#anywho I hope the vibe of this chapter is something you enjoy :)

[glmfic]

Chapter 34 has got this vibe...? There's just this feeling wrapping around my words, kind of a throwback to previous chapters? Like somehow my writer's brain knows were heading towards the end and it's kind of like let's be sentimental...it's totally unconscious and unintentional, but nice :)

[zepskies]

LOL You're the best!! Diving into your comments below.~~

Pfft I know right? Christmas is all sweets and cheese and wine, isn't it? Anywho, Cas knows how Dean is with his pie. 🤣

I too love me some domestic kitchen fluff!! As you see, most of my fics have some kind of kitchen scene (something I just now realized). 🤣🤣 But Dean feeling comfortable enough to talk about Mary with her is a big deal for sure.

[On having no one to wax for.] Clearly she's in denial of the highest form. 😂

I'm so glad you loved the whole flirting kitchen scene! I have a weakness for the fluffiest fluff, clearly. 😂 I hope I managed the transition from funny/flirty to sexy with the "being caught under the mistletoe again" trope.

[On Dean reading her signals and pulling back.] It's my headcanon from watching Dean for several+ years that he's very intuitive, while Sam is very observant (though they exhibit both traits, I think they naturally lean to one or the other). So I thought Dean would definitely pick up on her vibes here and want to make sure she was okay. Because as we all know, he's a caring guy, more than his rough exterior would suggest.

As for the kitchen sex itself, I'm so glad you enjoyed it!! lol Writing smut is probably my biggest writing insecurity right now, but you and others seem to think I'm doing a good job. 🙈🙈 But DEF good job she waxed. 😂 It's always good to have a little give and take. 😏

It's clear to us that Dean's smitten, but he just needs to make it clear to her (in the next chapter) that this means "more" to him too.

And of course Dean would keep her underwear lmfao. That rascal. And Sam, ever the observant one, though he's smart enough to keep his realizations to himself (for now). 😏

Yeah, I think both her and Dean were brave in this chapter! Her for telling him what she really wanted, and him realizing what he wants, and being brave enough to go for it despite his usual hangups.

But yeah, "foiled by Columbo" indeed, right? 😂 Damn it, Cas.

As for who wins the bet, you shall see next week (muahaha)...

If You Want It To Be - Part 2

Pairing: Dean x Female Reader

Summary: When your car breaks down after a hunt, Sam and Dean tow you back to the bunker for Christmas. This time of year gives you and Dean a little courage to be honest about what you both want. And what you want, is for him to see you. (18+)

AN: Here’s Part 2! This fic is an entry for @deanwinchesterswitch's TGWRC: Christmas in July event. 🩵❄️

Themes: Mistletoe (a classic), eggnog, Christmas dinner

Word Count: 5,700 Tags/Warnings: 18+ only! Smut central, tiny bit of angst, fluff and feels. ❤️💚

Part 2: Christmas Eve

Before you start on the Christmas cookies, you pull Castiel aside.

“Here’s the mission,” you tell the angel. “I know the guys don’t do Christmas all that often, so I want to surprise them with a nice dinner tomorrow. Think you can get this list of stuff for me? I think my addled brain forgot we needed real food too.”

Castiel looks over the scrap of notebook paper you give him with a critical eye.

“Uh, yes. This seems straightforward enough…what about pie?” he asks.

You raise a brow at him. “What about pie?”

“Dean likes pie.”

“I understand, but Christmas is for cookies. Not pies.”

“I think Dean would beg to differ,” Cas points out.

“Fine, get the man his pie,” you relent with a sigh. “Get pecan. He likes pecan, and that’s still somewhat Christmasy.”

“He likes apple better,” Cas mutters, but he still takes up your list and heads out to do your bidding.

Now with most of the bunker, namely the kitchen, all to yourself, you put on some festive music on your phone before you start to lay out all your ingredients on the counter.

Not many people know about your hobby, but you think you’ve seen enough baking shows to be proficient with some flour and egg.

You decide to begin with good old-fashioned sugar cookies that you’ll try your best to decorate later. But first, you start measuring out ingredients.

You sing along with Eartha Kitt’s “Santa Baby,” not knowing that you have an audience.

Dean spots you on his way back in from the garage. He was aiming to grab a drink of water from the fridge. He finds you instead, bopping around the kitchen. He hears you humming breathily to the music, watches you swaying your hips to her sultry notes. And he smirks. 

He steps up behind you and leans in close to your ear to ask, “What’cha making?”

You jump with a loud yelp, flinging up flour with your wooden spoon. Hearing Dean’s laughter, you whip around and give him a playful glare before swatting at him with the spoon.

“Hey!” he protests when you mark his shirt (more than once) with flour. You smirk and continue your task of mixing the dough.

Serves you right, troublemaker, you think. He comes up behind you to inspect your work.

“Cake?” he asks.

“Cookies, remember?” you tell him. “Want to help me?”

“You seem to be doing just fine.” He raises a brow as you take chunks of dough, roll them evenly in your hands, and place them on the tray. You’re making quick work of it too.

“Matter of fact, you look like a pro,” he adds.

You flash him a smile tinged with nostalgia.

“Yeah, well, my mom and I used to do this together every year when I was a kid. Snickerdoodles, oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip, oatmeal chocolate chip—”

“I think I get the picture,” Dean says with a growing smile. You return it, but your expression starts to fade the longer you think of her. 

Dean catches the shift; he knows your mom passed just a few years ago, losing her battle with lung cancer. He and Sam attended the funeral.

Dean understands. He just lost his own mother a few months ago—again. Another reason he can’t quite be Mr. Nice Guy with Jack. At least, not how they used to be. He knows it wasn’t the kid’s fault. Logically, Dean knows this. The nephilim didn’t have his soul.

In Dean’s heart though, his mom is still gone from this world. She got cheated out of her second chance at life. And deep down, selfishly, Dean feels cheated too.

It’s a reminder that gets stuck in his throat. But it dislodges another memory, one he feels comfortable enough with you to share, in the privacy of a quiet kitchen.

“I think I remember helping my mom bake something once, when I was a kid,” Dean admits. Though he clears his throat when your gaze turns to him in interest.

“Think it was chocolate chip cookies…well, whatever, they were hard as a rock,” he says, smiling at the memory. “So we went to the store and bought some from the bakery instead.”

You watch how his face softens, in the way it does whenever he talks about his mother. You smile just as softly.

“Aw, little Dean,” you say, because you can imagine it so clearly. Maybe he’s four or five, working dough between his small hands. And beautiful Mary, smiling beside him, encouraging him.

Dean’s eyes meet yours, uncomfortable with the gentle way you’re looking at him. So he clears his throat and goes into the fridge. He pulls out the eggnog and finds the rum you bought last night, specifically for what he’s about to do.

“Ooh, good idea,” you say as he fixes both of you a glass. Though you balk at his heavy pour of rum. “Geez, trying to get me drunk before noon?”

He grins at you. “Morning, night, and day are the only times to be drunk.”

You snort in response.

“Is that all?” you remark, and you wipe your hands of the wet dough (and most of the flour) before you take the glass he offers. You clink your glass with his and take a sip, even though you choke on it soon after.

“Jesus Christ, Dean,” you cough. He had to have poured half the bottle of Bacardi Superior in there.

Dean sucks between his teeth. “Yep, that is bracing.”

He glances over at you and smiles, raising a finger at the corner of your mouth.

“You’ve got some there,” he points out. You touch your chin, trying to feel for anything on your face.

“Where?”

“On your mustache, there.”

“I don’t have a mustache!” you say indignantly. You know this for a fact, as you spent a fair amount of time waxing and shaving yourself last night.

…Not that you had any particular reason to (or anyone to wax for), you just noticed that you needed some grooming. That’s all.   

Dean’s grin edges into a teasing smirk. “Don’t worry, it’s cute. Less Duck Dynasty and more Steve Harvey, Family Feud guy.”

You splutter laughing and hit his chest with the back of your hand.

“You’re such an ass.”

He chuckles and wipes the bit of eggnog from the corner of your mouth with his thumb. It makes your cheeks flare with a warm blush.

“Well, I uh, should get these into the fridge to chill,” you say. You grab the tray of rolled up cookie dough and head for the fridge, but maybe you’re more frazzled than you realize.

You accidentally knock into Dean’s elbow, making him spill half his drink down the front of his shirt.

You gasp, eyes flying wide, while he looks down at the mess now dripping from his shirt onto the floor. When he eventually looks up at you in deadpan exasperation, you have to bite your lip against a smile.

“Good job,” he cracks.

“I’m so sorry,” you say with a bubble of nervous laughter. “Hold on.”

You finish putting the tray in the fridge and immediately turn to grab a few paper towels. You go to Dean and start helping him blot out the sticky, frothy mess staining through his green flannel and black undershirt, from chest to sternum.

The problem is, the paper towel is thin and breaking off on his shirt, making your task damn near impossible. White, wet pieces of paper are coming off on his black shirt.

“Well, you’re doing great,” Dean wryly remarks.

You can’t help but giggle. “It’s not all my damn fault here. Who the hell buys one-ply paper towels?”

“Sam. Evidently, he’s cheap as hell,” he replies, eliciting another laugh from you.

Soon enough you give up on the paper towel with a huff, and you go to grab an actual hand towel. Dean follows you, which assures that you bump into him again when you turn back around.

You yelp as your foot starts to slip on the sticky drops on the floor, but Dean grabs your arms, steadying you. You can’t help but giggle again, looking up at him. He quirks an amused smile down at you.

But then your face slackens as you gaze up above his head. He curiously follows suit.

And you both realize that you’ve fallen into a trap.

Jack’s sprig of mistletoe once again lies above your head. Your heart trips up a bit faster as Dean looks down at you, this time with a growing smirk.

“My turn,” he says. His eyes are flirtatious, but they hold a hint of something deeper. Something you can’t name.

“Are you gonna go for my cheek like I’m your cousin?” he asks.

His raised brow is a challenge, and it makes you bite the inside of your lip. He can be so annoying, but you suppose he wouldn’t be Dean if he didn’t make things more difficult for you.

Well, I didn’t put on lipstick for nothing, you muse. And though anticipation and nerves trill down your spine, you lean up on your toes, take his face between your flour-stained hands, and press your lips to his.

It’s a sweet kiss, and his hands come to rest along the curve of your waist, holding you close.

When you pull away, you suddenly realize just what you’ve done as you let your hands fall away from his face. You’re not quite sure what to do with them afterwards, so they clench awkwardly in the air between you two.

Dean looks down at you with a softer, yet playful smirk. He reluctantly drops his hands from your waist.

But he makes a show of licking his lips. You taste sweeter than boozy eggnog…actually, you taste more like chocolate. He glances behind you, and sure enough, he spies the Nestle bag in the corner.   

“Chocolate chips?” he notes, eyeing you suspiciously. “Maybe those weren’t originally meant to be sugar cookies, huh?”

His gaze is drawn to the way you bite your lip again, trying to hold back an embarrassed smile. You raise a hand to wipe the imprint of MAC’s “Russian Red” lipstick from his mouth, and he smirks under the pad of your thumb.

“You saw nothing,” you warn him. You attempt to stifle another nervous giggle. “You’re officially sworn to secrecy.”

He hums at that. “I don’t know. What’s in it for me?”

“You’re asking for a bribe?” You raise a brow.

Dean’s smirk deepens. “Maybe. What’cha got for me?”

He rests a hand on the counter by your arm, subtly leaning in and looming over you with his broad frame. A hot blush heats your cheeks, then down your neck. And then excitement bubbles inside you.

Because the one thing you never thought would happen seems to be happening: Dean is actually, honest to God flirting with you. 

Your mouth twitches at a smile as you pretend to think. 

“Hmm…okay! I got it,” you say.

You grip the front of his shirt, and once again lean up on your toes so you can kiss him. This time, Dean holds you there by your cheek. His large hand presses against your warm skin, and his fingers soon delve into your hair. You hum against his lips and deepen the angle of your kiss, your palms lying flat against his chest.

So fucking firm, you think. A solid wall of a man.

Dean’s free hand falls warmly on your hip, bringing you ever closer. He makes a pleased sound when you suck and nip at his lower lip. And with each new kiss, you’re falling deeper and deeper into the intoxication of him. 

Before you realize it, he’s walked you back to press you into the little table in the kitchen, where you all shared breakfast this morning. But you surprise him by breaking the kiss. You pull away just enough to see his confused, handsome face.

“There you go. That’s your payment,” you tease. “Good enough?”

“Hell fucking no,” Dean rasps. 

He dives back in to claim your lips, and you smile, letting him do it. Your whole body is buzzing with warmth of feeling and happiness, especially when his arms slip around you firmly and pull you flush against him. Your hands travel up his flannel-clad arms to wind around his neck.

A moan catches in your throat when his lips veer away from yours, beginning a path along the curve of your jaw, down the side of your neck, stopping just under your ear. His stubble prickles against your skin in the most delicious of ways. Your eyes close at the feeling. 

You sigh and card your fingers up the back of his neck, through his hair. “Dean…”

He surprises you with a nipping kiss on your earlobe, making you jump a little with a yelp.

You utter a laugh and playfully tighten your hand in his hair. “Hey!”

The sound of his deep, muffled chuckle in your ear sends tingles along your skin and heat, down between your legs. You let out a shaking sigh and press kisses of your own to his neck.

You tug at the collar of his shirt to reveal more skin, so you can latch onto his shoulder next. It’s a playful bite, one that elicits a groan from Dean as his thigh slips between both of yours.

His hands find your waist, and with a quiet grunt, he hefts you up onto the kitchen table. You squeal at the sudden move, clinging to his shoulders when the table shakes a bit.

