#but it’s a tough day when Daniel can’t even fake a smile

[rickybaby]

"It hurts around here because qualifying is so important. Tough to take qualifying this far back. I enjoy driving here, but the classification kind of takes that enjoyment out of it. You obviously try and stay optimistic but not sure how optimistic I’m feeling right now.”

[mudhorn-djarin19]

Mission: I Do - Chp. 1 (Agent Whiskey x f!reader)

Summary: A new mission has come up and you are sent off on it with Agent Whiskey as your partner. However, you have to go undercover as his fiancee. What will this mission mean for you and your harboring crush on him? This chapter is the set up to the mission. Rating: General (will change in future chapters) Warnings: None but some fluff AO3 Link | Masterlink | Join my taglist via here!  More chapters to come soon (will be added here)

You sat at the big long table amongst the other Statesman as Champ handed out the reports for your next missions. A bunch of reports have come up across the country of some trouble so he was having you agents partner up and travel to each destination that showed trouble.

“Agent Sangria and Agent Whiskey. Here is your file. You two will be partnered up together for this mission.” Champ says, sliding a file folder over to each of you.

You sigh slightly. You love being partnered with Whiskey when you can cause it meant more time around him, time to get to know him better and etc. He may get on your nerves a lot for he’s a big flirt and sometimes likes to push people’s buttons but deep down you found the man attractive. You’ve been growing a crush on him for a while but you knew nothing would ever come from it. He was such a big shot within Statesman, he probably was the same outside of work too. You open the file fold and start looking over your information for the mission when you spot some information that surprises you.

“Everything okay Agent Sangria?” Champ asks.

“Sir… I’m going undercover as… Whiskey’s fiancee?” You question.

“That’s right. You and Agent Whiskey will be going undercover as a couple for this mission. The culprit has been found kidnapping brides and sometimes bombing venues. We need you two to go to a bridal convention held in Dallas where he was last heard of being. I am sending you two cause you both work together well and seem to have the best chemistry out of our agents. I’ll let the rest of the details for you two to go over together.” He says.

You gulp and slightly look up at Whiskey who has that typical dumb smirk he always has on his face as he looks at you. “Well… seems I’m gettin’ hitched again. Who knew it’d be so easy.” He chuckles as he elbows Tequila sitting next to him who also chuckles. 

Champ had let you both go home shortly after the meeting to gather up all your supplies for your trip. Whiskey said he’d come pick you up later this evening before your flight out. You sit down on your bed and groan into your hands. This is going to be a tough weekend you think to yourself. Not only are you going on a mission alone with Whiskey again but you have to act as his fiancee all weekend?! The thoughts of what could go on cause you to feel sick with nerves. You shake your head and get back up and start rummaging through your closet finding what you can for the weekend. Some nice dresses and jewelry, some casual but cute clothes, and even some of your cuter sets of undergarments. Just in case you think. Just as you finished packing everything into your suitcases you hear your doorbell ring. You open the door to see Whiskey leaning up against the door frame.

“You ready for our weekend getaway darlin’?” He winks at you.

You sigh in response and motion your hand over to your suitcases and bags. “Care to help me load this into your car?” You ask

“Certainly.” He says stepping into your place, slinging your bag over his shoulder and grabbing both the suitcases in each hand. “Didn’t forget anything did ya?” You stare at him in disbelief. “Uh no. I got everything. Also… I can take one of them, you don’t need to take them all for me.” “Nonsense. This ain’t nothin’.” He says as he makes his way down the tiny walkway to his Bronco parked out front, placing them into the back seat. You shake your head in response and check to make sure all the lights and appliances are off before grabbing your keys and locking up, meeting him at the car. 

“Ah ah… allow me future Mrs...” He smirks, opening the car door for you. “Oh yea and before I forget Champ gave me this for you”

He grabs your left hand and slides a sparkly diamond ring onto your ring finger. Your eyes go wide in how fancy it is. “Can’t be my fiancee without a way to show it off.” He chuckles, walking around to his side of the car and then starting it.

“Y-yea..” You say, staring at it and twisting it between your fingers to admire it more.

You arrived at the airport and got all checked in okay with the tickets Champ got you. The flight didn’t take long, only a few hours. You two slept most of the way. You got your rental car, luggage loaded in and headed off to the designated hotel where you would be staying for the weekend. 

The bridal convention and events you were to attend for the weekend were being held at a local convention center so to stay close to the action in case anything went down and to blend in a bit more, Champ had scheduled for you guys to stay at a hotel nearby. 

Jack helped you with your bags out of the rental car, taking more than he needed to. You two walked up together to the check in counter.

“Good day sir and ma’am. Checking in?” The lady at the counter asks.

“Yes ma’am. Reservation should be under Joseph Daniels.” Jack says giving his partially fake name assigned to him for the weekend.

“Ah yes here we are. Joseph Daniels and Elizabeth Wallace?” The lady asks

Jack nods, handing her the company card to pay for the room. She hands you both your key cards and information packs on some things for the area. 

“I take it you guys are in the area for the bridal convention? Seeing as you have the honeymoon suite booked?” She smiles.

“Yes indeed.” He smiles, wrapping an arm around your shoulder, pulling you close. You smile back nervously. 

“Well congratulations to you both! Let me get you the information packets for the event as well then.” She says, grabbing them and adding them to your pile.

You two gather your belongings and make your way to the elevators up to your room. You figured since the honeymoon suite was booked for the weekend it was going to be fancy but you had just no idea how until you opened the door. Flower petals littering the floor, candles surrounding the tub in the bathroom and chocolates on the little table inside the door with a congratulations note. You feel like this was some sort of tease to you about your crush with Jack. Did Champ know and send you on this mission for that reason?! 

“Uh…” You stutter out, taken by surprise.

“Champ sent me a message earlier telling me what room we had. Said everyone attending the event has these rooms, makes us blend in better and might help us run into the culprits better.” Jack states. 

“Oh, okay.” You say quietly, setting your bags down. “So um… look darlin’ I don’t want to make you uncomfortable this weekend. So I’ll sleep on the love seat over here. You can have the bed to yourself.” “Whis-” You start to say. “Jack. He replies. “I know we are used to calling each other our codenames but this weekend call me by my real name. Unless out on the field you know but, still. Hell, you can do so even not when on this mission.” He chuckles.

“Jack. You don’t have to sleep on the sofa. Your back’s going to be killing you afterwards. I don’t mind taking the sofa instead. We can um… share. It’ll be fine.” You say shyly.

“You sure? I really don’t want to make you uncomfortable.” He says, stepping closer and looking down into your eyes. “It’s fine. You’re not going to make me uncomfortable. A lot more is going to have to happen between us this weekend I’m sure and sharing a simple bed is at the bottom of the list of awkwardness for me.” You chuckle.

“Alright. If you say so.” He pats your head and works at unpacking his suitcase while you head off to the bathroom.

You just finished your shower and changing for the night when you stepped out into the bedroom to see Jack laying shirtless in nothing but flannel pj pants on the bed watching the local news. You stop in your tracks, admiring at just how handsome he looked. You must have been standing there staring for a bit too long when he looked over at you and called out.

“Everything okay? Did you change your mind about sharing? ‘Cause if so I can still move and go to the sofa.” He asks

You shake yourself out or your dazed state and start heading over to the bed and crawling, in under the covers. “No no. It’s okay, stay where you are. Sorry I was just thinking about um… something else.” “Alrighty then. Also if me being shirtless bothers you I’ll put one on. This is just how I usually sleep.” He says looking down at his torso. For being such a flirt and a nuisance at times he was surely a gentleman deep down inside. Always checking with you on if things were okay and making sure you were comfortable.

“It’s okay. I don’t mind.” You reply, get snuggled in under the covers for the night. “We have a big day ahead of us so I’m going to get some shut eye.”

“Sounds like a plan. Me too.” He says, shutting off the tv and lights, crawling under the covers with you.

Taglist: @sarahjkl82-blog​ @ickleronniekinsemotionalrange​ @blackberries45​

[thefanficmonster]

My Warrior

Daniel x Taylor (The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope)

Warnings: !Spoilers!, Swearing

Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff

Summary: They have all made it out of there. They’re safe from the real horrors, but the scenes that have been imbedded into their minds keep haunting them. They are left with scars to their subconscious as well as scars on their skin. Marks to remind them of what they went through. What they survived. Taylor can’t stand them - the burn marks on her skin and the scars that night left on her. She’s struggling way more than she’d like to admit. But there’s someone who sees through her toughness.

Requested by @chairtiger Hello there my chaotic co-cult leader! Sorry to be posting your request so late 👉👈 hope you understand and forgive me for the long wait. I had a blast writing the fic and I hope you enjoy reading it. Anyway...SHIP DAYLOR FOR CLEAR SKIN EVERYONE...Love, Vy ❤

“Fucking hell, this is torture.“ Taylor groans as she runs a make-up wipe over her foundation-covered, bruised skin. Underneath all those layers of foundations are the marks she’s been so desperate to hide - the reminders of that night. That monstrosity that wanted her dead and wasn’t gonna stop at anything to make that happen.

But it didn’t happen She tells herself, I’m here, aren’t I?

She’s happy to have gotten out of there with her life as well as all her friends, but the feeling of the constant presence of that night’s memories weighing on her mind, and thanks to the marks on her skin as well, she has a hard time accepting that she was indeed lucky. Some fucking luck. If she were lucky she wouldn’t have even ended up in that predicament. But she did and it has taken a bite out of her sanity and will haunt her for good, physically and mentally. No doubt about it.

The first place they all went to after their return was a hospital. Scrapes and bruises and some open wounds along with Andrew’s concussion were the main of the physical injuries. No broken bones or anything permanent, thank God. 

Well, almost nothing permanent. 

Taylor had seen the looks the nurses and the doctor gave her when they saw the state of her skin - much like the others she had bruises and scratches here and there, the most serious of which still had dried blood on them. However, unlike the rest of the group, she’d be left with the burn marks for as long as the memories - forever. Of course, that’s not what the doctor told her, not directly, at least. He said to give them time and some treatment that wasn’t completely sure to work. She knew what that meant - “Be ready to spend the rest of your life like this or in covering it up.”

It’s been one month since that horrible night. One month of treatment for her skin. Lotions, creams, cleansers, foundation. Nothing has worked. She spends an hour going through the process of covering the marks up and an hour taking all that foundation off. No one has commented on them which may be either because she covers them well enough or they simply don’t want to make her feel uncomfortable. She doesn’t care what others think of them, people’s opinions never bother her on any ground. The war she has with these burn marks is personal and has all to do with an event she wants to let go of and move on from. As if her nightmares aren’t enough, she also has to deal with flashbacks every time she looks in the mirror.

She hasn’t expressed her frustration to anyone. She has managed to hide it as well as the bruises themselves. It’s Taylor after all, she’s good at putting on an act so no one can read her. But, because it is indeed her, she’s not used to keeping her anger in. She feels like a ticking timed bomb. A bubble with tender, delicate walls that could burst at any moment. And God help the person who she bursts in front of. She’s never held her composure this long, she doesn’t know what will even happen if she lets go.

Now, looking in the mirror, about to take off her foundation and apply the new lotion the doctor prescribed her, she feels as fragile as ever. She’s feeling the lack of sleep more than ever as well as the pain of her tensed muscles that never seem to relax anymore. She doesn’t feel mentally prepared to go through the process of taking off the cover-up. She never feels ready, it always takes a toll on her on mentally, emotionally and even physically. She always feels so tired afterwards, so drained. Maybe because she always expects to see a difference when the foundation comes off. There never is, nothing but disappointment.

