#but i like to think a really cushy pillow top one could save me

[dollsome-does-tumblr]

does anyone have any recommendations for a particular pillow top mattress pad? my bed is not soft enough and it's breaking my bird bones!!! (er, or something less dramatic than that, but i still wake up uncomfortable every day and it's annoying!)

[binniesthighs]

he lives in my lap | reader x changbin

➛ Pairing: self insert, gender neutral reader x seo changbin 

➛ Recommended listening: she lives in my lap, outkast

➛ Genre: pwp (smut), fluffy tones, 18+ 

➛ Word count: 3.9k 

✨ Summary/Request Here ✨

Anon: sub!changbin nipple play drabble👁👁

i’m such a sucker for sub bin smh

a/n: thank you for requesting sweet anon! any day, any time i will write sub!changbin! this was such a pleasure to write n’ i hope that ya like it! <3

{see below for nsfw tags!} 

NSFW: dom!reader, sub!changbin, tsundere!bin, slightlybratty!bin, established relationship, use of petnames, body worship (calm tf down ro, we know you love binnies’ bod), *plz pretend to be surprised here too* thigh kink, power dynamics, LOADS of nipple play (m receiving), praising & mild degradation, handjob, lil pet of petplay (bunny), v soft aftercare 

♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥

you caught him sulking, bundled up in his chair with his legs crossed and his eyes dried. its the times like this when you don’t need him to tell you what’s going through his mind. he huffs and spins around just to get a moment to break his stare at the screen. he rubs at his temples where his headache surges, but he’ll never stop to ask for help or to express how tired he really is. 

“what are you working on?” you simply ask as you cross the way behind him and squeeze his shoulders. 

he sighs, and answers, “work.” 

it’s barely an answer, but knowing him, prodding wouldn’t do much else. 

“its getting late,” you pause, contemplating to next part of your phrase, “could you come to bed? i’d....love to have you with me...if you can.” 

his fingers stop their typing, and he pulls off a single padded headphone to listen to you. 

“you know that i’ve got a deadline. can’t.” 

“wouldn’t you like to--” 

“--can’t you just live one night without it?” he barks, swiveling in his seat to face you. 

his eyes, the whites of them pink and his under-eyes bagged, tell you that you can’t take exactly what he means to heart, but still, it doesn’t hurt much less. 

“bin--i just want you to take care of yourself and not overwork. you know that you need your rest to make everything work out right. right?” 

your boyfriend sighs and composes himself, then puts his headphones back on. 

“deadlines are deadlines.” changbin simply replies. “in a couple days it’ll be over.” 

the sound of his clicking at his mouse fills the room back up, and this close you can hear the faint buzz of his music on the other side of his headphones. its as if he wants to create some kind of shell between you and him; he pulls his hood up and balls himself up in his big black hoodie. 

with him, your patience overcomes anything. 

“bin--” you reach for his arm to rub in calming little circles with your thumb, “you’re worrying me.” 

the exhaustion in his voice causes it to crack, “i’m fine.” 

it doesn’t take him much to go up in arms when you pull off his headphones to hold his puffy face in your hands. earnestly you hold his eyes with yours. 

“you’ve worked so much already today. please, come to bed, i know you won’t admit it to yourself, but it’ll be okay if you sleep for just a little while....or, relax at least...” 

changbin huffs out again in his same little annoyed nature. you knew the ins and outs of him well: your words might have gone in one ear and left out the other, but they still would jumble him up on their way out.

“i said that i’m fine,” your boyfriend repeats, “you’re worrying over nothing.” 

it isn’t easy to admit defeat in the moment, but that’s all it is: a moment. he allows you the pause to plant a tiny kiss on his forehead before focusing back on his work. the truth is, you really did want him to join. the bed was always warmer with two anyway. these days, it was even a little hard to fall asleep with him. 

“well,” you throw your hands on your hips, “i’ll just be back here...if you need anything. i can warm up your side for you, kay?” 

for a moment, his fingers stop their clicking, wavering. “okay.” 

he likes it when you wear his shirts and other little things like that. he even thinks that its cute when you steal his socks and they bunch up a little. after living together your clothes have started to all smell the same, but knowing that it’s his has always been enough for you. 

at first, you promise yourself that you’ll stay up as long as he does, but not even you can stay up that late. he turns the lights off for you, leaving only his desk lamp and the blue screen of his desktop. silently you promise him that you’ll stay up as long as you can manage...

“--oh. sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up...” 

your blurry eyesight makes out the time that’s ticked past two hours since you last remember checking. 

“its okay,” your sleepy self returns. you’ve fallen asleep on his side of the bed which you promised to warm up, but he won’t ask you to give it up when you’re half awake. 

“i’ve decided to sleep in late tomorrow.” he hums while reaching for his phone light to turn it off. “you’re right.” 

“i know that i’m right.” 

even in the dark you can feel his little joking smirk. the mattress makes springy sounds under the weight of your two bodies, and somehow your hands find their way into the kangaroo pocket of his hoodie. there’s nothing like feeling his presence beside you--its a kind of irreplaceable reassurance that you’ve only ever felt in him. 

he’s close enough to feel his tiny breaths in the space between you, and how it tickles your upper lip. sleepy kisses float from your lips to his which he happy returns by pressing into you closer and melding your body with his. you make a point to kiss him slowly and with every ounce of intent that you are able to pour from yourself to him. 

your love unties himself for you just as he does whenever he feels your thumb trace under his jaw slowly or as you hold his face in your hands, tilting him to deepen your exploration of his mouth. you can feel him get looser and looser after being so tightly bound. your hands work at his knots with swift fingers that interweave with his hair, then find their way to traipse up the hem of his clothes. 

he mutters a little sound that could be translated into many pleasurable things, but you don’t need to think too hard to interpret it. 

“binnie...” you coo, gently rolling him to his back to lean over him with your upper body, “you’re doing so well. i can tell how hard that you’re working...there’s no need to hide.” 

he nods, allowing you to paint his cheeks with more little kisses that fall down to his neck, then travel back up to his ear where you nibble softly. in your own mind, its your favorite place to show him your love: he shivers feeling your breath quiver in his ear, then exhales out after feeling the small pull at his skin. 

higher under his shirt your hands tip-toe, then trance the curves of his sides and finally reach the spot where he is most sensitive...your boyfriend gifts you the gorgeous sound of his uncontrollable little whimpers once he feels the pads of your fingers graze over one of his hardened nipples. 

“oh?” you taunt, “already so sensitive?” 

changbin attempts a scoff that comes out airy on his lips, “i mean, yeah...when you do that.” 

your index circles his bud, causing and even more delightful symphony of shaking breaths to exit. 

“...but its so late...” you remind him. its halfway between a genuine reminder and somewhat of a challenge. there’s nothing more that you would want, but the clock tells you otherwise. 

your room is nearly devoid of light save for the way that the crescent moon peeks through the slits of the shades. the silver light illuminates his face in stripes, one of them directly over his eyes which makes them sparkle with the same iridescent shine of stars. 

“do you think that i care?” changbin shies a bit into the puffy pillow that cradles his head. 

from your position above him you can see the way that he pleads wordlessly, and how he just knows that he’s irresistible to you. his gaze softens to shift in that cute little pout. he too knows how to untie you, how to make you fall into him so deeply that you can’t see anything but him. he knows exactly what to say, how to wet his his cushy lip so it glistens just a little when he parts his mouth for you to crave even more than you already do. 

“do you want me to say please?” he adds. 

fuck, he really does know you well. 

your knuckles rub along the fuzzy underside of his sweater, scribbling more circles around his nipples that hardens them painfully even though you’re barely touching him. 

“that is my favorite word,” 

his tone is airy, barely audible when he asks as politely as he can, “please, can you use me how you want?” 

you tut, bowing low over his lips to only let them hover over his own. your lie of a kiss just barely makes contact with him. he whines from the promise of your taste, even wiggling his hips in his agony knowing that he won’t get what he wants quickly. 

“hm, i didn’t really hear you that time...” slowly your hands begin to pull the fabric of is shirt over his head. “say it again for me?” 

“please...?” your boyfriend desperately repeats. 

“and you’ll be a good boy for me? you’ll do what i say?” 

“yes...yes. everything that you say.” 

his hoodie ruffles up his cute dark locks that sprawl all over his face and even cover his eyes. for a moment you think of how his hair had gotten longer than you had noticed. you sweep it aside, holding his eyes while your hand swipes up and down his chest just between his pectorals. 

“and you’ll tell me when you want me to stop?” 

finally you grant him the kiss he’s been waiting for which he drinks up greedily, moaning carefully over your lips. 

“mmhm.” 

you nearly startle him after forgetting to move slowly, finding your own eagerness taking hold of you. changbin’s eyes gleam seeing you on top of him and both of your legs straddling his sides. you slither farther down his body to align yourself correctly, then pause finding your place. 

after, he then startles you by letting out a sudden cry in response to his beloved sensation. both of your hands are busied pinching and tweaking directly at his pink nipples that turn redder from your touch. you toy with the hardened buds while his eyelids flutter--he can’t figure out if he wants to close his eyes to feel it all, or watch you. he decides upon the latter and tries his best focus on your hands spread on his chest. 

its a wondrous indulgence of yours as you watch the way that his muscles fill up your hands and even how his skin pops between your fingers when you squeeze. “my bun,” you sigh in admiration, “i just can’t handle you...” 

your head spins when he echoes, “neither can i...”

it seems fair for you to take off your top too, so you do. your hands survey farther up his chest, then course down his arms which you tuck to rest on each side of his head. 

“you know how it goes.”

he doesn’t even need the reminder. 

“fuck, you’re gonna take all the time you want now, aren’t you?” 

your boyfriend regains a bit of his composure to snark with that little unfair smirk of his. 

“would you rather me not do this for you at all...bun?” 

he rolls his eyes, impatient and annoyed for barely a second. he’s quieted the moment that he feels your lips float over his skin. you can feel the way that his breaths are thrown out from his lungs once you press even harder. his hips squirm and he turns into a puddle of half-choked winces that turn high pitched and needy the closer that you get to the sensitive areas of his chest. your tongue twists around it, only teasing at first and never allowing him to feel the full heat of your mouth. your left hand swipes up his side and settles right over his other bud which you toy with between your index and middle finger. you pull, then delight in the way that you can even feel his moans start deep from his core then come ripping out carelessly. 

at last you grant him the wet of your mouth when you tense your lips to pull too. you know that he likes it when you use your teeth too, but you never start with the most exciting part. 

his arms twitch like they usually do where they lay on both sides of his head. your boyfriend interlocks his fingers behind his head to pull and hold them there until his knuckles turn white. he would touch you, but you don’t like getting that distracted. you don’t need it anyway to heighten the way that unraveling him already pools heat between your legs and sends you grinding over his midsection. 

you use a combination of gentle kisses contrasted with the pull of your fingers and eventually the bite of your teeth to get him properly gasping out as if he cannot breathe. your name finds its way twisted into some of his moans too; it sounds so perfect, so right said that way: airy, wavering, shaking after he bites it into his lip too. 

you stop to admire him, now using your thumbs to tease at the way his reddened nipples now look painfully aroused and even glimmer with the sheen of your saliva upon them. changbin is flushed out all across his cheeks and even over his nose bridge. the rouge spreads down to his neck where the veins there quiver with each of his senseless gasps for air. he jerks from the careful feeling of the pad of your thumb compared to how viciously you had tugged at him before. you grind down your hips into his hard-on between your legs and into your own heat which craves him just as much. 

“good?” 

he nods, and chuckles out after reveling under your view. 

you free his hands from their place behind his head, then you immediately find yourself wrapped up so tightly in his arms that you let out a tiny squeak. his thick arms that stretch with the strings of muscles always remind you that the power you have over him, he holds over you just the same. he brings your lips back to his to kiss thanks into your mouth that’s become raw from your musings. 

“i’m not done yet.” you sneer directly into him. 

“i had a feeling.” 

your love knows how to sit and look pretty for you. how to keep his hands to himself and wait just enough for you to make a proper mess of him. even though you don’t see it, he’s infatuated watching you twist over him to the bed table and pick up the cup of water that holds partially melted ice. the sound of the cubes chime against the glass and burns your hand with the cold once you choose the largest of the lot. 

changbin looks at you fearful at first still consumed by your heat which lingers all over his body. you test out the sensation by spreading out your opposite hand first which is wet from the condensation from the glass. 

“ah!” he winces out. 

“too cold?” 

“n-no...” somethings shift in the way that he holds your gaze and the ice quickly melting in your hand. “i-i want it...” 

“you sure?” 

“please don’t make me wait again...” 

the cold from the cube starts to make your fingertips turn numb, but its of no conscious to you when he holds every bit of your attention while you wait for his visceral response. 

he yelps, nearly almost screaming from the mixture of cold and hot that swirls around his body. he grinds his teeth into a groan next to steady himself feeling the tenderness of his nipples next to the freezing cold. you can’t help but stifle a greedy laugh at how downright confused he seems at the two sensations of arousal and biting pain that made him feel even more lightheaded. 

you love the sight of the whites of his eyes when he reaches a kind of euphoria that only you can give him. 

“oooooh god.” he laughs along with you at how preposterously unreal it feels. the little smile that anchors on his mouth is unbelievably cute, and you can’t help but want to feel it on your own. 

you trace circles around and around his buds until they harden just as they had done under your tongue. he shivers too; either from the cold, or from the overload of his senses--it travels from the tip of his head, through his hips and down to his toes. 

“aw, my bun likes this...doesn’t he?” 

“mmm.” 

the ice only lasts a few moments on his chest and between your fingers. after, his chest is left shimmering from the new substance that looks like liquid crystal all over him and where it drips down to the comforter in droplets. 

you shift your attention lower down his stomach where you stop right above his bellybutton to let both of your hands hook under his sweats. you look up for approval, which he eagerly gives with the hastily phrase repeated, “do it, do it.” 

his clothes it the floor in a puddle, and your boyfriend is left bare for you to take in. you indulge in every single part of him that you’ve explored time and time again, but each time it feels renewed. your hands eat up his thighs with covetous squeezes until the crescent-moon shape of your nails decorates him nearly everywhere. they slide up higher, finding the place where his curved and rosy cock bobs waiting for your touch. 

“poor bunny....does it ache when i don’t touch your cute little cock?” you trace a finger up his shaft which causes his body to violently jerk in response. the truth of the matter is, he’s anything but little. 

even when your words turn venomous back on him, he still drinks it up as if it is nectar. 

a wicked chuckle passes by your lips remembering what he had said to you a couple hours before. “can’t you just live one night without it?” 

“n-no--” he stammers, “i-i’m sorry that i said--” 

you silence him with a finger to his lips. “sit up.” 

he does so, trying to gauge what you’re planning to do next. the mystery of it all enthralls him to the point of working his cock up with pearly pre-cum that drips down his length. changbin waits as you reposition yourself behind him, just so he sits flush against your torso and between your legs. 

at first, you trial you hands up and down his thighs to create a show for him. your fingertips tickle him gently where his leg hair grows thin and soft. you then move to massage into his inner thighs and the more intimate erogenous areas there that you claw at. 

“hm. maybe i’ll let you get what you want if you say--” 

your boyfriend’s hands bury themselves into the sheets to grab at anything to provide balance. “--please! please...i’ll say it however many times it takes...” 

you tsk, then nibble into the peachy cartilage of his earlobe. “mm, that’s enough. i’m feeling generous...” 

you wet a stripe of your saliva up your palm and guide it to his length where you give him one good squeeze that is more than enough to send his toes curling. he whimpers out feeling the lack of contact afterward, realizing that one squeeze was all that you were planning. instead, shift your motions toward his tip and his seeping slit. the tip of your index draws rings around it which elicits agonizingly gruff growls from his throat that you’ve only ever heard a couple times before. 

“please, please, please....” he chants. 

you do love the way it sounds. 

his moans become even louder once he feels the tension from your grasp where it returns to his shaft and pumps. in a way, the whole image is just perfect for the both of you: as you peer over his shoulder you can’t even but help feel turned on by the sight of your own hand and how it twists around the throbbing veins that imprint his cock. with your non-dominant hand you continue traversing the squishy and fleshy bits of his thigh. 

your boyfriend laughs out his growing self-indulgence while you work your hand up and down, then experiment with testing him with the ways that you can squeeze harder then softer. changbin throws his head back into your shoulder lazily once he starts to feel his senses slow and intensify the closer that he gets to his release. he shudders against you too, and tightens his body too as he edges himself even closer.

after the distraction that you’ve crafted tugging him up and down and how the twist of your wrist feels like heaven, he jumps still feeling your free hand find its way back up his chest one last time roll his nipple between your fingers. the combination of the two sends him spilling right over the edge and overflowing with a rambling of curses and half-attempted moans coupled with the release of his seed cascading down the back of your hand. 

nearly all of your boyfriend’s weight falls upon you and you giggle trying to deal with your previously cold and stubborn lover reduced to nearly nothing but a limp and euphoric mess in your arms. 

“you okay?” you ask him, peppering tiny kisses into his neck. 

“give me...a minute.” he laughs out too. “i’m just...really...exhausted. but--in a really, really good way.” 

“time to get some rest then?” 

changbin nods, and gives you back as many kisses he can with his neck titled at this somewhat awkward angle. 

“stay right here, hm?” 

you cradle him back to slide out from behind him and work at cleaning yourself off, and them him--he loves obliging if it means that he gets to be pampered with clean clothes and your little massage to his shoulders to get his tensed body relax even more. the blankets get exchanged for new ones and you find him telling you not to put your shirt back on. 

changbin flushes, explaining, “i just like being close like this with you. everyday. any day. i can’t live without it either.” 

you can’t exactly tell who is “holding” who, but it all just feels so peaceful and intimate you almost forgot that you were supposed to be sleeping until the day breaks behind your boyfriend’s shoulder. 

“thank you,” changbin sighs, “thank you for taking care of me.” 

“now start taking care of yourself.” you tease, “don’t overwork yourself, got it?” 

your boyfriend sleepily hums, and tows you right back into his chest. “don’t worry, i have a feeling that i’ll be sleeping in pretty late.” 

~🌹~ 

Bunch of (Ro)ses! 

@minaamhh @dazzlehoseok @synnocence @jjewibeans @hyunsluvv @unexceptional-h @bobawithchaitea @lechanters @sailorhyunjinz @silencefavarchive @lunarskzzz  @yourdaddychan @bubblelixie @spnobsessedmemes @cherrychngkyn @iwanttobangchan @bowlofblueberries @lmhmins @eunaeiekim 

[maybeimamuppet]

day 1: cuddles

oooh first chapter yaaaay!

a note: sometimes their ages just. aren't important to the plot. this is one of them! so. i imagined cady as ~21 and janis as ~22, but y'all can do whatever you want :)

enjoy!

—————-

Janis wakes to a weight on her back and fingers drumming on her cheeks.

"Caddy. It's seven in the morning. Sleep."

"But it's Christmas!" Cady chirps.

"It's December first!"

"I just wanna cuddle," Cady pouts. "Where's your Christmas spirit?"

"About two weeks away," Janis grumbles into her pillow. "C'mere." Cady huffs crankily as Janis shifts, tipping her onto the bed next to her and pulling her into a cuddle. "There. Cuddle and sleep."

"Noooo," Cady whines, but Janis is already latched onto her like an octopus and snoring into her ear. "Fine. You're lucky you're cute when you sleep."

She kisses Janis' nose gently and giggles as it wrinkles before nuzzling into her girlfriend and drifting off to sleep again.

—-

When Janis wakes the second time, Cady is nowhere to be found. "Caddy? Where'd you go?"

"Good morning sleepyhead," Cady chuckles, coming back into the room and handing over a mug of coffee made just the way Janis likes it.

"Thank you," Janis says, voice still rough with sleep as she rubs her eyes and takes it. "You look cute."

"Thanks!" Cady says, putting her hands on her hips with an adorable smile. She really does look cute, decked in her adorable snowman onesie. "It's so soft, feel it."

She holds out a sleeve for Janis to feel, but Janis sneakily puts her cup down and hauls her back on top of her. Cady shrieks in surprise, but quickly cuddles in.

"Let's just stay like this," Janis mumbles into her neck.

"That sounds nice," Cady agrees. "But I have a better idea."

"No, come back," Janis whines when Cady removes herself and reaches for her.

"Just trust me, we can cuddle all day after," Cady coaxes. Janis grumbles crankily as she throws the covers off and goes to her girlfriend. "Get all the pillows and blankets you can carry and meet me in the living room."

"Wh-" Janis tries to ask, getting cut off by a kiss as Cady dashes away.

-

"Oh my god, Janis," Cady laughs when Janis comes staggering out of the bedroom wrapped in their entire bedspread, tipping from side to side under the weight of it. Cady heads over and tugs the sheet away so she can see her face. "Hi."

"Hi," Janis grunts, stumbling her way to the couch and dropping everything.

"I didn't mean all at once, lovey," Cady chuckles.

"You said all I could carry," Janis retaliates.

"I guess I did. Either way it saves time. Come on," Cady says, grabbing about half and opening the door to the balcony.

"Outside? It's cold," Janis says in confusion. Cady plops her pile of blankets on the balcony and comes back to grab more.

"I'll keep you warm," she purrs, opening the door again.

Janis follows in confusion. "What are you scheming?"

"Just trust me," Cady says, beginning to make one of her little nests. Janis hands over more supplies until it's cushy enough for Cady's standards. "There! Now get your cute butt over here and let me love you."

"You think my butt is cute?"

"I think all of you is cute," Cady replies, holding Janis tight against her and wrapping them both in their thickest, warmest blanket. "My little Jellybean."

Janis gives a flustered squeak and hides her face in Cady's chest. Cady laughs and kisses her forehead, bringing a hand up to fiddle with Janis' hair.

"That's nice," Janis mumbles, muffled by Cady's warm skin.

"Don't go to sleep again, we just woke up," Cady murmurs back. Janis groans into her chest.

"Sleepy."

"You're always sleepy," Cady giggles. "I know how to wake you up."

"Oh?" Janis asks interestedly. Maybe it's something nice. Like a morning make out session, those are always fun. Cady holds her hand up and wiggles her fingers ominously. "No."

"I think so," Cady says. Her hand inches towards Janis' neck. Janis squeals and hunches up her shoulders. "I haven't even touched you yet!"

"You're going to," Janis defends. "I'm preparing myself."

"And you think you're not cute," Cady chuckles as she finally makes contact and wriggles her hand all over Janis' ribs. Janis shrieks and tries to wiggle away, but Cady won't let her go. "You have the best laugh."

"Mercy!" Janis begs, laughing hysterically and trying to grab Cady's hand so she'll stop. "I can't breathe!"

"Okay, okay," Cady giggles. "Can't have you dying on me."

"Like this?" Janis says, rolling over to pin Cady beneath her and going limp.

"Yeah," Cady giggles, wrapping herself around Janis and smiling as Janis kisses the side of her neck. "But with significantly more emotional distress on my part."

"Hmm," Janis hums. "I'll try really hard not to."

"Good," Cady says. "I love you."

Janis props herself up on her elbows and bends down to kiss her. Cady reciprocates eagerly, still clinging to Janis like a little sloth and refusing to let her pull away. She gently runs her tongue along the seam of Janis' lips, and angles her head to deepen the kiss when Janis allows her entry.

They lie there like that for a long time, as the wind blows around them and little snowflakes drift down from the sky. They just hold each other, warmed by their love and able to ignore the cold, tasting the spirit of Christmas on each other's lips.

"I love you too," Janis murmurs when they finally break apart. "I love you so much."

"Kiss me again," Cady says. Janis smirks slightly and cups her neck.

"Happily."

—————-

hope you enjoyed!!

see you tomorrow :D

[iflostreturntosteverogers]

I Promise

Characters: Reader, Dean, Sam, John, Azazel, Bobby (Mentioned), Callum (OMC Mentioned), Grace (OFC Mentioned)

Warnings: Weechesters, John’s an ass, Fluff, Angst, Character Death

A/N: Sam is about 3-4 years old and Dean around 7-8 years old in this. This is the longest fic I’ve ever written with 2,454 words. 

Header by: @sorenmarie87​

Beta’d by: @cloverhighfive and @mariekoukie6661

      No one raised your blood pressure like John Winchester. He was always such an arrogant prick when he dropped his boys off at your house. You kept Dean and Sam as a favor to Bobby, so he could keep John from doing something stupid and because you loved them. They needed some normalcy and love in their chaotic lives.

You had been mentally preparing yourself to deal with him after Bobby had called to tell you the boys were coming your way and just be ready because John was already in a mood. “A mood,” You snorted. “When isn’t he in a mood?” You made one last pass through the house, double-checking you had removed anything the boys could get in. You’d have to go to the store for food, but you didn’t mind taking them with you. They were good kids. 

John’s Impala rumbled down your street, making you groan. Here we go. You give him a moment to park before you open the door in and lean on the frame. “Hi, boys!” You smile and wave at Sam and Dean, climbing out of the car. Sam grins, and all but tackles your legs. “Hi, Ms. Y/N.” Dean smiles as he walks up with his bag over his shoulder. He grabs Sam’s hand and goes inside. You watch them race up the stairs to your bedroom. Probably to jump on your bed. You think to yourself. The trunk of the impala slams, startling you. 

“Princess.” John nods at you, a smirk on his lips. 

“Winchester.” 

“What? I don’t get a smile and peppy hello like my boys do?” He tosses Sam’s bag at you, chuckling as you almost miss it. 

“I like your children, you not so much,” you quip, pulling the strap over your shoulder. 

“I’m hurt, princess,” he says, placing his hand over his heart. “And here I thought you loved me. You’re always so warm and friendly.” You roll your eyes and flip him off. 

“Not your princess, Winchester.” 

“You sure do act like one.” John crosses his arms and leans against the impala, a smug look on his face.

“Excuse me?! What is that supposed to mean?” 

“It means you sit here in your cushy little house, living off your dead husband’s money and letting Bobby do all the dirty work in finding who killed him and your kid.” You push off the doorframe and stomp down the porch stairs to be face to face with the man. Without thinking, you slap him as hard as you can, the sound echoing. 

“First off, get your fucking facts straight! I never asked Bobby to do that. Second, I work my ass off to pay for my shit. I don’t need to forge credit cards or have aliases. Third, don’t you ever mention Callum and Grace. Ever. At least I learned to cope and live a normal life instead of dragging two young boys into the hunting business on a revenge mission. Get the hell off my property.” You don’t look at him as you turn and walk back into your house. Closing the door, you sink to the floor.

      “Having fun?” You grin as Sam and Dean freeze, pillows poised to hit each other. 

“We’re playing pirates,” Dean tells you, climbing down from your bed. “These are our swords!” His eyes are bright as he explains their game. The boys giggle when you tell them you’ll be the beautiful princess they’re fighting over. 

“You need a cwown, Pwincess Y/N,” Sam tells you. 

“You’re absolutely right, Captain Smelly Feet, and I think I have just the thing!” You walk over to your dresser, opening the locked jewelry box on top and revealing a sparkling tiara. You place it on your head and turn towards the boys. “What do you think?” Dean’s mouth drops open in shock. 

“Where did you get that?” 

“I got to be a princess for a day a long time ago, and they let me keep my crown.” 

“Cool!” Dean jumps back up on the bed. “The princess is mine, Smelly Feet! You can’t have her!” Sam screwed his face up into something that was probably supposed to be mean and scary but just looked adorable to you.

“Noooo! I’ll save you from Captain Gween Toes, Pwincess!” Sam wails Dean with a pillow. Dean pretends to fall on the mattress, holding his side.

“You’ve won this time, Smelly Feet. Remember me, Princess. Bleh.” You giggle at his fake death sound and turn to the 4-year-old standing proudly above his brother.

“You did it, Captain Smelly Feet. You defeated Green Toes and saved me. However, will I repay you?” Sam grins as you pick him up and swing him around. “Oh, I know! How about a kiss?” He squeals when you blow a raspberry against his cheek.

“‘Top! ‘Top!” Sam pushes your face away from his, giggling. 

