappointed as you thought he would after a failed case. To your left was Lockwood and Co. Why were Lockwood and Co here? Why was Lockwood looking at you so intently, and why did he look like he was worried about you?

Only the first of your questions was answered. Evidently Lockwood and Co were the ‘small agency’ the hotel owners had given a chance for the smaller house on the edge of the property. They heard the commotion your team had made and Sarah’s screaming outside the kitchen door and came to save the day — of course. You were about to put up the protest that you didn’t need saving but it died in your throat when you saw the serious looks of everyone around you. Clearly this wasn’t the time for any of your bullshit.

“Clearly this case is bigger than your team can achieve,” Barnes said, and the fire was reignited within you. He must have been able to see what you were going to say and cut you off, “But I’m not taking you off the case.”

“Thank you,” You said quickly, tension in your shoulders releasing slightly.

“Lockwood and Co will work with you until the hotel is ghost free.”

“What?” You and Lockwood cried in unison, and you felt his eyes fall back on you. You refused to meet his gaze.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Sir—” You started, being cut off by Lockwood.

“We don’t work well together—”

“I happen to know you both need this case, or do you not care about the future of your jobs?” Barnes raised an eyebrow in the intimidating way only he could pull off. He had you there. Failing in a case, especially one that resulted in a near death experience would certainly jeopardise your trajectory at Fittes, and, unbeknownst to you, Lockwood and Co were pretty desperate for some good representation, unable to receive the praise deserved from the Combe Carey Hall case. You looked at Lockwood to find him already searching your face. After a moment of silent arguing between the two of you, you turned back to face Barnes, exaggerated smiles on both your faces.

“We’ll do it.” You smiled sweetly. A few more formalities sent Barnes and the other DEPRAC officer off, and only the two teams were left standing around, shifting uncomfortably under the weight of all the kit bags.

“So what do we do now?” Sarah asked, a thought very similar to the ones bouncing around your head at the moment.

“Breakfast?” George suggested, and you didn’t think you’d ever seen your team agree to something so enthusiastically. The group of you all headed back to the train station, but Lockwood didn’t let you continue in the line to get your ticket. Instead he pulled you away from the crowd, seeming to have already told Lucy what was happening, judging from her cheerful wave goodbye.

You glared at him, yanking your arm away then groaning at the pain.

“What are we doing, Lockwood?” You asked with an exaggerated huff.

“We’re going to the hospital,” He said, unbothered by your protests. “And don’t say you’re fine because it’s clear you’re injured. I’d say a broken wrist, concussion and maybe a cracked rib, but we can let the doctors tell us I’m wrong, I’d be happy for them to tell you otherwise.” That shut you up, not least because you knew he was probably right. You’d been given a shot of adrenaline and a few painkillers by the DEPRAC officer who accompanied Barnes over, but you probably did need actual medical attention.

It was a very awkward cab ride to the local hospital. You and Lockwood were so used to arguing by now that silence felt like the only other viable option. You couldn’t make small talk, what would you even talk about? The only thing you knew about his life was his childhood, and you sure as hell weren’t gonna talk about that. The tension was palpable in the backseat, and when the cab driver wished you good luck for the hospital visit, you figured he didn’t just mean because of your injuries. You did force yourself to thank Lockwood when he paid for the ride though, even if it was just for the sake of the day moving on faster.

At least the waiting room created its own noise; beeping and chattering and footsteps filling the silence between you two. You struggled with the form in front of you, inconveniently having your dominant hand be out of working order. You painfully etched out your information over an embarrassing amount of time before Lockwood huffed loudly and snatched the clipboard from your lap.

“Fuck’s sake,” He muttered, pulling his own pen from his suit pocket, beginning to scribble down the answers for you. You just relaxed, your tired, drug-addled brain being allowed to rest for a moment. It wasn’t until he asked about your health insurance that you fully realised he was answering the questions by memory and forced your eyes to focus on the paper. Sure enough he’d gotten it all right, birthday and middle name included. You glanced up at him curiously, but it seemed like this was the moment he refused to make eye contact. You only had to inform him of things that had changed since you’d fallen out, neither of you verbalising that fact.

Things didn’t change when you were called into the doctor’s office either. The mix of pain, medicine and sleep deprivation led you to embrace the exam table and bordered on falling asleep as Lockwood talked for you. He’d gotten the rundown of the actual events from Sarah and his brief moments when he saved you, and explained the night as you got an x-ray for your hand. Plus, as you were waiting for the cast (it was, in fact, broken), he explained your previous medical history — the knee you dislocated when you were nine and the broken pinky finger from the year after. You only had to participate to explain the injuries you’d acquired during your career as an agent; the ones from after you and Lockwood stopped being friends.

The whole trip was extremely bizarre and slightly unnerving, and you were glad to get on the train on the way back.

“You were wrong about one thing,” You said, pulling out your walkman from your kit bag.

“And what’s that?” Lockwood asked, and you got the impression he was bracing to be yelled at again — you felt almost bad.

“No cracked rib for me.” You grinned, beginning to laugh uncharacteristically. You didn’t know why, it really wasn’t that funny, but Lockwood followed suit soon after. The two of you laughed borderline hysterically, much too energetic for that hour of the morning when everyone else was still heading to work. It only tapered off when your poor ribs couldn’t take it anymore (not broken but aggressively bruised), and the two of you fell back into silence. You had your music and Lockwood had a magazine you suspected he’d stolen from the A+E waiting room.

The only other time you spoke during the trip was when you summoned the courage to utter a somewhat genuine “Thank you.”

“What?”

“Thanks. For not letting me die. And stuff.”

“Oh. You’re welcome,” Lockwood shot you a smile, the glowing kind you rarely got to see anymore.

As you got back to London and closer to Portland Row where your team was waiting, the air seemed to get thicker between the two of you once again. Maybe it was the proximity to the things that had torn you apart or the sense that you had predefined roles to play, but the carefree air between you had dissipated, leaving only the familiar tension that had been building over the last four years.

You followed Lockwood inside, trying to hide the out of body experience you were having returning to his family home after so many years. It had changed a little, of course, but still felt overwhelmingly the same, which both scared and comforted you. All the freaky foreign ghost hunting objects still littered the shelves, and you took the liberty of admiring them once again, remembering the stories Lockwood’s parents would tell about them and the adventures they’d had when collecting them. In your periphery you saw Lockwood hurriedly grab something off the wall by the stairs, shoving it in a drawer, but you really had no interest, choosing instead to reacquaint yourself with the house. The glimpse you got up the stairs showed a myriad of framed pictures of Lockwood and you scoffed — of course his ego would be on full display within his own home.

⋆ ˚｡ ⋆୨♡୧⋆ ˚｡ ⋆

It was surprisingly easy to get into the groove of working with Lockwood and Co. Obviously you already liked George and Lucy, but your team seemed to work unexpectedly well with theirs. You and Lockwood stayed out of each other’s ways, the few times you were left to work together resulting in another stupid argument. The first time when you thought he was calling you dumb, the second over something minuscule; who’d let the tea brew too long so it tasted shit. And then who had to subsequently get up and make the next pot. Despite both of you honestly trying to be professional and get on with the job, it was agreed by everyone that it was simply easiest to keep the two of you apart as much as possible.

However, when the hotel owners wanted the leaders of both teams to meet up for updates on the case, you couldn’t get out of it. The day wasn’t looking good. You’d shown up to Portland Row so you could get a cab together — the meeting being dinner in central London, and had already argued with him over his choice of socks. In your defence, the powder blue socks matching your dress did make it look like you were a high school couple trying to match at a formal! However, George had rolled his eyes and pushed the two of you back out and towards the waiting cab, effectively ending that argument. You’d also teased Lockwood for bringing his rapier to a business dinner, but that was neither here nor there.

You’d held it together for most of the dinner, both of you putting on your best fronts and using your most formal tones to convince the elder couple that you were confident about the case. You found yourself kicking his shins to stop Lockwood from making promises you couldn’t keep regarding the case, and he got you back with condescending remarks, correcting you when he disagreed with how you presented the case. Altogether though you thought you were pretty subtle, and the two of you were presenting a model image of your respective companies.

However, when you shot Lockwood one of your saccharine smiles under the pretence of friendliness — he’d just undermined your authority again and stolen the best piece of dessert that you were going for, as if he didn’t torture you enough — you were shocked to hear the woman across from you laugh.

“It’s so wonderful to see you two bicker like an old married couple,” She giggled, and both you and Lockwood’s jaws dropped. “I mean, it just seems so dismal to be dating in these times, but you two give me hope that the future generations will still be able find love despite the Problem.”

“And clearly you’re both sensible kids, which is very important for a lasting relationship. Working for two different agencies would surely diffuse tensions around all those dangerous missions and such you agents partake in — except for this one, of course,” Her husband chimed in, jolly glint in his eyes.

“Yes, yes, but it’s important to remember to be kids as much as you can. But you two playing footsies all night has proved that you’ve got that covered too. Silliness is just as crucial as being sensible, it’s how a marriage stays fun. We would know, we’ve had fifty odd years of it!”

You didn’t know how to react, and by the looks of it, Lockwood didn’t know either with his signature smile frozen on his face. First of all, you were not playing footsies with Anthony Lockwood — the bruise forming under his trouser leg was testament to that. Second of all, you had no idea how the woman could get your dynamic so incredibly wrong. Aside from all of Lockwood’s double edged comments and cocky corrections of basically anything you said, the two of you had hardly addressed each other directly all night, you might as well have been strangers!

The dinner wrapped up very soon after. The couple had taken a liking to you both and so trusted your teams to handle the case as you saw fit, only making you promise to take a romantic weekend getaway (or honeymoon! As the woman had remarked optimistically) to the hotel once it was completely ghost-free and renovated. For once you were glad that Lockwood was unable to ever shut up as he took the lead, seeming to believe that corroborating their assumption was the best choice in your situation. You weren’t sure you were entirely comfortable with lying to this sweet old couple, but you couldn’t deny that Lockwood was a better talker than you, and would probably handle the situation with more delicacy.

That was how you ended up being led out of the restaurant with Lockwood’s hand on the small of your back. You wondered if he’d ever done this before, and you didn’t know if you meant for a real or pretend relationship. You both said your goodbyes to the couple, flattered by the abundance of compliments they paid you — both personally and professionally, assuring you they were overjoyed to have your teams work the case. Just before they stepped into the cab the woman took you aside.

“Hold onto a boy who looks at you like that,” She said, “You might fight, but when he’s this in awe of you, you’ll find a way to make it work.” You didn’t know how to respond to that and so simply nodded, offering a weak smile as she slid into the back seat of the taxi.

That left you and Lockwood alone. You just looked at each other for a moment, unsure of how to proceed.

“Do you mind if we walk home? I really fancy some air right now.” Lockwood easily agreed, looking rather flustered himself, and off the two of you went into the night.

Neither of you spoke for a while, but you could tell he wanted to. Lockwood always chewed his lip when he was holding something back, he had since he was a child. You sighed and asked him, knowing it was the only way to make the habit go away.

“Nothing,” He said, “Just weird. Don’t you think?”

“Nah,” You lied, “Old people just say things like that all the time. They don’t care to know the full picture.”

“Which is?”

“We hate each other.” Hurt flashed through his eyes, but it didn’t make you feel as good as it did the first time you’d said it.

“I don’t hate you,” He said quietly, almost a whisper.

“What?”

“I don’t hate you. We don’t get along anymore, but I don’t hate you. I hope you know that.” You faltered for a second. Had his use of ‘anymore’ been intentional to create a stabbing feeling in your gut?

“Oh. I guess I don’t really hate you either, if we’re getting sappy about it.” You tried to diffuse the tension growing between you, not wanting it to evolve into a discussion about what estranged you in the first place. Lockwood refused to apologise and you refused to forget, resulting in the bitter stalemate you’d been locked in for the past few years.

Your distraction came with a glance over Lockwood’s shoulder, and the wisp of a phantom coming into view. Lockwood was trying to continue the conversation about your developing relationship, but stopped when he noticed you frozen beside him. Turning slowly he swore when he saw the ghost, going straight for his rapier.

“Put your hand into my coat pocket,” He said, effectively drawing you from your freeze.

“Excuse me?” You whisper-yelled, not in the mood for him to try and lighten the mood with whatever dumb joke he was trying to make.

“Just trust me, I have flares in the inside pocket, just reach in and grab them to defend yourself whilst I keep an eye on them.” Them? You wondered until you looked around, seeing other ghosts start to emerge from the shadows, attracted by the scene you were obviously creating. You wasted no more time, ignoring the intimacy of reaching into Lockwood’s jacket, grabbing yourself a flare for each hand. With you accounted for, Lockwood told you the plan, he’d fight a path back to Portland Row and you’d cover the both of you with the flares, since you weren’t good for very much else with a broken wrist and no rapier.

It was hardly the most intense situation you or Lockwood had been in, but as the primary fighter in the situation, Lockwood was still putting up a good show of skill. Despite yourself you were entranced, admiring the graceful way he moved with the rapier, so in tune with it you’d think it was connected to his arm. As much as you hated Lockwood — well, you’d just established you didn’t actually hate him. As much as you thought he was egotistical and irritating, you had to admit that you really admired him as an agent. Lockwood was undeniably talented with a rapier — it was the fencing competition that got him started in this business in the first place — but to watch him in action was really something special. If you didn’t know better you’d think it was easy for him, he fought with the same ease and elegance he might drink a cup of tea.

You were so caught up in watching him that you hardly noticed when you arrived in front of 35 Portland Row, both luckily un-ghost touched. You were also alerted to the proximity you’d found yourself in. You’d stayed close obviously, not wanting to be left to the ghosts, but when Lockwood had turned to make sure you were still with him safely inside the iron fence, you found yourself only inches apart.

At this distance you were alerted to just how much he’d changed since you were kids. He was taller, obviously, your chin tilted up to make eye contact. He’d lost the baby fat that used to fill out his cheeks, leaving his face defined and bordering on gaunt — you figured he wasn’t taking very good care of himself, judging on the dark circles that seemed by now permanent. Plus something had changed in his eyes. He didn’t look carefree anymore, something dark and tortured lay behind the charming smiles. It wasn’t hard to guess what it was, and you figured you probably had something identical. However, the small scar on his jawline from when you accidentally flung a plastic toy into his face was still there which drew a small smile from you. Something within you urged to run your finger along it, and you felt your fingers twitch before you realised how inappropriate it was. That instinct didn’t feel so bad though when you caught Lockwood’s gaze shift down to your lips. Only momentarily, but you saw it. And worse? The fact that you didn’t mind. After all of these years and the fighting and terrible words shared, here you were maybe about to kiss Anthony Lockwood. You would be disgusted with yourself if you didn’t have so many other feelings fighting their way to the top.

The front door opening was enough to make you both jump apart, you rushing towards it to get as far from Lockwood as possible.

“Hey Lucy!” You called, practically floating up the front steps you were going so fast.

“Uh, hey, guys. We thought we heard you outside so I got sent to check. Had to make sure you weren’t secretly making out or something,” She joked and you forced out a laugh, far too loud to be real.

“As if! Come on, I’m dying for some tea.” You slid past her, rushing straight to the kitchen for a minute to think.

Lucy watched you go suspiciously, before turning to Lockwood.