Today has been extra hard for her. Her mind has never been hazier from the lack of sleep. Her thoughts are all over the place, none of them clear. Her body’s almost shutting down. She feels like a ghost of herself. Like the real her is in a different location. Probably still stuck in Little Hope.

The foundation’s off, the same sight meets her, mocking her from the mirror. And that’s the snapping point she’s been dreading for a month now. She reaches for the new lotion she picked up on her way home.

“Useless piece of shit!“ she chucks it to the other end of the bathroom. The bottle is unharmed, it just hits the tiled floor with a loud thud. She however is in pieces, also dropping on the ground, her back against the wall, her knees tucked close to her chest, hiding her face between them, sobbing her heart out. It’s certainly a freeing feeling, but it only exhausts her more.

“Hey T...Taylor, what’s wrong?“ She hears the familiar voice and goes silent but does not dare lift her head, especially not now that her cover-up is off her, the burn marks on display. She remains sitting on the ground, face hidden from his sight.

Daniel feels her heart sink at the sight of the most important person in his life being at a low point like this one. He feels guilty for not taking action sooner. He saw the signs, the red flags in the form of fake empty smile, lack of sarcasm, colorless cheeks, eyebags, red eyes. Lack of Taylor, she was nowhere to be seen. She was far from the person he’s used to knowing and seeing every day. Knowing her, he expected prying to be a bad move but now he wishes he’d done it sooner. On time. Before she could crash like this.

“Do you know how to knock?” Her weak attempt at putting her tough act back on slips through the cracks in her voice.

Daniel is by her side asap, kneeling on the ground in front of her. “T, come on, don’t do this. Look at me. Tell me what’s wrong.”

She knows better than to hide from Daniel. He know her too well. She trusts him too much. So, despite her previous determination not to let him in on the fact that she’s now a product of that night, she raises her head, resting her chin on her knee, still avoiding his gaze though. He doesn’t bat an eye though. 

Can he really not see what’s bothering me? It’s very fucking obvious

“I- I just feel like I can’t do this, you know. I can’t be fine like the rest of you. You’ve all moved on. And here I am with nightmares like a preschooler and these ugly things all over my skin. That night will permanently hold onto me, Daniel. I can never let it go if I’m reminded of it every time I look in the mirror.“ Her gaze travels to the lotion bottle on the an arm’s reach away. “I can empty as many of these bottles as I feel like, they never help. The doctor says they maybe would, big emphasis on the ‘maybe’ but, spoiler alert: they never do. I wish they’d stop stringing me along, every failed attempt is a hard-to-swallow disappointment.“ She chuckles humorlessly when Daniel takes the bottle from her, “And then there’s always the casually mentioned risk of it making them worse rather than better. You know, casually. Like, yeah this will either help you or fuck you up even worse.“ She ends the rant with a sigh, almost feeling like herself again.

Daniel sees it too, the fire in her eyes is fighting to light again. She’s so angry and yet she can’t express it to anyone. Anyone by him apparently. 

“So, you’re not gonna give it a shot?“ She shakes her head, “But what if it helps?“

“What if it makes it worse?“ She automatically replies, hugging her knees closer

“Let it be your last go. If it doesn’t do anything, or God forbid makes things worse, it’s on me. I owe you whatever you want. I know that’s nothing in comparison to what you’ll be dealing with, but...“ Sensing a speech is on its way, Taylor holds her hand up, shaking her head.

“Alright, spare me Mr. I-Don’t-Take-Medicine-Unless-I’m-On-My-Death-Bed. Give me the lotion.“

He shakes his head, stands up and takes hold of the hand she has outstretched instead. “Nah-ah, let me help.” The skeptical and downright humoring look she gives him when she stands to her feet almost makes him frown. “What? I’m not clueless, T. I know a think or two about skin care. You think this all came naturally?” He motions at himself cockily, stealing a genuine laugh from her.

“I knew nature couldn’t fuck up that badly. I suspected you had something to do with it.“ She narrows her eyes, meeting his also narrow-eyed gaze, both in on the fact that the other is messing around.

“Your skin is at my mercy. I wouldn’t talk smack if I were you.“ He playfully warns her, waving the lotion bottle in front of her.

She rolls her eyes, “Yeah whatever you say, tough guy.“ She opens a drawer under the sink and throws him a box of cotton pads.

Not wasting any time in fear she might change her mind, Daniel takes one pad out and puts a few drops of the lotion on it. He hesitantly brings it closer to the skin on the side of her neck while she stands as still as a statue, not breathing either. Despite all the bold talk, he’s still nervous. He really hopes this miracle liquid of chemicals works, solely because it will make Taylor happy. And to him, her happiness is all that matters.

She shudders when the cold, damp cotton pad makes contact with her skin and he immediately feels the need to apologize. Instead, however, he goes on to tell her exactly what’s on his mind, cause he knows there’ll never be a better time.

“What you call a reminder of that night, the horrors we endured, I see it differently...“ he trails off, looking at her reflection in the mirror out of the corner of his eye. “I see it as proof that we’re stronger than we know. And you, T...are the strongest of us all. Any of these scars could have been a lethal would but here you are, alive. And no, I’m not trying to say you’re lucky. None of us are. Lord knows what kind of fucked up luck we posses, but it ain’t right. No, you are brave. You went through it and fought to leave the battle with scars instead of dropping to the ground with a wound that is irredeemable. You’re a warrior, Taylor.” He pauses for a second and so do the movements of his hand. He hesitantly inhales before saying the last sentence he’s been holding back, “My warrior.” 

Taylor tilts her head to look at him, genuine surprise and warmth in her eyes. She’s baffled. Pleasantly caught off-guard by words she never thought she’d hear, let alone trust. She covers all this up with a smirk. Classic Taylor. “You weren’t really a pansy back there either, Dan.” She gently bumps his shoulder with hers.

His eyes narrow again. “I hate that nickn-“ It doesn’t matter. He doesn’t get to finish his sentence cause her lips are already on his, preventing him from ranting about...whatever he was about to go off about.

You know what they say: If you don’t finish saying it, it was never meant to be said in the first place. 

@artlovingbre  @megandaisy9  @sparrow-gg​

[firesoulstuff]

Captain Canary + We’re telling our children about our catastrophic first Christmas together.

Read on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27544165/chapters/69605802

Rory is the last to the party and Sara can’t help but to smile with sympathy as the fifteen-year-old flops rather depressively onto the couch. Her eyes are red rimmed and she gives one sniffle, which thankfully neither of her siblings comments on.

Next to Rory is Emily, ten-years-old and while Sara and Leonard thought she was over the trauma that can come with baby teeth falling out this one was, from what Rory and her reported, tough. So she’s sitting with a roll of toilet paper held tightly in her lap just in case.

Daniel, their seven-year-old, somehow came out of this Christmas Eve mostly unscathed. Despite Rory’s reports of him having been standing right in front of the tree when it fell over, and touched the hot pan while she was busy dealing with Emily and her tooth, and had wiped out running down the hall to get her when Emily started bleeding again.

“Ok.” Sara says, now that they’re all gathered. “Now that we’re all calmed down, you’re father and I thought we’d tell you guys a Christmas story.”

“Like the movie?” Emily asks, while Leonard starts passing out some to-go cups of hot chocolate he went out for while Rory took a shower and Sara cleaned up the house.

“Not exactly.” Sara says with a grin, then she eyes her oldest. “You said this is the worst Christmas ever?”

Rory huffs, “Wasn’t until I was put in charge.”

Sara frowns, so does Leonard.

“Rory, I’m glad your mother and I make it look easy, but holidays take practice.”

She scoffs again, her hot chocolate still clutched in her hand.

“They do.” Sara insists, “Which brings us to the story. You guys can ask Uncle Ollie, Rene, or whoever if you don’t believe us, but I promise you everything we’re about to tell you is what happened.”

Leonard nods as he settles onto the armrest of the couch beside her.

“Sorry kiddo.” He says, looking at Rory. “But the mess you made tonight doesn’t even compare to your first Christmas.”

.

.

“So you really want to go home for the holidays?” Leonard asked as he stood Rory up, holding her under her arms and helping her bounce on the mattress.

Sara was packing clothes into two bags, one for each of them. She’d already packed for Rory, enough for a month even though they were only planning for nine days.

“Yes.” She said as she folded up another sweater and added it to the bag. “Thawne and his little crew have been quiet, your holiday coincides with my holiday this year, and neither of our families have met Rory yet. We’re going.”

He rolled his eyes and focused back on Rory, still happy to bounce on the mattress.

He couldn’t find it in him to argue with her further. She was right in that their enemies of the year have been quiet and thus they’ve hit a dead end with finding them, and he isn’t so stupid as to think the next holidays will work out so nicely again any time soon. Not that he’s really done much for Hanukkah in a decade or so, but now with Rory he wouldn’t mind doing more. So, with Hanukkah starting on Christmas Eve this year they’d come up with a plan. Go to her dad’s for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and on December 26th head to Central and stop by her mom’s for the day, then spend the remainder of Hanukkah with Lisa until coming back to the ship on New Years Day.

.

.

So that was the plan, unfortunately there was one major flaw in it they really should’ve considered; just because their villains were taking a holiday break didn’t mean Team Arrow’s were.

“I’m so sorry baby.” Quentin said as he handed Rory back to her and pressed a kiss first to the baby’s cheek, and then to hers.

“It’s ok dad.” Sara said as she took her daughter. “You go. Call us if you need help.”

He didn’t look happy to be going, but he nodded to the three of them and with a hasty promise to be back soon he left.

“You sure your father should be going out to track a mass murderer on Christmas Eve?” Leonard asked and Sara tipped her head back and sighed.

“No, but I’m not going to stop him.”

Leonard hummed, and just as he did Rory gave a little cry.

“Oh, what’s wrong baby?” Sara asked, hiking her daughter up higher in her arms. Rory only began to cry more with that. She sniffed at her diaper but nothing smelled particularly rancid, and she had eaten not too long ago.

“Maybe the time jump wore her out.” She theorized. Rory had taken a nap right before they left, but it wasn’t the longest nap and she was still prone to some disorientation after time jumps. “I’m gonna put her down.” She informed Leonard, and he nodded, and followed her.

They went into the guest room and Sara paced the room, rocking Rory and murmuring to her whilst Leonard set up the pack-and-play they’d brought along for her to sleep in.

“Shh. Baby.” Sara whispered to her daughter, “Shh, it’s ok. It’s ok.”

While she moved in circles in the room her eyes caught sight of the decorations, and she swallowed a lump in her throat. Her father had moved into this apartment after the divorce, after her death, and since Laurel had already been out on her own this spare bedroom had always been just that, spare. That being said, both she and Laurel had stayed in here over the years and there were little touches of them both. Her father had framed her high school diploma along with Laurel’s law degree. There were pictures of them both, happy and laughing together. She recognized the throw blanket folded at the foot of the bed as one Laurel had bought him one Christmas when she’d been at a loss for anything else to get him and he’d complained that she stole all the blankets in the living room.

“Sara?”

She shook her head and snapped from her thoughts, focus back on the crying baby in her arms and her boyfriend standing next to an assembled pack-and-play, looking at her with mild worry.

“This is the first Christmas since…” She trailed off. From what she’s been told Laurel’s condition was very touch and go for a while after Darhk stabbed her but she finally stabilized. Stabilized but didn’t wake up.

That was back in April.

“Come on.” Leonard said, “Put her down, then let’s see if we can fix your dad a half decent Christmas Eve dinner.”

.

.

A half decent Christmas Eve dinner, somehow Sara didn’t think that was going to happen.