“Well, I hate to stop all the fun, but we have to go to the store or we’re gonna starve to death.” You gently put Sam down and fall to the floor with your hand on your forehead. “So hungry, not gonna make it.” Dean laughs at your dramatics and whispers something to Sam. Sam nods with a mischievous grin on his face. 

“I’ll save you!” Sam yells, before jumping on top of you. 

      Sam tugs at your sleeve from the seat in the shopping cart, pulling you down to his level. “Bean likes bacon and eggs and waffles for bweakfast, but Dad never makes them for us. He just buys ceweal because it doesn’t have to be cooked.” You fight the urge to roll your eyes and say something nasty about their father. 

“You know what? I think eggs, bacon, and waffles are great for breakfast.” You right yourself and smile at the small boy. “What do we want for dinner? Dean, what’s something you want?” Dean looks a little startled at your question. Of course, John never asks what the boys want. It’s always a matter of convenience. 

“Can we do burgers?” His eyes light up when you nod your head, and he hugs your waist. “You’re the best.” 

       Sam sits on the counter, watching you teach Dean how to make burgers. “The first rule of cooking, wash your hands. Did you wash your hands?” 

“Yep, smell.” Dean smiles and holds his hands up to you. You lean in and sniff, the smell of Irish Spring prevalent on his hands. 

“Good job. Sammy, what about you?” Sam smiles and nods his head.

“I helped him,” Dean says proudly. 

“Okay, we’re going to make the sauce before we cook the burgers. I laid everything out for you while you washed your hands. The little cup is mayo and the measuring spoons have sriracha, honey, lemon juice, and garlic in them. Dump all that in and stir it up.” Stepping back, you watch as Dean dumps everything into the glass bowl you had set out before handing Sam the spoon to stir it up. 

“All done!” Sam shouts, tipping the bowl forward for you to inspect their work.

“That’s perfect! You can set that to the side until we finish the rest of it.” You bend down and pull a cast-iron skillet out of the cold oven. “This is your new best friend for cooking, boys. A cast-iron skillet. They’re heavy, and you have to take good care of them, but they will last a long time and give your food good flavor.” 

“And you can hit monsters with it and hurt them!” Dean pipes up, a proud smile on his face. 

“That’s right,” you return his smile, but the fact that he has to know that breaks your heart. Dean hops up onto the counter on your right, and Sam scoots closer on your left to watch. You turn the stove eye on medium-low heat and pour a small amount of oil into the pan. “We have to let the pan and oil heat up before we can start cooking.”  

      Dean’s eyes are huge as he watches you plate burgers. “They’re beautiful,” he mumbles. 

The boys hop off the counter and help you carry the plates to the table. Sam takes small, careful steps, his little tongue poking out as he concentrates. 

“As much as you love food, Dean, you should be a chef when you grow up.” Dean looks up at you curiously, like the thought had never crossed his mind. It probably hadn’t, all the kid knew was hunting. Damn John. 

“Do you really think I could be a chef?” 

“Of course, I do! You can be anything you want. You’re a smart little boy.” Dean blushes and takes a bite of his burger.

“This is so good! You were right; the fried egg and bacon make it even better than regular burgers!” 

“After we eat, do you guys wanna watch a movie? I have Scooby-Doo.” 

“YES!” The boys both yell excitement, making you laugh.

      You walk through the house, checking that everything is turned off and locked up. Sam had fallen asleep during their movie, and Dean hadn’t been far behind. You hadn’t wanted to disturb them when they looked so peaceful, so you let them stay in your bed for the night. 

As you make your way back upstairs, you hear glass shattering. “Shit,” you whisper, hurrying to the boys. They’re both still sound asleep. You shake Dean awake and pick Sam up from the bed. “Dean, listen to me, baby. You gotta come with me and be quiet, okay?” He nods, still rubbing at his eyes and trying to wake up. You can hear loud voices and footsteps coming from downstairs. You have to hurry. 

Leading Dean into the spare bedroom you pull a panel away from the wall of the closet. “Dean, go in there.” He follows your orders and you lay Sam down next to him, stroking his hair before you lean over and kiss Dean on the forehead. “You’ll be safe, I promise.”

“Don’t go, Y/N. Hide with us.” Dean’s eyes shine, his little voice trembling. It breaks your heart. 

“Baby, I can’t, that space is too small. Everything’s going to be okay. I love you, Dean and I love Sammy, too. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

Dean watches as you close the panel, leaving him and Sam in darkness. He can hear the voices coming from downstairs and each banging footstep sends a shiver through him. “Please be safe. Please be safe.” He whispers to himself over and over, a silent prayer for you. You hadn’t told him to watch out for Sammy, hadn’t ordered him to be brave. You told him how much you loved him and that everything would be okay. A tear slips down Dean’s cheek as he lays down next to Sam and closes his eyes tightly. 

      “Wanna tell me why you’re in my house?” You swing your arm around the first man you see, holding a knife to his throat. He freezes, calculating his next move. 

He slams all of his weight backward into a wall, knocking the breath out of you but you hang onto the knife. “Stupid bitch,” he spits at you and reaches up to wipe at a trickle of blood on his face. You must have cut him when you hit the wall. You take advantage of him being distracted and launch yourself into him. He stumbles back and falls on his ass, his head bouncing off the floor. You move past him only to be met with a gun to your face. 

“I don’t think so,” a familiar voice says, coming from around the corner. Your stomach drops when yellow eyes meet yours.

“Azazel.” 

“The one and only. It’s been a while, Y/N.” His smile is arrogant, taunting. “Look, I’m sorry about your old man and kid. More so about the kid. I needed her.” You ball your fists at your side, anger rippling through you. “I’m here because a little demon told me you had the Winchester brats.” 

“You’re too late actually. I put them on a bus to Sioux Falls a few hours ago.” You willed yourself to stay calm, to look him in the eyes, and give no indication of a lie. He growls and wraps his hand around your throat. 

“What a pity.” You scream as pain erupts through your body. Blood trickles down the side of your mouth. You defiantly spit in Azazel’s face. 

“Fuck you.”

       Dean hears your scream and slams his hands against his ears. “No, please no.” Sam rouses and mumbles your name. Dean pulls him into his lap. “Shh, we have to be quiet. Okay, Sammy? It’s going to be okay.” Sam whimpers but nods his head. 

They stay that way for a while, waiting for you to come back for them. Dean silently rocks Sam in his lap, occasionally humming a song to him in the dark crawl space. “You stay here. I’m going to look around.”

“No, Bean, don’t go!” Sam grabs onto Dean’s sleeve. 

“Sammy, stay here. I’ll be back. I swear.” Dean moves the heavy panel and crawls out, the light coming from the window making him squint. He listens at the top of the steps for the voice and footsteps from earlier, but all he hears is silence. The silence scares him more. 

He tiptoes down the stairs, peeking around the corner into the kitchen. You’re there on the floor, not moving. “Y/N?!” Dean shouts and races to you. His hands hover over you, unsure of what to do. “Y/N, please. You promised,” he chokes on the last word, a sob bubbling up. 

“Dean?” You rasp out his name and reach a weak hand up to his face. “It’s okay, baby.” 

“It’s not okay!” He shouts. You guide his head down to lay on your stomach and run your fingers through his hair. 

“You’re gonna grow up and do amazing things, Dean. You are so smart and so good. I love you so much.”  You wince as you try to breathe. Dean can hear how faint your pulse is becoming, how shallow your breaths are. 

“Please, don’t leave me, Y/N. Please,” Dean cries.

“Shh, baby, listen to me. Go in the library, the number for your dad’s motel is there. Call him and then take Sammy to my room and watch Scooby-Doo until he comes. I love you both, Dean so very much. Now go.” He crawls up and kisses your cheek. 

“We love you, too.” He does as he’s told, trying his best to get himself together. 

He dials the number you had written down in a notebook on your desk.

“Hello?”

“Dad? Something’s happened.”

Tags: @fictionalabyss, @leave-me-2-rot-among-the-flowers, @hobby27

[catrasredemption-moved]

if u still take prompts... adora after 2 times where getting love from catra and feeling finally content only for catra and the entire world around her to crumble into pixels, now when she feels safety and happiness with catra she fears it's all fake

I think I understand what you’re getting at, sorry if I get this totally wrong, but it promises to be angst no matter what.

* * * * * * * * *

It had been six months since the end of the war.

Etheria was still rebuilding, although it was in a much better place than it had been. The Fright Zone and Salineas had improved in leaps and bounds (and although she’d never admit it, everyone knew it was because Catra had made both of those personal projects, pulling several all-nighters in a row trying to come up with the best plans for moving forward. Glimmer had presented the Salineas plan to Mermista and waited until construction was well underway to tell her it was all Catra’s idea), and the rest of the planet was coming along well. Bright Moon had almost been restored to its former glory, save for a few wings that needed work, and Shadow Weaver’s damn garden, which no one wanted to touch. Castaspella and Perfuma kept making plans to tackle it together, but there was always something more important that pulled them away.

Unfortunately, rebuilding wasn’t the only thing they had to deal with. Along with the magic came the return of magical creatures that were used to the planet being theirs - sharing wasn’t something they were accustomed to.

“Oooooooooooooowwwwww,” Adora whined, falling back on the ridiculously soft pillows (which she had to admit felt way better when she was injured).

“Aaaawww, did the mighty She-Ra get hurt?” Catra teased, settling in beside her. She had adjusted far more easily to the cushy beds and overstuffed pillows. Then again, Adora had seen her fall asleep in boxes more than once, so it was probably a cat thing.

“No, Adora got hurt, and Adora needs a loving and caring girlfriend.”

“A’right, I’ll see if Bow will let you borrow his.”

Adora laughed, grabbing Catra’s hand and yanking her back. “Smartass. Also you’d probably be better off just getting Bow. Glimmer’s bedside manner isn’t exactly top of the line.”

“Really?” Catra didn’t sound at all surprised by that. She rolled to kiss Adora, purring contently. “Seriously, how’s your shoulder?”

They’d been working out in one of the smaller villages on the edge of the Whispering Woods - just Catra and Adora, because She-Ra hadn’t really seemed necessary. They also hadn’t been expecting a territorial beast to come charging out of the woods, screeching, claws flying. There hadn’t even been time to transform before the claws had dug into Adora’s shoulder, leaving deep gashes that were easily worse than anything Catra had ever done to her, even while she was being controlled by Horde Prime.

That’s going to scar, she thought dizzily as her knees buckled. Catra had shoved her at a villager before running to take the beast out herself.

“I’ll live,” Adora said with a long, dramatic sigh. “I think my arm will even be salvageable.”

“Dramatic.” Catra rolled her eyes, shifting to kiss her again.

“You love me,” Adora murmured into her lips.

“For some reason.”

They sat in the warm, silent moment, enjoying themselves, comfortable, happy.

Then it all went cold.

Adora blinked, opening her eyes. Catra was gone, the bed was gone, the room was gone. She was in blackness, surrounded by green glitches of air. “Catra?” she whispered, scrambling up. Pain burned through her injured arm. “Catra!”

“What’s wrong, Adora?”

She froze, save for her trembling lips. No. The voice was... familiar. Of course it was familiar. She’d know that voice anywhere. If she forgot everything else in her life, she’d always remember that voice. But the pitch, the cadence, they were wrong. 

She turned slowly, breathing shallowly, and her gaze fell on the small form standing a few feet away. Short brown hair slicked back neatly, white, skin-tight uniform clinging to her body, the Horde symbol emblazoned on her chest, eyes staring at her without seeing, blue and amber completely taken over by bright green.

Her voice was small as she whispered, once again, “Catra?”

The puppeted version of the woman she loved stepped closer, arms reaching. “It’s okay, Adora. Everything is okay. We’re in Horde Prime’s light now. Together. Nothing can hurt us now.”

“No.” Adora’s voice cracked. “No. This isn’t right. You’re not - I saved you.”

“But I don’t need to be saved.” Something echoed in her voice; Horde Prime stepped out of the shadows, smiling cruelly, a hand resting on Catra’s shoulder. “No one needs to be saved anymore. We’re all free.”

More figures stepped out of the shadows. Bow and Glimmer. Micah. Perfuma, Scorpia, Mermista, Netossa, Spinerella, Frosta. Sea Hawk. Castaspella. Shadow Weaver. More and more faces she recognized from her adventures, from the Horde, from all the places she had ever been. Adora tried to step away, but they were everywhere. Every face, every blank expression a reminder of her failure.

“You can be free as well, Adora.” Catra stepped forward, arms out again. That blank, expressionless smile was a teasing ghost of the genuine smiles Adora loved. “You can be happy. Be happy with us. With me.”

“No.” Adora stumbled back, almost hyperventilating. “No, Catra, this isn’t real. This isn’t real.” She grabbed Catra’s wrists, holding too tight. Her injured arm screamed in pain. She ignored it. “We won, don’t you remember? We activated the Failsafe, we stopped Horde Prime, we-”

“Adora.” Catra somehow pulled away from Adora’s grip, hands reaching up to hold Adora’s cheeks in a mocking, loving gesture. “You’re confused. It’s okay. We’ll fix you.”

More hands grabbed Adora, pulling her away, fingers gripping her ponytail and holding it out of the way, clearing a way to her neck. Catra’s hands stayed firm on her cheeks the entire time.

“It’s okay, Adora. Everything will be okay.”

“No. Nonononononono, no, Catra, Catra-”

“CATRA!”

Noise exploded all around her. A few voices yelled, a few hands tried to grab her, and one person yelped as her elbow connected with their nose. She went from ice cold to  burning hot, like someone had lit her insides on fire. Her right arm was all but pinned to her chest, piercing pain stabbing her shoulder like dozens of small, fiery daggers. The room was blurry, her eyesight clouded. She saw color blurs moving around her; a couple of purplish figures, one in white - but no red. None of the dark, scarlet color she would have expected to see...

If Catra had been there.

“Adora, please calm down-”

She tried to shove away again, tried desperately to escape the hands. She knew what was happening. They were going to put a chip in her, turn her into another mindless drone, and no no no no no she couldn’t let that happen, she needed to save everyone, she needed to save Catra, she...

There was a small prick in her arm. She was only able to fight for a few more minutes before a blanket of darkness dragged her under.

It was dark when her eyes fluttered open again. The room was quiet, save for a familiar, gentle rumble vibrating against her side. She looked down blearily to see-

Her heart skipped several beats, tears filling her eyes. Catra. Catra pressed against her left side, tail draped across Adora’s legs, arms tucked under her head as she slept, purring loudly. There was a bandage taped to her temple, and a couple more on each arm and one of her legs.

“Adora?”

She jumped slightly, arm moving to rest over Catra as she looked around. Glimmer was standing beside her, hands up in a gesture of peace. “It’s okay,” she said gently. Bow was in a chair next to her, snoring lightly, a bandage across his nose. “It’s just me. You’re okay.”

“W-What...” Her voice cracked, throat dry, and she coughed; Catra shifted slightly, pressing closer to Adora, one arm moving to wrap around her waist. Glimmer poured a glass of water, stepping closer to help Adora drink. “What happened?” she tried again. She was starting to realize, as she became more aware of her body, how absolutely terrible she felt. Every single muscle ached, her right shoulder still hurt, and she still felt overly warm, although no longer on fire.

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Glimmer asked, keeping her voice low so she wouldn’t wake either of their sleeping partners.

“Um...” Adora squeezed her eyes shut, trying to think through the haze. “Catra and I were... helping a village?”

“Amroth,” Glimmer confirmed with a nod.

“And something... something attacked. It got me in the shoulder before I could transform...”

Glimmer nodded again as Adora’s voice drifted off. “The monster’s claws had some kind of poison. You got a full dose when it hit you. Catra said you went down pretty fast.”

That part didn’t feel right. Adora narrowed her eyes. She remembered getting hit, but she also remembered Catra taking down the beast, calling Glimmer for an emergency ride back to Bright Moon, the infirmary staff wrapping up her shoulder. She certainly didn’t remember Catra getting hurt at all.

“No.” Her voice shook. This wasn’t real. This couldn’t be real. It was another mind trick, Horde Prime was messing with her, she-

“Adora,” Glimmer said firmly, stepping closer. “You were poisoned. You’ve been in and out of consciousness for three days. You’re confused.”

“No, I”m not confused, you’re - you’re lying, this isn’t real, you’re-”

A sudden weight was pressed against Adora’s chest, stopping her short. Catra had moved both arms around her waist now, head tucked under her chin as she purred louder. The sound rumbled through Adora’s chest, calming her racing heart just slightly. Glimmer’s own building panic eased into a smile.

“She said that used to help you when you were sick. You know, in the Horde. She hasn’t left your side since the doctor let her out of her own bed. Actually, I’m not sure if the doctor let her or if she just said screw it and snuck out when he wasn’t looking. Fifty-fifty either way.”

Adora raised a shaking hand to brush her fingers through Catra’s hair; they slid down on her head, resting against the back of her neck, where only the faintest scars remained from the chip. Tears filled her eyes, spilling over as she cried quietly. Her jumping chest stirred Catra out of her sleep. She blinked blearily raising her head.

“Ador - hey, Adora, it’s okay.” Catra scooted closer, reversing their positions so Adora was tucked under her chin instead. “It’s okay, you’re okay. Everything is okay.”

The words didn’t have the effect she was hoping for. Adora cried harder, clinging as hard as she could with one arm. “Please tell me this is real,” she whispered in a choked voice.

“Yeah, absolutely,” Catra said at once. “One hundred percent real.” Fingers brushed through Adora’s long hair. “If it helps, I can tell you how absolutely stupid you are for jumping in front that damn monster without even transforming first, you complete moron.”

Adora laughed weakly into Catra’s chest, loosening her arm just slightly. “Yeah. I think that helps.”

“Good. Because I’m not letting that go any time soon.”

They fell silent, save for the purring that began again, soothing Adora’s fevered mind and allowing her to sleep once more.

Some version of this process repeated itself over the next week, every time Adora woke up. Glimmer and Bow were impressed by how calm and gentle Catra was every single time. Adora would wake up in a panic, clinging to Catra and begging her to assure her she was real, this was real, everything was real. Catra managed to pare it down somewhat to a few questions.

“Catra?”

“Real.”

“We’re in Bright Moon?”

“Real.”

“Horde Prime?”

“Very really dead and very really gone.”

A few moments of silence would always follow. Sometimes Adora would go back to sleep. Sometimes she would ask one last question. “You love me?”

At which point Catra would gently kiss Adora’s overly warm forehead, hugging her close and whispering, “Very, very, very real.”

[dlwritings]

Got Your Six | Tom Holland | pt 8

series masterlist found here

general masterlist found here

pairing - mob!Tom x reader word count - 4,198 warnings - swearing, oral (f receiving), fingering, choking, m/f sex, dom!Tom

summary - A thunderstorm wakes (Y/N) up, and Tom decides to keep her company.

(previous) (next)

About three weeks passed, and things were going smoothly for the most part. Tom, Harrison, Harry, and Sam took turns accompanying us to work. Everyday when we got home, Tom and Harrison would help us train. Tom and I went to the shooting range on Fridays, and April was still unaware. It was all working really well.

But at the same time, it wasn’t. And there was only one reason it wasn’t working, and that was Tom.

Because I no longer hated Tom. I really, really liked Tom. Everything was so much easier when I hated him.

Now that we were no longer at each other’s throats, I saw how fun he actually was and how much he cared about the people around him. He was funny and witty, and we were able to keep up our banter without the malicious intent behind it.

Also, he was sexy. Had I mentioned that he was sexy? Had I mentioned that, when he wasn’t being an asshole, he was irresistibly, mouth-wateringly sexy? And he was never an asshole anymore. It was completely infuriating. If I wasn’t afraid of destroying his character development, I would’ve started being rude to him again. I just didn’t want to be the reason he was back to square one.

So, we got along well. And it was fun. And the six of us became really close.

If April and I were going to watch a movie in the living room before we went to bed, 99% of the time, the boys joined us. Harrison and April would cuddle up together on one side of the couch, and I would use one of the other boys as my pillow.

Of course I didn’t have a preference as to who I was using. 

I found out that Harrison loved Batman movies, Tom liked 90s comedies and any action film, Sam was a Star Wars fan, and Harry was a secret sucker for rom coms. Not only that, but we had bonfires two Fridays in a row, and April and I even dipped our toes in their pool from time to time. It felt so much like a vacation, I started to forget that there were people out to get us.

On the third Friday, we were all prepared for another bonfire, but Mother Nature had a different idea. It had been raining all week, and we were really hoping it would let up. While there were peaks of blue behind the clouds throughout the day, by the time the sun set, it was raining harder than it had been all week. Rainy weather seemed to make everyone lazy, because we all retreated to our rooms before midnight.

The minute the first rumble of thunder sounded, I knew I was a lost cause. It had been years since I had been capable of sleeping through a thunderstorm. The minute there was a slight boom, I knew my eyes wouldn’t shut until it was all over. At 22-years-old, nothing had changed.

By the time 1:00 rolled around, I was still awake. I decided to get out of bed and make some tea. Harry had been telling me that chamomile tea was his number one go-to drink when he couldn’t sleep. I figured there was no harm in trying it. I crept quietly into the kitchen, remembering quickly that I was the only bedroom on the main floor. As long as I didn’t drop any pots or pans, I was sure I wouldn’t wake anyone up. I started the kettle on the stove and stood on my tip-toes to get down a mug from the cupboard. As I was getting a teabag from the pantry, I heard someone coming down the stairs. I plopped the bag in my mug just as Tom walked into the room.

“Hey,” I said. “Did I wake you?”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said offhandedly. “The slightest noise gets me up. Think I’m paranoid.”

“I think that’s justifiable,” I said. There was a particularly loud rumble of thunder that made me jump and squeeze my eyes shut. The kettle whistled around the same time, so I reached to stop it.

“What, you afraid of thunder or something?” Tom asked, his voice teasing. I smiled softly and poured my tea, jumping again at the next crack in the sky. When I looked up at Tom, I saw that he looked a little concerned.

“You want the truth?” I said. He nodded, and I hesitated but decided to explain anyway. “When I think of storms, I think about my parents fighting.” I took a sip of my tea, hoping that Tom wouldn’t ask any questions, though I knew the statement was too vague to not warrant any further discussion. It had just been a long time since I told anyone about my parents. Now that I thought about it, maybe I never had.

“Why is that?” Tom asked. I pressed my lips into a tight line as I leaned up against the countertop.

“Wanna make some tea?” I asked him. Tom nodded and got himself some tea from the cupboard while I got him down a mug. The water was still hot, so he poured it without turning the stove back on. I spoke while he wasn’t looking at me.

“Growing up, my parents always fought during storms,” I said. “Like, it seemed like they saved every screaming match for a thunderstorm.”

“Why?” Tom asked, blowing on his drink as he brought it to his lips.

I shrugged. “I think they thought April and I couldn’t hear them. But we could. We would always fall asleep in the same bed, and I’d just hug her and talk to her to drown out my parents until she fell asleep. I’d stay awake until the storm was over. I think I was really waiting to hear the end of the argument. Sometimes I could make out what they were fighting about -bills mostly- but usually I just heard their voices. Like they weren’t even speaking our language.” I took another sip of my tea. “April got over it as we got older, but I guess I never really did. Now I just can’t sleep during storms.”

I jumped onto the countertop and winced at a rumble of thunder. Tom sat beside me. I needed to keep my mind off the storm, so I kept talking. I figured I was word-vomiting, but as long as Tom wasn’t going to protest, I was going to continue. “I think a lot of people see me and April and think we have these really lovely and cushy lives,” I said. “I’ve always felt that romanticizing people based on what you see on the surface is really toxic, but that’s what people do. They see us working at a cute bakery and laughing with our parents, and they think, Those girls must have it all, but we don’t. Like, we may not dress like it, but we don’t have money to toss around, you know? Any nice clothes we get came from garage sales or thrift shopping or presents for holidays from family. We live paycheck to paycheck, and I’ll be in debt from college for the rest of my life. And every meal April and I eat with our parents ends in a screaming match over something stupid. But that’s not what people see. They see this Instagram-ready cafe with the cute family and the peppy baristas.” I scoffed. “This picture that we paint of ourselves, these cute and bubbly people we both pretend to be, that’s just it. It’s pretend. They’re not real. At least mine isn’t.”

I shook my head and stared down at my mug. “April’s such a better person than I am. She always has been. People always liked her more, probably because she isn’t closed off and cold to strangers. She just trusts and loves with everything in her.” I took a sip of my tea before shaking my head again. “It’s naive.”

“Has it ever bit her in the ass?” Tom asked. “Being cute and bubbly instead of closed off and cold?”

I chuckled dryly. “Look at where we are now. This all happened just cuz she tucked her hair behind her ear and flashed Harrison a pretty smile and believed he was a normal person.”

Tom cracked a grin. “Fair enough.”

Thunder rumbled louder than it had before, and I almost spilled my drink because of it. I sighed and took another sip from my tea. I rested my head on Tom’s shoulder, and he put his cheek on the top of my head. “It’s weird to think about how we got here,” I told him.

“What do you mean?”

“I dunno,” I said. “Just, like, if you guys hadn’t come in that day, you know? We wouldn’t be here.”

“I hate putting it like that,” Tom admitted. I moved my head to look at him.

“Why?” I asked. Tom jumped off the counter and leaned against the island in front of me, then folded his arms across his chest. He stared down at his feet.

“Because I still think about how this is such a shitty situation for you to be in,” he said. “And everyday that you’re still here, I feel guilty that we walked into your shop and dragged you into this.” I furrowed my eyebrows and shook my head.

“Tom,” I said, kicking my foot out to hit his thigh so he’d look up at me. “I don’t want you to feel guilty about this anymore. I’m not mad that I’m here, and neither is April. We’re doing fine. I’ve learned a lot about life, and I think that’s super valuable. And come on-” I scoffed. “-I met you, right? And I learned that you can grow to like someone you used to hate in a matter of weeks.”

Tom stared at me for a moment, and it looked like there was a battle going on behind his eyes. Just as I opened my mouth to ask what was wrong, he took one step closer to me and took the mug from my hand, setting it on the counter. He put his hands on my knees and pushed them apart so he could stand between my legs. Then, he put his hands on my cheeks and kissed me.

I pushed him away almost immediately, shock going through my body. Tom didn’t say anything, just stood there breathing heavily through his nose. The shock wore off the longer I stared at his pink lips.

I gripped the back of his neck and brought him back in for a kiss. He growled against my lips, his teeth nibbling into my lower lip. I whimpered and tugged my fingers through his hair. “Fuck,” Tom moaned, pulling his lips away from mine. He grabbed my hair and tugged my head to the side, kissing my neck. He was leaving a mark, I knew, and his grip on my hair was tight. Rough. Dominant. Hot.

“Tom,” I moaned, threading my fingers in his hair again.

“What do you want, petal?” he asked.

“B-bedroom,” I stuttered. “Please. Please.”

“Love hearing you beg,” he said, his lips turning into a smirk against my skin. I didn’t say anything, just squeezed my eyes shut and whispered please to him again. He put his arms around my waist and threw me over his shoulder. I giggled a bit as he smacked my ass and carried me to his room. He dropped me onto the bed, and I pushed some hair away from my face as I smiled up at him. “Fuck,” Tom groaned, hanging his head as he hovered over me. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“What?” I asked, my smile dropping. “Like what? What did I do?”

“You’re so-” He cut himself off with a sigh. “-so different. So beautiful and good and honest and real, and I don’t want this to be the only time we do this, okay? I don’t, I never want to, to-” Tom’s hand balled into a fist as he pressed it into the mattress beside me, trying to compose himself. I frowned and furrowed my eyebrows, then brushed my fingers through his hair.

“What’s going on?” I asked. He clenched his jaw then licked his lips and sighed.

“I don’t want to just fuck you like I’ve fucked other girls,” Tom said. “I, I want to make you, make you feel good and kiss you and hold you, but it’s, it’s weird for me because I never do that.” He looked at me and pushed some hair away from my face. “But you make me want to be different,” he said.