But it prompts you to look up at Dean’s face. You see the desire darkening his eyes to hunter green. And his hands part your knees to let him stand between them.

You blush hotly when his palms smooth up your bare thighs, over the skirt of your dress. He drags the thin fabric with him and rucks it up well above your knees. Your mouth parts on a shaky breath when those sinful hands stop at your hips, bunching up the fabric there.

“I like this dress,” he mentions. Your mouth curves with a grin.

“I think it likes you back,” you reply. Your gaze falls to his chest as you pick at the collar of his flannel. “This should go, though.”

With an amused huff, Dean shrugs out of the green plaid first. You help him with the black undershirt next, giggling a little when it gets caught on his wrist and spikes up his short hair. That’s all right, you think, because you’re about to mess it up even more.

Your hands run over his bare chest first though, as you drink him in with your eyes. Dean notices with a smirk, and he lets you pull him in again by his hair as you meet him with a passionate kiss.

He likes the way you try to devour him with lips and tongue and teeth. In turn, he slips underneath the skirt of your dress and squeezes your thighs.

You gasp into his mouth, allowing him to devour you back. It makes you realize that this is seriously heading somewhere. It’s hot and heady and his touch is making your head swim. But your heart shoots you a firm reminder…

One that makes you slower to respond to Dean’s increasingly demanding kiss.

Sensing your hesitation though, Dean slows his roll.

“You okay?” his deep voice rumbles.

When you don’t have a ready answer for him, he pulls back enough to see your face. He finds your uncertainty.

You look down in embarrassment.  

Even though his heart is still pounding (and his dick straining in his jeans), Dean moves his hands from under your skirt, back to your waist. And he raises his brows, ducking to find your eyes. Once you meet his gaze, he gives you a smile. 

“Hey, talk to me,” he prompts. His thumbs brush against your sides, earning your weak smile back. Your hands slide down his neck to rest on his shoulders.

“Sorry. I just, um…” you stumble on your words. You’re not sure how you want to say this, but Dean’s brows are knitting together. His face is more serious now as he watches you with singular focus. It gives you enough courage to put your heart in his hands.

“This, us, right now…is this a one-time deal?” you ask.

Out of all the things he thought you might say, maybe Dean should’ve prepared for that one a bit better. He frowns, considering how to answer you—and what would put the least amount of pressure on you. Even though his gut is telling him (kicking him), on what he should really tell you.

But those words get stuck in his mouth. So all he can bring himself to say is…

“If you want it to be,” he says.

You bite your lip at that. Though not in a good way, his instincts also tell him. Your gaze falls.

“That’s just it,” you say. After a moment, you manage to look up at him again. 

“I don’t think I can do that,” you say in measured tones, even though you’re scared. “I like you, Dean.” 

The “like” feels like something a lot deeper, even to your own ears.

But you don’t expect the way Dean’s guarded face softens.

He breaks into a smile that makes his eyes crinkle at the corners. He tucks a loose strand of your hair behind your ear, brushing your cheek with his thumb. You close your eyes at the tender touch. 

“Well, that’s good,” he says. “Because here I was, trying to wrap my head around how I was supposed to let you go after havin’ you…right where I want you.”

Your eyes flash open at that. Then he leans down and kisses you again. Your shock is a powerful thing, but it all but melts at his touch. You relax into him with a sigh of relief, kissing him back and closing your eyes against the sweet sting of tears.

You don’t have time to let them fall though. Dean doesn’t give that to you. He pulls you by your thighs until you’re at the edge of the table. You feel his hands travel up and curl around the waistband of your underwear. You raise up for him so he can tug them down, over your ass and thighs, and you kick the black, lacy panties off your foot with a giggle.

Dean grins, especially when you go for his belt. Your eyes briefly meet with his while you make quick work of the buckle, then the button and zipper on his jeans. You hook two fingers in the waistband of his boxer briefs and tug him closer.

“Come ‘ere,” you whisper.

Smirking, Dean obliges you, stepping closer into your orbit. And he has to grip your thighs for support when you slide a hand down the front of his underwear, feeling down the length of his hard cock with a gentle, sensuous hand. He moans, pressing his forehead into your shoulder.

“Ooh, finders keepers,” you tease. Dean snorts against your neck and presses a biting kiss there, satisfied by the way you gasp and shiver.

You feel the shape of his smile on your skin. But he grabs your arms tight when your hand squeezes experimentally around his cock.

“Fuck,” he mutters. “You gonna keep teasing me, sweetheart?”

“Maybe,” you reply cheekily. All the while, you continue to caress him within the confines of his pants, especially brushing your thumb around the sensitive head.

If you keep this up, he’s not going to last long enough to do everything he wants to do to you. Everything he’s dreamed about for years with a hand wrapped around himself…but he’s been too much of a fucking coward to make that leap with you.

He told himself he was protecting you. That you were better off with someone less damaged. That he’d just drag you down into his hellish life.

But he just can’t fucking take it anymore. 

So Dean grasps your wrist, prompting you to release him. You look down at his face and catch the way his playfulness fades into a more concentrated desire. The heat in his eyes makes your mouth part in soft surprise.

Dean picks up from where he left off before, pressing a hand to your cheek and ravaging your lips. His hand then slides into your hair and gets a firm grip. All the while, his free one slips beneath your dress and between your legs. First he just teases the seam of your pussy with the calloused pads of his fingertips.

Your breath catches in your throat as you squeeze his shoulders and lean back, giving him a better angle. And you utter a moan when those thick digits slip between your folds and sink deeply into your wet heat.

“Dean,” you gasp his name into his mouth. The hand in your hair tightens as he works you over, exploring your inner channel with two fingers while this thumb presses and circles around your clit. Your tremulous hips begin to move in time with his rhythm, meeting his thrusts as you pulse deep inside with pleasure.

His lips drift away from your mouth, pressing against your cheek, then into your neck.

“I got you, baby. Let go for me,” he says hotly in your ear. His thumb rubs more insistently against your clit in time with his pulsing fingers.

Your inner walls squeeze around his hand, tighter and tighter. And you utter a gasping moan into his ear as you cling to him. Dean strokes inside you through your shuddering release. It’s almost too much, but it prolongs the feeling of your pleasure and makes your arms tremble around his neck.

Afterwards, he rubs your lower back until you catch your breath. You manage to press a grateful kiss into his neck, then his cheek.

“Holy shit,” you utter. It earns a genuine laugh from Dean as he cups the back of your head.

“Oh, we’re not done,” he promises, leaning back to look into your eyes. “I think you’re gonna be more comfortable in my room.”

You tilt your head at him. “Or…”

You shuffle even closer to him on the table and pull off your dress, slipping it over your head. You feel a little self-conscious in exposing your full self to him, but Dean watches you undress with hungry eyes and a tight jaw.

After your black dress falls to the floor, he takes in the sight of your body, his gaze landing on the black lace bra still covering your breasts. His hands slip up the curve of your waist, up your sides, and slide behind to unhook your bra.

His mouth burns a trail down your chest, between the valley of your breasts when he drags the bra down your arms and to the floor. You grab onto his arms for support; you feel like you’re riding the hurricane that is Dean Winchester, and you don’t expect to come out intact.

“Fucking beautiful,” he murmurs against your skin, making you shudder. You suck in a breath as his hands cup your breasts, roughly kneading and rolling his thumbs over pert nipples.

“Smooth talker,” you manage to quip with a smile.

“Ain’t nothin’ but the truth,” he tells you. “Feels like I’ve been waiting a goddamn lifetime for this.”

His eyes are dark with desire, but they’re also serious. Your voice gets stuck in your throat for a moment. He’d been waiting for you?

But you realize that sometimes, words are overrated. You slide your arms around his neck and kiss him deeply, licking into his mouth and taking satisfaction from the way he groans into yours.

He holds you flush against his chest, skin to blushing skin. He runs his warm hands down your naked back, familiarizes himself with each and every one of your curves.

Dean’s waited so long for this, he doesn’t know whether to take his time, or just take you right now before someone walks into the open kitchen.

But you make the decision for him.

You break away from his lips to drag his belt and jeans down, just enough to shuffle them past his hips. Dean’s lips curve into a smirk. It would be easier to turn you around and bend you over on the table (and the thought is pretty fucking appealing right now).

…But he wants to see your face. He wants to know, looking in your eyes, what you want from him and how his touch makes you feel. 

So he helps you free his straining cock from his boxers to line himself up to your entrance.

With his arm wrapped around your waist to support you, and a hand on the table, Dean sheathes himself inside you. You both release shaking breaths as he bottoms out, stretching your inner walls and wrapping firmly around him.

“Fuck,” he grunts.

You nod at that, wiping the dewy sweat forming above his brow. He flashes you a grin, one you recognize from his younger, more boyish days. It’s a welcome sight, and you smile back and wrap your legs around his hips. If possible, it buries him deeper inside you. He groans.

“Damn, baby,” he says, panting for breath. “Haven’t even started yet, but you might just kill me.”

“There are worse ways to go,” you tease.

He snorts at that. In their line of work, isn’t that the fucking truth.

When he begins to slide out of you for the first time, you brace yourself with a hand at the back of his neck and another on the table. Dean begins a steady rhythm, one that serves you well as you get used to the size of him.

But eventually you urge him on faster, your nails scraping through his hair and against his scalp. He groans and drives into you at a clip that makes your toes curl and a keen high in your throat.

He spills hotly inside you when he comes.

You know you shouldn’t have let him, but you wanted to feel him, wanted to hold him the way he held you. And you do so, stroking his cheek and drawing a thumb across his full lower lip as he shudders.

But Dean isn’t satisfied, not until his fingers further part your folds and find your still sensitive clit. He rubs and circles insistently, until you can’t help but give him your second release, shuddering a moan as you cling to him. He holds you with an arm wrapped tight around your lower back, pressing your breasts against his chest.

You both pant for breath. His cheek rests alongside yours, and both of your eyes close for a moment. You brush your fingers more gently through his hair.

“Dean,” you start to say, but the sound of the bunker’s door unlocking makes you both freeze.

“Shit,” Dean mutters.

You can’t see them from the kitchen, but you hear Sam and Jack come in. Oh fuck.

Dean reluctantly detangles himself from you and wrestles up his underwear and jeans. Meanwhile, you hop off the kitchen table to grab your dress, pulling it on as you look for your bra and panties.

Sam calls your name, then Dean’s. But the two of you ignore him as you try to silently scramble around.

You manage to find your bra, but you don’t have time to put it on. You shove it behind the toaster. Then you find a napkin to wipe off the rest of your lipstick.

Meanwhile, Dean finds his black shirt. He hesitates when he sees it’s stained all over with flour and dried eggnog, but he puts it on anyway. (He won’t realize until later that his hair and shoulders are flecked with the stuff, just as his lips and chin are still smudged with your lipstick.)

He grabs the green flannel you throw at him, and he finds your panties tossed in the corner. He raises up the black lace in his hand and smirks at you with waggling brows.

“Give me that!” you whisper-hiss. The slick between your thighs is already becoming uncomfortable, along with the chill on your bare ass under the dress.

But instead of obeying, Dean winks at you and pockets them instead. You gape in disbelief as he flees the kitchen, presumably to disappear into his room. It leaves you in a…sticky situation, so to speak.

Sam calls your name questioningly when he comes around the corner. He pops into the kitchen with a few Walmart bags in hand. Sticking out of one of them are some stockings, you notice.

“Hey, how’s the baking going?” he asks.

“Good!” you say, though your voice is far too high and chipper. “Good. Just about to get them into the…oven.”

You turn and realize you haven’t even pre-heated the oven. You do so after pressing a few buttons, and you go to the fridge to grab the tray of chilling dough.

Sam raises a brow at you, especially when he sees your frizzy hair, and the flour stained across your bottom.

But he wisely doesn’t comment.

Later that night, Dean lays on his bed. He’s long since showered, fully clothed, arms crossed while his music plays from his laptop. But he can’t make himself focus on anything else but you.

How it was to finally have you; not just the give of your soft curves under his hands, but the sound of your voice coming apart in his ear, the way you’d begged him, at times teased him, and then gave him a run for his money with your wily hands and tongue.

Dean’s had all of that running through his head for the rest of the damn day.    

And there were stolen looks at dinner that evening. Furtive smiles. Brief, innocent touches. Moments where you blushed down to your neck, and he had to hide his amusement. (Even if his brother had noted his apparent good mood at dinner.)

But between Sam and the two angels hanging around, Dean hasn’t had a chance to talk to you after what happened in the kitchen. He doesn’t want you to get the wrong idea.

If you want it to be, he’d said, when you asked if this was going to be a one-time thing.

He hopes he made himself clear—that this is not that kind of deal. Not for him.

Now that he’s gotten a taste of what he couldn’t have, and worse, now that he knows you want more from him…he just can force himself to let go this time.

There’s a thought that he doesn’t want to face. It’s been buried so deep, for so long, that he can’t even commit it to the forefront of his mind.

But it’s there.

Despite the hell he attracts like flies to shit, he wants you. Not for one night. Not just for kicks. He wants you to stay arguing with him about stupid shit, taking his teasing and dishing it right back—like making fun of his slippers and how much he secretly likes country music.

He wants you with him and Sam on hunts, even though it also makes him worry. (But he worries much more when he knows you’re out there, hunting alone.)

Dean thinks about you when you’re not around, more often than he’d like to admit. So today, he finally had to face the truth.

He wants you. More than he’s wanted anything in a long time. And he wants to find out what it’ll be like to try this for real, with you.

The thought that you still could be thinking otherwise, wondering, doubting him, has Dean going mildly insane.

It’s not right, and he takes pride in righting wrongs.