After looking to see what her father had in his fridge Leonard decided to run to the store and he came back with half a pound of hamburger, a box of spaghetti, and some pasta sauce. Spaghetti and meatballs isn’t terrible for Christmas Eve, and it’s definitely something they could manage with limited time.

You know if they didn’t have a baby refusing to sleep on their hands.

“Do you think she has a diaper rash?” Sara asked, currently Leonard was in the guest room trying futilely to calm Rory to sleep while she was in the kitchen rolling the hamburger into meatballs.

“I’ve checked her diaper three times, I think I would’ve noticed a rash!”

She rolled her eyes, and just then she heard a splash and a sizzle. She whirled her head around and cursed under her breath at the sight of the spaghetti starting to boil over. She turned the burner off and then grimaced upon seeing the bits of raw meat now stuck to the dial. While she started to clean up Len came out with Rory in his arms, still crying with no signs of stopping.

“You should’ve waited to start the spaghetti until after the meatballs were done.”

She turned her head to glare at him, to which he merely rolled his eyes and then before he could say anything more her phone began to ring.

They looked at each other, each silently asking who was going to answer the phone. She had raw meat all over her hands, but he had the screaming baby. Eventually Leonard crossed the room but only enough to turn on the sink for her so she could wash off her hands. By the time she was done her phone had stopped ringing but she still pulled a paper towel from the counter and dried them off, the took her phone from the counter and saw she had a missed call from Oliver.

She sighed, even when they were in town Ollie never tended to call with good news.

“It was Oliver.” She informed Leonard, already hitting redial. Len didn’t look too thrilled about it having been Oliver, as he knows just as well as she does-

“Sara?”

“Ollie, hey. What’s up?”

There was a hitch of breath on the other end, never anything good.

“You and Leonard need to come down to the bunker.”

“What, why?” “Because a few weeks ago one of my recruits sold us out to Prometheus. Prometheus hasn’t made a move on the bunker yet because he knows it’s too risky. We have reason to believe he’s going after someone on the team tonight and-”

And perfect timing.

She saw a glimmer of something in the window and had the phone dropped to the counter and her other hand grabbing a knife before the window crashed in. She threw the knife and ducked, landing next to Leonard curled up under the edge of the counter with Rory in is lap, still screaming.

“You ok?” She asked.

“Peachy.” Leonard seethed and Sara nodded.

She then jumped up and hurled a knife over the counter and across the room, landing it square in the throat of their attacker. She waited a moment, looking at the body clad in something reminiscent of league garb but it never got up, and she knows enough about death to know when someone is faking it.

Slowly, she and Leonard came out from around the body. Their hood had fallen off, revealing a young man whom Sara didn’t recognize, but she wasn’t so naïve as to think he was Oliver’s Prometheus.

He would’ve been smarter, this is just some lackey sent here to send a message.

“Come on.” She said, grabbing her knife from his throat and shaking off the loose blood.

They gathered what they would need for the night and headed quickly to the bunker, where they were each met with a hug from Quentin. Ollie had them call the police and then he went to go handle the getting rid of the body.

“Don’t you need one of us there for that?” Sara asked and Ollie shrugged.

“You were attacked with a baby in the house, the police will understand why you left.” She smirked at him and then, right as he left, she suddenly realized something very, very important.

She turned around and saw Leonard behind her, a smirk on his face that matched hers in spades.

“It’s quiet.” She said, “How?”

“All I know is I handed her to that kid with the magic rags and she stopped crying. As for the why, I don’t care.”

She chuckled and leaned into his side. He put an arm around her and pressed a kiss to her forehead, and then her father came over.

“Quite the Christmas Eve.” He remarked and Sara smiled.

“Don’t know why we’d expect anything less.” She said, and then she frowned as she thought of something. “Your apartment’s a mess, we were cooking when that guy attacked us.”

Her father laughed, “That’s alright baby. So long as you guys are safe.”

She smiled, and looked past him over to Oliver’s recruit holding Rory, and then she chuckled as she remembered his name is also Rory.

He seemed good with her; she was actually falling asleep by the looks of it. She then looked up to Leonard. He was safe and real and he’d come home with her for the holidays.

As her father walked away, off to take his granddaughter from her new friend, she leaned up and kissed Leonard on the cheek.

“Merry Christmas Crook.” She said, “Sorry coming to my family almost got you killed.”

He chuckled. “No more so than usual.” He said, “Besides, that danger doesn’t end when we get to my family.”

.

.

“You guys were attacked by an assassin on Christmas Eve?” Rory asks, by the end of the story Daniel has fallen asleep on the couch, while Emily is still awake and listening intently.

“You’re surprised by that?” Leonard asks, raising his brow at their oldest, and she doesn’t have a defense ready for him.

So, Emily raises her hand.

“Yes Emily?” Sara asks.

“Why did that man want to kill you?”

“Because he was a bad man.” Leonard answers easily, as this isn’t the first time they’re had this conversation.

Emily nods, satisfied, and Rory huffs.

“Ok, but it wasn’t you guys who ruined Christmas Eve, it was him. The worst you did was let the spaghetti boil over.”

“Ok first, you didn’t ruin Christmas.” Sara says, “Second, the point is the bad guys didn’t come here tonight, and that’s the important part.”

“Exactly.” Len seconds, “We left all three of you here, and we came back to all three of you here, with the only spilled blood being because of a tooth falling out.” Rory hums, “You two have really low standards.”

Sara smirks, as does Leonard.

“Maybe.” He agrees, getting up and walking over to the couch to scoop up Daniel. “But I like our standards.”

[8osbabe]

HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY AND NEVER BE FOUND

unedited : warnings in the tags

THERE was no escape without the key in the left pocket of dallas winston’s tattered blue jeans. it was a lesson your handcuffed wrist, scratched red and raw, knew quite well.

you wanted to retch at the suffocating poison he spewed out with every breath of the cigarette that made its home between his fingers. but your surroundings were poetic in their justice.

you and him, you were this room ; paint chipped sheetrock walls that looked tough and impenetrable, although a determined hand could punch through to the hollow inside. a motel room as neglected on the inside as the building was on the outside. a kind of room that could have been anywhere, but remained damaged and uncared for and crumbling. your chests as tight as the cigarette butts and forgotten bags of weed pressed between the mattress’s headboard and the wall.

an ironic sign sits on the nightstand closest to dallas ; “No Smoking.” a rule they weren’t keen enough on enforcing, as they seemingly hadn’t bothered to install any kind of alarm or detector in the room. a rule meant for faking, for breaking.

you can’t hear any of the ambient sounds you’d expect in tulsa. there was no soundtrack to the middle of nowhere, save for the couple who had checked into a room a few doors down, who were either fighting or rampantly fucking.

nothing absorbs the noise other than your own mind, which was happy to muffle everything except for the words that kept ringing through your brain since he’d said them as he tightened a cuff on your wrist and then on a low hanging ventilation pipe ; “there. just like daddy did to mommy.”

the words wanted to gnaw at your treacherous heart, and you bit the inside of your cheek until the familiar taste of warm copper flooded your mouth to remind your heart exactly who was the boss. dallas didn’t deserve pity, not for what had been done to him, not after all he’d done. you knew it. you wanted to know it.

his smoking addiction was already bad— ‘likely to be dead by his fortieth birthday’ bad. but it flared up like this when he was thinking— deciding — only taking breaks from drags of his cigarette to sneak glances at you, teeth worrying his lips.

he had to know that the sight and the smell of tobacco was torturing you, that you couldn’t stand it. ‘did i ever tell him why?’ you were stupid and naive and in love, so you probably had, along with spilling your guts about all of your feelings, your memories, opening yourself up to being crushed— an opportunity dallas never missed. you push away the picture of your skin bubbling and seething as your uncle set his cigarette into your skin when you were six, and the one of his breath, smelling of jack daniels and tobacco as he spit in your face when you were fourteen.

his sharp inhale pulled you from the memories, as he flicked a still-lit cigarette onto a place on the floor where the sheets of the unmade bed touched the floor, setting alight a small flame.

ice crawls up your spine as you become acutely aware of the heat, a few feet away from where you sit, handcuffed to this room. you subconsciously shuffle away from it, backing into the wall. he notices you move. he chokes the flames under his shoe and the fire dies, leaving only charred cotton as evidence it had once lived. the flickering lamp is once again the only thing lighting up the room, with the bruising horizon offering no help.

your gaze locks with his now, and you wonder who will break the stare first. you should know better, that the two of you could sit like this for centuries, refusing to surrender to one another.

there’s a question sitting on his lips. you wonder if it’s the same as yours.

who are we?

what have we done to each other?

• • • • • •

“WERE you aware of dallas winston’s suicidal tendencies?”

yes.

“he wasn’t,” you answer, bored and disinterested, at least as far as the tulsa county police department was concerned.

even in the assaulting white light of— whatever room you were in— you can see the sheriff’s cheeks flush and his eyes narrow. most of your answers thus far had consisted of non-commital shrugs and vague stares, so he detects that something about dallas’s suicide must have gotten a rise out of you.

nodding at you, he leans down toward the floor near his chair, pulling a file out of a banker’s box that looked like it was full and close to bursting.

you stifle a smile. dallas’s police record. surely there must be more boxes around here somewhere, in a room specifically for dallas’s files. you imagine that the cops occasionally mess around with them, covering the boxes graffiti, ‘banker’s bastard’s box.’

the sound of the manila file sliding across the polished metal table separating you and officer friedman pulls you from your thoughts. your eyes dart up to meet his, which motion you to open it yourself. your cold hand reaches to flip it open, and you become acutely aware of the burning smell of antiseptic and rubbing alcohol as you see what’s inside.

you hiss, looking away instantly and scolding yourself for giving him a reaction.

he takes the file again, now grabbing the photograph it had contained and holding it out to you.

“this scar was fresh on his body when we first got a look at him. angle and location suggest self infliction, and the entry matches that switchblade he carried.” the picture is sharp and focused, not at all like any photograph there was of dallas winston. this one looks posed, medical as though he hadn’t been moving when it was taken.

he never would have just let them take that picture, not of that scar on his arm, not so easily. he hadn’t been conscious, hadn’t been— alive?

“he wasn’t,” you bark through grit teeth. your nails dig into your palms now, your hands curling into white-knuckled fists.

“he wouldn’t have died like that— not shot to death by pigs he hated, not bleeding out on the asphalt in front of his family.” you think of darry curtis and the gang. of ponyboy. you shudder.

friedman sits back in his chair, glancing through the one way mirror and smiling, as though he was in on a joke with the unseen person behind the glass.

“—and he didn’t. he died of his wounds a few hours later, in a jail cell waiting for transfer. his death certificate was filed two days ago. he bled out nice ‘n slow, “tuff” like he wanted.”

your chair emits an ear-splitting shriek as you stand, and the officer follows suit, instinctively patting his holstered gun in silent warning.

you want to scream, to claw his eyes out, to show him “nice and slow.”

instead you speak through labored breaths. “i’m leaving now. i came here as a favor to a friend, to try to help. this clearly isn’t going anywhere.”

you power towards the door, but his hand is on the doorknob before you can reach it.

“—and why help? to what does this department owe the pleasure of hearing your supposed omniscient knowledge of this case?”

you take a step closer to him and snarl. “good people don’t just suddenly wake up and decide they should kill themselves.”

officer friedman backs away, satisfied. he tugs a key from his belt and reveals the door you were headed for had been locked anyhow. he opens the thick metal door and gestures for you to exit.

“maybe dallas winston wasn’t a good person.”