“What did you do?” She interrogated, all her scary Lucy-ness coming out.

“I don’t know,” Lockwood replied earnestly, still somewhat dazed himself. Lucy gave him one last look up and down before returning inside, leaving Lockwood to fix his smile on before rejoining the two teams.

⋆ ˚｡ ⋆୨♡୧⋆ ˚｡ ⋆

The week leading up to your team’s next attempt at the hotel was extremely weird. You and Lockwood hadn’t spoken about what had happened (or almost happened) out in the front garden, but you had had a long talk about your behaviour lately. Over a few cups of tea in the kitchen whilst the rest of your teams were working down in the basement, you managed to both admit you were being dickheads. There was no mention of the underlying factors of your resentment, but you both agreed for the sake of your jobs you would try and be friends, or at least civil. No more bickering, no more picking apart small comments, no more rolling eyes.

It worked for a bit, which was really complicating your emotions. On the one hand, Lockwood was lovely, like he’d always been, and it was kind of nice to be able to talk and joke with him again after so many years, although you both carefully avoided the topic of your personal lives. On the other hand, it made you sad to pretend that everything was fine when you knew what you did. He didn’t think you could be an agent; Lockwood didn’t think you were good enough. And you could both pretend all you liked to be friends, but as long as that was what he thought about you it could never be real. So, while you’d both stopped your rivalry on the surface and gotten on with the case, there was a tension bubbling behind your smiles that both of you could see whenever you locked eyes.

It all came to a head when you started discussing your action plan for the hotel. All seven of you were standing in the basement of Portland Row, staring at a blown up floor plan of the place, little figurines representing each of you. It didn’t take you long to realise that you weren’t being represented.

“Where am I?” You asked, an uneasy silence falling over the room.

“You’re not coming.” Lockwood took the fall, even though it had been a unanimous decision whilst you were on an Arif’s run one afternoon.

“Excuse me?” You couldn’t help the biting tone in your words, fury you’d worked hard to conceal bubbling back up to the surface.

“Your wrist—” Sarah tried to reason, but something in you had unlocked and you were not backing down this time.

“You and I know full well if this was a Fittes case I would still be out in the field, broken wrist be damned,” You spat, and you could practically see the gears turning in Lockwood and Lucy’s heads.

“They make you go into the field injured?” Lucy asked, but you weren’t focused on answering her — George nodded for you.

“So who’s barred me from being in the field, on what I might remind you, was my case first.” There were a few moments of silence where no one wanted to be the subject of your anger, but with a resigned sigh, Lockwood accepted the blame.

“It was my idea.” You couldn’t help the frustrated groan that came out of your mouth.

“God, this is so typical! You’ve never thought I was good enough, and now what? Sabotaging my cases? My career? Because you don’t believe in me,” Your voice broke on the last sentence, and you could feel the tears heavy behind your eyes, threatening to fall. You spat a final “Fuck you,” before running up the basement stairs, up to where you knew the bathroom would be for some privacy.

You realised when you were at the top of the stairs that in your time working with Lockwood and Co you hadn’t actually used their bathroom, and didn’t remember which of the closed doors it was. Choosing one blindly you shut yourself inside, finally letting the tears that blurred your vision roll down your cheeks.

You sobbed heavily, indulging all the terrible feelings you’d been concealing for far too long. When the tears weren’t so frequent the setting around you came back into focus, and you noticed with a start you definitely weren’t in the bathroom. The view from the window told you it was Lockwood’s late parent’s bedroom, but the used furniture and messy bed said someone was still living there. Your stomach dropped as you stood, wiping the tears from your eyes. Looking around you were sure this was Lockwood’s room, the suit jacket on the desk chair a dead giveaway. However, a picture frame on his nightstand attracted your attention the most. It was the same one you had in your dorm at Fittes, the one gifted to you by Lockwood’s parents for your birthday. Both of you grinning widely and carelessly joyful. It had been so long since you’d felt like that, even longer since you’d felt it around Lockwood. The thought made your heart ache a bit. His parents would be so disappointed in the two of you. That made you start crying a little again, picking up the photo to examine it closer.

“It’s been there since you left,” A voice from behind you said. “I couldn’t bring myself to put it away.” You hadn’t noticed Lockwood come in and you didn’t know how long he’d been standing there. You put the photo down with a start, turning away to wipe your face dry again.

“Go away, Lockwood. Just give me a minute and I’ll be back downstairs. I overreacted but I need to get over it, okay?” You snapped, praying your face wasn’t still red and splotchy (it was).

“No,” He said, and you turned to face him curiously. “Look, this has gone on long enough and we need to fix things.” You crossed your arms petulantly, a silent challenge for him to fix the damage you believed to be all his. “You said downstairs that I thought you couldn’t be an agent. Why?”

“Don’t you remember when I told you I wanted to be an agent like you?” You scoffed, “You all but laughed in my face! You said I couldn’t do it, that I’d be injured or killed and I couldn’t handle it. I’ve thought about that every case since, you killed my self esteem for years. I thought that if no one else, my best friend should have believed in me. But here I am, youngest team leader at Fittes with the highest successful case rate for my division. All in spite of you.” Lockwood stared at you, and you could practically see his neurons firing and making connections at a million miles an hour.

“That’s not what I said.” You could barely contain your bitter laugh.

“Does it matter? You didn’t believe in me, that’s what’s important.”

“No,” He said, “Because that’s not what I meant at all. I did believe in you — I do. I always have.” You scoffed again as he stumbled over his words. A little grovelling now couldn’t make up for all the years of anxiety and insecurity he’d caused.

“I mean it! If I didn’t believe in you, then what’s all this?” He led you to one of his dresser drawers. Opening it there were a stack of papers and you picked a few of them up, flipping through them. Every single one was about you. Photos from your childhood together, newspaper clippings of your successes throughout the years, the magazine article you interviewed for talking about women in power in the ghost hunting field. Lockwood had saved every piece of media about you, the ragged edges showing he’d ripped them out just to keep them. You remained silent, astonished by this new revelation. You looked up at him, and Lockwood could have cried at the look in your eyes.

“I didn’t say you couldn’t be an agent,” He explained, “Or that’s not what I meant. I meant that you shouldn’t, or more clearly, I was saying don’t. Asking. Don’t you remember? My parents were dead, my sister had just died. You were all I had left, and I didn’t want you to jump head first into the most dangerous job in the world. I wanted to protect you.” It was Lockwood’s turn for his voice to break and tears to arise, and you suddenly felt supremely stupid.

“Oh,” Was all you could say. After all of these years; the insults thrown and dirty looks exchanged, all your anger came from a misunderstanding? Not only that, a misunderstanding that twisted such an earnest declaration of care into something so awful.

“But you did it, and you weren’t just any agent,” He laughed slightly despite his emotions, “You were the best bloody agent Fittes has ever seen and all I could do was watch from the shadows and be proud of you silently. Why do you think Lucy knew who you were already? There were pictures of you all over the house before I made them take them all down when I knew we were working together. I didn’t want to scare you off.”

“But all the arguing…” You trailed off, still unable to completely process this information.

“Just because I love you doesn’t mean you don’t drive me up the wall, especially when you were being — or I believed you were — deliberately obtuse to my efforts to explain myself. But now I see we were just on totally different wavelengths.” You were really struggling, there was a lot of new information being revealed at such a rapid pace that was completely changing your perspective on your whole adolescence.

“You love me?” Lockwood did laugh this time, loudly and with the same charm he usually had.

“Yes, you idiot. I have since we were kids.”

Oh. Oh. You suddenly felt like an idiot. All of this time you thought that Lockwood believed you were weak, not good enough, not worthy of your successes, when in fact it was the complete opposite. And then you thought about how you felt about Lockwood. How his believed lack of faith in you affected you so much because you cared so deeply about what he thought of you. How you could never bring yourself to look away when he was fighting because he was so completely in his element. How nice it had been to be able to joke around with him during your research. Oh God. You thought you simply respected him and his skills as an agent, but evidently the truth had been just out of reach your whole life.

“Anthony?” He was already looking at you, eyes searching deep into your soul. “I think I might love you too.” Neither of you could help the kiddish smiles making their way on your faces, and he wrapped his arms around you tightly before you knew what was happening. It felt nice to be held by him again, the last time would have been after his sister died. These were much better circumstances.

When you both came down the stairs later, no one mentioned your intertwined hands. You all had a lovely dinner at Portland Row, warmth and laughter filling the space and making you feel at home like you used to when you were a kid.

It wasn’t until you were on your way back to the Fittes dorms that Sarah leaned over to you, mischievous grin on her face.

“Tell me you were making out up there, please,” She giggled, and you shoved her away lightheartedly.

“Shut up,” You laughed, “Besides, it wasn’t making out.”

[gweninred]

OMFG HEAR ME OUT I've been thinking about this for a while now and I'm going insane.

Reader organizes a very romantic dinner (candlelight, ambient music and all that), making Melissa's favorite dish, getting her flowers..

. and THEN reader gets on Mel's lap and end up giving her lap dance and just makes Melissa feel good and fucking her silly till she's absolutely spent..

ok im gonna go hide now..

Taking care of

I love this request! I’m not comfortable writing smut, so I won’t be writing that part, I’m sorry. Just leave the last part to your imaginations 😭 I hope you like it anyway and thank you for requesting!

-

You placed the flowers you had bought for your favourite redhead in a vase. White tulips. You set them on the middle of the dining table, then starting to make dinner, gnocchi. Once again Melissa’s favourite. She had thought you how to made some of her famous Italian dishes. Following her family recipe you had saved in your notes app to make the dish. You noticed your girlfriend was quite stressed lately, ever since she had to teach two grades, she would come home extremely stressed and exhausted from her day at work. But the oh-so good girlfriend you are, will always be there for her to comfort her and help her relax.

By the time you had finished dinner you had placed it in the oven to keep it warm until the redhead will be coming home. You made sure to light up some scented candles, switch the big lights off and turn on some slow romantic music.

“Baby?” Melissa shouted after banging the front door close. You could hear her bag drop on the floor. “I’m upstairs!” Stroking your hands down your sides you looked at the dress through the mirror. A hum of approval came from the teacher as she peaked her head through the opening of the doorway. “Looks good on ya.” You smiled. “There you are, honey.” You wrapped her arms around her neck, pulling her close. Her arms found its way around your waist, kissing the side of your face. “I missed you.” She murmured against your neck.

“Come with me.” You pulled away to grab her hand, leading her downstairs. You made her sit down at the table.

“I called your mom to get the recipe. I know you’ve thought me how to make it but I kind of forgot.” You giggled, placing the redhead’s favourite dish in front of her.

“This is so thoughtful and sweet, honey.” Melissa grabbed your hand from across the table, she kissed your knuckles. “And you got me my favourite flowers.” Another kiss was placed on your hand.

“I hope it’s good, I don’t want you to break up with me for making the sauce wrong.” You joked, Melissa’s gaze softened.

“Of course not.” She was in a sweet mood, you cooking her favourite dish and getting her flowers clearly did something to her. “Well, I’m not sure nonna is going to let you marry me actually.”

“Oh, hush now, eat.” You popped open a bottle of red wine, pouring two glasses. “Barolo.” You took a sip, humming at the taste. You had bought the bottle of wine on your vacation in Italy, saving it for a special occasion to open the bottle. “And? Would Nonna approve?” Melissa chuckled, her mouth stuffed.

“I think she would, you nailed that.” Proud of yourself you take a bite, nodding in approval.

After dinner Melissa insisted to do the dishes, her filling the dishwasher while you cleaned the rest of the kitchen. “I made dessert for us too, but we can eat that later tonight, I’m full.” The redhead pinned you against the kitchen counter. “Me too.” Her voice was raspy, one hand resting on the side of your face her other hand leaning on the counter, keeping you trapped. Her hand moved in your hair, brushing it through her fingers. Your eyes lingered down to her lips. Closing the gap between you, the teacher kissing you. You caressed her curves.

“I missed the taste of your lips.” You murmured against her lips, kissing her again.

Then Melissa pulled away, to sit down again. “Hey! Get back here.” You whined. A chuckle was heard from your girlfriend. You followed the other woman, taking a seat on her lap. “I’m so lucky to have you, you’re so good to me, honey.” She placed her hands on your thighs kissing you. The kiss was heated and became sloppy.

“No, I’m so lucky to have you!” You pulled away to push your pointer finger against her chest, the redhead giggling. “Just let me make you feel good.” You whispered in her ear, then biting it slightly. Melissa had to drawn back a groan. You got up from her lap and went to stand behind her. Your hands placed on her shoulders, you glide your hands over her breast down to her waist. Melissa placed her hands over your guiding them over her body. Your head was next to hers, kissing her neck.

“You have no idea what you are doing to me.” She rasped out, leaning back into your touch. “What am I doing to you?” You walked around her, taking a seat on her lap again, Melissa’s hands immediately grasping your butt. “You are driving me wild.” She went to kiss you again.

“Have me just like this.”

[gyllenhaalstories]

WE'RE NOT COWBOYS — DANNY SHARP

summary: danny likes his banks robberies short and sweet. he avoids collateral damage at all costs... most of the time.

warnings: reader is gender neutral! bank robbery, weapons, injury, blood, some sort of comfort/fluff mix? your guess is as good as mine. 18+ NO MINORS.

word count: 2515

gif credits: @/stephendorff (cropped) / divider credits: @/firefly-graphics

notes: i watched ambulance again and i could not resist writing whatever this is. 💵 thank you for reading & REMEMBER TO REBLOG!

"Why is it taking so fucking long?" A man shouted from God knew where. "Where's Mel? Has anybody seen Mel Gibson?" More men answered 'no sir' in sync.

You sobbed, the pain stung so bad that even crying hurt. You were stuck in a cycle. The more you cried, the more it hurt and the more it made you want to cry.

A tall, bearded man stared down at you. He rubbed his knuckles, soothing the pain he caused himself by punching you in the face. You had taken him by surprise, squealing of fear while he hurried out of the vault with the last of the money and valued goods he stole. He took a better hold of his rifle, he tried to assess if your life was worth wasting a bullet on.

"I swear to God, I'm gonna kill that guy!" The first person spoke again and marked a pause before continuing, he chuckled while he specified his wish. "I won't! Okay? I won't. Not until today's precious cargo is safe and sound."

Nope, you were not worth it. He abandoned you by the bank tellers' desks, shaking like a palm tree in a storm.

"There you fucking are! Thought you got lost, that's not very Braveheart of you." You heard some mumbling you assumed came from the man who punched you. He received more reprimands and threats in exchange for his tardiness. "Do I have to tie you to one of those kiddy leashes so you don't run away? I saw some parents walk their child with that shit last week. Los Angeles, man... It'll drive you crazy!"

You heard instructions being given, the men were wrapping up and leaving the building. All men except for the one who's footsteps echoed louder and louder. You covered your mouth with your free hand, trying to be as quiet as you possibly could in this moment. You closed your eyes too, maybe if you could not see him then he would not see you. Wrong.

"Hi."

You ignored him, rocking yourself back and forth until another wave of pain made you wail.

"Hey, hey, hey. Listen to me. You're okay, you're fine."

You made the mistake of looking up and locked eyes with this man dressed in fancy attire. He looked like a manager with his tailored suit and dress pants, he even got a shiny name tag to go with it. You failed to read what the tag said.