So he decides to break out of the confines of his room to find yours. It lies down the hall and to the left; he knows because you take the same room every time you stay at the bunker, which admittedly, isn’t as often as he likes. Maybe they can change that…

“Oh. Hello, Dean,” says Castiel.

Dean inwardly curses as the angel comes from the opposite direction. Already he’s tilting his head in curiosity.

“It’s late. Feeling peckish?” he asks.

“Uh, yeah,” Dean replies. He moves past the angel and continues down the hall.

“Dean,” the angel calls to him.

Dean pauses, looking over his shoulder.

“What?”

“The kitchen is the other way,” Castiel points in the direction in which he’s going.

“Uh…well, yeah,” Dean says. “I just, uh…”

Cas’s head tilts just so, confusion soon replacing his curiosity.

“Never mind,” Dean waves a dismissive hand. He’s forced to follow his friend down the hall, away from your bedroom door which lies just inches away.

He doesn’t know that you can hear the entire conversation from the safety of your bed, comfortable in your pajamas. You have to stifle a giggle as you listen to Dean fumbling. You have a feeling you know where he’d really been headed.

So you take your phone out and text him.

Foiled by Columbo once again, you tease.

Moments later, Dean texts you back.

More like cock-blocked.

You snicker at that. You still haven’t given back my panties.

And you ain’t getting them back. They’re spoils of war.

You roll your eyes. But then Dean starts typing again.

Just to recap. Today: not a one-time thing.

Your smile grows and warms, like melted butter.

Good…can we talk tomorrow?

It’s a date, he says. And a beat later. Merry Christmas, beautiful.

You realize it’s officially 12:00 a.m. Christmas morning. You have a feeling it’s going to be a good one.

Merry Christmas, Dean.

AN: 😏 Well then. Merry Christmas, indeed. Let me know what you thought of Part 2!

Next Time:

Dean takes your hand and leads you downstairs to the garage.

There you find the remains of your car, which has rusted out parts strewn haphazardly all over the ground. You raise a brow. This is how he fixes your car? 

“You are so not winning the bet.”

Or will he? 😉

Find out soon…

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[amaya-chwan]

Takeaways from Therapy Game Special Chapter - 冬の夜の思い出

Hi lovelies! 💜❤️💛

Hope you've all been well! 🥰

Thank you for being so patient with me! Honestly, the next couple of weeks are going to be a little busy for me, so I tried to make time tonight to write this short takeaway!

First of all, this edition of Dear+ features this special poster featuring our beloved dorks Shizuma and Minato, as well as Mito-san and Shouhei (and is that Georgia??)!

Aren't they adorable?? 😍 And yes, I already carefully removed it from the magazine! 🤣

Anywho! This chapter is really short (4 pages, to be exact), and it's titled "冬の夜の思い出 -- A memory from a winter's night".

Since this chapter is really short, I'll just go straight into our summaries! So without further ado, please continue after the cut for the complete summary (plus a surprise, as usual~ 😉✨)

This chapter takes place right after our beloved Shizuma and Minato started dating. Shizuma has been at Minato's place--at Minato's invitation--since morning studying for the upcoming National Veterinary Examination in one week! Shizuma, still focused on his studies, looks exhausted as he sits on the living room floor, reading and notetaking on his textbook.

Right behind him, Minato is seated on the sofa, also looking tired, but not from studying, no. He's wondering when Shizuma will take a break and give him some attention. Catching on, Shizuma reminds Minato that he promised not to interrupt Shizuma's studies, and in return, Shizuma will shower him with all his love and attention after his exams.

Minato replies that he knows that already. Looking on at a very visibly tired Shizuma, Minato recognises that his request (that Shizuma would, at least, come study at his house during the busy time right before his exam) was a little unreasonable, but he's also a little surprised/slightly irked that Shizuma won't lay a hand on him, even though he's right there!

Minato tries to tempt Shizuma to take a break, saying that Shizuma looks like he's on death's door and that he must be tired. He offers to do anything to help Shizuma out, maybe something to 'heal' him. Shizuma asks Minato if he'll actually do anything, and Minato says yes, very excitedly at that.

Unfortunately, the request was not what Minato was hoping for. Instead, Shizuma asks Minato to buy him some nutritional supplements, eye drops, and chewing gum. We see Minato walking back home from the store during what seems to be a very, very cold night. He thought Shizuma would, at that moment, ask for a 'sensual' massage, and he begins to think why he's out here, on a cold winter's night, doing something so 'normal'...

Minato reaches his apartment and blows on his icy cold hands to try and warm them. He speaks aloud to tell Shizuma that he's back and has bought the requested items, so he's hoping that Shizuma can give him even just a little attention. As he looks into the living room where they were, he finds Shizuma curled slightly under the coffee table, asleep.

Annoyed that he's sleeping, Minato wonders why Shizuma didn't think to make better use of this time by making love to him! He looks again at his cold hands and has an idea--he lifts Shizuma's shirt to put his cold hands on his stomach!

Shizuma is surprised by this, and jerks his body in reaction to the cold! He sleepily tells Minato to hold on a moment and that his hands are cold. Minato thinks that Shizuma is mad him when Shizuma grabs his hand, but...

And that’s it for this chapter! THANK YOU FOR READING THIS FAR! 💜 And thank you again for being so patient with me! I hope you enjoyed this very adorable, albeit short chapter! Very domestic vibes I'm getting here. Is Sensei teasing us with domestic life Shizuma and Minato? Hehe 🤭

EDIT 2022-04-05: Oh goodness, where has the time gone? Thank you for waiting! Not too many typos this time around, but a few changes in word choices, aha! Also, sorry there's only one image preview--I honestly didn't have any extra time! 😭

📢 As always, please support Hinohara-sensei by purchasing her books, CDs, and merch! 📢

And please also refrain from resharing these translations and images outside of my posts! Thank you for understanding! ❤️💛

There will be a chapter in next month's Dear+, so I shall see you all again then to find out what happens next! 🥰

As always, please stay safe during these especially turbulent times and look out for each other and for your loved ones! 💜❤️💛

[feysandfeels]

I don't know how to feel about this crossover thing. It worries me because everyone apparently thinks Sarah will ruin it and it's not good.

Ay sugar I get it :(

Normally this is how it tends to go, SJM will say something and the general reaction is that of dismay and distrust. Besides we all know that it is rare to see praise for her, people love to always highlight the aspects of her craft that could use improvement and her lows, and they do so to a degree that goes beyond "enjoying stuff critically".

Anywho, seeing how few of my friends do not care for ACOTAR but love CC or adore ACOTAR but can't do the modern vibe of CC, I understand that they feel a bit cheated because they are made to read about a whole other world they do not care for and after all why should you spend time reading something you don't want. Specially for the ACOTAR ones having to read CC to understand better what is happening in ACOTAR5 seems a bit unfair to them.

Initially I was not against the crossover, I loved both worlds and I think the interaction of vastly different cultures will be interesting and funny. However I do think that having half of CC3 happen in Velaris is excessive. I believe this will change in the final outcome and we will spend less time than she previously announced in Velaris. That being said it is clear that whatever happens in those chapters will be crucial to the ACOTAR5 plot. My hope is those chapters can be read like a novella between ACOTAR books so non-CC readers wont have to go through HOEAB, HOSAB and CC3 if they do not wish to.

Even when Sarah has taken narrative choices that are not what I would have gone with or her characters end up developing in another way that differs from where I thought they ought to go, I still end up enjoying her books and in a way seeing things from her perspective and understanding why she went the way she did. So I have that hope for this crossover.

But I won't lie to you ACOTAR and CC have vastly different objectives and rhythms. ACOTAR has always been a character exploration and deep conversations on abuse and trauma; CC has been a different kind of project that focuses on characters in another way that aims to balance it more with an outside plot. So I don't know how she will accommodate the narrative dynamic of ACOTAR to fit the pace of CC. But now that I think about it... this is not a 50-50 crossover, this is still a CC book so most likely we will get ACOTAR characters done from a CC narrative perspective and that makes sense.

I also think we are blowing it all up of proportion but that happens when news drop about things we care for as deeply as we do for her work. And it does annoy me to another world to see people who don't think Sarah has it in her to stick the landing with this project. Yes she has stated that sometimes her plans change along the way or new details emerge that she had not foreseen, but this doesn't mean that she does not have a good clear idea of where both series are going. I bet that a lot of other favorite authors do this but are less vocal about it. Sarah has always been a gardening-approach author and those do ask for a different kind of understanding of the story, as opposed to the architectural types of writing.

To me it makes a lot of sense that when she initially wrote ACOTAR she had no idea this crossover was possible, but perhaps along the way in ACOWAR when CC had more structure and bones she started to see the possibility form. Now it was clear that she could not introduce the crossover-sjmcu elements in a book that was on its final stages of publication, so she had to start introducing them in SF but that doesn't mean she did not think of how the information she already established in TAR-WAR could serve for this new idea.

For now we have no assurances of how things will go but I rather trust in the qualities I have seen from her that have made me a longtime fan of her stories.

At the end of the day most of us love her stories so lets hope we love this one too, I think it's a better approach than outright hating it even before you know how it will end up... saves up energy.

Besos besos

[kuraiandroger]

Diasomnia Relationship Headcanons

Basically what the title says, they’re my favorite dorm and I’ve projected on them a lot so I hope I’m not alone in how I see these dynamics </3 Enjoy!

 Lilia and Malleus

I see them as parent and child, even though Malleus seems to want to hide that sometimes. It’s probably because of his title and his age gap with the other children in the “family”  that maybe he feels embarrassed about Lilia doting on him, but oh well. I still see him as a child compared to Lilia (despite the fact that he literally is lol) because he seems to be a lot less present in the kids’ lives, and we’ve gotten several glimpses of his apparent emotional immaturity (Avoiding his problems, throwing “lightning tantrums”, sulking, etc). Paired with the fact that Lilia covers for him a LOT while still acknowledging these issues he has... I just can’t see them as equals lol. I only see a father and his very mildly unruly lol son. U_U It’s okay Malmal I know you’re trying your best.

Lilia and Silver

A rather similar relationship to Lilia and Malleus, to be honest. It’s just a lot more open, and I suspect that’s because Silver is sort of young and he doesn’t really have anyone else he’d rather run off with. His temperament is different than Malleus to an extent; Silver doesn’t strike me as a child with a single rebellious bone in his body, so he has no problems hanging out with and admiring his old man. I like to think Lilia had a very tender bond with both of his sons when they were infants, and some of that shows still in his relationship with Silver. They are just good ol dad and son (but really, dad, I’m fine with doing the cooking for tonight).

Lilia and Sebek

Sebek himself has called Lilia his mentor, and I really think that’s the basis of what they are, but I also think Lilia takes some of the liberty of acting like a dad to Sebek too sometimes. I believe Sebek was very present in Silver’s childhood so he is comfortable with Lilia’s authority. A good example of this was when Lilia told Sebek to use a quieter voice in Sam’s shop, much like the way a parent would scold their child lol. Sebek, too, while admittedly gullible, seems to heed Lilia’s advice with great respect, such as when he showed the other first years his secret natto ingredient that he’d heard was good from Lilia.

Malleus and Silver

Contrary to what most people think (due to Malleus’ status as Silver’s guardian), I don’t entirely see him as “Silver’s other dad.” Here’s where I start projecting lmao because I had a sibling who was many years older than me myself, so I sort of get the “older sibling who I respect because they are that much older than me but I also barely know them” vibe from these two. I am sure that Malleus took responsibility for Silver when needed, but it’s just really obvious to me that Lilia is the primary parent and Mal almost certainly looked to him for advice. I dunno, I could be completely wrong about this one, but I am just rather hung up on Lilia still viewing Malleus as his child despite the fact that he is long grown and therefore Malleus doesn’t seem to place the same priority on parenting Silver that Lilia does (which, yeah, I realize could very well be because of Malleus’ title and all). 

Some people have said it could’ve been out of respect, but I’ve also taken into account how little Silver seems to acknowledge Malleus as anything more than his liege (he didn’t even know very much about Malleus’ interest in gargoyles which....blows my mind a little lol) and really calls Lilia his father instead. There is a peculiar blend of comfort and distance between Malleus and Silver that I personally don’t entirely see as a parent-child dynamic </3. For the most part, I just see these two as distant age-gap siblings wherein the older one might’ve helped raise the younger one but was too much older than the younger sibling to really connect with them  (This could change during the Diasomnia chapter, but yeah). TL;DR: Distant older sibling Mal, as evidenced by Lilia’s much higher influence as the true “father” figure.

Malleus and Sebek

A pretty obvious lord-and-knight dynamic here lol. Malleus seems pretty indifferent to Sebek’s devotion, but Sebek still wants to impress him anyways. I’m sure Malleus just lets him do whatever because Sebek’s a little kid to him lmao

Silver and Sebek

This one! My favorite one! Their sibling-like dynamic really stands out to me because again, I have lived it lmao. I like to see them as a sibling rivalry because it’s very refreshing to see within a piece of media that also focuses on sibling characters that do get along (the Leeches, etc). These two tend to bicker, and they only hang out when they have to (such as when the whole family is together, or when they’re at their school club), and seem to have their own separate social lives despite knowing a lot about each other. I’ve noticed they also pick on each other for things the other cannot control (such as Sebek’s “annoying” voice, or Silver’s sleep disorder). As someone who has a sibling I really don’t get along with sometimes, it just hits home lol.

I’ve noticed that something else us bratty siblings will do, is tend to ignore any traits we have in common in favor of shaming the things we don’t share... Which is very much something that Sebek and Silver do to one another. In reality, I really do think they have rather similar personalities, but the fact that each one expresses it so differently causes them to fight (for example, Silver and Sebek are both very blunt but careful individuals, yet their level of enthusiasm for what they do is a source of conflict). Despite this, sibling rivalry-dynamic characters will still have moments where they get along, such as when they share an activity, like swordfighting.