______________

NOBODY stops you as you head for the door, the small lobby of the station quickly becoming blurry through your glassy eyes.

you don’t want to think that they got what they wanted, that they expected this outcome. the ‘meddling little girlfriend’ scared off from looking any further, threatened by the truth of what she might find. you don’t want to think that they got what they wanted.

you push the front double doors a little too hard, maybe hoping that the sound of the slam might muffle the sound of cops talking about autopsy and bury.

getting onto the sidewalk, you see two-bit leaning on his car— waiting, just as you’d left him.

he was fiddling with his switchblade, something he often did when he was idle, looking up as you approached him with his usual, goofy grin. it fades as quickly as it came, though, when he sees your expression, your labored breathing.

you and two could talk like that, without saying a word. he knows the score, and he’s more like family to you than your real one had ever been.

he’s ready to catch you when you collapse against him, finally allowing yourself a broken sob.

“i knew. i knew! i killed him!”

he pulls you into an embrace, allowing you to dampen his muscle shirt with your cries, all while not letting anyone see.

his eyes dart quickly around the perimeter of the station, making sure nobody was with earshot, before gently ushering you into the car.

you’re already embarrassed by the time he’s shut the driver’s side door and started the car.

“dallas is out there, he can’t be dead. i thought you knew that,” two-bit says matter-of-factly, betrayal thick in his voice.

you press your forehead against the window, not able to keep from wondering if you and two had been lying to yourselves, to each other, this whole time. that the house of cards that manifested from your shared grief was one that was quickly crumbling.

neither of you wanted to feel the pain of dallas winston’s absence, not so soon after johnny’s. your mere implication that it may be time to mourn dallas is not one two-bit takes lightly.

“those crooked cops? they think they’ve got you figured— another dim-witted greasy girl that ain’t worth half the air socs breathe— don’t make them right. you’re supposed to be smarter than that,” he huffs, not caring to let you weigh in on the subject.

not that you would, anyway. greasers never get to cry, and sometimes outbursts like these were the only real ways to grieve. you’d let him have this.

“so don’t give me any of that “he’s dead and it’s my fault” shit, because he ain’t dead, and you’re not to blame.”

it’s silent for a few minutes after that, and his expression softens as he focuses himself back on the road. he only speaks again when you turn to him as he drops you off at buck’s.

“it wouldn’t be your fault,” he says, gently resting a hand on your shoulder. “i mean, even if he was.”

you bite your lip, doubting him for a moment, before you nod, letting him squeeze you shoulder before you get out of the car and go home.

if you could call it that.

kicking your shoes off near the entrance, you take in the familiar aspects of the place. torn carpet under your bare feet, the rough feel of the scratched up balls on the pool table, the red lights reflecting off of liquor bottles on the makeshift bar, buck merill crashing on the couch, and— a lifetime ago— dally snoring in his bed upstairs until at least 2 p.m.

that one had been your favorite.

now, though, you only creep toward buck to take the still-lit joint in his sleeping hand. that kind of smoke didn’t bother you half as much as that of actual cigarettes, and even though you tried to keep your lungs as clean as possible, you’d hate to let good tree go to waste. so you pluck it from buck’s fingertips, nestle it in between your lips, and fumble up the stairs.

it doesn’t hurt to be in here, in his room. lying in his bed and still feeling his scent on the sheets, it’s easier to pretend that he’s still around somewhere, that this is still his room, that he’ll come back to it.

crawling into his bed, you wrap yourself into the sheets, feeling your skin buzz in the kind of comfort that can only be felt when you’re high.

the room begins to dim as the sun goes out, and you let yourself drift off, and relive the memory you see every time you close your eyes.

• • • • •

the boys have never looked more beautiful.

even you managed to clean up a bit, too, borrowing one of sylvia’s longer dresses.

you’re a few paces behind the curtis’s, as ponyboy sobs into darry’s dress shirt, and darry let’s him. he’s stifling tears of his own, ever the strong brother since they got the news.

how could this be possible? darry had been filling out college applications two days ago.

and now he was his brothers’ makeshift parent.

nobody had mentioned the fact that dallas hadn’t made an appearance. you didn’t even think anybody noticed. some sort of dread pools in your stomach at his absence. you couldn’t help worrying about him, even if he hated it.

the sick feeling in your core doesn’t extinguish when you see him, a few yards to the side, away from anyone’s line of sight.

the feeling doesn’t fade because when his eyes, red and raw from— crying? —flit to the coffins, and his fingernails dig deep enough to the skin of his palm to bleed, you know he’s about to do something stupid.

you shadow him, far away enough not to provoke his wrath by letting him see you.

he walks for less than fifteen minutes, and you stop following him as he hesitates in the middle of the bridge next to the highway.

something seems to have newly occupied his mind, and the churning of your stomach quickly turns into gasoline, setting alight as he jumps onto the concrete railing.

you will yourself to move forward, taking slow steps and breathing carefully so as to not startle him.

“dallas?” your voice sounds small when you say it.

he chances a glance at you, but his eyes look empty and his face blanched. he’s drunk, maybe, but he wasn’t carrying any kind of alcohol you could see.

he was grieving. he’d been closer with the curtis parents than anyone had known, you later find out.

“dallas,” you say now, more assertively, while trying to stifle the panicked shouts in your mind.

you only hear yourself shriek when he’s set both feet off the bridge, too late to stop his from plunging into the arkansas river.

you were more matched for dallas than either of you knew, you think as you stand in the same spot seconds later, and jump.

the fall feels more like the gravity is pulling you to dallas, until your body breaks into the surface of the ice cold water, seeping through your dress and into your skin.

beneath the surface, you see him drifting, eyes shut in near unconsciousness. he looks almost at peace, you think as you swim further to reach him.

he’s lighter than you expect when you’re wrapping your arms around his chest, feet kicking gently to propel you toward the surface.

it takes bringing him back up to open air to wake him, his shallow gasp for air his first signs of life. he shakes water out of his hair, his eyes before he can really look at you, his stare fascinated and probing.

you remember feeling shy and embarrassed, like he was seeing you for the first time. he could make you forget what had just happened.

“did you jump?”

“yeah,” your voice comes out rushedly, you hadn’t realized how short of breath you’d been. “yeah i jumped. are you okay?”

in the midst of everything that had just happened, his lips curl into a smile, and he laughs. “you’re fucking crazy!”

you nod, starting to laugh, too, the sound coated in nervous relief.

he leans in closer, his hands holding you steady at the nape of your neck as he touches his forehead to yours.

“i’m so tired,” he breathes.

you only get the chance to hum in response as his head tilts to capture your lips with his. his free hand travels up your thigh, guiding it around his hips before resting his hand on your lower back.

you wind your lips with his like you want to siphon his pain away, to be a vacuum for his pain and hurt. your fingers find a tighter grip on his hair, your slight tug eliciting a low, throaty sound from his lips. your head can’t be still as he teases your lower lip with soft bites.

the moment exists in a universe of its own, one where you aren’t greasers without a red cent to spend, one where his lips taste like fresh water forever.

it doesn’t last long, before you both need to break for air.

you thought this was it. that things could be better now. the world had given you permission to be better now.

you never talked about the incident again, or told anyone about the first time you’d kissed, or how you’d started going together.

but dallas had nearly died. you couldn’t save him forever.

you were both so naive.

you were sixteen.

• • • • •

YOU FIND that your best mornings are not the ones where two-bit wakes you up with a pillow to the face.

“eat,” he says, rather aggressively, throwing a paper bag next to your spot on the bed. “we’ve got a long day.”

sitting up and digging your palms into your eyes, you try your best to look mean and angry, but the breakfast he got you smells really good.

you open the bag to find a sandwich, a bag of chips, and a can of pepsi, the latter of which reminded you of the youngest curtiss

“what’s this,” you gesture to the soda can. “did you jump ponyboy to get this for me?” you giggle at the thought.

two-bit only half smiles. “no, he just picked it out for you. he’s been picking up shifts at the dx every now and again.”

you look sheepishly up at two bit, your mouth already stuffed with half a grilled cheese.

“have you...talked to him? to any of them? i mean, for more than a few minutes.” you’re not really sure why you ask. you already know the answer.

keith inhales sharply. “no. they still don’t take kindly to our “dallas isn’t dead” tirade. i don’t blame them for wanting to move on but..”

you let him keep talking, but you stop listening. you know this story, about how the boys hadn’t really felt up to speaking to you or two-bit lately. if you were being honest, you were mad at them, too. they’d left you alone in your grief.

instead, you pay more attention to the way two speaks. he speaks more carefully, with less slang and hood-talk than he might’ve a few years back. you chalked it up to his new job valeting at an upscale restaurant on the soc side of town. they tipped him far more when he’d learned to shut up if he wasn’t spoken to, and to talk classy when he was.

“—don’t pay it any mind. the car’s running outside, be down in five, ‘you hear?”

he doesn’t wait for you to answer before slipping out of the room as quickly as he came, his footsteps on the stairs echoing through the hallway until he’s out of earshot.

he’s in a rush, and you don’t even know what for. but you try to move through the room as quickly as possible, splashing your face with cold water, then scrambling to find your pants somewhere on the floor, and finally taking one of dallas’s jackets from a hanger as you pick a few stray remnants of ash out of your hair.

when you fall into the passenger seat next to two-bit, you catch sight of yourself in the rear view mirror, and try not to think about how dead you look.

he’s already speeding on the highway when you ask him where you’re going.

“to find dally.” he leaves it at that, and you don’t pry, even if the certainty in his voice is enough to send chills down your spine.

the wind starts to whip your hair in all directions when it pushes in through the open window, and you feel like a bird.

the thought is only pleasant for a moment.

you quickly feel yourself become a vulture, feeling more hunter than hummingbird.

you sink your claws into cold bodies hoping to find some way to keep living inside something that is long dead.

[mustangshelby04]

Boston Boy - First (Second) Best Christmas

It’s here! (It’s a little later than I intended it to be, but it’s here!) The first one shot of the Boston Boy series. It’s just a cute little Christmas story with Kate and Chris. Pure fluff. MERRY (Belated) CHRISTMAS!!

“Chris, it’s too big!  It’s not going to fit!” Kate complained. “Oh!  Ow!”

“Shit!  Fuck!  I’m sorry!” Chris cried, stopping his movements immediately. “Are you ok?”

“I’ll live.” Kate sighed. “It’s not going to fit.  We need to take some off the bottom.” 

“I guess you’re right.  I really thought our ceiling was high enough for it.”

The husband and wife duo looked at the tree that was about a foot too tall for their ceiling.  They had ordered their tree to be delivered from a tree farm upstate and Chris had guessed at the height they would need.  He sighed and grabbed the saw.

“Uh uh!  Do that out on the patio.” Kate said.

“Why?”

“It’s going to make an even bigger mess that I’ll have to clean up.”

“I’ll help.” Kate just stared at him. “Ok.” Chris sighed and dragged the tree out to the patio.

Kate turned and looked at the boxes and bags of decorations.  Her mother had sent up some of the family ornaments while Chris had brought some of his decorations from Boston.  The two of them had also gone shopping for decorations of their own.  She reached into one of the bags and pulled out the personalized ornament they had found.  It was a crescent moon with a baby Minnie Mouse sleeping on a pink blanket.  The moon had the words “Baby’s First Christmas” written on it and the blanket had 2016 on one side and Madison written on the other side.

It was the day after Thanksgiving.  Chris, Kate, and Madison had spent all day in Sudbury for the holiday the day before.  Kate’s mother had insisted that Kate spend the time up there with her husband’s family.  Kate hadn’t fought it too much because she and Chris were surprising her family with the annual trip to Disneyworld this year.  He had booked them resort rooms and gotten them tickets while Kate had worked it out with her parents’ boss that they would get the time off for it.  Her brother, sister-in-law, and niece were also coming on the trip.  The entire Allen clan would be invited every year from now on.

