#but i realize i never see them here in cali

[freebooter4ever]

very hard to stop running this morning, the rain felt good and fuck work. also pro tip to running in the rain? sunglasses. i know it sounds counter intuitive and i have mentioned this before but as someone who grew up running in the rain almost daily - it was like magic when i wore sunglasses on a whim one day - suddenly no more rain drops pelting my eyeballs!! sheer joy!

[kennahjune]

Trauma bond? No. Bro bond.

Was having Steve and Lucas bro bond thoughts that accidentally turned into Steve whump.

…

Steve and Lucas bonding over sports more than anyone realized they ever would.

Like yeah, everyone knew Steve played basketball and was on the swim team in high school; that was practically his entire personality for a bit. But they never realized how much he actually /liked/ the sports.

Until he was geeking out with Lucas over a new play they’d thought of.

It was odd for them all to see Steve so excited. They watched on from their seats on the front porch steps. Eddie and Jonathan each had a beer, the both of them sharing a blunt with Argyle. Nancy and Robin sat on the steps below them, watching on while Steve and Lucas payed them no mind from the driveway.

It was almost comical— how the moment Lucas showed up on his bike Steve was up in an instant. After confirming it was indeed not a code red, Steve was quick to join Lucas. Especially after being told it was basketball related.

Steve had kicked his own beer over in his haste to get up.

Now Steve and Lucas were in the driveway, the garage door down (to prevent damage to the cars) and the Harrington’s basketball hoop out. Both were blissfully unaware of the eyes following them. Well, the eyes following /Steve/, it was more like.

Circling back the earlier thought; they’d never seen him to engaging in something. So excited. So…happy.

Which was really sad to think about.

“I’ve never seen him so excited over something,” Nancy said, speaking everyone’s thoughts.

Well. Except Argyle’s, it seems. “Nah, man. He gets like this anytime he starts talking about sports. We were watching a soccer game on TV last night and he was like— totally freaking out! Waving his hands around and talking a mile a minute.”

He took a puff of the blunt and passed it to Eddie, unaware of how he just tilted everyone’s worlds.

“Wait—“ Eddie took a drag and his voice was strained while he kept in the smoke “—he actually talks to you about that shit?”

Argyle hummed and looked at Eddie oddly. Eddie blew the smoke out and held Argyle’s eye.

“Yeah dude. All the time. Might help that I played volleyball back in Cali but— really, I just like hearing him talk. And I think he likes talking. He talks a lot.”

Argyle was getting extra talkative now, his sentences becoming shorter and more frequent. That’s how you knew he was high enough to not care.

“He’s never really been that talkative,” mumbled Robin, a sudden kind of dread settling uncomfortably in her chest.

Argyle shrugged. “Maybe you don’t talk about what he likes to talk about. He likes talking about sports. And romance books. He reads a lot of romance books.”

Well isn’t that something, Eddie thought. Steve Harrington likes to read.

(It brought up a distant memory from high school, from Steve’s sophomore year and Eddie’s junior year. Back before “King Steve” meant “jackass”.

“Well well, looky here, fellas! King Steve is gracing us peasants with his presence.” Eddie called mockingly to the young man sitting at the table in the library.

Steve— only 15 at the time, not 16 for another couple of months— looked up from his book with furrowed brows and a pout on his pretty pink lips. A pout that 21 year old Eddie would come to love.

Steve hadn’t done to much in the interaction. He more or less sat in silence while Eddie went on and on about something he couldn’t remember now.

When Steve had gotten up from the table, he doggy-eared his page (like a monster) and tucked the book under his arm. Eddie saw the title only briefly, “Forever Amber”.)

“Do we really never talk about his interests?” asked Jonathan to the sky, his head tilted up while he blew the smoke away.

They all startled when a series of shouts and laughs came from Lucas and Steve in the driveway. Eddie looked over in time to watch Steve pull Lucas in for a hug where they both patted each others backs aggressively. Eddie’s seen the guys do that at games. Some kind of weird bro-hug.

Eddie continued to watch when Steve bent down to pick up the rolling basketball. Eddie’s mind went other places quick enough when Steve pulled his shorts up a little higher. Robin smacked his calf.

“Seriously, you guys never talk to him about sports?” Argyle asked, flabbergasted. And I suppose he had every right to be. These were some of Steve’s closest friends. His boyfriend and his best friend! And they never got to listen to Steve rant about a particular basketball game from high school? About some specific swimming stroke and how it helped him win swim competitions?

They were seriously missing out.

Robin hung her head in shame and thought about it, her eyes misting over the more she realized that— yeah, she never talked to Steve about sports. Let alone his other interests. (Did he have other interests? That fact that she had to ask this question made her want to cry and hug Steve.)

Robin picked her head up and propped it in her hands. She looked on with everyone else as Steve and Lucas cheered about something or other.

.

Steve tossed Lucas the ball in the driveway. He bent himself at the knees and placed his hands on his thighs, breathing heavily.

“Alright, Sinclair. Hit me.” he smirked.

He and Lucas had been tossing the ball back and forth for close to an hour now, both excited to get this play right. Lucas dribbled the ball three times on the ground quickly before he set into motion.

Steve cut him off to the left, but Lucas swerved to the right so fast he nearly toppled himself over. Steve turned and jumped in front of him just in time to body slam him slightly. Not nearly as rough as he could’ve been, holding back because they were outside on concrete and Steve wasn’t going to be responsible for a concussion.

The ball rolled away into the grass, unnoticed while Steve gave Lucas a hand and pulled him up.

Lucas was taking heaving breaths, and for a scary moment Steve was worried he’d slammed him too hard and knocked his lungs around. It’s possible. That’s why Steve himself had an inhaler in the drawer closest to his bed.

But then Lucas was laughing, and soon Steve was to.

“Dude! How’d you do that? I’ve never seen anyone move like that man!” Lucas praised over his heavy breathing. Steve chuckled and took his own deep breaths.

He clapped Lucas on the shoulder, grabbed the ball, and steered him towards the porch. “Plant your feet next time.” He felt a ping of anger and sadness at the words, but tramped it down.

It was only when he’d reached the porch with Lucas that Steve realized they were alone outside. Had everyone gone inside? Did sports seriously bore them so much that they just up and left? The thought made something bitter churn in Steve’s gut.

Whatever.

He led Lucas through the door and dropped the basketball on the porch by the door. It was muddy and his floors were going to remain white for as long as possible thank you very much.

They both left their shoes by the door and traveled to the kitchen, Lucas talking about how fast he’d ducked and wanting to know what Steve meant by planting his feet. Steve agreed to another playing session the next day with a grin. It was nice to have someone who enjoyed what he did.

He tossed Lucas a bottle of water from the fridge and made sure the kid drank it all. They sat with each other at the counter for a minute, Steve idly sipping his water and listening to Lucas’ still heavy breaths.

“Damn, I still can’t catch my breath man.” Lucas laughed lightly.

Steve smiled and set his water down.

“Wait here, don’t do anything stupid.”

Lucas gave him a two finger salute as he walked off upstairs. Steve was sure to avoid the living room and was quick to grab the aforementioned inhaler from his drawer. He jogged back into the kitchen and sat next to Lucas one more.

“Ok, so I’m assuming you know what an inhaler is.”

Lucas nodded, staring at the inhaler in Steve’s hand oddly.

“I don’t have asthma,” Lucas said matter-of-factly.

Steve chuckled. “And neither do I. But there are times where you get knocked around too much or too hard, and it can rattle your lungs. I found that out the hard way when I was 14 and had my first asthma attack. My lungs had rattled so much they got trapped between my ribs and my mom had to take me to the hospital.”

Lucas winced. “Seriously? How the hell did you manage that?”

My dad got a little too rough, Steve thought. But decided against saying that, obviously. He smiled and shook his head. “Not important.”

Steve uncapped the inhaler and gave it a good shake. “Ok, I’m assuming you know at least a little about using one of these but one things for sure, you’ve gotta fix your posture.”

Lucas immediately straightened his back.

Steve went on explaining about how curling into yourself like that basically compressed your lungs and made breathing harder.

He held the inhaler to Lucas’ mouth and instructed him to breathe in and hold it for as long as he felt he could before releasing slowly.

Lucas did as instructed, and after no more than two puffs Steve instructed him to simply keep his back straight and take deep breaths through his nose and to release slowly through his mouth.

Lucas left on his bike a few minutes later with a few snacks and an extra bottle of water in his bag. Steve told him to talk to his parents about getting him a medical inhaler if he planned to stick out basketball for all of high school. Steve knew how aggressive those kids could be, and while it wasn’t always necessary it was helpful.

When he closed the door behind Lucas he went straight to the living room.

Where apparently everyone had relocated.

“Uh.. hey?” Steve waved pathetically. He had really no idea what to do with the 5 pairs of eyes on him.

“Ok? Um— seriously why are you all looking at me like that? It’s fucking freaky.” Steve curled in on himself a little, folding his arms and hunching his shoulders.

Robin was the first to shoot out of her seat on the couch. Steve was given no warning before he was engulfed in a hug.

“Oh? Ok—“ He wrapped his arms around her tightly. “What happened, Robs? You alright?” he asked from where his face was tucked into her neck.

She nodded, but it was obvious something was wrong.

When Robin let go she dragged Steve by the wrist to the couch and sat with him. He looked at everyone else settled in the living room and raised an eyebrow.

“This isn’t like— an intervention or something, right?” he tried to joke. Argyle seemed to find it funny at least. Steve smiled at him where he sat on the floor by the coffee table.

Then there was an arm wrapping around his waist from the side Robin wasn’t pressed against and Steve wasted no time leaning his head on his boyfriend’s shoulder.

“What’s up with you guys, huh? You’re quiet and it’s scary. I don’t like it.” Steve muttered the last part under his breath and more to himself. But Eddie squeezed his hip reassuringly.

“Nothing’s up, baby. How was everything with Lucas?” Eddie asked. Steve barely gave himself time to pause before he answered, “Good. He’s been moving a lot faster lately.”

He bit his tongue against the slew of words he wanted to spill about everything they’d done in that hour they’d been outside. Instead he said,

“Sorry. Totally ditched you guys for the ball.” He chuckled, trying to take the weight of the words off some. Eddie tutted.

“Don’t apologize, Steve. You looked like you having fun.” Came Nancy’s unexpected reply. Steve’s head shot up to look at her before traveling back to Argyle, who gave him a vague “go on” gesture with his hand.

“Uh..” He pulled his eyes back to Nancy. “Yeah, had a lot of fun. Um— you guys alright?”

Jonathan groaned and Steve watched Nancy hit him on the arm. They had a whole argument with their eyes before Nancy deflated. What the hell?

“Steve.” Jonathan started. Steve flinched slightly and didn’t relax when Eddie squeezed his hip.

He braced himself for the laughs, the jeers. Them telling him they didn’t care that he had fun and that they had to go.

“We’re sorry.”

Steve blinked. You’d think an apology that sounded so heartfelt would lower his inner walls a bit, but it only served to raise them higher. Because—

“What the fuck? Why?”

Jonathan rubbed the back of his head and let Nancy take the lead this time.

“For brushing you off.”

Steve blinked, his inner walls no longer rising but not lowering either.

“For not showing that we cared whenever you started talking about your sports and things.” Was Robin’s add-on from beside him.

Steve flinched and made to get up but remembered he was kind of held down by both Robin and Eddie.

“So this is an intervention? Guys it’s fine, seriously—“

“No. It’s not. Stop talking for a second and let us be sorry, sweetheart.” Eddie’s grip tightened again and Steve tried to find comfort in it like he normally did, but he was so uncomfortable right now it was unbelievable.

He doesn’t think he’s ever been apologized to. Not like this. Not with such sincerity.

It scared him, honestly.

“We’re sorry we didn’t bother trying to show interest in anything you did even though you always made sure to show interest in ours,” was how Eddie finished.

“Even with all the teasing you add in.” Chuckled Jonathan.

Steve found a bit of the comfort he was searching for.

He cleared his throat. “Um ok— so—“

“Not done.” Demanded Nancy.

Steve shut up.

“We’re sorry that we made fun of your interests and maybe made you feel like you couldn’t share your thoughts and feelings with us in fear of getting ridiculed.”

And good God if that wasn’t right on the money.

Steve swallowed against the tears that threatened to mist over his vision.

He laughed quietly instead. And maybe he looked like he was going insane but Jesus Christ— he couldn’t take this right now. He was not expecting a fucking apology after an hour of playing basketball.

What the fuck has his life turned into?

“Ok— done now?” he asked. And when nobody spoke up against him he continued.

“So um— thanks? For the apology? I guess— I guess I just don’t understand. Why are you guys apologizing when you didn’t do anything wrong?”

That got him a chorus of groans that made him curl into himself more. He hung his head and pinched his bottom lip between his thumb and pointer, a nervous habit he’d developed in middle school.

“Steve.” Robin gently said. “We have every reason to apologize and fucking grovel.”

Steve wasn’t given a single moment to protest.

“Sweetheart, what did you do yesterday when I was talking about my campaign?”

Steve looked at Eddie funny. “Dude I don’t know— I think you started talking about it while I was cooking?”

Eddie nodded. “And then you told me to hold on while you put the lasagna in the oven so you could give me your full attention.”

Steve blinked dumbly, not quite getting it.

“That’s the bare minimum, Ed. You were talking about something you really liked so I made sure you knew I was listening.”

And oh wow. It just dawned on him.

“Exactly, honey. None of us— except Argyle, apparently— have been giving you the attention you deserve even though you give us yours no matter what.”

“Steve you listened to me drone about types of cameras and film last week for three hours and didn’t complain once. I know for a fact that shit was boring to listen to because I’ve been told so by both Will and El numerous times.”

Steve stared at Jonathan.

“Ok, sure. But I don’t see— I don’t get— I don’t care that you guys don’t listen to me. Sports are complicated and yeah sure it kind of hurts when you scoff as if it doesn’t mean shit—“

Eddie’s grip tightened considerably.

“—but it— I get it. You guys aren’t obligated to listen to my shit. I listen to you guys because I want to. Because I like hearing you talk about things you’re passionate about. Like Nancy and that new article for the school paper about the different recipe for the meatloaf that makes it taste like dirt, apparently. Or how Polaroid cameras actually date all the way back to like— 1948. Or—“

“But that’s the thing, Steve.” Nancy cut him off. “You listen to these things and remember them because you want to. Because you’re a good friend and good friends listen. We—“ he waved her hand around to all of them “—have not been good friends.”

Steve swallowed around the lump in his throat while Nancy continued.

“The fact that you remember my exact words of calling the meatloaf dirt just proves that. Because we had that conversation, what? A month ago?”

“Three weeks ago.” Me mumbled uselessly.

Nancy sighed.

Robin sat up and took Steve’s face in her hands. “Stevie. We love you. So let us.”

And just like that, Steve was engulfed in a giant group hug.

He didn’t realize how much it’d affected him before now. How being scoffed at and made fun of— even if it was playful— hurt him so much that he’d just stopped talking about things.

When they pulled away Eddie kissed his forehead and Robin kissed his cheek. Steve giggled at the sudden affection.

…

Bonus:

The very next day, Steve saw the change.

Saw the change in how Eddie made sure to ask him about what he was cooking and then let Steve explain the process of a breakfast casserole. How Eddie simply smiled and even engaged with questions as if he was really interested. And maybe Steve didn’t completely believe he was interested, but that was ok. He’d come to his senses eventually.

Then at work Robin made a point to let him choose what they put on the TV for the day and didn’t even complain when he chose the Breakfast Club.

He was scared that they change would last no more than a week. That after some time they’d all go right back to how it was before.

But then a week passed. And two. And three. And then months we’re going by where Steve was allowed to rant and talk and argue about things like cooking and baking and basketball and soccer and volleyball and so much more because they would listen.

And then a year passed and it was April and it was his birthday and when he was surrounded by everyone— the kids, the older teens, even the adults— he opened a present and looked down at the book in his lap.

“Forever Amber”.

Steve will never admit to the tears that he cried that day.

…

Probably gonna do something like this with Lucas and the kids cause I love Lucas ❤️

Here’s that lol:

[star-sim]

california dreamin' ☆ jay park

☆ non-idol! jay x fem! reader ☆ summary: in the final months of your relationship, jay reminisces the taste of beach waves, southern california, and you. ☆ genre: fluff, angst (ish), 80's au + timeskip, this is set in southern california, classic rich boy x alt girl ☆ warning(s)? brief mentions of poor parenting ☆ word count: 1.6k words ☆ this is my entry for @flwrstqr and @cupidhoons polaroid love event! based off of "california dreamin" by the mamas and papas, love the retro cali aesthetic

"Do you want to run away with me?"

Jay pulled the salted caramel apple lollipop away from his lips, the sour taste lingering on his tongue as its crystalline texture rolled against his tastebuds. His brows crashed together.

"What?" he eyed you quizzically, but you kept your eyes trained on the deep blue water that swayed against the coast.

"It's obvious that we're not wanted here," you said plainly.

Jay sucked in a sharp breath, his hand jerking out to clutch your shoulder. "That's not—"

"There's no point in denying it," you shot him a look. Your next words came out wry and bored, almost like you're annoyed, but Jay could tell that you were feeling the exact opposite. "You know damn well that your parents couldn't care less about you, and my old man's always too busy to remember whether or not I left the house."

The corner of your lips quirk up, a dry grin spreading across your face as you reached across to smack Jay's arm playfully. "No one will notice if we're gone."

Words bled onto his tongue, threatening to spill out, but Jay held them in. 

After all, you were correct.

Jay met you in the summer of 1987. You were both sixteen, and Jay recognized you from his sophomore chemistry class— how could he miss your smudged eyeliner and black nail polish? The difference this time was that you were the cashier at the surf shop next to his dad's private beach.

Maybe it was the way you chewed pink bubblegum boredom, giving him a deadpan expression as he spluttered out your name, or maybe it was the fact that even in ninety degree Southern California weather, you still managed to wear a black bikini top with skulls and rhinestones on it, but Jay found himself frequenting that surf shop a little too much that summer.

Yes, it was his fourth time coming into this surf shop in one afternoon. 

Yes, he didn't need to take his time looking at each and every shell necklace on the display next to the cash register. 

Yes, he knew all about surfboards and most definitely did not need to ask for your assistance.

Yes, he knew that you were staring at the water droplets rolling down his chest as he ran his hand through his wet hair, his sun-kissed skin glistening under the golden sunlight.

Yes, he knew was staring at your bikini top, but any man in his position would do the same. 

And yes, he knew that you knew that he knew this.

That didn't stop Jay, though.

If there was something that his absent father was able to do for him, it was to teach him to never have shame. That's why Jay shamelessly walked into that surf shop every day, just to see you.

It took a few (multiple) tries before you agreed to go on a date with him. He brought you flowers, necklaces, rings, handbags, all kinds of luxury items, but you ignored him each time. 

It wasn't until Jay noticed the bracelet on your wrist— it had a frayed tassel and seashells of different sizes, some of them chipped and others burned by the sun— that he realized what he should bring you instead of expensive gifts.

Alas, a clumsily-made bracelet composed of mismatched seashells that was just a little too big for your wrist. When Jay presented it to you, a proud grin on his face, it must have been the first time that he'd ever seen you smile.

Since the summer of 1987, you and Jay agreed to keep your relationship secret, because people always had stuff to say. You were going strong, and what made summer the best was that you could freely love your boyfriend without the pondering eyes of your peers.

Two years later, it was the summer of 1989, and you and Jay were now sitting on the ledge before the beach. In a few weeks, summer would end, and you and Jay would be apart. But this time, apart for longer than you'd ever been. You were staying in California for university, but Jay's parents were sending him out of state.

Soon, it would be autumn, and you would have to say goodbye to not just Jay crawling through your bedroom window, sneaking out to the local beachside diner, slipping love notes into each other's lockers, and making out behind the bleachers, but also running your fingers through his chlorine-bleached hair and feeling the warmth of Jay's body as the two of you napped in the sun.

Jay looked at your face. Under the orangey sunset, he could see the light reflecting off your eyes. With the scent of peach in the air, and the glow of your skin, Jay's chest felt heavy.

How could he possibly leave you? How could he leave you when you tasted like California?

Yeah, it would be hard to say goodbye to you.

It would be hard to say goodbye to you, and nobody else.

Jay's eyes fell to the bandaid on your palm.

He knew you'd think the same about him.

There was a reason that you and Jay got on so well.

For one, it seemed like Jay was the last thing on his parent's to-do list. His only purpose was to carry on the family name and live out their legacy. But if neglecting their son and being absent in his life was their legacy, he didn't want any part in it. There was a reason that Jay spent every day of summer at the beach, not at home.

As for you, Jay hated your dad. He'd never forget all the times you ran to him, tears and smudged eyeliner running down your cheeks. You insisted that you were okay, but Jay had to bite his tongue so hard that he bled to keep his mouth shut.

In a few weeks, Jay will be the Park family's heir studying out-of-state, and you'll be you from California. 

But for now, it was just Jay and you, sharing a lollipop at the beach, basking in the humid night air and listening to the waves.