"My name's Daniel," he offered you a smile you could barely decipher with your vision, blurry from the tears. "Everyone calls me Danny."

You did not budge, bloodshot eyes staring at his foggy figure.

"You're hurt." He noticed a drop or two of blood on your brow bone. "Who hurt you? Was it Mel Gibson?"

You nodded frantically, but stopped. It hurt too much.

"That fucker." He said under his breath, but covered it up with another disingenuous smile. "You stay there, okay? I'll be right back. Don't move."

He ordered you to stay immobile and you listened. Where would you go anyway? Maybe he had an army of Mel Gibsons out there. All you knew was that they swarmed in the bank, you froze in place and, because of your reaction (or lack thereof), you failed to follow the other workers and visitors when they were bunched up in a corner of the facility.

Danny speed-walked his way back to where he came from, instructing his men to leave without him. He'd be fine, there was just a small inconvenience he had to deal with.

The next thing you heard was his familiar footsteps hurrying back to you.

"Good job! You listened." His tone was somewhere in the middle of patronizing and comforting, but at this very moment you preferred to cling to his words and to do as he said. "I'll take a look, okay? Let me look at you." He crouched down.

You pulled your hand slowly away from the left side of your face, where you were punched. You flinched when Danny approached you.

"Shh, it's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you. And I'm gonna make sure the guy who did this..." He looked at your wound then back into your eyes. "Pays for it. Got it?"

You nodded, slower this time than before. You figured out what he meant by that and the thought was sinister.

"Oh, poor little thing." He grinned, his facial expression softening when he assessed the gravity of your state. "It's just a black eye. You'll be fine."

You were starting to wonder what being fine meant to him.

"It won't hurt for long, trust me. I've gotten my fair share of those. I'm a little bit of a troublemaker." He winked at you and giggled.

The adrenaline rush started to drop, leaving you shivering.

Danny quickly noticed. He kept an eye on you, noticing how much you flinched and tensed up when he moved, while he took off his jacket and the black cashmere sweater he wore underneath. "Can ya feel that? It's soft. It's cashmere. I love cashmere." He draped the sweater over your body, hoping that it would stop you from shaking like a leaf. "I'll get you something for the pain."

Your mind began an epic race. If this guy was anything like the villains you saw in movies, he'd probably drug you or kill you the second he earned your trust. Oh God. He was earning it already! You were doomed, this was how it ended for you... Sitting on the dusty floor of the bank and being sweet talked towards your demise.

While your mind spiralled endlessly, Danny had searched the place around. He located a vending machine, probably destined for employees for their lunch break. Now, all he needed was a handful of coins. Lucky him, banks were full of coins. He scavenged through messy desks and even messier drawers until he found what he wanted. He headed towards the machine and, while waiting to select his desired item, he made a quick phone call to Castro.

"Mister Sharp, I can't do this right now! No, I'm not watching the soccer game. I'm just busy, the guys are arriving! What am I supposed to do? Okay, got it. I'll go! I'm coming! Yeah, I'll get a car! I'm running! Are you good? You seem stressed again. Stress is bad. I heard tea helped, have you tried to drink tea? Wait, how am I gonna make it back here? Mister Sharp? Do you need flamingos this time?"

You caught no word of that, despite how his employee was shouting through the phone, too busy listening to your own thoughts. Only Danny's silhouette walking towards you pulled you out of this misery.

He pressed a cold can of soda on the corner of your eye. "It will soothe the pain and you won't swell as much. First time getting punched, huh?" You shrugged, he took that as a yes. "I remember my first time... It was with my brother."

You frowned, the phrasing could not have been worse.

"No!" He yelled, clearing everything up. "I mean the first punch. He punched me. We were playing cowboys and he just popped one right in my face. He said it was an accident. I believe him. He became a Marine, maybe that moment inspired him."

You were not in the right state, both physical and psychological, to unpack what you just heard. Instead, you focused on the cold aluminum of the can and how it numbed the stinging pain.

"There's gonna be a car waiting for us soon. I'll take you back home? You can take something for the pain, lay down and sleep it off. It will turn different colours while it heals, but you'll look as pretty as ever in no time."

You swallowed the lump in your throat that was telling you to not trust him. He was a stranger. A dangerous stranger, at that. Your gut feeling rang all sorts of alarms, but still... You wanted to believe him.

"If anyone asks, you can tell them you were clumsy. Hit yourself while opening the cupboards. They'll buy it, people are so gullible."

The flag could not have been more red than that.

Speaking of red, there was a red reflection coming from the windows.

"There he fucking is, took him long enough." Danny sighed with a roll of his eyes. His demeanour changed radically when he aimed his attention back to you. "Think you can stand up? Here, let me help you." He offered you strong hands to pull you up.

Your legs were shaky, your knees barely held you up on your feet but you managed.

"I gotcha." Danny wrapped a solid arm around your waist, silently encouraging you to lean on him while he guided you towards the exit.

You held the soda can tightly, subconsciously preparing yourself to use it as a weapon if needed.

Danny's employee, Castro, held the door open for you. He drowned the both of you in a river of excuses before his boss could even speak a word. "T'was the only set of keys I found, sir! I made it as fast as I can like you told me to! I always listen so well, maybe not about the flamingos though... But you know, maybe one day you'll think of paying me more. I'm kinda like the employee of the month."

"Employees of the month wouldn't forget the first fucking rule! What is it Castro? We don't touch these cars." The two men repeated this last sentence together like a parent lecturing his child.

You looked around. Your gut was telling you to run while they were arguing, to run and save your life.

Danny's grip tightened around your waist, as if he guessed what went through your mind. He discarded of Castro, sending him off to God knew where again. He opened the door of the luxury car for you.

You sat down, let him buckle your seat belt. It oddly felt like you were a hostage he tied up to prevent you from running away. Perhaps because that was exactly what you were.

"Tell me, sweetheart. Where do you live? I'm taking you for a ride. How romantic!"

*~*~*

Danny sang along, badly if you dared to admit it, to the songs on the radio while he drove you back to your place. He parked the car and walked around to the passenger side. He most definitely overcompensated his insanity with chivalry.

You got out of the car and sighed of relief. He was right, people were gullible and you were the best example of it. "Hey, Danny." You handed him his sweater. "Thank you."

"You can keep it. As a souvenir." You sure would remember this terrifying day and you did not need an expensive cashmere sweater to remind you of it.

The two of you walked until you reached the front door. "Can you promise me something?" Danny hooked a finger under your chin and made you look in his direction. "You can keep a secret, can you?"

You nodded.

"Good. You seem like a trustworthy person."

You smiled faintly.

"Got a beautiful smile too." This hint of praise was not manipulative, well not intentionally. "Listen. We're not cowboys. Well... I'm not. I'm not a cowboy. I do things right. Nobody else got hurt today, you know? You shouldn't have gotten hurt." Danny brushed his finger gently over the bruise. "But you gotta promise me to keep this between you and I."

He felt you tense up, a breath getting caught in your throat.

"You have to. I know you can. I told you how to cover it up." It referring to the black eye, to the context and reason behind it, to this day that was taken straight out of some of your worst nightmares. "This is a day just like any other day for you."

You opened your mouth to disagree. All you wanted was to take some money out of your bank account and go about your day. You did not even get to do any of that and you got a nasty bruise as a bonus.

"By keeping this a secret, you're saving a life." He nodded slowly with a grin on his thin lips. "Yours." His eyes darkened and his smile faded. "We're not cowboys," he repeated. "I only wanted the money and I got it." He shrugged it off like it was nothing. "You don't want to become collateral damage, do you?"

You hoped there would be no other day like today.

"And you won't." He swayed between threatening you one second and, on the next, he was reassuring you. "As long as you promise me." Danny's hands, that were resting on your shoulders, dragged down your arms.

He held your hands in his, it stopped you from shaking. What was it about this man that felt so soothing? You had heard him scream at his legion of bad guys. Yet, with you, he was rather calm and composed. Almost caring.

"We got a deal? Ah, fuck, wait." He rolled his eyes, faking to have forgotten something. His other hand disappeared behind his back and, for one second yet again, you regretted not having trusted your gut feeling. You stared at a stack of cash, fresh out of the bank that he robbed not that long ago, that he pulled out from under the back of his belt. "Now. Do we have a deal?" He presented his pinkie finger to you, waiting for you to seal this promise.

You glanced at the money, then at his face. You were met with eyes as blue as the sky behind him. You locked your finger with his and took the money with you. "Deal."

He started to walk away, turning his back at you. You were left with an immense promise to keep, enough money to take your mind off it for a while... And a cashmere sweater that smelled of his cologne. "Danny!" You called out his name.

He turned to face you, too quickly to have time to put on a fake smile. Danny started to second guess if this whole thing... If you were a good idea. But you cut him short.

"Will I see you around?"

The smile that started to spread from ear to ear was anything but fake. "Fuck yeah, you will. On TV. they'll be talking about it on the news. Impressive, huh? I never get tired of that shit." He took a deep breath, his chest swollen with pride. It took him a moment to register the intention behind your question. He arched his brow, amused. "Oh, you want more of this?" He gestured towards himself.

You agreed to meet again.

He told you he'd pick you up in this same car, so you knew what to expect. It was fine when Danny broke the rules. He could break all the rules he wanted. He was not a cowboy, but he sure was an outlaw.

[shadows-flames-and-ink]

After waiting the whole day, I FINALLY watched Act III of Arcane last night, and it did not disappoint. Once again, I need to rant about things I'm sure pretty much everyone already knows, but if I don't my skull will split in half. I'll definitely be bouncing around a bit here, this is going to take a while

I don't quite understand how Vi's death fixed the Silco problem in the alternate timeline, especially since he was experimenting with Shimmer when the job was taking place in the main timeline. (Edit: saw people talking about how her death was a wakeup call that convinced him to try a different way to improve the undercity without bringing down topside, and I really like that) Also, does other-Powder keeping some Hex-crystals and seeing what Ekko and Heimerdinger did with the shards mean that she could make Hextech in her universe and mess up their stuff? Also, what about Heimerdinger? Was he sent to another timeline? Somewhere else in the main one? What about the other-Heimerdinger, what happened to them? Other-Ekko lived, so why not him?

Either way, I thought it was a cute episode, it was nice to see Powder happy again. It was also kinda funny watching it switch between Ekko and Powder being cute together and Jayce barely surviving in the apocalypse

Back in the main timeline, seeing how broken Jinx was after Isha died broke me. When she started burning everything, then Ekko had to stop her from killing herself like a dozen times? That was just heartbreaking

On a happier note, Caitvi!!! I'm very happy they're together, of course, but um... well, I watched this show with my parents... so this happened:

Me: (internally) yay! they're together again!

(They start taking each other's clothes off)

Me: (internally) this got very awkward very fast... say something, anything

Me: (obviously embarrassed) well... um... at least we can see Vi's whole tattoo now, that's kinda cool

Mom: Are you saying it's cool we get to see them nak-

So that was not at all an awkward three minutes.

Anyway, not long after that, when everyone was preparing for the war with the Noxians and Victor's cult, I remembered Maddie existed. At first, I kinda felt bad for her, because she probably had no idea about the cell stuff and she liked Cait too. Then, when she revealed herself as a traitor, I didn't. Then Mel's magic made a bullet play pinball with her brain, so that was interesting. It was a rollercoaster of emotion for five minutes, cool death scene, and a great way to show off Mel's powers

Speaking of, Mel's duel with her mom? Awesome fight scene, got really scared for Cait for a while. The Black Rose at the end was cool, and Mel saying she knows who it is makes me very interested in a potential future project that explores that more

The Ekko-Jayce-Victor fight was amazing. Ekko redoing every mistake, even risking going back to far and breaking part of Victor's... mask? Face? Idk, what was that?

Anyways, the astral plane scene was beautiful. Plus, the flashback of wizard-Victor showing Jayce all the different runestones in different timelines to stop the Glorious Evolution Hex-Victor was incredible

I'm still confused though about how, when Victor and Jayce went into the runestone, all the other cultists died but Warwick was still able to keep fighting. That whole scene was sad, and Jinx sacrificing herself to save Vi was just depressing, but I'm calling it right now, Jinx isn't dead

In the end scene with Cait and Vi together after everything, Cait was looking at the Kiramman computer thing. More specifically, a blueprint of the Hexgates, zoomed-in around where Jinx would have blown herself up. In plain English, I could read at least 2-4 air ducts and vents marked down. Most of the writing in-universe is their own language, usually narrated over by one of the characters (right?). Only signs and sometimes names are in English, so the fact that the diagram had English means that we were supposed to read it, and know Cait was looking for something. Plus, Jinx's bombs always have colorful smoke with the explosion, so we never saw her body. I'm saying she blew up Warwick and somehow managed to ride the shockwave or Shimmer-dash to an air duct. I fully believe that Jinx is still alive

This show destroyed me, I loved every second of it. Can't wait to see more from this universe

I think that's it for now. I'm probably going to spend the rest of the day scrolling through all the Arcane tags writing, so I'll leave this here. I'll edit this if I think of anything else I guess. If you're still here, thanks for reading and have a nice day

[spoilmesweetieforficssake]

I love your Mel fics so much!! Could you write one where reader faints at work at Abbott and Mel gets all overprotective and freaks out?

Maybe no one knew they were dating but Mel can’t hold it in <3

I'm so glad you enjoy my writing - enough to ask for more?!

I know this has been in my inbox for a while, but I hope you understand that I write these because I enjoy doing it - but sometimes life and having to earn a living get in the way!

Anyway - I hope this was what you were hoping for!

~*~

Entering the break room with her usual swagger any confidence Melissa felt fled on seeing you out cold on the floor.  Moving quicker than she thought herself capable, she was beside you in a heartbeat.  “What the fuck happened?” she demanded.  “What did you do?” she growled at Jacob who was couched next to you on the floor.

He scrambled back at the bite in her tone.  “Nothing!  I tried to catch her!”

“Janine, give me your ugly ass cardigan, I’ve finally found a used for it!” Melissa shouted at the younger woman, hand outstretched and fingers opening and closing in a grasping motion.

Fearful of the red head’s sudden manic mood, Janine quickly stripped off her thick woollen cardigan, handing it to the older woman who quickly folded it into a pillow and placed it under your head. 

Stepping forward, Barb placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder.  “No one did anything.  She said she felt a little woozy and then the poor girl fainted,” she explained.  “She’ll be awake in a few moments.  There’s no need to bite anyone’s head off!”

“I don’t give a shit how many heads roll,” growls the red head, her eyes never leaving your face.  “Why isn’t she waking up?”

Barb frowned at her friend’s panicked reaction.  Yes, seeing you faint had been scary for everyone present, but only Melissa was on the brink of a panic attack.  She squeezed the red head’s shoulder.  “She’ll wake up in a moment.  She just fainted,” she repeats. 

True enough, you start to come to with a faint groan, your eyes lazily blinking open.  Melissa is instantly all over you, her hands unable to settle in one place.  You try to push yourself up on your elbows, but you’re still dizzy and the effort is weak.

“Gregory!  Get your ass over here and lift her!” barks Melissa, helping you at least sit up without injury.  

You would be embarrassed if you were more with it, but the room is still spinning as the man scoops you up bridal style.