“This should do it.” Chris announced, dragging the tree back in.  He set it upright and the two feet he had cut off worked perfectly.

Kate grabbed her phone and turned on the Christmas playlist she had compiled on her music app.  The Bluetooth soundbar in the living room picked it up and the room filled with the sounds of “The Twelve Pains of Christmas.”  Chris let out a loud laugh as he and Kate worked to set the tree up in the stand they had bought.  When they finished getting the tree settled and watered, Kate grabbed the tree skirt and started pulling the tags off.

“What are you doing?” Chris asked.

“Putting the tree skirt on.” Kate said, confused he was asking.

“That goes on last.

“What?”

“The tree skirt goes on last.” “Why?”

That stumped Chris. “Because it does.”

“You don’t know why it goes on last?”

“I guess I’ve just always put it on last.  Why do you want it on first?”

“So I can get it situated on the stand so we can water it easily and not worry about knocking off the ornaments near the bottom.”

“Huh…. That makes sense.”

“I know.” Kate crawled under the tree and set to work adjusting the skirt while Chris pulled out the boxes of new white Christmas lights.

“Are you sure it’s ok we got white?” Chris asked.

“Yeah, why?”

“Some people prefer colored.”

“I’m not those people.” Kate slid out from under the tree and nodded at her handiwork. “I prefer pretty white lights for an elegant tree.”

“Me too.” Chris smiled and kissed her. “I’m really happy we’re getting to spend our first Christmas together.”

“This is our second Christmas together.”

“We weren’t living together last year, though.”

“True.” Kate smiled as she looked over at the baby monitor’s screen.  Madison was napping peacefully in her crib with the Disney lullaby playlist playing softly in the background.  She had finally transitioned from her bassinette to her crib the month before. “We did have her, though.”

“Yes, we did.” He pulled her to him and started dancing to a sweet rendition of “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.”  This was one of Kate’s favorite things about Chris.  He would randomly pull her to him and start dancing with her.  It didn’t matter what they were doing, he would stop and dance with her.  It was so insanely romantic and so very much a Chris thing to do and she adored it. “So, Mrs. Evans, what do you want Santa to bring you this year?”

“More moments like this one.”

“Oh, that’s a good wish.”

“What about you?”

“That’s a tough one.”

“Why?”

“Because I have everything I want.  I have the most amazing wife in the history of wives.  We have a perfect little girl together.  I finally feel settled.  Even with the sporadic travelling for work, I feel grounded and settled.”

“Does it help when I’m there with you?”

“It absolutely helps.  More than you know.”

Kate nodded. “Ok.”

“Ok, what?”

“You’ll just have to wait until Christmas.” She looked up at him as they broke apart and started unboxing the ornaments. “Speaking of Santa, I don’t want to give him credit for the good gifts.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, when Maddie is older, I don’t want Santa to get all the credit for the good gifts.  He can have maybe one good gift, but he can have the credit for the stocking stuffers and some little gifts.”

Chris laughed, but stopped when he saw how serious she was. “You mean it?”

“Yes, I mean it.”

“Ok.  If that’s how you want to play Santa, I’m fine with that.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.  It’s not how I grew up, but….”

“It’s not how I grew up either.  I just…. Look, we’re her parents.  We provide for her.  I almost died giving birth to her.  Some fake fat man in a red suit isn’t going to get all the credit for making her happy.  That’s our job.”

“Ok.  We’ll give Santa one good present and the stocking stuffers.”

“Cool.” The started hanging ornaments on the tree, meticulously picking the best spots for each one.

Chris paused, a Hallmark Beauty and the Beast ornament hanging from his hand. “Hey, what about an Elf on the Shelf?”

“I swear to god, Christopher, if you bring one of those demons in this house, I will throw it off the top patio.”

Chris laughed, slapping a hand to his chest and almost dropping the ornament. “I am so glad you said that because those things creep me the fuck out.”

Kate laughed and kissed her husband. “I’m glad we agree on that.” She paused, looking uncertain about what she wanted to say next.

“What is it, babe?”  

“What are we doing about Christmas with our families?  We’ve both got our traditions with our families, and we celebrated that same way last year pretty much.  But this year is completely different.  We’re married and we have a kid.  And honestly, the thought of all that travelling with her freaks me out because of the amount of shit we have to take with us wherever we go with her.  Just taking her to a grocery store is like packing for a week on vacation.”

Chris nodded.  Kate was right about how much stuff it took to travel anywhere with a baby.  It made him nervous, too. “We’ll figure something out.”

“Chris….”

“Kat, I promise we will work something out that works for everyone.” He gave her a grin and she sighed.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

Christmas Eve, Kate and Chris’ penthouse was packed to the gills.  Scott and Lisa were staying in the office, sharing the pull-out couch; Carly, her husband, and three kids were in one of the guest rooms; and Killian, Maura, and Hailey were in the other guest bedroom.  Helena, Bill, and Jan were staying at a nearby hotel at Helena’s insistence.  The whole family had flown in from Orlando the day before.

Chris had insisted that Christmas be at his and Kate’s place this year.  That had been his solution for not travelling with Madison.  He was also extremely excited to finally have a family of his own and hosting Christmas for the first time ever really got him going.  Kate, Lisa, and Helena had spent the day cooking.  Chris had rented a couple of extra tables and chairs to accommodate everyone as well as some beautiful tableware.  He had worked hard setting the tables and making place cards for everyone.

It had been decided that everyone would open one gift that night and then go to bed.  The kids were excited to leave out cookies for Santa that night and Chris was excited to actually get to play Santa finally.  He and Kate snuck downstairs with the presents they had hidden in their closet and the nursery closet.  When they were done, the presents spilled out from under the tree.  They headed upstairs, checked on a sleeping Madison, and then closed the door to their room.

“I have a gift for you.” Kate announced, walking towards the bed from the bathroom after cleaning her face and brushing her teeth.  She was in an oversized Home Alone t-shirt and her hair was in a high ponytail.  

Chris held his arms out to her from his place on the bed and she climbed on top of him.  His hands instantly cupped her round backside. “You can’t wait to give it to me till the morning?”

Kate shook her head. “I’ve been holding onto this for a while now.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.  Quit distracting me.” One of his hands had drifted between her legs and his lips were trailing kisses along her neck.  

He chuckled and leaned back against the headboard. “Ok, lay it on me.”

“Ok, so do you remember a little while back you said it helps you stay grounded when I’m there with you?” Chris nodded. “Well, I started thinking about it.  I love to travel and I love being with you and I really love being a mother.  I don’t like being away from Maddie constantly.  Especially for work.  I still want to take pictures…. I mean, I really do love it, but I don’t want to do it as often as I have been.”

“You haven’t said anything.”

“Because it’s part of your Christmas present.  Shh.”

“Sorry.”  

“Thank you.  So, I’ve been talking to Danielle and she came up with a brilliant solution.  One that even I couldn’t have dreamed up.”

“What?”

“She decided to sell me a stake in her company and make me a partner.”

“Are you serious?” Kate nodded excitedly. “That’s awesome!  Congratulations, baby!”

“All of this means that I can pick and choose the jobs that I take.  I can stay home or go away with you or do whatever I want to do.  I’ll still have my own thing.  I’ll have a job and be making my own money, so I won’t be relying completely on you….”

“Which I’ve told you not to worry about.  You’re my wife.  What’s mine is yours.”

“Hush.  I’m not done.”

“Sorry.”  

“And the final part of all of this…. Which is leading to your actual Christmas present…. When we’re ready, we can grow our family.  Intentionally this time.”

“We haven’t talked about that yet.”

“No, we haven’t, but you want more kids.  I’ve known that about you for a long time that you want to have kids: plural.”

“What about you?”

“Until I met you, I wasn’t even sure I wanted kids.  But Maddie is amazing and you’re such a wonderful dad and I absolutely love being a mother.  More than I ever thought I would.  I want to give you more kids, Chris.  Maybe we can eventually move to Boston and raise our family there…. Where you grew up.”

“Really?” “Yeah.  I love Boston.  We met there.  We conceived Maddie there.  We got married there.”

“What about Virginia, though?”

“What about it?”

“You grew up there.”

“I grew up all over.  Kentucky, Illinois, Nebraska…. Virginia is just where I settled for a while until I found my permanent home.” Kate reached up and gently held Chris’ face, stroking his beard with her thumb. “You’re my home, Chris.  And Boston is where you’re happiest.”

He stared at her in wonder. “And just when I thought I couldn’t love you any more than I already do, you go and do this.”

“So, Merry Christmas!  We’re going to move to Boston and have more kids…. Eventually.”

Chris laughed, pulling her lips to his. “Best Christmas present ever.”

Tag List

@joannaliceevans-fanficblog

@jamielea81

@southerngracela

@kelbabyblue

@tfandtws

@lovinevans

@ajosieface

@introvertedmouse

@sullyosully

@deidrashouseofpain

@thevelvetseries

[thetokenmuggle]

Of French and Ice Cream

Sailor Moon Au : Part Two

“I can’t believe you all crashed my morning coffee date,” Jane huffed looking over at Minah, Tyler, Lucas and, sadly even, Tara and Enzo. “And I can't believe he actually bought you all coffee,” she grumbled as they stepped into Astor Academy.

“Well in my case I am going to assume that I am M’s favourite, other than you of course,” Tara said. Jane's nose scrunched up, she couldn’t even argue against that. Tara was everyone’s favourite, to be honest, many a time she had heard Luna wish she could stay with Tara instead. “And I offered to pay him back for mine,” she said with a frown.

“Maybe M felt guilty about the bad news he shared and realizes he made a stupid decision and is trying to win our forgiveness by giving us coffee,” Tyler snapped taking a sip of his coffee. “Honestly how M even made it to college with his bad decision making,” he continued ranting ignoring the way Jane was plotting his death. Jane took a deep breath in trying to stop herself from snapping, hearing Daehyung or Daniel as he was called now was in town was a bit of shock but if he didn’t shut up soon Jane would have no choice but smacking him across the back of the head.

“Tyler,” Minah warned, “Maybe you boyfriend, bless his heart, understands that going to school is an impossible task without a little caffeine,” Minah said. “Especially when you consider we have to deal with Lucas fangirls and worse - Tyler fangirls,” Minah said with a shudder. “Why would these girls do that to themselves,” she said shaking her head. “They could at least fangirl over Lucas and Enzo instead,” she said earning a glare from Tyler and a smirk from Enzo.

“Maybe M is just nice,” Lucas offered, Jane turned to face him, brows furrowed. “Just saying,” he muttered, shrinking into himself which admittedly was an impressive task given his height. Unlike Tyler’s reaction to hearing about Daehyung, Lucas was a ball of excitement about Eunha possibly coming to their school though he had become more subdued when they got closer to the school.

“Also notice that neither Lucas nor Tyler have been swarmed by their rabid fanbase yet,” Minah said, raising an eyebrow. “Do you think a miracle finally happened and they managed to grow some brain cells?” she asked sarcastically.

“Ha ha ha,” Tyler said with an eye roll.

“It's kinda true though,” Tara said with a frown. “No fangirls and none of the lovestruck fools that normally follow Minah either,” she said, causing Minah to scoff. “You’d think after a whole Summer of not seeing them in person they would be waiting for them to arrive,” she pointed out. “Also where are those girls who usually wait for Jane and Minah to show them how to style their uniform for the year?” she said. Jane and Minah looked over at each other and smirked, it was kinda fun seeing how everyone tried to recreate their style.