I like to think that while Sebek is quite literally just Silver’s childhood friend, they have reached a level of comfort (and annoyance) with one another after years of growing up together that their dynamic manifests the way argumentative siblings do, and I love that for them.

---

SOOO uh, thank you for reading if you did! This is my first text post in a really long time, please be nice to me if you happen to disagree with any of this, it’s just headcanons! Sorry if it’s a bit wordy at times too, I like to shove as much in as I can. </3 Anywho, we’ll get a better scope when Diasomnia’s chapter releases someday, haha. 

[honney-boy]

Wonder (Part 1)

Rudy Pankow x Oc!Reader

gif by → @riobeth​

Wonder Series Masterlist | Wonder Playlist

Chapter summary:  Rudy and Nevaeh meet in person for the first time and things aren’t awkward. Yougurt cups, bananas and ice blended in a cup and maple syrup.

Full Summary and Story Concept

Warning(s): language, shenanigans, jet laggness, social media zombies, teenage girls

Words: 5k+

A/N:  This is my first attempt at a Rudy fic. My first series too! But if this flops, let's pretend it never happened, okay? :) But If you guys want to read more, please do let me know. Your love and support is the encouragement I need. I got the concept from tik tok haha. Fair warning, I am handwriting out chapters with a pen and paper before converting it digitally, so updates with be spread out. THERE WILL BE GRAMMAR MISTAKES! I'm human, and Tumblr is my test run for this series. Anywho, hope you enjoy :)

taglist

One | “Social Zombies”

            In Nevaeh's opinion, airports were the worst. It wasn't due to the 38,000 feet in the air flying ride or the nothingness in the sky you see your whole flight; it was the people, the airports themselves, and the limited space.

Airports were much worse than flying - especially the San Francisco International Airport. Also known as SFO Airport. The few times, literally very few times, Nevaeh has been to the airport, she had poor experiences. Now, SFO Airport is definitely smaller than LAX and not as busy - it's a nightmare. You would think with a much smaller airport, there would be fewer crowds, but no, it's like a family reunion every day but with strangers. If you bump into the wrong person, your day on the off chance will get ruined.

Along with the busy crowds, there are many places to eat. From pizza to Italian to pie, your choices are endless. That's until half or more restaurants are closed or have long lines. Nevaeh never ate airport food, so she couldn't give her opinion on it. She'll leave that to the professional reviews. She wasn't at SFO Airport to judge the food or traffic flow, not even the staff's attitude - except she already gave a flight attendant a glare. The flight attendant took a bathroom break before their next flight and griped at Nevaeh because she used the last paper towel so they couldn't dry their hands. Air drying is a thing, and it works well, she thought to herself while leaving the restroom. She was not going to let one grumpy flight attendant ruin her great mood. She was going to meet someone who she hopes is special today.

Over the past two months, Nevaeh and this person had gotten to know each other well, virtually, that is. They met online, and Nevaeh lived in San Francisco while they lived in Alaska. Countless messages, facetime calls, photos, and videos were exchanged, and a bond was formed. Who would have thought that two people could meet through a video sharing social media app and hit it off? Most people start with dating apps, meet and get to know different people, but Nevaeh met them all because a video of hers popped up on their for you page.

Nevaeh created and shared a variety of things on the app. From cooking to creating and her little hobby of disco skating. She wanted to keep her followers and supporters entertained and herself; she didn’t want to be stuck, making the same content, so she did many things. Nevaeh thought maybe one of her disco skating, videography, or cooking videos drew them in, but it was one of her mini vlogs. In the video, she showed how she would scout places before spending the day getting footage for a short montage film or scenes for a movie she is working on. Not long after the discovery, they - he sent her a message asking about a more in-depth explanation of her process, and it went up from there.

Now, after all this time of them chatting back and forth, they get to meet. Nevaeh gets to meet him. 

Standing by the arrival gate, her eyes bouncing around the room at different things just to keep her mind centered and not all over the place. She wanted to pick at her nails, or hold her hands to her chest but she couldn’t hold them in place for long; she opted for playing with the white beaded bracelet he bought and sent to her in a box full of other things. It was so sweet of him; just thinking about the box she received makes her smile and her heart swell. Just last week she received a box full of thoughtful gifts. Inside were some of her favorite snacks, a movie she loved, one of his hoodies - it was the hoodie he wore the first time they facetimed. The hoodie was one of his favorites, but he had the urge to send it to her, he just wanted her to have it. And finally was the white beaded bracelet with a single aqua blue bead on it - he had the matching one with all aqua beads and one single black bead. She was having an uncreative and pretty shitty day until that box arrived on the front door step of her shared apartment.

“I wanted to surprise you, so I messaged Birdie asking her for your favorite snacks, I added the hoodie and got the two of us distance bracelets. You know, because we are long distance.” He told her later that day when they talked on the phone.

“Until you come here, or I go there,” she replied. She hasn’t stopped wearing the hoodies since and she has had the bracelet on since the moment she got it.

Nevaeh watched different people walk past her; none of them were him yet. The dirty blond mess he sported for hair shouldn't be that hard to miss, but the longer she searched, the more she doubted her assumption. 

It was another couple of minutes that went by, and she didn't see him, so she pulled her phone out to see if he had sent something. Maybe he has to catch a different flight, and he forgot to tell her, or perhaps he didn't want to meet after all. Her fingers type out a message to send, but a figure stands in front of her before she hits the send button. Nevaeh could see the shadow of their body from her peripheral vision, but she did not look up, hoping they would go away - but they didn't. Sending her message, the woman was preparing to turn away until she heard the stranger's phone go off. It's just a coincidence that their phone went off a couple of seconds after I sent a message. She said to herself, then she looked up and there he was. Dirty blond hair - a little long all over, but instead of it being in his face like it always is, it was pushed back and tucked underneath a red cap. His eyes were more lovely in person. The pair ranged from a light blue to gray, depending on the day. Today they were light blue. He sported stubble across his chin and cheeks with a blond mustache above his top lip. He wore nothing flashy, just a simple red ACDC sweatshirt, cargo shorts, and a pair of vans. He looked tired, but that didn't throw off the good vibes and smile he had going on. She couldn't help but smile back. He's here in the flesh. Rudy.

"Hi," he said light-heartedly, breaking the silence.

"Hi," she echoed; the smile on her face grew some more. "Wow, you're really here in the flesh."

He chuckled, and the sound woke up the butterflies in her stomach. "Yeah, I am. And you...the pictures and videos don't do enough justice for the actual thing." His eyes scan over her, noticing the navy blue Hilfiger sweatshirt he sent to her. Nevaeh couldn't help the dust of blush that appeared on her cheek.

“Talk about me, what about you? Who knew those Snapchat filters were hiding such a god-like person.”

“Oh, stop, you’re making me blush,” he joked while bashful. No matter online or in person, Nevaeh was still able to get him flushed; it was something he didn’t want to admit, not while he was flying blind with this.

Nevaeh smiled and had a tiny giggle; the full laugh was muffled by the hand she brought up to her mouth in an attempt to hold the sound back. He could watch her smile for a while. Is that weird? “How was your flight? I hope it wasn’t too horrible.”

“It wasn’t too bad,” he admitted. “Definitely long, but nothing a pair of earbuds, music, and a couple of movies couldn’t fix.” The two quickly began walking toward the direction of baggage claim. More of Rudy just following whichever direction Nevaeh was going. She did know the airport better anyway.

“Which movies did you watch?” she asked.

“Since I had six hours to waste - Joker, 1917 and Pride & Prejudice.”

“Oh, I see you listened to my suggestions; not surprised you watched Joker again,” Rudy shrugged his shoulders with a hum. “I’m surprised you didn’t watch the Harry Potter movies.”

Rudy rolled his eyes and scoffed. “Actually, I already watched them a couple of days ago,” Nevaeh hummed as if she were to say, ‘of course’ “You can judge me all you want. I won’t pay you any mind. Just the same as I did with the guy that had the aisle seat in my row. I guess other guys find it weird that a guy decided to watch a period drama on a flight.”

“He was just jealous he didn’t think of it first. Mr. Darcy’s pinning for Miss. Bennett and the film’s  overarching theme is too good not to watch.”

“That it is, who would want to miss the warnings heeded against trusting one’s first impression or prejudices?”

“Or the character arcs that grow throughout the storyline. I pity that aisle sitting man.”

“I do too,” Rudy agreed. “He missed out on a classic and had to get up to let the other person and me out to take a tinkle.” He did it again. He made her laugh genuinely. The conversation between them flowed. The small worry Nevaeh had earlier about the two of them not being able to continue the light-hearted and enjoyable nature they had over text had diminished. He seemed just the same - goofy, charismatic, charming, and caring - as he was over the phone the past month and a half. She, too, was still kind, compassionate, and sarcastic as before. Yet both of them had their own doubts about the thing they were doing; they didn’t know what it was or where it was headed, but they were willing to find out.

           In the car, Nevaeh drove the route she knew from the airport to her shared apartment. Rudy sat in the passenger seat; his gaze focused out the window, watching the San Francisco scenery appear, disappear and morph as they passed by the window. The radio played while they sat in a comfortable silence - it impressed her how easily they fell into it. Wasn't it common for an uncomfortable silence? Two people who just met for the first time should struggle in an attempt to make a conversation, but not them.

To Rudy, the comfortable silence was almost expected. Granted, he did expect one of them to talk the other's ear off - he's glad neither of them was. The six-hour flight took its effect on the man, but he wasn't going to let his fatigue ruin the time they had together. He'll rest later. Spend time with her now, sleep later.

The car rolled to a stop, a red light shined on the traffic light hanging in front of them. Rudy's eyes watch a girl across the street riding down the sidewalk on a skateboard. Her stance relaxed, feet planted in a way that helped her ride easily; she was experienced, probably skated regularly. Watching her skate triggered a longing in Rudy for his board back at home. He rides on concrete and in the snow, but he was missing snowboarding the most. It was beginning to be summer, so the temperatures in Alaska were warmer. To warm for snow but warm enough for the evergreen to take over. Now he was in California, the state that was sunny all the time. The state that thrived in the summer and its soil hardly ever to never had the chilled touch of snow. His longing grew more for the chilly weather and white flakes.

The woman sitting next to him took the next couple of seconds between the light change to look at him. Catching the moment of his gaze out the window of her jeep. "I know you're probably tired from your flight. I had some ideas about the things we could do, but we don't have to do anything today." She spoke and after, glanced at the traffic light only to see it was still red.

Rudy tore his gaze from the distant image of the skater and met Nevaeh's. "I am, but if you want to do something, we can. I'm more than happy to hang out." He said.

Trying to reason, she said, "I know, but you just got off a six-hour flight." 

"Nevaeh, it's fine. I'm not that burned out. Time zones are an hour apart, and seven am isn't that bad." she begins to give him a skeptical look. She heard his words but feels as if he was only saying that to make her happy. He sat by her, leaned back, and relaxed. His head sat lazily against the headrest, and the smile he was giving her was light but tiresome. She switched her gaze from him to the traffic light, which turned green, and she didn't know when. Nevaeh eased her foot off the brake and to the gas pedal. "Seriously, we can do something."

“Fine,” She says after a moment. “I won’t wear you out too much more.” Flicking her left turn signal on after checking her mirror, she merges into the lane beside her. “There’s somewhere I wanna take you - well, maybe two places, but we’re going to the apartment first.”

“Alright, sounds good to me.” Nevaeh drove them to the apartment she shared with her long term friend. Rudy followed behind her as she led the way; they only spent a few minutes there. After a short tour, a bathroom break, and dropping off a couple of suitcases later, Rudy and Nevaeh left the place. They began a walk along the San Francisco hills to the mysterious place Nevaeh had in mind.

“This place is somewhere I walk to every other day. It’s Birdie’s and my favorite place.” It was a short six to eight-minute walk. Nevaeh reassured him before briefly going into a conversation about the impressive things you see in the city. Just like Nevaeh told him, they both come up upon a corner shop with a couple of large windows to see inside and out, a brown exterior with outside tables with green umbrellas and foldable outdoor chairs. The corner shop was known as the Nasik Cafe. For a small cafe, the place was doing well. There were a handful of people inside sitting, chatting, or ordering and quite a few sitting outside.

“This place is pretty health-oriented, and like Starbucks, it has things you could make at home for free, but their stuff is great,” Nevaeh explained to the man.

"So you spend way too much on yogurt cups, fruit drinks, toast, and other food you can make at home?" She nods her head like it was evident at what he said. Rudy shook his head. "Couldn't you just spend ten dollars on a yogurt cup?"

"Oh my goodness, they don't have yogurt cups, Rudy." She shook her head in disbelief.

"Okay, so ten dollars for a banana blended with ice in a cup - still sounds ridiculous to me."

"I can't with you," She tilted her head back, but she wasn't annoyed. She found his witticism amusing. At this rate, Nevaeh should prepare to always smile all the time around him. "You should find a table out here, and I can grab us something - wait, do you want to sit out here?"

Rudy nodded, then began to scan the area but only briefly seeing a couple of empty tables. "Yeah, it's nice out, let's enjoy it. Out here is great."