“Drop her and you won’t live long enough to regret it,” hisses the red head as she follows beside him when he moves to place you gently down on the sofa. 

Melissa crouches down in front of you, taking your hand in her own as you come around properly.  Finally, the room stops spinning, your limbs feeling less like lead.  You turn your head to look at her, hoping to reassure her that you’re okay, but end up grimacing as you feel dizzy all over again at the simple action.  Forcing your arms and legs to coordinate, you make hard work of sitting up. 

With Melissa’s help, you swing your legs over the edge of the sofa until you’re sitting properly before lowering your head between your knees and taking deep breaths. 

The red head stays crouched before you, her concern palpable.  Her eyes flicker from you to your colleagues who still hover, albeit at a distance.  The warning in her gaze is clear and no one dares to breathe too loudly, never mind speak.

When you next look up, Melissa is pleased to see your eyes less hazy.  You still look pale and there’s a slight tremble, but it’s an improvement. 

“What happened?” she asks, reaching out to cup your cheek with her hand, her thumb stroking over your cheekbone. 

“I feel so stupid,” you sigh.  “It’s my time of the month and I suppose I haven’t really eaten today, either.”

“You should have told me you were feeling so crappy,” she says, moving to sit next to you and wrapping an arm around your shoulders. 

“I was embarrassed,” you admit, leaning your head on her shoulder.  “I should be able to survive my period by now!”

“Not when your cramps get so bad baby,” she says softly.  This isn’t her first time dealing with you on your period.  The fainting might be new, but she knows your cramps alone can be crippling.  Never once has belittled you for it, or tried to tell you you were overreacting.  No, she lets you feel as terrible as you really do and expects nothing of you, instead doing what she can to make it more bearable, and when it’s not, she’s simply there.  It’s more than you feel you deserve.  “We could have put our classes back together.  In fact, after lunch that’s what we’re doing.”

“No!” you shake your head.  “I’ll be fine.”

She smiles against your hair.  “Sweetie, you were literally just unconscious.”  Pressing a kiss against your temple, she stands, making sure you’re not going to topple over.  “Now you sit there.  I’m going to make you some sweet tea and something to eat.”

Turning towards the kettle, she finds the rest of your little Abbott family hovering near the door.  “What?  Never seen someone look after their girlfriend before?”

You feel terrible, but you still manage a smile at that.  Leave it to Melissa to make the most embarrassing moment of your work life to date also the best.  It’s not exactly how you thought you might break the news to your colleagues, but the confident way she uses the word girlfriend means you really can’t fault it. 

Melissa rolls her eyes as money immediately begins to be exchanged, Barb smiling smugly as the dollar bills are placed in her outstretched hand. 

[rokon24]

Hello tumblr, I’m having thoughts.

So, I’ve seen a billion cajillion arguments over Jayvik at this point and I think I have an opinion.

Yes, we need more depictions of intimate male friendships, but we also need more depictions of mlm romances. Most shows still shy away from mlm romances more than wlw romances because it makes men uncomfortable to see male attraction. Wlw romances are deemed to be more “palatable” for the general public because women are perceived as more “innocent and caring” when that’s not always the case. Not to mention those relationships are more easily objectified by men, which is gross. It’s a product of the patriarchy, putting all relationships into boxes just because of people’s genders, both mlm and wlw. I don’t think that’s what the Arcane team intended to do, but it still happens.

At the same time, fandom has always had a bit of a problem with viewing mlm dynamics as strictly sexual and ignoring women in fandom. It’s not fair to focus entirely on mlm ship dynamics within a show while ignoring actual characterization and pushing that belief onto everyone else. Or even blaming women for “getting in the way of mlm ships” (cough cough, looking at those Mel haters.)

This ties into a greater discussion of how men are often written more complex than women, making people want to focus on male relationships. Arcane, I feel like, does a pretty good job at making their women’s writing deeply complex and interesting, but, the finale really rushed over a lot of things to give precedence to Jayce and Viktor. (I love what we got for them, I just wish we had more time for other plots).

Despite a co-creator saying that Jayvik wasn’t romantic, I feel as though the whole team were on different pages as to how they wanted Jayvik to come across. There are so many parallels between Mel and Viktor, and hints that suggest romantic connection, that, I don’t really think you can just turn around and blame the fandom for forming logical conclusions based on what was shown. If they wanted a platonic relationship shown, they should’ve considered carefully what they were putting on screen, and considered audience interpretations. There are good depictions of friendship in arcane, and I especially like the m/f friendships like Jayce and Caitlyn or Vi, Or Vi and Loris, or Ambessa and Rictus. It shows they have the capability to make friendships that don’t have romantic tension at all, despite men and women practically always being shipped, so then, why do all these specific details for Jayvik?

Ambiguously canon mlm relationships are almost a little frustrating to me, because there’s always room for plausible deniability within homophobes. I’ve seen so many people shame others for liking Jayvik and calling them depraved losers and whatnot, and that’s just not, cool. But what’s also not cool is going after aspec people who find comfort in the fact that romance isn’t explicitly shown between Jayvik. I was frustrated at first that they kind of left their relationship up in the air, but I’ve grown to appreciate the different interpretations.

Anyway, something something at least we can all agree that they’re both smoking hot and we as the fandom should share them. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

Learn More

[morgana-larkin]

Hi can you write a Melissa x reader with enemies to lovers, a true slow burn, and the reader only calls her ‘Schemmenti’ until the turning point where the reader finally calls her ‘Mel’? Thank you!

Hola! Here ya go! I have to say that it was fun, and I did not do an evil laugh at some point while writing this… 😏. Anyway, like I said previously, hope you’ll enjoy my period driven fics for the next week cause this one gots the smut too. (I regret nothing… I might in a week *shrugs*). Anyway, not edited in the slightest and I hope you like it!

On another note: I made a masterlist and I’m quite proud of it *does self five*. But then 5 minutes later the wifi craps out so I’ll be adding this one to it when it decides to work again as I need my laptop to do it. And if you want to be added to my taglist then let me know peeps!

Fine Line

Warnings: smut, I think there’s swearing but I’m too lazy to check

Words: 4.3k

You come storming in the break room and slam the door open, then proceed to stomp to the fridge. Melissa trails your movements and sees that you’re in a pissy mood this morning.

“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.” Melissa teases you.

You throw your lunch in the fridge and slam the door shut then go to the coffee machine.

“I don’t have the patience for you right now Schemmenti.” You snap at her. You pour the coffee in your mug.

“Are you alright dear?” Barb asks you and you sigh.

“Just a rough morning.” You tell her gently.

Melissa has always seen how both of you treat each other differently. You both have a short fuse and didn’t like each other from the start. You accidentally pissed her off one too many times during the week and you got mad and started arguing back at her. Now it’s a year later and it hasn’t changed.

Melissa eyes you and you catch it and glare at her before walking out of the break room and Melissa smiles. If Melissa was being completely honest, she doesn’t mind the little rivalry. She has fun with you and enjoys how hot you look when you’re mad at her.

You on the other hand want Melissa to just avoid you, you have no idea why she enjoys torturing you and you want her to leave you alone instead.

Melissa stops by your classroom on her way to the break room at lunch. “Have you simmered down at all?” She jokes to you and you roll your eyes.

“I have and then I see you and it goes right back up.” You retort back and Melissa smirks. “What are you doing here Schemmenti?”

“I work here.” She tells you and you huff in annoyance and glare at her.

“You know what I meant.” You snap a bit at her.

“I came to see you.” She tells you and you sigh. She likes to come see you before she goes on lunch everyday and quite frankly, today, you don’t have the patience for her. So you stand up and walk towards the door. Melissa sees you walking over and she unconsciously licks her lips.

“I already told you that I don’t have the patience today for you Schemmenti.” You tell her, then slam the door in her face and lock it. Melissa huffs then defeated, she walks to the break room. Melissa likes talking to you, she just doesn’t know how to without making you annoyed at her. She already admitted to herself that she has a crush on you and she wants you to see her as more than a rival and more than a friend too.

“How do I talk to y/n without her getting mad at me?” Melissa asks Barb in the break room and Barb is stunned by the question. She thought that you and Melissa were gonna wanna keep this rivalry forever.

“Why?” Barb asks.

“Because I want to try and be friends with her instead of enemies.” Melissa says and leans back and crosses her arms.

“Well you could start with not insulting and teasing her.” Barb starts.

“Everytime I try it seems like I just annoy her. Like she thinks I’m joking or playing with her mind.” Melissa says.

“Well you did get mad at her everyday for her first 2 weeks.” Barb reminds her. “Maybe start with an apology.” Melissa sighs, it’s worth a try and she stands up, grabs her lunchbox and yours from the fridge, then walks to your classroom.

When she gets to your door, she stands in front of it for a moment then knocks. You answer it a few seconds later, when you see Melissa there you go to close it again but she stops it with her foot. “I brought your lunch for you.” She tells you and holds up your lunchbox. You open the door and stare at her confused.

“Why?” You ask.

“Because it’s lunchtime and you should eat.” She simply tells you.

“Did you do something to it?” You ask and Melissa huffs.

“No, because I’m not 12.” She tells you and hands you your lunchbox. You take it and just stare at her confused. Melissa then walks to her classroom and continues to eat her lunch while grading some tests.

There’s a knock at her door and she gives a ‘come in’. She finishes grading the question and finally looks up and sees you standing there, looking at her curiously. “Yes?” She asks and you sigh.

“Why were you being nice to me?” You ask her and she drops her pen on her desk and lifts her glasses up to the top of her head.

“I just brought you your lunch, that’s all.” She tells you.

“But why?”

“Because you’re having a rough morning and you’d have an even worse day if you didn’t eat.” She tells you.

“And that’s all?” You ask her.

“Ya.” She says and you turn to leave but glance back at her.

“Thank you.” You tell her and she looks at you.

“You’re welcome hon.” She tells you and you close her door and leave to your classroom.

Melissa smiles after you leave. That’s the first normal conversation she’s had with you and you even thanked her. She thinks maybe now you won’t take everything she says the wrong way. When she thinks back on that thought, she thinks that it’s nice to have dreams.

You walk into the break room the next day in a better mood than yesterday and Melissa looks up and smiles at you.

“Morning.” She tells you and you look at her confused.

“What do you want Schemmenti?” You ask her and she sighs.

“Nothing, just saying morning to you.” She tells you and you eye her suspiciously but then continue with what you were doing.

After you leave the break room, Melissa sighs. “Everytime.” Melissa mutters.

“Wow, she really does take everything you say the wrong way.” Barb says beside her and she turns and glares at Barb.

“Really? I didn’t notice.” Melissa says sarcastically but Barb just smiles.

“Just because you brought her lunch one time doesn’t mean that reverses a year of rivalry.” Barb tells her and Melissa sighs then gets an idea and smiles. “What did you just think of?” Barb asks cautiously.

“That maybe I could bring her lunch more often, as in something that I made. No one says no to anything I make.” She says proudly and Barb looks at her sceptically. Barb then prays that this doesn’t end badly.

The next day, Melissa brings an extra lunch for you. You stay in your classroom during lunch again. You end up staying in your classroom during lunch quite often, mostly to avoid Melissa. You start to think you should pack food that doesn’t need to be refrigerated and keep your lunchbox with you in your classroom. You’re grading one of your students' homework when there’s a knock on your door. “Come in.” You say and finish what you’re writing then look up. Melissa is there with a smile on her face.

“Hi.” She says

“I was starting to think you forgot about me, bummer.” You tell her and her smile doesn’t falter. “What are you doing her Schemmenti?” You ask and she walks up to you.

“I brought you lunch.” She says and you look and don’t see your lunchbox.

“Then why isn’t my lunchbox with you?” You ask her.

“Because I didn’t bring your lunch to you. I brought something I made for you.” She tells you and you look at her surprised.

“What?” You deadpan.

“I made food last night, and brought some leftovers for you.” She says.

“Why?”

“Because I did.” She says and sets the food on your desk.

“I don’t want it.” You tell her.

“No one ever says no to anything I make.” She tells you.

“Well I’m saying no to you now.” You tell her.

“That’s because you haven’t tried it yet.” She tells you and crosses her arms.

“If I try it and still say I don’t want it then will you go away?” You ask and she nods. Reluctantly you sigh and take a bite. You go tell her to now leave then it hits your tastebuds and you freeze. It was good, like really good, the best food you’ve tasted. And now you reluctantly tell her no to the food and tell her to leave. “There, I tasted it and I’m still telling you to leave.” You say and she looks at you unconvinced.

“I saw you hesitate, you love it.” She tells you and you know you’ll have to admit you do like it but don’t want it here.

“Ok it was probably the best thing I ever tasted but I don’t want it or you here.” You tell her and she looks offended.

“Why?” She asks.

“Because in case it escaped you, I don’t like you and you don’t like me. We’ve been enemies since I got here since I was an easy target for you. So now, please leave.” You tell her and she looks defeated but takes her food and leaves.

You think she’d give up but she doesn’t, she’s very stubborn, but so are you. She brings you lunch for a week before you finally blow up at her.

“Brought you lunch again hon. Maybe you’ll actually have it today.” She tells you and you sigh and rub a hand on your temple. She walks in and your anger that’s been building all week finally lets go.

“MELISSA WILL YOU PLEASE STOP!” You say and she freezes. “I don’t want anything you make! What I do want is for you to leave me alone. Forever!” You say and she actually looks upset which catches you off guard but still stick to what you want. “I don’t want you to talk to me or to bring me food ever again. We’re co workers, nothing more.” You tell her and she lets out a huff then snatches her food.

“Fine.” She snips and starts walking out of your classroom. “Try to be nice and this is what I get.” She mutters. You hear it and you’re confused. She was trying to be nice? Wtf?

A month goes by and to your surprise, Melissa does leave you alone. She doesn’t even look your way anymore. She pretends you don’t exist and for the first week you actually like it. Then the second week hits and it turns out you miss the rivalry you had with the redhead. You keep glancing at her throughout the week and she keeps feeling like she’s being watched and looks up and you look away quickly. If Melissa ever catches you staring at her then she doesn’t comment on it.

After a month, you go to talk to her. You both have a prep second period so you go and knock on her door. “Come in.” You hear and you enter.

She glances up to see who it is and she does a double take. “What do you want?” She says with a bit of anger and sadness lacing it.

You close the door then turn around and face her. You don’t seem annoyed, she thinks, more frustrated about something.

“Did you mean what you said a month ago?” You ask and she quirks an eyebrow.

“You’ll have to be more specific. I said a lot of things a month ago.” She says and you walk over and sit on one of the students desks.

“That you were trying to be nice.” You say and she looks stunned.

“You weren’t supposed to hear that.” She says.

“So it was true? You were trying to be nice?” You ask and she rubs her temple and nods.

“But why? You have been nothing but mean to me since I got here.” You state.

“I know.” She says. “At first it seemed like you just did everything wrong to make me mad but then I realised you didn’t know what you were doing and I was gonna stop but I found it a bit amusing to see your annoyed reactions. Then I wanted to stop fully 6 months later but you keep taking everything I say wrong. And I can’t say I blame you.” She says and you look at her stunned.

“What exactly are you saying Schemmenti?” You say and she quirks an eyebrow.

“You know last time you spoke to me, you called me Melissa.” She says and you look at her confused.

“I did?”