“Maybe Minah was right but an even bigger miracle happened and they went and got a life?” Enzo suggested.

“Too unrealistic,” Jane commented, shaking her head. “I bet it's an alien invasion,” Jane half-joked. She was enjoying just being a normal teenage girl who was just trying to figure out how to see her boyfriend but ever since that Asteroid had landed at the start of Summer, Jane (and Luna who hadn’t been able to shut up about it) had a feeling something bad was going to happen.

“Well, maybe we should see what that crowd is looking at?” Enzo said pointing to the staircase where everyone was standing around. Jane’s eyes narrowed as she looked over, spotting the majority of the senior year gathered around the stairs. She even spotted a few of Lucas’s more loyal fangirls.

The group moved over to the staircase, frowning as the sound of a guitar being strummed assaulted her ears. She couldn’t explain it but something about it just seemed weird. Like she knows it should sound nice but it was just off.

“Can anyone see anything?” she asked turning to her friends, Minah and Tara both shook their heads.

“It’s just some guy playing the guitar and a girl standing next to him,” Enzo said, sounding bored. “How boring,” he shrugged, stepping away from the crowd.

“And it’s not Eunha,” Lucas frowned in disappointment. Jane tried not to coo at how cute Lucas was, if Eunha did come to this school she better treat this boy right. “Honestly it’s nothing special,” Lucas shrugged. Jane frowned, she knew her classmates had a habit of idolizing their fellow peers but this was a little ridiculous.

Minah scoffed next to her, “This is so dumb,” she said with a scowl. “Come on let's go, I am not waiting here all day,” she said linking arms with Jane and Tara (who had grabbed onto Enzo not letting him escape this). “Lucas, Lee, let’s go,” she called as she moved forward, Jane was pretty sure she stepped on some people’s feet by accident, unlike Minah who may or may not have dropped her coffee on someone on purpose.

They stopped at the top of the stairs where the guitar boy and his friend stood. Guitar boy stopped playing while the girl looked extremely annoyed by their presence. “Excuse me,” the girl said in an obnoxious and potentially fake french accent.

“Maude no,” Guitar boy said, his eyes solely focused on Minah. Jane raised an eyebrow as this boy stepped forward, reaching out and grabbing Minah’s hand, bringing it up to his lips and kissing it.

“Julien,” Maude all but growled at the guitar boy. “What are you doing?” she asked glaring daggers at Minah. Jane moved forward just enough to shield her friends from this girl.

“Yeah what are you doing?” Tyler said, stepping in front of Minah, puffing his chest out to make him seem tough. “Keep your hands and lips to yourself,” he snapped. Jane rolled her eyes at this testosterone-induced staring contest, men, how tragic.

“Mind your business chipmunk,” Minah said elbowing Tyler.

“Don’t talk to him like that” The girl, Mauve?, snapped, racing over beside Tyler. “Are you okay?” she asked sweetly. Jane turned to Tara wondering if she had any idea what was actually happening but even she looked confused. “I’m Maude, do you need to go see a nurse, I can’t believe that girl you were only looking out for her… how ungrateful,” she continued as Tyler looked at her perplexed.

“I am fine?” he said, raising an eyebrow as the Maude girl leeched onto his arm.

Tyler was saved by the bell ringing and the entire student body pushing past in a rush to get to class leaving their group behind, the newcomers seemingly disappearing in the rush. “Well that was interesting,” Jane said as the six of them stood at the now-abandoned staircase.

“That’s a nice way of putting it,” Enzo said, Tara and Lucas nodded in agreement, all four of them looking over at Minah and Tyler curiously. “Well we have to get going,” he said nodding to Tara and Lucas, “good luck with those two,” he said gesturing to Tyler and Minah who were now bickering.

Jane groaned, “Lucas, your know how you are Tyler and Minah’s favourite?” Jane asked sweetly. “Maybe they would like it better if we swapped classes … just for today -” she said pouting. If Enzo wasn’t around she would have bought up the fact that Lucas was one of her sailor guardians who swore to protect just to make sure she got her way.

“I am not,” he started to say when a girl came running down the hallway cursing herself for being late. They watched said girl crash into Lucas, Jane winced feeling sympathetic for the girl, Lucas was like a wall. “Hey are you okay?” he asked, an arm wrapping around her to stop her from stumbling back. His eyes widened as he took in the girl, mouth hanging open.

“Oh i am fine, sorry,” The girl said, causing Jane, Tara, Minah and Tyler to turn and look at her. They all knew that voice, it was Eunha, well Emily as she apparently goes by now. Jane didn’t think it was a coincidence that she did end up going to the same school as them, just like them being in the same apartment as M wasn’t whether it be by design or fate.

“Why are we all staring at that girl?” Enzo whispered. Jane snapped out of her thoughts to see the girl shifting uncomfortably.

“I am just gonna,” she said as she wriggled out of Lucas' grip. ”Excuse me,” she said nodding before racing down the hall leaving a pouting Lucas in her wake.

“Well that - let’s just go to class,” Jane said with a frown. “We can figure out what is going on during lunch,” she said.

      ‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾　　☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

  Jane never imagined being the fifth wheel at their table despite being the only one of her friends who was actually in a relationship but here she was watching as Minah and Tyler both dealt with the school's newest students. Julien and Maude, two exchange students from France who in Jane’s oh so humble opinion had some of the worst french accents she had ever heard and she had heard a few.

She had zoned out halfway through this lunch, Tara and Lucas had stayed for a few minutes but after the Julien and Maude show decided that they had to catch up with their other friends and they would talk about Emily and Daniel later.

“I find it hard to believe someone as beautiful as you doesn’t have a boyfriend,” Julien commented looking at Minah with what could only be described as heart eyes. Minah hummed, looking down with the smallest smiles on her face. Jane raised an eyebrow, she had never seen Minah be affected by any guy flirting with her, especially not with such a basic line. If anything it was usually Minah flirting and reducing the boys to a puddle only to leave them because she wasn’t interested in anything serious.

“I can, she isn’t that pretty,” Maude said haughty, looking down her nose at Minah. Jane’s eyes narrowed a silent plea for the brunette to continue so she could punch her stupid face for saying such nonsense.

“Oh that is because she isn’t looking, we have a will they won’t they thing going on,” Tyler said glaring at Julien. Jane covered her mouth to stop herself from laughing. “Plus our dear Minah is dealing with some issues thanks to her ex,” he pretended to whisper before letting out a yowl. It didn’t take a genius to figure Minah had kicked him under the table.

“We have nothing going on,” Minah said, eyes narrowed.

“That’s not what you said last night,” Tyler shrugged, a cocky smirk on his face. Jane looked between the two of them not noticing the way both Julien and Maude looked practically murderous. “Why must you hide our love like this?” he said dramatically.

“I will end you,” Minah said through gritted teeth.

“I think we should go,” Julien said standing up, Maude followed suit. Jane felt a little sympathetic for the pair, mostly for Julien (if she was going to be completely honest.) having to witness this argument it was disturbing for her to watch she could imagine what it would be like to be an almost stranger watching along.

“Oh no don’t leave, especially not because of that fool,” she said reaching out to grab Julien's wrist. Jane raised an eyebrow at the way Maude seemed to fume, her eyes narrowed at Minah’s hand. “Or how about I come with you,” she said sweetly, eyes fluttering and a soft smile on her lips. Jane rolled her eyes knowing that Julien was a goner. The boy nodded, a dumb smile making its way onto his face and like that the pair had gone, walking off to the other side of the schoolyard. Maude had been completely forgotten.

“I am still going,” Maude said, eyes darting to Tyler hopefully.

“Okay see you in class,” Tyler shrugged before turning to Jane. “Can you believe her? What is Minah thinking?” he ranted. Jane once again had to cover her mouth to stop herself from laughing at Tyler’s complete dismissal of Maude. “What’s wrong with you? Why do you keep covering your mouth?” he said, sparing Jane an annoyed glance. “I swear everyone is losing their mind today,” he said shaking his head.

“Just a cough,” Jane lied. “And you say that like you are not included in the mind losing,” she said shaking her head. “Saying all that stuff to Minah, it’s like you have a death wish,” Jane commented.

“I am saving her from her own terrible taste,” Tyler shrugged. “Between Minah and Lucas, i swear i am going to be exhausted. Let's hope Enzo does his job and keeps fools around for Tara,” he grumbled, a determined flash behind his eyes.

“You could just, you know, mind your own business and not get involved,’ Jane said in a sing-song voice causing Tyler to roll his eyes.

“Clearly i can’t,” Tyler said simply, “Lucas wants to run into the mess that is Eunha and Minah is going around with Julien who by the way smells like dead roses,” he huffed.

“You were smelling him?” Jane asked, scrunching her nose up. “That’s a little weird,” she said looking at Tyler judgmentally.

“Tyler’s being weird again, nice to know somethings don’t change,” Lucas teased, making his presence known. Tyler rolled his eyes, flicking a crumb up at Lucas. “Did you really smell him?” he asked looking at Tyler curiously.

“Oh shush,” Tyler said with a huff. “You can’t judge me, mister. I've been following Eunha around like a sad little puppy dog,” he said, judgment clear in his voice.

“Her name is Emily now thank you very much,” Lucas corrected. “And i have not, I’ve been with the guys,” he said proudly before pouting. “Plus even if i did want to talk to Emily she has become friends with Mimi,” he said sitting down where Minah had been sitting. “Why is life so unfair?” he questioned.

“Oh stop being so dramatic,” Jane said. “Who cares if she is friends with a girl who doesn’t like you because you beat her high score at some silly Sailor V game,” Jane said, rolling her eyes at the whole situation. “I am sure one proper look at you and Eun- Emily will be in love,” Jane said patting his back. “And if she isn’t there are plenty of other girls who would love to be with you,” she added.

“Though your fan club as dwindled thanks to that new weirdo,” Tyler said with an eye roll. “You know I saw him making eyes at Eunha just before,” Tyler teased, smiling faintly.

“Please that boy only has a heart eyes for Minah, mon cheri ,” Jane said mockingly, Julien’s use of the French language irked Jane but to his credit, he did better than Maude who seemed to just make odd noises. “And if Lucas’s fan club has dwindled then yours must be non-existent now,” she said looking at Tyler who blanched at the thought.

“Look just because neither you nor your boyfriend are fan club worthy but -” Tyler started to speak but was cut off by the sound of an ice cream truck jingle. Jane’s brows furrowed together, she would never say no to ice cream on a hot day but they had never heard an ice cream truck around their school, well ever.

It was like everyone paused as the truck's song continued to play, “creepy,” Lucas muttered under his breath. The day got even stranger as the school gates opened allowing the truck to come in. Their principal was notably strict about what was and what wasn’t allowed in their schools, Jane can recall that one time Antoine tried to order a pizza at school - he was in detention for two months and had to work as a delivery driver for one of them.

Within the blink of an eye majority of the student body had surrounded the truck causing Jane to pout. She wanted to get an ice cream cone but with that line lunch would be over before even half of the crowd disappeared.

“You’d think they’d have never seen an ice cream van before,” Tyler murmured, face contorting into one of thinly veiled disgust. “How childish,” he said with an eye roll.

“Okay Mr I’m too cool for ice cream,” Jane said, watching as Tara and Minah made their way over. She raised an eyebrow last time she looked over at Tara was chatting away with her friends and Minah had disappeared with Julien, probably to find an empty classroom ‘to get to know each better’.

“Problems?” she asked as they arrived, the pair couldn’t look any different, Tara’s eyes were downcast and she chewed her lip while Minah stood with her hand on hip and annoyed huff escaping her lips.