"Great," she says, pleased. "I'll grab something; I wanna surprise you. I'll be back." Nevaeh turns to walk inside. The smell of strawberries, oranges, and granola invaded her nose. It wasn't a new smell to her, but a new one for the day. She would always smell fruit and granola wherever she would walk into Basik. Some days it smelt like bananas and chocolate, or honey, peanut butter, and coconut. The smells varied, but the most prominent one was the tropical smell. To her left at a table was a couple enjoying smoothies. Both cops were a little under half full. A person sat at another table, invested in their laptop. To her right, more people sat. Art adorns the walls as realism paintings along with abstract images. There was a line at the counter; no more than four people stood waiting. She took the time to look up at the big and wide wood board hanging from the ceiling. When Nevaeh told Rudy she wanted to surprise him with something, she knew what she was getting for the both of them. The colorful and fruitful acai bowls.

Nevaeh and her roommate Birdie loved acai bowls. Birdie was the one to introduce her friend to the fantastic bowls she grew to love. Now it was her turn to turn another friend onto them.

The line moved along smoothly and grew smaller by the minutes. Once Nevaeh got closer, her lips stretched into a grin as her eyes caught sight of the barista.

"Hi, what can I get you? Could I interest you in our new fall to-Vae! Hey." the blonde barista's mood brightened significantly when she realized she was taking Nevaeh's order. She leaned across the counter and grabbed hold of Nevaeh's hand, and laced their fingers together. "What are you doing here? I thought you had to pick up your friend." She said, then making finger quotations. The barista was her roommate, Birdie. Birdie was a full-time college student and full-time barista to get by. She was more than happy to talk to her friend now that she wasn't as busy - Nevaeh was the only person in line for now.

"I was - I did pick up my friend. No air quotes, we're friends."

"For now."

"Whatever," she rolled her eyes at the blonde. "He's here with me, just outside." Birdie looked past Nevaeh and out the window in search of this guy. Nevaeh looked around for him, too; she didn't get to see where he chose to sit. "He's...the one with the red cap, right there." She pointed out once she spotted him. Birdie hummed and squinted her eyes to get a better look, which was difficult with the angle he sat at.

"He looks nice...from here," Birdie leaned back, so her fingers could let go of Nevaeh's and tap the terminal screen as she put her friend's usual order in. While Birdie did that, Nevaeh nodded in agreement but kept her gaze on him. "Lemme guess, the usual?"

"Kilauea; everything but-"

"No pollen and extra honey." Birdie finished with assuredness and not a drop of doubt in her answer. Her friend smiled, her eyes looking to Birdie with amazement.

"You know me too well."

"Well, you order the same thing almost every time."

"Touche," she couldn't argue with that. When it came to her acai bowl, she liked the Kilauea - made with mango juice, granola, berries, papaya, honey, and acai - the best. "And water, of course - make that two." She stepped back to look over the menu. Rudy wasn't familiar with the place, and he didn't know what they served, so Nevaeh wanted to get him something he hopefully liked. She decided to go with something not too fancy - directing her attention back to her barista friend. She went ahead and finished her order. "And...let me get the Islander acai bowl." That one was made with hemp mylk, granola, banana, berries, cocoa shavings, and honey.

Birdie rang up the rest of the order for Nevaeh. After catching a glimpse at the total, Nevaeh reached in the little card pocket of her wallet and grabbed her card. Unbeknownst to her, while she was getting her card, Birdie took her name tag and gave her friend her employee discount - she got it for half the price.

“I know you’re an independent woman and paying for the first date, the least I could do is give you a discount. Just don’t tell Daniel.” She winked, and Nevaeh gave her a thumbs up with one hand, and with the other, she made a zipping and locking motion over her mouth before throwing the key.

Outside, Rudy sat at the table he picked out for the two of them while waiting. While Nevaeh ran inside to get their order, he observed the small San Francisco scenery around him. California weather was sunshine with fluffy clouds. Just about everyone was either in shorts, a tank, and a cut-off shirt or any other summer clothing that provided them some comfort in the blazing sun. He dressed just right for the weather, though in Alaska, it was more on the chill side, causing him to wear a sweatshirt while he left. Now that he was basking in the California weather, he took off the warm sweatshirt and left it at Nevaeh’s apartment.

There were other people outside along with him. A group of girls sat a few feet away at a table in front of him, trying not to giggle as they attempted to make a video. At another table, there were two guys, perhaps brothers. They were eating something colorful from a bowl - it looked like yogurt to Rudy - and having a conversation with one another.

Rudy shook his head at the drastic difference between the two tables. Maybe it was just him, but it was amazing how much the world - more specifically America- was wrapped up in technology and social media. Sure the brothers at the one table had digital watches that told them the time and lit up, catching their attention with a vibrate when a text or notification went to their phone. But at least they could carry on a conversation without having their phone in their hands. On the other hand, those girls haven’t put their phones down longer than a few seconds. After those seconds, they tap away or show the other something they thought was worthy enough to gauge a reaction out of them.

Rudy wasn't one to judge. He didn't have much right to because while watching them and waiting for Nevaeh, he had the urge to pull out his phone. It was almost like a habit, but he chooses not to feed the temptation. He wanted to enjoy the day with Nevaeh; notice the burn on his skin from the sun, get to know her, have fun, pick up on little cues she has, and find out what he likes the most about her. And though it was kind of ironic that the two of them met through social media, he hopes Nevaeh is not one of those social zombies. Then this trip would be a waste of time and effort.

Ruby pulled his sunglasses down due to the sun starting to bother his eyes. Then he also wanted to cover his eyes and focus on something else while he waited. A minute later, Nevaeh walked out of the cafe's door backward with her back pushing the door open. In her hands, she had what she ordered; he wondered what she got. Rudy briskly stood up out of his seat to help her out.

"Hey, let me help you out," he walks around the table towards her, but she only nods him off.

"I got it, you sit."

"You have all the food and drinks in your hands; it's the least I can do." he stood off to the side, not interfering but reading despite what she said. He watches her struggle a bit and almost drops the stuff. Rudy immediately reached out, but Nevaeh had already saved herself and looked at him with a smile.

"I got it, Rudy. I was just pulling your leg." He picked up on the playfulness in her eyes, which made him pull his lips into a smile matching hers; her smile is definitely contagious.

“Alright, alright,” he raised his hands, backing away and then taking his seat. Nevaeh took her seat across from him, sat everything down before passing him the items she got him. “What’d you get us?”

“Well, I don’t know if you have had this before, but it’s my go-to thing to get here. It’s an acai bowl,” Nevaeh’s eyes caught his confused expression before he tried to cover it up with an understanding.  She laughed softly and explained further. “It’s like a smoothie bowl with other things in it.”

“Smoothie bowl…” he murmured more to himself, but she still heard it.

Shaking her head, she continued. “Acai palm is the main ingredient along with bananas and granola, but you can add other fruits or peanut butter and syrups. Or take things off.”

“Like maple syrup?” he asked, looking at the acai bowl she got him.

Her face begins to twist in disgust until she covers it with a shrug and looks down at her bowl, ready to dig in. “Uh, I guess if that’s what you want, then yeah.” She answered, and Rudy nodded his head and grabbed his spoon to take a taste. Before Nevaeh tasted her own, she watched Rudy, waiting for his reaction. He took a bite, letting the flavor invade his taste buds.

“Wow, this is good,” He says after swallowing. He glanced up, catching Nevaeh already looking at him. She quickly looked away and stirred her bowl.

“I’m glad you like it; it’s my second favorite one,” she peeked back up, and Rudy was still looking at her. Laughing softly to herself, then shaking her head, she takes a bite of her own, almost moaning at the taste. “I’m surprised you haven’t had one before.”

“ I have wanted to try one, but never really went with actually going out to get one.”

“Well, maybe now you will get them more often,” She says but stops herself before taking another bite. “Wait...you aren’t allergic to any fruit, are you? Or granola?”

He lifted a brow while getting another scoop. “Oh, only bananas,” He replies. Nevaeh watches him as he lifts the spoon to his mouth and takes another bite that includes bananas before she could reach across the table and stop him in time. “What?” he looked at her. Her eyes were wide with shock and fear, her mouth opening to say something but closed when nothing came out. “Is there something wrong?”

Nodding her head slowly, she sat down her spoon and reached for her phone in her pocket just in case. "You ate a banana, and you just told me you were allergic to them." Nevaeh wanted to yell at him for being so careless, but that would mean she was too for not asking before ordering something random for him. She pretended to remain calm but was internally panicking.

"I actually eat them all the time," he held back the smile easing its way into his features. "I eat them quite often. They're a great source of potassium and vitamin C."

"So you aren't allergic to bananas?" she noted, and Rudy shook his head. His mouth broke out into the smile he managed to hold back for a few seconds. Nevaeh relaxed a bit, her shoulders dropping as she was no longer tense. "You're an asshole, you know that, right?" Rudy gasped softly, a hand placed on his chest as he looked at her, offended at her comment.

"What, me, an asshole? That can't be right, I'm really nice," he said and made Nevaeh huffed. "What do you not believe me?"

The woman shrugged, the smile still on her face when she looked down at her food. "Well, you did play a mean joke just now; I thought I almost killed you." She reminded him and picked at her bowl.

"I wanted to see how caring you were, and you passed the test. Now you love me, don't you?"

"You wish," she said, taking a bite then pointing at him with her spoon. "We're going on a road trip together, let's see if I survive that, then I'll let you know if I like you enough to be your friend or jump out of a moving car because you're an annoying little shit."

Rudy raised his eyebrows, smirking at her now. "Me being an annoying little...alright. Let's make a deal," he starts; Nevaeh gestures for him to continue. "If you survive this road trip, meaning - if you have a great time - I get to take you to my home town in Alaska. Ah, ah. I'm not finished." he held his finger up to stop her from making a comment. She rolled her eyes and sat back in her chair, attempting to hide a simple, but you could see the amusement on her face. "If you don't have a great time, I'll do whatever you want."

"So, If I understand right, If you win, you get to take me to Alaska - assuming I haven't been there already,"

“Wait, you’ve been to Alaska?” Nevaeh held her finger up, echoing his movements moments before.

“If you win, you take me to Alaska, and if I win, you do whatever I want, correct?”

“Yeah, as long as it’s not too inappropriate or impossible,” He says, already finished with his acai bowl, which Nevaeh didn’t remember seeing him eat the rest. It didn’t matter when he ate it, she didn’t care, but that was quick. Looking down at her own, she wasn’t more than halfway done. “So, so we have a deal?”

Nevaeh looked up from her food, meeting his ocean-like eyes. The pair were becoming more familiar over the past few weeks from countless photos and videos the two have shared over Snapchat. Messages over text and facetime calls. They got to know each other digitally, and now they have to learn more in person. 

“We have a deal.” She says, and Rudy sticks his hand out, which she gladly took. They shook hands. While doing so, Rudy thought of a million possibilities to get the woman across from him to a great time and not just so he could take her to Alaska, his home. He found her intriguing, and he wants to take the time to get to know her better and maybe have a solid standing friendship at the end of it all. If the cosmos had a say, perhaps something more would blossom.

➣ End Note:

So, I honestly don’t know how the next few or future chapters will go but hopefully they turn out well. Here are the Revaeh interactions we all needed and plenty more to come so just you wait. ;)

AGAIN IF YOU WANT ME TO CONTINUE THE SERIES I WILL, JUST LET ME KNOW.

Wonder Taglist:

@Scooby6, @ifilwtmfc​, @rudypankowswife​, @themaddies-obx​

[If your username is bold and slashed out it means i can’t tag you. If you want to be added to the taglist add yourself here! If you no longer want to be on it let me know. :) ]

[bethhxrmon]

do flowers exist at night? -chapter five

Chapter Five: Steve Harrington and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Night

Pairing: Steve Harrington x OC

Chapter Summary: Once everyone is at the Byers’ household, many issues start to make sense. With everyone working together, the Upside Down may finally be defeated.

Word Count: 3.9k

Warnings: Swearing, inaccurate dialogue, Billy is the actual worst if you like him then you’re probably not gonna vibe with this chapter, violence

A/N: The only real joke in this chapter is the title. Enough said. Anywho, I hope you’re enjoying the fic and if you are, it would be awesome of you to let me know by leaving feedback for me! You can find the other chapters here.

~*~*~*~

Perhaps the only thing worse than the monsters was realizing that Steve didn't have a chance with Nancy. Obviously, Annie wasn't going to say that out loud. Not when she could tell from Steve's pacing that he already knew. It took a lot to not say anything to Nancy, but there were more important things than this and if she was going to say anything, Annie was sure it could wait.

What they were going to do about all of this was beyond her. She had a million questions, but she didn't ask a single one. Every time she almost did, she was reminded of how her dad was when he got stressed, which was almost all the time. At the time, it seemed like anything she did would annoy him. There was always something on her mind and there was a time when she would have said every single thing that popped in her head. Except, one day the man got so annoyed that he snapped and told her to shut up.

As that circled her mind, she sat off to the side in the kitchen of the Byers' house, trying to process everything on her own. She had been so close to dying. All of them had. What would have happened if she had? Would anyone aside from her mom care? There were so many things she wanted to do, but she hadn't. It could have been too late and there was nothing she could have done.

A hand on her shoulder made her jump, but she relaxed upon realizing it was just Steve, "Sorry... um, how're you holding up?"

"I'm fine," she said, tugging her flannel around herself, "Are you okay?"

He arched an eyebrow, "Also fine."

"Steve-"

"Don't... you don't have to tell me."

"I wasn't gonna say anything about that," she said, though she stopped when she heard Mike starting to talk about Bob Newby.

While she never got a chance to meet the guy, the idea of anyone being eaten alive by those monsters was horrific. It was something straight out of the horror novels she read to pass the time. Something only highlighted when Dustin started to compare all of this to Dungeons and Dragons. The demodogs, as he called them, were all supposed to be part of some sort of hive mind. A Mind Flayer was supposedly the one in control. Annie knew nothing about the game, but she supposed there could be points made.