“You were telling me to get the fuck out and leave you alone but ya, you called me Melissa.” She says and you roll your eyes.

“Obviously an accident.” You tell her and she rolls her eyes at you.

“Well I don’t know about you but I want to put the whole rivalry to an end and maybe actually get to know each other.” She tells you and you look at her stunned.

“You do?” You ask and she nods. “You mean you don’t want to annoy each other again?” You ask and she quirks an eyebrow again at you.

“Obviously we still will but more friendly this time. That’s if you want to possibly become friends.” She says cautiously and you smile.

“I think that could happen.” You tell her and you get off the desk. “Well I gotta get back and finish some grading or my students might revolt as I’m apparently taking too long to grade the tests, like I got nothing else to do.” You say dramatically and she giggles.

“Hey y/n.” She says and you look at her. “I’m sorry for how I treated you when you got here.” She tells you genuinely and you smile.

“I forgive you. And I’m sorry for how I treated you too.” You tell her.

“It’s alright, I would have reacted the same if I had someone being mad at me everyday.” She jokes and you laugh. You go to leave then glance back at her when you reach the doorway.

“See you around Melissa.” You tell her and she freezes and looks at you stunned. You smile at her and she smiles back at you.

“See ya around y/n.” She tells you. You nod, tap the doorway once and then leave. And for the first time in a month, Melissa feels hope with you.

A week goes by and you and Melissa stay true to your word. Everytime you enter the break room, she says good morning to you and you say it back to her. Barb looked at you guys suspiciously for a second, thinking she heard you both wrong. But after glancing at the trio, she realised she heard you both correctly, if the trio’s shocked expressions are anything to go by.

You come in at lunch everyday and you mostly go to the table and couch and do some work there while you eat. On Monday of the third week of you two getting along, she brought you a coffee while you did your work during lunch. You look up and smile and thank her.

“Whatcha working on hon?” She asks you and glances at your paper.

“Descriptions of their hero.” You tell her and you hand her the one you were grading.

“This is cute.” She says and hands it back to you.

“Ya, most of them chose their parents or a celebrity. But I got concerned when I read this one.” You tell her and hand her one of them. She reads it then laughs after a minute.

“I think this little one is on the right path to be a little Wednesday Addams.” She tells you and you laugh.

“Maybe that’s their goal.” You joke with her. And neither of you notice but everyone is looking at you two shocked.

When it comes to a month of you two actually being nice to each other, you realise you have feelings for her and you get annoyed at yourself. You just became friendly with her and now feelings had to get involved. The thing you have to realise is, is that there is a fine line between love and hate.

You start to ignore her a little bit, in the hopes of your feelings going away. They don’t though. And to make it worse, Melissa notices the change in how you treat her. She comes in your classroom during both your prep, without knocking , after a week of you ignoring her a bit.

“What’s going on with you?” She questions right away.

“Well hello to you too.” You joke.

“Hi.” She says and then sighs. “Now what is going on with you?” She repeats.

“What do you mean?” You ask.

“What do I mean.” She says with a chuckle and huffs. “I mean, why do you sometimes ignore me?” She asks and you sigh.

“I’m not.” You say and honestly, you don’t even believe yourself. Melissa crosses her arms and that unintentionally lifts her chest up a bit and you stare at her chest. She catches on to you staring and looks down to what you’re looking at. She looks back up, confused, until she puts the pieces together and she smirks.

“Why are you staring at my chest?” She asks and you snap out of your trance.

“What?” You ask and she walks towards you until she’s right in front of you.

“I said, why are you staring at my chest?” She repeats and you gulp.

“I- I wasn’t.” You say and she leans down and puts her hands on the arms of your chair, effectively giving you a view of right down her shirt. And you try to not stare at it, but the view of it is just too good not to stare.

“Do you like me y/n?” She asks you and you look up at her eyes. You see the curiosity and hope in them.

“I do ya.” You tell her and look down at your lap. She puts a finger under your chin and forces you to look back up.

“I like ya too hon.” She tells you and your jaw drops. She smiles warmly at you then closes your mouth with the finger still under your chin. Then she leans in and kisses you and your brain shuts down. She pulls back after a second and sees your reaction and laughs. “Did I make you short circuit?” She teases you and you stare. “I’ll take that as a yes.” She tells you and you snap of your very deep trance.

“What?” You ask and she giggles.

“I made you short circuit didn’t I?” She repeats and you nod embarrassed. “No need to be embarrassed, it actually makes me happy I have that kind of effect on someone.” She tells you.

“Mel, you’re stunning, of course you have that kind of effect.” You tell her dramatically.

“Oh I’m stunning am I?” She asks you and you nod. “And you called me Mel.” She says and your eyes widen.

“Sorry Melissa.” You tell her.

“No, go back to Mel. I like it.” She tells you and you blush. You still have the view of down her shirt and you rub your thighs together. She notices and she smirks. She then casually sits on your lap with her legs on the sides of the chair and kisses you. You kiss her back this time and she smiles in the kiss. She makes out with you for about 5 minutes then you buck your hips and she pulls back and stands up and you whine. “Patience you. How about you come back to my place after?” She says and you nod with a smile. “Perfect now, hand me your phone.” She says and holds her hand out. You give her a confused look and she smiles. “So I can give you my number.” She tells you and you scramble to get your phone out and then give it to her. She giggles as she takes it then puts her number in and texts herself. “Great, now we have each other’s numbers. See ya tonight.” She tells you with a wink then hands you your phone back then turns and leaves.

She gets a text from you not 5 minutes later.

You: was your plan for me to not be able to concentrate the rest of the day?

Mel: Possibly

Mel: Did it work?

You: Possibly

Mel: see you tonight right after school.

Mel: *sends address*

You: can’t wait

Mel: don’t touch yourself! I know I left ya hot and bothered

You: Ffs

Melissa smiles at that then you both continue out the day. Of course she can’t resist teasing you. Like sending you winks whenever she sees you, touching your thigh when she comes to join you on the couch during lunch, pressing you up against the wall during… oh wait, that last one was in your daydream.

When you get to her place though, that daydream comes true. As soon as you walk in through the door, she closes it, slams you against it and kisses you roughly. She then trails down to your neck and immediately sucks it. You think she’s trying to be quick about this with the pace and intensity she’s doing it at.

“You have no idea how long I’ve dreamed of doing this with you.” She says between kisses on your neck.

“How long?” You ask curiously and out of breath.

“About 6 months.” She says and you gasp, from shock of her answer and pleasure of her sucking your neck again. She then pulls your top off and inclips your bra then taking that off of you. She stares at you with a smile then cups your breasts and leans in to you. “6 months I’ve held off wanting to kiss you.” She says and starts moving her hands in a circle, causing your breasts to move a bit and your nipples get played with at the same time. “Now that I have you, I’m not holding back. Especially since you were ignoring me for a week.” She tells you and you groan.

“It’s because I realised my feelings for you, and we just started to be friends and I thought if I ignored you, my feelings would go away. But they didn’t.” You tell her and she smirks.

“I don’t care for the reason Bella. Just know that you’ll get properly punished.” She tells you with a low pitched voice and you shiver. While you were distracted, she pulls down your pants and underwear at the same time, you step out of them and she spreads your legs. You finally clue in to what she’s about to do. “Mel, shouldn’t we go to your be-.” And what you were about to say was cut off with a gasp from you as she goes and sucks your clit hard, right away. You get close to an orgasm and you hold on to her head and lean against the wall so you don’t fall down. but once you come, you collapse. Luckily she catches you as she knew you’d fall. She then picks you up and carries you to her bedroom and places you on the bed with a pillow under your head. You’re still blissed from your orgasm that you don’t realise that she’s out of view until she comes back. You look and your brain shuts down again. She comes back completely naked and wearing a strap.

She crawls on the bed and kisses your lips, you taste yourself on her and you moan. While kissing you, she grabs the strap and gently slides it in through your entrance and you squeak into the kiss. She gives you a second to adjust then she goes and moves in and out of you quickly and hard. You start gasping and moaning and she does check in with you. “Is this ok?” She asks and you nod.

“Yes, ple-please d-don’t stop!” You tell her and she smiles. She puts one of your nipples in her mouth and you come again 20 seconds later. She doesn’t stop though and you’re over sensitive as you already came twice.

“I still have to come baby.” She tells you and you whine. You end up coming again and then she comes right after. She stops immediately and leans her head on your shoulder and catches her breath. Then she pulls out of you gently and flops over beside you on her back. She takes the strap off and grabs the Kleenex on her nightstand. She cleans both of you then spoons you. You shift so that you’re on your side so you can spoon properly. She leans up a bit and kisses your forehead then lays back down and pulls you in closer to her.

“I really enjoyed that.” You tell her and she giggles.

“Good, I’m glad.” She says and tucks a strand of hair behind your ear.

“Didn’t know you’d be so intense.” You tell her and she laughs.

“Well I guess a week of being ignored would do that.” She says and you laugh. You turn around in her arms so that you’re face to face and she smiles at you. “Hi beautiful.” She tells you.

You smile back at her. “Hi Mel.” You say. “This wasn’t a one time thing right?” You ask cautiously.

“Of course not. I want to do it again. For as long as you’ll have me.” She tells you and you smile.

“Well I guess unfortunately for you, you’re stuck with me.” You tell her teasingly.

“Oh, I’m so unlucky that I have to wake up to this beautiful face every morning.” She says and boops your nose and you giggle. You then nuzzle into her neck and fall asleep. She wraps an arm protectively around you and falls asleep as well.

Taglist: @esposadejoyhuerta @imaginesmultifandoms @idonothingalldays-blog @sexysapphicshopowner @dvrkhcld @lilfartbox1

Let me know if you want to be added!

[justanamesstuff]

All I Need

Chapter 2

Matty Healy!dad x f!reader

A/N: okay, second chapter/part…I had fun writing this part. Hope you enjoy it!!

Word count: 2k

Warnings: swearing, friends bickering, broken hearts (?), typos

Chapter 1

“Okay, we’re off.” Matty announced, extending his arms towards Grace. She faked refusing his request, which made Amelia chuckle and hide her little face on her mother’s best friend's neck. Y/n laughed witnessing. “Give my baby back!” Matty insisted, poking Grace on the arm.

In a swift movement, Matty took Mel and stepped back a few meters. “Yes!” He celebrated.

“Have fun” Y/n said to them. “Tell the guys that I’ll drop by anytime soon” She stated to Matty.

“You two can come with us...” He offered to the grown up women. Y/n shook her head.

“She needs her time with daddy.”

Matty smiled wide, dropping kisses on his daughter's chubby cheeks. “My sweet baby!”

“We need to gossip about you as well.” Grace muttered behind her mug. Matty looked instantly to Y/n arching an eyebrow. He was expecting an answer, meanwhile Y/n wanted to kill her best friend.

Y/n purposely ignored the conversation. Saying goodbye to her daughter. “Give mommy a kiss, and go.” Y/n sensed Matty staring. Matty stood there, in the middle of the kitchen, analysing how Y/n ignored eye contact. 'Was it a joke or a fact? Or both?'

If he didn’t say more, she wasn't going to either.

“Okay…” He spoke with his voice full of questions. “See you two later. Don’t burn the house down, please!” He turned around, with Amelia secured in his arms.

Once the sound of the door closing reached Y/n's ears, she looked dead panned at Grace. “I’m going to kill you, idiot. Why did you tell him that?”

“What?” They stared at each other for a minute. “I wasn’t lying…” Grace shrugged her shoulders.

“I don’t care, Grace. He has a big ego, stroked daily by…”

“Fans and hot models, actresses…”

“Yes, thank you.” Y/n shut her with a stern look. Deeply annoyed about that truth. "So he doesn’t need to know that we…sometimes-”

“Many, many, many times...”

“Why- shut up!” Y/n walked away towards the living area, which connects directly with the kitchen. “We don’t talk about him that much…and even if we did, he doesn't need to know, okay?"

“It was a joke!” Grace followed her, plopping at Y/n’s side on the big couch.

Y/n hold a scream, saying “I can’t stand you sometimes.”

Grace laughed at her antics. “You love me. Anyway…” she dragged the start of the phrase too much for Y/n’s liking. “What’s really going on?”

“What do you mean?” Y/n tried to keep her voice tone as normal as she could.

“No. Talk to me.” Grace warned her. Turning, so they were face to face while sitting on the big white couch. “Y/n…”

“I-” She didn’t know where to start. Not even her understood what was really going on inside her head.

After a week of having Matty around, her nerves were over the top. As she said, the frontman was fulfilling his duties as Amelia’s father like a champ. He was always like that once he was home. Being the perfect father and co-parent. Years before, she would not have believed it was possible. Never. But so many times he made her swallow her words, or thoughts, for what this matter involved. Once, he explained to her how guilty he sometimes felt while being away. Voicing his worries to her warmed Y/n’s heart.

They were truly friends, co-parenting a beautiful girl. Although being a parent was hard. A life full of joy, but full of worries as well. The fear of fucking her little mind creeping inside Matty’s mind, but Y/n’s as well. They bond over sharing good moments, but mostly through surfing the waves of sadness and hard times.

Y/n couldn’t complain about his behaviour during the week. At the same time, Y/n couldn’t ignore the growing pain inside her chest. He was being a pal, but not her partner.

Everything went even south the night before. She was laying in bed, exhausted after a long day full of: playing, changing nappies, a walk to the park, feeding Amelia and bath time. She could clearly hear from her bedroom -which was at the other side of the hall on the first floor-, Matty softly singing to Amelia. He was the one in charge of bedtime. With him sound tracking, Y/n scrolled through Instagram. Hundreds of notifications. Her accounts were private, but people managed to constantly tag her.

The same picture repeating itself plastered on her phone screen. Matty walking with a girl. No holding hands, no kissing, no nothing. The speculations were there, under, as texts and comments. People convinced the girl walking along was a worldwide known model. Matty looked kind of tired at her side, everything about her looked perfect. Y/n locked the device, leaving it on the bedside table. She took a deep breath and tried to sleep. Her mind racing with thoughts kept her wide awake for longer than she wanted to accept. Not conclusions, only a sour heart.

“Nothing. It's nonsense.” Y/n told Grace.

“It's not nothing if it is worrying you…” Y/n laughed, loudly. The irony.

“Nothing is really wrong. He’s a great father, Amelia is happy to have him back…work is good.”

“But?”

“What?”

“But something is clearly disturbing you...”

Y/n succumbed to Grace’s inquiries. “It’s so stupid. We have an arrangement…everything we do- Matty and I, everything we do around here is for Amelia to be happy and healthy-” She rambled, not really making sense.

“But?”

“But I’m sinking down.” Y/n admitted. Those words directly to her more than to her friend.

“Why?” Grace knew she was pushing a little, feeling at the same time as it was for the better. “Why are you sinking?”

“It’s selfish…”

“Stop beating around the bush, you idiot. Say it!”

“I want someone to care for me, to fucking love me…”

Grace looked at her like a third eye appeared on her forehead. “Amelia adores you, I adore you…”

“I don’t mean it like that, Grace! It’s been so long since someone…you know” Grace busted into a fit of laugh. “Are you fucking laughing?” Y/n couldn’t believe her.

“Yes!” Grace said, trying to contain the sound but failing miserably. She started to roll on the couch. Y/n stood up.