“Apparently Julien really likes ice cream,” Minah said rolling her eyes. “As soon as he heard it he was all like i have to go excuse me and just disappeared on me, people do not disappear on me,” she ranted.

“Julien and the entire school,” Tara said, “Does anyone else find it weird how literally raced over?” she questioned.

“Everyone but us,” Lucas pointed out rather unhelpfully.

“Yeah, but at the same time it’s the first day of school, who doesn’t need a mid-afternoon pick me up?” Jane questioned, trying to squash the nerves in her stomach. This year was going to be normal, she was going to have a normal senior year dealing with normal girl problems. No negaverse. No Beryl. Just homework and boy problems ( not that she has those.)

“I know but everyone, I am pretty sure one of the girls in my grade is lactose intolerant,” Tara pointed out.

“Oh and Stephanie told me once she doesn’t eat ice cream because it ruins your skin so -” Lucas frowned. “But maybe it’s the first-day blue’s, I felt little nuts after Mr Warren’s class,” he added hopefully.

“Hey T, i got you an ice cream,” Tara’s friend Ara called out, tossing a wrapped ice cream at Tara before taking a bit of her soft serve and fainting.

“Ara,” Tara raced over to where Ara had just fallen, Tyler followed after her. While Minah and Jane shared a concerned look.

“Looks like the negatrash is back,” Lucas said looking around the schoolyard as students rapidly started to fall to the ground.

“Unfortunately,” Jane said with a frown. She couldn’t believe it though, she had beaten Metalia, the evil force had been defeated by the power of the silver crystal. It couldn’t be Enzo she thought, maybe Daehyun and Eunha? But why would they? Sungjae was a possibility, no one had seen or heard from since the rebirth and he was the most heavily influenced. Maybe he was calling the shots, somehow got Daehyun and Eunha to work for him. Regardless she needed to deal with the problem at hand. “Moon! Prism! Power,” she shouted to transform. Minah and Lucas had followed suit transforming into Sailor Venus and Sailor Jupiter respectively.

“Mimi,” They looked towards the van seeing Eunha crouching down next to her new friend. “What the hell did you do?” she shouted towards whoever was in the van. The only thing that could be heard was maniacal laughing and icy tentacle springing from inside the van. The tentacle wrapped around her waist holding her in place as it started to drain her energy.

Jane and Minah didn’t have time to react as Lucas raced forward. “Supreme Thunder!” he called out as a lightning bolt sprung from his crown at the tentacle creature. Eunha crumbled to the ground barely able to move. That ruled her out as a possible suspect.

The monster leapt out of the van, as expected it was as ugly as ever. A vaguely human esque blue creature with tentacles for arms, its eyes were shaped like snowflakes and its midsection was covered in what looked like sprinkles. The creature hissed at Lucas who was now standing protectively in front of Emily.

“Venus love chain,” Minah called out, her power whipping the monster causing it to swirl around to face herself and Jane.

“Hey Ugly,” Jane called out, causing the monster to turn around to see her and Minah. “Yeah you, I get that you aren’t from around here but this isn’t going to end well for you,” she said down at the monster in contempt. “I am Sailor Moon, the champion of justice and i say on the behalf of the moon, I shall right wrongs and triumph over evil and that means you,’ she said with her usual arm movements. By this point, she had her speech down a fine art.

The creature turned to hiss at her before lifting one of it tentacle arm up and aiming it directly at Jane. Jane watched in morbid curiosity as it opened revealing a slimy ball of what looked like at icecream. “Gross now icecream has been ruined for me forever,” she muttered. The ball of icecream grew bigger that closer it got to Jane, she leapt out of the way only to see Minah got caught in a ball of ice cream.

Despite the seriousness of the situation Jane had to stop herself from laughing because honestly, the image in front of her was hilarious. She couldn’t look for too long because the monster hadn’t forgotten about her and started to rapidly fire at her causing her to run and jump all over the yard. The one plus side with a Jane sized distraction the monster had forgotten all about Lucas who had moved to aid Minah who was less than happy about her situation.

“Can you give me a break,” Jane panted, she had to get back into her old Cardio program if she was going to be doing all this running again because right she was really struggling. The monster hissed, using one of its tentacles to reach and grab Jane. “Crap,” Jane snapped as she was hung upside down by the monster.

Jane struggled to fight her way out of it. “Mars fire ignite,” was heard before a fireball hit the tentacle causing Jane to be released with a thud.

“Everyone say thank you Sailor Mars, you have the best power,” Tyler boasted. He was served a piece of humble pie when the creature took aim at him, he just escaped. “Mercury a little help right now,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Oh i thought Sailor Mars could handle this since he has the best powers,” Tara called out from whatever she was, Jane spun around trying to figure out where exactly she was but had no luck. “Mercury Aqua Mist,” was heard before the whole school was covered in mist. Any chances she had of finding Tara was gone now all she could see was the ugly ice cream sundae in front of her.

Jane knew that this was her opportunity to finish that creature off. “Moon Tiara Magic,” she exclaimed, attacking the creature watching as it let out a pained screech and turning into a vapour leaving nothing but what looked like a card. That was new. Jane stepped forward tentatively picking the card up. It was empty except for a border. She hummed pocketing it, she would show Luna it when she got home. Maybe she had an idea of what it meant.

She knew soon the rest of the school would be waking up and if it was anything like when Shitennou attacked they would have no memory of what happened at all, it was as weird as it was annoying. Luna had tried to explain why it happens to her once but Jane at the time didn’t really care and now she was too afraid to ask knowing that she will get a scolding from her moon guardian.

“I am never eating ice cream again,” Minah said shivering, “That was disgusting,” she whined. Jane looked at her sympathetically as they began to de-transform. “So much for a normal life huh,” she said somewhat bitterly. “Let’s just go to class before the rest of the masses wake up,” she huffed.

“I thought you look pretty…. Cool,” Tyler said chuckling causing everyone but Lucas who was moving an unconscious Emily into a more comfortable position. What a gentleman. “Hey it’s not my fault she looked pretty sweet, too bad Julien wasn’t around i am sure he’d tell Minah she looked yummy,” he continued.

“Oh that is it,” Minah said smacking his side causing Tyler’s eyes to widen. “I’ve had enough of you today,” she said as Tyler raced away, Minah following after him threatening to cause him serious harm.

“Do you think it’s the negaverse again?’ Tara asked quietly. “Should i be keeping an eye on Enzo?”

“I don’t know,” Jane sighed, that was her answer to both questions. She didn’t know what was going on anymore but Minah was right their hopes of a normal year were dashed.

[undecidedpersonality]

Writer’s Month 2020 Day Eighteen: Myths

Title: “Southern Myth Busters”

By: Nalijah Daniels

Word Count: 1439

Genre: Fiction - Contemporary

Being the daughter of myth-busters located in Louisiana is starting to get less and less interesting. I’ve started to blame the constant humidity for my parents going crazy and becoming obsessed with debunking the most obscure mysteries of the Southern United States. We’ve traveled across the rest of the country for the juiciest stories in the North or West but most of them are focused around our region and home state.

When I meet new people, most of them assume that my parent’s profession would cause me to have a horrible school life. More specifically, they think that I get bullied all the time. I’ve literally heard people say to my parents, “Poor Lila, public schooling must be tough for her. The kids are brutal these days.” It’s quite the opposite, actually. I’m the lonely kid in the teen coming-of-age films because my parents are practically famous and everyone has tried their hand at being my fake friend in hopes of being able to wiggle their way into the Noami and Darryl Tomford’s life. For what reasons? I still can’t figure that out. No matter the reason, I refuse to let it happen.

The latest student on the conquest of becoming a Tomford pal: Ari Mandell. He’s been one of the smartest kids in my grade since God knows when, yet has managed to be a part of the popular crowd since middle school. My school isn’t entirely clique-y, but if he wasn’t attractive, he wouldn’t be in, what I call, The Upper Crust. They party every Friday and Saturday night and make an ass of themselves in class because they can. The teachers somehow buy into their popularity bullshit too and praise them like celebrities, even though The Upper Crust kids interrupt their class with stupid jokes. Except for Ari. The teachers love Ari the most. That’s why it sucks to have five of my six classes with him––he has five opportunities to prove that he’s better than me. That’s why it irks me even more that his plan, whatever it is, to be buddy-buddy with my parents is working.

Until my parents and I were about to set off on our next myth-trip to Northeast New Orleans, I had no idea Ari was in the picture. I wasn’t able to slam the door on his face because I had no idea he knocked. We were sitting around the breakfast table, t-minus ten minutes until we would pile in the RV and leave out on our three hour ride when my dad said,

“By the way, Lila sweetheart, we’re picking up Ari Mandell on the way out.”

I nearly choked on my breakfast. There was no way my dad was telling the truth. How did he know this specific statement would mess with my head. “You said what now?” I asked, my eyes darting between my dad and mom’s eyes. My dad’s tell was scratching his mustache. My mom’s tell was her nose twitching like a rabbit’s. They were both still, annoying and smug smiles plastered on their faces because they knew what they were doing. “Why are we picking up Ari Mandell?” I finally asked.

“Because, I’m good friends with his father, Karl, and he was telling me about how Ari is going to major in forensic sciences and is considering taking a gap year for an internship. I told Karl that joining two myth busting geniuses would definitely set Ari apart in his studies, so he’s joining us to see if he’s really into it. We didn’t tell you until just now because we knew you’d complain and convince us to change our minds but it’s too late now. So grab your bags Lila-bug and let’s hit the road.”

On the road I refused to talk to Ari. I managed to go an entire two hours without doing so at least before I couldn’t stand his calm composure of acting like there wasn’t a problem with him being in my vicinity.

 “Is there a purpose in you being here?” I asked. I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back against the bench cushion. I hope I looked as intimidating as I meant to be.

He paused for a second, his movements slow as he looked up from his phone at me. It took a whole five second for his left eyebrow to lift all the way. His words were even slow as he replied, “I don’t… get… what you mean.”

I rolled my eyes and leaned toward him over the RV’s back table where we were both doing homework. He told me fifteen minutes into the trip he’d be willing to help me work if I needed it. I don’t need homework help. I rephrased my original question, “Why are you trying to mooch up to my parents? Did your friends put you up to this because they knew The Nerd would be able to wiggle his way onto an episode of Southern Myth Busting with the Tomfords? Can’t you not be the best at something for once in your goddamn life?”

Regret coursed through my body as soon as I saw the look on his face. First his mouth was open, then it turned into a frown when his shoulders dropped. I expected him to get up and walk away. The front of the RV wasn’t that far away, we would still be able to see each other, but I never expected him to just sit there. I opened my mouth a couple of times, willing apologetic words to come out. Instead all I could do was hang my head and press my palms to my eyes.

I heard Ari chuckle, two low-pitched puffs of air, and I peeked through my fingers to look up at him. Although his face was turned, looking out the window, I could tell he was upset by his tightened jaw. It was his turn to cross his arms.

“I’m not just some wimp who let’s people walk all over me. I don’t think many people at school realize that. You obviously don’t and honestly, Lila, I thought you were better than that. I thought you were above the hierarchy of who can’t hang with whom but you’re proving to be just like everyone else.”

He shook his head and finally made eye contact with me but I dropped my eyes to my lap, focusing intensely on twisting the eraser of my mechanical pencil. He chuckled again, a bit louder this time but I didn’t look up to see his expression. “You know, that is quite a myth of its own.”

Looking up now I cocked my head to the left, my lips twisted to the right. When he understood that I didn’t understand, he continued. “Here we are on a roadtrip to investigate some long standing myth when really, the real myths are right at our high school. Right here between you and I. Let’s investigate that, huh? To be honest, I don’t think either of us have ever been truthful with ourselves or to others.”