Those points finally drew the conclusion that they needed to trap Will somewhere he didn't recognize. That way he wouldn't be able to spy and figure out where they were. The shed ended up being the perfect place.

Annie was focused on helping Max tape up pieces of cardboard together. That was easy and menial enough. Besides, she felt like she had to make herself scarce so Steve could talk to Nancy. Well, it was more like she didn't want Nancy thinking any of those dumb rumors were true. It was obviously over between them. Why Nancy didn't say anything about that to Steve was beyond her. There wasn't time to think about that. They needed to get the shed ready before Will woke up.

Soon enough, it was back to just a waiting game. One that made Annie want to crawl out of her skin. It reminded her of when she was waiting to find out which of her parents got full custody not even a month ago. A decision that she didn’t think would ever make her happy regardless of who ended up with her.

She sat on the couch, staring off into space as Steve swung his bat around.

"Your swing is fine, you know. It's checking your blind spots that you'd wanna look out for," she said.

He looked over, "What?"

"Like earlier... you weren't checking your surroundings."

"Why do I need to do that when I've got you saving my ass?"

She smiled a bit despite herself, "Because maybe I'll slip up."

"Hey," he sat next to her, "Don't think like that. We're gonna be fine."

Annie gave him a look, "I'm not one of the kids, Steve, I know this might not end well."

"Well with that thinking it won't," he commented.

She shook her head, "Sorry, um I just didn't expect to almost die like this. I mean, I always expected some weird shit to happen in Seattle or New York. Inter-dimensional monsters in a small town wasn't what I expected to be the wake-up call."

"For what?"

"That death's inevitable and I've spent the last few months just being miserable and alone," she let out a small laugh, "It just- it seriously sucks like you wouldn't believe."

The lights started to flicker like crazy. Annie was quick to grab her pitchfork from the corner of the room. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. For a moment she was so sure that the room was going to turn into the Upside Down. She all but shrank into herself until the lights went normal again. Everyone was fine. Will didn't know where they were.

A few minutes later and they figured out Will was still communicating through Morse Code. Annie watched as the message was written out in front of them.

"Close gate," they all said together, trying to figure out what it could mean.

Suddenly, the phone started ringing and it wouldn't stop until Nancy pulled it out and threw it to the ground. A sense of dread overcame the room.

"Do you think he heard that?" Max asked.

Steve shook his head, "Phone ringing... that could be anywhere."

However, the screeching in the distance was enough to show that Will somehow knew exactly where they were. The demodogs were going to come back and there was no choice but to fight them. Sure, this time there were more people who could fight than Steve and herself, but there was an army of those monsters and they all knew it.

This was futile, but Annie wasn't about to say that and neither was anyone else. Instead they all stood, and she clutched her pitchfork tighter than ever before. The screaming came from all over and Annie kept an eye on the windows she could see.

A demodog burst in through the window, causing all of them to scream. Only, it was dead. Something had to have killed it, which only caused more questions to circle through Annie's head. She was ready to fight whatever came through that front door as it unlocked and opened. Only, she found herself putting down her weapon when she realized it was just a girl. Someone who couldn't have been any older than the kids she was helping to take care of.

Some things started to piece together in Annie's head as Mike rushed up to the girl, he called her Eleven. It seemed that the girl Steve talked about the night before wasn't dead after all. Though, from how Mike was going up to Hopper, she was pretty there was more to what was going on.

For the pair having moved to another room, she could hear Mike yelling pretty well. She stared at the floor, trying to not think about all the times she could hear her parents fight in that small, New York apartment. Instead, she just watched as the other kids reunited with Eleven.

"So, how'd you find out about all this?" Nancy asked, ripping her from her thoughts, "I mean, Steve obviously told you, yeah?"

Annie nodded slowly, "Yep..."

"That's funny, because when I wanted to tell Barb's parents about all this, he wasn't on board," she said, looking her over.

She shrugged, "Well, was their house flip-flopping dimensions as well, or were you just trying to satiate your own guilt?"

"Wait, what're you talking about?"

"I found out about this shit because I ended up telling Steve about how I was seeing things in my house. He got me out, and we were looking for you, actually. He wanted to apologize to you," she sighed, giving a tight-lipped smile, "And it turns out, he wasn't the one who needed to apologize. I'm new, but I'm not blind."

Nancy's eyes widened a bit before she walked outside. Perhaps it was a little bit much for Annie to say, but she wasn't about to play into whatever Nancy was trying to do. How was she supposed to feel sympathy for someone who so clearly hurt her only friend in this town?

Not that any of it mattered because everyone was talking about splitting up. Joyce and Jonathan were going to take Will to get rid of the part of him that was the Mind Flayer. Meanwhile, Hopper and Eleven were going to go back to the lab and close the gate. That left what was supposed to be her, Steve, and Nancy taking care of the kids. Something that was sure to go very well. Still, Annie wasn't about to go with either of the other two groups. She had no interest in putting herself back in danger and having yet another near-death experience. The ones she had already were more than enough.

Annie stayed in the house, knowing that all she and the kids could do was try to clean up the house. There was a broken window, and it did leave the house feeling cold. Before they did that, though, she went out with the kids to watch as they said goodbye to Eleven.

Steve cleared his throat, "So, uh, it's just gonna be us babysitting."

"Oh? What happened?"

"I let her go. She's helping Jonathan and Mrs. Byers," he sighed, "It was never gonna work. You knew that, though. Sorry I dragged you into all this over her."

Annie turned and looked up at him, "Hey, if it wasn't for you, I could be stuck in that Upside Down crap right now and things would be a lot worse. And, for what it's worth, you've been a good friend too."

"Thanks."

Just like that, it was the two of them with the kids. What they were going to do in the meantime was beyond her. Probably just more sitting around and being prepared for the worst. The kids had their walkies, so if anything happened, she was sure they would find out.

Dustin was wrapping the dead demodog in a quilt, "Hey, can I get a little help here?"

"Um, what're you doing?" Annie asked.

He huffed, "We gotta preserve this. One of you needs to hold this so I can get it into the fridge so we can keep the body from decomposing.

Annie looked at Steve, "You know, if you take this, you get to be the best babysitter. I'll just be mediocre at my job."

"Seriously?" Steve sighed, though it didn't take long for him to relent and just pick up the dead demodog.

While they worried about taking care of that, Annie decided to help Max and Lucas clean up the broken glass. A simple task to keep her from thinking about what was going on. Mike kept pacing until Lucas said something. Sure, she could understand where the kid was coming from, but it was so much safer for all of them this way. None of them had powers, Eleven clearly did. 

Steve walked up to them, "Look, the coach makes a play and bottom line, you've gotta do it."

"This isn't a stupid sports game!" Mike snapped, "Anyways, we're not in the game, we're on the bench."

He nodded, "Yeah... right. Right, and the point is, yep, we're on the bench and there's nothing we can do."

"I could offer a cool theater analogy," Annie said, getting ignored.

"Wait, but the demodogs are a hive mind, they were called away earlier," Dustin pointed out.

That was when the kids started to get an idea that quickly spiraled. Annie looked at Steve like they were crazy. Because they were. If they all died, then what?

She shook her head, "Wait, um, you guys?"

"We could go in here and burn it-"

"Yeah, that's a no," Steve said, holding the dish towel "We promised to keep you shitheads safe so we're gonna stay here on the bench and wait for the starting team to do their job, understand?"

Mike scoffed, "This isn't a stupid sports game!"

"I said, does everybody understand that?!" he gestured with the towel, “I need a yes.”

A car engine was heard in the distance and Max ran to see what was going on. All Annie needed to hear was that it was her brother before realizing that perhaps this wasn't the safest option after all. There was a certain look of concern on her face, and Steve looked at her.

"Hey, I'm gonna take care of this, okay? You just need to stay here and make sure the kids don't do anything stupid. And I mean it this time, I don't trust him seeing you involved with all this," Steve insisted.

Annie opened her mouth to argue, but could only bring herself to nod. If she couldn't even defend herself to that guy a day ago, what good would she be now? And maybe Steve really would fix all this. There was a lot he had done already. They were going to be fine. Nothing was going to happen to the kids, especially Max.

So she watched the best she could through the front door window. That meant she wasn't paying attention to the kids like she should have been. It looked like it was getting intense between the two guys. She reached into her pocket for her switchblade. While she was sure Steve could handle this, she wanted to be ready just in case. Then, Billy pointed at the window and she deflated.

She glared at the kids, "What part about keeping your heads down did you dumbasses not get?!"

There wasn't more time for her to yell because she watched Steve get shoved to the ground and kicked. Her eyes widened and she held tightly to the closed knife in her hand. The door swung open and she moved to get in front of him. She couldn't let the kids get hurt.

"Ah, Harrington's bitch," he shoved her into an end table, "And Lucas Sinclair."

It took a lot to not cry out in pain, but she didn't want the kids to worry about her. She could still move, but hitting the corner of the table made her back ache. And for a moment, all she could do was watch as Billy went right for Lucas. Right as she moved to get up, Steve rushed in and was quick to help her up.

A part of Annie wanted to just go up to Billy and punch him until he was a pulp, but she knew she couldn't do that. Steve would have a chance, though. She let him confront Billy and she stood in front of the kids, fumbling to get her knife open. Though, with Steve getting in a few good hits, Annie felt like he could do it. Until she saw Billy pick up the plate.

"Steve, the plate!" she screamed but it was too late and Billy bashed the plate over his head, causing him to stumble back.

It only got worse from there and all Annie could do was watch in horror as Steve fell to the ground, obviously passed out. Billy started to throw more punches. She had no choice, she had to do something. Steve was dead otherwise. If she could take on those demodogs, surely she could take on some asshole who was beating up her best friend.

In a quick move, she ran up behind Billy and pressed the switchblade to Billy's neck, "Get the fuck off of him!"

He got off of Steve but only to thrash against her to fight for the knife. It was happening in such a blur and she wasn't strong enough to get the upper hand again. She first felt something cut into her cheek and then her back was against the floor. All she could do was scream and try to sink into the floor further.

"You know, I've been waiting for something like this for a few days now," Billy murmured, tossing the knife aside.

Annie kept her eyes shut, unable to say anything as she felt his mouth on her neck. If she could just make herself smaller or do something. There was something hard against her thigh and she tried to slide out, but there wasn't any give. She couldn't do anything. For all she knew, Steve was dead and she wasn't any better off. A stench of cigarette smoke and musk was all she could smell and it made her feel like gagging.

Then, Billy made a confused noise and there was suddenly less pressure on top of her. She opened one eye, realizing no one was on top of her. Max was screaming something, but it wasn't registering. All she could hear was a ringing of sorts. What did register was that Steve was only a few feet away and she crawled over to him.

His face was covered in blood and was already swelling. Still caught up in everything, she tried shaking him.

"Steve? Steve, come on, I need you to wake up for me," she whispered, looking for any signs that he was going to wake up, "Please, I can't do this shit alone, I really need you right now."

Dustin slowly approached her, sitting on the other side of Steve, "Annie, he's just passed out. He's still breathing, see?"

Sure enough, she could see his chest rising and falling, "Right... yeah... you're right, sorry."

"It's okay, we just need you to drive us where we tell you to," he said.

Annie's eyes widened, "We're not going anywhere!"

"Do you really wanna stay here where Billy is? Come on, if you stay calm about this, we can bring Steve along," Dustin replied.

That was all the convincing Annie needed in that moment. Getting the kids and Steve as far away from Billy as possible was the goal. Dustin put a few band-aids onto Steve to try and make her feel better. He offered her one for the cut on her cheek, but she didn't take it. Instead, she took the car keys to Billy's Camaro.

No, she had never driven before in her life, but how hard could it be? She watched Steve do enough of it. Surely she could figure this out on the fly. When she turned the key, the engine roared to life. She just needed to go from park to drive. Except the car was moving without her pushing anything.

"What the fuck, why's this thing moving?!" she exclaimed.

Max looked at her, "Have you ever driven before?"

"No."

"Get the brake, put it back in park. I'll do it," Max insisted.

It didn't take more than that for Annie to be in the backseat so she could be right there with Steve. He had been hit so hard and a part of her worried he wasn't going to wake up. How was she supposed to do all this without him? They were supposed to be co-babysitters. She didn't have a clue about taking care of these kids. Hell, she was letting one of them drive. That wasn’t a hallmark of good babysitting.

She held an ice pack to Steve's head and she felt him stir.

"Nancy?" he murmured, looking at Mike.

Annie breathed a sigh of relief, letting Dustin explain everything. All that mattered was that Steve was awake, probably not completely okay, but he was awake nonetheless. 

Then he looked up at her, "Wait. If you're not driving then..."

Steve was soon screaming for Max to stop driving. It didn't help the situation and soon enough they were all screaming and yelling at each other. Though, they somehow made it to the spot in question just fine.

She took the time to help Steve get out of the car, "So uh, I know we said we wouldn't let them go here, but maybe it's better here? Like it's away from... it might not be a bad idea, yeah?"

"You're bleeding," he said before noticing what the kids were doing, "No! We're absolutely not doing this!"

Dustin walked up to them, "Steve, I know you're upset but a party member requires assistance. Now, you told Nance you'd keep us safe, so just do that."

The kid handed Steve his bat and Annie her pitchfork. They were really going to do this. A knot of nausea was in her stomach.

A pair of goggles, some gloves, and a bandanna later; Annie was at the back of the group, making sure none of the kids fell behind while Steve took the front. It was simple. Set the place on fire and get out fast. She could do this. If Steve could handle this, so could she.

They were walking through the tunnels, and Annie was already familiar with the vines and whatever it was floating in the air. Dustin stood back and as she tried to get him to move forward, something sprayed at him. As horrific as it was to watch, the kid was back up and with the group.