“Is that a good thing?” I asked, taking his hand and kissing his palm

He laughed. “Yeah. I think it’s a good thing.” He leaned down to kiss me but pulled away before too long. “Now let me fuck you right.”

Tom started kissing my jaw, then down my neck. My chest was heaving as his fingers fumbled with the buttons of my sleep shirt. He got them all undone, and I sat up to take the shirt off and throw it across the room. Before he could do anything, I put my hands on the back of his neck and pulled him close to me. Our kiss was slow and full of tongues fighting for dominance. I sat up straighter and straddled his hips. Tom pulled his lips away from me and kissed down my chest, sucking one of my nipples into his mouth. I threaded my fingers in his hair and held his head close to me as I ground my hips against his. He pulled away from my chest with a pop and brought his lips back up to mine. I moaned into his mouth and scratched my nails against the back of his neck. He pulled away from me again and kissed along my jaw. “God, fuck me, Tom,” I moaned. I tugged at the waistband of his sweatpants and tried to tug them down his hips.

“No,” Tom said. His voice was commanding, so I stopped. “No, we’re gonna take our time. ‘M gonna make you feel so good, baby.” Tom pushed me off him, and I laid down on the bed looking up at him. He kissed me again, slowly and carefully. I whimpered as I felt one of his hands play with the hem of my sleep shorts. His hand slipped past the band and my underwear, and his fingers ran up my folds. I could feel him grin against my lips, and I let out a disappointed sigh as soon as he pulled away from me and brought his hands out of my pants. I watched as he sucked his fingers off and sent me a wink. “You taste lovely, petal,” he said, “and you’re already so wet for me.”

“T-Tom,” I breathed out. “Please. Can you, can you do something?”

“You know-” He chuckled. “-you’re so cute when you beg like that.” I wanted to say something else, but I was distracted when Tom hooked his fingers in the band of my shorts and panties and pulled them both down my legs. He threw them off to the side of the bed, then moved his body so his face was near my core. “God,” he almost moaned, “you smell like heaven.” I whined again and lifted my hips, trying to force him close to me. “Relax, relax, love,” he said. “I’ll take care of you.”

My head dug into the pillow as Tom started kissing my thighs. It had been so long since anyone went down on me, and I felt like I could cum just at the idea of it. “How bad do you want this?” he asked, sucking a mark on my thigh.

“So bad,” I whined. “‘S been so long.”

“How long?” he asked. “How long since someone’s eaten this pretty pussy?” He kept bringing his lips closer and closer to where I wanted them, but he kept leaving me disappointed.

“Too long,” I said. My eyes screwed shut as I felt his breath on my core. “Eyes on me baby.” I forced my eyes open and looked down at Tom. Just as fast, his eyelashes fluttered against his cheekbones as he looked back down at my core. Before I could beg him to touch me, he pressed his tongue flat against me and gave me a long lick. My hands went straight to his hair as he brushed his nose against my clit.

“Oh, shit,” I moaned. Tom grinned against me and started drawing shapes with his tongue. “Tom, please.” He pulled away from me, starting to leave sloppy wet kisses on my thighs again.

“What do you want, (Y/N)?” he asked, lightly biting my skin.

“Your, your fingers,” I said. Tom teased my cunt with his pointer finger, not quite moving it in all the way. I moved my hips to get closer to his hand, and he allowed his finger to slide in to his knuckles. He slid another finger in soon after and quickly brought his lips to my clit. He sucked it into his mouth, letting his tongue flick it over and over again. “Just like that, Tom,” I moaned, tugging at his hair again and digging my head back into the mattress. I jumped and looked down at him when he slapped my thigh.

“Eyes, on, me,” he said, emphasizing every word.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. I watched his every movement, relishing in the way his hair would tickle my thighs. “Tom,” I moaned as he curled his fingers to reach that spot. “I’m gonna come.” His fingers were relentless, and he kept swirling his tongue around my clit until I scratched my nails against his scalp and came. Tom didn’t move his face from between my legs until I rode out my high. He pretty much licked me clean before he gently kissed my thighs.

“Such a good girl,” he cooed, running his fingers up and down my legs. I hummed contently, and my eyes fluttered closed. He moved his body so that his knees were on either side of my legs, and he stroked my cheek to get me to open my eyes. “How much farther do you want to go, love?” he asked. “Because I’m not done if you’re not.”

“I’m not,” I said, shaking my head. I grabbed the back of his neck and pressed my lips to his again. He smiled against the kiss and pushed his tongue past my lips. I wrapped my legs around his hips and rubbed myself against him. He pulled away and nodded, then pulled his shirt over his head. I put my hands on his pecs and ran them down his stomach and to his joggers. He let me tug them past his hips and down his legs. His boxers quickly followed. I licked my lips and reached out for him, but he grabbed my wrists and pinned them to the bed.

“Let me get a condom,” he said. I nodded and watched him go into the bathroom. He came back a few seconds later with a foil. He got back onto the bed, and I took the foil from his hand, ripping it open with my teeth. Tom let out a heavy breath and watched as I rolled it onto his cock, pumping him a few times. He grabbed my wrist and pinned them to the bed again. He stared at me as he held his cock and brushed his tip along my folds. “Jesus,” he said, hanging his head. “Didn’t think I could get you anymore wet.” I almost started to beg him to do something, but he pushed himself into me and cut off anything I might’ve said. Instead, I moaned and squeezed my eyes shut. “Hey,” Tom said, slapping my cheek lightly and stopping his movements. My eyes fluttered open as I looked at him. “What have I said?”

“E-Eyes on you,” I stuttered.

“Right,” he said. “Eyes on me.” I nodded, and he finally bottomed out. He stayed that way for a moment before sliding out and slowly thrusting back in. He was fucking me slowly, pressing soft kisses across my neck as he did so. I forced myself to keep my eyes open, though the pleasure made me want to squeeze them shut again. I appreciated how slowly he was going. I felt cared about, but I hadn’t had sex in so long. I wanted to feel him everywhere.

“I, I, ah fuck,” I moaned. “Faster, Tommy.”

“What was that, darling?” Tom said, a smirk on his face.

“Please,” I whined. “You’re not gonna break me. Just, fuck, just go faster.”

“Did I hear you say Tommy?” he asked, nipping at the base of my throat.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “Please, please, ah- fuck.”

“Please what?”

“Please-” I hummed as he stopped moving his hips. “Please, Tom, s-sir, boss, fuck, just please.”

“Jesus Christ,” Tom mumbled. He bit my shoulder, then kissed the skin softly. “Call me sir.”

“Okay,” I said.

“Okay…”

“Sir,” I said. “Okay, sir.”

“Good girl,” Tom cooed. I moaned loudly when Tom snapped his hips against me harder. “Is this what you wanted?”

“Y-yes, sir,” I said. “Fuck, I love it.” Tom chuckled and kissed up my throat until he pressed our lips together. He grabbed my thigh and kept me close to him. “Can, can you-” I cut myself off with a moan as he lifted my leg above his shoulder and pounded into me at a new angle.

“Can I what, doll?” he asked, his hair flopping in front of his forehead. I knew I wouldn’t be able to form a sentence, so I grabbed his hand and brought it up to my lips, sucking his fingers into my mouth. Tom moaned as I swirled my tongue around his fingers. I pulled them away with a pop and brought his hand down to where our bodies met so he could rub my clit.

“Yes, Tom,” I screamed, tugging my fingers through his hair. He gently pressed his hand against my throat, and my breathing started to get labored.

“What’s my name?” he asked.

“Fuck,” I swore. “Shit. Sir. It feels so good, sir.”

“Are you close?” he asked.

“Yes,” I whined. “Yes, I’m gonna come.”

“Come for me,” he said. “Wanna feel you squeeze my cock.” He replaced his hand with his lips and started kissing my neck. With one little nibble on my sweet spot, I came even harder than I had the first time. “Oh, shit,” Tom moaned. With a few more thrusts, Tom came as well, moaning against my neck. He let my leg fall back against the mattress and had to hold himself up so he didn’t fall against me. He gently laid on my chest, and I threaded my fingers through his hair. He peppered kisses against my breasts, and I slowly felt him soften inside me.

“Tom?” I said after a few moments had passed.

“Mm?” he hummed.

“I hate to do this to you, but I gotta go pee,” I told him. I felt him smile -his lips were still on my chest- before he pushed himself up and slid out of me. I sighed at the feeling and got out of bed, then walked over to the bathroom.

When I got back, Tom was still laying in bed, though he was under the covers now, so I assumed he had gotten rid of the condom. I was hesitant to join him in bed. I knew he had said all of the stuff about not wanting me to be like other girls, but there was a tiny part of me that wondered if he was just saying that to get into my pants.

As if sensing my debate, Tom -who had been looking at his phone- looked up at me. “There’s boxers in the top drawer,” he told me. “T-shirts in the one under that.” I thanked him, deciding that had cleared up whether or not I was staying or leaving. Once I had the clothes on, I joined him in bed. Tom locked his phone and snuggled more under the covers, then turned on his side to face me. I mirrored his position, and he chuckled and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. “Sounds like the storm’s passed,” he said. I listened for a moment and could only hear the sound of heavy rain outside Tom’s balcony.

“Good,” I said, “cuz I’m tired.” Tom grinned and turned onto his back, putting one hand behind his pillow and one above my head. I adjusted myself so I was laying on his chest with an arm wrapped around his stomach and my legs tangled with his. He started playing with my hair, and I melted into his arms, feeling like I was fitting into a puzzle I had been in before. “Tom?” I asked, my voice piercing the quiet around us.

“Mm?”

“Have we done this before?”

Tom chuckled and pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “Goodnight, petal.”

----- ----- ----- -----

TAGLIST

@bangtan-serendipity | @planetdemon | @the-singing-clown406 | @tomshufflepuff | @bluelalal | @grandloser | @jackiehollanderr | @mindset-jupiter | @bisexual-sk8r | @feel-like-gold | @runaway-apple | @miraclesoflove | @marvelismylifffe| @wonderbyers | @coraz0ndcristal| @lizmarvel​ | @hannihannelora​ | @lbuck121​

[modestlyabsurd]

Survival Pt. 2 (Loki x Reader)

"What's the situation, doc?"

"Well," Loki scratches his head, "there's just the smallest bit of swelling. Luckily, nothing's broken or sprained. I'd say within a couple of days the swelling should reduce, as well as the pain. In the meantime," he rises with sqeaks of the mattress springs, "try to avoid stomping the brains out of little bunnies' skulls."

"Ha-ha-ha."

"No, truly." He cringes at the blood-spattered boot he'd removed from your foot, "Remind me to never ever make you angry."

"Even if I did, you'd still do it," you smile, and Loki winks as he walks into the kitchen.

You use your forearms to adjust your position on the mattress. You and Loki were ecstatic to find a mattress in one of the two bedrooms. For so long, sleeping was something to figure out as you went. Backpacks make decent pillows. Tarps do wonders to keep you dry, but offer no warmth. Without a fire, the only source of heat at night is the other person. That's how you discovered that you're both big spoons.

Neither of you had any training on how to sleep without a bed, which caused more sleepless nights than necessary. Finding the cabin alone was a blessing, let alone it being luxuriously furnished.

With every movement, the springs squeak loudly from age. The smell had gotten milder, but that's just because you got used to it. In a way, it was comforting. Under the mildew, the lingering scent of skin and musk gave the illusion that this was still someone's home, and you were sleeping in their guest bed.

Nevermind the dried blood caked into it.

The two of you dragged it into the main living room area of the cabin when you first arrived - where it is now. Where you're laying with your leg propped up on your duffle bag.

"So you really don't think it's that bad?"

"No, I don't. It'll heal quickly." Loki rummaged through his backpack and pulls out a medicine bottle. "It would heal much quicker if you'd let me assist you."

"No no you, you know how I feel about that. I can't. If I, if I let you use magic to heal every single one of my injuries, I'll become dependent on it. I can't afford - we can't afford that."

"I still don't understand why not. I don't intend on leaving you anytime soon."

"Hey, things can change."

"Change is adaptable."

"Not if you're dead."

He ignores your comment with a shake of his head and hands you an orange pill. Swallowing pills without any liquid has never been a strong point of yours, but you don't have much choice. You force it down your throat; the sooner it hits, the sooner the throbbing pain will dull out.

Your ankle was twisted pretty badly. No pain even registered until you were out of the unmerciful cold. The cushy support of powdery snow had masked it. As soon as you put weight on your ankle in the cabin's threshold, hot, searing pain shot up your leg and if not for Loki already supporting you, you would've fallen flat on the hardwood floor. Mentally, you kicked yourself with your good foot. The last thing you two need is an injury. A disabling one at that.

The thought of utilizing Loki's supernatural abilities was tempting now as you squirm in discomfort, waiting for the medicine to activate. An agreement was made that he would strictly use magic in a life-or-death scenario only. But fuck, that ankle's on fire.

Delirious from a multitude of ailments, you thought you'd found a clever loophole.

"Hey, uh," you begin, your voice unsteady, "how 'bout ah, how 'bout you come over here and put those ice cubes at the end of your arms to good use."

"Hm? The pain talking, is it?"

You scoff. "Please?"

"Most certainly the pain talking," he remarks, but removes his brown gloves eagerly. "And what of the no-magic policy?"

"Fuck it."

Loki laughs; one of his quiet, breathy, knee-weakening chuckles.

"Besides, your Jötun-ness is different."

"Is it?" He comes around the kitchen peninsula where he was taking stock of your supplies, and slowly lowers to the edge of the mattress so as to not disturb your injury. "Ah, I see. You only want to use my abilities the way you see fit." A smirk covers his face.

Loki wraps one hand on top, one hand underneath your bruising ankle, encasing the inflamed flesh in an icy cocoon. The cold was harsh before fading into beautiful numbness. You exhale a long breath, your head falling backward in relief.

Loki could feel the throbbing joint under his palms. The heat radiating. You were deliciously warm naturally, but this heat was angry and anything but natural.

Perhaps this was worse than he prescribed.

The genetic coolness of his body temperature had clearly done a number for your pain, but it was only temporary. He examines your facial expression (what he can see of it, since your head is thrown back). Your eyes are closed, only your brow is no longer twisted up in discomfort.

A thought pops into Loki's head. You're not paying any attention, lost in the bliss of relief. Now's his chance.

Maybe a bit of magic wouldn't hurt...

Without any further hesitation he taps into the part of his mind that controls his Seidr. It's engrained in his bones; he could never forget how to use it. Tendrils of green mist flow from his palms and fingertips. They twine around your injury like vines, dissolving deeper into the wound; calming the inflamation, mending the bruises, surrounding it in magic. Almost immediately the site's temperature began going down as well as the swelling. Yes! The spell was successful!

You had somewhat paralyzed your ankle by propping it up and lying down, for the threat of it hurting horribly was just beneath the surface should it be moved the wrong way. That is how you'd been keeping it for nearly an hour now, judging by the trees' shadows through the only window without a board sealing it. Until now. You felt mobility return to your ankle as Loki cradled it.

In disbelief, you asked, "What medicine did you give me?"

He stutters a bit. "Advil. Why do you ask?"

"Sure did kick in fast."

"Oh? Hm. Maybe I gave you the stronger Advil. Hydro, hydro something..."

"Hydrocodone."

"Yes, that's the one."

"Y'know, for the God of Lies being one of your nicknames, I expected you to be better at lying." You open one eye and look down at him, laughing at his puppy dog, deer-in-headlights look. You always stun him when he least expects it.

Now you're pain-free, so there's no reason to have your leg propped up anymore. You sit up as the mattress squeaks to pull your boot back on after Loki withdraws his hands. He picks at his palm, avoiding eye contact.

"I'm not mad at you. I mean, you did perform extraterrestrial medical treatment on me without my consent, but it's alright," you put a hand on his shoulder. The bones poked up, even through his thick clothes. Gosh, it was getting worse. We need food. You gave him a squeeze; one to remind you to revisit that, and two to reassure him. "I was thinking about the no-magic policy and, maybe you're right. It makes better sense to use it for smaller, more distracting injuries moreso than waiting 'til one of us is about to kick it. It'll save time, save medicine, prevent infections. Probably save our lives quicker than my theory could."

"So, wait. Hold on. You're agreeing with me?"

"Oh for fuck's sake. Don't act so shocked."

Loki winks at you.

You break the silence that followed, the two of you exchanging real, genuine smiles. "I know you have my best interest at heart. I really appreciate that."

~

Before sunset you were ready to crash out and sleep for twenty years. That Advil hit you like a valium. Medicine on an empty stomach...it absorbs straight into the system. You tried to keep your blood pumping by shadow boxing against your candlelit shadow, while Loki read The Catcher in the Rye by the same candlelight. Goodness, how both of you beamed at finding a ransacked bookshelf at the front door. What a welcome that was.

As you exerted more and more of what little energy you started with, quickly you began tiring out. Holding your eyes open became a challenge within itself. You decide to sit down next to Loki on your mattress and catch your breath.

"Your form is terrible."

"Huh?" you say, almost drunk.

"Your form. Your stance and momentum. You'll certainly stumble over your own feet in real combat."

"Now you listen here, I am fucked up on Advil thanks to your sorry ass. I'll have you know that my form when I'm sober is excellent."

"Really?" He glances up from his book, the candlelight accentuating why they call him a god. "I think we should test that."

"But I'm not sober."

"That can be fixed."

At this point you're talking in your sleep. Mumbling, half awake. Ready to be dead to the dead world. The soft mattress presses your cheek, the only indication that you've laid down from your sitting position. The sound of the cabin's front door opening, the howling gust of wind, Loki's heavy footfalls, none of these registers in your comatose state. Nothing.

Until snow.

...snow?

Snow?!

"What the fuck?! Mother f-f-fuck you!! I'm gonna kill you b-bastard! Fucker!"

Most of the snow ended up thrown back at him about the face and neck. He, he's laughing!

"The fuck are you laughing at?! Where's my knife?!" The flailing of snow had also put the candle out, leaving the room in total darkness. He was eternally glad you didn't have your knife on you.

He could feel the air around you shuffling wildly until you finally struck him on the shoulder. It didn't hurt him, oh how he loves to remind you of that; it felt as though a fly landed on his arm, but he still didn't need to risk you hurting yourself.

"Easy, darling."

"Don't you darling me! That wasn't funny! Now I'm fucking freezing!"

"I can warm you right up if you wish."

"Yeah, no-fucking-thanks."

Good thing you were mad. That card may have worked on a different day.

"This what you were going for? Me pissed the fuck off, cold, tired, traumatized, and ready to kill you? Is that what you wanted?"

"Precisely."

"What the fuck?!"

"Show me what you're going to do about it."

No further questioning required. You gladly punch him - but he blocks. You try a second time, he blocks again. A third, fourth time, he blocks those too. You try a kick to the nuts and that was a mistake. Next thing you know, your back hit the floor and stars dotted your vision. He caught your leg and twisted you up in some sort of reversal restraint; he had both your hands pinned above your head and his knee keeping your torso glued to the floor.

Now you were furious.

"Do you see what I mean? About your form?"

"Rot in hell."

Gods, he could just kiss you.

He doesn't. Rather, he uses a bit of magic to relight the candle nearby on the floor. He only gets a glimpse before you begin squirming underneath him. "Let me up."

"Are you hurt?" he asks as he pulls you steadily to your feet, hand in hand.

"I'm fine."

"Good. Now, I am going to teach you proper combat and self defense. I will teach you arts. I will teach you techniques. I will be patient, I will be thorough, and I will not stop until you are confident in your own capabilities. However, you're a fast learner."

"Wait. What about you? What about food, Loki?"

A long, bitter inhale through his nose. This was not something he wanted to dwell on.

"You needn't worry about me, my dear. We'll find food soon. For now, I want you to pay close attention."

[kristallioness]

Rise from the ashes

Summary: A restless night brings back disturbing images of war and forces the married couple to think about the safety of their future.

Word count: 3,336

Author's note: I've seen 2 documentaries about what's been happening to the rohingyas in Myanmar/Birma and can sum it up with one word that their entire government and army are denying: genocide. It is genocide and literal hell over there and I feel so upset/mad because I can't do anything to help those people. The rohingyas basically have no human rights anymore because of what the army has done to their villages, their homes and families, simply because they're muslims (of a different religion). This just.. let me just raise awareness by writing a story, which hopefully helps me cool down a little. This story also talks about what it feels like to be a part of a culture with a very small population, who's still targeted by a certain bigger country, and whose people fear another war breaking out and them getting wiped out completely. (Hint: it's my homeland.) I've thought about this quite a few times - how Aang can imagine what happened to his people (or what horrors they saw) based on his own experience, when he had to fight Ozai during the comet. He saw what those firebenders were capable of. Despite his victory and the end of the war, these war atrocities that they saw aren't forgotten so easily. He probably had nightmares about it later in life. Also, I was inspired by some of the stuff I've read in "Imbalance: Part One" and @tashiandnima. *promotes*

----------x----------

His big ears picked up high-pitched screeches similar to those of the fat, fluffy bird native to the foggy swamp. But the cushiness of his pillow felt too appealing to leave. That is, until his nose caught a whiff of some strange sort of meat being grilled. The air nomads were known to be strictly vegetarian. Something was off.

Aang released a long yawn while slowly getting up from bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes with one hand. Beads of sweat stuck to the back of it when he wiped his forehead.

The beginning of the third summer month had been rather hot, considering the heavy showers that'd cooled off the Southern Air Temple merely a week ago. Staying in the sleeping quarters felt like being cooked alive in a heated oven right now.

Once his blurry vision had sharpened, his grey eyes gazed out the window, where they were met with the welcoming of a crimson sky filled with clouds. Tiny pieces of hot cinders were hopping over the windowsill and landing into the room, glowing like tens of fireflies until they were extinguished on the floor from lack of material to keep them burning.

Small flames flung in the air outside, accompanied by a sizzling sound and followed by the same screeches from earlier. Plumes of smoke were visible further away, rising higher than the Patola Mountains. This was serious - the temple was on fire.

Aang quickly grabbed his staff, opened it into a glider and flew outside. He had no idea he'd just jumped out of the frying pan and straight into the fire.

A welding noise deafened his hearing, but warned him of an incoming shot of massive firebending that he barely managed to dodge, which forced him to crash-land in the courtyard down below. The hastily formed air cushion softened the impact to the ground, but Aang was far from finding safety.

He could barely make out the wavering figures of twelve Fire Nation soldiers, who hadn't noticed him until he fell into their encirclement. They would've killed him on the spot if he hadn't reacted fast and airbended a round shield around himself to block their simultaneous blasts.

The spinning air tossed the large flames around, inadvertently redirecting the attack towards some of the soldiers, who had to run further away or defend themselves against their own fire.

"Aang, run!"

He let the shield dissipate and, while the soldiers were distracted, he ran faster than the wind to search for a hiding place right behind the south wall. Aang had recognized the voice of the man who'd saved him, but he didn't dare to look back to see what happened next.

He plopped on the ground and looked around the burning surroundings in confusion. What was happening? How did the firebenders find their temple? Why were they attacking them? This had to be a nightmare, it just had to be.

The screeches emanating from the other side of the temple became much clearer with each passing second. Those definitely didn't belong to a bird like he'd assumed. Someone, several children were screaming for help. His friends.. where were they?

Aang's curiosity got the better of him and he had to peek, but he wished he didn't.

"Get to your bison! We'll hold them off."

The monks were trying to clear a path for the young ones so they could evacuate on their similarly panic-stricken companions. The blood-red sky became filled with roars as the bison soared through the streams of fire coming from the ground, which guided them right back down towards the invaders.

Aang ducked back behind the wall just as some of the bison started to fall from the sky when they were shot down. He could see the other boys hanging onto them for dear life, some jumping off the saddle before the animal hit the ground, running away from the firebenders who began hunting them down.

The heavy thuds shook the earth beneath his feet as the huge corpses hit the ground one by one. He had to lose focus on counting the number of injured or.. deceased bison. Hearing the horrific screams of the boys, little boys exactly like him, fading away and being replaced with new ones was tearing his heart apart. He could only imagine them getting caught in the fire and suffering a slow, burning death.

Aang curled up, shut his eyes and covered his ears to block those awful sights and sounds. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he desperately wished for all of this to stop. He wanted to help everybody, but walking back out there would mean certain death. They needed him, he was the Avatar. He had to do something.

He ceased his crying when he heard Monk Gyatso urging some of the firebenders to follow him somewhere. Aang grabbed his staff and ran out in the open. He spotted his mentor leading a huge group of Fire Nation soldiers inside the meditation tent. Nothing happened for a couple of seconds.

Suddenly, flames began flying out through the drapes, setting the cloth on fire. The grown men grunted at the beginning, their grunts soon replaced with weird coughs that sounded like they were choking on something, and after that.. silence. This pattern rippled at least thrice before it was cut off by a sharp scream that sank Aang's heart.

His knees wobbled and he collapsed to the ground, dropping his staff next to him with a clunk. The world as he knew it was falling apart around him. His home, his friends, their pets, the elders.. they got to Gyatso.

Aang could hear a second wave of soldiers marching towards him. He looked up at them in disgust, tears welling up in his eyes. He hung his head and released a bellowing roar that echoed a thousand lifetimes' worth of rage. The firebenders stopped at the sight of the airbender kid, whose eyes and tattoos began to glow. They'd just found their target.

Aang entered the Avatar State and attacked the Fire Nation soldiers, knocking dozens of them off the mountain top with a single blow of airbending. His air spout carried him high above the battlefield towards the front of the temple.

The strong winds scattered some of the fire blasts directed towards the young air nomads running away from the troops. The firebenders halted their fire for a moment before shooting it all towards the Avatar instead of the other boys, who stopped in their tracks to see what was going on.

"It's Aang!"

"He's here!"

The kids pointed fingers at him as fear was replaced with hope, but Aang couldn't hear them cheering him on. The Avatar State had complete control of his actions. He didn't notice the other young airbenders start taking down more firebenders to help him liberate their home from the invaders together.

"Come, we must help the Avatar!" the remaining elders declared, doing everything they could to protect Aang from harm. Some of them were hit, others burnt alive on the spot. Each time a fellow air nomad took their last breath, Aang's wrath grew, but his vigilance faded.

His own breath hitched when he received a hard blow to the back by something that resembled a large whip, except with a furry tip. The air spout holding him up disappeared. He was in free fall.

Something appeared to be flying circles around him as he descended through the clouds. Aang's glowing eyes met a pair of angry golden ones that shined through the fog before the creature revealed itself. It was a blue dragon, diving right after him together with the man riding on his back.. Sozin.

Aang tried to turn himself right side up to fight back against the elderly Fire Lord, but his dragon continued delivering several hits with its tail and wings, making him lose balance and spin around uncontrollably. A moment later, just before he could fall to the ground, the beast opened its mouth and breathed fire at him. Aang could only see the bright flames as he was engulfed by them.

"Aahh!" he exclaimed as he sat bolt upright, still panting after the terrifying encounter. When he opened his eyes, the blood-red sky was replaced with utter darkness. He couldn't hear the screams of his friends or the monks anymore, the much bigger bedroom remained quiet. The summer heat was gone and his bare skin was caressed by the cool winter air intruding through the small gap left between one of the windows.

Two arms came sliding across his chest and over his shoulders, enveloping him in a gentle embrace. A warm, slightly wet nose rubbed against his shoulder.

"It's okay, Aang. It was just a bad dream."

Was it really just a bad dream, or simply a painful reminder of the past? The airbender lowered his head and broke down in tears at the sound of his wife's soothing voice, which had brought him back to reality. He covered his eyes to hide it. He was back home on Air Temple Island.

"Shh.. I'm here. We're both here, sweetie," Katara hushed him, giving him as much time as he needed to process his emotions. The 'we' referred to both her and the tiny miracle of life growing inside her for the past few months.

Aang shifted a little so he could return her hug, careful not to squeeze her too tight since the soft fabric of her tunic, which covered her belly bump, was rubbing against his own. He sought comfort from her by burying his face into the crook of her neck, crying into her shoulder for a while.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

She wanted to know what storm was raging in his mind, her voice filled with concern. It must've been something really bad if he sobbed like that. She didn't want him to suffer alone. Katara sensed how he answered with a nod.