“Stop laughing!”

“I can’t believe the crap you said.”

Y/n was starting to get pissed. It took a lot of her to express those feelings, and Grace wasn’t taking her seriously. “Thanks for being emphatic.”

“No, no..” Grace seated back up, drying her eyes. “I am.”

“You are no-”

“Shhhh-” Y/n friend lifted a single finger. “My time to talk!” she grinned when Y/n kept her silence. “I understand what you are saying…but please, if you want someone to fuck you-”

“That’s not the only thing I want.” Y/n screaming while blushing massively.

“Fine, yeah- still, you can go on dates!”

“Fucking when Grace? I have a daughter to raise...”

“She has a father, she has me…the boys would do it for her and for you, you know that. Amelia has an uncle, and granpare-”

“Yeah, but I’m her mother!” Y/n started to pass around the living room. She knew deep down those were merely excuses.

“Matty is his father. Doesn’t stop him from hooking up, date or whatever.” Grace tried to present her thoughts without knowing it was a dagger directly towards Y/n’s heart. Y/n looked down. The pictures came to her mind. “Y/n…” She snapped out of her daydreaming.

Y/n cleaned her throat. “Yeah, you’re right.” Her heart was aching. “I should-”

“Oh, no-” Grace looked through her.

Y/n’s head snapped up, her eyes wide. “What?”

“Don’t tell me…”

“I haven’t-”

“Shit, Y/n.”

“What?!”

“He’s fucking half of the population of the planet. He’s not made for being a good partner…”

“Don’t who- What you’re tal-”

“Matty.”

Y/n knew her facade was weak. At that moment of the conversation she couldn’t stop. “What about him?”

“Look at me and say you’re not waiting around for him.”

Y/n shut up. She was the one aware of her feelings. Although, she never thought she was doing what Grace implied she was doing. She felt light-headed. Y/n sat down slowly on the couch. “Am I doing that?” She asked herself.

“Y/n…”

“Fuck-” she closed her eyes tight. “No.” Y/n jumped from the couch. Her mind was working hard. Hurting a little. “I’m not waiting for him. Maybe I was excusing myself from dating…” She rambled out loud, starting to form a believable tale.

Grace tried to warn her. “He’s not going to stop dating hot girls…not that you aren’t hot, just-”

“Yeah, I know.”

“I bet he’s good at…it. That's not enough though-”

“Yes.”

“He cheated before-”

“We don’t know that for a fact-”

“Y/n…”

“Do you still have Paul’s number?” Y/n asked suddenly.

“Maybe. Why?”

“Give it to me.”

“Y/n…you need to slow down”

“Grace, give it to me!”

She grabbed her phone reluctantly, sending Y/n her cousin's phone number. Y/n started typing seconds after opening her phone. She was high on some cocktail of feelings, and Grace didn’t know how to or if she had to interfere. Maybe it was for the best. She hopped.

Suddenly, Y/n left the phone in the middle of the coffee table. “Done” she said.

“Mhm?” Grace was unsure.

“I have a date. Friday night.”

Grace couldn’t believe what was happening. “You’re crazy!”

“That’s new to you?” Matty asked -obviously- joking about it. Grace and Y/n felt like teenagers being caught after smoking for the first time. “Are you two okay?” he asked, fearing the answer due to their faces and sharing looks.

He left Amelia on the floor. She walked towards Y/n, who lifted her up. “Yes.” she responded, kissing her daughter, trying to find some comfort.

“Why then do you look like someone died?”

Grace laughed, trying to break the tension. “You just scared us. Wasn’t expecting you here so soon.”

“Yeah, well…mel-mel was screaming for a change of diapers. Forgot those at home. So…”

“Right!” Grace continued talking. Y/n was struggling to keep her calm, although she felt so pathetic.

“Y/n, are you feeling alright?”

“Yeah, wh-”

“She has a date...with Paul!” Grace shouted, scaring all of them. Making Amelia cry.

“Thanks, Grace!” Y/n’s voice was full of sarcasm. She walked away with her baby crying, trying to calm her.

She wasn’t far enough, she listened to Matty and her friend talking. “Paul, your prince charming cousin Paul?” Matty asked, Y/n felt a wave of regret. He sounded pissed, she thought. Y/n shushed Amelia, and herself too.

“Erm, yeah..him.”

“Y/n..” Matty went searching for her. He found her quickly. The lead singer stopped at the door, watching and analysing every one of Y/n’s movements.

“Yeah?”

“Are you really going on a date?” The question angered her. Who was him to ask that? She never questioned his dating behaviours. Never. Especially when those came with a tsunami of articles. Their personal romantic lives were out of the arrangement about co-parenting and living together. They weren’t a couple. He was not allowed or supposed to question her dating behaviours.

“Yes,” she said firmly. “Why?”

That took Matty back. “I-”

“Can you look after Mel…or I can ask-”

“Yes, I can. When?”

“Friday night.”

“Friday night” he repeated. “Okay, I have to check some tracks- Since I had to leave early, George sent them- ” Matty abruptly informed them, stumbling with his words. “Nice to see you, Grace.” and he was out of sight.

Grace walked out of the living room slowly. Making herself visible for mother and daughter. “Now I have a good reason to kill you.” Y/n stated.

Grace smiled wide. “I’m this beauty godmother, you can’t.” She took Amelia in her arms. The little girl laughed, and some tension disappeared from her mother's body.

She tried not to think too hard about Matty’s reaction. She focused on the date. No spark on her body, maybe it would come closer to it, to Friday. She tried to believe this was for the better. Grace was right, Matty wasn’t probably made to be her partner, but someone out there was.

Chapter 3

Feedback always welcome ❤️

[sloppysequinz]

hiii glitz [cool new nickname for you]

i was wondering if you could speak on your writing process? all your stories are so good and as someone who veeery occasionally writes i'm curious how you go about doing it? thanks !

[definitly not drunk-girl shh]

Ok definitely not @drunk-girl! I've been dwelling on this ask for quite a while. I really appreciated the question a lot :) This answer ended up being kind of long so I put it under a read more for courtesy. Also I loooove the nickname glitz <3

So generally my writing process starts with a little seed of an idea. It could be a text post or a photo I see on here, something that happens across my mind while I'm out and about, it could be a suggestion from a friend. Baby's First House Party came from being in a town where I used to go to school and feeling nostalgic about house parties, Step-Mom came from a story with drunken wetting on here that I just found unexpectedly hot, Meet Cute came from memories of when I lived in a place with a screen door that had a view of my whole living room. The idea just has to spark some kind of interest in me. Sometimes I recognize it right away, sometimes it takes a little bit.

Then I usually spend some time fleshing it out, just in my mind. For me, this usually happens right when I'm falling asleep. I tend to daydream about horny stuff in bed anyway, so it kinda comes naturally. I just spend some time figuring out character dynamics, what the "core" scene or scenario I'm getting at, and to be crude, what turns me on. I follow the turn on down the rabbit hole and let it take the wheel. Sometimes I don't realize I have a good idea until I'm lying in bed fantasizing about something I hadn't thought about before. Sometimes I think I have a good idea, but if I cant generate organic fantasies about it, it won't make a good story.

Usually by the time I sit down to write, I have a good idea of what the characters are, the key thing I want to get to, and how I'm going to get there. For characters, I don't necessarily have names, but a general personality and archetype. When I say key "thing", that's usually whatever I find hottest in the imagined scenario that I want to frame in the center. For Step-mom, this was the scene of her drooling on the table and grabbing her own tits while pissing. For Meet Cute, this was Mel staring in awe as Yvette chugged a whole can of beer. For the first Mona and Lacy story, it was Lacy drunkenly begging Mona to drink while calling her mommy. I have a rough idea of how I'm getting those characters to that big scene.

Usually I just sit down and start writing from the beginning, describing the scene as I see it in my head and writing any dialogue I've thought of that seems hot or in character. Sometimes the characters will surprise me and say something I'm not expecting. Sometimes I have enough momentum to just write the whole thing from start to finish and be done, but not usually. Usually I'll write the opening, then I'll just jot down bullet points for the rest of the story. As an example, I pulled this from a draft of a sequel to Meet Cute that I'm still working on:

Yvette's a little forgetful but lets her in

Mel has brought more beer and a bucket of fried chicken

Yvette has two of the 12 beers left and half a pizza

Wants Mel's help to finish the pizza

"Come sit."

Once I have a rough outline of all the events I want to happen, I go back and slowly flesh them out. Depending on how much time I've spent dwelling on the idea, I may take some time here to workshop what works and what doesn't, what's hot and what isn't. Also, sometimes I start with the juice scene I want to get to, then do bullets for both before and after.

Once I've gotten it all written down, I save it as a draft and leave it alone. I come back a day or two later and proofread it. Once I'm done tinkering, I tag it and hit post (sometimes I realize there are typos or mistakes and I'll just edit the post if I have to).

In general though, the strength of my writing comes from the fact that I am a 30 year old woman who writes for my job. My work writing is a very different kind of writing (which makes this a fun break), but all the same, I have a LOT of practice. On top of that, I have multiple academic degrees that required a lot of writing to get. I also love to read and have read a lot of books. My advice if you're looking to get better at writing is just to do a LOT of it, and to read a lot of books. When I first got into intox kink at 21, I couldn't even figure out how to write down my fantasies, and now I just can't stop.

[hockeyandhrsepwr]

Insufferable

Luke Hughes x reader

Basic Premise : your dating one of the Michigan Guys who went to WJ’s, but youre Canadian. After the tourney, you (& Adam) proceed to annoy your bf & the rest of the guys with the Team Canada goal song, partly because it slaps, but also because its annoying as fuck. you & Luke are childhood friends from Toronto, but you moved to Halifax after he moved to Michigan. Now you go to Mich & you’re a year older so third year, but you’ve been involved with the hockey team since your first, & youre good friends with most of the guys

Note: this is based on a random thought I had around World Juniors that I was just reminded of. Please note I am drunk as a skunk as I write this so there will be mistakes & probably things that dont make sense (timeline math wise)

January 2023, Halifax

Is it bad if I’m hoping they lose? I text my besties. Like I love Luke but I want Canada to go back to back

It takes 2 seconds for my phone start buzzing

Anne (bestie from Michigan): Fuck that you traitor!!

Mel (Hometown bestie): Haha, no. Canada for the dub baby!!!!

A: I hate both of you. Just you wait y/n, I’m showing this to Luke when I see him!

Y/n: he knows how serious I take this. I still havent forgiven Jack for 2021.

M: As much as I love supporting our boys, you have got to give that up babe. Its been 2 years

A: And wasnt it his friend who scored anyway?

Y/n: We also dont talk about him

M: Yeah, until you need someone to do Taylor Swift karaoke with at the Lake house in the summer

Y/n: fuck off, games starting, I hate you

As hard as both teams played, Canada wins & the crowd goes wild! I’m over the moon, but I know Luke will be disappointed. After the game, I make my way down towards the locker rooms with the rest of the family members that are here (not like there’s many) to wait for the boys. As they slowly make their way out & head for the bus, I spot Luke. I run over & wrap my arms around his waist, pressing a kiss to his chest.

“Sorry babe, you played so well though.”

He pulls back and raises an eyebrow “are you really that sorry?… Anne texted me.”

“Bitch” He chuckles so I know he’s not that mad “ I really did want you guys to do well. It ws just awkward that its to get to the gold medal game. If you were both in the final it be better but it didn’t work out that way this year. You’ll get that bronze though, and then im going to show you how we have a good time in Hali.”

Dropping a kiss on my nose, I see him crack a smile before something slams into my back and arms go around me.

“Hey Rut, you played great out there!”

“Not good enough”

“Hey! Dont talk like that. Time to get that bronze & then well go back to AA & get that Natty.”

“HUGHES, McGroatry, get your asses on the BUS!!! Duker I see you heading towards them. NO”

I giggle as their coach yells at Duke, but grab him for a quick hug before he can get in trouble.

“God you really are the team mom.”

“What?” “Thats what the guys say but I’ve never really noticed it before”

“That’s nice, I guess? But go babe, before you get in trouble. Tomorrow night though, youre all mine” I kiss him quickly and let him go.

Team mom? Have I somehow adopted a hockey team & not realized?

The Next Day

Team USA gets the bronze with a couple of beautiful goals from our Michigan boys. After the game, I catch up with the boys.

“Congrats!!! here’s the plan. Now I’ve got a game to watch, you’ve got shit to do, and I’ll pick you up at 10 after your team dinner & bonding shit. Get ready I’m showing you the real Halifax.”

“Love you Lukey. I’m so proud of you. I’ve got to get back to my seat but I’ll see you later”

The game is crazy but we take the gold!!! I text Luca since I know he’s here somewhere & we finally mange to find each other before making our way to the ice to congratulate Adam & the rest of the guys.

“By the way, youre coming with me tonight” I nudge Luca while Adams talking to someone else. “I’m showing the boys Halifax

“Y/n, my flight is early tomorrow morning.”

“Bro were all on the same flight. Grow a pair & come out. I need more people since the other frosh are underage”

“Hey, why can’t I come?” Adam has apparently been listening. ‘I’ve never been to Halifax before!”

“How have you been here for 2 weeks and not seen anything”

“Not with a local!! I want to see the secrets”

“Were going drinking and youre a child so you won’t be let in moron. Also dont you have team stuff?”

He’s dragged away before he can respond but I know we won’t see him for the rest of the night. Luca agrees to come, but he has to find his parents first.

My phone buzzes with a text from Luke Hey babe, think you’ll be much longer, some of the guys are tired & not sure they’ll last much longer

I text him back 30 more minutes. Tell them to take a power nap, but the only ones that’ll need to rally are you & Duker. The rest of them will be back with an hour & a half.

L: Okay babe, see you soon.

After fighting my way through the crowds, I manage to make it to the hotel the teams staying at. I enter the lobby & hear my name, since I texted Luke that I was near. There’s about fifteen of the USA guys waiting for me and I make my way over.

“First things first, who’s 19?” About half of the guys hands go up. “Okay, do you have your IDs?” Everyone nods & I clap my hands. “Alright, for those who dont know me, I’m y/n & this idiot is my boyfriend” I gesture to Luke & he wraps his arms around me. “I’m going to show you how we do shit here on the East Coast, especially those of you who are legal. For the children, I’ve got some cool stuff for you too but your night will come to an end sooner than the rest of us. Ready?”

A cheer goes up as everyone gets up & ready to go.

“One last thing, Duker needs a place to sleep tonight” “HEY!” “But you can sort that out among yourselves. Lets go!!”

The streets of Halifax are absolutely wild, but I manage to show the guys around a lot before we make our way back to the hotel. In the lobby, I give the Michigan kiddos a hug & tell them that ill see them tomorrow for the flight. “For the rest of you, Nice meeting you, im sure ill see you around!!”

We pick up Luca then make our way around downtown. once we make it to the designated bar I see a familiar face.

“MEL!!” “Ah, you made it!! congrsts on the bronze boys, but RED & WHITE TAKES THE WIN BABY!!”

“Sorry about that, she’s a bit drunk. Have fun boys, everyone has my number so text me if you can’t find me!”
“she’ll be in a corner with Luke!” “ Shut it Duke.”