You gave him another sly grin. You repeated your question. "Do you want to run away with me?"

You always liked to smile like that when you were upset about something; it was your way of concealing your feelings, but Jay knew you better than anyone.

Jay's thought about running away before. Many times, actually. And he's thought about running away hand-in-hand with you more times than he could remember.

Jay slid his arm around your shoulder, pulling you closer to him. He pressed his lips to your forehead.

"You know we can't," he said against your forehead, though the way that he held you close said otherwise.

"Says who?" you hummed, resting your head on his strong shoulders, taking in the scent of seaweed, sea salt, and Jay's faint cologne. 

Jay stayed silent. He knew that answer to that question. 

Says no one.

"Seeeee?" you dragged your syllable, a cute lilt in your voice. You slithered your arm around Jay's torso, poking his side. "Nothing— no one— is stopping us."

Jay chuckled, squeezing your waist twice. "Where would we go if we ran away?"

With you gently clutching his jaw, pressing wet kisses along his skin, you breathed, "Anywhere we want."

You cupped his cheek. In the winter, his skin was paler, but in the summer he was a golden honey tan. His cheeks, as a result of being in the sun nearly every day for the past three months, were littered with blotches of brown, red, and pink. With a gentle finger, you slowly dragged it against his skin, connecting each blemish to each other with invisible lines.

"What about Houston?" Jay rasped, leaning into your touch. "I know you've always wanted to go there."

"Well, where do you want to go?"

Jay thought for a moment. "Either up north to Seattle— or maybe London— What about NYC?."

You stared at him quizzically, your eyes narrowing and your lips turned downward; you always did that when you were hiding something. 

"What?" Jay nudged you.

"I dunno," you shrugged. "I feel like those places are just so uncharacteristic for you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

You shrugged again, your bottom lip jutting out. "I thought you were a sunshine typa guy." Your eyes flickered up to him. "All those places are so gloomy."

"I mean," your boyfriend sucked in a sharp breath. "I guess. Maybe I just want some change. California is beautiful, but...."

He trailed off.

"But?"

"I want to explore more, yanno? Get to know places outside of California."

You didn't press any further.

The rest of the night was quiet, only the taste of disappointment, longing, and the salted caramel apple lollipop lingering on your tongues.

This was all but a memory to Jay.

He gazed outside the window, tuning out the voice of yet another woman in his living room.

Jay ended up studying in Seattle, just as his parents had wanted. It's been years since he left California. Him and you ended up breaking up on good terms for the sake of distance, and he eventually lost contact with you. He met a few other women, tried out dating them, but it never ended up working out.

There was no place else like California.

It seemed like everywhere else, all the leaves were brown, and the sky was gray. Dreary, gloomy, and full of clouds, so unlike the sunny and golden California.

It took Jay a long time to realize that the reason he longed for California again was not because of the constant smell of sunscreen or sound of synth music pervading the streets. It wasn't the laughter that seemed to bounce off the walls or the vibrant color-grade over every memory in his mind.

He longed for California because he longed for you.

You were California. 

And for a while, he'd be dreaming of California. 

[sunflowergirl522]

Max's Sister

Pairing: Eddie Munson x Mayfield!Reader

Summary: You’re officially moved to Hawkins after finishing school and Max bets Eddie that he’ll fall for you by the time summers up.

Word Count: 8706

A/n: The ending feels rushed to me but hopefully won’t for you.

Eddie Masterlist

“Hey Red, you ready to head to the arcade!” Eddie walks right into the Mayfield trailer without knocking like he’d normally do when he was coming over to get Max and her mom wasn’t home. 

Ever since Max was able to go home from the hospital with broken bones and partial blindness Eddie’s been there to keep her company every second he could. And once she was good enough to walk again he was there to help her get adjusted to her surroundings so she wasn’t always bumping into stuff she couldn’t see. Eddie took up the big brother role she never had and the two of them became thick as thieves. And as soon as her arms and hands were good enough Eddie decided that Wednesdays would be arcade days where even partially blind she beat his ass at games.

“You must be Eddie.” He freezes when he enters the living room and sees you sitting on the floor in front of the couch. His mind blanks as he watches you stand revealing your bare legs that were previously hidden beneath the coffee table.

“Um, yeah that’s me. Sorry but who’re you?” You look familiar and he has a feeling that he’s definitely seen you before and that would explain why you were sitting in Max’s living room in your pajamas but he couldn’t figure it out for the life of him.

“I’m Max’s sister, Y/n.” You step closer to him and can almost physically see the light bulb go on in his head. “I’ve heard a lot about you Eddie.” You beg yourself to keep it together and choke back the grateful tears that want to well up in your eyes. 

“Hope it was all good things.” One of his hands rubs the back of his neck and he lets out a nervous chuckle while his other reaches out for you to shake. You can feel the urge to cry crawling and clawing its way up your throat so you’re quick to grab his hand and pull him into a hug leaving your tearful face hidden in his chest.

“Thank you.” At hearing how shaky your voice is Eddie doesn’t even think about it before he’s wrapping his arms tight around you. “Thank you for taking such good care of her when I couldn’t.”

There’s no way Eddie could know how incredibly grateful you are that he’s been there for Max after the accident. You’re still not even completely sure how it happened, all you know is that the minute your mom called to let you know she was in the hospital you were ready to leave everything in Cali, your friends, school, your job, behind to be by her side. If it wasn’t for your mom reminding you that Max would want you to finish getting your degree and promising to constantly call you with updates you would’ve. You spent every minute then working on finishing your degree going as far as to overload your course load and taking summer courses, sure it meant you haven’t been able to come home to Max and see her but it meant you’d be able to move to Hawkins to be with her permanently sooner. 

“It really isn’t that big of a deal, she’s cool and fun to be around, but you’re welcome.”

“Eddie, did I hear you come in?” Max comes into the room and the two of you break apart. You’re quick to wipe your face dry before Max can get close enough to see the damage but he does see it. And immediately he can tell how much your sister means to you.

“Yeah Red, you still wanna go to the arcade? I didn’t realize your sister was in town.”

“She’s been hovering over me like I’m made of glass.” She groans in a playful way as she makes her way over to the two of you slower than she would’ve before she lost most of her sight. “She’s here for good now so it doesn’t matter if we go to the arcade.”

“Do you want me to come with you?” You ask her after putting your arm around her shoulder and bringing her close to your side. Eddie wants to tell you yes seeing the want to come in your eyes but keeps his mouth shut leaving it up to Max.

“No, you can come next time or something but you have to start looking for a job so you can get out of my hair.” You roll your eyes at her.

“You’re right, where are your glasses?” Max groans again for real this time and moves away from you and closer to Eddie.

“Don’t make me wear those, they make me look like a nerd. They don’t even help!”

“That’s a lie and you know it! You bump into things way less when you have them on.” You point an accusatory finger at her before putting your hands on your hips and pursing your lips. Eddie can’t help but think you look like a mom at this moment. Which makes him wonder if you had helped raise her growing up knowing how absent her mom is now.

“Fine. I hate when you go all older sibling mode on me. They’re in my room, can you get them for me?” Your face softens and you nod before walking away. “C’mon Eddie lets go before she comes back.”

“Nuh uh, no way. I didn’t even know you had glasses to help you see.” If he did he would’ve been making sure she was wearing them himself all this time.

“They’re Coke bottles Eddie!”

“Don’t care Red. Maybe they’ll prevent that headache you get from straining your eyes too much.” Every week after they’d get back from the arcade she’d have a migraine and Eddie’s been getting suspicious that the headaches start while they’re there but she’s so stubborn that she doesn’t tell him because he’ll decide it's time to leave.

“Found them!” You enter the room again and put them on Max’s face for her. 

“They aren’t that bad.” They’re thick for sure, like magnifying glasses, but Eddie’s definitely seen thicker on some of his old classmates. “They only make you look a little bit like a nerd.”

“Shut up, she doesn’t look like a nerd. You look so cool Maxy!” You shove Eddie with your shoulder as if you’ve known each other forever.

“C’mon Eddie let’s go. Bye Y/n!”

“Bye Max, love you!” 

“So,” Eddie starts later at the diner he always takes Max to after the arcade, “your sister seems cool.”

“Yeah she’s pretty great.” She shrugs and takes another bite of her burger. “Fifty bucks says you’re gonna fall in love with her by the time summer's up.” He chokes on his coke mid sip.

“What?!”

“Just saying, she’s amazing and you’re not even gonna know what to do with yourself when you actually get to know her. And you’ll be spending a lot of time with her this summer since you’re always around now.”

“What about that makes you think I’m gonna fall in love with her?”

“Well for one, pretty girls make you weak and she’s incredibly pretty, it comes with the California air.” Eddie wants to argue that you’re way more than just pretty but bites his tongue not wanting Max to think she was right. “Two she’s got one hell of a music taste. Same goes for her taste in movies even though if she makes me rewatch one more Muppet movie I’ll scream.”

“I doubt you’ve had to watch that many.” Eddie laughs at how distraught Max looks at the thought of watching another one.

“Eddie you don’t understand, she hasn’t even been here for a week and she’s rewatched them all twice. She’s got this thing where like anything Jim Henson works on instantly becomes one of her favorites.”

“He’s the guy who worked on that movie Labyrinth that came out a while ago right?”

“Yeah, though I don’t think she’s seen that one yet. She hasn’t really done much of anything other than school and work since I was in the hospital so I don’t even think she remembers it came out.”

“Sounds like we should have a movie night.” 

“See you’re already planning to do stuff that’ll make her happy! Just wait, I’m telling you Eds when you get to know her you’ll be absolutely smitten.” Eddie just shakes his head at the girl in front of him ignoring the tugging feeling in his gut that she might be right.

“Oh! Hello again Eddie!” You beam at him after you open the door to the trailer and he takes in your apparel of distressed shorts and striped shirt. “Max isn’t here, mom took her for her check up at the doctors.”

“I know, we talked about doing a movie night and I thought maybe you’d wanna get out of the house and come with me to pick up the movie.” Eddie kicks at a rock by his feet suddenly getting nervous about coming over here to ask. The feeling doesn’t last for long though because you almost immediately light up at the offer nodding enthusiastically.

“I’d like that. Give me one second.” You hold up a finger before disappearing into the trailer leaving the door wide open. It’s not long before you’re rushing back sandals in hand and locking the door behind you. “Lead the way Eddie boy!”

“How have you been enjoying Hawkins so far?” Eddie asks as he walks towards his van, you following close behind.

“It’s alright. I haven’t actually been to many places yet. Just the hospital and the middle school. I’ve been meaning to check out the arcade though.” You hop into the passenger seat after he holds the door open for you.

“Well maybe you can come with us on Wednesday. Maybe I’ll finally beat a Mayfield for once.” He responds after getting in the driver's seat and starting the van up. You laugh and look away from the sandals you’re strapping to your feet at him. His heart skips a beat at the sound immediately wanting to hear it again.

“You can dream but I was the one who taught Max everything she knows. If you can’t beat her, you definitely won’t beat me.”

“That sounds like a challenge.” He glances at you from the corner of his eye in time to see you shrug.

“Take it whatever way you want, big guy.”

“Big guy?” Eddie chuckles at the nickname. He was never really a big guy growing up or even now so it’s odd hearing someone reference him as that.

“Yeah, you’re tall, a little broad, and I’m sure you’re strong. Do you want me to call you something else?”

“No big guy is fine.” You smile down at your feet as you finish strapping the other sandal to your left foot. “Did you move here with Max and then go back to California?”

“No. I was in my senior year when they moved and since I didn’t want to have to move in my last year and I was almost eighteen mom let me stay behind with dad. And then I went to college over there with my friends instead of coming here because I knew the area already.” Eddie parks in front of the store and the two of you get out. “I’ve come here to visit a few times but after the accident Max was in I never had the time to come because I did extra courses each term and did summer classes so I could finish sooner and come home to be with her.” You continue explaining on the short walk into the building.

“Welcome to Family Video can I help- is that you Mayfield?” You look up to find Steve behind the counter and smile at him.

“Sure is Harrington! You miss me?”

“Are you kidding? Of course!” 

“I’ll grab the movie and meet you back here.” You nod to Eddie and he takes one more glance at the excited look on Steve’s face as he makes his way around the counter and towards you before walking away. 

“What are you doing here?” You take a few steps further into the store to meet Steve halfway and bring him into a hug.

“I’m here for good now. I finally finished my degree.”

“That’s awesome! Do you have a job lined up yet?”

“I left my application at the high school and middle school so I’m just waiting to see if they’ll call. But I don’t know what I’ll do if they don’t.”

“I’m sure they will, we had a lot of teachers leave Hawkins after the earthquake. Dustin was telling me that they had gym teachers trying to teach science.” 

“Look who I found roaming the shelves!” 

“Y/n, you remember Robin right?”

“Of course, hi!” You wave to her before turning your attention to Eddie. “So what did you pick?”

“The Labyrinth.” You let out an elated gasp before taking the movie from his hands to make sure you weren’t getting punked.

“No way. I’ve been meaning to watch this since it came out but I’ve been so busy.”

“Yeah, Max may have mentioned how much you love Jim Henson and that she wasn’t sure you’ve seen this yet.” Eddie rubs the back of his neck with a sheepish smile on his face and you look up beaming at him. The next thing he knows you’re wrapping your arms around his neck and pulling him into an excited hug where he can basically feel you vibrating with it. The hug doesn’t last long, he doesn’t even have time to wrap his own arms around you before you’re pulling away and putting it on the counter for Steve to ring up.

“On the house, think of it as a welcome back present.” He just pushes it back to you before grabbing the other box of movies that needs to be put on shelves and giving it to Robin. 

“Oh, thanks Steve! We should hang out sometime soon. I don’t really leave the trailer so you could just stop by whenever or give me a call and we could do something.”

“That sounds good, I’ll come by on my next day off. Which will probably be Monday.” He leans on the counter as he answers and you grab the movie from in front of him.

“See you then! Come on Eddie, Max should be on her way home soon.” You grab his hand on your way out and give a backwards wave with the movie to Steve as you pull him with you out the door. “We should get a pizza. I doubt anything here will be as good as Surfer Boy out in Cali but you can’t do a movie night without it.”

“That’s a great idea Sweetheart.” Eddie can’t tear his eyes away from your joined hands until you split off to go to the passengers side of the van and you have a hard time suppressing the butterflies in your stomach at the sudden nickname.

“I’m home! Mom’s not, she dropped me off and went straight to work.” Max announces herself getting yours and Eddie's attention in the kitchen. As soon as it registers in your head that she’s back you abandon your spot at the counter making lemonade to greet her.

“What’d the doctors say this visit?”

“Just that my bones have healed nicely and checked my reflexes like always.” She shrugs as she kicks off her shoes.

“What about your eyesight?”

“It’s not better but it’s not worse either. The same it’s been since I got out of the hospital. Do I smell pizza?” It’s her desperate attempt to change the subject. Max hates answering these types of questions because it doesn’t matter what they say or how often she wears those stupid glasses her sight will never get better than it is now. And she should just enjoy what little she has of it left because when she first broke out of Vecna's trance she thought she was completely blind. 

“Yeah, we picked one up after getting the movie. Eddie’s here by the way.” You let the subject change, wanting to know everything and nothing all at the same time.

“Oh is he now?” There’s a lilt to her voice that you’re not used to hearing but don’t focus on it as she beelines for where she hears him moving around in the kitchen probably finishing the lemonade you left unfinished. You let her go off to the kitchen by herself and take her distraction with Eddie as an opportunity to move the couch a little bit closer to the tv so she’ll be able to see a little better. 

“Don’t say anything.” Eddie says after taking one look at the redhead who just joined him in the kitchen.

“I wasn’t gonna say anything.”

“Mhm sure, then why do you look like you have something to say?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugs and there’s a pause while he finishes mixing the batch of lemonade that has too much sugar in it. “It’s just that you going to get the movie and pizza with her gives you lots of free time to get to know my sister. I wonder why you would do that.” She taps her chin in mock thought and Eddie groans before a thought pops into his head.

“How does she know Steve?” He meant to ask you earlier after leaving Family Video but got distracted when you started talking about what toppings should go on the pizza. His question, or rather how he asked it, causes Max to let out a laugh.

“That’s for you to find out I suppose.” She joins you back in the living room then where you’re too focused on putting the movie in and setting up the pizza boxes on the small table in front of the couch to pay attention to what they’re talking about. Eddie’s left there once more with the lemonade not waiting long to join the two of you with the plastic pitcher in hand.

The rest of the weekend Eddie spends over your place hanging out with Max and getting to know you better. Most of the time he found a way to rope you into whatever they ended up doing so he’d have an excuse to talk to you while ignoring the jumping eyebrows and smirks Max kept shooting his way. The more time he spends around you the more he feels that Max may have been right and he might be out fifty dollars at the end of summer. But as much as he wants to prove her wrong for once, because somehow Max is always right, you’re too cool for him to want to pull away from. 

So he decided to let Max be right about this and hope that maybe when you get to know him you’ll like him just as much. That thought is what led him to your door Monday morning when he knew Max was out with the rest of the kids. He knocks instead of walking straight in, like he normally would, not wanting to make you uncomfortable in your own space. 

“Coming! You got here really fast, didn’t we like just hang up?” You open the door while trying to shove your sneaker on with one hand and when you look up to find Eddie standing there shock takes over your face. “Oh hey Eddie, Max won’t be home till later.”

“No, I know. I uh, I was coming over for you. To um, see if you wanted to maybe hangout.” He stumbles over his words and he wants to bang his head against a wall. You smile at that, your insides warming up at Eddie wanting to spend time with just you.

“That sounds great Eddie but, I actually have plans with Steve.” Eddie’s heart falls into his stomach like a rock.

“I’ll head back home then. Have a good time!” He waves as he turns around and starts walking back across the street to his trailer.

“Eddie, wait!” Your hand on his wrist causes him to turn to face you and he notices immediately that you left the door wide open. He wonders if you even noticed you do that. Because it’s something he noticed almost immediately after being around you as much as he has been this weekend. You’re always leaving the door open or shutting it with your keys still inside it. If he was the last one in, he would double check to make sure they weren’t still in the door.

“Do you wanna come with us?” Your voice brings his attention back to your face.

“I don’t wanna intrude.” Especially if it was supposed to be a date.

“You wouldn’t be. We’re just going to see the new Friday the Thirteenth movie. And honestly it’d be nice to not have to third wheel Steve and Robin.” You knew they weren’t together, but they were truly platonic soulmates and being with just the two of them was awkward sometimes once they started doing their weird conversing without really talking thing. 

“Robin’s going too?” So definitely not a date then.

“Well yeah, aren’t they always like a package deal?” Maybe you were wrong but the few times you’ve been here and around them they were always together.

“You’re right, as I’m starting to learn you always are.” A trait he can only guess Max got from you and has him wondering yet again how involved you were in raising her.

“So do you wanna come?”

“Yeah, sounds like a good time.” Your smile lights up your face at his agreement and he knows he would agree to anything if it meant he got to see it happen again. “Do you need anything else from inside?”

“No. Why?” You squint your eyes and tilt your head wondering why he could be asking.

“You left the door open.” You follow his head nod toward the front of your trailer and let out a soft ‘oh’ before heading back over to shut and lock it. Steve pulls up just as you pull the key out of the lock.

“Hey Ed boy! You coming with us?” Robin sticks her head, but really more like the upper half of her body, out the window to talk to Eddie. He turns and starts a conversation with her and Steve when he leans forward to see around his best friend. Meanwhile you freeze a little on your way to the car. You knew Robin was coming, but somehow didn’t realize that meant you’d be sitting in the back seat.

“You sure you don’t want me to drive Steve? That way you don’t have to worry about bringing me home later or anything.” 

“No, it’s fine I’m used to driving everyone around.” Steve says this with a smile on his face and absolutely zero malice in his voice. If there’s one thing you know about Steve Harrington from the few times you’ve gotten to know him over the years it was that he likes taking care of the people he loves. Eddie however unlike his friend noticed the hesitance in your voice and your walk up to the car.

“I can drive you if you want Sweetheart. I was going to drive myself anyway.” He wasn’t. “I gotta stop at the store for some more milk after the movie.” He didn’t, he and Wayne still had an almost full gallon in the fridge.

“That’s perfect actually because Max asked me to grab more Pop Tarts or cereal at some point today. Do you care if I go with Eddie, Steve?”

“Nah, we’ll meet you guys there then?”

“Yep!” He gives a wave before driving off leaving you with Eddie again.

“Come on darlin’ let's roll.” Eddie takes his keys out of his pocket and swings them around his finger before leading the way across the street to his van. He doesn’t let it show how relieved he is that they didn’t fly off and hit him in the face again and that he got to look cool in front of you.

“Thanks for driving me, big guy.” He holds the door open for you and you pat his cheek as you climb in in thanks, something you would do with your friends in California if they weren’t comfortable with cheek kisses.

“It’s no problem really.” He closes the door once you’re fully seated and makes his way over to his side. “So how come you didn’t want Steve to drive you?” He asks as he backs out of his spot. You’re momentarily stunned at how good he looks while doing it. Your eyes trail from the hand that’s resting on your seat up his arm until your eyes meet his concentrated face.