She pulled away and cupped his face in her hands, tenderly running her fingers over his cheeks to dry the last of his tears. He sniffed and took a deep, calming breath.

"It was horrible, Katara. I-I saw the air nomads, the sky bison. I saw my friends, Monk Gyatso.. they were all being burnt to death by firebenders. It was the day Sozin's Comet arrived a hundred years ago. Except that.. I was there."

"Oh, Aang.."

This time, she was the one who gave him a tight hug.

"Is there something I can do?" she whispered into his ear.

"Yeah.. just, hold me."

And she did. Katara let her hands rub up and down on his back, her fingertips running over the edges of the scar in the middle of his spine. She planted a couple of kisses on his shoulder, one hand coming up to the nape of his neck to hold him close. She felt his body shudder as he let out another shaky breath.

"Come.. come here," she urged him, slowly pulling him onto the mattress as she lay down together with him. Her hand snaked around his neck to bring his head down on the soft pillow that was her chest. The other one skidded across his arm until it found its way into his own. She laced her fingers with his, raising their entwined hands to her lips to give a peck on the small arrow on the back.

"You're safe here. I'll protect you," she murmured while he snuggled up to her side. She gave a second kiss on the light blue stripe connecting to the bigger arrow on his forehead.

"Thanks, Katara."

She promised herself to keep an eye on him until he fell asleep. She watched the changes in the expression on his face. Aang seemed rather thoughtful the entire time, not willing to close his eyes.

He slowly untangled their fingers one by one, then tiptoed over her ribcage and pressed his palm above her heart. Katara figured that focusing on the strong, steady beats and her even breathing would calm his mind, reassuring him of her presence.

She attempted to lay her hand above his own, but it slipped away before she could. His hand hovered over her breast and landed on her stomach, where it started rubbing circles around her belly button. Katara frowned when he went on for more than a minute. She clasped his hand to stop him.

"What is it? Are you worried about the baby? Because everything was fine during tonight's healing session-"

"No, it's not that. I'm glad that everything's okay, but it's just.. Sometimes I think about the awful things that some people are capable of doing. You know, terrorism.. war.. genocide. How can we possibly bring a child into a world that's so.. cruel?"

Aang didn't expect her to release a long, content hum as she fondly nuzzled her nose against his bald head, squeezing him in her embrace. Her confidence was infectious.

"We can, because we've worked so hard to make our world a safe and peaceful place for everybody to live in. You've worked so hard. Republic City is a testament to that."

"I guess you're right.." he sighed, a tad too sadly for Katara's liking.

What once was known as Cranefish Town had grown so much in size during these past few years. Ever since the young couple had decided to build their nest on that small island across the bay to keep a watchful eye on the progress. Establishing the first police force, fire department and hospital helped in maintaining order and improving the welfare of its citizens. But it was far from the dream Aang had for what it would become.

A hand came up under his chin and scratched at his short beard, gently beckoning him to lift his face a little so she could gaze into his stormy grey eyes. The worst was over and serenity started to prevail.

"Hey, it may not be perfect, but it's the right way. Founding this capital is a really important step towards the future. A better, safer future for our children."

"Child-ren? Plural?" he wondered playfully, making his wife giggle.

"I don't see why not. We'll fill our baby's world with kindness.."

Her finger ran along his lips, tugging at the corner of his mouth to form a smile.

"And compassion.."

Katara caressed his cheek with the back of her hand, as if she was wiping away invisible tears, or drying up the ones he'd shed after he woke up.

"And most importantly, love."

She closed her eyes and leaned forward to offer him a kiss. She nipped at his bottom lip before pulling away slowly, longingly, her diamond blue eyes shimmering in the darkness like the stars at night. The coolness and stillness reflecting from them helped settle the remnants of unease.

"And we'll teach our baby to do the same. To make the world a better place. Just like we've done so far."

Aang smiled at that thought for a mere moment before his smile faded away.

"But.. what if it's above our heads? What if another power-hungry dictator came to rule and tried to wipe out another culture?"

He took her silence as her pondering over that reality. It hadn't even been a decade since they'd discovered other southern waterbenders besides her and she'd ceased being the last descendant of that part of her culture. To say that she felt relieved would be an understatement. She felt ecstatic, and he hoped to share that excitement with her a second time one day. When a new airbender would be born.

But the fear that something similar might happen to his or any other culture in the future, including Katara's, still lingered in his mind whenever these painful memories were brought up. This time, they were brought up by a nightmare.

Katara's answer was simple, yet determined.

"No. As long as we're around, as long as the Avatar is around, it'll never happen again. Not to your people, not to my tribe, not to my sister tribe, not to the United Republic, not even to the Earth Kingdom or the Fire Nation."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because we'll teach the next generation to make sense of our past, so they can uphold our legacy. If they know what happened and they understand why it happened, they can learn from the mistakes of their predecessors and they'll know how to prevent such tragedies from ever happening again. And they can help the next Avatar maintain this delicate balance we've worked so hard to achieve."

Her wisdom was beginning to sound like his. Maybe it'd rubbed off on her, but Aang grinned at that idea. The possibility of their children helping his reincarnation, the next Water Tribe Avatar in line to protect the world. He knew he wouldn't be around to see it, but his chest would swell with pride if that came true. And he believed that Katara would be proud, too.

Her fingertips grazed his cheek while coming down to his jaw, raising it higher and asking him to look her in the eye.

"Besides, I would protect you or any other nation that's being attacked. And we'll teach our children to do the same. To understand where they come from and why it's important to help preserve different cultures. Our cultures."

Our cultures.. not his or her culture. Theirs. The way she'd emphasized it sounded like she considered them to be one people, which was actually true when Aang remembered what the guru had taught him. And coming from her mouth, it truly sounded endearing.

Katara laid her hand above his, the one that'd remained on her belly the entire time. She tenderly rubbed a small clockwise circle around the spot together with him.

"And we'll protect our baby at all cost. I won't let any harm come to this little fellow. No, I won't," she cooed in a silly voice, which made Aang chuckle.

"Heh, me neither. I'll do everything I can to protect our baby.. and you.. and the five nations, too. I'll protect all of you, promise."

He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze in return. The soon-to-be parents startled a little when the baby gave their entwined hands a kick.

"Did you feel that? I think he likes your promise."

"Or she might just want a breather. Don't worry, baby. Daddy's gonna leave you alone now so you can sleep in peace."

He withdrew his hand and propped himself up on his elbow, leaning over Katara's tummy to kiss the baby growing inside her good night.

She giggled as her husband snuggled up to her, pulling the blanket higher to keep them warm from the chilly, but fresh air. He glanced over his shoulder and airbended the small crack between the window more shut, so the temperature in the room wouldn't become too freezing.

She felt how his hand wriggled up under the sheets, slightly tickling her waist until he settled it back on her chest. The corners of his mouth rose once he could sense the subtle thumps of her heart beating against his palm. He blinked and looked up at her, the same loving smile decorating her lips as she laid her hand above his own.

"Thank you, Katara. For everything you said."

"You're welcome, Aang. Now, try and get some sleep," she murmured to him, her fingers caressing the back of his hand as he nuzzled his nose against the soft fabric of her tunic, letting his eyes fall shut.

"I'm right here for you, sweetie. Wake me up if you need anything."

"Okay.." he mumbled, finally allowing sleep to conquer him.

Katara pursed her lips to give him one last good-night kiss on the top of his head, after which she followed his example and fell asleep, her precious airbender safe and sound in her arms. She never let go of him that night, just like she'd promised.

[theroadtoindigo-go]

Undesirable Truth, Part 4

It took me a little while to calm down. As I was drying my eyes, Sonic handed me his handkerchief.

“If you’re ready, we can get going?” He offered.

I accepted his offer and we started walking toward his home. It was a long but easy walk as the sun slowly started to rise over the horizon. Everything grew brighter and friendlier as the sun rose higher and higher. I found myself smiling again. By mid-morning we arrived at a little hut by the beach. The yellow and blue paint on the walls was faded and cracking but the place looked very cozy. Before we could reach the house, a yellow fox ran out and rushed toward us.

“Sonic!” He called, “I knew you'd be back soon!”

He tackled Sonic with a hug and it seemed as though he wouldn’t be letting go any time soon.

“Where were you?” The boy asked.

“Heh, well, I ran into a little trouble with Eggman. But Cat saved me!” Sonic motioned to me and sent me a quick wink.

I would have hardly called our escape anything like me saving him, in my eyes it was the other way around. But the fox kit seemed very interested. I bashfully averted my eyes. And tried to reply.

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly…”

“Oh yeah!” Sonic interrupted, “And she even carried me all the way here!”

“What!? No!”

The boy laughed, “How did you lose enough weight for that to happen?”

“Hey! Just because you can’t handle lifting me of the ground doesn’t mean everyone else has the same problem!”

“Sure.” The young one rolled his eyes with a smirk.

Who was this sassy child? And when could I adopt him?

“My name is Tails, by the way.” He said.

Finally, I had his name!

“Tails,” I said, “you and me, we’re best friends now.”

Tails shrugged, “Alright.”

Sonic laughed, “That was easy.”

After they led me inside, I took a seat in their tiny kitchen while Sonic filled Tails in on the time they had spent apart. That included me guarding Sonic as a prisoner and our ‘grand’ escape from Eggman and Metal Sonic. Thankfully he kept out the part about my past. Tails nodded as he listened, his little face shown his focus on retaining all details. As Tails was filling Sonic in on what he had missed, my eyes drifted around admiring their house. The bright yellow tiles on the kitchen counter, the light wooden cabinets, the pale gray linoleum flooring, and the pastel blue walls throughout the house. Beyond the kitchen was a little living room with a heavily worn out couch with an overabundance of pillows, a just as worn hammock and a small tv set from the 90’s. I did notice a few other smaller contraptions and tools around the place but I assumed they were just common place items that I had no memory of. It all looked so cozy.

Sunlight was pouring into the kitchen from the window behind me, bathing the whole room in warm light and heating my back in the process. It all felt so safe and relaxing that I nearly fell asleep with my face on the table top. Tails seemed to notice my drowsiness.

“Oh, hey! Are you tired?” He asked.

Sonic stretched his back and chuckled at my posture.

“I’m pretty beat too. It’s time for a nap.”

I hadn’t really slept in a bed in years, all I had was a temporary cot back at Eggman’s base. Imagine my surprise when Sonic insisted that he give me his bed to rest. I wanted to refuse but he just went along with his suggestion anyway and started sleeping in the hammock in the living room. Try as I might to persuade him, he just turned over and pretended to already be asleep. I looked to Tails for guidance.

“Just take the bed.” He said with a shrug.

I hadn’t even seen a bed in so long. Had I been well rested, I probably would’ve taken much more opposition to accepting this much hospitality and to the amount of little blue spines and hairs all over the blankets that were left unmade. No wonder he offered, he probably didn’t want to sleep in this either. Against my better judgement, I pretended not to notice any of it as I uncomfortably settled in. As I did so, my eyes closed all on their own. One of the last things I noticed before my mind started drifting was how much the sheets smelled like him and that maybe the bed wasn’t as cushy as I had expected. However, this didn’t stop me from falling asleep within the next two seconds.

By the time I had woken up it was late in the afternoon. My eyelids felt heavy and my mind groggy as I forced myself to sit up and out of my resting place. From the living room, I could hear Sonic and Tails in the middle of a conversation:

“Maybe it’s not so good an idea that she meets Amy…” Sonic said.

“Why not?” Tails asked.

“Well- I mean- you know how she gets…”

I decided to step in and ask what all the fuss was about.

“How does she get?” I asked.

“Amy’s craaaazy about him.” Tails cleared up.

“It’s not like that! It’s just- “

“Oh! You have a girlfriend~?” I teased.

“She’s not my girlfriend!”

“Yeah, that means she’s definitely your girlfriend! Don’t worry, I’ll keep my distance from now on!”

“Now hold on just a sec!”

“Friendship with Sonic has ended, now Tails is my new best friend! Right, Tails?”

“Mm-hm!” Tails replied.

Sonic face-palmed then glared at Tails between his fingers, “Traitor…”

               Much to Sonic’s hesitation, it was agreed that Amy should visit. The vote was two against one anyway. But before Tails could call her to invite her over, Sonic caught sight of one of his shed spines in my fur and plucked it out to inspect it.

“If Amy sees one of these on you, she’ll whack me into next week. We probably both reek of eggbase anyway. So, before we call her over, we gotta clean up.”

“Oh, thank chaos!” Tails snarked and held his nose, “I was trying my hardest not to say anything.”

Sonic squinted his eyes at the young fox, “Hey! You gotta clean up too! I don’t remember saying anything about leaving your inventions all over the house when I was gone.”

Tails groaned and went to pick up all the little contraptions that I was now glad to know were not household items that I never knew about.

               Sonic went and showered first as I helped Tails clean up the house. He showed me what all his inventions did and I was quite impressed. He even tricked out a Roomba to clean the walls. When Sonic came back, he handed me a clean towel and a new bar of soap and said,

“Okay, it’s all yours! I’ll try to find you some clean clothes to borrow while you’re in there.”

“Um, how long?” I asked with borrowed towel and soap in hand.

“...’how long’ what?” Sonic asked.

“Am I allowed to use the water?”

“As… long as you want?”

“Really??”

“Um, yeah! Were you really not allowed to use the water back in that base?”

“I was only allowed five minutes…”

“Wow… let me guess, the water was cold too, huh?”

I nodded.

Sonic inhaled deeply and set his hands on my shoulders.

“Tell you what, take as long as you want. You can even use up all of the hot water. I owe you this one.”

I almost cried.

               In the shower, the water was so scalding it stung my skin underneath my fur but it was such a good burn. I didn’t even care if my skin was melting off because at least all my worries were melting off with it. I stood there letting the water hit my back for about 15 minutes before I remembered what I was actually in there for. As I washed up, I thought back on the old showers I used to take. In five minutes, I used to rush to lather soap and water all over before rinsing it off with what could only be described as ice water. But this, this was heaven. My thoughts kept drifting to my days back in the base, when Sonic was first introduced into my life. I saw him as a responsibility and a chance to make the doctor proud of me or at least appreciative of my efforts.

               At first, we knew each other as enemies and yet, he spoke to me as though we were peers. When he snarked, I snarked back. I actually looked forward to our conversations because that was the only time during the day that I could unload all of my sass. And the more I did that, the more he seemed to like my company as well. When it came time for me to interrogate him, we were already on a first name basis. That first interrogation, I was very nervous to speak to him in the same room, all our previous conversations were either through bars or intercom. When I entered the room, I remember having to rush right back out because Eggman, no matter how genius he thinks he is, forgot to put a shower in Sonic’s cell.

               Poor Sonic had been in that room for two weeks without anything for hygiene, and it took me an extra week of repeated complaining to finally get a response. The end result was a big metal wash basin and a bar of soap. Nothing else. I was appalled but we made due, I fashioned some old blueprints and a wire frame to work as a screen. I knew Eggman would be angry, and he was, but I stood my ground and stipulated that even though Sonic was prisoner, he was still entitled to privacy in regards to his basic hygienic needs. Now I look back on those days with a chuckle at how I would try to hurry him and how he’d tease me with loud humming and whistling. In the end, I worked hard to get him the basic necessities he needed and I treated him with respect. I suppose that’s what Sonic meant when he said he owed me this shower…

               Upon finishing my shower and drying off, I found some clean clothes hanging on the outside door knob of the bathroom door. Just as Sonic had promised. These new clothes were baggy on me which was a drastic change from my uniform, that was no surprise considering how much taller Sonic was than me. The clothes consisted of a plain white t-shirt and a pair of cargo pants. The fabric that the shirt was made of was much softer, lighter and easier to move in than my uniform. I hypothesized that this shirt went unworn for quite some time since there were stubborn wrinkles in it from being folded in a drawer. The cargo pants were a bit of a challenge to put on, they were too big to sit at my waist like I wanted and instead rested loosely on my hips. I made a mental note to ask Sonic for a belt to borrow if he had one. After putting on the new clothes, I took a look in the mirror and was surprised to see how plain looking I was. My eyes got used to seeing the bright blue and yellow furs of my friends but mine was such a muddy brown all over. There was nothing remarkable about me. If I wasn’t careful, my friends could easily lose me in a crowd of three people.

               When I stepped out in the living room to meet the bright smiles of my friends, all my insecurities melted away. At least a small brown nobody like me could find accepting friends like them. And so far, that’s all that mattered. There was also a new person in the room, a pink hedgehog who seemed very attached to Sonic. He introduced us.

“Cat, this is Amy. Amy this is Cat.”

Amy did not seem keen to meet me at first, no doubt here to scope out her potential rival in hopes of defending her territory. This was soon cleared up.

“Oh, she's so pretty~!” I remarked with a smirk at Sonic, “No wonder she's your girlfriend!”

“Please don't say the ‘G’ word!” Sonic groaned.

Amy's eyes seemed to light up after that.

“Finally, someone with sense!” she exclaimed and took me aside to get better acquainted.

               It didn’t take long for Amy to sweep me up in a shopping trip to help me find clothes that actually fit. Her generosity rivaled Sonic’s and it nearly beat his out as we went from shop to shop looking for items that suited my size. Not that Amy was on the sidelines that whole time, she found a few things for herself as well. I was amazed at all the small shops, the variety of people walking around, and all items available for purchase. When I was hidden away, I never thought there would be so much color and liveliness in the world. Everything was so bright and happy. When I looked at all the shop fronts and the clothes on display, I was met with a crippling sensory overload. I hoped Amy wouldn’t notice though my face must have tipped her off.

“Why don’t we take a break for a little bit?” Amy suggested.

“N-no! It’s okay! I can-! I mean…” I took a breath and returned her glance. Back in the eggbase, I had to fight for my tasks. If it was obvious that I couldn’t do it or if I struggled with it for too long, I’d get stuck with an easier but unpleasant job instead. I had to remind myself that I wasn’t there anymore.

“Thanks Amy, it’s just really hard to pick one thing.” I admitted.

She seemed to understand.

“How about I show you my favorite place? Then we’ll try to find your style and work from there?”

“My…style?” The thought of an individual look for myself was exciting but also daunting.

As we were heading to the shop, we caught the eyes of a couple passers-by. Thankfully Amy was quick to give them a glare to let them know we were off limits. Perhaps I wasn’t so plain-Jane after all.

               In the shop, there were a large amount of dresses on sale. I didn’t take much interest in them, I liked pants better. They were easier to work in. Of course, that brought up the question if I was going to work at all in this new life I was making for myself. I tried to push that out of my mind, now was not the time to think about that. I gravitated toward the pants rack in the back while Amy busied herself with the dresses. I picked up a pair of black pants that vaguely reminded me of the old ones I used to wear. The fabric was of much better quality and somehow it made me angry that even in this small shop they had much better materials than what I was given for all of my remembered life. Before I could dwell on that longer my eyes drifted toward a light blue button-down short sleeved shirt. I couldn’t get it in my hands soon enough!

               One thing led to another and I had a whole arm full of shirts just like it. Amy looked over and started to laugh.

“So that’s what you like! Here, let me help you pick out some things to match.”

By the end, I had a pair of navy-blue slacks, a belt to hold them up, black heels, that button-down shirt that I liked so much and a little vest to match my pants. I looked swanky and I liked it! Amy was apprehensive about my self-fashioned outfit but she did admit it was cute. On our way home I determined that I needed to repay Amy’s kindness any way I could as soon as I was able.

               The next day, Sonic invited me to look around town. Amy and Tails joined us and I was introduced to a lot of Sonic’s friends. There was Silver who was from the future and Blaze who was a princess from another dimension? I couldn’t tell if Sonic was joking or not when he told me that. But there was also, Vector and his friends Espio and Charmy, they ran a detective agency. Something that interested me a great deal, I thought that maybe I could work for them if they were hiring. There was also Rouge who ran a night club who actually did offer me a job, but considering the atmosphere of the whole night club scene I was more than hesitant to take her up on that offer. She mentioned someone named Shadow whom I was also supposed to meet but he was “away on a job”. I suppose he didn’t work for Rouge. I met Big the cat, who wasn’t much for talking but he seemed really nice.

By midafternoon I was exhausted from meeting so many people so we went back to Sonic’s place to rest but there was someone there waiting for us. It was Sonic’s friend Knuckles. Needless to say, this ‘friend’ Knuckles did not take a very keen liking to me. Somehow, he found out about where I had come from and was here to scare me off.

“How can you be sure she isn’t a double agent working for Eggman?” He questioned, eyeing me suspiciously.

Sonic, to my ire, was not taking this seriously.

“It’s cuz she’s so small! Nothing this tiny could be evil! Right, Tiny?” He said and used the top of my head as an armrest just to prove his point.

I was not amused.

“Tiny or not! I don’t trust her! Are you sure she didn’t just brainwash you into thinking she’s harmless?” The red one exclaimed. He leaned in so he could get a close look at my face. He was a very intimidating echidna. “Just admit who you are and I’ll let you walk away.”

By then I was furious, how dare this person question my friendship with Sonic as if I’m only here for my own gains! But what was I here for? And no matter how much I hated it, this guy had a point. Who was I? I was the interloper here. The one out of place in search for a new one, but how could I find my new place in the world if I wasn’t sure who I was? I needed some time to think.

“I’ll let you know who I am as soon as she shows up, bud.” I walked away toward the beach to clear my head. I suppose he was just asking all these questions to determine my worth but I just couldn’t handle it that day. The past events that led me here were still raw and I needed some more time to create the emotional space I needed in order to explore them for answers. Maybe in looking back I would find myself.

I sat on the beach and watched the waves roll up and fall backward over and over. I didn’t like the beach. It was too messy, but it was at least calming to watch at a distance. My mind mulled over the question of who I was over and over but the answer “a failed experiment” just didn’t satisfy. I knew there was more to me than my past and where I came from. But trying to find the image I had of myself was even more discouraging. All that came up was that plain little cat in the mirror. The one who’d be lost forever if you took your eyes off her just once. I knew what I liked and what I didn’t like, but that wasn’t enough to determine a personality. I looked up at the sky, there were seagulls flying overhead and playing with each other. What would it take for me to be that care free?

Sonic walked over and took a seat next to me in the sand. He was humming something. I didn’t pay much mind to him, I just watched the seagulls dive at the water and fly back up.

“Don’t let that knucklehead get you down. He’s just a stubborn poor judge of character. But he’ll come around.” He said.

“You sure? He seems pretty dead-set on hating me.”

“Just give him the stink-eye and he’ll leave you alone, he’s afraid of girls anyway. But if he keeps bothering you just leave him to me, I’ll set him straight.” He sent a keen grin my way.

The next breeze that swept at us left behind a couple drops of rain on our foreheads. There was a storm coming.

“Let’s go inside.” Sonic offered. “I can send Knuckles home and we can have a jam session without him.”

“I like the sound of that.”

Sonic led me back inside the house after telling Knuckles to leave and sat at a small piano set against the wall. He stretched out his fingers before playing a happy tune.

“I didn’t know you played.” I said.

“You never asked.” he said with a smile and continued to play before saying, “I know you’re worried and stuff, but so long as you’ve got a positive attitude, you’ll be okay.”

“I know… I just wish I remembered more that’s all. I don’t even know who I was. How do I even move on from that?”

Sonic shrugged, “You just do. One day at a time.”

               The next day, Sonic woke me extremely early and insisted that I join him on an adventure to one of Eggman’s abandoned bases. I turned over and tried to go back to sleep.

               “Come on! It’ll be fun! It might even cheer you up a little.” He coaxed.

I grunted in response.

“Come oooooooooon! Wake up!” He took my blanket away.

I sat up and tried to snatch it back with one eye open but he was too quick.

               “Ugh! Why are you going anyway?” I asked.

“We found some faint chaos energy readings from there and I wanna check it out!”

“We just escape two days ago! The last thing I want is to go back to a place like that.”

“It’s abandoned! It’ll be different, I promise!”

I curled up to try sleeping without my blanket.

Sonic sighed, “What if I invited Amy to come?”

I sat up immediately, “Let’s go!”

               We set off on our adventure in no time, Amy was meeting us there and I was excited for my first adventure. That is until I saw a certain red echidna waiting with Amy. I halted.

               “Why is he here?” I asked in a hushed tone.

“He’s tagging along.” Sonic replied casually.

“And why is that?”

“I thought an adventure would smooth things over between you two.”

“You invited him??”

“Don’t be so hard-headed, it’ll be fine! An adventure will be all he needs to see you’re a friend just- “

               “Why is she coming?” Knuckles bellowed and pointed to me.

Sonic was about to make some sort of peaceable answer but I was faster with my reply.

“That’s none of your business!”

Knuckles was caught off guard and stammered, “I-! What-! You-! You shouldn’t be here! You’ll just lead us into a trap!”

“Oh yeah? Well maybe I will! Just for you! Just cuz you said so!”

“Oh! I’ll show you a trap!” He lifted his fist but I didn’t flinch.

“Bring it, tough guy!”

“That’s enough! Both of you!” Amy scolded, “I don’t want to hear anymore or I’ll send you home!”

“She started it…” Knuckles muttered and turned away to pout.

I huffed and turned away as well.

               The abandoned base was in an underground cave. As we started to travel inside and into the dark, I could hear Amy sarcastically whisper to Sonic.

“Great idea bringing them both along…”

Sonic tisked, “Shame on me for trying to have them get along, I guess.”

When we reached the entrance, which was shut, Sonic turned to me and asked.

“Any way to get in?”

I inspected the door. It looked familiar but the power seemed to be off. Many of the doors in Eggman’s bases were never locked with deadbolts or bars but were actually forced shut with hydraulics. If the power was ever off then the pressure to keep the doors tightly closed went away.

“Just force it open.” I shrugged.

“Tsh, that’s it?” Knuckles remarked, “You guys should’ve just asked me. I got this!”

He held onto the door from the bottom and started lifting, the task proved harder than he had anticipated. He glared back at me.

“Force it open, huh?”

“Well yeah, genius! Except it opens from the side not the bottom!”

He grunted and started pulling the door open from the side as Sonic snickered away. The task of opening the door wasn’t as easy as the concept, but Knuckles made quick work of creating an opening. We all filed in one by one with Sonic at the front, Amy following behind him and Knuckles in the back.

               The air inside the facility was heavy and dusty, there were numerous large vats of clear boiling liquid but there wasn’t any heat in the room. It was actually rather chilly. Knuckles warned us to stay together to avoid easily getting lost, I ignored his warning and immediately climbed one of the two metal stair cases that lead up to an observation deck. With the emergency lights on, I could see that the water tanks below me were left uncovered at the top and were indeed filled with water. But even though it was all boiling, there wasn’t any steam rising. I had seen this liquid before.

               “Hey! Where do you think you’re going??” Knuckles exclaimed and started charging over.

I straightened my back and fixed a glare on him, I was ready for another argument.

“Didn’t you hear me? I said we need to stick together!”

“Aw, were you worried about me?” I teased and batted my eyelashes.

“You-!” He stopped himself and turned away with a grunt, his cheeks were all red. Sonic was right, Knuckles wasn’t very comfortable around girls.

“Are you shy?”

“I’m not shy!”

               “You love birds done?” Sonic commented, “I thought we were here to find a chaos emerald.”

Both Knuckles and I cut our eyes toward him with grimaces, but we canned the dispute for now and followed his lead deeper into the labs.

               A lot of the hallways where just tunnels hewn from the earth and traveling through them sent chills down my spine. Whatever we were going to find at the end of this tunnel was not going to be a pleasant sight. Sonic and Amy where getting further ahead of me, I was being too cautious and it was slowing me down. Suddenly Knuckles grabbed my arm and yanked me back. Before I could shout at him a rock from the ceiling fell right where I was about to step! Then more rocks started falling, more, and more. We had to back up until it finally stopped. I was starting to panic.