Two hours later, the drinks have been flowing & were all having a great time. Luke & I are out on the dance floor, tearing it up, when the bar goes wild. Luke groans as the opening bars of an East Coast Classic start playing. “ I’m gonna hear this song in my nightmares for the next little bit”

“I mean that sucks for you but COME GET YOUR DUDS IN ORDER” I scream with the rest of the bar.

Sorry, I mouth to Luke

As the night comes to a close, I manage to round up the boys and make our way back to the hotel. All in all, a great few days here at home, but I’m ready to head back to Michigan and get on with the year.

End of January

We’ve been back for a couple of weeks & life is going well. We’re having a party for the team & various friends at one of the houses. Luke & I are chilling on one of the couches, im on his lap chatting to Anne as he talks to Duke, when Luca comes running up

“Y/n what’s the name of that song?” I have no idea what he’s talking about “Could you be any less specific? Give me something Luca”

“You know, du du dud dud” “How does that make sense Anne mutters beside me. “Yeah duh. Why?” “ Adams on the music next & needs a good lineup. He can’t remember the name”

I sit up, “oh, ill text him a playlist, I’ve got a couple of good ones to go along with it”

Luca runs off and Luke pulls me back into his chest “What are you up to?” I give him a kiss “nothing:)”

Ten minutes later, I can see that Adam is hooking his phone up, so I hop up on the coffee table & yell

“Attention folks, Adam, thanks for the tunes. It’s time I introduce you all to a couple of good old fashioned Canadian classics. I expect full enthusiasm okay? Take it Away Adam” The opening bars play and then “Twas the night that Patty Murphy died….”

By the time we get through 5 of the songs, the whole room is bumping. Luke & I are dancing, and he leans down & whispers “I know its coming, and I’m going to get you back for this” I smile up at him, “no idea what you’re talking about”

I dance my way over to Adam & Luca as the opening bars begin

“Hey boys, ready?” “Hell yeah”

“I know you know it, so sing it with me - COME GET YOUR DUDS IN ORDER….. HEAVE AWAY!!” At this point I’m back on the table doing some weird attempt at line dancing with Eddy. Of course the albertan knows how to do it. Were about halfway through the song when im thrown over Lukes shoulder, to cheers from the room

“Thank you, thank you!! Ill be back next week!” I wave as Im pulled from the room. Luke drops me on the swing on the porch before sitting down & leaning on me. “Youre infuriating”, “but you love it’ I grin and kiss him. We stay on the swing making out & cuddling for a while, looking at the stars & people watching. There’s no shortage of interesting incidents to see in a college town on a Saturday night. The the night starts dying down so I round up the boys that dont live here & start making our way back to my place across campus, dropping everyone off & making sure they get home safe before Luke & I get to mine.

All in all a great night.

Mid February

“What’s up everybody!!!!” I skate onto the ice to get the crowd going

“All right, its loud in here tonight!! So I’ve got some news for you. I know you were expecting to see our wolverines playing some of Team USA’s development guys. Unfortunately they had to pull out, but weve got something better for you all tonight! Before I let you in on it, Here are YOUR MICHIGAN WOLVERINES!!!”

The Music starts as most of the guys come rushing out of the tunnel doing a lap in front of the crowd before lining up in front of our net. Smiles all around as the crowd goes wild. Once they settle down, I start back up. 
“Thank you boys for that dramatic entrance!! Now, some of you may know me as that annoying girl who’s been on the mic at Yost for the past three years, which is valid. But what some of you might not know, is that I’m Canadian.” BOO. I hear from behind “Zip it Duker” The rest of you, Stop your booing!!! I’ve brought it up for a reason - For those of you that know me, you know that I came here for a boy. I know what youre thinking, what a dumb move, moving to another country for a boy, but I couldn’t help myself. You all know and love him, from the wolverines, number 43” The crowd starts making some noise, “QUINN HUGHES.”

The boys behind me start laughing & glance at Luke, but he knows im joking (or am I?…)

“Nah, Nah, in all seriousness, Q is like an older brother to me, so when I was figuring my life out four years ago he brought me here & I knew it was the place for me. But there is a boy, who followed me here cause im that awesome ‘hair flip’, and since there’s a very special holiday coming up”, I turn around and skate over to stand in front of Luke, looking into his eyes before turning my head

“Duker, will you be my Valentine” The arena burst out into laughter & cheers as Luke drops his stick & I try & race away from him. He grabs me by the waist before I make it more than a few metres, swinging me around before setting me back down on the ice.

“Youre going to pay for that” he whispers before dropping a kiss on my lips as a collective EW goes up from the crowd.

“Yeah yeah, get back in line lukey.” I blow him a kiss as he skates back.

“Now that thats out of the way” The crowd laughs “Duke im free at 7, you know where to find me”

“In all seriousness, you may be noticing that were missing quite a few players. Now there’s nothing wrong with them, but first let me tell you what’s about to go down. We have a couple of special guests coming to join us for this game, so lets get into it. We’re hosting the first, and probably last, USA vs Canada game, Michigan style!!”

I can tell that people are confused, so why dont we just show you?” Cheers & Boos start up, but thats alright, I. Think they’ll be pretty happy once they see what’s planned.

“First up, they may look a little different tonight, but please welcome, your Canadian wolverines!!
Starting us off tonight, you all know & love them, an inseparable duo, the bros LUCA & ADAM!!” They come out wearing Adams jerseys, pumping up the crowd & do a lap before standing behind me, just opposite their teammates.

“Next up, from the single worst province, number 73, ETHAN EDWARDS!!” The crowd roars as Eddy pretends to flip me off.

“And the last of our Ontario boys, Eric & TJ!!”

“All right, I dont know about you guys, but I’m thinking our Canadian boys need a little colour with a u” The boys snicker & Eddy fist bumps me “So please welcome some very special gents with a delivery for us. From last years championship winning team” The crowd gets so much louder “Mr ‘no one can spell your province’ Jimmy Lambert, Mr British Columbia Kent Johnson, and the big dog Owen power!!” Jimmy, KJ & OP skate out, the crowd cheering as they hold a bunch of Team Canada jerseys.

I’m glad they’re willing to play along. When Kent messaged me earlier in the year & mentioned that him & Owen were going to try & stop by for a game during the all star break, I knew it could turn into something super fun. Once I got my boss & the two guys on board, & the NTDP had pulled out a few weeks ago due to something, I started my mission. The Michigan boys had no idea what was going on until getting ready tonight, so I think it’ll be an awesome time for everyone. It also gives me an opportunity to fuck with Luke a bit which I’ll never pass up. He thinks he know what I’m up to, but I’ve still got a few tricks up my sleeve.

“Now Owen & Kent have generously donated some of their old jerseys for the players to wear tonight, so we can really represent. Will they all have the same names on the back? Yes, but they’re big kids, they’ll figure it out.” Sweeping my hands out, the boys start grabbing jerseys.

“We’ll have a quick break so that the boys can change”

“I mean they can start stripping out here, we won’t complain” I hear from the stands as laughter erupts & I point towards the children of Yost section.

“I like you, but unfortunately the on ice strip tease portion of this evening has been cancelled. It will take place in the locker room, tickets are ten dollars” I wink at the camera before turning back towards Luke. “But lets continue. we can’t play a full game with only a few on our team, so please welcome some more special guests. One of your former wolverines, Mr has lived in Vancouver so long he’s basically Canadian, Quinn Hughes!! (Bum Bum bum bummmm noise)” Lukes eyes go wide as the arena explodes with noise and Quinn comes out. I open my arms and grab him for a hug before having him stand next to me.

“Alright Quinny, how are you feeling being back?’
“honestly y/n im wondering what you have planned because if I know you, there’s something else that going to surprise me.”

“Ladies & gents, he’s known me since I was 3 so I’d say he’s got a pretty good read on me. Now number 43” “Hey!” Luke pipes up and I wave my hand in his direction to shush him, “I’m going to have you stand over there until everyones here & we can split you up.

“You’re wondering who’s next, I’m wondering why he’s here at all” Laughter & cheers from the crowd and the boys on the ice bang their sticks “we have Mr ‘ive never met anyone with greater middle child syndrome, he didn’t even go to college but refused to be left out’ from New Jersey Jack Hughes!” Jack skates out & leans towards the mic

“I would like it on the record that you asked me….” I hip check him away “That’s false. Anyway” He skates over to Luke & grabs him in one of those weird bro hugs then heads over to Quinn.

“Alright, last one then we can get going with some hockey!” The crowd roars

“Since they seem to come as a pair these days, your other favourite boy from Columbus, Nick Blakenberg!”

The crowds going wild, the boys are having a good time seeing each other & I think were about ready to get going.

“So here’s everyone. Now rapid fire, its time to split them up. We’ve got our Canadian boys. Jack, get your butt over there” He starts to protest but I hold up my hand “you know why, remember?” Raising an eyebrow at him, I see the recognition dawn. his face falls into a pout as he heads over to stand next to Owen.

“Q, I may have said youre basically Canadian but since I do love your brother, you can head over there” The smile on Lukes face as Quinn skates over & stands next to him is just adorable. God hes so cute. A mixture of Aws & Ews makes me realize that I may have said that out loud. My cheeks feel like theyre on fire as he skates over, wraps his arms around my waist & rests his chin on my head after pressing a kiss to my cheek. “Youre cute too” he whispers

“Anyway, next up, since we appear to be missing a goalie, its only fair that we get Ports! So get on over here!” Boos ring out “hey, he’s not American. That’s the literal criteria. Now here’s where it get tricky. The rest of these fine gentlemen are proud Americans, but the teams are pretty uneven. To keep things fair, we have a couple of guys who played in the BC leagues, so they’re hopping over the border for this one. So please temporarily welcome to team Canada, Holtzy, Phil, Grano Kienan & TShea!!!. Were about even now.“

The players are starting t organize themselves “Now we’ll take a five minute break so the guys can switch jerseys. Then its go time!!!” Noise inside the arena grows as I wrap my arms around Luke & he drags me off the ice.

“I love you so much, but youre absolutely insane.”

“Aw thanks babe, love you too. Now get your ass in the change room & get back out there”

I grab my Canada Hoodie that I hid next to the door earlier this morning and pull it on before hopping back on the ice. “How are we feeling? Excited?!” I pump up the crowd as I skate around. “So this is how tonights gonna go. We wont be playing a full game, since were ’not allowed to tire out the NHL guys on their break’ boo We also dont want any injuries since this is just for fun. So we won’t be too rough tonight, but instead of that final period, we’ve got a fun little game to play with the players. But first, while the rest of the boys are away I have one more visitor” I spin & open my arms up, gesturing towards the tunnel, “everyone’s favourite fashionable frenchman, Thommy B!” Bordy comes skating out and yells, “dont ever call me that again” “What, French?” Laughing,I shout back as he waves to the crowd. “So Bordy, welcome. You know a little bit about what’s going on tonight. I know youre used to wearing the red white & blue, but now its time to represent the superior country.” He laughs and sticks out his tongue. “Here come the rest of our players!!” The music gets going again as the boys come out. They cheer as they see Bordy before splitting up into their teams.

“ALL RIGHT ARE WE READY?” The noise is deafening as the boys head to their benches, but jack skates towards me. “Just so you know, Z, Turcs & a bunch of the other guys are here so it might get a bit rowdy”

“Cleary you’ve never been to a game here haha. There’s no one rowdier than the children, but I’ll keep that in mind. Where even are they?”

“They’re in the away dressing room, Quinn helped me get them in there but they’re going to come into the tunnel to watch”

“Fucking Zebras, messing up my plans. I hope they know that they’re not getting away with being here & not participating. Ive got to do some shuffling” “Y/n they dont have any gear” “Well they should have though of that before gatecrashing” I pat him on the shoulder, “dont worry jacky, I’ll sort it out, now get over there”.

“NOW, Can I please get my two representatives to centre for the puck drop, then I promise we’ll be on our way”

Luke & Adam skate up to me and get into position. We get the picture & then,

“Hey y/n, I think were missing something” Adam pipes up

“I think youre absolutely right Adam. Everyone please rise”, the crowd stands up, “it would be a shame to start without this, Lukes favourite song” He groans as the smile on my face grows infinitely bigger “Take it away” I point to the sound guys & Heave Away starts to blare from the system.

I skate around pumping up the crowd as everyone gets into it. I see a few faces from the US WJC team look like they’re trying not to enjoy themselves, but I know they like the song. Between Adam & I, We’ve played it enough. A ripple of laughter comes from the crowd as I hear skating behind me. Luke grabs me and pulls me over to the box I normally sit in, stealing my mic in the process.

“Think that’ll stop me babe? I can yell pretty loud too”

“Oh I know” he winks, “and so does the rest of the house” My mouth drops as I know what he’s insinuating. 
“Now Ive got a game to win” he says as the final notes of the song play. He turns around but I grab his jersey before he can get away, “think youre forgetting something” He kisses me quickly before getting back to centre ice.

The crowd at Yost is absolutely electric through out the game, and the boys are having a blast. Throughout the first period, I’m texting my friends & the others who work in the arena to see what they think about my plan for our gatecrashers.

(I can’t describe a game to save my life, despite having watched hockey since I was a kid, so just use your imagination for whats actually going on on the ice:) )

First intermission comes up, and the Canada side is leading, obviously. The boys head to the dressing rooms, and the music starts going. I head back to the dressing rooms to deal with the new guys. I crack the door to the away room & Yell

“You better be decent, im coming in” before pushing the door. A few guys my ass, I think as I take in half of the team jack played with in the program & a bunch of young NHL guys.

“Sup Mase” I stick out my fist. “Long time. Matty, Briss, Beech, nice to see you.”

“Trevor” I narrow my eyes at him

“Okay, I wasn’t expecting any of you but I have something for you. Since you idiots, Zegras & Cole im looking at you, didnt assume that I’d make you participate, none of you have gear. Luckily for you, we’ll be able to scrounge some stuff up. Follow ME!” I walk out and they file out behind me. Over to the Michigan dressing room, which is a little bit full right now.

“Hey boys, im coming in” I dont bother checking before opening the door, they’re pretty used to it by now.

“Jesus Christ its like a minefield in here” I have tp jump over a couple of things and dodge equipment as I make my way over to Luke before plopping on his lap. “Apparently we have some additional guests” I sweep my hands towards to door as heads poke in. “& We need some equipment. Ive talked to Joe (equipment manager) & he’s seeing what he can find. But I wanted to ask if anyone minds letting them borrow a stick?” Luke rests his head on my shoulder as we watch the chaos, as guys jump up to say hey, chat & just have a good time. “Is it bad that I’m excited to see what you make them do?” He says. “Nope” I grin, “ they have no idea what’s coming”.

The horn blares and the gatecrashers leave so the rest of the guys can head back to the ice.

“Just to remind you guys” I say once the cheering had died down “ were only going to be playing 2 periods of hockey, but We have something pretty fun to replace that third period. Now Lets get back to it!!”

Th game restarts and its awesome to watch. Its face paced but still clearly a fun game. Watching Luke & Quinn play on the same line has me smiling like an idiot since I know how much Luke had wanted to play with him in a game setting. Its pretty special & I’m glad I could make it happen.

The final horn sounds, and ‘Canada’ wins, but all the guys are joking around & having fun so I know there not taking it too seriously. Which is good.