“It’s not so much that I didn't want him to drive. I just get carsick when I’m in the back sometimes and it makes me nervous with people I’m not used to being in cars with. There’s just so many different variables that go into it like how big the car is, how they drive, how long I’m in the car for, etcetera.” You’re silent for a minute before panicky turning to face Eddie. “Oh God do you think Steve caught on that I didn’t wanna get in the car with him? He probably got the wrong idea completely.”

“Hey, calm down sugar.” His hand goes to your knee without thinking and the warmth of it on your bare skin helps to calm you. Unconsciously your own hand lays on top of his to keep it there. “Steve’s smart but he’s not the best at reading people all the time. If you want I can find a way to bring up car sickness in some way so you can say you have it?”

“No, it’s fine I’ll just see if he brings it up and then explain it. Thank you though, it’s so sweet of you to offer to do that for me.”

“Of course! And if you want I can just be your permanent chauffeur and make sure you always get shotgun when you aren’t driving.” He’s definitely offering so he gets to spend even more time with you.

“That would be great!” You’re definitely agreeing to spend more time with him too. “Thanks again Eddie.” This time you do kiss him on the cheek in thanks but turn your head towards the window before you can see him start to glow pink. In your lap your hands twine together like your bodies already know that the two of you should be together before your brains do.

“So how do you know Steve?” Eddie finally asks the question that he’s been dying to over pizza after the movie with his arm draped over the back end of the booth the two of you are sharing.

“Oh, I met him years ago when I came home for the first summer after they moved.”

“She was so excited after everything Max told her about me that she flung herself into my arms.” Steve chimes in, pointing a fry in your direction as he says it.

“I did not fling myself into your arms.” You laugh as you speak. “It was sorta similar to how we met Eddie. I brought him into a hug and thanked him for sticking up for Max and beating up Billy before asking him all about what it was like.”

“I’m sure he forgot to bring up how Billy ended up getting the upper hand in the end.” Robin adds getting a betrayed look from Steve because he did in fact withhold that information from you.

“Oh he definitely did but Max had already told me that and how she then saved him by knocking Billy out with some drug. But I didn’t wanna bruise his ego or anything so I let it go.” You shrug and look back over at Eddie. “And then I met Robin when I visited the summer that the mall burned down except I got here after it happened. And admittedly haven’t been around much since, just a week or so here and there before like radio silence for two years.”

“Yeah, not even a phone call or anything, Mike was giving us updates as much as Max was with what he got from Will or El.”

“Were you close with Will and El?”

“I mean El became Max’s best friend so of course I got to know her and Will’s such a great kid it’s hard to not want to be close with them. They all moved into a neighborhood not far from my campus and I helped them get situated into their house and stopped by when I could to see how they were all doing or to hang out with Jonathan and Argyle.” You have to look away from Eddie as you speak because if he keeps looking at you like he wants to know every nook and cranny in you you fear you’ll do something drastic like kiss him.

“You should’ve been here when Eddie and Will met. They both completely freaked out.” Steve changes the subject from you at the mention of Will.

“Don’t even try to deny it, Ed boy.” Robin joins in interrupting Eddie as he opens his mouth to speak. “Will was so excited to meet the cool older dungeon master his friends always told him about. And Eddie was super psyched to meet zombie boy Will Byers who was just as into the game they play as he is.”

“I can totally see that.”

“When did you say Max was coming home Sweetheart?” Eddie leans closer to you the smallest bit as he asks. And Steve and Robin look at eachother with the latter mouthing the nickname to the former.

“Oh probably around like four or five. Why, what time is it?”

“Its…” he brings his wrist in front of him to check his watch and you lean over to have a look too, “almost three.”

“And we still have to make a stop at the store so you can get your milk. Do you think we should go now?”

“If you’re still planning on being home when she gets back we probably should.” 

As the two of you talk Robin and Steve communicate in their weird best friend platonic soulmate way where they don’t talk about how the conversation is going. Steve motions over, look at this. Robin nods and widens her eyes, I know right, before making a motion with her hands and letting her lips quirk up, ir’s domestic as shit. Steve rubs two fingers together, wanna make a bet.

“Do you guys care if we get going?” You ask already standing up from the booth to let Eddie out.

“Not at all.” Robin pushes Steve out of the booth so she can hug you goodbye. “We should definitely do this again soon. And if we can’t meet up for a movie or anything you should stop by the store and I’ll show you my sweet setup in the back where I watch movies.”

“That sounds great!” You hug her back excited to have gotten to know her better. “I think that movie Willow comes out this friday, we could go see that if nothing comes up.”

“Perfect! Eddie has my number written down somewhere so he can give it to you later and you can give me a call or something.” You nod and take a step back to stand next to Eddie.

“Bye guys. Thanks again for pizza Steve.”

“No problem, see you around.” Eddie gives them a mock salute before grabbing your hand and leading the way out to the van.

“So what do you do, like for work?” You look back at Eddie over your shoulder as you grab a basket and lead the way further into the store.

“I work at the auto body shop in town, have been since my junior year of high school.” He blindly follows you through the store and down the cereal aisle as he answers.

“That’s cool.” You grab a box of Cap’n Crunch before thinking it over and grabbing a second one to add to the basket. “That mean I get a discount if my car starts acting up, since we’re becoming such great friends?” Eddie genuinely can’t tell if you’re flirting with him or not - you are - but it feels like it so he flirts back a red hue making its way to his cheeks.

“For you Sweetheart, it’s free. Gotta make sure you don’t go breaking down or anything.” He only gets a glimpse of the smile on your face when you turn to go down the next aisle. “What are you planning on doing for work?”

“I got my degree in teaching so I’m hoping that I get a call from one of the schools soon.”

“I’m sure you will. They’d be stupid not to, you’ll be a great teacher.”

“You think so?” You’ve got a bigger different type of smile on your face when you turn to face him, a box of brown cinnamon pop tarts in your hands.

“I know so. You’ve got this thing about you that screams trust me with your kids.” He spreads his hands out by his face in showmanship that earns him a laugh. He smiles at it and stuffs his hands into his pockets. “For real though, you have fun teacher vibes written all over you.”

“Thanks.” Heat rushes to your face at the compliment. It’s been your dream for what feels like forever to be a teacher and be able to be one of those people to help kids like so many of your past ones did for you. And as much as your mom and dad and friends have told you that you’d be great at it, something about Eddie saying it made you elated. It definitely wasn’t because of the not so small crush that’s started developing, no way. “Now let’s get that milk you need and head home.”

“Milk?” You miss the confused word as you turn around and lead the way out of the aisle. Eddie follows while trying to figure out why he would need to get milk when there was plenty at home to last them another couple days.

“Which kind do you and Wayne normally get?” Your question jogs his memory as he finally remembers using the whole ‘I have to go to the store so I was going to drive anyways’ excuse to get you into his van instead of Steve’s car.

“The blue one, whichever that is.”

“Do you mean two percent or do you mean skim?” Your eyebrows furrow in confusion as you open the fridge door to grab whichever he says.

“Whichever one is blue.” Eddie’s voice sounds distracted and when you look back at him you notice his attention drawn to a stray balloon floating up to the ceiling. 

“Eddie.” An amused laugh escapes you and pulls his attention back to you. “They’re both blue. Do you not know what kind of milk you drink?”

“I know what kind of milk we drink, scoot.” His mock defensiveness and how he pushes you out of the way so it looks like he’s shoving but really it’s just a nudge causes you to let out a louder, longer laugh. Eddie has to fight with the goofy smile that wants to spread across his face so he can keep the act going. “See, it’s the blue one.” He brandishes a jug of milk with a dark blue lid and label triumphantly.

“Okay and what kind of milk is that?” Eddie goes to turn the jug around to read it. “Without looking.” 

“Does it matter? If they wanted us to distinguish it by what type they are then they wouldn’t be color coded.” He huffs out in defeat before hooking his arm around your shoulder and steers you towards check out. “Don’t we have a little sister we gotta get you home to?”

“Oh, hi Eddie.” Max opens the door to greet him two days later. “I’m almost ready to go. Come in but be quiet because she’s on the phone.” She turns to head back to her room to finish getting all of her change together for the arcade and Eddie shuts the door behind him before heading into the living room. He notices you standing in the kitchen phone pressed against your ear. You look over at him as soon as he shows up and offer him a smile and wave before turning to face the wall to not get distracted by him. Eddie can tell it’s an important call by how you twirl the cord around your finger and keep a professional tone to your voice.

“Yeah, I can come by whatever time works best for you tomorrow.” A minute of silence while you listen to whoever is on the other line. “Okay, see you at two tomorrow. Bye.” You wait until the phone is hung back up on the wall before letting out a little happy yell and jumping up and down a couple times.

“Did you get it?” Max shows up next to Eddie looking excited and rushes to hug you when you nod and let out an excited ‘yes’. “I knew it!”

“What’s going on?”

“That was the principal of the high school, I have to go in tomorrow to see where I would fit best and go over a few things but I’m gonna teach next school year!”

“That’s amazing! I told you you would.” He takes a few steps towards you before you make your own way into his arms for a celebratory hug. “You’re gonna be a great teacher.” He whispers into your ear causing a shiver to travel down your spine. “You should come with us today to celebrate. We can stop by Family Video after the arcade so you can tell Steve and Robin about the good news.”

“That sounds perfect. Let me grab Max’s glasses and my rolls of quarters and we can go.” Max groans and rolls her eyes at the mention of her glasses while you rush off.

At the arcade Eddie mainly just watches while you and Max fight over breaking high scores and play against each other. But he’s not upset about it, it’s nice to see such a big smile on your face as you rub it in Max’s that you beat her score before she shoves you out of the way to try to get it back. And this is easily the liveliest he’s seen Max ever, sure she’s happy and excited when it’s just him and her but it’s another level now that she’s playing with you. He doesn’t even play anything, just leans on the machine behind the two of you watching as his favorite sister duo's bonds grow stronger.

He definitely likes that when Max takes the game over again you sometimes will lean into his side and rest your head on his shoulder.

“And once again I’m the Burgertime high score!” You cheer as you put your standard three letters in for the scoreboard. 

“I’m not even gonna try to beat you this time, I know I won’t.” It had quickly become your favorite game since it showed up in the arcade in Cali in eighty two and you’ve had the high score since you got the hang of it. “How about Dig Dug next?” Max asks while squinting her eyes and rubbing her forehead briefly, a sign Eddie knows best as the start of an eye strain headache. You notice it too but before you can say anything he beats you to it.

“Last game Red, then we’re out of here before you give yourself a migraine.”

“But-”

“No ifs, buts, or coconuts. I can already tell it’s starting to bother you.”

“Y/n, back me up here.”

“Nope, Eddie’s right.” You twist your arm with his and grab onto his hand. “You’re getting all squinty eyed again and don’t think I missed you squeezing them shut while you were watching me play last. You’re lucky I don’t drag you out of here now.”

“God, who are you two my parents?” Max groans hating how the two of you are teaming up against her even if she knows you’re right and if she plays much longer she’ll need to rest basically the rest of the day. “Fine, we'll play Dig Dug and leave.” She walks away, turning into the next aisle of games and leaving you and Eddie in front of Burgertime.

“Thanks for looking out for her so much.” You squeeze his hand and smile up at him keeping your voice low and the conversation private. “You really have no idea what it means to me, and probably to her, that you care so much.” 

“You don’t have to thank me for that Sweetheart. Caring for her, for both of you really, is like second nature to me.” Loving the two of you is second nature to him too, but he wouldn’t own up to that just yet. “Now come on if we lag behind for too long she’ll insist the game didn’t count and start to play another round.” He pulls you along heading straight for Max but all you can focus on is how your heart is fluttering at his soft tone and his inclusion of you in the sentence.

After Max dies you make Eddie take a turn before you do. You had noticed that he wasn’t even trying to have a turn for any of the other games and wanted to make sure he felt included and had fun. And after seeing how joyful Max was rubbing it in Eddie’s face that she beat him you may have let her keep the high score, dying with a hundred points to go to match her. But you’ll never tell and that’s exactly what you told Eddie on the way out when he asked if you let her win.

Two days later Eddie finds you sitting on the steps of your trailer with your head on your knees after getting home from work. He can tell by the way your shoulders are shaking that you’re crying and without a second thought crosses the road to comfort you however he can.

“Sweetheart?” His voice makes you freeze for a second before you peek up at him. 

“Oh, hi Eddie. I didn’t realize it was late enough for you to be coming home.” You try to hastily wipe your tears away and pray that your voice isn’t too croaky or shaky and that the tears stop. 

“Are you okay?” He doesn’t approach you carefully or slowly like you’re a rabbit that’ll run off if he gets too close, you get all of him all at once. One second you’re looking up and answering him and the next his body is sitting next to you, the step groaning under the two of you at the sudden addition. You barely even have time to take in his work get up, hair in a bun, tank top, and overalls tied at his waist. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s been a rough day in the Mayfield home.” You sniffle as you speak.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” He wants to wrap his arm around you so badly but doesn’t want to risk getting any grease on your clean clothes. 

There’s a pause between the two of you as you think about it. You don’t want to talk about it but you know that holding it in won’t do you any good.

“It’s been a bad day for Max. She’s been bumping into stuff a lot more today and she was trying to read a book but couldn't get her eyes to actually focus on the words. Even with her glasses on. When I asked her if she wanted to go skating for a bit she started yelling and crying about how she can’t believe I would ask her that when I know she can’t do it anymore. And then she ran to shut herself in her room and I came out here.” You start crying again and Eddie decides fuck it if grease stains your clothes he’ll buy replacements and brings you into a side hug where you hide your face in his shoulder.

“Sorry you have to see me in such a mess, big guy.” You apologize after a few minutes. 

“Don’t even worry about it, we’ve all been there.”

“I’m not even upset about her freaking out on me. I get it, she’s going through it y’know? She’s bound to have bad days with what she’s going through. It’s just having to see her go through all of it that gets me. That’s my little sister, I practically raised her, I’m supposed to help protect her. And now I have to watch her go through all this pain and I can’t even do anything about it. I just love her so much.” You let out a heart wrenching sob into his shoulder and his hold on you tightens.

“I’ve never been in your shoes here but I get it. It’s valid to be this distraught about it, so don’t feel bad for showing it.” He speaks into your hair before dropping a kiss to your head.

“Thanks Eddie.” You say once you’ve calmed down. Before you can start violently wiping the wetness from your face Eddie’s hands are there tenderly doing it for you.

“You don’t have to thank me for being here for you.” The two of you just stare for a minute with you taking in every detail of his pretty brown eyes and your noses almost touching. “I have to go shower but after that do you want me to come over? We can play that card game you’ve mentioned.” He offers to come over instead of having you come to his place knowing you wouldn’t want to leave Max home alone, even if she’s going to stay locked in her room.

“That sounds great! Have you eaten? I’ll make sandwiches and get my deck of cards ready.”

“It’s a date, see you in a bit.” Eddie rushes over to his trailer as soon as he realizes the wording he let slip out. You barely even notice in your haste to get up and back inside.

“You can do three of a kind?!” Eddie exclaims as you lay out your winning Rummy hand.

“Yeah, I told you that when I explained the rules.” You giggle while you speak leaning forward to collect all the cards again. “Are we playing again?”

“Yeah, this next round is gonna be my round just you wait Sweetheart. I’ll win this time.”

“Okay.” 

You try to give him a chance, even though after the cards were dealt you had two jacks and two sevens and the first card you picked up was a third jack. But after so long you end up with the three jacks in your hand, a seven, and a run of three clubs and then draw the fourth jack. You couldn’t just pass up that kind of winning hand.

“Oh Eddie baby. I’m sorry.”

“What?”

“Rummy.” You discard the seven and lay your hand down.

“No! Teach me a different game, this one’s impossible.”

“You’re just a sore loser.” You laugh and start shuffling the cards again.

“What did you just call me?” Eddie jabs your side causing you to jump before he digs his fingers into your sides causing you to shriek. “A sore loser?”

“Yes! Eddie, stop!” You get the words out between fits of laughter that are making your belly ache and tears to well up in your eyes.

“Take it back and I will.”

“Okay, okay!” He takes his hands off of your sides and lets them hover there so you can talk. “You’re not a sore loser.”

“Thank you.” Eddie goes to collect the cards to reshuffle them.

“You’re just a loser.” You get a scoff before he’s tackling you backwards on the couch, gaining a shocked gasp and a bit of laughter before you both freeze with the realization of how close you are to each other.

Your noses are barely a centimeter apart, you’re close enough that you can make out a ring of a pale dull yellow near the outside of his iris. You knew that you could get lost in the sea of brown but you didn’t realize it was possible to drown in them. Just as his eyes glance down at your lips and you think he might kiss you floorboards creak pulling both of your attentions to Max entering the room. She pauses when she’s close enough to recognize the blob she sees on the couch as you and Eddie.

“What did I just walk in on?” Eddie hesitates a moment, glancing back at your lips before sitting back up straight against the arm of the couch.

“Cards obviously.” He picks up the deck and starts shuffling while you sit up and fix your tank top that had risen up.

“Sure.” 

“Did you need something Max?” Your concerned voice brings her attention to you. The love in your voice, and she’s sure it shows in your eyes even if she can’t see it, causes her to tear up. She was so sure that after she yelled at you for nothing you’d be upset with her. She’s sitting next to you and hugging you in no time at all. “Are you okay?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell at you earlier.” That fact that she did has been eating at her since she shut herself in her room. “You were just trying to do something we love together and I-”

“It’s okay.” You cut her off resting your chin on top of her head. “Everyone has moments where they lash out without meaning to under stress. Remember when we were younger and I screamed at that kid who had a crush on me at the skate park to leave me alone? All because mom and dad were fighting a lot that week and my stress was through the roof between trying to keep you away from it and being the buffer between them. Poor kid avoided me for the next month.” She laughs at the memory before pulling away. “You wanna play five hundred with me and Eddie? We’ve been playing rummy because he thought that would be too long of a game but we can switch games if you want.”

“Can I just watch? I don’t trust my eyes to not mess with me.”

“Yeah, of course.” She moves to sit closer to Eddie while you get up and sit on the floor on the other side of the coffee table. “Deal the cards big guy.”

“You wanna make this round interesting?”

“How so?” He deals the cards out before answering so he can fight off the nerves for what he’s about to say.

“Loser has to go on a date with the winner.” You can’t stop the smile from forming on your face.

“Oh you are so on.” You and Eddie are both quick to pick up the facedown cards in front of you using them to hide the goofy smiles on both your faces.

“This is the weirdest way I’ve ever seen someone get asked out for sure.” You both ignore her as you continue playing. After a few back and forths at taking turns Eddie shoots up in excitement.

“Rummy!” He lays his hand on the table before making his way around the table to pull you to your feet. “I believe you owe me a date, loser.”

“Alright, I guess I do.” You try to act disappointed but you can’t get rid of the smile on your face. “Guess I better get to planning.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll do everything, you just have to answer the door when I come get you.” Eddie starts heading towards the door to leave, stopping right before leaving. “Tomorrow night, dress comfortably.” 

By the end of the next month Eddie owes Max fifty dollars.

Eddie Taglist (Closed): @sadbitchfangirl​ @notbeforelong​​ @munsonswhore86​​ @navs-bhat​ @emotionaldreamer​ ​​​​​ @fangirling-4-ever​  @gaysludge​​​ ​@eddiethesexy​ @mazerunnerrose​ @midnightsgetawaycar  @goldylions  @mushroomelephant @saramelaniemoon @nojamsonmytoast @vintagehellfire @esoltis280 @spikedhe4rt @siriuslysmoking @toobsessedsstuff @alana4610 @gretavanfleas @sparkletash @aactuaaltraash @spookyemorockbabe

Everything Taglist: @matchamunson​ @bubsonnobx​ @practicalghost​ @katsukis1wife @crustyowos @yourfavdummy @protecteddiemunson4vr @kennedy-brooke @m00nkn1ghts @rory-cakes

[missadangel]

Little Bird in a Cage (Javier Peña x Reader)

Part 7: He's questioning You.

Gifs by din-jarring

---------------------------- All episodes here ------------------------

It was late in the evening, when you were walking on the street, heading to the station. You have passed by the station many times, but you have never been inside.

The DEA signboard reminded you of Javi. You didn't even know if he was here now, but he must be off duty at this hour.

You shook your head slowly, you had to focus on Caroline. But you had no ideas or plans either. You came here with putting everything on the line. It was just not you to sit at home and ignore all.

There was an armed guard standing, guarding at the entrance, you couldn't see inside clearly. You felt exhausted, you needed to pull your shit together at first, so you went to the nearest bar to take a breath, after all you walked all the way here. If your father couldn’t see your car outside, he might get suspicious.

Now he was thinking you were sitting in your room sulking -like always-. He couldn't say anything because he was already used to it.

The bar was crowded, so you sat near the window, so you could see the station’s entrance clearly. You ordered a drink, however, you couldn't see what was going on behind you because you were looking out the window and your head was full of thoughts.