“Cat! Knuckles! You guys okay?” Sonic called from the other side of the collapse.

“We’re fine!” Knuckles replied.

“Good! Amy and I will find another way around. Meet us back at the entrance after you finish searching.”

I swallowed hard. I was going to be alone with Knuckles for who knows how long. I could tell he didn’t like the idea either, but no matter how strong he was it was a bad idea to just dig our way through the rubble.

               With a tired sigh, he let go of my arm and started walking back to the main part of the lab. I followed behind quietly until he turned around and asked,

“Just why did you come along anyway, Tiny?”

“I’m not tiny! I just wanted an adventure for once…”

He snickered, “If you aren’t Tiny, then I must be a whale!”

“Hey, you said it. Not me.”  

“I-! …wait a minute! You calling me a whale?”

I started to laugh and ran past him to round the corner, “You said it, not me!”

“Get back here!” He shouted as he chased me down.

I nearly lost him until that corner ended in a broken walkway over one of the water tanks. I couldn’t stop in time and as a result I lost my balance and fell over the walkway and toward the water below. Knuckles was there just in time to catch my leg before I reached it.

               “I gotcha!” He grunted then pulled me back up with almost no effort. “Not bad for a whale, huh?”

When he set me down, I took a sizeable step away from the edge.

“See what I mean about running off? We need to stick together from now on, got it?” He said.

I sheepishly nodded.

“Good,” He breathed a sigh of relief and took a look around, “You know these bases better than I do, right? Where would all the important stuff be?”

I thought for a little while then said, “Well, I guess it would be in the control room. If Eggman ever visited his bases, that’s where he’d spend most of his time.”

Knuckles eyed me skeptically then said, “Lead the way.”

               My steps to the control room were very uneasy due to my little brush with death, I still didn’t know what that liquid really was, or why it was so familiar but I couldn’t shake the feeling it was very important to know. We reached the door and Knuckles punched his fist right through it. When he saw how wide my eyes went, he chuckled and said,

“Don’t worry, I’d never use my full strength on you, Tiny.”

I didn’t appreciate the nickname for me but at least there was some endearment in it. Once he forced the hole open a little more, he let me slip inside first. This room was much darker that the others since there was only one emergency light running. There it was Eggman’s desk, I knew it was nothing I should have been scared of but that voice in my head was telling me I shouldn’t be here. Knuckles climbed in right behind me and saw the desk.

               He walked right over and started opening drawers even after I tried to warn him not to. He didn’t find anything but there was a computer built into the desk. I gingerly walked over to the desk and switched on the power. Even with the rest of the facility running on auxiliary power, this computer had a back-up battery.

“You think it’s a good idea to start switching things on?” Knuckles asked.

“With the lab shut down like this, it should be safe.”

“See if you can find any maps of this place.”

“He never kept maps of his bases…”

“Tsk, figures… Blue prints?”

“Only on his traveling server, and I think that’s disconnected.”

“Traveling…? never mind. What’s this base used for?”

I did some digging into the lab reports left on the computer’s desktop, they were in-progress reports about the water in the tanks.

“This is about what’s in those tanks out there…”

“So, it’s not just boiling water…” Knuckles leaned in closer to read the report with me.

The report was about transferring chaos energy into water through some process of dilution, essentially Eggman was filling water with pure chaos energy with the use of a chaos emerald. The result was the water in the containers below. The water wasn’t boiling from heat but from chaos energy itself. There was no chaos emerald here at all, the chaos energy readings were coming from the water. There were other files about him trying to discover uses for this water but Knuckles knew all he wanted to know.

               “Time to tear this place down!” Knuckles said with determination. “Do you think there’s an easy way to do it?”

“Well, that tunnel collapsed. So, it seems like caving this place in would be no problem. But we’d have to make sure we could get out of here before then. An explosion in the right spot would do it.”

“Okay, where?”

“I don’t know yet, but let me do some digging and I think I’ll be able to figure something out. In the meantime, we need to let Sonic and Amy know about our plan.”

“I can find them, you stay here and do what you need to do. I’ll come back when they’re ready.”

“Got it!”

Knuckles climbed out of the hole he made in the door but took a moment to glance at me.

“Don’t try anything funny!” He warned then went on his way.

I huffed and rolled my eyes and continued working away.

As I was searching through the computer’s documents, a dialogue box opened on the screen: “Starting video call…”

It was him!

I panicked and tried to cancel the call and even switch off the computer but all the built-in computers in the labs were designed to take orders from him. Not even the power buttons switched off the computers without his say so.

It didn't take long for the video call to start.

“Who's poking around in my lab!? Cat!?” He leaned in closer toward the screen as though to get a better look at me, “Oh, thank goodness you're alright! I was so worried when you disappeared! I thought the worst!”

I felt all the color drain from my face in a white heat. Did I misunderstand and make the wrong decision?

I shook my head.

“You were worried about me? But you sent Metal after us! He almost killed me!” I retorted.

“I sent Metal to save you!”

“Metal tried to kill me!”

“Metal was trying to protect you. He didn't hurt you, did he?”

I looked down at my arm where Metal Sonic had grabbed me. There wasn't even a bruise.

“I suppose hiding behind the walls was your idea? It was very clever, just what I’d expect from you. I'm not sure what Sonic has told you but I promise not to hurt him if you would just come home.”

Home? Is that what he called it?

“I… But that room, with the operating table...”

“What roo-”

“I was human once, wasn't I?”

“So you do know… I was afraid of this. But I suppose I've kept it a secret from you for too long. You were very sick when I took you in. I tried to cure you but the operation didn't exactly… work as planned. But I’ve finally figured out a way to change you back! Why don't you come home and we'll set this right?”

My head was spinning, was I just misunderstanding everything?

“No…!” I tried to convince myself, “no, I'm making a life here! I have friends and…”

“I know you think Sonic is your friend but he was only using you to escape. It's only a matter of time before he throws you away for someone else.”

Had I really run off with someone who used me? I never did read the file that I gave Sonic. What if there was nothing in there and he was faking his sympathy all along? The very thought of it started to bring tears to my eyes. I shared so much of myself and was it really all a waste? I wanted Sonic to be here to speak out, to prove Eggman wrong, but the fact that he wasn't here hit me harder than it should have. I was completely alone.

“There now, don’t cry. Just switch the power on in the lab and I'll come get you.”

My hand hovered over the mouse, maybe ‘home’ was where I belonged after all?

Then I remembered.

“My name…”

“Er, what?”

“What was my name before all this? Did you ever write it down?”

He paused. I continued.

“And if you cared so much, why didn't you ever ask me how I felt? what I thought? Or what I needed? Why didn't you treat me as an equal or at least as someone worth your time? Why was I always alone? Where was your worry then, huh?”

“...You’re not as stupid as I thought. Fine! I don't care! At least now I'm free from your constant blubbering! I may not be able to access everything in that lab but I can at least make leaving difficult for you!”

I heard the wiring of machines echo through the building.

“Good luck getting past that! Escape me once, shame on me. But I'd be an imbecile to let you slip through my fingers a second time!”

I looked back at the door, the clanking of metal feet hitting the ground was reverberating around the building. I returned my gaze to the computer screen, Eggman seemed very confident that this would stop me. I had had enough!

“Then count yourself the king of imbeciles!” I exclaimed. “I’m getting out of here alive and there’s nothing you can do about it!” I hopped over the desk toward the door.

Knuckles was there waiting for me leaning against the wall, arms crossed with a pensive look on his face.

“Got here just in time to hear your little speech…”

“Y-yeah…?” I gulped.

Knuckles smiled and offered me his hand, “Looks like I had the wrong idea about you. Ready?”

I took his hand with a smile and we hightailed it for the exit. I looked behind me to see reserve robots following behind us. If we didn’t do anything to blow up this base, then we would have come here for nothing. Then I remembered something.

               “Hold on!” I slid to a stop and charged back.

“Where are you going??” Knuckles exclaimed.

“Help me get one of these bots in a tank!” I replied.

Knuckles didn’t quite understand, but he followed my lead. I waited until one of the guards was standing on one of the observation decks over the tanks. It stood right next the broken section of walkway. With a smirk I charged into it and started pushing so it would fall into the tank. Knuckles caught on to the plan and joined in. As soon as it fell, we turned tail and run. With all the chaos energy in that water, any disturbance would cause a massive reaction.

               I was right, as soon as we heard the splash there was an eruption, that spilled over to the next tank and the next until they were all going off. Knuckles and I out ran all of them. We were just about to reach the door.

“OUT OF THE WAY!” Knuckles shouted.

Sonic and Amy side-stepped just in time for Knuckles to burst right through the doors and pave the way for the rest of us. With all the chaos happening inside, the building was starting to shake and with that shaking the walls that once held strong were starting to cave in. We all ran as fast as we could from the cave and into the open air. The base was gone.

               As we all took a break to recover and catch our breaths, Sonic paced a couple circles around us looking as cheerful as ever.

“Not bad for your first mission, huh?” He asked.

I stared back at my triumph and started to laugh. Knuckles glanced over at me and shook his head with a smile. I straightened up and punched Knuckles in the arm, it turned out he wasn’t so bad after all. And I looked forward to seeing him again soon.

On the way home, I talked Sonic’s ear off about everything that happened after we got separated. This was a day I would never forget. After having a warm relaxing shower and slipping into nice clean sheets now set up on the couch, I was ready for the most peaceful sleep I had ever had. The rain was gently pattering on the window as I drifted off to sleep.

.               .               .

On a rainy night, I was asleep until a bright light shined through my bedroom window. It shone long enough to wake me, as soon as I started to sit up a claw crashed through the window and reached for me. I was not quick enough to escape. I wasn’t even awake enough to scream. Glass was everywhere, the cold rain soaked me and chilled me to the core as I was slowly being lifted out of my room and up into the headlights of the gigantic robot that held me.

Eggman sat in the pilot seat, laughing maniacally. I tried to push the claws around me to let go, but there was nothing I could do. I had the strongest hope that with all this noise, all this crazy activity, someone would see this and report it. That I would be saved. I knew that Sonic would stop my captor and that I would be free soon. I was almost excited about the rescue that I was so sure would come. I held onto that hope that whole way to Eggman’s base, in the dark I shivered but kept a brave face. Even as I was lowered into the holding cell that would later hold Sonic.

“You’re going to be very useful to me.” He would say even as I said Sonic would stop him.

After a while on sitting in the dark and doing my best to stay warm, I started to doubt. I tried to remind myself I was being foolish for not staying strong. But when I saw the sun rise and realized just how much time I had waited to be rescued. My hopes shattered right then and there. I fought to free myself, I screamed and tried to run more fervently than I had before. All of it in vain. In the preparation room I was forced to exchange my pajamas for a uniform. Sick from crying, shaking from fear and broken from the realization that rescue was not on the way. I sat in that pale, cold room waiting for the event that would ruin my life. As the door slowly opened behind me, I had no more voice to scream and no more strength to fight as I was lifted and dragged away. I was strapped down to an operating table, needles pierced my skin, tubes were attached to my body. The most intense pain I had ever experienced washed over me. I lived in that blur of agony for a long time until I had completely forgotten everything.

I remembered waking up in the preparation room again, weak from the operation and my mind in a deep haze. I sat up and held my head in a pain that was a blunt stabbing ache. I was barely awake when Eggman stepped into the room, visibly disappointed but intrigued. As I looked up at the man I no longer recognized, he smiled and said, “You’ll still be useful yet.”

- - -

Thank you for reading!

Part 5 will be posted next week.

For parts 1-3 you can visit my fanfiction.net page: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13241826/1/Undesirable-Truth

[angelia-dark]

The Price of Kindness, Part 1

Another commission from the lovely @sapphire-sphinx, another multi-parter!

The Request:  The Swap Brothers get stuck in Fell, and as a repayment, Stretch becomes Edge’s pet.

Part 2

Word Count: 2951

Link to my Commissions Page for pricing and general info.

Or Buy Me a Coffee

In hindsight, Stretch could've seen it coming.

Running on three days of no sleep, jittery from three cups of Muffet's strongest honey-roasted coffee, and his brother startling him by bursting in to screech about Alphys giving him a date for Guard tryouts was only a recipe for absolute disaster. Already unfocused, his hand shaky, and the machine he was working on having an open panel with the circuits on (that he had foolishly forgotten to turn off), perhaps ramming the screwdriver in with his jumpy reflexes wasn't, in hindsight, the wisest thing to do.

To his brother's credit, those training reflexes paid off as soon as the machine began to spark and fizzle, and Stretch found himself covered by his brother's sturdier form before everything went deafening and white.

And then black.

When he got around to thinking about it later down the road, Stretch didn't know how long he had been knocked out. All the sleep he'd been neglecting finally caught up and extended his unconsciousness for longer than it should have been, blissfully unaware as he slept.

When he regained consciousness, he was first aware of a soreness in his frame he'd only experienced once before, years ago when the accident at the lab tore his HP down to one. Stretch slowly came to further consciousness, wincing as he raised a hand to rub his skull. His hand touched a wrap around his head, which was odd since he didn't know what would warrant something like that.

“...Sans...?” he called out, his voice croaking out oddly weakly as he rubbed his eye sockets and looked around.

This was not his basement.

The stone walls were scratched, chipped, and crumbling from wear and age rather than accidental, and the floor was barely clean enough to be considered hygienic. He was situated on a frayed pallet covered with a threadbare blanket and no pillow, and several dishes next to him that looked to be eaten out of already.

He frowned with confusion, turning his head to the other side and felt a jolt when he saw his brother lying close by.

Blue was lying face-down on another pallet, his armor and shirt removed to show healing bones on the back side of his frame. The memory of the explosion crashed back into him, recalling Blue shielding him from the bulk of the blast. He ignored his own ache as he tugged his body up and crawled over to Blue, putting a hesitant hand on his shoulder. “...bro...?” he said, his voice barely above a strained whisper. “...bro...Sans...?”

Blue didn't respond, too deep in his unconsciousness to react in any way. Stretch looked around almost helplessly, unable to push himself up further to get up and look for a way out, and jumped when he heard the door at the top of the stairs open.

Stretch growled, covering his brother's body with his own protectively as footsteps descended from the stairs. His soul twitched as he willed up some magic for a fight, then gasped when his soul turned blue and he was redeposited back onto his pallet.

“Don't use magic when you're still healing, you handicapped idiot,” came a rough, grating voice that made Stretch's spine jolt with recognition. He looked up, seeing a Monster nearly identical to himself step into view, holding a tray of dishware.

Oh gods, of ALL the places to end up, why did it have to be HERE!?

“Ease up on th' magic, Edgelord,” Stretch hissed out, trying to lift his arms without success and trying to sound vaguely threatening, which did absolutely nothing. Edge merely gave him an unamused look and put the tray down on a small table nearby.

“You're in no position to be making demands, ash trash,” his doppleganger replied. “In case you haven't noticed, you're in MY domain now, and we've been gracious enough to save your sorry coccyges from dusting.” He arranged the bowls on the table. “So some gratitude would be appreciated before I change my mind.”

Stretch growled, letting his body go lax and a moment later felt the blue hold on his soul let up. Deciding not to test the LOVE-teeming asshole further, he remained where he was, knowing that he nor his brother were capable of defending themselves against a whim of a bad day.

Edge finished his sorting and set a plate of food down next to Stretch before picking up a bottle and kneeling next to Blue, turning the smaller Skeleton to the side, opening his jaw, and pouring the contents in.

“...the hell are you giving him?” Stretch demanded, ignoring the food next to him. Edge shot him a look of annoyance.

“It's actual medicine,” he replied tersely. “And it cost a shit-ton of G, so don't complain about me wasting it on him.” He sat up, putting the cap back on the bottle. “And don't waste my food either. Eat it, since you're conscious.”

Stretch clenched his hands, trying his damnedest not to start up a fight, but finding it difficult, as he always did with the Edgelord. “Are you gonna tell us what happened, or not?”

Edge growled to himself, standing and gathering up the tray. “I think it's fairly obvious, unless your little accident gave you brain damage...at least more than what those disgusting cigarettes did, in any case.” He walked back toward the stairs. “Eat and heal more until Blue wakes up. I'm not explaining anything twice.” He walked up the stairs, shutting the door behind him.

In the stillness of the basement, Stretch heard a lock slide into place and couldn't help the shudder run up his spine. It took him quite some time to gather up the nerve to eat the small meal Edge set next to him, feeling the healing magic trickle through his bones that did little to make up for the taste.

Within the hour of sitting, eating, and falling back to sleep, Stretch could only worry about what exactly was happening.

Blue regained consciousness soon after, but it still took a full bottle of the medicine for him to be able to move without hurting his HP. Still, the Swap brothers weren't let upstairs out of the basement, something that Stretch found suspicious and irritating.

The only thing that made it bearable was Red, who offered more food, a bit more kindness, and explanation.

It had been a week ago that Stretch and Blue had come into their universe through a time-space fracture, looking like they had been caught in an explosion. They HAD, but it would have been worse had the fracture not happened.

Blue caught the worst of it, the back of his frame having been dealt the most damage that was slowly healing, and Stretch's HP had gone to the decimals. It might have proven fatal, had the Fell brothers not been home to hear the commotion rather than being out on the job.

“I wouldn't expect th' good will to last long,” Red said as he gathered up dishes. “It's gonna take awhile to fix our machine, and th' Boss isn't exactly charitable. Until shit's fixed up an' running, you're gonna have to pull yer weight.”

“Of course,” Blue replied in agreement. “It would be rude to just stay here. What can we do to pay you back?”

Red glanced upstairs almost nervously. “...that's for him to decide,” he finally said. “He'll be down later to discuss it. For yer own good, just agree. It's better than bein' on yer own out there.” He headed up the stairs and out of the basement before either of the Swap brothers could ask what he meant by that.

The next day, Stretch and Blue were finally allowed out of the basement.

Things seemed almost too quiet in the house, and even outside. The slightest creak or commotion almost seemed to echo through the house, which was almost spartan compared to the Swap brothers' back home. A couch, a chair, and a coffee table was all that made up the living room, other than the intimidating display of weaponry that decorated the walls. The door had five locks that were firmly in place and only a fire in the fireplace keeping the place warm.

Edge was standing by the window, clasping shutters in place and drawing curtains as an extra measure of security before he turned to face the other three Skeletons in the room. His posture was no-nonsense and all business, and Stretch had a feeling this wasn't going to be a warm and fuzzy 'talk'.

“It goes without saying that you're stuck here for the unforeseeable future,” Edge said, beginning a slow pace across the room. “And this isn't like your cushy little Swap universe.” He pinned the Swap brothers in place with a sharp red eyelight. “'Kill Or Be Killed' isn't just an arrangement of rich words. It's our literal creed that has literal consequences. So it's in your best interest to have...support here.”

“Get to th' point, Edgelord,” Stretch griped, flinching when he felt Red kick his ankle. Edge gave him an annoyed glower before his expression went almost sinister.

“Gladly, ash trash,” he replied. “My point is we're taking a high risk in keeping you here safe. And high risk is EXPENSIVE.” He paused his pacing to look between the Swap brothers. “If you're going to be staying here, you're going to be repaying us for the risk.”

Stretch scowled. “You're a real piece of work, aren't ya?” he muttered.

“Better a piece of work than a piece of meat for the Dogs to chew,” Edge shot back. “If you honestly think you or your brother can survive out there, then go on.” He took a step to the side to give a free view of the door. “You're easy pickings for EXP, and you know it.”

Stretch clenched his hands, glowering with the urge to start hurling insults when Blue put a calming hand on his shoulder.

“...we believe you,” Blue said. “And we're thankful and grateful for your hospitality, really! We're just....a little high-strung, right, Papy?” He didn't give Stretch time to answer. “I can help out as best I can...I can cook and clean and fix things! And I'm sure Papy can help out too.”

Edge contemplated the brothers for a moment before nodding. “That's what I thought,” he said, crossing his arms. “We'll hash out details later. After dinner.” He turned to Blue. “Show me what you're made of, Blue.”

Blue hopped up, nodding with determination before hurrying for the kitchen. Edge looked on, amused. “If only you could be that enthusiastic, brother.”

“Give me something to be enthusiastic about,” Red replied, rolling his eyelights. “You want peppy, go to their universe.”

“Perish the thought. And you're not going to become a lazy piece of shit while they're here, so don't even think about it. You can clean up after his enthusiastic efforts.”

Red scowled but wisely said nothing. Edge ignored him and turned to Stretch. “Now you...YOU hardly have anything to contribute, other than piecing together bits of that machine. But we'll figure SOMETHING out, don't you worry.”

“Be still, my beating heart,” Stretch monotoned, his fingers twitching for a cigarette and of course having none. He sat in tense silence until Blue announced dinner prepared, and resigned himself to whatever concoction his brother had decided to whip up in the fridge.

The meal was edible and the dishes were taken care of before the house quieted down and everyone began to turn in for the night hours. Stretch made sure Blue was headed down to bed before turning to ask if Red could spare a cigarette only to see the front door close as Red left the house, possibly to head over to Grillby's.

Well, shit.

The only thing to do then was sleep his craving off. He sighed and stood up to head to the basement when Edge walked in and shut the basement door, pinning Stretch in place with an ember-like eyelight.

“Sit,” he commanded. “I wish to speak with you.”

Stretch scowled. “I'm too tired for this, Edgelord,” he shot back. “Fuck off and let me go to bed—“ He cut off with a yelp when his doppleganger snatched his soul in a blue hold and shoved him back down to the couch. “Hey, what gives!?”

“Be silent,” Edge hissed, stalking up and looming over Stretch, his eyelights gleaming brightly. He eyed over Stretch for a moment before reaching down and roughly holding the other Papyrus's jaw. “You need to learn to keep quiet sometimes, ash trash. In many ways here, it's the difference between life and death.”

He let go of Stretch's jaw, folding his hands behind his back. “I wasn't kidding when I said you're going to pull your weight around here. Your brother is enough of a homemaker to keep the house clean and running, but I can tell you barely wash your own clothes, let alone anyone else's. And I wouldn't trust you in the kitchen. So that leaves your options to the bare minimum.”

He began pacing in front of Stretch, his posture rod-straight. “I've thought about it, and I've come to the conclusion that your usefulness can be utilized in another way.”

Stretch glowered, twitching against the blue hold on his soul. “What are you on about?” he demanded. “Let me go!”

“Be. Silent.” Edge's tone turned as sharp as his moniker, his pacing coming to a halt. “Learn the laws of this world while you're in it, lest you perish in it, trash.” He leaned in closer, his eyelights looking disturbingly like droplets of blood gleaming in the light. “You're going to be here for some time. And in that time, I can be gracious and kind, or I can be cruel. Which one I decide depends entirely on you.”

Stretch's jaw twitched, feeling an impending sense of dread crawl over his spine. “...what do you want?” he asked, sounding much less courageous than he had intended. Edge's expression was a mix of amused and appraising, something that did nothing to ease his suspicions.

Edge actually smiled, a terrifying image in and of itself. “I want you to become my pet.”

Stretch stared, unable to process the statement for several long moments. “......what?” he said. “......WHAT?”

“I didn't stutter,” Edge replied. “You'll become my pet and earn your place here.” He folded his hands behind his back, a sinister gleam in his eyelights. “It's only good manners to pay such a kindness we're offering back. And I can promise you, you will not find a kinder offer ANYWHERE outside this house.”

“You're fuckin' insane,” Stretch muttered, twitching harder against the blue hold. “Insane and sick!”

“And KIND.” Edge leaned down, his eyelights glinting sharply—and most uncomfortably to Stretch—as he came close enough for Stretch to catch what smelled like a combination of blood and coffee on his breath. “Do you want to know what happens to low-LV Monsters who go unclaimed outside? Do you want a detailed description of the carnage I've seen on the sides of the road before I put some order in this gods-forsaken put of hell? Do you want to know what I've seen in the CAPITOL?” He shook his head slowly. “You really don't, trash.”

He leaned back, flicking his hand and releasing the blue hold from Stretch, who couldn't for the life of him muster up the will to move. “For the weaker breed like yourself and your brother, your only options are servitude to a higher-ranked Monster, or taking a dive off of Waterfall's Abyss in the hopes of a quick death.” He paused. “Well, there's also the option of picking off weak Monsters for the EXP. But something tells me that's not an option for you. So.” He smiled, looking far too happy for comfort.

“Stay here safe, or go out THERE. Which will it be?”

Stretch could KILL the bastard. He really, truly could. Out of the multiverse's Papyruses, this one was the worst of the worst, and Stretch felt things would be better if Fell never existed. To use the situation against him like this—against BLUE like this—!

“Or, you can simply sit there like a useless lump and do nothing,” Edge cut in, his nonchalant tone raising immediate suspicion. “One way or another...” He brought his hands out from behind his back, a black collar hooked onto his clawed finger. “...A Swap brother is going to be my pet. And quite frankly, Blue IS much cuter than you are.”

Stretch snarled, lurching up only to have his cervical bones caught in a firm, threatening grip. He went stock still, feeling a swirl of lethal intent in the hand that held his neck and just KNEW, deep down to his soul, that this hand could easily cleave his head from his shoulders.

Edge was dead serious.

And just from the context, Edge wasn't even the WORST he could run into.

Although at this moment, the worst was literally at his metaphorical throat and Stretch wanted to LIVE.

Stretch's body trembled as he felt his frame submit under the hold of the stronger Monster, and Edge let him go, letting him drop back onto the couch.

“Good boy,” Edge said, that terrifying grin leering down at him again. “You'll find that I can be very kind when I am obeyed, ash trash. And after all...”

He latched the collar around Stretch's cervical bones, clipping it shut before giving Stretch's skull a condescending pat.

“...it's not like you'll be here forever.”

Stretch felt as though his soul had been signed away to the devil.

And gods, he could REALLY use a cigarette.

[endlessarchite]

The Finished Living Rooms & Dining Rooms At The Duplex!

We’re THRILLED TO PIECES to be finished with the entire front half of the entire duplex – which means we’re revealing the open living room & dining room on each side at this very moment. Right now. It’s ON.

This is what you see when you walk into the left side of the duplex and pivot towards the living area. With the exception of still having to steam and hem the curtains, we are ready to stick a fork in this baby!

sofa | coffee table | similar rug | similar pouf | blue pillows | gray pillow | art | dining chairs | similar dining table| chandelier | mirror | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

One of our favorite secondhand rugs that I bought ages ago from New England Loom on Instagram found a home in the living area with our favorite Crate & Barrel sofa to add cushy and durable seating. We love this sofa so much that after we bought it around two years ago for our own living room in the Taft Steel color, we decided to buy it again times two for the duplex in the Taft Truffle color (which we think will hopefully stand up to all the use these houses are gonna get). Our kids and pooch have road tested our sofa at home for the past few years and we couldn’t be happier with it. Zero issues. Super comfy. We bought it three times, I feel like that says it all.

It’s hard to see in the shot above, but we also have two armchairs facing the crisp white coffee table (they don’t sell the armchairs in the blue color anymore but they have a deep gray that looks great too). We also added a little pouf ottoman to round things out in the living zone (found at HomeGoods, but here’s a similar one).

Here’s a better shot of the chairs, which we also have at home in our living room in the natural color. Notice a theme here? We are trying to diminish the risk of making bad furniture buys when we know we have a love something that’s durable and functional. So since we’ve been really happy with them at home (they’re going on two years old), we got them in a darker color for the duplex (again, the blue is gone but they have them in dark gray now). Then we just added some cute pink bolsters to the back, which is the key to making them extra comfy since they feel a bit reclined without the added pillows.

accent chairs | pink pillows| sofa | coffee table | side table | similar lamp | similar rug | blue pillows | gray pillow |curtains | curtain rod | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

We also brought in one of our favorite quartz-topped tables (it’s over 50% off right now on Amazon!). Hooray for not having to worry about juice or wine stains while getting that shiny marble look. And how perfect is that large art print on the wall behind the sofa? This is the side of the duplex with the blue cabinets and the pink tile and TRUST ME WHEN I SAY THAT ART WAS MADE FOR THIS ROOM.

sofa | end table | faux fern |similar pouf | blue pillow | gray pillow |art | curtains | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

When we finally finish the kitchen and do a video walk-through you’ll see what I mean, but the exact same tones in the kitchen – which is just beyond the dining area – are also in the art. It’s magical. Our good friend Jenny Komenda’s Juniper Print Shop is the best – and we bought two of Sarah Madeira Day’s prints for the beach house a few months ago, so this art feels meant to be on so many levels.