Another few minutes and they found the hub that they all needed to drench in gasoline.  That was also the easy part. She still kept an eye out, though. Those demodogs could be anywhere for all she knew.

She was crouched alongside all of them as Steve threw his lighter to the ground. For a moment, she just stared as it was all enveloped in bright flames. It took Dustin tugging her to realize they needed to go and she trailed behind. Meaning she was right there when Mike fell down.

"It's okay, you're fine, kid," she said, using the pitchfork to cut the vines.

That didn't stop a demodog from running up and growling as the group came back for them. She stood in front of all them, but Dustin moved in front. They all cried out in protest until Steve got them to quiet down. Her gloved hand reached for Steve's for just a moment before she focused on holding her pitchfork.

Thankfully, somehow a candy bar was all they needed  to get through. That didn't stop the other demodogs from knowing where to find them. It was a race to get the kids up one by one. The last one up was Dustin who only made it up because she and Steve forced him up. At least the kids made it out.

Deep down, Annie knew that getting out of this was impossible. She was sure Steve knew that too, but they had gone through too much to not fight this last time. Her grip was tight on her pitchfork and her eyes glanced up to him.

"Thanks, for everything," she said as the monsters ran.

What she hadn't prepared for was the stampede to ignore her and Steve. He had to hold onto her so she didn't get thrown into them. The monsters passed and she blinked as hard as she could so she wouldn't cry.

Steve made her go up first and he came out soon after. The car lights started to flash brighter than she thought possible and then they went dark again. Right after that, the hole in the ground closed. All she could do was stand, watching as it all came to an end.

Tag List (let me know if you want to be added!): @dungeons-and-demodogs​ @jxnehxpper​ @ilovebucketbarnes​

[humangerbil]

I somehow completely missed all the news about Ready Player Two, the sequel to Ready Player One. I can give you a long rant about how the first book was extremely enjoyable but rather meh. Something doesn’t have to be good to be enjoyed.

Anywho, so I grabbed the second one because I hope it will be similarly enjoyable.

Spoilers below this point but I am not yet done with the first chapter so like super minor spoilers but I feel the need to share this with someone even if that someone is the void of the internet.

Turns out the big important  dead dude who made the contest from the first book also made a device called the NerveGear, sorry I mean, O.N.I. The SAO vibes are strong. Though it isn’t like SAO was completely original about that either but he might end up brain damaged or dead? Hmmmm??? People cannot forcibly remove the device without hurting the wearer?? 

Okay the whole bit “Ready Player Two” reveal on login with the not-a-nervegear is giving me super Akihiko vibes. Is this going to have the same plot twist? Is supposed to be dead-dude going to turn out to be within the Oasis as a digital lifeform? I swear....

[singeramg]

Finding Forever: Chapter 3

Here we are folks! I told you I would get this one up today! Don't be disappointed but no smut yet. I thought this chapter would lend to it but nope! Plot was not on that. Anywho I hope you will enjoy.

Warnings: Cursing, angst and sexual assault ( while brief can be triggering for some)

Character: Henry Cavill x Black!OFC

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

 Aura: Hey I forgot about this research I need to do for my next role. I had to head to the local library and I don’t know how long it will take. Sorry to cancel chicka.

 I shot off the text message from the back of the cab I had hopped in to get away from the hotel as quickly as possible. I had the cabby take me to an across town museum I could hide in for awhile. I just needed time alone to process my emotions.

 Mia: Alright just call me when you are done getting dicked down.

 Aura: I AM NOT GETTING DICKED DOWN!

 Aura: I really forgot about this. My manager will kill me if I don’t nail this callback.

 Aura: I’ll text you once I’m done.

 Mia: Okay. Talk to you later.

 I huffed in relief, the last thing I wanted was was Mia to think I was ditching her to mess around with Henry. That would ruin any chance they had of working out and I was also relieved because I had a chance to breathe. I wasn’t mad at her, hell I wasn’t mad at anyone, but I couldn’t face harsh reality of having to smile in her face and pretend I was excited for what her and Henry could be, not when just hours ago I was the wondering what he and I could be. 

 *The Next Day*

 “Damn it Carson I wouldn’t ask you if it wasn’t important. Please?”

 “Why should I even help you? You’ve treated me like a disease since I started.” 

 (Carson asks Anya with an angry look to which she responds with one of her own.) 

 “It’s the both of our jobs if you don’t.”

( Her hands move to her hips.)

 “This was your assignment.”

 “OUR assignment. If we lose this account it’s our ass. All y..

 “CUT”

 Marshall yelled out and I looked at him in surprise. I was filming with Henry today and doing my damnedest to stay professional. I was just keeping to myself with everyone I spoke with. Honestly I just wanted a large tub of cookie dough ice cream and to be left alone. Henry had tried to engage me in conversation but I mostly shut it down, not wanting to be used to learn more about my best friend. If he wanted to get close to her he didn’t need to use me to do it. I just wanted to film and get this over with, to start however I needed to figure out why Marshall stopped my line.

He came over to us with a smile.

 “I’m sorry Marshall, did I deliver my line wrong?”

 “No it’s just....something is missing. Wrong...ummm off?”

 “I’m sorry I don’t understand?” I questioned.

 “It just seems like you two aren’t clicking today?  Are you trying something new?”

 “No.” 

 I answered. 

 “Let’s try it again?”

 I offered and Marshall smiled at us then turned to walk back to his chair. Meanwhile I turned back to Henry, who had a concerned look on his face.

“Aura darling you seem like something is wrong. I haven’t gotten one of your beautiful smiles today. Anything I can do to help?”

 He asked with a wide smile that usually got me smiling back but that shit wasn’t working on me. I couldn’t let him know my disappointment so I smiled quickly and waited for Marshall and Anne to cue up with cameraman.

“That wasn’t the smile I wanted.” He said sadly.

 “Well this is what you got. Look I’m just not with all of this today. How you can help is to just do as you’ve been. Punch out those lines in spectacular Henry Cavill fashion.”

 I said not intending to come across as a bitch but as his face fell some I could tell it did. I instantly regretted it.

“Oh Henry, I didn’t mean to...”

 “Okay Aura and Henry we are ready!”

 I didn’t get a chance to finish my apologies as we both had to shift into character.

 I was in my trailer sipping from a cold coke a cola enjoying a few moments not on my feet. Mia was in there with me, having been entrusted to touch up my look with my makeup and re-steaming down my outfit before we moved on to get another shot. 

 “So are you going to tell me what is wrong with you or no? Do I need to slap a hoe?”

 I giggled but I knew my smile didn't reach my eyes. 

 “No Mi I’m good…

 “The lies.” She said pointing the steamer in my direction. I dropped my head to the back of the couch.

 “I swear I’m just tired. You see I’m drinking a coke and everything. “

 She pursed her lips as she worked on the blazer I had just taken off. I could tell that she was about to say something else when I was saved by a knock on my trailer door. Eager to drop this conversation I practically ran to the door, only to open it and barely stop myself from cursing at who stood on the other side. Henry was back in a zip up hoodie, which did not match with the suit pants he was still wearing.

 “Hey Aura, I was hoping to catch you in here. Can I come in for a moment?”

 I moved out of the way, waiting until he was inside to close the door, roll my eyes while still facing the door and then forcing a smile as I turned around. 

 “Oh hey Henry! What brings you over here?”

 Mia said with a smile and wave, as nonchalant as ever. As she went back to work.

“I actually came over because I noticed our Aura here was not her usual chipper self today and I wanted to check in with her.”

 I fought down the urge to roll my eyes again I couldn’t pull it off with so many eyes on me.

“What a coincidence, I was just having that same conversation with her. So now that I’ve got back up are you ready to talk?”

 I could feel my face get hot again, I couldn’t blush a small mercy but the anger was still fresh and hot in my veins, was at a tipping point. Years of acting had taught me to hide my emotions and bury them behind a wall. I smirked as I finish my drink. The room was silent was waiting for me to talk.

  “I am fine I swear...”

   “You know Henry I think she needs a hug! My hands are full at the moment but yours are free.”

            “Oh no I....”

Mia and Henry looked at each other and then back at me. Henry began to advance on me, and I backed up shaking my head.

 “I’ve been told I give pretty good hugs.”

 His arms outstretched and I backed up and he smirked his teeth making him look even more menacing than normal. 

“I think I’ll pass...”

 “Nope let him use his muscles for good instead of exploding ovaries across the globe.” 

Mia said and I knew she was trying to push us to interact, but little did she know it was for nothing. I decided to go with this just to get it over with. I wanted him gone and for my head to stop being foggy with him around.

 “Fine. If I hug Henry will you both believe I am okay?”

 “Maybe.” 

Mia waved me into his direction where he still stood arms open.

I stepped across the small space, not wanting to enjoy the hug, and honestly I felt sick to my stomach. I felt like a pawn being used to further his aims and it literally was making me sick so I pushed him off in a non assuming way and said

 “Well thank you Henry for that. Mia why don’t you get one too! I promise they are life changers.”

 Mia looked at me like a grew another head and Henry looked at Mia for a moment before opening his arms and folding her in. I could tell Mia thought it was awkward but didn’t say anything.

 “Great now that the love-fest has ended can we get back to set?” I said feeling moderately successful in pushing them towards what they wanted and getting off my back.

 “I had a dual purpose for stopping by. Seeing as we break a little earlier today a few of us are all headed out tonight. We could use a few beautiful ladies such as yourself to join in. Interested?”

He raised his eyebrows in question and before I could say no, Mia said yes, I shook my head in the negative.

 “Oh no I told you guys I am tired. I think I’m going to pass but Mia you should go.”

 I could tell she was getting pissed that I was not taking the opportunity to spend time with Henry but I was pulling back and I would explain it later once Henry had the chance to let her know how he felt. It was Mia’s turn to roll her eyes.

 “What time are we meeting up?”

She asked him.

 “Assuming filming wraps up for the night soon, they say about 10ish.”

 “Alright. Well WE will meet you guys. Thanks for the invite.”

 “Great! Glad you guys are in. I’ve got to go pull myself back to rights for our next scene. See you ladies soon.”

As soon as the door closed, I turned to Mia with a glare.

 “Mia. I just said I didn’t want to go. Why you tell that man we would go?!”

 “Because that man wants you to go. Did you see the way he face fell when you said you weren’t?!”

 “I think it was more of General disappointment.  As I said I’m tired.”

 “Well suck it the fuck up buttercup cuz we going.”

I sighed with resignation.

 “1 hour. Y’all getting one hour out of me and I’m going back to the hotel.”

 She yipped in excitement before holding my costume blazer back up for me to put on...

 *Later*

I had tried repeatedly to get out of coming to this club tonight. Mia would hear none of it, and all but held me at knife point and forced me into a deep red halter-top and tight fitting mini-skirt that was one wrong move away from a full blown wardrobe malfunction. She had dressed in a black fitted mini-dress and her ever infamous converse shoes that had seen us through many and plenty club nights as they added a casual feel to an otherwise club vibe. She paired with black lipstick and dark makeup that made her large brown eyes pop in contrast to the stark white ends of her dreads. 

Once inside the club, which was busy considering it was a Friday night. The music playing was some variety of Drake and pop catchy music, which normally wasn’t our taste but we would make due. 

I looked around for a familiar face and at the sound of my name being shouted over the music I looked to the balcony where I saw a familiar group of crew standing. I let Mia guide  me into the commandeered V.I.P sections of the club, all  bouncing with faces I had been running around the set with for the better part of three weeks.

Of course Mia was the type for fast friends so she practically knew everyone there in our section. I followed her lead as we floated from person to person, finally finding a seat in an open booth. I checked the time on my phone. 

 “Oh good only half an hour left.”

 “You cannot be serious! You really want to leave in 30 minutes? Henry isn’t even here yet.”

 I let all the emotion fade from my face and said

“And? Mia I told you I was only staying for an hour...”

 Commotion sounded as someone new arrived and judging by the name and excitement I gathered it was Henry. I finished my sentence with Mia just as he came over to our table. He looked just as good as ever in a navy button down and fitted jeans that his thighs were threatening to escape from. 

 “I meant it Mia. So thirty minutes or more like 25 now.”

 “Sorry I’m late. Had a quick conference call with my agent that took a little longer than planned.”

 Mia scooted over, which meant I had to move over since I was on the end for him to sit. Mia only moved over so much and with Henry’s large size taking up the real estate on the seat  it made our legs touch. He didn’t seem bothered and actually ended up leaning back, tossing his arm around the back of my area where my body would be if I were sitting all the way back on the seat instead of the edge. I inhaled discreetly, hating how good he smelled, or should I say I hated how much it appealed to me. I was more than frustrated with myself because none of the feelings I had before, had gone away. They hadn’t lessened, and if I could talk to Mia about this she would tell me I was being to hard on myself about attempting to get over something in only 24 hours. Before I could say anything in response to Henry, a waitress came over in a tight dress, yet sensible shoes combo, batting her eyes in Henry’s direction, asking him what he wanted to drink. He ordered, and turned his attention back to Mia and I, clearly disappointing the bottle girl. 

 “So having fun yet?”

 “I’m trying to get her to loosen up but she is determined to kill the vibe.”

Mia said with a smirk and took a sip of Bombay based drink.

“I’m having fun honest, but I told y’all earlier I’m tired.”

“That’s because you acting like you don’t know how to turn up. Come on!!”

Next thing I know she is pulling me by my arm and onto the dance floor.

“Excuse us Henry!”