At that time Steve and Javi were sitting at the bar counter, which was right behind you, but a bit far away.

“Is that why you didn't question her?”

“The chief handed it over to the other officer because I was leaving anyway. After the Cali cartel, these are the crumbs left behind, everyone wants a piece of the action.”

“The Salazars?”

“No, Pacho fucked almost all of them before he surrendered. The North Valley, I mean, they're not very ambitious, well not yet.”

“It never ends, does it, you squash one bug and another one pops up.”

“At least it's not our problem anymore.”

“Yeah for now.”

They clinked their glasses.

“Javi, hi, how are you?” Katie, Javi's coworker, was there too.

You looked over at the same time because you just heard his name. Your heart almost skipped a beat when you noticed him.

How long has he been there? And who the hell was that woman?

“How could you not call me after that night, I'm upset.”

Steve laughed, he was used to it. Javi rolled his eyes.

“I was busy, what the fuck are you doing in Cali anyway?”

You were about to cry with anger as she touched his cheek. Your heart was already broken after what happened, and now seeing him so intimate with another woman broke it one more time. Your hands began to shake as she leaned over Javi's lap and kissed him, suddenly you spilled your drink all over yourself. And tears began to flow.

That's all I need!

You quickly got up from your seat and walked quickly to the exit.

Even though you didn't notice him, Steve noticed you from a distance, wondering why this woman is crying, and then he recognized your face. After you got out, he stood up all of a sudden.

“Where are you going, Stev?” Javi asked.

“I'll be right back,” he said without looking at him and ran off.

Javi pushed Katie away from his lap.

“I'm not in the mood tonight, gotta go.”

Steve was out looking for you when you were cursing yourself because you couldn't hold back your tears. He heard your murmuring. He was thinking how to approach you, what to say.

He realized that you were the little bird. He'd seen enough of your photos in the files when he’s in Bogota.

You were trying to pull yourself together. To take a tissue you zipped your bag open but you realized someone extends his hand, offering a tissue. You couldn't see his face well in the dark, but he was a blue-eyed man with blond hair. You took the tissue.

“Thank you,” you said and walked away.

Fucking embarrassing.

Steve just stood there, watching you walk away, confused as hell, why were you here at this hour? Why were you looking at Javi and crying?

And why were you walking at the police station right now?

He put his hands on his waist, thinking what to do.

------

When you entered the station, you were trying hard to get rid of your thoughts. Of course you were going to cry for hours when you got home, but you can't think of it now.

Paloma noticed you and immediately raised her hand to stop you.

“Señorita, you can’t be here at this hour, unless you've come to surrender,” she smiled.

You swallowed, “No, I'm here for my friend, Caroline.”

“Look, honey, it's really late and no one is going to-”

“Caroline Reyes, arrested a couple days ago, well, she-”

“Cocaine girl,” said a man voice quite loudly.

In shock you looked in that direction. A bulky police officer was approaching to you, he looked angry and curious both.

“Are you the one she wants?

“I'm her friend, I'm here to see how she's doing.”

“Oh, yeah, you brought clean clothes too? Okay, let's take señorita,” he gestured to the other cops.

One of them came up to you, grabbed your arm roughly and dragged you over there.

“Wait a minute, I'm not a criminal, I didn’t do anything just wanna see her.”

The chief laughed cockily.

“Everyone who comes here says the same shit, sweetheart.”

-----

Steve was still standing outside, smoking meanwhile and Javi, who just left the bar, came up to him.

“Fuck man, I've been looking everywhere for you,” he said, but Steve didn't turn to him. “What the fuck are you doing here anyway?”

“Did you blow off your date?”

“What date, she came out of nowhere.”

“You two were like very close,” Steve said, still staring at the station.

“It was a one-time thing, way before the operation, never mind that.”

Steve turned to Javi this time.

“So you brushed her off, that's not you.”

“Fuck that, tell me what you're looking at. Why did you take off?”

Steve turned his eyes back to the station, threw his cigarette and stubbed out with his foot.

“Javi, we need to go to the station.”

“No, man, I want to go home and rest, didn’t you say  jet arrives the day after tomorrow? Did you forget something there?”

“Come with me man, you won't regret it.”

Javi frowned as Steve walked towards the station.

“What the fuck does that mean? Are you Mr. Mysterious or what?”

He followed behind him, confused as hell.

When Steve and Javi got in, Paloma greeted them.

“I thought you were gone.”

“Me too,” Javi grumbled.

“Where's the chief now,” Steve asked.

“In his room, it's a bit of a busy evening.”

“Okay, thanks, come on Jav.”

Javi didn't understand what was going on, but he trusted his old friend.

The Chief was surprised to see them, opened the door and came out.

“Agent Peña, Agent Murphy?”

“The girl who just walked in, where is she now?,” Steve asked.

“We took her to the interrogation room. How did you-”

“Did you find out who she is?”

“No, she refuses to give her name, Morales is about to interrogate her.”

“No need, we'll take care of it, right Javi?” He winked at him.

Javi was very surprised but nodded.

“Fine, but your transfer is in two days-”

“Sir, I wouldn't ask you if it wasn't important,” Steve said.

The chief didn't understand, but he nodded.

“OK, fine by me, you're the experts.”

“Thank you, sir.”

As Steve and Javi heading to the interrogation room, Javi asked out of curiosity.

“Who is this girl? What's going on?”

“We're about to find out,” Steve said as he opened the door to the observation room and walked in. Morales was there.

“Agents?”

“The chief wanted us to do this, why don't you just break off?”

“He did?”

“Yeah, he believes that it's our specialty,” Javi said, backing up his buddy, even though he didn't know what the fuck was going on.

“Okay,” Morales said, demoralized, and left the room.

When he left, Javi immediately turned to Steve.

“Are you going to tell me what's going on?”

Steve was looking through the one-way mirror directly at the person in the interrogation room, which is you.

“Javi, do you recognize this young lady from somewhere?”

Javi had been in this room countless times, interrogated with countless criminals. But he never had this feeling before. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw you in that room.

“You've got to be fucking kidding me.”

“Our little bird.”

When you were in the interrogation room, it was impossible to hear or see the other room. So as you sitting in that room, waiting, feeling like clock ticking very slowly. You were very bored also angry that they took your bag.

“At least give me some water,” you complained.

And then you huffed with boredom.

“She's so cute,” Steve giggled, they were behind the glass so they could hear you.

Javi looked at him frowning.

“Why the hell is she here? How did you notice her anyway?”

“I saw her-“ he skipped the crying part. “Going into the station, why don’t you interrogate her and find out. Chris and Danny said there is something going on between you and her.”

“They talk too much,” Javi hissed.

“So there is?”

“What?”

“So you have something with her, you didn't deny it,” he said with a big grin.

“We'll talk about it later, now I have to ask her why she's here,” Javi said as he opened the door. “Aren't you coming?”

“I'll watch for a while and come if you need me.”

Javi rolled his eyes and left the room.

-----

You were resting your head on the table when the door opened. You heard the footsteps of the person entering, you immediately looked up. You almost fell off the chair when you saw Javi.

You swallowed hard but avoiding eye contact with him because realized how much you missed him.

Javi pulled the chair in front of you, he didn't like when you looked away. He missed you too, but he certainly didn't expect to see you in here so he kinda upset too.

He sat in the chair and crossed his arms, leaned back.

“I have a lot of things to ask, but Y/N, what exactly are you doing here for fuck's sake?”

When you looked at him, his brown eyes were looking at you curiously.

“I,” you were thinking about what to say.

After all this time, it must be a twist of fate that you met in a place like this.

“I'll answer any question, but please let me see my friend, Caroline.”

“The cocaine girl?” Javi was surprised. “She's your friend? And you just came to ‘see’ her? How irresponsible.”

“What are you saying, she's my best friend, I need to see her.”

“Do you have any idea what you're accused of-”

“I know, why don't you let me see her? Obviously someone set her up, let me talk to her, please Javi- Well, Agent Peña.”

Javi remained silent then Steve, who was watching everything, entered the room. “Let's get the girl Jav, let them meet,” he smiled at you.

You were surprised when you remembered he was the man from before.

“You?”

“Hi, I'm Agent Steve Murphy, Javi's partner and friend, you might know me,” he extends his hand.

Suddenly remembered his face and name. You have seen him on tv and all newspapers years ago.

“Yeah, you're the guy who took down Escobar,” you shook his hand. Then you narrowed your eyes. “You must be also the one of them, who planned to kidnap me,” you turned your eyes to Javi.

Steve chuckled.

“Both smart and cute, Javi.”

Javi pursed his lips.

“I don't know, it didn't seem smart of her to come here so reckless.”

“Hey, I'm here for my friend,” you said frowning.

“You should have come to me then, isn't it stupid to just walk straight into the station and say you wanted to meet with your friend who was caught with cocaine?”

“I thought you'd already left, and besides, I wasn’t sure about you’d help me or not.”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Last time I checked you didn’t do anything I say, you didn’t even call me for days.”

Steve laughed.

“That reminds me of our arguments with my wife.”

You both turned your head to him, he was still laughing but you weren't.

“Oh, I'm sorry, it's just. Anyway, Im gonna get the coke girl, Caroline I mean.”

When he left the room, you and Javi looked at each other, but you were both silent. He came up to you and perched himself on the edge of the table.

“Your dad doesn't know you're here, does he?”

He was so close to you, but you had to lift up your head to look at him.

“No, he even threatened me not to come here.”

Javi laughed. “You're unbelievable,” he said, leaning down to look at you, his eyes locked on yours. He put his hand on your cheek, strokes gently.

The moment he touched you, you felt like you were electrocuted, but it was so nice, you missed his touch so much. Your heart was beating so fast.

“What am I going to do with you,” he murmured.

His face was very close to yours now, you blushed.

When the door opened, he stood back.

“Caroline!” You felt relief as soon as you saw her.

Steve gestured for her to come in but his eyes were on you and Javi.

“Y/N!”

You hugged her tightly, finally were able to see her. You shocked when you realized there are few bruises on Caroline's face and her lips were almost white.

“Caroline, what happened to you? Are you okay?”

“I am now,” she said, her voice shaking, her eyes looking at Javi and Steve with fear.

“Have a seat,” Steve said, pulling out the chair for her to sit, when she sits next to you, you grabbed her hand.

Javi was leaning his back on wall, crossed his arms. Steve came up to him. As the two of them looked at you, Caroline began to tell you what had happened to her.

According to her, it was the guy from the last nightclub you went with her. The night that Javi, Danny and Chris raided the club and caught David, -well they had to shoot him-. Caroline said those two men, related to the other narcos.

The North Valley.

“Not the drug cartels again,” you hissed.

Javi and Steve also were looking like fed up too.

“Caroline, how did they find cocaine on you, what happened?” you asked.

“Alejandro, he invited me to his house, I had been there once before but his father wasn't there, he was there the second time. I think he's name is Orlando-”

“Fuckin Orlando Henao Montoya? Fuck this man,” Steve growled, takes a cigarette from his pocket and puts it in his mouth.

“The Overall Man.” Javi sighed, unlike his buddy, he take nicotine gum out of his pocket but taste was awful, he made a face.

Steve smirked.

“Who,” you asked while looking at Javi who chewing nicotine gum, just like you said, you smiled at him, he caught your smile and blinked at you.

“Their leader,” Steve answered as he lit up his cigarette. “Señorita please keep telling about all.”

���Yes, when I was there,” she swallowed. “He forced me to use drug, I mean cocaine. I wasn’t in myself for a while you know. I don’t remember what he did to me.”

“Hijo de puta,” you got disgusted.

“What about the car?” Steve asked, as he and Javi were going through a file. “According to your statement here, you were caught on the road with a carload of cocaine. Driver is shot by police, you were with him. Surprisingly, he has a clean criminal record, just like you are.”

“My brother, they threatened me with him, they said they would kill him if I wouldn't get in the car. I don't know the driver though, but they threatened him with something I’m sure of it. He just panicked and try to shoot the police but they got him.”

“What about your brother,” you asked.

“Yes, he told us that he got a job as a truck driver a month ago, but he was actually their driver. I saw him there.”

“Where is the destination and where did you set off from?” Javi asked.

“It marked on the map. We got caught before we could get there so,” she looked embarrassed and bowed her head, you patted her hand..

Javi and Steve found the map among Caroline's belongings that the police had confiscated before she was taken into custody.

“This place-,” Javi said, surprised.

“Do you know where it is,” Steve asked.

“It was the last warehouse of the Cali Cartel. But it was empty when police raided it. According to what Chepe said during the confession that night, 700 kilos of cocaine were supposed to come here from New York. But it was empty. Then we went after Miguel, nobody cared rest.”

“Fuck, they grabbed themselves a big slice of the pie.”

“Yeah, but where are they gonna eat it?”

They looked at each other, then at Caroline.

“Is your brother still their driver?”

She nodded.

“Any chance you can talk to him, I mean, if we find out where they took the coke-”

Javi grabbed his arm.

“What are you doing? We have to be in Bogota in two days.”

“700 kilograms coke, Javi, we can't just wait without doing anything.”

“Steve, you came here to testify for the operation, we took the Cali shit down, and when I get back there I'm probably gonna be dismissed, so who are we gonna ask for help? Just the two of us can't take them, man. It's suicide to do it without backup.”

“What are the cops doing here? We'll talk to the chief.”

“We're not even sure where the coke is. What if we get there and we don't find what we're looking for?”

“I can find out,” Caroline said, and everyone in the room looked at her in surprise.

“Caz, are you crazy?”

“No, his father trusts Alejandro so much like blindly. I mean, he's holding him responsible, I guess, to make him a leader in the future or something. He gave him papers with the destinations of all the shipments and stuff. I was there for two days, and when I asked him what those papers were-”

Caroline stopped, she looked like she was going to cry.

“He beat me to death,” she said, which explained the bruises on her eyes and body. You hugged her when she started crying, you were so angry.

“It's okay, sweetheart.” You patted her back with your hand.

You felt so sorry for her, she must have been so scared, so desperate, it was so awful this happened to her.

“I would do anything to save my brother, but help me please,” said Caroline.

Javi and Steve looked at each other, neither of them knew what to do.

While you were talking to Caroline, Steve went to the other corner of the room to talk to Javi.

“I think we should leave this to the cops here, officially the North Valley is not a cartel yet,” Javi said.

“But if we catch them with 700 kilos of cocaine, they will. Come on man, just like the old days.”

“What about backup? I can't ask Berna for anything anymore, motherfucker is about to get what he wants.”

“So you haven't given it to him yet?

“I'll give it when I get to Bogota.”

“What if you need to expose the North Valley before? We know he doesn't like them either.”

“Fuck this man. Not him again.”

“We don't have a choice, Jav. If she sneaks in easy and locates the coke, we've got it in the bag. They won't be expecting us. They have no idea. Piece of cake.”

Javi and Steve turned to you and your friend.

“Okay, if you can locate the coke,” Steve said, ”we'll raid and your brother will be safe from them.”

“How,” Caroline asked.

“We'll put him in witness protection, but we need to find the cocaine, all of it, or the whole thing goes down, then we fucked.” Javi added.

“I'm sure he has the list, he knows where it is. I just need to go into his room and look at the paper. He is a junky, always high.”

“But,” you said suddenly. “If they know the police captured you? They'll kill you if they find out.”

“He knows I won't talk to protect my brother, the man next to me is already dead, I'll tell him that I blamed it on him. Anyway, they're having a party tomorrow night, I have to be there. He insisted.”

“Party?”

“Yes, I don't know what is it about, but he said it's very important.”

“This might be our only chance,” Steve looked at Javi.

Javi nodded.

“I'll go with her,” you suddenly said. They all looked at you. Javi was incredibly angry.

“Are you fucking out of your mind? No way!”

“I can't send her there alone!”

“Yes you can!”

Javi was leaning over you in anger and Steve grabbed his arm from behind.

“Y/N, he's right it's dangerous, I can't put you in danger,” Caroline said. “Hugo will be there anyway, it's better if he doesn't see you.”

“What do you mean, Caz?”

Javi and Steve looked at her.

“Yeah, he likes you a lot, I mean he wouldn't shut up asking me when I was going to take you to see him and stuff like that. Obsessed maniac.”

“Who the fuck is Hugo?” Javi asked, getting furious.

“Alejandro's cousin, he tells him everything. I mean really everything,” she said with a disgusted expression.

“That's better, I can make that idiot talk,” you said confidently. Of course you were scared, even though you trying to look brave.

“No! Out of the question,” Javi growled.

“Javi,” Steve said. “Since we can't go in and find out, it makes sense. We'll plant a listening device, and we’ll be on the watch.”

“If they suspect the slightest thing-”

“We won't let them, we'll surround them, and then we'll fuck them up.”

Javi was looking at you worriedly, Steve grabbed Javi's shoulders.

“We'll never let anything happen to her, we've done it before haven't we? We've got to do it man, we've got to get that coke shit, before they scatter it far. We're doing this for our country, and this country’s citizens, we gotta get that cocaine before it gets everywhere. You took down the Cali Cartel, don't you want to take down the poison they left behind too?”

Javi said nothing, he didn't really care about anything, except you. The idea of throwing you to the wolves, was torturing him badly.

But there was no other choice, for now.

---------

So Steve is in the story now, Hope you guys enjoy with my fic :)

---------------------------- All episodes here ------------------------

[unamused-boss]

How we met

Billy Harvgrove x Phoebe Levin

Summary: The day Billy Hargrove found Phoebe Levin changed his life forever. The day he met her was one he would never forget, literally. Like how can you forget that.

The minute that Billy stepped out of his camaro into the Hawkin’s High School parking lot he knew that this was gonna be the absolute worst part of his entire life. Girls were already gawking him like a piece of meat given to a pack of wolves. The guys were sizing him up like they thought they had a chance at winning a fight against him. 

“Jeezus, smells like cow shit here.” He muttered as he made his way into the high school. Once his boot made contact with the tile floor of the school he was swarmed with wannabes and thirsty girls.

“Hey man, I'm Tommy. We’re gonna be great friends.” One freckled faced freak said to him.

“Hello~ I’m Tina, it’s so great to meet you.” Some brunette flirted.

“Heey cali boy, how does the countryside feel?” Some rando said.

‘Holy shit, do these guys have anything better to do?’ Billy thought. ‘It's not the worst, I already have them like putty in my hand.’ He smirked, he already had a majority of the school's population on his side. This could not be as awful as he thought it was going to be. If these guys are like this just by his first day then Billy can’t wait for what will happen throughout the next couple of months. 

Which is what happened, Billy soon became the new King of Hawkins High School. He had everyone eating from the palm of his hand. The parties were nothing like the ones in California but they were a good way to distract him while being here. And every girl here wanted in his pants, which he let them but soon left them right after the deed was done. 

The day started off as any other day. Billy was late to his first period, as perusal, taking his seat with a very irked teacher. As he was about to start his normal routine of ignoring everyone around him a glint caught his eye. He turned his head to see a girl decorated in long earrings and glittering necklaces. She had pale skin and hard dark hair. Her eyes looked bored but still tried to pay attention to the lesson at hand. She wore dark clothes, her stomach was out, and the closer Billy looked he realized she didn’t have a bra on. She looked wild. Her hair somehow kept and unkept at the same time. Something about her was drawing him in, like a wave to a surfboard.

“Can you stop starring?” She broke him from his thoughts. No enthusiasm in her tone, she was not happy whatsoever that he was staring at her. Why was she not giggling at him like every other girl?

“I’m Billy.” Billy tried to introduce himself. Pulling his classic charm to win this girl over.

“I know. Now stop talking to me.” She simply put.

“What?”

“I said stop talking to me, you are someone I do not want to speak to.” She was getting frustrated by his presence. That’s bullshit, the only person that was supposed to get annoyed by him was Hairrington.

“I’m trying to flirt with you, you know that right?” He asked as if it wasn’t obvious.

“Yes it’s very obvious, so why don’t you stop and go back to the other girl next you that you flirted with all last month that has not stopped staring at you since class started.” Now you were over him. If your tone didn’t put it straight in his face that you were not having anything he was giving; he turned around to, in fact, see the said girl staring at him. Then the bell rang just as he was going to talk to you again. But you were out of there without him seeing.

The cafeteria was where Billy saw the mysterious girl next. He just stared at her as she sat by herself. No one was around her, being that her friends had a different lunch schedule then her. His staring didn’t go unnoticed by Tommy or Carol.

“Why are you staring at that weirdo?” Tommy asked him, picking at the food on his tray.

“Who is she?” Billy asked curiously.

“Phoebe Levin is the most peculiar girl you’ll ever meet. Swear to god she is related to The freak sometimes.” Carol scowled. “You seriously don’t want to be around her.”

“Her mom was married to some Russian immigrant dude, probably killed because of his help with the Russian forces.” Tommy laughed.

“Ugh, I don’t know why she is still here.” Carol whined. “Billy there are such better girls in this school than her.” The three continued to stare at the young girl. 

Phoebe knew they were watching her, she knew Billy was asking questions about her. “God give me a break.” She grumbled through the sandwich she was chewing. She heard the sound of fake pompous heels click their way over to where she was sitting. And to no one's surprise there stood Carol Perkins. With a grin on her face and  her caked on makeup.