Let’s rewind to really appreciate where we came from in here. This was the room as it looked when we bought it, complete with sections of the ceiling collapsing from water damage to reveal black mold underneath. All of the paneling was fake plastic paneling (again, to cover up damage in the walls) and a rug pad had been removed but the backing was stuck all over the floors. Oh and see that one gorgeous thing in here!? The fan! Just kidding, that five paneled door on the right wall. Remember we rescued it and reused the two of them up in the bedrooms as closet doors? You can see them here – we LOVE how they came out!

This house reno went all the way down to the studs (literally you could stand in the house and put your arm outside) but here’s a shot when the new plywood was put up along the old studs (a lot of which were reinforced with new framing). I remember standing in there and thinking… someday it’ll come together again. This was easily taken over a year ago.

Also, we added that interior transom a little while after framing in the doorway above. See how it originally was lower (see above pic) and then we realized “wait, we can put a long cool transom window in there and it’ll let in more light and feel original and so cool!” So we reframed the doorway opening to be higher, which you can see below:

Fast forward a little bit more and… ta-da!! Transom! Isn’t she lovely? All of the solid five panel doors that we added, along with that transom and the pocket doors that we added on the laundry room/mudroom (which you can sort of make out in the photo below) are some of my favorite “inspired-by-original” things that we brought back to this house. Especially since there were only a few original things that we could salvage (like the brick chimneys that we exposed, the hardwoods that we refinished, and the diamond windows & front doors).

And here it is now – although we’ll show you more of the kitchen next week when it’s actually done (along with the mudroom/laundry room if we can get that knocked out and photographed too!). We both felt extremely lucky that the placement for the dining room light on each side of the house was perfect since we had to pick that spot months before drywall & floor refinishing.

sofa | coffee table | similar rug | similar pouf | blue pillows | gray pillow |art | dining chairs | similar dining table| chandelier | mirror | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

The way we planned it was just to tape out the table placement on the floor and figure out what we thought would work with room to pull out all the chairs and then hope for the best. We knew our table measurements because this is a secondhand table that we have had for ages (it used to live in our own dining room!) and we refinished it to look like new!). John’s actually working on a post for you guys with steps for refinishing an old table since we did two of them for the duplex and they came out really well.

Here’s the before from the other side. Look at my lovely beautiful perfect old wood doors (remember you can see them here in the upstairs bedroom).

One other remarkable thing about this room that’s easy to see, even in the before shots, are the size of the windows in here. The downstairs of the duplex has 9′ ceilings and all of the windows start about a foot off the ground and go about 8″ shy of the ceiling. So yes, it means they’re all OVER 6 FEET TALL! These windows are taller than John. Like if he stood on the windowsill, the top of the window frame would still be inches above his head. They let in tons of light, and definitely add presence to this otherwise nondescript rectangular room.

So here we are back in the present. You can see from this angle that it’s all nice and open, but we made sense of the long room by giving it both a living and a dining function. If you have a long open space like this, one tip would be to use area rugs and hanging lights to define different zones so it doesn’t look like one long bowling alley of a space. Floating furniture around the rug to make a living room “zone” at one end, and then hanging a pendant to define the dining area so we could center a table and chairs beneath that chandelier were two good ways to keep the room from feeling like a big amorphous blob.

dining chairs | similar dining table| chandelier |TV cabinet | faux fig | basket | accent chairs | coffee table | similar rug | similar pouf | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | doors: SW White Truffle

Thanks to all of those aforementioned extra tall windows, we didn’t have a lot of empty wall space, so there was literally just one spot that made sense for the TV, which was this wall space across from the sofa. We actually love how the room’s layout panned out because the TV is the very last thing you see when you walk into the room since you enter and see the rug and the sofa and the coffee table. Plus we used a nice thin console table and mounted the television on the wall so it feels clean and easily allows for passage throughout the room.

sofa | coffee table | side table | accent chairs | similar rug | similar pouf | similar lamp | blue pillows | gray pillow | pink pillows| gold frames | TV cabinet | TV | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

A deeper more solid looking TV table would definitely have left the room feeling cramped and awkward, so if you have that issue: 1) mount a TV on the wall (we’ve used this awesome $19 mount four times and it’s always great) and 2) add a narrow open feeling table under it (like this), which allows for a much more spacious feeling.

Plus if your TV is a smart one (we bought two of these for the duplex living rooms after loving the one we have in our house so much) you can ditch the cable box and literally just have one wire that runs down the wall to plug the tv in, which we covered with a white cord cover. Just one cord instead of 10 snaking out from the tv?! Without any black boxes and stuff to hide?! We are living in the future!! (Note: if you want to know more about cutting the cord and still getting all your channels without a cable box, which also saves us tons of money – here’s a detailed post with more info).?

TV cabinet | TV | sofa | coffee table |accent chairs| similar rug | similar pouf | blue pillows | gray pillow | pink pillows| gold frames | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

We actually debated running the cord cover along the side of that vent that you see on the right which would have been even more invisible, but because of where the outlet is placed on the wall it would have to cut across a lot at the bottom to snake back to the outlet so we just went straight down with it. I think once we have more board games and puzzles and stuff on each console it’ll be even less noticeable (oh heck yes, our duplex is gonna have GAMES! You know us ;)

?TV cabinet | TV | baskets | cord cover | faux fig | plant basket | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | doors: SW White Truffle

The door next to the TV will be our locked owners closet, but the one next to that is the powder room. This area was originally just a big closet, so it was a huge functional improvement to create a bathroom downstairs (there wasn’t one down here before!).

vanity | mirror | bath light | bath faucet | TV cabinet | TV | baskets | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | doors: SW White Truffle

It’s impossible to photograph this space, but here’s a closer peek (this is the other side – it’s identical). It’s a room we’d like to do more to eventually – like add wainscotting with wallpaper running around the top or some fun rich color to make it a little jewel box in there. We’ll most likely get to that in the off-season next year, but for now we’re loving the vanity (it’s so pretty guys! Those legs! That shiny top!) and the mirror above it (it’s my FAVORITE budget mirror that looks so much more expensive than it is). And the toilet on the other side is, well, pretty much just a nice white toilet. And now you can do your business without walking upstairs. Like a boss.

vanity | mirror | bath light | bath faucet | towel hook | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

If we duck back out into the living/dining room, you can see that we went with some brass (in the chandelier and the mirror on the wall behind it) as well as some oil rubbed bronze (in all of the curtain rods, all the door handles and hinges in the entire house, etc). So if you’re wondering how to mix metals, I always just say to make each of them appear a few times in a space and then it looks intentional and layered.

sofa | coffee table | similar rug | similar pouf | blue pillows | gray pillow |art | dining chairs | similar dining table| chandelier | mirror | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

The tone of the the dark TV is basically the same color as the curtain rods and doorknobs, and we hung a few simple gold frames on either side of the front window to bring some of that brass tone over to that area too. You really don’t have to think too hard about mixing metals – just go for it. And if you’re worried about tiring of something that might feel trendy (ex: rose gold or copper for example) you can just add it with smaller items (frames, a table lamp, even a bowl on the coffee table for remotes or odds & ends).

sofa | coffee table | side table | accent chairs | similar rug | similar pouf | similar lamp | blue pillows | gray pillow | pink pillows| gold frames | TV cabinet | TV | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

Ok, so that’s the left side with the pink doors – let’s move over to the right side with the greeny-gray doors. Although the floor plan is a mirror image of the left side, the before looked a little different:

This side had less mold and rot (unfortunately not none – but the walls hadn’t been covered as much, although that is a drop ceiling you see that was added to hide some other water damage). And the two-toned trim that changes mid-wall is pretty… unusual…? But the floors on this side were lovely (we still refinished them all so they match) and we could see the potential even more when we walked in the door.

Here’s that space as it looks today (again, we’ll share all the kitchen details in our next post when it’s done).

sofa | coffee table | rug | similar pouf | blue pillow | pink pillows |mirrors| dining chairs | similar dining table | chandelier | art | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

We kept the same basic elements in this living room (same sofa, same armchairs, a secondhand wood dining table, a light colored coffee table and a simple pouf for bonus seating), but we mixed things up and chose some different items as well, like a different rug, dining chairs, lighting, etc. It’s really fun to have two identical rooms so you can change up a few of the elements and basically see it two totally different ways… (but warning, it’s expensive – furnishing two houses (and filling two kitchens!) pretty much equals that emoji of the money with wings. But at least we had fun while all our benjamins were flying away.

The vibe for this side all started with this rug, which is a bit more chill than the bright pink turkish one on the other side. The same sofa and marble end table are in here, but we reused our coffee table that we topped with concrete (remember that from our beach house living room) and just added some soft pillows and a woven lamp I’ve had for like 6 years in the attic (its mate is on the other side of the duplex, which you probably noticed in the other pics).

sofa | end table | coffee table | side table | accent chairs | rug | similar pouf | similar lamp | blue pillows | pink pillows | lumbar pillows | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

Oh and I should have mentioned that we also tried to keep the furniture pretty low so it wasn’t sticking up and awkwardly blocking too much of our huge windows, so those two dark blue armchairs were nice for that wall for that reason. More light flows in through the glass on the front door and the original transom above that too!

TV cabinet | TV | baskets | end table | faux fern | coffee table |accent chairs | lumbar pillows |rug | similar pouf | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | door: SW Oyster Bay

The un-ironed curtains are killing me, but other than that this room is looking so fresh and finished. Also this rug is great and such a bargain for the size. Extremely well rated, soft, and durable (when I shared some sneak peeks on Instagram, people with lots of kids & dogs told me they’ve had it for years and it’s holding up perfectly – so I have high hopes for it being a good choice for a vacation rental).

accent chairs | rug | sofa | side table | similar lamp | blue pillow | pink pillow | lumbar pillows | |curtains | curtain rod | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

The dining table in here is another secondhand one that we sanded down and refinished – so we’ll share the tutorial soon. It’s such a worthwhile DIY (wait until you see the before shots of them!) and it’s extremely inexpensive to do! We saved hundreds and maybe even a cool grand by not having to buy two new dining tables – and a secondhand table is always nice since dining tables take such a beating (it’s good to know these two have already stood the test of time).

dining chairs | similar dining table | mirrors | chandelier | rug | similar pouf | faux fig | plant basket | TV cabinet | TV | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | doors: SW Oyster Bay

Oh and we’ve had those rattan mirrors that we hung on the left wall for years as well – but they still sell the same set that we got. They’re pretty great for hanging all together on a giant wall, or spreading around in a few places. The texture = so good.

And last but not least, here’s a shot from the front door looking into the living and dining room. The railing opens things up so much, and we love the architecture it adds (it looks crazy tall here but it’s just the angle – we had the camera really low for this shot). And everything from the round rattan mirrors to the big brass & bronze light fixture feels so welcoming and warm. P.S. Another way to mix metals even more easily is to buy a fixture or some other item (like a coffee table) that mixes both – and then just add a few more hits of each one to the room and you’re golden.

Oh and see those cute stair risers that are the same color as the greeny-gray doors on this side? We did each side’s interior steps in their own door color, and when the front doors are thrown open you see these cute pink risers on one side and these soft green ones on the other. I can’t even tell you how charming it is (you can see a peek of them both here in this post).

But enough talking, we have two kitchens and two laundry rooms to finish to hopefully share with you by next week! And the back patio, and landscaping, and about a hundred curtains to iron and hem. Just call me Sheron Petersik, heir to the IRON throne. Get it? No? Is anyone laughing? Hello?

P.S. You can see the entire process of bringing the duplex back to life hereFrom buying it and planning the layout to screaming into a pillow over a sad setback, it’s thorough.

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post The Finished Living Rooms & Dining Rooms At The Duplex! appeared first on Young House Love.

The Finished Living Rooms & Dining Rooms At The Duplex! published first on https://bakerskitchenslimited.tumblr.com/

[interiorstarweb]

The Finished Living Rooms & Dining Rooms At The Duplex!

We’re THRILLED TO PIECES to be finished with the entire front half of the entire duplex – which means we’re revealing the open living room & dining room on each side at this very moment. Right now. It’s ON.

This is what you see when you walk into the left side of the duplex and pivot towards the living area. With the exception of still having to steam and hem the curtains, we are ready to stick a fork in this baby!

sofa | coffee table | similar rug | similar pouf | blue pillows | gray pillow | art | dining chairs | similar dining table| chandelier | mirror | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

One of our favorite secondhand rugs that I bought ages ago from New England Loom on Instagram found a home in the living area with our favorite Crate & Barrel sofa to add cushy and durable seating. We love this sofa so much that after we bought it around two years ago for our own living room in the Taft Steel color, we decided to buy it again times two for the duplex in the Taft Truffle color (which we think will hopefully stand up to all the use these houses are gonna get). Our kids and pooch have road tested our sofa at home for the past few years and we couldn’t be happier with it. Zero issues. Super comfy. We bought it three times, I feel like that says it all.

It’s hard to see in the shot above, but we also have two armchairs facing the crisp white coffee table (they don’t sell the armchairs in the blue color anymore but they have a deep gray that looks great too). We also added a little pouf ottoman to round things out in the living zone (found at HomeGoods, but here’s a similar one).

Here’s a better shot of the chairs, which we also have at home in our living room in the natural color. Notice a theme here? We are trying to diminish the risk of making bad furniture buys when we know we have a love something that’s durable and functional. So since we’ve been really happy with them at home (they’re going on two years old), we got them in a darker color for the duplex (again, the blue is gone but they have them in dark gray now). Then we just added some cute pink bolsters to the back, which is the key to making them extra comfy since they feel a bit reclined without the added pillows.

accent chairs | pink pillows| sofa | coffee table | side table | similar lamp | similar rug | blue pillows | gray pillow |curtains | curtain rod | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

We also brought in one of our favorite quartz-topped tables (it’s over 50% off right now on Amazon!). Hooray for not having to worry about juice or wine stains while getting that shiny marble look. And how perfect is that large art print on the wall behind the sofa? This is the side of the duplex with the blue cabinets and the pink tile and TRUST ME WHEN I SAY THAT ART WAS MADE FOR THIS ROOM.

sofa | end table | faux fern |similar pouf | blue pillow | gray pillow |art | curtains | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

When we finally finish the kitchen and do a video walk-through you’ll see what I mean, but the exact same tones in the kitchen – which is just beyond the dining area – are also in the art. It’s magical. Our good friend Jenny Komenda’s Juniper Print Shop is the best – and we bought two of Sarah Madeira Day’s prints for the beach house a few months ago, so this art feels meant to be on so many levels.

Let’s rewind to really appreciate where we came from in here. This was the room as it looked when we bought it, complete with sections of the ceiling collapsing from water damage to reveal black mold underneath. All of the paneling was fake plastic paneling (again, to cover up damage in the walls) and a rug pad had been removed but the backing was stuck all over the floors. Oh and see that one gorgeous thing in here!? The fan! Just kidding, that five paneled door on the right wall. Remember we rescued it and reused the two of them up in the bedrooms as closet doors? You can see them here – we LOVE how they came out!

This house reno went all the way down to the studs (literally you could stand in the house and put your arm outside) but here’s a shot when the new plywood was put up along the old studs (a lot of which were reinforced with new framing). I remember standing in there and thinking… someday it’ll come together again. This was easily taken over a year ago.

Also, we added that interior transom a little while after framing in the doorway above. See how it originally was lower (see above pic) and then we realized “wait, we can put a long cool transom window in there and it’ll let in more light and feel original and so cool!” So we reframed the doorway opening to be higher, which you can see below:

Fast forward a little bit more and… ta-da!! Transom! Isn’t she lovely? All of the solid five panel doors that we added, along with that transom and the pocket doors that we added on the laundry room/mudroom (which you can sort of make out in the photo below) are some of my favorite “inspired-by-original” things that we brought back to this house. Especially since there were only a few original things that we could salvage (like the brick chimneys that we exposed, the hardwoods that we refinished, and the diamond windows & front doors).

And here it is now – although we’ll show you more of the kitchen next week when it’s actually done (along with the mudroom/laundry room if we can get that knocked out and photographed too!). We both felt extremely lucky that the placement for the dining room light on each side of the house was perfect since we had to pick that spot months before drywall & floor refinishing.

sofa | coffee table | similar rug | similar pouf | blue pillows | gray pillow |art | dining chairs | similar dining table| chandelier | mirror | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

The way we planned it was just to tape out the table placement on the floor and figure out what we thought would work with room to pull out all the chairs and then hope for the best. We knew our table measurements because this is a secondhand table that we have had for ages (it used to live in our own dining room!) and we refinished it to look like new!). John’s actually working on a post for you guys with steps for refinishing an old table since we did two of them for the duplex and they came out really well.

Here’s the before from the other side. Look at my lovely beautiful perfect old wood doors (remember you can see them here in the upstairs bedroom).

One other remarkable thing about this room that’s easy to see, even in the before shots, are the size of the windows in here. The downstairs of the duplex has 9′ ceilings and all of the windows start about a foot off the ground and go about 8″ shy of the ceiling. So yes, it means they’re all OVER 6 FEET TALL! These windows are taller than John. Like if he stood on the windowsill, the top of the window frame would still be inches above his head. They let in tons of light, and definitely add presence to this otherwise nondescript rectangular room.

So here we are back in the present. You can see from this angle that it’s all nice and open, but we made sense of the long room by giving it both a living and a dining function. If you have a long open space like this, one tip would be to use area rugs and hanging lights to define different zones so it doesn’t look like one long bowling alley of a space. Floating furniture around the rug to make a living room “zone” at one end, and then hanging a pendant to define the dining area so we could center a table and chairs beneath that chandelier were two good ways to keep the room from feeling like a big amorphous blob.

dining chairs | similar dining table| chandelier |TV cabinet | faux fig | basket | accent chairs | coffee table | similar rug | similar pouf | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | doors: SW White Truffle

Thanks to all of those aforementioned extra tall windows, we didn’t have a lot of empty wall space, so there was literally just one spot that made sense for the TV, which was this wall space across from the sofa. We actually love how the room’s layout panned out because the TV is the very last thing you see when you walk into the room since you enter and see the rug and the sofa and the coffee table. Plus we used a nice thin console table and mounted the television on the wall so it feels clean and easily allows for passage throughout the room.

sofa | coffee table | side table | accent chairs | similar rug | similar pouf | similar lamp | blue pillows | gray pillow | pink pillows| gold frames | TV cabinet | TV | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

A deeper more solid looking TV table would definitely have left the room feeling cramped and awkward, so if you have that issue: 1) mount a TV on the wall (we’ve used this awesome $19 mount four times and it’s always great) and 2) add a narrow open feeling table under it (like this), which allows for a much more spacious feeling.

Plus if your TV is a smart one (we bought two of these for the duplex living rooms after loving the one we have in our house so much) you can ditch the cable box and literally just have one wire that runs down the wall to plug the tv in, which we covered with a white cord cover. Just one cord instead of 10 snaking out from the tv?! Without any black boxes and stuff to hide?! We are living in the future!! (Note: if you want to know more about cutting the cord and still getting all your channels without a cable box, which also saves us tons of money – here’s a detailed post with more info).?

TV cabinet | TV | sofa | coffee table |accent chairs| similar rug | similar pouf | blue pillows | gray pillow | pink pillows| gold frames | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

We actually debated running the cord cover along the side of that vent that you see on the right which would have been even more invisible, but because of where the outlet is placed on the wall it would have to cut across a lot at the bottom to snake back to the outlet so we just went straight down with it. I think once we have more board games and puzzles and stuff on each console it’ll be even less noticeable (oh heck yes, our duplex is gonna have GAMES! You know us ;)

?TV cabinet | TV | baskets | cord cover | faux fig | plant basket | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | doors: SW White Truffle

The door next to the TV will be our locked owners closet, but the one next to that is the powder room. This area was originally just a big closet, so it was a huge functional improvement to create a bathroom downstairs (there wasn’t one down here before!).

vanity | mirror | bath light | bath faucet | TV cabinet | TV | baskets | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | doors: SW White Truffle

It’s impossible to photograph this space, but here’s a closer peek (this is the other side – it’s identical). It’s a room we’d like to do more to eventually – like add wainscotting with wallpaper running around the top or some fun rich color to make it a little jewel box in there. We’ll most likely get to that in the off-season next year, but for now we’re loving the vanity (it’s so pretty guys! Those legs! That shiny top!) and the mirror above it (it’s my FAVORITE budget mirror that looks so much more expensive than it is). And the toilet on the other side is, well, pretty much just a nice white toilet. And now you can do your business without walking upstairs. Like a boss.

vanity | mirror | bath light | bath faucet | towel hook | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

If we duck back out into the living/dining room, you can see that we went with some brass (in the chandelier and the mirror on the wall behind it) as well as some oil rubbed bronze (in all of the curtain rods, all the door handles and hinges in the entire house, etc). So if you’re wondering how to mix metals, I always just say to make each of them appear a few times in a space and then it looks intentional and layered.

sofa | coffee table | similar rug | similar pouf | blue pillows | gray pillow |art | dining chairs | similar dining table| chandelier | mirror | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

The tone of the the dark TV is basically the same color as the curtain rods and doorknobs, and we hung a few simple gold frames on either side of the front window to bring some of that brass tone over to that area too. You really don’t have to think too hard about mixing metals – just go for it. And if you’re worried about tiring of something that might feel trendy (ex: rose gold or copper for example) you can just add it with smaller items (frames, a table lamp, even a bowl on the coffee table for remotes or odds & ends).

sofa | coffee table | side table | accent chairs | similar rug | similar pouf | similar lamp | blue pillows | gray pillow | pink pillows| gold frames | TV cabinet | TV | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

Ok, so that’s the left side with the pink doors – let’s move over to the right side with the greeny-gray doors. Although the floor plan is a mirror image of the left side, the before looked a little different:

This side had less mold and rot (unfortunately not none – but the walls hadn’t been covered as much, although that is a drop ceiling you see that was added to hide some other water damage). And the two-toned trim that changes mid-wall is pretty… unusual…? But the floors on this side were lovely (we still refinished them all so they match) and we could see the potential even more when we walked in the door.

Here’s that space as it looks today (again, we’ll share all the kitchen details in our next post when it’s done).

sofa | coffee table | rug | similar pouf | blue pillow | pink pillows |mirrors| dining chairs | similar dining table | chandelier | art | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

We kept the same basic elements in this living room (same sofa, same armchairs, a secondhand wood dining table, a light colored coffee table and a simple pouf for bonus seating), but we mixed things up and chose some different items as well, like a different rug, dining chairs, lighting, etc. It’s really fun to have two identical rooms so you can change up a few of the elements and basically see it two totally different ways… (but warning, it’s expensive – furnishing two houses (and filling two kitchens!) pretty much equals that emoji of the money with wings. But at least we had fun while all our benjamins were flying away.

The vibe for this side all started with this rug, which is a bit more chill than the bright pink turkish one on the other side. The same sofa and marble end table are in here, but we reused our coffee table that we topped with concrete (remember that from our beach house living room) and just added some soft pillows and a woven lamp I’ve had for like 6 years in the attic (its mate is on the other side of the duplex, which you probably noticed in the other pics).

sofa | end table | coffee table | side table | accent chairs | rug | similar pouf | similar lamp | blue pillows | pink pillows | lumbar pillows | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

Oh and I should have mentioned that we also tried to keep the furniture pretty low so it wasn’t sticking up and awkwardly blocking too much of our huge windows, so those two dark blue armchairs were nice for that wall for that reason. More light flows in through the glass on the front door and the original transom above that too!

TV cabinet | TV | baskets | end table | faux fern | coffee table |accent chairs | lumbar pillows |rug | similar pouf | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | door: SW Oyster Bay

The un-ironed curtains are killing me, but other than that this room is looking so fresh and finished. Also this rug is great and such a bargain for the size. Extremely well rated, soft, and durable (when I shared some sneak peeks on Instagram, people with lots of kids & dogs told me they’ve had it for years and it’s holding up perfectly – so I have high hopes for it being a good choice for a vacation rental).

accent chairs | rug | sofa | side table | similar lamp | blue pillow | pink pillow | lumbar pillows | |curtains | curtain rod | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

The dining table in here is another secondhand one that we sanded down and refinished – so we’ll share the tutorial soon. It’s such a worthwhile DIY (wait until you see the before shots of them!) and it’s extremely inexpensive to do! We saved hundreds and maybe even a cool grand by not having to buy two new dining tables – and a secondhand table is always nice since dining tables take such a beating (it’s good to know these two have already stood the test of time).

dining chairs | similar dining table | mirrors | chandelier | rug | similar pouf | faux fig | plant basket | TV cabinet | TV | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | doors: SW Oyster Bay

Oh and we’ve had those rattan mirrors that we hung on the left wall for years as well – but they still sell the same set that we got. They’re pretty great for hanging all together on a giant wall, or spreading around in a few places. The texture = so good.

And last but not least, here’s a shot from the front door looking into the living and dining room. The railing opens things up so much, and we love the architecture it adds (it looks crazy tall here but it’s just the angle – we had the camera really low for this shot). And everything from the round rattan mirrors to the big brass & bronze light fixture feels so welcoming and warm. P.S. Another way to mix metals even more easily is to buy a fixture or some other item (like a coffee table) that mixes both – and then just add a few more hits of each one to the room and you’re golden.

Oh and see those cute stair risers that are the same color as the greeny-gray doors on this side? We did each side’s interior steps in their own door color, and when the front doors are thrown open you see these cute pink risers on one side and these soft green ones on the other. I can’t even tell you how charming it is (you can see a peek of them both here in this post).

But enough talking, we have two kitchens and two laundry rooms to finish to hopefully share with you by next week! And the back patio, and landscaping, and about a hundred curtains to iron and hem. Just call me Sheron Petersik, heir to the IRON throne. Get it? No? Is anyone laughing? Hello?

P.S. You can see the entire process of bringing the duplex back to life hereFrom buying it and planning the layout to screaming into a pillow over a sad setback, it’s thorough.

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post The Finished Living Rooms & Dining Rooms At The Duplex! appeared first on Young House Love.

The Finished Living Rooms & Dining Rooms At The Duplex! published first on https://novaformmattressreview.tumblr.com/

[billydmacklin]

The Finished Living Rooms & Dining Rooms At The Duplex!

We’re THRILLED TO PIECES to be finished with the entire front half of the entire duplex – which means we’re revealing the open living room & dining room on each side at this very moment. Right now. It’s ON.

This is what you see when you walk into the left side of the duplex and pivot towards the living area. With the exception of still having to steam and hem the curtains, we are ready to stick a fork in this baby!

sofa | coffee table | similar rug | similar pouf | blue pillows | gray pillow | art | dining chairs | similar dining table| chandelier | mirror | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

One of our favorite secondhand rugs that I bought ages ago from New England Loom on Instagram found a home in the living area with our favorite Crate & Barrel sofa to add cushy and durable seating. We love this sofa so much that after we bought it around two years ago for our own living room in the Taft Steel color, we decided to buy it again times two for the duplex in the Taft Truffle color (which we think will hopefully stand up to all the use these houses are gonna get). Our kids and pooch have road tested our sofa at home for the past few years and we couldn’t be happier with it. Zero issues. Super comfy. We bought it three times, I feel like that says it all.

It’s hard to see in the shot above, but we also have two armchairs facing the crisp white coffee table (they don’t sell the armchairs in the blue color anymore but they have a deep gray that looks great too). We also added a little pouf ottoman to round things out in the living zone (found at HomeGoods, but here’s a similar one).