“Alright alright, how was that?” Roars from the crowd tell me that they liked it. “First I want to say thank you to all of our players for being such good sports about this, and a huge thanks to everyone who came back. Thanks for going along with my crazy idea, I think we’ve made tonight pretty memorable for everyone!” Yells of agreement come from all around me.

“I promised you a replacement for the third period, so lets get into it

The reason that so many of our hockey alumni can be here tonight is because of the NHL All Star break! Since none of them were invited to the All Star weekend, except Jack, who is still here for some inexplicable reason, I decided that we’ll give them a chance to show off their skills here, just like the skills competition but with no prep. Who needs Florida when you can be here? !” Cheers come from the crowd as they agree with me.

“Originally We had a couple of our Michigan guys & our Alumni who were going to be doing this, not that they knew that, but in true middle child fashion,” more laughs, “Jack had to make it about him & bring a few friends. So please welcome some of the most annoying guys ive ever met, Trevor Zegras, Cole Caulfield and Alex Turcotte”, cheers & boos ring out. “ I know, Wisconsin & BU suck, but since they decided to crash my event, they have to participate. We’ve also got special appearances from DUNDUDUUH Mason McTavish, reuniting him with is bestie Kent, go team Canada! And MAKE SOME NOISE FOR YOUR FORMER WOLVERINES, Matty Beniers, Brendan Brission, Jonny Beecher, Cam York & Josh Norris!!” The boys make their way onto the ice, sliding around & The noise turn deafening.

“Well I guess we know who the favourites are huh? Now you may be noticing, none of these gentlemen have any gear Again, they decided to crash but didn’t plan ahead, so they’re at a disadvantage. We’ve managed to find some sticks of them but that’s about it. Back to what’s happening next. The teams, Canada & US, will each pick five players to show off their skills. A few exceptions, KJ, Jacky, Blanks & Mackie have to do it, as do all of our interlopers. Portillo will be in net. Sort it out boys, you’ve got until I finish with our judges. Judging today, We’ve got Joe the equipment manager, the real star of this team, representing the student section, Annie & Tim, both 4th year students who work as Student trainers, and A woman who has who know exactly what she’s talking about when it comes to hockey, and is used to wrangling boys, its Mama Hughes!!” Our judges come out to one of the benches waving.

“Gentlemen, ARE YOU READY?” Nods all around. “If youre participating, line up single file at centre, everyone else, get out of the way!”

The crowd gets going again as the players split up. “I’m sure youre all a bit sick of me, so I’m going to pass the mic to my colleague Bob, who you may recognize. He’s going to be commenting on this portion of the evening, but I’lll be back soon!” I skate over & give Ellen a hug before handing out whiteboards & markers as the competition gets underway. I’m pretty impressed by what some of these guys have managed to come up with given the time crunch. I’m doodling on my own whiteboard, creating my masterpiece. Im also keeping track of the scores. Luckily Jack & Trevor are going last so I have some time. I lean my head on Ellen’s shoulder as she laughs at Mackies performance. “Thanks for doing this, I know it was a bit random” I say, & she wraps an arm around me

“I’m having a blast & I know all the boys are too. Youre coming to dinner tomorrow right?” “Wouldn’t miss it.”

“I’ve never been more glad that we moved next door to you in Toronto. You make him so happy” I look up & lock eyes with Luke as she says this, a dopey grin on his face. holy shit I’m gonna cry. “You can’t make me cry right now Ellen, I haven’t embarrassed jack & Z yet. I can’t be crying when I do that.” We both laugh as Bill says, “& here come our final contestants, a dynamic duo Hughes number 2 & Zegras” they do pull off something pretty sweet, but I hold up my board when the rest of the judges do.

(Drawing of the Ducks Mascot saying “you suck Z”)

He laughs at it so I know he doesn’t think I’m too serious, and I stand up. That’s my cue.

“Alright how was that?!” The crowd goes nuts.

“Thanks to our four judges for your time. And now, the winner of the 2023 skills comp is “drumroll please”, number 11, Mackie!!!”

Bob skates out with the prize, which I think is pretty dope. We found a vintage Michigan Hockey sweat set & letterman jacket which looks cool as fuck, so im glad they were willing to let us give it away. I pass it to him & he takes a victory lap, taunting the other boys.

“Since this is a game, We’ve got something for our winners. The NHL gives a million dollars, but that boring (and im poor) so instead, we have something else for our boys!” The crowd cheers & bill skates towards me with a box. The teams line up opposite each others, & we skate in between them. I pass out the trophies, adorned with little maple leafs & filled with chocolate. “You were confident eh?” Kent says when I pass him his. “Duh” everyone laughs. we finish passing them then I address the crowd again.

“If you’ll direct your attention towards the screens,” everyone turns “ I have a special message from a couple of our participants.” A video of Cam, Jack, Trevor & Beecher pops up from when they were like 17. They’re wearing their USA jerseys and everyone laughs. Not them though. They know what’s coming. I press play & the singing starts “we Aren’t the champions, we aren’t the champions” Ive been sitting on this one for years. Its from the summer that year when I visited & we had some kind of competition. Their team lost, so Quinn & I made them change the lyrics to reflect that they lost. (I have no idea, Just need something that would be embarrassing).

‘Thank you gentlemen for that, I needed an occasion to play that & this seems like everyone enjoyed it” The crowd laughs along.

“Now, we need to crown an MVP. The way I’m going to to this is: each team pick 3 players, & then you, the crowd, will determine our MVP based on how loud you cheer. Teams you have 1 minute to offer your sacrifices.”

I skate over to the bench. “Now some of you may know that the NHL MVP gets a car, so we decided to stay on theme, but you know we do things better here at Michigan! Thanks to a donation from a generous alumni **Cough cough quinny** the 2023 MVP of our game will get, drumroll please” Everyone in the arena starts making noise and the boys start banging sticks and hollering, The Zamboni door opens & out drives Bill, in a little navy blue jeep (Like the ones for kids to drive) as laugher breaks out from everyone.

“So boys, can I get your top three please! Join me at centre ice.” Owen, Luke, Luca, Rutger, Ethan & Nick come towards me & line up in that order.

Alright, its up to you.” I skate over to Nick & hold my hand above his head Listening as the noise grows. “Decent. Next up” Im make my way down the line, each boy getting the crowd going. They’re all a bit taller, but I can still reach above them, until I get to Luke. I jump on his back & the crowd goes wild. “Last up, Owen! I think ill need some help here, Luke care to contribute?” He scoops me up & lifts me “im a bird!” People laugh & I hold my hand above Owen. Noise grows again. “So to avoid being called out for bias” “YOU ARE” a couple of the players yell “and giving it to my boy OP” Luke pretends to stumble & drops me back onto the ice as laughter rings out. I lean over & whisper, “ill get you for that” I right myself and continue “I’ve asked our skills judges to determine who the crowd got loudest for. On the count of three, please hold up your boards. 1, 2,3!!”They flip them around and I see one for Owen, one for Rutger, one for Luke & then Ellen flips hers, displaying Rutgers name. “Mom seriously!” I snicker as Luke yells in indignation & Ellen shrugs “Alright folks, there you have it. Your MVP!Rutger, Bill has the keys. Now you can stop stealing Luca’s Moped and drive this bad boy around campus.” He goes to sit in it & everyone laughs. “Okay, Thats all from me tonight. I just want to say a massive thank you again to all our alumni for participating and giving up part of your break to be here. To my boss & the rest of the team staff, thanks for trusting me on this & basically giving me free reign.” “Bad idea” one of the boys chirps “Thanks for going along with what was a bit of a harebrained idea that I think turned out pretty fun for all” the crowd agrees with me, “And thanks to all our guys for being such good sports about the change in programming. I’m not going to keep you here any longer, so Thank you & Goodnight!!” The crowd screams & cheers as I wrap my arms around Luke. “Oh before I forget, allow us to play you out with this teams favourite party playlist. Once more, for CANADA, Billy you know what I want” A thumbs up from the sound guy “COME GET YOUR DUDS IN ORDER!!”

I pass the mic to someone as they skate past, and Luke & I skate in a circle. “Youre incredible, you know that?’ He drops his forehead to mine. “Glad you finally see it” I chuckle. “Did you have fun” “are you kidding babe? I dont think ive ever had as much fun playing a game, & playing with Quinn was awesome. I can’t believe you pulled this off” Suddenly my song cuts out & he breathes a sigh or relief “oh thank god”

I lift my head to see who’s messing with it, when Luke spins me around & I see Quinn with the mic, Bordy & Duke skating towards me. Now that I look, none of the boys have left the ice.

“Sorry everyone, We’ll be quick. There’s one person who is entirely responsible for tonight, and we think that she needs some applause! Give it up for y/n l/n” I think im going to go deaf with how loud the barn gets, or maybe its just from Luke yelling in my ear. My face is bright red & I try to turn into Lukes chest, but he keeps me in position. Bordy grabs the mic “You’ve been an important part of this team for the past three years, even before Luke, and We wanted to do something to show our thanks. since some of us had a bit more notice” “We found out 30 minutes before you guys” duke pipes up gesturing to the crowd “Anyway, we have a little something for you to show our thanks” Duke pulls out a bouquet of flowers from behind his back and passes them to me. “I knew you were in love with me Duker. Does this mean you accept my valentine?” The boys that can hear me laugh, and Bordy keeps going “ you can thank Quinn for organizing this one, but Drumroll please” Banging from around the arena grows “Your very own Michigan jersey” He holds it up & flips it around to show my name on the back. My mouth drops, “Thats dope! Holy shit!’ I pass Luke the flowers & take it, pulling it on over my hoodie. “Guys this is awesome, thank you!” “One last thing,” Quinn says, as he produces a jacket from behind his back, the same kind that we used as the skills prize. Apparently there were two of them laying around. “Oh hell yeah! Mackie & I are going to look so much cooler than all of you!” They all laugh as I try to hug the three of them at once, before pulling back. “Alright, thats really all that we have for you tonight,’ Quinn says, addressing the crowd, “so well let you get out of here. Billy, lets get the music back on!” The next song plays as im grabbed by Luke & suddenly surrounded by the whole team. I’m crushed into a hug with most of them, laughing. I get out & manage to give everyone a quick hug before I make my way back to Luke, who’s now chatting to his mum & brothers. “What’s the plan now y/n?” Jack asks. “Man I dont know, do I have to plan everything?” He laughs. “The boys were talking about a party at the senior house, but im not sure if well fit everyone.” “We can try babe” Luke says “I’m going to go get changed & see what they’re thinking” he kisses me before heading towards the dressing room About thirty minutes lates, we’re finally leaving the arena. Luke & I are grabbing dinner but then its to the house to party. Some of the boys are doing the booze run, but everyones heading over there pretty soon. We grab a quick bite at one of the places we love and make our way down the road. We get to the house but the doors locked. I text one of the boys and they come, but the music cuts out once the door opens. “Ladies & gentlemen,” Nolan, who opened the door yells “The woman of the hour, Y/N!!!” The boys cheer as we step into the house & I laugh. Half of them are blasted already, but we catch up pretty quick. By the time the end of the night rolls around, I’ve seen thing I never wanted to (Shudder), but I’ve had fun, and I know this is the kind of night that ill remember forever.

ESPN Broadcast:

The biggest news coming out of the hockey world this week is surprisingly not the All star weekend. Absolutely everyone has been talking about the University of Michigan. On Friday night, fans were treated to a different kind of show. When introducing the night, host y/n l/n, a close family friend of the Hughes family, declared that it was a “Canada vs USA’ game, filled with the current roster & various alumni. I think a lot of people were sceptical, but once the night go going the crowd were really into it. We saw some of the leagues young stars I dont know about you but I absolutely loved the idea and the fans did too. A 2 period game took place, and If you want to see more, check the broadcast from that night, it was great, fun hockey, not too serious but very entertaining. Fans were shocked as more young stars made their way onto the ice, as they replaced the final period with a mini skills competition.

The event was live-streamed on social media & got fans around the country interested. Comments on social media included:

The NHL could really take some tips from the Michigan game this weekend. Ten times more entertaining than All Star.

Y/N has to be one of the most chaotic commentators that Ive ever seen, but She makes it work. Absolutely hilarious.

Luke Hughes Girlfriend, Y/n, doing nothing but roast jack was hilarious. I need to know what he did to get “punished” by wearing a Canada jersey though

I need to see y/n commentating the All Star game in the future, she ws great!

Fuck the All Star weekend, I need a repeat of that Michigan game next year!

I go to OSU but I would’ve loved to be in Yost last night.

Y/n putting on a whole ass game just so her boyfriend can play on the same line as his favourite brother. I see you girl.

NHLers even got involved, with stars like Dylan Larkin tweeting “can’t believe I didn’t get an invite @/YnLn” and other notable alumni echoed the sentiment. Former Captain & Goalie Strauss Mann got in on it, commenting “ damn thats what I get for taking care of you your first year huh? I’ll remember this”.

“HOLY SHIT. LUKE!! They’re talking about me on ESPN! What the fuck? “

Bonus:

Frozen four finals

Broadcaster:

We’ve just been informed of one last change to tonights final game, the University of Michigan have decided to switch their goal song for tonight to pay tribute to someone. You know as much as we do, so hopefully we’ll get a chance to hear it tonight as our game gets underway.

Xx

[kidflashimpulse]

How old do you imagine Bart’s parents to have been when they had him (and Owen for Mel specifically) in the YJA universe?

I’ve always imagined them as pretty young when they had Bart- early twenties, maybe. But then that makes me sad, because if you think about it, they would’ve really just been a bunch of kids trying to make the best of things (while simultaneously trying to save the world). Then that leads me to think about how much younger Mel would’ve been when she had Owen, and that makes me even sadder. AND THEN (I’m not done yet!) I think about how Bart is so close to surpassing the age she would’ve had him, has likely surpassed the age she had Owen, and is nearing the age she would’ve died which leads to me thinking about how young Bart is which restarts this sad thought cycle.

On the other hand (and to bring some light to it all), I love found family tropes. Them (Mel, Dawn, Don, etc) all being young adults with a baby and possibly a young kid to try and take care of sounds like it has the potential for some funny/cute moments. I know if you took my friend group and placed us in charge of a baby to take care of total chaos would ensue lol.

Anyways uh… so sorry! This became much longer than initially intended!

i actually worked this out for my Retrocausality fic and i do have exact numbers but i don’t have the document in front of me, sorry 😅

and whilst i believe i have them all a little older than u have in mind (if i remember correctly but don’t take my word on this) meloni had owen very early 20s, and then she and don had bart around their mid 20s, something like that (maybe).

and while i didn’t HC her having Owen at too young of an age (if i remember correctly), there r still some complexities behind her relationship with Digger Harkness because the age gap is going to remain disgustingly large.

with all this said, they’re still relatively young for what life had thrown them during their time in the post-apocalypse, and it is definitely bitter sweet as bart gets a year closer to their age as time progresses

found family is truly the ultimate concept, i can’t create all this angst between owen and bart if it weren’t for it and honestly, i wouldn’t have been inspired as i am to write literally anything if it weren’t for just the thought of the found family of jenni + bart + owen

u know ur comment reminds me of the saying: it takes a village to raise a kid, and if that ain’t the truth idk what is

sorry for the awful delay in answering, but also thank u for ur question and sharing ur thoughts, always incredibly fun to consider <33