“Can I help you Carol?” The unenthused girl spoke.

“Hey Phoebe.” Carol smiled, obviously fake. “ I just wanted to check up on you, you seem so lonely.”

“Okay?” Carol just continued to stare at her while she ate.

“You know for someone that has so many cropped tops, you do have a pretty fat stomach.” Carol snied. 

“You know for someone that sucks every other guy's dick except her boyfriend’s, you’d think you’d know how to shut your mouth.” Phoebe retorted. “Are we done here?” Carol just sat there with her mouth agape. Phoebe finished the remainder of her lunch taking her tray to leave. Only for Coral to put her foot out and trip her. Causing Phoebe to go face first into her tray. Phoebe picked herself up, taking the little food she had off her shirt. Walking away unbothered.

“Ugh, You scathing BITCH!” Yell Carol.

Billy watched in amazement. He loved every moment of that conversation, he knew she were different. He didn’t think she'd be this different. He watched as Phoebe made her way out of the lunchroom watching her hips sway as she walked. Carol made her way back to their table huffing and puffing at the interaction she just had. Sitting down like a newly scolded child.

“I told you Billy, you don’t want to be around her.” Carol sneered.

Ever since Billy asked about Phoebe Levin everybody has given every opinion possible about her.

“She is so weird.”

“She’s probably a spy planted for the Russians, maybe that’s why she’s so isolated.”

“I swear she’s done a seance with Munson!”

“Phoebe doesn’t wear a bra, like ever, which is kinda hot?”

“Uhg, she hangs in the library all the time in her dark corner.”

“She always seems like she’s on some psychedelic trip.”

“I saw her walking barefoot through the woods once.”

“Her grandma is a witch.”

“I hear she’s eaten goat’s brain.”

Billy didn’ t give a shit what these people thought. He only knew her name and that he wanted to meet her.

While Billy dealt with his predicament of having to find his belle of the ball in black Phoebe was dealing with her own troubles. Her trouble has names that are Carol Perkins, Hiedi Flanders, Tina Clarks, and Betty Johnson; those four have been giving her hell all week. All for Billy Hargrove having caught his eye on her.

“I swear to everything, I will rip his tongue out.” Phoebe grumbled under her breath.

“Hey it’s alright.” Nancy reassured, “It’s Friday, you won’t see them for two days. But you will be seeing Tom Cruise with me.” She grinned. The both of you being friends was an odd sight to see. A princess and a witch, but you guys have been through thick and thin together. Phoebe was there for her when she found out Barb was found dead. And Nancy was there for Phoebe when her dad died. Only those two know the secrets between each other, that no one else will ever know.

“I guess you’re right.” Phoebe smiled. “I’ll see you after gym… see ya.” Phoebe waved her off. 

Phoebe was making her way to the gym locker room when she thought she heard giggling behind her. She knew what was going to happen, having already accepted her fate of whatever little prank the class bimbos were going to pull on her. Nothing like this will change for her if she stays in this fucking town. Phoebe entered the locker room to her spot by the corner. Putting her stuff away into her cubby then continues with getting ready as normal. Taking off her clothes to put on her gym clothes. Once the shirt was over her head and on her body, this is one of few instances she puts a bra on (ya gotta stay prepared) Phoebe then hears the giggles again. ‘Dammit’ Phoebe braces herself for what is about to come. The expecting rush of cold water comes down upon her; her hair now wet, her mascara smudged and running down her face, the top of her shirt soaked. The giggles turned to full hyena laughter ringing through the locker room. 

“Sorry Carrie didn’t see ya there!” Carol boasted.

“I think she looks better this way.” Tina smirked.

“Yeah, it brings out that washed out skin.” Betty cackled, and I’m the one that gets called a witch. The warning whistle from the coach signaling us to get out of the locker room.

“Come on Carrie, don’t wanna be late.” Carol joked, her and her friends laughed as they walked away. Phoebe did not react. She made no comment. All she did was make her way out of the locker room to the gym for class. Where she saw a familiar mullet head skipping class.

A glare was given to him. Phoebe was tired of the shit she was given. Tired of the attention people have decided to give you for the dumbest reason. To have some meat head think this is the funniest joke on the planet. ‘I will shave his head and make him eat his hair.’ I hate him.

‘Holy shit.’ No one since he has gotten here has given Billy any shit. But the glare that Phoebe gave him. A chill ran up his back. With the unlit cigarette hanging from his lip almost falling out. He has not met a girl like her. Well he has but they usually never speak to him, let alone glare through his skull. 

“Go to hell…”

Phoebe spent her time in gym class wisely. She didn’t tell the coach. Didn’t explain to anyone that asked. She ran her laps. Did every exercise she was told to. She ignored the laughter of the girls that did this to her. Ignored that stares from everyone. However when at her water break Phoebe noticed the janitor’s closet was unlocked, ideas went through her head. If she was going to be treated like this only because some ass is giving her attention. Well they don’t say an eye for an eye for nothin. 

Gym class was let out, since Phoebe was one of the first few into the locker room her plan was already in action. The four bimbo’s made their way to her corner; already dressed in her tank top and long skirt. Accentuating her figure, a figure that many were jealous of or either wanted. The bimbo’s were in their towels going to take their showers.

“Who knew you’d enjoy a cold bath before class.” Laughed Betty.

“Yeah… Now just for you to know…” Heidi said, wickedness pouring from her words as she stepped forward closer to me. She glared at me, “Stay away from Billy, or I will make your life hell.”

“Oh sweetheart.” Phoebe mocked. “I knew I was there when I saw you.” She apparently didn’t like that too much since she turned away from me flipping her hair into my face. Her curly coarse hair from too many perm treatments. But Phoebe didn’t have to worry about that, when across from her she saw the familiar belongings to the girls that were once here. Along with some items that will aid her in her revenge.

Nancy was confused, gym class got out a few minutes ago and she couldn’t find Phoebe anywhere. All she saw was the commotion of the halls. Nancy doesn’t know where she could be. Until…

Billy was getting annoyed not only with not being able to shake off his interaction with Phoebe earlier today but no one would stop bothering him. He can’t stand it, Tommy won’t shut his yap.

“Then I told him to strew off if he knew what was good for him.” Tommy laughed.

“Yep, you got him.” Billy grumbled. He just watched as the people in the halls passed him. Looking for her.

Tommy rolled his eyes, “Are you still looking for her, she’s literally a nobody.”

“Tommy. If I wanted your opinion I’d ask for it.” Billy stated. “ And I don’t-” Billy was cut of by the clicking of running heels.

“TOMMY!” Carol yelled, “TOMMY!” Carol and the other three girls ran up to the two boys. The girls were out of breath but fuming with anger with their arms tightly crossed against their chests. 

“Whoa what is it?” Tommy asked.

“Someone stole from us.” Carol snided.

“Stole what?” Tommy questioned. “You have all your stuff.” He pointed out.

“NO.” Carold came closer to Tommy’s face so no one else would hear. “Someone stole our bras…” Tommy’s eyes widened, he almost laughed at the statement before him.

“What?” Tommy answered. Neither of them noticed the sudden burst of energy in the hallway. People started to make their way to windows and the front of the school. Billy noticed but he waited for the couple to finish. All while being stared at by Hiedi.

“I want you to find them and kick their ass!” Carol screamed. The echo of her words is what stopped their discussion. Carol looked around, along with her little posse, “What are they looking at?”

It was about the same time when Billy and Nancy made their way outside to the front of the school. Pushing their way through a shocked crowd of students, some laughing and some with their jaws on the floor. By the time the two teens made it to the front of the crowd what they saw before them was not what they thought it would be. 

In front of them stood four burning stacks with bras being burnt at the ends.

With what Billy just overheard, he can only guess at who those were. And off to the side stood Phoebe Levin smoking a cigarette lit by the flames. Standing only looking at the crowd before her. It didn’t take long before Carol and the others saw what had happened to their once lacy bralettes. Screaming as they saw the consequences of their actions before them.

“OOHH!” Coral screeched. “YOU BITCH!”

“Exactly!” Phoebe Levin replied. Phoebe then stared at Billy, the same stare she gave him in the halls a while ago. She flicked the last of her cigarette onto the ground, then stomped it out. She only smiled as she passed Carol and them until she was face to face with Billy.

“I don’t know what your game is, but I don’t like it so leave me out of it.” She stated to him.

“I don’t think so, this only made me want more.” He grinned at her.

“PHOEBE LEVIN!” The familiar call of the principle called, she wasn’t getting out of this easily.

“That’s my que…” She said as she left him there.

Billy did not know what else to say. He was glad she walked away because he would have been speechless. Billy knew what he wanted and he wanted her, he wanted to be with her. And he’ll have to work a little harder to get her. He doesn’t mind cause once he has her. He won’t let go.

I hope you like it!

[malwaredykes]

honestly tbh leigh's relationship with the ncr is REALLY funny because. she hates them. she has 0 allegiance to them. she doesnt help THEM she resolves matters in ways that often happen to benefit them in some way or simply prevents needless loss of life, but it never is about them and aside from that shes always stealing, sabotaging, disrespecting them, turning people against them, encouraging members to desert, putting their legitimacy into question, especially the legitimacy of them being in the mojave in the first place, and exposing their ineffectiveness. she has 0 intention of venerating The Republic that she comes from. she thinks its hilarious that anyone should take that stuff seriously.

but she ends up being a celebrity to them. because crocker likes her despite everything, and hsu likes her, and because shes from new cali but important in the mojave, and because shes done stuff like calm things down in the freeside and help at refugee camps and retake nelson. which makes her even more of a problem in a way. if she were Only a nuisance thatd be one thing, theyd just put a bounty on her. but shes a celebrity. she has a status in new vegas and in the ncr. shes kind of untouchable. and her crimes and sabotage can never quite be proven. of course to the higher ups theres having proof and theres Knowing. shit only gets worse when she and her buddies storm the legion fort and kill caesar and free a bunch of slaves because like. this strengthens her vip status AND is absolute humiliation to the ncr. like they cant take the credit and instead they have to live with the fact that what a lot of them dismissed as some upstart with a bunch of clueless locals backing her did something they never couldve achieved. "oh this was pretty much an angry mob of townies and misfits" yeah and they got caesar in his own fortress. shes out there making the ncr look like shit and pointing people to seeing the ncr as the problem and yet she never does it in a way that she could be prosecuted for. by the time the ncr realizes shes a lot of trouble they also know they would lose a TREMENDOUS amount of support if they did something to her

like shes never openly hostile. she never provokes open hostility. shes not Openly Antagonistic to the ncr but its not exactly a secret shes got something planned and would like them to leave. young ncr recruits seeing her are like Omggg ma'am its an honor!!!! ^_^. there are officers and rangers whod be REALLY appalled if you said anything bad about her because Well she sure has done a lot more for us here on site than any of you government people. and that was her goal. that is the game shes playing. folks youll eventually realize its not the ncr that has done good in the mojave despite its flaws, but yours were the hands doing the work, and all the reasons one might consider ncr good or necessary are within you, Are you, the people who joined hoping theyd make a difference. folks youll realize that the ncr has to lie and obfuscate and make bullshit orders and directives to maintain claim over that good work and whitewash its own crimes. folks, i have this ex-ncr friend here. do you know what the ncr got him? complicity in atrocities (lyrical miracle), ptsd, apocalyptic thinking, countless biases to unpack, hopelessness, enemies where he shouldve made friends. and so on. and do you know what he got from *me*? a chance to actually do good. a chance to question those false beliefs of his. a friend. new opportunities. 40 rolls of duct tape. new rifle. lots and lots of soda. TWO toy trucks. and an apple. just ask him

[madhatterbri]

Lost And Found | N.J.

Summary: Y/N always had a crush on Nick. One fight costs them their friendship. A wedding makes them both realize what they lost.

Play the AEW Virtual Escape Room I created.

Taglist: @plentyoffandoms

Pure fiction

Growing up with the Jacksons wasn't for the weak. Especially when they were in their pro wrestling phase, which happened to be all the time. Y/N would need other people's fingers and toes to count all the times they used a wrestling move on her. It would be fine, they insisted, they saw it on TV. No one was hurt when they saw it on TV.

She would allow them simply because she trusted them. They would never intentionally hurt her. There was a bigger reason that she allowed them to practice wrestling moves on her. Y/N had a major crush on Nick. More than anything, she wanted him to succeed and achieve his dreams.

After being friendzoned by Nick once again, she started to date one of their friends. It wasn't the same, but at least she could still be close to Nick. Whenever she and Matt got into an argument, Nick was there for her.

Things went south the moment Y/N found out his friend cheated on her. She ran to Nick for comfort. Expecting to just cry on his shoulder, he admitted he knew about it all along. The younger Jackson brother never said anything because he didn't want there to be any awkwardness.

Devastated at her friend's betrayal, she vowed never to trust either Jackson again.

They tried to get in contact with her. After blocking their numbers, she felt worse but knew it was for the better. Y/N ended up finding a new guy. He hated wrestling, much to her relief. It was like her past life was finally behind her.

🔔

One of Y/N's old friends invited her to be in her wedding party out in California. Forgetting about the Jacksons, she accepted the invitation happily. Even her boyfriend wanted to attend. After landing in California, they drove to a restaurant to meet the wedding party.

It wasn't until she saw them at the restaurant that Y/N realized she made a mistake. They brothers looked so shocked to see her. Y/N's boyfriend wrapped his arm around her waist. She smiled at him, and they walked to their seats.

All was going well until the bride called her over. Nick was with her looking tense. The bride told Y/N that she would be walking with Nick down the aisle as they were both in the wedding party. Not wanting to start drama, she begrudgingly agreed.

🔔

That night, the wedding party lounged at the beach behind their resort. The group of friends sat around the bonfire to combat the cool ocean breeze. Y/N stood in the water. A part of her missed Cali so much.

"Hey," Nick said and stood next to her. He shuffled his feet nervously.

"If it isn't about the wedding. Save it, Nicholas. I don't wanna hear it," she warned. He rubbed his hands together and looked at her.

"I don't know what's colder you or this breeze," he tried to joke. Y/N turned to look at him. She was sure everyone would be upset if she drowned him in the water.

"Don't you have another friend you can lie to? Preferably not anyone here? Are you still friends with the cowboy?" She asked.

"I was going to apologize and extend an olive branch to you, but forget it. We can both be awkward and miserable about all this,"

"There is no reason to be awkward or miserable about this. In a few days, I go back home, and we never see each other again," she snapped. "Now, please leave me alone. I'm not going to ruin their wedding,"

"I'm not trying to ruin their wedding," he said in frustration. "I get it. You are hurt, so you are lashing out like when we were kids, and I deserve it. I'm sorry for what happened,"

"Sorry won't make any of this go away," Y/N muttered and walked back to the party.

🔔

The wedding rehearsal was tense. Neither of them was speaking to each other. Last night, she cried over her dead friendship with Nicholas for the first time in months. She missed her old life with them but couldn't bring herself to just allow them back in.

Things went bad to worse when the bride suddenly had an idea for the wedding party to do a dance.

"We don't want you guys to kill us. But we wanted to do a dance with the two wedding parties. Nothing crazy and I promise you'll get back to your dates," the bride assured the members of the parties. All the other participants were excited about trying something new except for Nick and Y/N.

Her disgust at the idea melted when he wrapped his arm around her waist. She hated the way her body longed for his touch. This wasn't going to happen. Nicholas burned that bridge long ago. Y/N only had one more day to deal with him.

🔔

During the wedding, she couldn't help but stare at him. All the times she made him pretend they were marrying each other as children. It was part of their agreement for her being their practice dummy. Y/N kept a notebook with all the details. Pages were scribbled with Mrs. Y/N Jackson.

He seemed to stare at her. Maybe he was thinking about the past as well.

🔔

"The decorations at this party suck," Nick whispered to her during the dance. His arm around her waist. His lips were dangerously close to hers. "And you made us wear toilet paper for our weddings,"

"Shut up, Nick," she giggled. She couldn't help but crack a smile.

"Back to Nick now? I'm honored," He asked with a small smile. She rolled her eyes.

"Don't get cute with me. We have this dance, and then I never have to see you or Matt again," she reminded.

"This the guy?" He asked and motioned towards her boyfriend. "Seems like a dick,"

"Doesn't cheat on me, lie to me, or like wrestling. He's perfect," she defended. Nick rolled his eyes.

"You changing your likes for him? Match made in heaven. I can't wait to get my invite," he told her sarcastically.

"Unfortunately, your invite will get lost in the mail along with Matt's. Besides, he doesn't want to get married," she pointed out.

"Then why are you with him? He is your polar opposite," Nick questioned.

"What do you want from this conversation, Nick?" She asked in frustration. The man was getting on her very last nerve.

"I want my friend back," he answered truthfully.

"She isn't coming back, Nick. You hurt me. I dated your friend because you didn't want me. Then I got cheated on, and you lied to me. I'm no longer part of team Jackson. To join that team again would be heartache,"

"I never said I didn't want you," he defended.

The song ended. She left his arms and rushed back to her boyfriend. "Everything okay?"

Y/N blinked back a couple of tears. "Yeah, just looking forward to going home,"

🔔

The next morning, Y/N and her boyfriend made it to the airport. She felt sad about leaving California. The trip was so quick. Another month was needed to go down memory lane. Her boyfriend was more than happy to leave. He was a small town guy. Never liked the hustle and bustle of a big city.

Before passing through security, her boyfriend needed to use the restroom. She leaned against the wall and waited for him. Mindlessly scrolling through all the pictures on social media. There was one that caught her attention. Nick and her when they were younger. He had his big, goofy grin. The next picture showed them smiling as they danced.

"Y/N, I made it in time," he said out of breath.

"Nick? What are you doing here?" She asked.

"I.... last night, you implied that I friendzoned you. I wanted to clear it up, but you avoided me all night, and you have me blocked on everything,"

"The past is the past,"

"While we were at the wedding, I thought about us. You in the Belle princess dress and me in a suit like we always talked about. I know I fucked up. You should have never dated my friend. It should have been me," he told her. "I thought that if he would push you more towards me, but it cost me you,"

Her mouth dropped open in shock. "Nick,"

"Don't board that plane, Y/N. Stay with me. We will make it work. Fix everything. I don't wanna lose you again. I can't lose you again,"

Tears silently fell down her cheeks. Her boyfriend walked out of the bathroom. She quickly wiped them away.

"Oh, hey man, you flying out for work?" He boyfriend asked. Before Nick could answer, he turned to you. "Come on, honey. We start boarding soon,"

She looked between her boyfriend and Nick. Her eyes rest on Nick. "I'm so sorry,"

She turned to your boyfriend. "But I'm staying here in California,"

[galway-girlatwork]

written for @studioghibelli's writing challenge

Fandom: Narcos

Rating: Mature-There is angst, fluff and smut if you squint really, really hard. 😊

Central Characters: Reader/Pena/Murphy

Central Relationship: Pena/Reader

Word Count: 3,478

AO3

Please do not copy or reblog my work without tagging me

Music inspiration: The Pretty Reckless

SUMMARY:

A tumultuous relationship with a fellow DEA agent, is marked by tension and unspoken feelings. Can a growing affection, mixed with reckless behavior, drugs, death, money and power, really survive? From Bogota, to Miami, to Rome, how far will it go?

A Broken Silence

As the last of the Cali Cartel fell, like little toy soldiers, she wondered what was next. She’d been down in Columbia, longer than she’d lived back in the states. It had taken years of dedication, long fucking days and even longer nights. Elise thought of the hundreds of people that had died, gotten hooked on blow and for what? Power and money. That was the root cause of it all, power and money. She’d been assigned to Columbia a year after she became DEA. They told her she’d be an asset, it turned out to be a load of shit. Women agents were looked at as glorified secretary’s but that was until she met Pena and Murphy. Pena looked at her like a piece of meat, Murphy actually used her intelligence to their advantage. Did she ever actually make it into the field? Yep, as an undercover hooker, Pena’s idea of course. His exact words to her, as she stood there in a slinky red dress was, she had a body, might as well use it. That was the first time she hit him. The second time was when he drunk on whiskey and made a pass at her.

The three of them had been working together for a year before she realized she actually cared about Pena. She’d been sitting in her car, in the parking lot of the embassy when she saw him pull in, a gangly female crawling out of the passenger seat, as he got out, pressing herself against him, her tongue half way down his throat, his hand on her tit. Part of her wanted to vomit, part of her wanted to punch the whore. She knew the woman was a whore, those were the only types of women Pena seemed to be interested in. It was that afternoon, the dynamic of the relationship changed between them because she realized she’d been jealous and the only reason a woman was jealous was because she wanted him. She wanted all of him but knew it would never happen. Her attitude towards him went from indifference to straight up bitch, Murphy snickering every time she went for a kill. By the time Escobar was riddled with bullets, Pena hated her with a passion, which he made clear before he was sent to DC, Murphy back to Florida and she was right back where she started, glorified secretary.

A month later she had been re-assigned, working with some head honcho on the Cali cartel and the intel needed to break up their little surrender deal they had going, cringing inward when a jean clad hip, found the edge of her desk.