Here’s a better shot of the chairs, which we also have at home in our living room in the natural color. Notice a theme here? We are trying to diminish the risk of making bad furniture buys when we know we have a love something that’s durable and functional. So since we’ve been really happy with them at home (they’re going on two years old), we got them in a darker color for the duplex (again, the blue is gone but they have them in dark gray now). Then we just added some cute pink bolsters to the back, which is the key to making them extra comfy since they feel a bit reclined without the added pillows.

accent chairs | pink pillows| sofa | coffee table | side table | similar lamp | similar rug | blue pillows | gray pillow |curtains | curtain rod | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

We also brought in one of our favorite quartz-topped tables (it’s over 50% off right now on Amazon!). Hooray for not having to worry about juice or wine stains while getting that shiny marble look. And how perfect is that large art print on the wall behind the sofa? This is the side of the duplex with the blue cabinets and the pink tile and TRUST ME WHEN I SAY THAT ART WAS MADE FOR THIS ROOM.

sofa | end table | faux fern |similar pouf | blue pillow | gray pillow |art | curtains | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

When we finally finish the kitchen and do a video walk-through you’ll see what I mean, but the exact same tones in the kitchen – which is just beyond the dining area – are also in the art. It’s magical. Our good friend Jenny Komenda’s Juniper Print Shop is the best – and we bought two of Sarah Madeira Day’s prints for the beach house a few months ago, so this art feels meant to be on so many levels.

Let’s rewind to really appreciate where we came from in here. This was the room as it looked when we bought it, complete with sections of the ceiling collapsing from water damage to reveal black mold underneath. All of the paneling was fake plastic paneling (again, to cover up damage in the walls) and a rug pad had been removed but the backing was stuck all over the floors. Oh and see that one gorgeous thing in here!? The fan! Just kidding, that five paneled door on the right wall. Remember we rescued it and reused the two of them up in the bedrooms as closet doors? You can see them here – we LOVE how they came out!

This house reno went all the way down to the studs (literally you could stand in the house and put your arm outside) but here’s a shot when the new plywood was put up along the old studs (a lot of which were reinforced with new framing). I remember standing in there and thinking… someday it’ll come together again. This was easily taken over a year ago.

Also, we added that interior transom a little while after framing in the doorway above. See how it originally was lower (see above pic) and then we realized “wait, we can put a long cool transom window in there and it’ll let in more light and feel original and so cool!” So we reframed the doorway opening to be higher, which you can see below:

Fast forward a little bit more and… ta-da!! Transom! Isn’t she lovely? All of the solid five panel doors that we added, along with that transom and the pocket doors that we added on the laundry room/mudroom (which you can sort of make out in the photo below) are some of my favorite “inspired-by-original” things that we brought back to this house. Especially since there were only a few original things that we could salvage (like the brick chimneys that we exposed, the hardwoods that we refinished, and the diamond windows & front doors).

And here it is now – although we’ll show you more of the kitchen next week when it’s actually done (along with the mudroom/laundry room if we can get that knocked out and photographed too!). We both felt extremely lucky that the placement for the dining room light on each side of the house was perfect since we had to pick that spot months before drywall & floor refinishing.

sofa | coffee table | similar rug | similar pouf | blue pillows | gray pillow |art | dining chairs | similar dining table| chandelier | mirror | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

The way we planned it was just to tape out the table placement on the floor and figure out what we thought would work with room to pull out all the chairs and then hope for the best. We knew our table measurements because this is a secondhand table that we have had for ages (it used to live in our own dining room!) and we refinished it to look like new!). John’s actually working on a post for you guys with steps for refinishing an old table since we did two of them for the duplex and they came out really well.

Here’s the before from the other side. Look at my lovely beautiful perfect old wood doors (remember you can see them here in the upstairs bedroom).

One other remarkable thing about this room that’s easy to see, even in the before shots, are the size of the windows in here. The downstairs of the duplex has 9′ ceilings and all of the windows start about a foot off the ground and go about 8″ shy of the ceiling. So yes, it means they’re all OVER 6 FEET TALL! These windows are taller than John. Like if he stood on the windowsill, the top of the window frame would still be inches above his head. They let in tons of light, and definitely add presence to this otherwise nondescript rectangular room.

So here we are back in the present. You can see from this angle that it’s all nice and open, but we made sense of the long room by giving it both a living and a dining function. If you have a long open space like this, one tip would be to use area rugs and hanging lights to define different zones so it doesn’t look like one long bowling alley of a space. Floating furniture around the rug to make a living room “zone” at one end, and then hanging a pendant to define the dining area so we could center a table and chairs beneath that chandelier were two good ways to keep the room from feeling like a big amorphous blob.

dining chairs | similar dining table| chandelier |TV cabinet | faux fig | basket | accent chairs | coffee table | similar rug | similar pouf | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | doors: SW White Truffle

Thanks to all of those aforementioned extra tall windows, we didn’t have a lot of empty wall space, so there was literally just one spot that made sense for the TV, which was this wall space across from the sofa. We actually love how the room’s layout panned out because the TV is the very last thing you see when you walk into the room since you enter and see the rug and the sofa and the coffee table. Plus we used a nice thin console table and mounted the television on the wall so it feels clean and easily allows for passage throughout the room.

sofa | coffee table | side table | accent chairs | similar rug | similar pouf | similar lamp | blue pillows | gray pillow | pink pillows| gold frames | TV cabinet | TV | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

A deeper more solid looking TV table would definitely have left the room feeling cramped and awkward, so if you have that issue: 1) mount a TV on the wall (we’ve used this awesome $19 mount four times and it’s always great) and 2) add a narrow open feeling table under it (like this), which allows for a much more spacious feeling.

Plus if your TV is a smart one (we bought two of these for the duplex living rooms after loving the one we have in our house so much) you can ditch the cable box and literally just have one wire that runs down the wall to plug the tv in, which we covered with a white cord cover. Just one cord instead of 10 snaking out from the tv?! Without any black boxes and stuff to hide?! We are living in the future!! (Note: if you want to know more about cutting the cord and still getting all your channels without a cable box, which also saves us tons of money – here’s a detailed post with more info).?

TV cabinet | TV | sofa | coffee table |accent chairs| similar rug | similar pouf | blue pillows | gray pillow | pink pillows| gold frames | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

We actually debated running the cord cover along the side of that vent that you see on the right which would have been even more invisible, but because of where the outlet is placed on the wall it would have to cut across a lot at the bottom to snake back to the outlet so we just went straight down with it. I think once we have more board games and puzzles and stuff on each console it’ll be even less noticeable (oh heck yes, our duplex is gonna have GAMES! You know us ;)

?TV cabinet | TV | baskets | cord cover | faux fig | plant basket | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | doors: SW White Truffle

The door next to the TV will be our locked owners closet, but the one next to that is the powder room. This area was originally just a big closet, so it was a huge functional improvement to create a bathroom downstairs (there wasn’t one down here before!).

vanity | mirror | bath light | bath faucet | TV cabinet | TV | baskets | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | doors: SW White Truffle

It’s impossible to photograph this space, but here’s a closer peek (this is the other side – it’s identical). It’s a room we’d like to do more to eventually – like add wainscotting with wallpaper running around the top or some fun rich color to make it a little jewel box in there. We’ll most likely get to that in the off-season next year, but for now we’re loving the vanity (it’s so pretty guys! Those legs! That shiny top!) and the mirror above it (it’s my FAVORITE budget mirror that looks so much more expensive than it is). And the toilet on the other side is, well, pretty much just a nice white toilet. And now you can do your business without walking upstairs. Like a boss.

vanity | mirror | bath light | bath faucet | towel hook | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

If we duck back out into the living/dining room, you can see that we went with some brass (in the chandelier and the mirror on the wall behind it) as well as some oil rubbed bronze (in all of the curtain rods, all the door handles and hinges in the entire house, etc). So if you’re wondering how to mix metals, I always just say to make each of them appear a few times in a space and then it looks intentional and layered.

sofa | coffee table | similar rug | similar pouf | blue pillows | gray pillow |art | dining chairs | similar dining table| chandelier | mirror | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

The tone of the the dark TV is basically the same color as the curtain rods and doorknobs, and we hung a few simple gold frames on either side of the front window to bring some of that brass tone over to that area too. You really don’t have to think too hard about mixing metals – just go for it. And if you’re worried about tiring of something that might feel trendy (ex: rose gold or copper for example) you can just add it with smaller items (frames, a table lamp, even a bowl on the coffee table for remotes or odds & ends).

sofa | coffee table | side table | accent chairs | similar rug | similar pouf | similar lamp | blue pillows | gray pillow | pink pillows| gold frames | TV cabinet | TV | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

Ok, so that’s the left side with the pink doors – let’s move over to the right side with the greeny-gray doors. Although the floor plan is a mirror image of the left side, the before looked a little different:

This side had less mold and rot (unfortunately not none – but the walls hadn’t been covered as much, although that is a drop ceiling you see that was added to hide some other water damage). And the two-toned trim that changes mid-wall is pretty… unusual…? But the floors on this side were lovely (we still refinished them all so they match) and we could see the potential even more when we walked in the door.

Here’s that space as it looks today (again, we’ll share all the kitchen details in our next post when it’s done).

sofa | coffee table | rug | similar pouf | blue pillow | pink pillows |mirrors| dining chairs | similar dining table | chandelier | art | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

We kept the same basic elements in this living room (same sofa, same armchairs, a secondhand wood dining table, a light colored coffee table and a simple pouf for bonus seating), but we mixed things up and chose some different items as well, like a different rug, dining chairs, lighting, etc. It’s really fun to have two identical rooms so you can change up a few of the elements and basically see it two totally different ways… (but warning, it’s expensive – furnishing two houses (and filling two kitchens!) pretty much equals that emoji of the money with wings. But at least we had fun while all our benjamins were flying away.

The vibe for this side all started with this rug, which is a bit more chill than the bright pink turkish one on the other side. The same sofa and marble end table are in here, but we reused our coffee table that we topped with concrete (remember that from our beach house living room) and just added some soft pillows and a woven lamp I’ve had for like 6 years in the attic (its mate is on the other side of the duplex, which you probably noticed in the other pics).

sofa | end table | coffee table | side table | accent chairs | rug | similar pouf | similar lamp | blue pillows | pink pillows | lumbar pillows | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

Oh and I should have mentioned that we also tried to keep the furniture pretty low so it wasn’t sticking up and awkwardly blocking too much of our huge windows, so those two dark blue armchairs were nice for that wall for that reason. More light flows in through the glass on the front door and the original transom above that too!

TV cabinet | TV | baskets | end table | faux fern | coffee table |accent chairs | lumbar pillows |rug | similar pouf | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | door: SW Oyster Bay

The un-ironed curtains are killing me, but other than that this room is looking so fresh and finished. Also this rug is great and such a bargain for the size. Extremely well rated, soft, and durable (when I shared some sneak peeks on Instagram, people with lots of kids & dogs told me they’ve had it for years and it’s holding up perfectly – so I have high hopes for it being a good choice for a vacation rental).

accent chairs | rug | sofa | side table | similar lamp | blue pillow | pink pillow | lumbar pillows | |curtains | curtain rod | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

The dining table in here is another secondhand one that we sanded down and refinished – so we’ll share the tutorial soon. It’s such a worthwhile DIY (wait until you see the before shots of them!) and it’s extremely inexpensive to do! We saved hundreds and maybe even a cool grand by not having to buy two new dining tables – and a secondhand table is always nice since dining tables take such a beating (it’s good to know these two have already stood the test of time).

dining chairs | similar dining table | mirrors | chandelier | rug | similar pouf | faux fig | plant basket | TV cabinet | TV | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | doors: SW Oyster Bay

Oh and we’ve had those rattan mirrors that we hung on the left wall for years as well – but they still sell the same set that we got. They’re pretty great for hanging all together on a giant wall, or spreading around in a few places. The texture = so good.

And last but not least, here’s a shot from the front door looking into the living and dining room. The railing opens things up so much, and we love the architecture it adds (it looks crazy tall here but it’s just the angle – we had the camera really low for this shot). And everything from the round rattan mirrors to the big brass & bronze light fixture feels so welcoming and warm. P.S. Another way to mix metals even more easily is to buy a fixture or some other item (like a coffee table) that mixes both – and then just add a few more hits of each one to the room and you’re golden.

Oh and see those cute stair risers that are the same color as the greeny-gray doors on this side? We did each side’s interior steps in their own door color, and when the front doors are thrown open you see these cute pink risers on one side and these soft green ones on the other. I can’t even tell you how charming it is (you can see a peek of them both here in this post).

But enough talking, we have two kitchens and two laundry rooms to finish to hopefully share with you by next week! And the back patio, and landscaping, and about a hundred curtains to iron and hem. Just call me Sheron Petersik, heir to the IRON throne. Get it? No? Is anyone laughing? Hello?

P.S. You can see the entire process of bringing the duplex back to life hereFrom buying it and planning the layout to screaming into a pillow over a sad setback, it’s thorough.

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post The Finished Living Rooms & Dining Rooms At The Duplex! appeared first on Young House Love.

The Finished Living Rooms & Dining Rooms At The Duplex! published first on https://carpetgurus.tumblr.com/

[additionallysad]

The Finished Living Rooms & Dining Rooms At The Duplex! http://bit.ly/2DGwEl7

We’re THRILLED TO PIECES to be finished with the entire front half of the entire duplex – which means we’re revealing the open living room & dining room on each side at this very moment. Right now. It’s ON.

This is what you see when you walk into the left side of the duplex and pivot towards the living area. With the exception of still having to steam and hem the curtains, we are ready to stick a fork in this baby!

sofa | coffee table | similar rug | similar pouf | blue pillows | gray pillow | art | dining chairs | similar dining table| chandelier | mirror | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

One of our favorite secondhand rugs that I bought ages ago from New England Loom on Instagram found a home in the living area with our favorite Crate & Barrel sofa to add cushy and durable seating. We love this sofa so much that after we bought it around two years ago for our own living room in the Taft Steel color, we decided to buy it again times two for the duplex in the Taft Truffle color (which we think will hopefully stand up to all the use these houses are gonna get). Our kids and pooch have road tested our sofa at home for the past few years and we couldn’t be happier with it. Zero issues. Super comfy. We bought it three times, I feel like that says it all.

It’s hard to see in the shot above, but we also have two armchairs facing the crisp white coffee table (they don’t sell the armchairs in the blue color anymore but they have a deep gray that looks great too). We also added a little pouf ottoman to round things out in the living zone (found at HomeGoods, but here’s a similar one).

Here’s a better shot of the chairs, which we also have at home in our living room in the natural color. Notice a theme here? We are trying to diminish the risk of making bad furniture buys when we know we have a love something that’s durable and functional. So since we’ve been really happy with them at home (they’re going on two years old), we got them in a darker color for the duplex (again, the blue is gone but they have them in dark gray now). Then we just added some cute pink bolsters to the back, which is the key to making them extra comfy since they feel a bit reclined without the added pillows.

accent chairs | pink pillows| sofa | coffee table | side table | similar lamp | similar rug | blue pillows | gray pillow |curtains | curtain rod | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

We also brought in one of our favorite quartz-topped tables (it’s over 50% off right now on Amazon!). Hooray for not having to worry about juice or wine stains while getting that shiny marble look. And how perfect is that large art print on the wall behind the sofa? This is the side of the duplex with the blue cabinets and the pink tile and TRUST ME WHEN I SAY THAT ART WAS MADE FOR THIS ROOM.

sofa | end table | faux fern |similar pouf | blue pillow | gray pillow |art | curtains | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

When we finally finish the kitchen and do a video walk-through you’ll see what I mean, but the exact same tones in the kitchen – which is just beyond the dining area – are also in the art. It’s magical. Our good friend Jenny Komenda’s Juniper Print Shop is the best – and we bought two of Sarah Madeira Day’s prints for the beach house a few months ago, so this art feels meant to be on so many levels.

Let’s rewind to really appreciate where we came from in here. This was the room as it looked when we bought it, complete with sections of the ceiling collapsing from water damage to reveal black mold underneath. All of the paneling was fake plastic paneling (again, to cover up damage in the walls) and a rug pad had been removed but the backing was stuck all over the floors. Oh and see that one gorgeous thing in here!? The fan! Just kidding, that five paneled door on the right wall. Remember we rescued it and reused the two of them up in the bedrooms as closet doors? You can see them here – we LOVE how they came out!

This house reno went all the way down to the studs (literally you could stand in the house and put your arm outside) but here’s a shot when the new plywood was put up along the old studs (a lot of which were reinforced with new framing). I remember standing in there and thinking… someday it’ll come together again. This was easily taken over a year ago.

Also, we added that interior transom a little while after framing in the doorway above. See how it originally was lower (see above pic) and then we realized “wait, we can put a long cool transom window in there and it’ll let in more light and feel original and so cool!” So we reframed the doorway opening to be higher, which you can see below:

Fast forward a little bit more and… ta-da!! Transom! Isn’t she lovely? All of the solid five panel doors that we added, along with that transom and the pocket doors that we added on the laundry room/mudroom (which you can sort of make out in the photo below) are some of my favorite “inspired-by-original” things that we brought back to this house. Especially since there were only a few original things that we could salvage (like the brick chimneys that we exposed, the hardwoods that we refinished, and the diamond windows & front doors).

And here it is now – although we’ll show you more of the kitchen next week when it’s actually done (along with the mudroom/laundry room if we can get that knocked out and photographed too!). We both felt extremely lucky that the placement for the dining room light on each side of the house was perfect since we had to pick that spot months before drywall & floor refinishing.

sofa | coffee table | similar rug | similar pouf | blue pillows | gray pillow |art | dining chairs | similar dining table| chandelier | mirror | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

The way we planned it was just to tape out the table placement on the floor and figure out what we thought would work with room to pull out all the chairs and then hope for the best. We knew our table measurements because this is a secondhand table that we have had for ages (it used to live in our own dining room!) and we refinished it to look like new!). John’s actually working on a post for you guys with steps for refinishing an old table since we did two of them for the duplex and they came out really well.

Here’s the before from the other side. Look at my lovely beautiful perfect old wood doors (remember you can see them here in the upstairs bedroom).

One other remarkable thing about this room that’s easy to see, even in the before shots, are the size of the windows in here. The downstairs of the duplex has 9′ ceilings and all of the windows start about a foot off the ground and go about 8″ shy of the ceiling. So yes, it means they’re all OVER 6 FEET TALL! These windows are taller than John. Like if he stood on the windowsill, the top of the window frame would still be inches above his head. They let in tons of light, and definitely add presence to this otherwise nondescript rectangular room.

So here we are back in the present. You can see from this angle that it’s all nice and open, but we made sense of the long room by giving it both a living and a dining function. If you have a long open space like this, one tip would be to use area rugs and hanging lights to define different zones so it doesn’t look like one long bowling alley of a space. Floating furniture around the rug to make a living room “zone” at one end, and then hanging a pendant to define the dining area so we could center a table and chairs beneath that chandelier were two good ways to keep the room from feeling like a big amorphous blob.

dining chairs | similar dining table| chandelier |TV cabinet | faux fig | basket | accent chairs | coffee table | similar rug | similar pouf | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | doors: SW White Truffle

Thanks to all of those aforementioned extra tall windows, we didn’t have a lot of empty wall space, so there was literally just one spot that made sense for the TV, which was this wall space across from the sofa. We actually love how the room’s layout panned out because the TV is the very last thing you see when you walk into the room since you enter and see the rug and the sofa and the coffee table. Plus we used a nice thin console table and mounted the television on the wall so it feels clean and easily allows for passage throughout the room.

sofa | coffee table | side table | accent chairs | similar rug | similar pouf | similar lamp | blue pillows | gray pillow | pink pillows| gold frames | TV cabinet | TV | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

A deeper more solid looking TV table would definitely have left the room feeling cramped and awkward, so if you have that issue: 1) mount a TV on the wall (we’ve used this awesome $19 mount four times and it’s always great) and 2) add a narrow open feeling table under it (like this), which allows for a much more spacious feeling.

Plus if your TV is a smart one (we bought two of these for the duplex living rooms after loving the one we have in our house so much) you can ditch the cable box and literally just have one wire that runs down the wall to plug the tv in, which we covered with a white cord cover. Just one cord instead of 10 snaking out from the tv?! Without any black boxes and stuff to hide?! We are living in the future!! (Note: if you want to know more about cutting the cord and still getting all your channels without a cable box, which also saves us tons of money – here’s a detailed post with more info).?

TV cabinet | TV | sofa | coffee table |accent chairs| similar rug | similar pouf | blue pillows | gray pillow | pink pillows| gold frames | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

We actually debated running the cord cover along the side of that vent that you see on the right which would have been even more invisible, but because of where the outlet is placed on the wall it would have to cut across a lot at the bottom to snake back to the outlet so we just went straight down with it. I think once we have more board games and puzzles and stuff on each console it’ll be even less noticeable (oh heck yes, our duplex is gonna have GAMES! You know us ;)

?TV cabinet | TV | baskets | cord cover | faux fig | plant basket | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | doors: SW White Truffle

The door next to the TV will be our locked owners closet, but the one next to that is the powder room. This area was originally just a big closet, so it was a huge functional improvement to create a bathroom downstairs (there wasn’t one down here before!).

vanity | mirror | bath light | bath faucet | TV cabinet | TV | baskets | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | doors: SW White Truffle

It’s impossible to photograph this space, but here’s a closer peek (this is the other side – it’s identical). It’s a room we’d like to do more to eventually – like add wainscotting with wallpaper running around the top or some fun rich color to make it a little jewel box in there. We’ll most likely get to that in the off-season next year, but for now we’re loving the vanity (it’s so pretty guys! Those legs! That shiny top!) and the mirror above it (it’s my FAVORITE budget mirror that looks so much more expensive than it is). And the toilet on the other side is, well, pretty much just a nice white toilet. And now you can do your business without walking upstairs. Like a boss.

vanity | mirror | bath light | bath faucet | towel hook | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

If we duck back out into the living/dining room, you can see that we went with some brass (in the chandelier and the mirror on the wall behind it) as well as some oil rubbed bronze (in all of the curtain rods, all the door handles and hinges in the entire house, etc). So if you’re wondering how to mix metals, I always just say to make each of them appear a few times in a space and then it looks intentional and layered.

sofa | coffee table | similar rug | similar pouf | blue pillows | gray pillow |art | dining chairs | similar dining table| chandelier | mirror | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

The tone of the the dark TV is basically the same color as the curtain rods and doorknobs, and we hung a few simple gold frames on either side of the front window to bring some of that brass tone over to that area too. You really don’t have to think too hard about mixing metals – just go for it. And if you’re worried about tiring of something that might feel trendy (ex: rose gold or copper for example) you can just add it with smaller items (frames, a table lamp, even a bowl on the coffee table for remotes or odds & ends).

sofa | coffee table | side table | accent chairs | similar rug | similar pouf | similar lamp | blue pillows | gray pillow | pink pillows| gold frames | TV cabinet | TV | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

Ok, so that’s the left side with the pink doors – let’s move over to the right side with the greeny-gray doors. Although the floor plan is a mirror image of the left side, the before looked a little different:

This side had less mold and rot (unfortunately not none – but the walls hadn’t been covered as much, although that is a drop ceiling you see that was added to hide some other water damage). And the two-toned trim that changes mid-wall is pretty… unusual…? But the floors on this side were lovely (we still refinished them all so they match) and we could see the potential even more when we walked in the door.

Here’s that space as it looks today (again, we’ll share all the kitchen details in our next post when it’s done).

sofa | coffee table | rug | similar pouf | blue pillow | pink pillows |mirrors| dining chairs | similar dining table | chandelier | art | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

We kept the same basic elements in this living room (same sofa, same armchairs, a secondhand wood dining table, a light colored coffee table and a simple pouf for bonus seating), but we mixed things up and chose some different items as well, like a different rug, dining chairs, lighting, etc. It’s really fun to have two identical rooms so you can change up a few of the elements and basically see it two totally different ways… (but warning, it’s expensive – furnishing two houses (and filling two kitchens!) pretty much equals that emoji of the money with wings. But at least we had fun while all our benjamins were flying away.

The vibe for this side all started with this rug, which is a bit more chill than the bright pink turkish one on the other side. The same sofa and marble end table are in here, but we reused our coffee table that we topped with concrete (remember that from our beach house living room) and just added some soft pillows and a woven lamp I’ve had for like 6 years in the attic (its mate is on the other side of the duplex, which you probably noticed in the other pics).

sofa | end table | coffee table | side table | accent chairs | rug | similar pouf | similar lamp | blue pillows | pink pillows | lumbar pillows | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

Oh and I should have mentioned that we also tried to keep the furniture pretty low so it wasn’t sticking up and awkwardly blocking too much of our huge windows, so those two dark blue armchairs were nice for that wall for that reason. More light flows in through the glass on the front door and the original transom above that too!

TV cabinet | TV | baskets | end table | faux fern | coffee table |accent chairs | lumbar pillows |rug | similar pouf | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | door: SW Oyster Bay

The un-ironed curtains are killing me, but other than that this room is looking so fresh and finished. Also this rug is great and such a bargain for the size. Extremely well rated, soft, and durable (when I shared some sneak peeks on Instagram, people with lots of kids & dogs told me they’ve had it for years and it’s holding up perfectly – so I have high hopes for it being a good choice for a vacation rental).

accent chairs | rug | sofa | side table | similar lamp | blue pillow | pink pillow | lumbar pillows | |curtains | curtain rod | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

The dining table in here is another secondhand one that we sanded down and refinished – so we’ll share the tutorial soon. It’s such a worthwhile DIY (wait until you see the before shots of them!) and it’s extremely inexpensive to do! We saved hundreds and maybe even a cool grand by not having to buy two new dining tables – and a secondhand table is always nice since dining tables take such a beating (it’s good to know these two have already stood the test of time).

dining chairs | similar dining table | mirrors | chandelier | rug | similar pouf | faux fig | plant basket | TV cabinet | TV | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | doors: SW Oyster Bay

Oh and we’ve had those rattan mirrors that we hung on the left wall for years as well – but they still sell the same set that we got. They’re pretty great for hanging all together on a giant wall, or spreading around in a few places. The texture = so good.

And last but not least, here’s a shot from the front door looking into the living and dining room. The railing opens things up so much, and we love the architecture it adds (it looks crazy tall here but it’s just the angle – we had the camera really low for this shot). And everything from the round rattan mirrors to the big brass & bronze light fixture feels so welcoming and warm. P.S. Another way to mix metals even more easily is to buy a fixture or some other item (like a coffee table) that mixes both – and then just add a few more hits of each one to the room and you’re golden.

Oh and see those cute stair risers that are the same color as the greeny-gray doors on this side? We did each side’s interior steps in their own door color, and when the front doors are thrown open you see these cute pink risers on one side and these soft green ones on the other. I can’t even tell you how charming it is (you can see a peek of them both here in this post).

But enough talking, we have two kitchens and two laundry rooms to finish to hopefully share with you by next week! And the back patio, and landscaping, and about a hundred curtains to iron and hem. Just call me Sheron Petersik, heir to the IRON throne. Get it? No? Is anyone laughing? Hello?

P.S. You can see the entire process of bringing the duplex back to life hereFrom buying it and planning the layout to screaming into a pillow over a sad setback, it’s thorough.

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post The Finished Living Rooms & Dining Rooms At The Duplex! appeared first on Young House Love.

[lukerhill]

The Finished Living Rooms & Dining Rooms At The Duplex!

We’re THRILLED TO PIECES to be finished with the entire front half of the entire duplex – which means we’re revealing the open living room & dining room on each side at this very moment. Right now. It’s ON.

This is what you see when you walk into the left side of the duplex and pivot towards the living area. With the exception of still having to steam and hem the curtains, we are ready to stick a fork in this baby!

sofa | coffee table | similar rug | similar pouf | blue pillows | gray pillow | art | dining chairs | similar dining table| chandelier | mirror | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

One of our favorite secondhand rugs that I bought ages ago from New England Loom on Instagram found a home in the living area with our favorite Crate & Barrel sofa to add cushy and durable seating. We love this sofa so much that after we bought it around two years ago for our own living room in the Taft Steel color, we decided to buy it again times two for the duplex in the Taft Truffle color (which we think will hopefully stand up to all the use these houses are gonna get). Our kids and pooch have road tested our sofa at home for the past few years and we couldn’t be happier with it. Zero issues. Super comfy. We bought it three times, I feel like that says it all.