 I yelled behind me only having time to say that before we were headed down the stairs to the dance floor. Some random song came on but recognizable to us and we began dancing together is jumping around, acting silly along with the crowd of people. The song changed and had Mia dancing wildly in the middle of the floor, me following suit, shaking everything that we had to shake. Simply having fun and leaving it out on the floor. I saw Mia began to dance with a random guy and I started doing much of the same, some okay looking guy that really wasn’t my type but was nearby and available ended up being my partner. The song changed to something faster and the random blonde haired man moved into my space even more. The more I pulled back the closer he got, trying not to rude and hoping he would get the hint if I turned away and danced with the air, paying him no mind. This only prompted the guy to grind on my ass and  and stick his hand down the front of my shirt. 

That was enough and turned around and pushed the guy off and away.

“What the fuck?! I don’t even know you! Keep your hands off!”

 “Oh so what you can fucking tease me all night and I can’t cop a feel?”

 “Fuck you! You self righteous prick!”

 I turned to leave but he grabbed the top of my arm, yanking me close, and it was then that I realized this guy was a lot drunker than I realized when I began dancing with him. I wouldn’t ever have started. I looked around but Mia who usually was right next to me had disappeared, I tried yanking back but he wasn’t letting go. 

“Let me go!”

 “Come on, let me get one more dance!”

 I was about to rear back and punch him but then my free arm was yanked and ended up being pulled backward out of the assholes grasp. I looked up realizing I was now behind Henry’s back, the look on his face was of pure aggression and thankfully not directed at me. 

“I believe the lady told you to let her go.”

He took one look at Henry’s massive frame, and for a moment his eyes showed fear, but it passed quickly. 

“That stuck up black bitch ain’t worth all this shit.”

 The next thing I saw was Henry lunge and grabbed the guy by the collar of his red polo shirt. 

“You keep her name out your goddamn mouth. You don’t even speak on her! I will fucking bash your face in the next time you even think about sexually assaulting any woman!  Fucking prick.”

 “Henry please let him go! He’s not worth it!”

 I put my hands around one of his arms the best I could trying to pull him off before he risked his career beating up some drunkard in a club. 

Henry seemed to listen, letting go of the man with a shove to which the crowd laughed and the man’s friends picked him up front he floor in which he landed. Dragging the now red faced man toward the exit as he threatened to come back and kick Henry’s ass despite Henry having a few inches on him and considerably more mass. Mia had come over, finally getting wind of the situation.

“What in the hell? Aura? Henry? What happened why does Henry looking like he’s ready to kill?”

 “It’s fine. I...”

 “Oh bloody hell! Would you stop saying everything is fine or okay all of the time? Everything is not always ‘fine’!”

 He said turning to me, now seemingly angry with me. I took a step back, rubbing my sore arm from where that jackass from earlier grabbed me. I was now embarrassed as I could feel eyes piercing me from every direction. I did what I always did and instead of handling it like a rational adult, I lashed back.

 “You are right! Being sexually assaulted in a club by a dick is not FINE! I knew this shit was a fucking bad idea! I should have stayed back at the hotel like I wanted! This is some bullshit. I’m out!”

 I pushed out of the crowd, glad of my lack of purse I was able to head toward the exit!

 “Wait Aura! You don’t have to leave!”

 Mia said running behind me, tears pricking on the corners of my eyes. I stopped walking, ending up standing in the hallway near the bathrooms.

 “Mia I honestly just want to go home. Please just let me go.”

 I said feeling tears fall down my face. Mia looked at me, understanding on her face. She reached up wiping the few stay tears. 

“Okay. I left my jacket upstairs. I’m going to go grab it and we can go.”

 “Don’t let me ruin your night. I can head back by myself.”

 “Like hell. It’s cool I feel like I’m down for going home. Besides  Dude from earlier could still be out there. I’ll be right back, stay here.”

 She walked away with a small smile in my direction. I leaned against the wall, hoping I could blend into it. I called for an Uber on my phone and I had been standing for five minutes waiting when I saw Mia come back around the corner but she wasn’t alone this time. I could not fight the urge to roll my eyes this time. I honestly didn’t want to see him right now.

 “Why is he here? Come to tell me I’m falling apart? Come to tell me how I am supposed to feel again Henry?”

 He looked mollified for a second then his eyes became sincere but by then the sight of seeing Mia and his standing side-by side just unlocked all of the disappointment I bottled up in the last 24 hours.

 “I didn’t mean to yell...”

 I tossed up a hand indicating I didn’t want to hear anything. He stopped talking.

“I don’t need anything from you. Apologies, protection, nothing! The last thing I need is apologies from you. In fact I just want to be left alone!”

 “But Aura,  I just wanted to help.” He started up again.

 “Henry leave it. In fact Mia and Henry y’all should stay here and have a good time. I’m just a third wheel anyway.”

 My phone dinged signaling the arrival of my Uber. 

“Come on Aura lets go...” 

Mia said, but in anger I tossed my hands up in front of me on an effort to keep her back. I shook my head ‘no’. I pushed backwards against the air and said 

 “Naw, you see I’m straight I don’t need anyone right now. You should stay here with Henry. That’s what he wants anyway.”

 I narrowed my eyes at them and with that I turned and walked away, leaving out the front door of the nightclub, also leaving behind two confused faces...

A/n: with five minutes to spear! Hope y'all enjoyed! 

[glmfic]

hi!!! I love your fic (ghost hunters, lies & money) so so much!! oh and for the ask game, 🧑💎💡📒🎤 please. have a lovely day/night!

An ask? Aww, thank yoooou!!! :D

favorite character to write

Ooooh, good question! I love writing each member of our SPR team for different reasons, buuut... if I *had* to pick...I think I have the most fun writing Bou-san? He's just so spontaneous! His antics and wise cracks are just such a joy to incorporate into a scene. I feel like he springs to life in my head, and I'm just along for the ride. But then there's a side of him that's so passionate, and caring, and gentle...in case you can't tell, his dynamic with Mai is one of my very favorites to write <3 Ah, I have so much love for our Monk :)

fave trope to write

Ho ho ho, I'm a trope queen. You'll probably see them weaved all through my writing I hope you like tropes loool :D Picking one to rise above them all? Partners (work/school) to lovers. That “mutual pining” vibe is my thiiing. You know, they see each other everyday in a very ordinary way (or in some cases in very intense situations, like say...life or death ghost hunting? ^_^) and slowly grow accustom to each other, learn their likes/dislikes, their quirks...accepting them (you know you gotta work to make the partnership work right?), until they don't just accept them...they loooove them <3 They live in this “some” state: something is going on, but it's so quiet or fragile they don't name it. They just keep letting grow, and things like no-personal-space and “casual” touching start to happen. Oh wow. I could go on and on. But yes, partners to lovers. That's my ultimate trope I think! I mean: Mairu anyone? ;)

what inspires your fic ideas?

Oh gosh, I don't think I've ever been asked this? Good one! Let me think...well, inspiration alone can be very hard to come by. I have to say the reason my GLM chapters get put out is 90% because my readers inspire me to keep going, and when I'm in that “inspired” state...the ideas just seem to start flowing? It's so very hard-- for me at least-- to write without some sort of inspiration, either from my readers, or from the content it's self. That kind of leads me to the more conventional answer to this question: usually my ideas are inspired from the content I'm writing for. I love writing missing scenes or alternate scenes from canon-- especially in giving them a shippy angle/twist :) I love re-imagining whole storylines, or endings. I am a fix-it-fic kind of girl. Like make it as bad you want: I will make it better. With content I love, I always feel like the characters are living their lives behind the scenes...like there's always so much else to explore? Like canon is just a spring board-- and I'm ready to dive in deeper! That's why the style of GLM is like it is: it's a new “episode” to enjoy, a new case! I actually have many plot bunnies kicking around that are similar to GLM, more Ghost Hunt case fics-- I just love playing with “what if”...what if things had continued-- what would that look like for SPR? And of course, you can count on *my* what ifs always including shippy prospects :D Finally, inspiration for certain scenes, tropes, quotes, storylines, characters, ect... often those come from my consumption of all the swoony media I can get my hands on. Kdramas. Rom-com movies. Jane Austen. I'm a hopeless romantic.

any fics planned?

The short answer: yes! :D As I hinted above, I do have some plot bunnies that have been “haunting” (hahaha) me. They're Ghost Hunt plot bunnies, mostly case-fic that would be multi-chapter projects. But some shippy one-shots have also been winking at me, teasing me to write them (Mairu, Bou-san x Ayako, John x Masako *gasps*, Lin x Madoka). I have a document that I use to collect all my ideas, so that I can go back to them. For now, I'm trying to stay loyal to GLM. I write so slow, I'm afraid if I took some of that time to churn out one-shots...I may never get a new chapter out XD But anywho, yes I definitely have other fics planned. I hope once GLM is finished, you might continue with me on new writing adventures with our SPR team <3

fave line in a fic you wrote?

I'm blushing. I don't think I could pick a line? But I do have favorite scenes! Mainly Mairu ones, but some of those Mai and Bou-san ones...oh my gosh, I even crack myself up XD I'll round up some of my top faves for you:

Mai and Naru at the end of chapter 23. All that Mairu goodness after the “blood rain”, standing at the sink together...face-to-face arguing out of worry...oh,yeah. [chef's kiss]

Mai and Bou-san in chapter 11 & 12. Chicken and apples, need I say more? looool

Mai and Naru at the end of chapter 19 after Wise Obasan has locked them in Miss Miyuki's cellar...and Naru carries Mai out of the house (in front of the whole world!!), all the way to the Inn, and tops it off with admitting he gave Mai his moon lily. Dang. [fans self]

Naru's return in chapter 27. After such a long wait, he shows up at the end of chapter all disheveled and hot and like steals Mai's tea (indirect kiss!!) and then he and Mai have it out in the hall (just kiss already) and finally it looks like he's going to kiss her but oops he's actually fainting...

Ayako & Bou-san taking care of Mai while she was sick in chapter 20, oh gosh it always warms my heart I just love their family dynamic <333

Okay: throwing in a John!Masako moment here, but it really is one of my favorites. It's subtle, because of course, but also in chapter 23, the moment where John so gallantly throws himself over Masako during the “blood rain”, protecting her. Awwww!

More recently, the scene at the end of chapter 30 where Naru walks in on Mai's “séance” with Madame Miyuki. The intensity!! The english!! Oh maaan.

And finally, naturally-- the scene in chapter 31 where Naru nearly makes Mai flip out when he offers to “take it off” but haha it's just the tag on her dress, but then it's sad hours and Mai is crying, but don't worry because Naru wipes them away?! Ahhh the tenderness!!

Goodness wow I went overboard, but really just thank you for this ask! Your love and support means so much to me!! Really!!

[drarrygirl27]

Where the heck is drarrygirl27 especially on AO3? (The question some are asking while most are most likely asking, Who the heck is that?! LOL!)

All valid questions, Tumblrians and AOEans. Yeah I know that was terrible. Moving on! **Note to self, don't come up with names like this. You are terrible at it. Holy Shit, Jones!**

Ok, I'm done being weird, maybe possibly. I am still a bit active on Tumblr. As for AO3, I am still on break from reviewing. I will get back to it, I just don't know exactly when. I am still reading and enjoying y'all's work, I promise. I can't stay completely away from the fanfics and ficlets because they're awesome and help keep me sane in these trying times. Anyway, the reason why I am taking a break from reviewing is because truth be told, I overwhelmed myself with multiple things. What else is new honestly? Anywho, my extremely exhausted body and mind finally caught up with me just this past Thursday night. After getting back to the house from work around 12:30 am, (Tenants have gotten even more ridiculously inconsiderate and lazy since shelter-in-place in my state was reestablished.) I literally curled myself up like a cat and was knocked out in my boyfriend's lap in minutes. I didn't even realize this until hours later when he was finding himself dozing off as well. LOL! According to him, I was out cold and snoring for hours while he was watching YouTube until he was finally getting tired himself. Needless to say after he woke me up from my knock-out nap, we both went to bed and slept for a good while. Lord! We both needed that. We also took a long ass, but needed nap after we got back to the house from some errands we had to run yesterday a.k.a. Friday too.

I'm not going to go into too much detail, but the reason why I was as exhausted as I was is because I have been working on a creative project for basically this whole month. It is the one of a few that I have worked on and completed. I'm still working on my other projects. That is where a whole lot of my creative mind has been going lately and is continuing to. You'll see what it is probably later on today sometime. I did something similar around Thanksgiving holiday last year and I have found a reason to do it again a little more than a month later than when I wanted it posted, but things happened to delay it so it is what it is. Some of you saw that vid project of mine and some of you have not. It is extremely deep into my posts like practically ocean deep. LOL! You would have to scroll down very, very, very far down to get to it now. Finding that thing again because the notes on there warm my heart so much still to this day was like fishing or something. Any la who, I decided to do it again because I'm crazy. You'll see what I mean later.

I am not saying all of this to say I'm sorry for not reviewing or the like, I swear. I remember what a good bit of you have told me, writers and or readers alike. I am only letting you guys know that I am still alive and enjoying the stories even though there isn't a comment on some chapters. I'm just not going to be as active as I normally am on AO3 for a good little while because I am working on some creative projects of my own and that is all I am going to say for now. I got to keep some things a surprise of some sort, right?

Any la who who (I guess I am making my own language now.), I just wanted to let you guys know that because I consider y'all my Peeps and I respect my Peeps. I hope you guys have a good day or night depending upon when you read this. Here are some good vibes for you and yours: 😃💖✊️✌️ Rock on! 🎸

P.S.-- Wish me luck and pray that the God, gods, goddesses, or what have you continue to inspire me and such because I am going to need it majorly.

P.S. 2-- Each and every single one of you have helped inspire me enough to start creating things again. Thank you! 😃💖

Sincerely, Kendra E. Jones, the crazy person who is trying to create things