“Well, well, seems something is working out for me, how’s is shaken Tanner?” “Are you fucking serious right now Pena? I am working with you? Again? Can someone please tell me who I pissed off in a past life?” “Probably the devil himself hermosa.”

“Don’t, don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Come in here thinking I won’t deck you for bein a polla.”

“Whoa, Spanish is improving.” 

“Get the hell off my desk Pena and go find yourself a whore. I’m sure there were slim pickins in D.C.”

“You offering?”

“Vete al infierno.”

“Already there babe.”

Getting off her desk, he went into his office, slamming the door, watching the glass rattle before he threw himself in the chair behind his desk. Fuck, he thought Elise would have been stateside by now, along with Murphy but as luck would have it, she was here to torment him. It was hard seeing her right now, needing to focus on Cali but he couldn’t stop thinking about her. Fuck she was still beautiful and her temper gave her skin a glow that most women he knew would kill for. Closing his eyes, he remembered all the nights he thought of her. Imagining his hands twisted in thick, curly brown hair, looking into eyes so brown, they were almost black, as he slid into her, marking her as his. He not only wanted her but had fallen in love with her. He wasn’t sure when it happened or how but he realized it the day he had been shipped to D.C. thinking his career was over, sitting in an airport bar with Murphy. Murphy knew it and told him to do something about it before it was too late. He’d laughed it off before giving his partner a hug, both of them going their separate ways. Well God had a sense of humor, he thought as he walked in, seeing her sitting there in jeans and a t-shirt, chewing on a pencil as she read the file on her desk. Yea he was so screwed and not in the way that made him want a drink and a smoke.

The next six months were unbearable, her nerves frazzled when it was all over, thrilled when they gave her a month before she was going to her next post in Miami. Just because Cali fell in Columbia didn’t mean the drug trafficking did, since it was still all about power and money. What was that saying, he who dies with the most toys wins? Well, these bastards were gonna make sure they had all the toys and more.

Sitting on a bar stool, surrounded by co-workers, they celebrated with food and drinks, the beer and tequila flowing freely, except for Pena, who leaned more towards whiskey.

“To victory,” Javi toasted, his eyes lingering on Elise longer than necessary.

“To victory,” she echoed, smiling, but there was a wistfulness in her eyes that Javi couldn’t decipher. As the night wore on, one drink led to another to another and before she could stop and form thought, she found herself in Pena’s apartment, passion flaring between them like an arc of lighting. His lips found the base of her throat, suckling at the skin and come morning, it would be a purple blossom of broken blood vessels. Fingers tugged at the buttons of his shirt before she grabbed the sides, yanking as hard as she could, buttons pinging to the floor before they moved to his belt. She wanted him knowing in the morning she’d be gone. One night wouldn’t kill her, right?

Fuck, he thought, as he yanked her t-shirt off her frame, breasts held in place by a wisp of lace, was this really fucking happening right now? Her skin was warm and soft beneath his hands as he undid the button on her jeans, hand sliding into the waistband, his mind focused on one thing, and he almost died right there as he slid his fingers into her depths, feeling how wet she was. God fucking damn he wanted her, laid out in his bed, beneath him, his body marking her as his.

She moaned against his mouth as his fingers slid into her, the pad of his thumb against her clit, every nerve over firing, sending dopamine coursing through her, limbs melting from one feeling to another until they were both naked, not remembering if they had even stopped kissing at this point. He was rough with her, one hand tangled in her hair while the other slid under her knee, teeth nipping at her earlobe. Reaching between them, hand wrapping around the thickness of his cock, she positioned him at her entrance, his name a whisper into the space between them.

That was all it took for his control to snap like a rubber band wound too tight and he slammed into her. He held still for all of thirty seconds before he lost control, hips bucking against her like teenager having sex for the first time. She was warm, wet, tight, her skin sweet on the tip of his tongue as he dragged it across one nipple before moving on to the other, lips attached themselves to the skin of her collar bone, sucking on it, knowing he would mark her there just as he did to the left side of her neck. He knew some thought hickies were tacky but he didn’t give a fuck. When she walked the streets of Columbia, he wanted everyone to know she was taken. He pulled out of her so violently, he wondered if he’d hurt her, but that thought was fleeting as he flipped her over, bringing her to her knees, fingers digging into her hips as he pulled her back, sliding into her with no remorse for the brutality of it. He was feeding his soul with her body and she was allowing it. He exploded violently within her as her orgasm hit, her walls clenching around his hardness made it impossible not to, his name screamed out into the sex filled air surrounding them. Arms wrapped around her, his chest against her back, holding onto her for a moment before he left go, collapsing on his back.

Her body had a mind of its own at this point, falling on her side, facing him, watching as he took in deep gulps of air. He turned to look at her, eyes making contact, it was like they had just seen each other for the first time and there was something so intense in his stare and she felt it within her soul, feeling as if he knew everything about her and still wanted her, wondering if he actually cared, if all the hate fueled words he’d thrown at her, was a façade. She shook her head, displacing those thoughts as she moved over him, wondering how many more times they could lose themselves in the moment before dawn streaked across the sky of Columbia.

He woke up to an empty bed, reaching out, only to find Elise’s side cold. Panic surged through him as he saw a note on the pillow.

*Javi, 

Watch your back. Be safe. 

Elise.*

Fuck, he thought, as his heart sank, crumbling the note and throwing it across the room. He’d never been good with words, especially when it came to expressing feelings. He’d cared for Elise, but kept that buried, not wanting emotions involved because they were a distraction in the dangerous world they’d been living in. But now, that time was up down here, he realized he couldn’t let her go and now he had to find her.

Finding her hadn’t been as easy as he thought it would be. By the time he got cleaned up and to the embassy, he found out that everything was being sent to the field office in Miami, her next assignment. He wasn’t due to leave Bogota for another week. By the time he got to Miami, his nerves were on fire, feeling like he was always just one step behind her. She’d checked in with the field office but twenty-four hours later, she’d gone on vacation and no one knew where, all they could tell him is she wasn’t due back to the office for a month. Where the fuck could she go for a month?

It took him two days and breaking protocol, something he did with ease; to find out she was in Rome. How the fuck was he going to find her there? He’d never been to Rome and no idea where to start. That was when he broke into her new apartment, searching for any clue and found just the name of a museum, Galleria Borghese. What the fuck was he doing, chasing some woman across the fuckin world? This was out of character for him, he was the fuck em, use em, kick em to the curb kind of man but now he was standing at a ticket counter, passport in hand, heading to Italy.

Everything she’d done since she landed were things she did on the fly. There was no rhyme or reason to where she went, how she spent her days, just happy to be away from drugs and death. Don’t get her wrong, she loved her job but Columbia had taken a lot out of her and she needed time to breathe, to find herself again. But her thoughts kept drifting back to Javi. The night they shared had been everything she had ever wanted, and yet, she knew it was impossible. Maybe that was part of the reason she’d come here instead of staying close to home. Maybe she was running and didn’t even know it. Maybe she was just a tad crazy about a man who went through women like he did cigarettes.

She wandered around Rome, trying to take in what was around her from Vatican City, to The Colosseum, every art museum and tonight to the Trevi Fountain. She’d learned that it was best to go at night, the crowds were not as bad and to make sure she threw three coins into to the water. Gelato in hand, she was standing at the edge of the fountain, the white marble still warm from the sun that had beat down on it from the day. Even she had to admit that it was beautiful and again that is when her mind went back to Javi. Fuck, why the hell did she had to be in love with that man? He was more a man of action, not of words. She had seen him break hearts before, and knew she was just another casualty.

The Trevi Fountain loomed ahead, Javi been all over the tourist places and had come up empty. He was frustrated, pissed and was beginning to wonder if he should just go back home and wait however there was one small problem, he was not a patient man, anyone who worked with him could tell ya that much. When he reached the fountain, the third time he’d been there, the coins glinted at the bottom, knowing each one was a wish, a hope and without a coin to toss in, he couldn’t help but think about his own wish, to find Elise. He was too stubborn, refusing to go back and wait. That was when he saw her, sitting at the very edge of the fountain, rubbing fingers over his eyes to make sure it really was her. About fuckin time, he thought, as he watched her throw a single coin over her shoulder. He moved towards her, pushing his way through the crowd, ignoring annoyed mutters and sharp glares of the other tourists he jostled aside. He was less than a foot away from her before he stopped, “What did you wish for?”

Shock couldn’t even begin to describe the look on her face when she saw him standing there, asking what she’d wished for. He looked out of place among the tourists and well everything that Rome was but his eyes were intense, filled with determination, a look she’d seen before when they were in Columbia. “Javi what the fuck are you doing here?”

“I came for you.”

“Why? My assignment in Columbia is over, so is yours so I am a little confused as to again why you’re here.”

Grabbing her hand, he began tugging her away from the fountain, looking for someplace where they could talk, finding a doorway, he pushed her back against the old, faded brick, kissing her, tongue slipping into her mouth, tasting lemon against her lips before he pulled away from her. “Why the fuck did you leave Bogota without saying goodbye?”

“Wait you came all the way to fuckin Italy to ask me that? Are you insane?”

“No. Yes. Fuck. I came here because I didn’t realize until I woke up to an empty bed, a fucking note, and you gone, that I love you.”

“You have lost your mind. Javi please don’t do this because I seriously can’t handle it. I’ve seen you with other women, I’ve seen you use them, hell I’ve seen you break them, and I can’t be just another one in a long line of em.”

“You’re not,” he said. “You’re not just another one of them. Te quiero hermosa.”

“Yea heard you say that a time or two. Look, what happened that night, it was, and this is not to feed your ego, was amazing but I am also not stupid. I can’t take the chance that this is nothing more than a fling and, in the end, the only one picking up the pieces is me as you move on to whoever can give you intel on whatever big bad you’re chasing.”

“God you fucking talk too much.” He kissed her again, hands wrapping in the thickness of her hair, before he nipped his way to her shoulder, teeth and lips, digging into the curve of muscle and sinew, suckling until he heard her gasp, her fingers digging into his hips. The tip of his tongue ran over the red mark on her skin, knowing he marked again, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Now every man in Rome will know that you belong to me.”

“I am not a possession Javier Pena.”

“Fuck I didn’t mean it that way. God damn it, Elise. No one is fuckin perfect but I’m standing in the middle of a fucking country I’ve never been to, chasing you around the globe wanting you, no one else, why can’t you see that?”

She stood frozen for a moment, eyes wide with shock, his words hitting her like the tidal wave crashing over her. Taking a deep breath, she slowly let it out, “Because I don’t want to be hurt, can’t you understand that? I’ve been in love with you, all this time and there is a part of me that wants you too, to love all the parts you are. Demanding, possessive, passionate, asshole, dedicated. The risk? Of this? Of believing you want me this much is something I don’t know how to handle.”

“It’s not going to be cut and dry baby. It ain’t like intel where you dissect it all. Just feel it.” He took a deep breath, frustration giving away to relief, stepping closer, eyes locking onto hers. “I get it hermosa, never been down this road before with anyone. Scared shitless that I’ll fuck it up but let’s try to see where this goes.”

Feeling the warmth of his body against her, hearing all the words, let’s be honest, every woman wants to hear, “Okay,” she whispered, voice barely audible. Something in the back of her mind was telling her this was a mistake, of the highest, but fuck it, she thought, because she didn’t want to be that person who turns a hundred and has regrets. Fingers tugged on the belt loops of his jeans, she pulled him closer, tongue tracing the outline of his jugular, skin tangy with the salt of his sweat.

His breath caught as she pulled him closer, feeling her mouth against his throat. “I just want to get away from all of this. Just you and me, away from the crowds, from everything. I want to be alone with you, beneath me. Fuck we need to go now or I am going to take you against this building and we’re getting arrested.”

As dawn began to creep along the city, fingers pinched her nipples as she straddled him, hips rolling in circles, his cock buried deep within her body, he pulled her down to him, lips hard and demanding against hers, devouring her orgasm as his spilled into her depths, her heartbeat erratic against his chest as he wrapped his arms around her.

His name was whispered breathlessly, her voice trembling with the aftermath of their orgasms, feeling his embrace tighten around her, hands now trailing down her back, she pulled back slightly to look into his eyes, a soft smile playing on her lips as she rolled off of his body, laying on her side. “Didn’t get much sleep last night. We should stay in today, order room service.”

Grabbing her wrist, he pulled her towards him, a hand cupping her breast, nipple still erect beneath his palm. “I don’t think I will ever get enough of you hermosa, so I am in agreement with you on that. Te amo.”

“Yo también te quiero, cariño.”

“Getting better with the Spanish.”

“Been practicing.”

Fuck, he thought, hearing his native language fall from her lips, he was in deep with her and it was a realization that hit him with a force of a hurricane, watching her as her eyes drifted closed, breathing steady as she fought staying awake, losing the battle. How the fuck had he fallen for her? He, who had always kept emotions in check, as he whored his way through Bogota, taking down drug cartels, not wanting involvement. Figured he would be scared out of his fucking mind but he wasn’t. The last thought he had before sleep claimed him? How he could get re-assigned to Miami.

[bylrlve]

403-404 thoughts

(Prev post here)

Murray’s prophecy of the kids playing too much Nintendo, eating too much junk food, smoking some ganja, pounding some beers, and experimenting sexually is actually eerily accurate. Nintendo, as @gayofthefae brilliantly observed, has been equated to the Nina project. Eating junk food? The boys presumably survived on the (quickly cold) pizzas and the sodas Argyle delivered to their house - and if they stopped at gas stations… these boys would have little to no money on their persons, so junk is all they could really afford, one assumes. Smoking ganja? Jon and Argyle. Pounding beers? Not the Cali gang, but Lucas did.

Experimenting sexually? No one has sex during s4 - Jopper makeout but that’s hardly experimenting, and certainly not for adults, and he was specifically talking about the kids. None of them are in the mood for it, naturally, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this is foreshadowing… something between a certain pair of boys. It couod be a cheeky reference to Will growing into his sexuality but, and forgive my crudeness here, right-hand solo sex doesn’t really fit, especially since he was talking about Jonathan, El, Mike, and Will as a group, implying a plural. In fact, this scene takes place directly after El and Mike fight, and after she is arrested. Experimenting is a very loaded word…

Never fails to get me how Mike just threw her last letter into the trash - it had already been explained that he may not see her for months, and here he is, treating her last missive to him with such disrespect. This attitude isn’t even new - he crumpled up and tossed aside the letter she’d painstakingly written and drawn rainbow designs on in the opening minutes. Meanwhile… there are Funko Pops of him proudly showing off the new painting Will made for him.

“You’re packed already?” “Yeah, I mean, I never really unpacked.” is the most blatantly subtext-ridden thing to come out of Mike’s mouth all season, and it’s the biggest piece of in-verse proof that he was fronting hard during 402 - and that was the lovey-doviest he was with El.

Can we all just take a moment to appreciate Mike saying that home isn’t home without Will? Fuck the monologue, that is the most romantic thing Mike says all season.

@bylertruth3r made the above video, showing the eerily similarity between the Byler 404 reunion and a scene in 13 Reasons Why - and this scene was originally scripted as Mike coming up to Will kneeling oj the ground, meaning it was conceived as them being much closer together.

I don’t think we appreciate, enough, that Mike monologued to Will in this scene. Not only are Jasons’s ily to Chrissy at the pep rally, Jancy’s ilys, Argyle and Eden’s LAFS, Max’s saving herself from Vecna with flashbacks, and Dustin’s ILY to Eddie all contrasts to the Mike monologue sequence in 409… but this is, too. Here are Mike’s three big monologues lain out:

"El? I don't know if you can hear this, but... but if you can, I want you to know I'm here, okay? I'm right here. And... I love you. El, do you hear me? I love you. I'm sorry I don't say it more. I... It's not because I'm scared of you. I'm not. I've never felt that way. Never. But I am scared that one day you'll realize you don't need me anymore. And I thought if I said how I felt, it would somehow make that day hurt more. But the truth is, El, I don't know how to live without you. I feel like my life started that day we found you in the woods. You were wearing that yellow Benny's Burgers T-shirt. And it was so big it almost swallowed you whole. And I knew right then and there, in that moment, that I loved you. And I've loved you every day since. I love you on your good days. I love you on your bad days. I love you with your powers, I love you without your powers. I love you for exactly who you are. You're my superhero. And... I can't lose you. Okay? Do you hear me? I can't lose you. You can do anything. You can fly. You can move mountains. I believe that. I really do. But right now, you just have to fight. Okay? El. Do you hear me? You need to fight! You have to fight. Fight!” Tearing up, not crying.

“Do you remember the first day that we met? It was… it was the first day of kindergarten. I knew nobody. I had no friends. And I just felt so alone, and so scared, but… I saw you on the swings, and you were alone too,. You were just swinging by yourself. And I just walked up to you, and I asked. I asked if you wanted to be my friend. And you said yes. You said yes. It was the best thing I’ve ever done.”

“Hey also, about the last few days… No, no, no. You didn’t deserve anything. Listen, the truth is… the last year has been weird, you know. And I mean, Max and Lucas and Dustin… they��re great, they’re great, itd just… it’s Hawkins. It’s not the same without you. And I feel like I was worrying too much about El, and I don’t know. I feel like I… lost you, or something. I have no idea what’s going to happen next. But whatever it is, I think we should work together. I think it’ll be easier if we’re a team. Best friends. Cool.”

Some quick observations:

1 and 2 occur under near-identical circumstances - El and Will are under Vecna’s control and he’s trying to give them strength. 3 is entirely unprompted. The first occurs under a level of duress similar to that of a gun being held to El’s head, as gayofthefae observes here

The rain fight is all over the s4 bedroom scene, and it’s very clearly on both of their minds. Mike has spent the past nine months addressing every criticism of Will’s - he’s friends with Dusfin, he’s playing D&as, he only kissed El when she initiated, and broke it quickly, and he even got angry at Lucas for prioritising others over the Party - although his complaint, unlike Will’s, was irrational and unfair. He relapsed at the airport and roller rink by trying to be normal, but this scene is him course-correcting for that. Mike’s calling himself a self-pitying idiot and thanking Will for being sensible is likelt not only referring to the earlier scene in Will’s room, but to the S3 and 402 fights. If that is the intention, it makes one wonder what Mike was self-pitying about in the latter. @howtobecomeadragon discusses it in-depth here

Right from my very first watch, the proposal imagery in the s2 speech - ‘I walked up to you, and I asked. I asked if you wanted to be my _, and you said yes… you said yes. It was the best thing I’ve ever done.’ - jumped out at me. M*levens regularly theorise that the series will end with Mike and El either getting married, or engaged, citing that Lucas line from s1 as foreshadowing - but we see in s3 that Mike relies on Lucas to push him through every stage of the apology, while he doesn’t with Will, and we see bouquet imagery subverted with that gift of flowers at the airport (see below).

TOO MUCH? Mike spent the s3-4 break backsliding in the whole ‘say ILY to El’ plot… but did address the problems Will had with him. Not only that… he came to the conclusion that he worried too much about El? Specifically because he lost Will as a result? I said in the previous post that Bylers don’t talk enough about “Who… who said that I didn’t?” We definitely don’t talk enough about the anti-m*leven implications of this line, because they’re bonkers. Mike worries a lot about El when she’s away at Nina, but at home he’s distinctly distant from her -

while only drawing closer to Will

This is how he looked at Will during the 404 monologue btw: (gif credit to @palettehao and gayofthefae)

Lastly, I’ll finish this analysis post by swinging back to 402, and to the fact that Mike picking that bouquet? It doesn’t make much sense, timeline-wise. In fact, I honestly can’t figure out when he picked them.

Mike only says, on March 22, that he picked them ‘in Hawkins’ before launching into a nervous, distracting spiel about picking 70:30 purple to yellow, only maybe he picked too much yellow*, etc.

On the morning of March 21 he was still in his underwear reading over a letter to El, and was delayed going to with. He had classes at school, and was preoccupied during lunch bargaining with Eddie, bargaining wi5 various students, and finally bargaining with Erica. Between school and Hellfire he could plausibly have picked them, but that would have required cycling across town and back, when Nancy drove him to school - he didn’t have his bike at school. He also had nowhere to put them, except the backpack that presumably had school supplies in it - those flowers would not have looked so fresh had he shoved them in a backpack. Dustin also doesn’t mention him being gone prior to Hellfire. After hellfire, he went home to be there by 9 - he had to have done, otherwise he wouldn’t have been allowed on the flight.

His flight was at 6:30 and Indiana -> Cali takes 4 hrs 10 minutes. He would have been awake from very early in the morning with Karen, gathering his stuff, and then driving to the airport with adequate time to check-in and board the plane. There isn’t a hope in hell of Karen letting him randomly cycle across town in the dark for an undetermined length of time just to pick some fucking flowers, lmao. There is a strong chance, however, that Karen, the romantic, let him buy flowers and a pen in the Indianapolis airport before boarding the flight. Maybe she even purchased them.

The kicker? The bouquet of flowers had a fancy, polished-looking greeting card attached, one professionally made.