It’s hard to see in the shot above, but we also have two armchairs facing the crisp white coffee table (they don’t sell the armchairs in the blue color anymore but they have a deep gray that looks great too). We also added a little pouf ottoman to round things out in the living zone (found at HomeGoods, but here’s a similar one).

Here’s a better shot of the chairs, which we also have at home in our living room in the natural color. Notice a theme here? We are trying to diminish the risk of making bad furniture buys when we know we have a love something that’s durable and functional. So since we’ve been really happy with them at home (they’re going on two years old), we got them in a darker color for the duplex (again, the blue is gone but they have them in dark gray now). Then we just added some cute pink bolsters to the back, which is the key to making them extra comfy since they feel a bit reclined without the added pillows.

accent chairs | pink pillows| sofa | coffee table | side table | similar lamp | similar rug | blue pillows | gray pillow |curtains | curtain rod | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

We also brought in one of our favorite quartz-topped tables (it’s over 50% off right now on Amazon!). Hooray for not having to worry about juice or wine stains while getting that shiny marble look. And how perfect is that large art print on the wall behind the sofa? This is the side of the duplex with the blue cabinets and the pink tile and TRUST ME WHEN I SAY THAT ART WAS MADE FOR THIS ROOM.

sofa | end table | faux fern |similar pouf | blue pillow | gray pillow |art | curtains | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

When we finally finish the kitchen and do a video walk-through you’ll see what I mean, but the exact same tones in the kitchen – which is just beyond the dining area – are also in the art. It’s magical. Our good friend Jenny Komenda’s Juniper Print Shop is the best – and we bought two of Sarah Madeira Day’s prints for the beach house a few months ago, so this art feels meant to be on so many levels.

Let’s rewind to really appreciate where we came from in here. This was the room as it looked when we bought it, complete with sections of the ceiling collapsing from water damage to reveal black mold underneath. All of the paneling was fake plastic paneling (again, to cover up damage in the walls) and a rug pad had been removed but the backing was stuck all over the floors. Oh and see that one gorgeous thing in here!? The fan! Just kidding, that five paneled door on the right wall. Remember we rescued it and reused the two of them up in the bedrooms as closet doors? You can see them here – we LOVE how they came out!

This house reno went all the way down to the studs (literally you could stand in the house and put your arm outside) but here’s a shot when the new plywood was put up along the old studs (a lot of which were reinforced with new framing). I remember standing in there and thinking… someday it’ll come together again. This was easily taken over a year ago.

Also, we added that interior transom a little while after framing in the doorway above. See how it originally was lower (see above pic) and then we realized “wait, we can put a long cool transom window in there and it’ll let in more light and feel original and so cool!” So we reframed the doorway opening to be higher, which you can see below:

Fast forward a little bit more and… ta-da!! Transom! Isn’t she lovely? All of the solid five panel doors that we added, along with that transom and the pocket doors that we added on the laundry room/mudroom (which you can sort of make out in the photo below) are some of my favorite “inspired-by-original” things that we brought back to this house. Especially since there were only a few original things that we could salvage (like the brick chimneys that we exposed, the hardwoods that we refinished, and the diamond windows & front doors).

And here it is now – although we’ll show you more of the kitchen next week when it’s actually done (along with the mudroom/laundry room if we can get that knocked out and photographed too!). We both felt extremely lucky that the placement for the dining room light on each side of the house was perfect since we had to pick that spot months before drywall & floor refinishing.

sofa | coffee table | similar rug | similar pouf | blue pillows | gray pillow |art | dining chairs | similar dining table| chandelier | mirror | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

The way we planned it was just to tape out the table placement on the floor and figure out what we thought would work with room to pull out all the chairs and then hope for the best. We knew our table measurements because this is a secondhand table that we have had for ages (it used to live in our own dining room!) and we refinished it to look like new!). John’s actually working on a post for you guys with steps for refinishing an old table since we did two of them for the duplex and they came out really well.

Here’s the before from the other side. Look at my lovely beautiful perfect old wood doors (remember you can see them here in the upstairs bedroom).

One other remarkable thing about this room that’s easy to see, even in the before shots, are the size of the windows in here. The downstairs of the duplex has 9′ ceilings and all of the windows start about a foot off the ground and go about 8″ shy of the ceiling. So yes, it means they’re all OVER 6 FEET TALL! These windows are taller than John. Like if he stood on the windowsill, the top of the window frame would still be inches above his head. They let in tons of light, and definitely add presence to this otherwise nondescript rectangular room.

So here we are back in the present. You can see from this angle that it’s all nice and open, but we made sense of the long room by giving it both a living and a dining function. If you have a long open space like this, one tip would be to use area rugs and hanging lights to define different zones so it doesn’t look like one long bowling alley of a space. Floating furniture around the rug to make a living room “zone” at one end, and then hanging a pendant to define the dining area so we could center a table and chairs beneath that chandelier were two good ways to keep the room from feeling like a big amorphous blob.

dining chairs | similar dining table| chandelier |TV cabinet | faux fig | basket | accent chairs | coffee table | similar rug | similar pouf | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | doors: SW White Truffle

Thanks to all of those aforementioned extra tall windows, we didn’t have a lot of empty wall space, so there was literally just one spot that made sense for the TV, which was this wall space across from the sofa. We actually love how the room’s layout panned out because the TV is the very last thing you see when you walk into the room since you enter and see the rug and the sofa and the coffee table. Plus we used a nice thin console table and mounted the television on the wall so it feels clean and easily allows for passage throughout the room.

sofa | coffee table | side table | accent chairs | similar rug | similar pouf | similar lamp | blue pillows | gray pillow | pink pillows| gold frames | TV cabinet | TV | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

A deeper more solid looking TV table would definitely have left the room feeling cramped and awkward, so if you have that issue: 1) mount a TV on the wall (we’ve used this awesome $19 mount four times and it’s always great) and 2) add a narrow open feeling table under it (like this), which allows for a much more spacious feeling.

Plus if your TV is a smart one (we bought two of these for the duplex living rooms after loving the one we have in our house so much) you can ditch the cable box and literally just have one wire that runs down the wall to plug the tv in, which we covered with a white cord cover. Just one cord instead of 10 snaking out from the tv?! Without any black boxes and stuff to hide?! We are living in the future!! (Note: if you want to know more about cutting the cord and still getting all your channels without a cable box, which also saves us tons of money – here’s a detailed post with more info).?

TV cabinet | TV | sofa | coffee table |accent chairs| similar rug | similar pouf | blue pillows | gray pillow | pink pillows| gold frames | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

We actually debated running the cord cover along the side of that vent that you see on the right which would have been even more invisible, but because of where the outlet is placed on the wall it would have to cut across a lot at the bottom to snake back to the outlet so we just went straight down with it. I think once we have more board games and puzzles and stuff on each console it’ll be even less noticeable (oh heck yes, our duplex is gonna have GAMES! You know us ;)

?TV cabinet | TV | baskets | cord cover | faux fig | plant basket | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | doors: SW White Truffle

The door next to the TV will be our locked owners closet, but the one next to that is the powder room. This area was originally just a big closet, so it was a huge functional improvement to create a bathroom downstairs (there wasn’t one down here before!).

vanity | mirror | bath light | bath faucet | TV cabinet | TV | baskets | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | doors: SW White Truffle

It’s impossible to photograph this space, but here’s a closer peek (this is the other side – it’s identical). It’s a room we’d like to do more to eventually – like add wainscotting with wallpaper running around the top or some fun rich color to make it a little jewel box in there. We’ll most likely get to that in the off-season next year, but for now we’re loving the vanity (it’s so pretty guys! Those legs! That shiny top!) and the mirror above it (it’s my FAVORITE budget mirror that looks so much more expensive than it is). And the toilet on the other side is, well, pretty much just a nice white toilet. And now you can do your business without walking upstairs. Like a boss.

vanity | mirror | bath light | bath faucet | towel hook | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

If we duck back out into the living/dining room, you can see that we went with some brass (in the chandelier and the mirror on the wall behind it) as well as some oil rubbed bronze (in all of the curtain rods, all the door handles and hinges in the entire house, etc). So if you’re wondering how to mix metals, I always just say to make each of them appear a few times in a space and then it looks intentional and layered.

sofa | coffee table | similar rug | similar pouf | blue pillows | gray pillow |art | dining chairs | similar dining table| chandelier | mirror | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

The tone of the the dark TV is basically the same color as the curtain rods and doorknobs, and we hung a few simple gold frames on either side of the front window to bring some of that brass tone over to that area too. You really don’t have to think too hard about mixing metals – just go for it. And if you’re worried about tiring of something that might feel trendy (ex: rose gold or copper for example) you can just add it with smaller items (frames, a table lamp, even a bowl on the coffee table for remotes or odds & ends).

sofa | coffee table | side table | accent chairs | similar rug | similar pouf | similar lamp | blue pillows | gray pillow | pink pillows| gold frames | TV cabinet | TV | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

Ok, so that’s the left side with the pink doors – let’s move over to the right side with the greeny-gray doors. Although the floor plan is a mirror image of the left side, the before looked a little different:

This side had less mold and rot (unfortunately not none – but the walls hadn’t been covered as much, although that is a drop ceiling you see that was added to hide some other water damage). And the two-toned trim that changes mid-wall is pretty… unusual…? But the floors on this side were lovely (we still refinished them all so they match) and we could see the potential even more when we walked in the door.

Here’s that space as it looks today (again, we’ll share all the kitchen details in our next post when it’s done).

sofa | coffee table | rug | similar pouf | blue pillow | pink pillows |mirrors| dining chairs | similar dining table | chandelier | art | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

We kept the same basic elements in this living room (same sofa, same armchairs, a secondhand wood dining table, a light colored coffee table and a simple pouf for bonus seating), but we mixed things up and chose some different items as well, like a different rug, dining chairs, lighting, etc. It’s really fun to have two identical rooms so you can change up a few of the elements and basically see it two totally different ways… (but warning, it’s expensive – furnishing two houses (and filling two kitchens!) pretty much equals that emoji of the money with wings. But at least we had fun while all our benjamins were flying away.

The vibe for this side all started with this rug, which is a bit more chill than the bright pink turkish one on the other side. The same sofa and marble end table are in here, but we reused our coffee table that we topped with concrete (remember that from our beach house living room) and just added some soft pillows and a woven lamp I’ve had for like 6 years in the attic (its mate is on the other side of the duplex, which you probably noticed in the other pics).

sofa | end table | coffee table | side table | accent chairs | rug | similar pouf | similar lamp | blue pillows | pink pillows | lumbar pillows | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

Oh and I should have mentioned that we also tried to keep the furniture pretty low so it wasn’t sticking up and awkwardly blocking too much of our huge windows, so those two dark blue armchairs were nice for that wall for that reason. More light flows in through the glass on the front door and the original transom above that too!

TV cabinet | TV | baskets | end table | faux fern | coffee table |accent chairs | lumbar pillows |rug | similar pouf | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | door: SW Oyster Bay

The un-ironed curtains are killing me, but other than that this room is looking so fresh and finished. Also this rug is great and such a bargain for the size. Extremely well rated, soft, and durable (when I shared some sneak peeks on Instagram, people with lots of kids & dogs told me they’ve had it for years and it’s holding up perfectly – so I have high hopes for it being a good choice for a vacation rental).

accent chairs | rug | sofa | side table | similar lamp | blue pillow | pink pillow | lumbar pillows | |curtains | curtain rod | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

The dining table in here is another secondhand one that we sanded down and refinished – so we’ll share the tutorial soon. It’s such a worthwhile DIY (wait until you see the before shots of them!) and it’s extremely inexpensive to do! We saved hundreds and maybe even a cool grand by not having to buy two new dining tables – and a secondhand table is always nice since dining tables take such a beating (it’s good to know these two have already stood the test of time).

dining chairs | similar dining table | mirrors | chandelier | rug | similar pouf | faux fig | plant basket | TV cabinet | TV | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | doors: SW Oyster Bay

Oh and we’ve had those rattan mirrors that we hung on the left wall for years as well – but they still sell the same set that we got. They’re pretty great for hanging all together on a giant wall, or spreading around in a few places. The texture = so good.

And last but not least, here’s a shot from the front door looking into the living and dining room. The railing opens things up so much, and we love the architecture it adds (it looks crazy tall here but it’s just the angle – we had the camera really low for this shot). And everything from the round rattan mirrors to the big brass & bronze light fixture feels so welcoming and warm. P.S. Another way to mix metals even more easily is to buy a fixture or some other item (like a coffee table) that mixes both – and then just add a few more hits of each one to the room and you’re golden.

Oh and see those cute stair risers that are the same color as the greeny-gray doors on this side? We did each side’s interior steps in their own door color, and when the front doors are thrown open you see these cute pink risers on one side and these soft green ones on the other. I can’t even tell you how charming it is (you can see a peek of them both here in this post).

But enough talking, we have two kitchens and two laundry rooms to finish to hopefully share with you by next week! And the back patio, and landscaping, and about a hundred curtains to iron and hem. Just call me Sheron Petersik, heir to the IRON throne. Get it? No? Is anyone laughing? Hello?

P.S. You can see the entire process of bringing the duplex back to life hereFrom buying it and planning the layout to screaming into a pillow over a sad setback, it’s thorough.

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post The Finished Living Rooms & Dining Rooms At The Duplex! appeared first on Young House Love.

[lowmaticnews]

The Finished Living Rooms & Dining Rooms At The Duplex!

We’re THRILLED TO PIECES to be finished with the entire front half of the entire duplex – which means we’re revealing the open living room & dining room on each side at this very moment. Right now. It’s ON.

This is what you see when you walk into the left side of the duplex and pivot towards the living area. With the exception of still having to steam and hem the curtains, we are ready to stick a fork in this baby!

sofa | coffee table | similar rug | similar pouf | blue pillows | gray pillow | art | dining chairs | similar dining table| chandelier | mirror | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

One of our favorite secondhand rugs that I bought ages ago from New England Loom on Instagram found a home in the living area with our favorite Crate & Barrel sofa to add cushy and durable seating. We love this sofa so much that after we bought it around two years ago for our own living room in the Taft Steel color, we decided to buy it again times two for the duplex in the Taft Truffle color (which we think will hopefully stand up to all the use these houses are gonna get). Our kids and pooch have road tested our sofa at home for the past few years and we couldn’t be happier with it. Zero issues. Super comfy. We bought it three times, I feel like that says it all.

It’s hard to see in the shot above, but we also have two armchairs facing the crisp white coffee table (they don’t sell the armchairs in the blue color anymore but they have a deep gray that looks great too). We also added a little pouf ottoman to round things out in the living zone (found at HomeGoods, but here’s a similar one).

Here’s a better shot of the chairs, which we also have at home in our living room in the natural color. Notice a theme here? We are trying to diminish the risk of making bad furniture buys when we know we have a love something that’s durable and functional. So since we’ve been really happy with them at home (they’re going on two years old), we got them in a darker color for the duplex (again, the blue is gone but they have them in dark gray now). Then we just added some cute pink bolsters to the back, which is the key to making them extra comfy since they feel a bit reclined without the added pillows.

accent chairs | pink pillows| sofa | coffee table | side table | similar lamp | similar rug | blue pillows | gray pillow |curtains | curtain rod | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

We also brought in one of our favorite quartz-topped tables (it’s over 50% off right now on Amazon!). Hooray for not having to worry about juice or wine stains while getting that shiny marble look. And how perfect is that large art print on the wall behind the sofa? This is the side of the duplex with the blue cabinets and the pink tile and TRUST ME WHEN I SAY THAT ART WAS MADE FOR THIS ROOM.

sofa | end table | faux fern |similar pouf | blue pillow | gray pillow |art | curtains | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

When we finally finish the kitchen and do a video walk-through you’ll see what I mean, but the exact same tones in the kitchen – which is just beyond the dining area – are also in the art. It’s magical. Our good friend Jenny Komenda’s Juniper Print Shop is the best – and we bought two of Sarah Madeira Day’s prints for the beach house a few months ago, so this art feels meant to be on so many levels.

Let’s rewind to really appreciate where we came from in here. This was the room as it looked when we bought it, complete with sections of the ceiling collapsing from water damage to reveal black mold underneath. All of the paneling was fake plastic paneling (again, to cover up damage in the walls) and a rug pad had been removed but the backing was stuck all over the floors. Oh and see that one gorgeous thing in here!? The fan! Just kidding, that five paneled door on the right wall. Remember we rescued it and reused the two of them up in the bedrooms as closet doors? You can see them here – we LOVE how they came out!

This house reno went all the way down to the studs (literally you could stand in the house and put your arm outside) but here’s a shot when the new plywood was put up along the old studs (a lot of which were reinforced with new framing). I remember standing in there and thinking… someday it’ll come together again. This was easily taken over a year ago.

Also, we added that interior transom a little while after framing in the doorway above. See how it originally was lower (see above pic) and then we realized “wait, we can put a long cool transom window in there and it’ll let in more light and feel original and so cool!” So we reframed the doorway opening to be higher, which you can see below:

Fast forward a little bit more and… ta-da!! Transom! Isn’t she lovely? All of the solid five panel doors that we added, along with that transom and the pocket doors that we added on the laundry room/mudroom (which you can sort of make out in the photo below) are some of my favorite “inspired-by-original” things that we brought back to this house. Especially since there were only a few original things that we could salvage (like the brick chimneys that we exposed, the hardwoods that we refinished, and the diamond windows & front doors).

And here it is now – although we’ll show you more of the kitchen next week when it’s actually done (along with the mudroom/laundry room if we can get that knocked out and photographed too!). We both felt extremely lucky that the placement for the dining room light on each side of the house was perfect since we had to pick that spot months before drywall & floor refinishing.

sofa | coffee table | similar rug | similar pouf | blue pillows | gray pillow |art | dining chairs | similar dining table| chandelier | mirror | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

The way we planned it was just to tape out the table placement on the floor and figure out what we thought would work with room to pull out all the chairs and then hope for the best. We knew our table measurements because this is a secondhand table that we have had for ages (it used to live in our own dining room!) and we refinished it to look like new!). John’s actually working on a post for you guys with steps for refinishing an old table since we did two of them for the duplex and they came out really well.

Here’s the before from the other side. Look at my lovely beautiful perfect old wood doors (remember you can see them here in the upstairs bedroom).

One other remarkable thing about this room that’s easy to see, even in the before shots, are the size of the windows in here. The downstairs of the duplex has 9′ ceilings and all of the windows start about a foot off the ground and go about 8″ shy of the ceiling. So yes, it means they’re all OVER 6 FEET TALL! These windows are taller than John. Like if he stood on the windowsill, the top of the window frame would still be inches above his head. They let in tons of light, and definitely add presence to this otherwise nondescript rectangular room.

So here we are back in the present. You can see from this angle that it’s all nice and open, but we made sense of the long room by giving it both a living and a dining function. If you have a long open space like this, one tip would be to use area rugs and hanging lights to define different zones so it doesn’t look like one long bowling alley of a space. Floating furniture around the rug to make a living room “zone” at one end, and then hanging a pendant to define the dining area so we could center a table and chairs beneath that chandelier were two good ways to keep the room from feeling like a big amorphous blob.

dining chairs | similar dining table| chandelier |TV cabinet | faux fig | basket | accent chairs | coffee table | similar rug | similar pouf | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | doors: SW White Truffle

Thanks to all of those aforementioned extra tall windows, we didn’t have a lot of empty wall space, so there was literally just one spot that made sense for the TV, which was this wall space across from the sofa. We actually love how the room’s layout panned out because the TV is the very last thing you see when you walk into the room since you enter and see the rug and the sofa and the coffee table. Plus we used a nice thin console table and mounted the television on the wall so it feels clean and easily allows for passage throughout the room.

sofa | coffee table | side table | accent chairs | similar rug | similar pouf | similar lamp | blue pillows | gray pillow | pink pillows| gold frames | TV cabinet | TV | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

A deeper more solid looking TV table would definitely have left the room feeling cramped and awkward, so if you have that issue: 1) mount a TV on the wall (we’ve used this awesome $19 mount four times and it’s always great) and 2) add a narrow open feeling table under it (like this), which allows for a much more spacious feeling.

Plus if your TV is a smart one (we bought two of these for the duplex living rooms after loving the one we have in our house so much) you can ditch the cable box and literally just have one wire that runs down the wall to plug the tv in, which we covered with a white cord cover. Just one cord instead of 10 snaking out from the tv?! Without any black boxes and stuff to hide?! We are living in the future!! (Note: if you want to know more about cutting the cord and still getting all your channels without a cable box, which also saves us tons of money – here’s a detailed post with more info).?

TV cabinet | TV | sofa | coffee table |accent chairs| similar rug | similar pouf | blue pillows | gray pillow | pink pillows| gold frames | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

We actually debated running the cord cover along the side of that vent that you see on the right which would have been even more invisible, but because of where the outlet is placed on the wall it would have to cut across a lot at the bottom to snake back to the outlet so we just went straight down with it. I think once we have more board games and puzzles and stuff on each console it’ll be even less noticeable (oh heck yes, our duplex is gonna have GAMES! You know us ;)

?TV cabinet | TV | baskets | cord cover | faux fig | plant basket | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | doors: SW White Truffle

The door next to the TV will be our locked owners closet, but the one next to that is the powder room. This area was originally just a big closet, so it was a huge functional improvement to create a bathroom downstairs (there wasn’t one down here before!).

vanity | mirror | bath light | bath faucet | TV cabinet | TV | baskets | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | doors: SW White Truffle

It’s impossible to photograph this space, but here’s a closer peek (this is the other side – it’s identical). It’s a room we’d like to do more to eventually – like add wainscotting with wallpaper running around the top or some fun rich color to make it a little jewel box in there. We’ll most likely get to that in the off-season next year, but for now we’re loving the vanity (it’s so pretty guys! Those legs! That shiny top!) and the mirror above it (it’s my FAVORITE budget mirror that looks so much more expensive than it is). And the toilet on the other side is, well, pretty much just a nice white toilet. And now you can do your business without walking upstairs. Like a boss.

vanity | mirror | bath light | bath faucet | towel hook | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

If we duck back out into the living/dining room, you can see that we went with some brass (in the chandelier and the mirror on the wall behind it) as well as some oil rubbed bronze (in all of the curtain rods, all the door handles and hinges in the entire house, etc). So if you’re wondering how to mix metals, I always just say to make each of them appear a few times in a space and then it looks intentional and layered.

sofa | coffee table | similar rug | similar pouf | blue pillows | gray pillow |art | dining chairs | similar dining table| chandelier | mirror | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

The tone of the the dark TV is basically the same color as the curtain rods and doorknobs, and we hung a few simple gold frames on either side of the front window to bring some of that brass tone over to that area too. You really don’t have to think too hard about mixing metals – just go for it. And if you’re worried about tiring of something that might feel trendy (ex: rose gold or copper for example) you can just add it with smaller items (frames, a table lamp, even a bowl on the coffee table for remotes or odds & ends).

sofa | coffee table | side table | accent chairs | similar rug | similar pouf | similar lamp | blue pillows | gray pillow | pink pillows| gold frames | TV cabinet | TV | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

Ok, so that’s the left side with the pink doors – let’s move over to the right side with the greeny-gray doors. Although the floor plan is a mirror image of the left side, the before looked a little different:

This side had less mold and rot (unfortunately not none – but the walls hadn’t been covered as much, although that is a drop ceiling you see that was added to hide some other water damage). And the two-toned trim that changes mid-wall is pretty… unusual…? But the floors on this side were lovely (we still refinished them all so they match) and we could see the potential even more when we walked in the door.

Here’s that space as it looks today (again, we’ll share all the kitchen details in our next post when it’s done).

sofa | coffee table | rug | similar pouf | blue pillow | pink pillows |mirrors| dining chairs | similar dining table | chandelier | art | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

We kept the same basic elements in this living room (same sofa, same armchairs, a secondhand wood dining table, a light colored coffee table and a simple pouf for bonus seating), but we mixed things up and chose some different items as well, like a different rug, dining chairs, lighting, etc. It’s really fun to have two identical rooms so you can change up a few of the elements and basically see it two totally different ways… (but warning, it’s expensive – furnishing two houses (and filling two kitchens!) pretty much equals that emoji of the money with wings. But at least we had fun while all our benjamins were flying away.

The vibe for this side all started with this rug, which is a bit more chill than the bright pink turkish one on the other side. The same sofa and marble end table are in here, but we reused our coffee table that we topped with concrete (remember that from our beach house living room) and just added some soft pillows and a woven lamp I’ve had for like 6 years in the attic (its mate is on the other side of the duplex, which you probably noticed in the other pics).

sofa | end table | coffee table | side table | accent chairs | rug | similar pouf | similar lamp | blue pillows | pink pillows | lumbar pillows | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

Oh and I should have mentioned that we also tried to keep the furniture pretty low so it wasn’t sticking up and awkwardly blocking too much of our huge windows, so those two dark blue armchairs were nice for that wall for that reason. More light flows in through the glass on the front door and the original transom above that too!

TV cabinet | TV | baskets | end table | faux fern | coffee table |accent chairs | lumbar pillows |rug | similar pouf | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | door: SW Oyster Bay

The un-ironed curtains are killing me, but other than that this room is looking so fresh and finished. Also this rug is great and such a bargain for the size. Extremely well rated, soft, and durable (when I shared some sneak peeks on Instagram, people with lots of kids & dogs told me they’ve had it for years and it’s holding up perfectly – so I have high hopes for it being a good choice for a vacation rental).

accent chairs | rug | sofa | side table | similar lamp | blue pillow | pink pillow | lumbar pillows | |curtains | curtain rod | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White

The dining table in here is another secondhand one that we sanded down and refinished – so we’ll share the tutorial soon. It’s such a worthwhile DIY (wait until you see the before shots of them!) and it’s extremely inexpensive to do! We saved hundreds and maybe even a cool grand by not having to buy two new dining tables – and a secondhand table is always nice since dining tables take such a beating (it’s good to know these two have already stood the test of time).

dining chairs | similar dining table | mirrors | chandelier | rug | similar pouf | faux fig | plant basket | TV cabinet | TV | walls: SW Spare White | trim: SW Extra White | doors: SW Oyster Bay

Oh and we’ve had those rattan mirrors that we hung on the left wall for years as well – but they still sell the same set that we got. They’re pretty great for hanging all together on a giant wall, or spreading around in a few places. The texture = so good.

And last but not least, here’s a shot from the front door looking into the living and dining room. The railing opens things up so much, and we love the architecture it adds (it looks crazy tall here but it’s just the angle – we had the camera really low for this shot). And everything from the round rattan mirrors to the big brass & bronze light fixture feels so welcoming and warm. P.S. Another way to mix metals even more easily is to buy a fixture or some other item (like a coffee table) that mixes both – and then just add a few more hits of each one to the room and you’re golden.

Oh and see those cute stair risers that are the same color as the greeny-gray doors on this side? We did each side’s interior steps in their own door color, and when the front doors are thrown open you see these cute pink risers on one side and these soft green ones on the other. I can’t even tell you how charming it is (you can see a peek of them both here in this post).

But enough talking, we have two kitchens and two laundry rooms to finish to hopefully share with you by next week! And the back patio, and landscaping, and about a hundred curtains to iron and hem. Just call me Sheron Petersik, heir to the IRON throne. Get it? No? Is anyone laughing? Hello?

P.S. You can see the entire process of bringing the duplex back to life hereFrom buying it and planning the layout to screaming into a pillow over a sad setback, it’s thorough.

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post The Finished Living Rooms & Dining Rooms At The Duplex! appeared first on Young House Love.

The Finished Living Rooms & Dining Rooms At The Duplex! published first on https://landscapingmates.blogspot.com