There is something deliciously meta about those flowers. M*levens have adopted yellow and purple as a symbol of the relationship - even though Mike only wore those colours to please her when he was being ‘hokey’ and a ‘knock-off’, to quote Argyle and the costume designer. I’m not even sure El truly favours those colours, as she doesn’t wear them much and doesn’t have any notable items in those colours. For all we know, she was asked if she had any favourite colours and simply picked two that came to mind.

What’s more, it seems very likely that Mike simply lied to her about putting in the effort of getting them himself, and instead relied on something pre-made and commercial. It isn’t impossible that he picked them, however (though the timing is a mystery) - we are shown at the end of the season that the field outside Hopper’s cabin has very similar flowers. But those… well… those have their own implications

*talk about subtext lmao…

To finish, I want to share a delicious finding from @sapphicjopper on twitter from last may - the working name for st4 was Tareco. There’s a song called Tareco & Mariola, all about a girl who knows her lover isn’t right for her, who knows that she doesn’t need him, and who is leaving him - ‘it’s not you who will give me the spring, the beautiful flowers I dreamed of in summer’. It’s reminiscent of the opera Nina - about a woman waiting for her lover, not accepting that he won’t return and be how she desperately wants him to be.

[thomas-jefferson-miku-binder]

hiiiiii cali 📓👀

hehe hi cas!

I don't have much planned about this, but that's kind of the prompt of the ask game so I'll jus talk about it.

Indie Rock Band AU with Zeri, Jinx, Seraphine, Rell, and Briar. THIS IS NOT IN THE LEAGUE MUSIC VERSE (FORGET K/DA, TRUE DAMAGE, PENTAKILL AND HEARTSTEEL FOR THIS ONE)

It's very based off of Daisy and the Scouts'story in the sense that it's just a college band for weird queers.

Zeri is the closest thing our band, Entresol, has to a leader. She birthed this group with her bare hands and treats it very seriously (more seriously than she would like to admit at times). Zeri is the main vocalist and the lead electric guitarist. She also composes (only guitar parts) and likes to write lyrics. Very similar to Runeterra!Zeri but she is a bit more of a control freak when it comes to the band just because of how precious it is to her.

Entresol started out with just the Zeri and Jinx duo. Jinx is the oldest here and a mixture of her Runeterra and Arcane versions, although a bit more stable. She is by far the most musically talented of the five and usually plays whatever instrument the song calls for (even if that means learning a new instrument in a few days). She and Zeri are best friends (Jinx is someone who surprisingly calms Zeri down when she is too feisty). She never talks about her past, and even Zeri only knows some details despite having known each other for a while. They work amazingly as a duo. Jinx also produces every single one of their songs and dabbles in writing. (she also draws their album covers)

Rell is the bassist, and she is also pretty similar to her Runeterra ver, except more stable now that she has a friend group to help her get through her parent's bullshit. She likes to play tough but is usually the one with the most sentimental lyrics and melodies to her name. And everybody but Seraphine seems to notice the massive huge crush Rell has on her. Unlike Seraphine's entry, the question of whether or not Rell should join them was unanimously voted as a yes.

Seraphine was the last member to enter before Rell, and she is a vocalist alongside Zeri and plays the (electric) guitar. She started out as a soloist doing covers on YouTube, much like her K/DA ver, but was ultimately unsuccessful. Jinx saw her potential and how secretly weird (lame) she was and convinced Zeri to give her a chance. Sera and Zeri have a frenemy relationship because Zeri is extremely competitive and does not like that this kind and pretty girl also "doesn't completely suck" at singing and is "actually maybe a bit talented or whatever". They develop to become actual friends (although to Seraphine they never were not) with the not-so-occasional banter, that Seraphien indulges in as she knows is Zeri';s way to show affection towards her. Jinx also seems to be the only one to notice that Zeri may find it kinda hot when they fight, something that Zeri herself hasn't realized and would probably combust in shame if she did.

Briar was the third to join Entresol. Her personality is identical to Runeterra!Briar but instead of killing people in her frenzy she just slays the drums. She was actually in the official lame college band thing but was ultimately unhappy and isolated there. Zeri and Jinx see her going at it in the drums once after rehearsal and ask her to join. She doesn't compose usually and doesn't write. "I'm not good with the wordy stuff. Whatever I have to say the drums say for me. I'll leave that to you."

[ilikegirls-101]

I’m a firm believer that El will be the one who breaks up w mike in s5

ISTG DUDE I ALWAYS SEE MILEVENS SAY “mike isn’t gonna break up with el just for Will” OR “el isn’t gonna sacrifice herself for a mlm relationship” which is just dumb

Like duh ofc they’re not doing that. Like firstly, if either of them break up it’s not going to be because of Will i think (at least not for mike, cause I feel like for him it would have some relation but it wouldn’t be his sole reason) but mike wouldn’t break up with El just for Will, el would break up with mike just so the two of them got together. Also that’d just be BAD story telling

*also tiny lil note: when I say “it’d” I mean “it would” idk some ppl don’t get it when I text like that, also I’m not sure if it’s a real grammar thing soo ye, it’s just easier than saying the whole thing. So just letting ya know. Also another thing: this post was made cuz of right here*

If El broke up with Mike:

El would break up with mike because she realizes that they’re relationship is somewhat toxic and one-sided. She’d do it for herself CUZ MISS GIRL WILL BE INDEPENDENT 😆 but seriously, she would have this self growth yk? Like she’d have a montage of finding herself(like in season 3 kinda) finding her interests, hobbies, etc. she’d learn that she isn’t a monster or just a super hero. She’d learn that she’s just Eleven. And that’d be so good for her. She would learn that she doesn’t need a boyfriend to be deemed “normal” or something. She’d learn that she’s not a freak. She’d learn that she’s more than her powers. She’d be quite literally an independent woman™, not needing a man. (Honestly she never needed one before either🤷🏽‍♀️) that’s her arc for s5 (as well as the defeat of vecna duh💀). While all that’s happening, Mike n Will are gonna have their relationship act. Yk the whole sh-bang. their internal conflict within themselves(Will’s self hate, Mike’s self discovery), the social conflict with society/friends/family(homophobia, approval or denial), the conflict they have with each other(mike n will’s friendship, their romantic love for each other, their miscommunication) that’s Mike’s(and Will’s) arcs for s5. (As well as whatever happens outside of their relationship duh).

If Mike broke up with El:

Mike would break with el because he’d realize “woah I don’t love her like she needs me to” (I do believe he loves her, but not in a romantic sense tho). It’d go like this: him realizing he doesn’t have those feelings for her, or for any woman, then he’d learn to accept that and then he’d break up w her. He’d keep learning abt himself and his sexuality. I do think eventually he would acknowledge his feelings for Will and then the whole sh-bang will start 😝 I mean honestly it’s not much different from if El broke up with him. Maybe the perspectives would change or something, idk I’m not the duffers 🤷🏽‍♀️😭 but el maybe would still have epiphany of “I’m actually a human person”

ACTUALLY WE WOULD BE SHOWN THE STUFF HAPPENING BACKWARDS. Like if El broke up with him, we’d see her character development first then his. But if Mike broke up first, we’d see his character development first. If mike broke up first it’d be: break up, then Mike’s first phase of his character development, then El’s first phase, then Mike’s, then El’s, etc.

Or if El broke up first it’d be: break up, then El’s first phase of her character development, then mike’s first phase, then El’s, then Mike’s, etc.

Ofc it’s not gonna be like that all the time, I mean u gotta have cuts in between it happening. Like in s4 the Cali gang were having their story development while El’s was going on so kinda like that I think. Kinda like it’s always been in this show🤷🏽‍♀️ atp I’m just yapping BUT YEA I think I’m going in circles and not making sense at all but in my defense is 1:27 am and I couldn’t stop thinking abt Byler and El soooooo ye

Conclusion: I hope El breaks up with him first cuz girl power and I just love her

A LOT

and this post is kinda pointless ngl😭 but it’s late and I’m tired so it’s fine

What a beautiful girl 😭❤️

[moviebloggg]

What I noticed TSN rewatch🤪

Eduardo coming to Marks dorm looking concerned at TWO AM. “You and Erica split up” Why r u checking his blog at 2:08 am… - 12:33 and his CONCERN the whole time “it’s on ur blog :(, Are you alright :(, I’m here for you” like damn

Dustin’s adorable wave to Wardo :((( - 12:34 and DUSTIN LAUGHING AT THE “i’m here for you. no i need the algorithm” LMAOO - 12:43

Wardo waiting for him after the face mash meeting :( sitting down, headphones in, clearly been there for a while - 20:32

EDUARDOS DADDY ISSUESSSSS. “You have no idea what that’s gonna mean to my father” - 37:04 AND THEN MARK SAYING “Sure I do” LIKE HE KNOWS AND CARES TOO. Also, “My father won’t even look at me. (1:40:03) and there’s one more time i know he mentions it i just don’t know where😭

“have you slept yet?” (36:06) even after mark made him wait and in that tone like aw

BRO THE FREAKING BEER THING. stop aaron sorkin david fincher you fucking menaces how dare you put that there. (46:58)

Eduardo’s “oh my god…” at 51:29 when he realizes that they are in the stall next to them

THE LOOK AT 52:09. OMG KILL ME RN.

Eduardo’s sad and painful look at Mark after Sy brings up animal cruelty, like ‘really, you went that low?’ - 1:12:39

Marks tap on Sys shoulder saying ‘stop no don’t go there’ - 1:12:42

The parallel of how happy and jokey Mark is when in the dorm during the chicken scene with Wardo being put side by die with how hostile they are and how sad he looks in the deposition scenes. he never once smiles.

Marks sad look at Eduardo after being exposed - 1:14:39

Eduardo’s disbelief at Mark going so low as the chicken thing 1:14:41

Mark opening his mouth to protest against 1:14:43

the pain in Eduardo’s eyes after Mark makes a half joke that probably would used to make him laugh. also the look of betrayal and the eyes that say I don’t even know you anymore. 1:18:17

The disconnect between Mark and Sean. “Ever think about that girl?” “No???” 1:23:52

How so genuinely happy Mark looks when greeting Eduardo in Cali. The little grin. The surprising him. The wack on the arm. the ‘Wardo’. - 1:30:50

“I want- i-i want- I need you.” aaron. sorkin. what. the. fuck.

“I didn’t know whether to dress for the party or the business meeting, so i kinda dressed for both.” (1:41:51) Um aaron you did not have to go so deep with that one my god do you ever think of our feelings.

The piano coming in at 1:43:46 after the reveal is just so heartbreaking.

The PAINNNNN in his voice at “You set me up 😕” (1:43:51)

Throughout the whole confrontation scene, Mark looks like he’s going to cry. so so badly. especially at 1:44:50 like PAIN. And 1:45:27, “Yeah” - 1:45:50, and the REPEATING “You didn’t have to be that rough on him.” (1:46:00).

When he hit 1,000,000 people on HIS OWN WEBSITE he looks downright depressed. not happy in the slightest. he just hit this amazing milestone. should be like the happiest moment of his life. yet he looks like he wants to cry. I wonder why. 1:47:10-1:47:20

Marks outfit during the deposition w the Winklevi being a collared shit and sweater, outfit during the first deposition with Eduardo being a half zip up, and then wearing a FULL SUIT for the second one?? okay then

You don’t really realize it but I think it’s fitting that the last we see of Eduardo the whole movie is the confrontation. Like chronologically, he’s in it for way after, but with the actual editing and all the time skips, his last line is “Makes me look so tough” and thats the last we see him. pretty cool.

through the whole movie just THEIR FACIAL EXPRESSIONS DURING THE DEPOSITION. the SADNESS and REGRET constantly portrayed in mark. the PAIN AND BETRAYAL constant in Eduardo.

THE MOTHER FUCKING NORTH FACE ZIP-UP. WHAT THE HELL DAVID FINCHER. yeah this was genuinely insane tho. like that was unhinged. aaron sorkin, david fincher, AND WHOEVER THE BLESSED COSTUME DEISGNER WAS, reached new levels. we could’ve chalked everything up to gay people always looking for gay people in film, for exaggerating things that were only slightly there because of the need for more representation. but the north face zip up?? come on. I need to get me one of those now. the timeline makes so perfect sense too. We see Eduardo first wearing it when chilling in his dorm - 31:25. Then we next see him in it when at the intern “interviews” - 1:16:20. Then we don’t see if again for a little while, until MARK wears it during the business meeting - 1:33:52. This happens AFTER Eduardo visits Pao Alto. So he goes to Cali, presumably leaves the zip-up, (maybe even gives it??) and then ever since then Mark wears it in almost EVERY SINGLE scene. Because he misses Wardo. ITS INSANE. Like, the business meeting, then the phone call to Wardo. - 1:36:25. Then he wears it during the whole conformation, and is still wearing it later that night when Sean calls him. Like wow. That right there? Insanity. Purely CANONICAL gay insanity

and finally just some more character noticings. I really just love Divya omg. and the winklevii. like they r just so comedic at times. the first time i watched i viewed ty and cam as like one entity, but this time i really payed attention and like they r so different. cam usually takes the lead and he is very level minded and calm, while tyler is very hotheaded.

The first time andrew garfield just captivated me. i mean duh, he’s andrew garfield. but this time i just, wow. JESSE. he was perfect. PERFECT. best actor should’ve been his hands down. every single word he said was so calculated and made so much sense for his character like. and the real best part of his acting was his reactions, to everything that everyone else said. like he knocked it out of the park completely.

[whewchilli-theghetto]

Mike doesn't have letters for Will

Ok so again, I wasn't here at the height of the season 4 theories so I'm coming in late with my silly liddol theories. I say they're mine only because I haven't seen anyone else say it (at least not yet). So if this is your original thing I apologize (but not really cuz i haven't seen it so it's not stealing hehe).

So the reason I say this is because we all know Brenner had his people tracking phone calls and that's why Mike sent letters to El in Lenora instead of calling her. I think his plan was to write to El and to call Will. I know a lot of us (including myself because really this is just a theory/head-canon and i would be happy either way) think that Mike has a pile of letters he never sent to Will (signed "Love, Mike" teehee) but in this theory I don't think this is true. I think since he planned to talk to Will on the phone he kept calling him. However, because of Joyce's telemarketing job it made it difficult for him to get in contact with Will.

When the group, minus the Cali gang, were together planning how to protect Eddie in Mike's basement, El spies on them from where she is in the Nina project and you see Max trying to get onto the Cali gang. She hangs up when there's no response and Dustin mentions Joyce's telemarketing job and that "Mike wouldn't stop whining about it". Obviously he's been trying to call (that or El told him about it in one of their letters, but if that's the case, why is he constantly whining about it?).

But, the phone goes both ways. Will could have called as well. Considering he's living with Joyce, he would know when she's not on the phone so HE can pick the phone up and call Mike. So maybe Mike realizes this and is thinking that maybe there's a reason why he's not calling. Maybe he found other friends or maybe he just doesn't want to talk to him anymore. So he stops trying to call and he never sends any letters, afraid he wouldn't receive any response from Will...

But that's just the silly little thoughts going on in my silly little head. I can't wait for season 5 to answer the silly little questions I have about my two silly little boys.

[missadangel]

Little Bird in a Cage (Javier Peña x Reader)

Part 3 - Your'e in his apartment

Gifs by tomshiddles - azertyrobaz - djo

---------------------------- All episodes here ------------------------

As you spent a few more days in Miguel’s place, you felt like you no longer have any strength to fight or making plan for escape, only hoping for the best. You were thinking of back the military base, the days you spent there. This room was better than a royal suite, however, you preferred that boring little room over to this one.

Little bird in a golden cage…

And Javi…

Indeed, you missed him a lot, the way he looks at you, touches you, how he catches you and hold you with his strong arms when you tried to escape, how he checks on you every day.

You sighed deeply while you sitting on windowsill and watching gansgter-like men outside changing shifts,  you realized how strange life was. You couldn’t stop thinking about how to get out but it was close the impossible.

Anyway you didn't want to lose your hope at all, they should find you sooner or later. Javi would come for you, you wanted to believe that, you had to.

Around midnight suddenly your door knocked. You jumped up from the couch, no one usually knocked at this hour. A man sneaked in and closed the door gently behind him, you recognized him immediately when he turns his body to you.

"Jorge-"

"Shhh," he shushed you. "Be quiet, Y/N. I don't have much time."

"What's going on? You're working for Cali-"

"Right yes, but I don't work for them anymore, never mind that, I need to tell you why I came here."

You nodded your head in agreement, listening to him with curiosity.

"When I noticed you, I let your friends from DEA, whatever you call them, I told them that you are here. They will come for you, but at the same time they have to get Miguel or our plan will fail and they will probably kill me and my family."

His voice like he’s about to cry. You didn’t know what to say then he took a quick breathe.

"There is only one thing you have to do, you have to leave the room at exactly 1:40 and go down to the lower hall, that’s it."

"What are you saying, it's impossible for me to even walk out the door."

"Don't worry, just trust me and your friends, okay? I have to go now, be careful."

"You too," you said behind him.

Your heart starts racing, Javi, he’s coming for you, you smiling with hope, checking the clock and waiting for the time he said.

-----

"We're ready," Chris said, checking the safety of his gun one last time.

After Javi put on his bulletproof vest, checking his pistols magazine and reloading.

They have arrived with a police team of about 20-30 of them.

All specialized in special tactics and rescue.

"We're ready, sir," the captain informed Javi. He nodded.

"Okay, everybody get in position, you know what to do, let's do it," pointing Chris with his gun to make him move forward, to the mansions entrance.

"The six policemen moved to the garden, behind of the mansion, while the other six heading to the both sides.

Javi, Chris and Daniel headed for the front door. Captain was right behind them with the rest of the police team. Watching their back.

First they rang the bell, but when they weren't allowed in, Javi handed them the paper with the search warrant  written in a paper.

At the same time he was taking a quick look inside.

With a sign from the captain, policemen spreading and began to search the place, warning the armed men to drop their weapons.

Javi and the others approached the golden colored door where Jorge had told them about. The door was leading to Miguel's room at least they thought so.

Your room was upstairs to make them to see you, you had to go down the hall where Jorge told you to go. Golden door opened, Chris and Daniel rushed in but realized no one inside. They came back to the main hall and start to open all the doors one by one and looked inside. Another door caught Javi's attention, and when he tried to open it, he realized it must be locked from the otherside.

"Open it!" Javi ordered one of Miguel's men.

When the man stood expressionless like a wall, Javi became furious, grabbed him by the collar.

"Open the fucking door!”

--

When clock struck 1:40, you took a deep breath and opened the door as slowly as you could. You are relieved to see no one around. Jorge told you to go down to the hall so you moved to the stairs.

"Open the fucking door!”

You startled and immediately head straight to that direction, his voice was coming from downstairs. You run to the railing without even thinking. And there he was, you felt like you gonna cry.

Before you were about to call out to him, Miguel grabbed you from behind, covering your mouth with his big hand. You were almost out of breath, struggling, trying to push his hand away. With all your strength you start elbowing him but failed, he was pulling you to the opposite direction, away from Javi and others.

"You little bitch, I told you to behave yourself," he hissed.

Miguel was dragging you with him, you struggled more, Javi was down there, you just have to call for him.

Finally you noticed that you have no choice but bite Miguel's fingers deeply, he painfully pulled his hand away.

“JAVI!!!” you shouted as loud as possible.

As soon as Javi heard your voice, headed for the upstairs in a hurry.

But Miguel was faster, grabbed you again dragging you out heading for the exit which leads to the helicopter landing zone. Javi noticed that by hearing the sound of helicopter keeps  approaching.

 Both Miguel and Javi in a race now, like cat and mouse. You were Miguel’s only ticket to flee freely so no way he is letting you go.

"Stop!" Javi pointed his gun at him. "Stop, goddamn it!"

Javi gave you a quick look, but his eyes were on Miguel.

"It's over Miguel, let her go and surrender, now!"

"No way, you'll let us go on, or I'll kill her!"

Your heart began to beat faster with fear, not only was Miguel's arm tightening around your throat, also you felt nauseous with fear.

"No, drop the gun, and let her go, now!" he growled.

Miguel hissed, moving backwards to the helicopter, dragging you with him, his gun pointed at Javi this time.

You were exhausted for being dragged, feeling like you’re going to faint, not able to move anymore.

Javi following you both carefully, never lowering his gun.

When the helicopter landed, Javi shook his head as no.

"No, don't," he warned. There was more pleading in his voice.

"Back off, or I'm really going to kill her, I can see you care about her, Agent Peña. Otherwise you would have shot me by now."

That was true, it didn't matter for Javi to capture him alive or not.

As Miguel was about to get on the helicopter with you, you were looking into Javi's brown eyes, all emotions can be seen in them, desperation, sadness, anger.

And in that moment everything happened so fast, you thought Miguel was going to sit in the helicopter seat and then make you sit too, but no he didn’t.

He pushed you down instead.

"Nooo!"

Javi ran very fast, but not fast enough to stop you from falling to the ground. As soon as he comes, he lifted your head and sliding slowly his lap. You watch him while, he shooting at the helicopter with his gun until he’s out of bullets, furious as hell. Then he looks at you, is saying something but you cant hear him clearly anymore, losing your consciousness.

---

You woke up with an incredible headache, opening your eyes and trying to remember what happened.

You moaned involuntarily as you regained consciousness.

"Y/N, you awake? Feeling okay? Are you in pain?"

His warm brown eyes were looking at you with great concern.

"Answer me please."

"Not sure which question should I answer first. " your head was so fuzzy you didn't know if it was a dream or reality.

But when you looked around you realized that you were definitely not in a hospital.

"How can you be funny even in this situation," Javi giggled while he caresses your head then your hair.

"Well, I'm freaking high, okay? I don't know if I'm dreaming, are you really here, Javi?"

"It must be the drugs they gave you at the hospital."

You heard the word hospital and wondered why you weren't there right now, Javi helped you sit up.

"Hospital? I was there?"

"You don't remember? Well we took you to the hospital right away, then you opened your eyes for a little while and that's when your father came and-."

"My father? Really? Wow, why the hell I can’t remember that?"

You were so surprised that you didn't remember a shit.

"You've been through a lot, cariño. You should rest"

You nodded. He placed another pillow behind your back, making you more comfortable. 

"But, Javi, where are we?"

"In my apartment," he smirked.

You raised your eyebrows and that was unexpected.

"Did you kidnap me again?"

Javi laughed.

"Sort of, yeah."

"How this happened?"

"Miguel is still out there, we don't know what he's going to do, besides, I've spoken to your father, it's definitely not safe for you to be in your own house, so he also agreed."

"Are you absolutely sure you spoke to my father? Not someone else?"

Javi licked his lips feeling little guilty.

"Hm, I might not have mentioned him about my apartment," he grinned.

“Wow you’re so mean,” you giggled.

Suddenly you realized your arm covered with one hell of a thick bandage.

"What the fuck happened to my arm? Is it broken?"

"Calm down, no, luckily it's not broken, they said it's a muscle contusion and little scratches. I think you hurt when you fell on your shoulder that time…” his eyes flashed with anger for a moment.

"Oh, I see…" you said suddenly trying to change the subject.

"Come on, get some rest, you'll be better in the morning." Javi stands and covers you with blanket.

"Okay." You nodded, but you couldn't help thinking about you were in his bed right now.

“Thank you for saving me Javi,” you murmured.

He pressed his warm lips on your forehead, his moustache thickled you a little, then you peacefully fell asleep.

----

When you woke up late in the morning, Javi was already gone. You picked up the note he left on the table.

"I have to go to work, please take your pills, two policemen will be outside to watching over you.”

You walked to the window ledge, there was indeed a police car outside. Feeling safe yet uncomfortable. But you were starving so you went straight to the fridge, took more than you needed and put them on the table. While eating fast, observing his apartment, checking his stuff.

You weren't sure when Javi was coming home, and you were alone again. It was getting boring to live like a prisoner under the guise of protection all the time.

Soon  you decided to go through Javi's dressing room, after all, you had plenty of time, even if it was a mess, so you can tidy it up.

This apartment was a studio, so there were no other rooms. So sneaking into the dressing room was a very tempting idea.

When you opened the closet door, you were surprised to see dozens of suits in different colors. It didn't look like Javi's style. In the next closet you found what you expected, leather jackets, short sleeved shirts and jeans. Even though it was a man's closet, it was looking neat and clean.

You flushed as you imagined Javi getting undressed here, giggled to yourself.

Then you go back to the living room, something was haunting you. Wondered how many times he took a woman here?

Damn, being alone for hours, could really drive a person crazy.

You sit on the couch and turn on the TV, to make time pass more quickly. But you fell asleep in an hour because of the drugs.

When you opened your eyes, you realized Javi returned home already and for some reason he picked you up in his arms.

It must have been a wonderful dream, you thought.

"Are you awake?" he asked softly still holding you.

"What are you doing?"

Such a stupid question.

Javi took you off his lap and helped you to sit on the chair and as soon as you sit, you came back to reality.

It wasn't a fucking dream, damn it.

"Nothing, just, you were sleeping on the couch, I wanted to put you to bed."

After that Javi took a bottle of water from the fridge and started drinking it.

"You know, all the people who go crazy must end up alone before lost their minds, absolutely no one should be alone, never," you said in a firm voice.

He was confused as hell,

"What are you talking about, did you watch some psychobabble shit on TV?"

"No, I was, just a bit feeling lonely today," you kept your head down, wondering when it would end.

Javi put another chair across to yours and sit. He was giving you that famous look from under his eyebrows again while holding your hand which made you blush immediately.

"Cariño, we're very close to the end, just a little more patience, okay?"

You nodded, "I know Javi, I'm sorry, it's really not easy to handle this situation. But I'm trying."

"I know, you're so strong, otherwise you wouldn't have made Miguel miserable," he chuckled.

"Yeah, you should have seen the look on asshole's face when I bit his hand hard," you said with naughty smile.

“You’re fucking amazing,” he smiled back. Then he looked at your bandage. “Your arm better now? Lemme check.”

While he was unwinding the bandage, touching your arm, you couldn’t help yourself to stare at him. You wanted to kiss him badly. His warm, perfectly shaped lips-

“It looks better, lemme dress your wounds and wrap your arm with a thinner bandage, like the doctor said.”

You nodded, licked your lips with desire torturing you inside made you almost cry. He was so beautiful.

“Here, much better, right?”

Damn, he caught you staring at his lips.

“Y-yes, thank you.”

He smiled in response and stood up, "Go to sleep now, I'm tired too, I'll take a shower and get changed."

Then he headed for the dressing room.

Wait a minute, what does it mean? So he was going to sleep next to you? 

You got so excited, your body was on fire. Your palms were sweaty and you were thinking about how you could seduce him and your time was ticking.

Also you wondered why he didn't make a move to get you into bed. Maybe because you just got injured with effect of falling, still have bruises on several parts of your body. Maybe you should courage him, give him a signal.

While Javi was in the shower, you rushed to your suitcase, knowing of course that your father wouldn't put a sexy nightdress or lingerie in there, unless it was packed by the housekeeper lady Dolores. Luckily you giggled mischievously when you found a nightdress that was quite sexy.

Thank you Dolores.

Your smile grew wider and wider as you thought about Javi's reaction.

Even though you were wearing a sexy nightdress, it felt ridiculous to just stand there, so you did as he told you and lay down on the bed. You turned the other way, not in the direction Javi was about to come. Your body was starting to feel like it was boiling with heat.

As Javi was in the dressing room he realized he had no pajamas, he usually slept half naked with his underwear.

He wore a thin pair of pants underneath, so as not to make you nervous. On top he wore a black short-sleeved shirt, but he didn't button it. Because he could never sleep like that.

Javi was surprised and gasped, seeing you like that from behind, started breathing fast, his heart racing. He wanted to touch you so badly.

A moment later he rubbed his face hard, trying to erase all the feelings immediately but not quite successful though. His eyes were locked on you as he approached from the other side of the bed.

When he sat on the bed, you opened your eyes with shake he caused. But he wasn't looking at you, he lay down on the pillow with one hand under his head. He seemed to be watching the ceiling. You were almost angry, how the fuck he didnt feel anything? You hissed and turned over.

However, that move made him feel even worse, because your thighs exposed, like an open invitation.

"Having trouble sleeping?"

He finally speaks as soft as velvet.

You wanted to sit up in bed and leave, as if you felt rejected. But you sat up so fast that you staggered and fell back on the pillow.

"Are you okay?" He was worried, he put his one hand just next to your body, and touching your face with another hand.

"Damn, cariño, your face is, burning."

As he put himself on top of you was so unbearable. You pushed his hands away and got out of bed.

Javi couldn't make sense of it, he thought he had said something wrong.

He also got out of bed.

"What's wrong, Y/N?"

He was just standing behind you.

You couldn't handle with your feelings anymore, you wanted him with every part of your body, suddenly you stopped thinking and turned around, pressed your lips to his.

He was surprised, yet, immediately responded by grabbing you around the waist with both hands kissing you back, you gasped with pleasure, his moustache tickled your upper lip and your cheeks which was perfect.

His breath became heavier when he sliding his hands under your nightdress, feeling your soft skin. You threw your head back by his touch, and he used that opportunity to place kisses on your neck, while he was busy with that, you grabbed his shirt taking it off, dropping it on the floor.

“Javi,” you murmured through his ear, “I thought you wouldn’t want me, so I was upset.”

Javi looked into your eyes, “Y/N”, he whispered to your lips, “I want you baby, I want you so badly. I was thinking maybe you wouldn’t want me this way.”

“what do you mean?” you asked curiously keep rubbing his muscular shoulders, feeling every curve of them.

“All the trouble I caused, and all the things you've been through, I didn’t want to ruin anything—“

You stopped him with a kiss.

He was already halfway undressed and this time he started kissing you back roughly, then he picks you up and pushes you up against the dinner table, knocking off some papers and files which some of them certainly important well he didn’t give a shit.

You were pulling his body closer to you with your legs surrounding his hips, made him pressed his body even more against you, then you were startled by the dial phone ringing.

Javi stopped for a moment, but his lips hadn't left yours yet. After the phone went silent, he's kissing you again, but this time he was in a hurry. 

Unluckily Javi's satellite phone started ringing too.

"Fuck," he growled, his harsh breathe hit your face then his lips left yours and he pulled his body back involuntarily.

"I gotta take this, baby” said after he grabbed his phone.

You nodded. "It must be important, go ahead. "

Feeling a little sad, you sat on the edge of the bed and looked curiously at Javi on the phone.

Damn phone.

You soon realized it was Chris, you can hear his voice over the phone. Then Javi smiled while his eyes still on you. His smile turned you on again.

How much wetter can I get, you thought. The lower part of your body squirming, wants to you belong to him, bitting your lower lip, when Javi turn his back, you pressed your hands on your pelvis and tried to relax.

Finally Javi hung up the phone and sighed deeply, happy.

"I guess something good happened?"

"They managed to catch Chepe, another leader of Cali cartel. He's still being interrogated right now and it's only a matter of time before he gives us Miguel."

"Oh, he's the only one left, then."

Javi nodded, smiling.

"We're very close to the end," he said then he stopped for a minute.

"I'll need to change, mm, including my underwear."

He winked at you, gave you a kiss on the cheek and hurried to the dressing room.

"Me too, but need to take a freezing cold shower first," you said, heading for the bathroom.

----

---------------------------- All episodes here ------------------------

[billys-pretty-babe]

The Best Friend Chronicles

Chapter 1 : You're Getting On My Nerves, Hargrove

Pairing : Billy Hargrove x Fem!Reader

Warnings : Swearing

Word Count : 2, 282

A/N : The life in which Billy finds his family in his best friend.

He was loud in the hallways but in the classroom, he was surprisingly quiet, charming nonetheless. He plopped down beside you, the chair slightly creaking at the sudden weight being added to it. His book bag had nothing in it besides a few sheets of notebook paper, his cigarettes and a pen or two.

"Hey," he gruffly said. You looked up from the math sheet, hey flicking to his before you looked back at the math problems. He kicked your chair as you looked at him once more, glaring at him. "What?" He snickered, moving his chair slightly closer to yours.

"I'm Billy." You rolled your eyes, "I know who you are." He smiled, pearly whites being uncovered and on full display at you. "Yeah," he asked cockily before he came to a realization. "You're Carol's friend aren't you?" You shrugged, "Wouldn't exactly say I'm her friend, more like someone she talks to when she's bored." He nodded.

You told him your name, flashing him a smile before getting back to your work. "What's fun around here?" You rolled your eyes, trying so hard to do your work because you needed to pass the class or else you'd be held back from graduating in May.

"Nothing." He laughed beside you as he stripped off his denim jacket, hanging it on the back of his chair. "So, are you a senior too?" You nodded, scribbling out the math work that you had done after coming up with the wrong answer. He kept asking you questions before you finally snapped. "You're getting on my nerves, Hargrove."

You swore he giggled, seeing you annoyed before apologizing but there was no real sentiment behind it. You did your work in silence, gripping the pencil tightly as you did the work wrong again. A finger tapped your shoulder and you looked over, knowing exactly who had tapped you.

"Need help?" You looked at him. "You can do math, Cali?" He laughed and nodded, moving closer to you, his arm pressed to yours as he showed you how to do the math problems on the sheet, showing you different ways when you didn't quite understand the strategy that he had used. Class ended and you thanked him as you packed up your backpack.

"Are you coming to Tina's party?" You nodded as you tossed your binder into your backpack. "Are you?" He nodded, "First party here." You hummed, "Honestly, they're all the same. Drinking, drugs, sex, feels like deja-vu each time I step into that house." Billy nodded, "Just my crowd then." You laughed, shaking your head as you put your backpack on, giving him a farewell before going about your day.

Sixth period came as you looked down at your book, trying to catch up, hoping that there wouldn't be a pop quiz over it. You smelt his cologne and groaned causing Billy to laugh at you. "What? Don't enjoy my presence?" You scoffed, "Hell no." He laughed, plopping down and sweeping his hair back. "Nice perm." He looked at you quickly. "Shut the hell up." You laughed. "What? Offended?" He rolled his eyes, "No because it's not a perm."

You hummed, giggling to yourself, knowing you pushed his buttons just like he had done to you earlier in the day. "You said that shit on purpose huh?" You smiled, "Uh huh, payback for Mister Questions Questions Questions back there in math." He laughed, shaking his head. "Sue me for wanting to get to know the pretty girl next to me." You grimaced.

"No thank you, I'm not letting you into my pants, Hargrove. I've heard the stories." He scoffed, "I never said I wanted to fuck you. Damn." You rolled your eyes, picking your book back up. "So uh, what stories have you heard?" He sounded self-conscious, you wanted to joke about him so badly, you felt comfortable doing it, like you knew he wouldn't bite back.

"That you're diseased." His eyes quickly snapped you to you, worry in them. "Are you serious?" You laughed and shook your head. "No, just messing with you. I try to disregard the stories. But, no complaints from them so far." He laughed, wiping a faux bead of sweat from his brow. "Good, I was about to pack up and move again." You laughed, shaking your head.

"It's colder than a bitch in here." You nodded. "She's old, she needs it to be cold for her bones to work, the cold keeps her from rotting away." Billy laughed, near cackling as he threw his head back and you laughed with him. The teacher walked in. "You were right," he whispered to you and you laughed. "I know." You listened to the lesson, or trying to at least with the way you were shivering in your plastic chair. "Cold?" You nodded and Billy unbuttoned the button on his book bag, grabbing the brown leather jacket and offering it to you.

"You're cool, I think we could be friends." You hummed, taking the jacket from him, quietly thanking him as you shimmied into the slightly cold material. "No benefits, swear Hargrove, I will cut your dick off if you try to make a move on me." He put his hands up. "Solemnly swear or whatever the boy scouts say." You quietly laughed, his cologne surrounding you and invading your senses.

You slumped slightly so you were comfortable as Ms. Evans droned on and on about her rotting cat and Billy snickered beside you. "They're both rotting." You laughed, covering your mouth as your shoulders shook and he laughed with you, not trying to be quiet like you were. "Mister Hargrove, is something funny?" He looked up and shook his head, "No ma'am," he said, flashing her a pearly smile, a few girls around you giggling to themselves, undressing him with their eyes.

Class came and went before the last bell rung out. You quickly got up, throwing your things into your backpack before shrugging off the leather jacket, handing it back to it's rightful owner as you thanked him once more. "So, party tonight?" You nodded, "I'll be there, probably be late but I'll be there." He nodded, giving you a farewell before walking out of the classroom.

Hours passed as you put your outfit together, a groupie considering the invite said to show up in a costume. You drove yourself to the party, opting out on riding with Tommy and Carol, not wanting to see them exchange saliva at every stop sign and red light. Billy's Camaro was at the front of the house like he had been there for hours.

You parked as close as you could and passed through the swaying bodies in the yard as people threw up, trying to make room in their system for more alcohol, people passed around joints and cigarettes. You walked into the house, moving through the sea of sweaty bodies until you got outside to see Tommy, Carol and Billy at the kegs as other people took their turns.

Billy saw you, small smile on his face as he stuck two fingers up and curled them as he beckoned you over. You walked over, making sure not to step in any vomit as you made it to the group. Billy held out his pack of cigarettes to you and you shook your head. "She doesn't smoke," Carol said snootily as she took one from Billy's pack, his face screwing up at the action.

"You don't?" You shook your head, "Not nicotine, gives me a headache." He nodded, lighting his cigarette and taking a pull from it before releasing the smoke through his nose, scrunching it afterwards. "You do kegs?" You nodded before looking at your outfit, "Probably not tonight though, my boobs will fall out." He laughed and nodded.

You and Carol watched as Tommy lifted Billy's legs up, struggling slightly before adjusting his grip as Billy fixed his hands on the keg. As soon as he began, people began counting, beer dribbled out of his mouth, his hair got into his face. Carol looked at you as you crossed your arms, watching your newfound friend. "Oh my God. Are you guys fucking?" You shook your head, eyes still on Billy as he spit the alcohol out as soon as his feet were back on the ground and Tommy patted his shoulder.

You knew how Tommy and Carol were, they picked the most popular person to befriend and left them when they got the same amount of popularity. You followed Carol into the house before everyone separated and you sought out Billy, finding him in the kitchen with a red cup in his hand as he leaned against the counter.

He looked at you, wiggling his fingers as you joined him. "Carol thinks we're fucking." He laughed, shaking his head. "Tommy thinks the same. Do you fuck all of your friends?" You scoffed and he put his drink out to you and you hesitantly took it. "It's just beer, nothing else. Made it myself." You nodded and took a few sips before handing it back to him.

"What're you supposed to be?" You looked up at him, "A groupie." He hummed and nodded, "I can see it." You nodded and looked at his outfit. "What're you supposed to be?" He laughed, "The Terminator." You hummed, "Haven't seen it yet." He hummed, "I'll have to take you to see it." You smiled and nodded, "Okay." He downed about four more cups, staggering slightly.

"Billy. Hey, can I have your keys?" He shook his head, cheeks pink. "No, 'm driving," he slurred, grabbing onto the marble counter behind the two of you. "Billy, please, let me have your keys." He shook his head once more. "Okay, can I drive you home in my car?" He shook his head, curls gently slapping him in his face. "Don't wanna go home." His walls were crumbling around you and it scared him.

"Okay. Wanna come to my house? My parents won't tell." He nodded, giving you his car keys. "Don't wreck my car," he slurred quickly. You nodded and helped him navigate through the crowd of people as they bumped into the two of you and you both grumbled. You quickly noticed that your attitudes were one in the same. You grabbed his wrist and he quickly yanked it from you, his blue eyes were hazed over with fear.

"Billy, hey, sorry, I didn't mean to grab you." He shook his head. "It's okay, sorry, you spooked me." You nodded and he held your hand, letting you continue to lead him out of the house to his car and he got into the passenger seat, slamming his own car door and he winced. You made sure you grabbed your belongings from your car and you locked it before getting into the driver's seat.

Even in his drunken state, Billy could sense your nervousness. "She's easy to handle." You nodded and looked at him, "Seatbelt." He grumbled and put his seatbelt on as you started the car, putting it into gear before driving out of the driveway of Tina's house. The roads were dark as you slowly drove to your house. Billy was quiet, picking his nails and you glanced at him, "Everything okay?" He nodded as he looked out of his window.

You slowly pulled into your driveway and you grabbed your car keys as you unlocked your door, your mother still awake as she sat on the couch. "Have fun?" You smiled and nodded and Billy staggered in behind you and you shut the door. "I'll explain in the morning." She laughed and nodded and you led Billy to your room. He took his leather jacket off, dropping it to the floor. "Can I have my keys back?"

You handed him his keys and he put them down on your dresser. "Um, I don't have any clothes that will fit you. Sorry." He shook his head, waving you off. You walked into your bathroom to change into comfortable clothes and when you walked out, Billy was in his boxers. "Do you have a hair tie?" You nodded and found one and handed it to him as he tied his hair up. You got your bed ready and laid down as Billy awkwardly stood in his black boxers. "You can lay down, no crossing this line," you said as you made a line with your hand.

He nodded and laid down and hummed. "It's soft." You laughed and nodded. He turned to you, his eyes glassy from the alcohol. "Thank you." You smiled, "We're friends now, that's what friends do for each other." He nodded and rolled over to look at you. "Carol's a bitch to you." You shrugged, "That's okay, everyone is like that." He hummed and continued talking to you as he waved his hands as he talked excitedly about his home in California.

Soon, he had talked himself to sleep and you turned off the bedside lamp, rolling over and away from him as you closed your eyes, trying to fall asleep as he snored behind you. You wanted to hit him with a pillow to make him be quiet but he seemed relaxed and at ease beside you. You wondered why he didn't want to go home and why he was so quick to move away from your touch. You decided you'd ask him one day, not tomorrow, it was too early to ask about something personal like that.

Billy's snores turned into soft breaths, lulling you to sleep and sometime throughout the night, he moved so he was behind you, not pressed against you with an arm wrapped around your abdomen protectively.