I sighed and let my shoulders drop, I couldn’t be defensive any longer. Especially not after being an asshole. “Listen, Ari, I’m sorry for… I don’t know, assuming that you’re something that you’re not. Or that you allow yourself to be less than what you are. I’ve been––,” I paused and squeezed my eyes shut, as if not making eye contact would make the next thing I said less true. “I’ve been jealous of you for a while. You make being smart and cool look so easy. Everyone likes you because you are actually an interesting person. People only ever like me because I’m the daughter of a world famous daytime TV myth busting couple,” I shrugged my shoulders and sighed, “I guess I just wish my life was a little easier, like yours.”

“Isn’t that amazing,” he said softly, his light colored eyes smiling at mine once I worked up the courage to look him in the eyes again. “It’s so much more beautiful when the mysteries solve themselves. We can get somewhere with this. My life isn’t ‘easy’ being cool and smart,” he snorted, “It’s just that our lives are set up differently. I believe, though, that we can work together to figure out the full truths both of us hold. We can learn a lot from each other. Does that sound like a plan?”

I smiled, my cheekbones tight from the last few minutes of an embarrassment pinched face. “I think that’s an amazing plan. It would be nice to have at least one friend when I graduate.”

[juju-on-that-yeet]

There Are Worse Things I Could Do, Chapter 4/10

Summary: Yancy finds himself in a bar talking to an attractive and charismatic woman. Maybe she can help him forget about Lio, even if just for a night. Warnings: Mild sexual content Characters: Yancy, female OC

Read on AO3

Enjoy!

~

After a long day of aimlessly wandering through LA and fighting with himself on whether or not he should go home, Yancy ends up in a cheap bar.

The place is decently busy, not very clean, and most of the clientele seem rough around the edges. People are shouting over each other to be heard, punctuated by the thunk of glasses being slammed down. There’s a minor catfight going on in the corner of the room, with two women pulling each other’s hair and trying to scratch out each other’s eyes. It’s not all bad, though. There’s groups of friends genuinely having a good time, and couples standing together around the room. There’s even a pair of women, talking and obviously flirting with each other, and no one else even seems to notice. Yancy can’t help but feel a little safer.

He’s not sure what his goal here is. It’s not like he has any money, he doesn’t even have an ID (he owns a fake one, but it’s back in his room at Ego Inc.). He sits at the booth anyway; maybe if he drinks enough water he won’t get hungry until morning. The bartender gives him a funny look when he asks for only water, but he gives him a glass anyway. Yancy wonders how he comes across to others: His clothes are brand new and clean, but he knows his expression is tired, unhappy, pale cheeks and baggy eyes.

He must look pretty pathetic, because a woman sidles up next to him, sitting in the stool to his right.

“Long day?” she asks with a sympathetic grin. Yancy can’t help but snort.

“You have no idea.” He chuckles quietly, rubbing the back of his neck. “Long week, more like.”

“Rough. I hope you don’t mind company.”

“Nah, I could use some. You are…?”

“Danielle.” She smiles, genuine and bright. “You can call me Dani if you want.”

“Cool, I’m…”

It occurs to Yancy that most of the egos with strange names have some sort of alias they use to avoid suspicion. It also occurs to Yancy that Dark has a rule about the egos getting too close to humans. But it also occurs to Yancy that he’s not in Ego Inc. right now, and he’s not even sure if he’s going back, and in that case, why should he care about those rules, anyway?

“Yancy,” he finally says. “Yan or Yance is good too, though.”

“Yancy.” Danielle says it slowly, not mocking, but curious. “I’ve never heard that name before. Where are you from?”

“Uh, Ohio.”

“Ah.”

The conversation seems pretty dead in the water, but then Yancy realizes something.

“Hey, weren’t youse talkin’ to that other gal over there earlier?”

It’d be hard to mistake her; Danielle is Yancy’s height, with long, thick black hair tied back in a poofy ponytail. She’s wearing a white, knot front blouse with long, draping sleeves under an unzipped puffy vest, and flared jeans over spiky black boots. This close, Yancy can see how her nose is slightly bent, and how her eyes are strikingly blue. Her features are strong, solid-edged, and very attractive, at least to Yancy,

“I was, but we didn’t come in together,” Danielle explains. “She’s cute, I guess, but we didn’t really click.” She sees the look on Yancy’s face, and rolls her eyes. “I know that look. You’re wondering why I’m here with you when I was just with a girl, aren’t you?”

“Well, yeah,” Yancy admits. He wants to explain himself, but he lets Danielle keep talking first.

“Put simply, I swing both ways,” she says, “I hope it’s not a problem that I like girls.” She sounds less worried about upsetting Yancy and more about getting bothered by him.

“No, no way, I mean, me too!” Yancy exclaims, but then realizes how that sounded when Danielle’s expression changes to unimpressed. “No, aw hell, I mean…” He rubs the back of his neck again. “I mean…I like both, too. Was just surprised to find someone else here who does, s’all.”

“Oh!” Danielle says, first shocked, then she starts laughing. “Oh, shit, I’m sorry! I’m so used to people giving me a hard time–”

“No, I get it, I must’ve sounded like a real tool–”

“I don’t know how many straight guys have said what you did–”

The two are laughing, apologizing and explaining to each other through it all. In the process, they end up leaning towards each other, closer. Danielle really is beautiful.

“This calls for a drink,” Danielle giggles, “On me.” She notices Yancy’s water. “Oh, wait, are you driving?”

“No, nothin’ like that,” Yancy says, embarrassed. “I, uh, left my wallet at home.” It’s not a lie.

“Rough! Well, they never check IDs here, anyway, so I’ll get us something.”

The beer Danielle orders them isn’t bad; it’s better than Shithole Hank’s hooch wine, that’s for sure. She even takes pity on his growling stomach and orders fries for them to share. They talk for a while, and Yancy eventually ends up telling her what he’s doing here.

“Confessed to a friend,” he says with a shrug, trying to play off the still-raw hurt. “Didn’t work out. Don’t help that we’re roomies, too, so I just…had to get away for a bit, yanno?”

“Yikes,” Danielle murmurs, “That sounds terrible. I’ve fallen for friends before. It’s always more trouble than it’s worth.”

“Youse tellin’ me.”

“I got out of a relationship a few weeks ago.” Danielle leans closer, like she’s trying not to be too obvious. “It was pretty mutual, though. I’m ready for something new.”

That much was already apparent. The more Yancy and Danielle talk, the more overt Danielle gets. She gets so close they nearly bump heads, and even puts a hand on Yancy’s thigh once or twice, removing it the second after he notices but before he can say anything. Not that Yancy would. Danielle clearly wants a one-night stand, and maybe it’d be good for Yancy, too. Maybe this is what he needs to scrub Lio out of his brain and actually enjoy himself. Maybe if he finds out how Danielle tastes he’ll stop thinking about how Lio might taste. Maybe if he sleeps with her he’ll stop dreaming about sleeping with Lio. Not to mention he’ll have somewhere warm and comfortable to stay for the night if he goes home with her. It feels dishonest, but realistically, Danielle already knows his baggage. Yancy’s told her how he’s getting away from his roommate and ill-fated crush, she has to be aware of what he’s looking for…right? And Danielle really is a beautiful woman; anyone would be lucky to be with her. She’s fun, too; witty and kind and tough. She’s exactly the type of person he’d fall head over heels for if he wasn’t already tripping over Lio.

They end up leaving the bar a little bit tipsy, enough to give them both red cheeks and constant giggles. Danielle leads the way to her apartment, and Yancy is almost too drunk to feel guilty about imposing. When they walk in, though, he’s distracted from his thoughts by what he sees.

“Ohhhh, hello!” he coos at the beautiful brindle-coated pit bull that rushes into the room to greet them.

“That’s Bruce,” Danielle explains with a grin, gently fending the dog off as she takes off her puffy vest. “But I call him “Brucie” and “BruBru” so often I don’t think he knows his real name anymore.”

“He’s a real handsome dog,” Yancy says appreciatively, giving Bruce a hand to sniff after he’s taken his gloves off. “I ain’t allowed to have pets where I’m at.” He laughs as Bruce starts vigorously licking his hand.

“Yeah, I really lucked out here,” Danielle says, “So many buildings have a stick up their ass about bully breeds. But this place is good, I swear the landlord like Bruce more than me.”

“Well, he is a charmer,” replies Yancy, now sitting on the floor and letting Bruce bowl him over with affection. Danielle laughs at the sight.

“Alright, alright, come on,” she giggles, “You passed the Bruce test with flying colors, let’s go to my room.”

Yancy’s chest flutters (With nerves? Excitement? Something else?) as he gets off the floor and gives Danielle a quizzical look.

“Sure, but…what’s the Bruce test?” he asks.

“Well, Brucie’s a sweet dog, but he’s got a sixth sense for terrible partners,” Danielle explains. “He can be downright mean if he senses something off about someone. I’ve dodged a few red flags thanks to him, but it seems like you aren’t one of them.”

“Oh great, it’s not enough that you’re using Danielle to sleep somewhere warm tonight. You’ve duped her sweet dog into trusting you, too.”

Yancy tries to ignore his thoughts as he follows Danielle to her room. Bruce follows too, and Danielle has to muscle him out of the doorway to close the bedroom door. It’s clear she’s done this many, many times.

“You’re still in, right?” Danielle asks, unknotting the front of her blouse.

“Yeah,” Yancy says, though he makes no move to take his own clothes off yet.

It’s only partly from his lingering thoughts of dishonesty. It doesn’t matter how many times he sees someone disrobe, it’s still attractive to him. He can certainly appreciate the tightness of Danielle’s stomach, visible as she lifts her shirt over her head. He finds himself sitting on the end of her bed to watch the display. Danielle’s bra is simple, nearly the same color as her skin, but what really attracts Yancy’s attention is the tattoo on her elbow, now visible without the sleeve of her blouse over it.

It’s a spiderweb, branching from the point of her elbow out, as though a spider made a home there. It doesn’t go very far up or down her arm, but it’s there, unmistakable. It could just be a spiderweb tattoo and nothing more, but Yancy’s seen tattoos like that before. Plenty of inmates at Happy Trails had them, too. In prison, they signal that someone’s been locked up for a while, that they’ve been trapped like a bug in a web, so idle with prison life that they’ve grown cobwebs. Yancy almost got one himself but decided he didn’t want anymore ink on top of what he already has.

“Nice tattoo,” he ventures. Danielle, who was shimmying out of her jeans, pauses.

“Thanks,” she says. Something in Yancy’s voice must have given him away, because she stares at him, considering. “You…know what it means?”

“Yeah,” Yancy answers, “I, uh…I almost got one, too, back when I was in the big house.”

Danielle relaxes, a bit like how she did when she realized that Yancy is bi, too.

“No kidding?” she asks, laughing a little. “I really wasn’t there that long, not compared to others, anyway. It was eight years; would’ve been less, but I kept causing havoc in jail that added time.” She must see the curiosity on Yancy’s face, because her smile turns less playful, her eyes get faraway. “Drug possession; heroin, to be specific. Just a few too many grams to get a light sentence. I couldn’t stay away from it, even in jail. Eventually I forced myself to drop it so I could have a life again.” She resumes taking her pants off. “What about you?”

Yancy freezes then. He looks away.

“Oh, you don’t have to tell me!” Danielle backtracks hurriedly, kicking her pants off from around her ankles. “I forget that not everyone’s as candid about that kinda thing as I am, sorry I asked.”

“S’alright,” Yancy mumbles.

“Would she still want you here if she knew what you’d done?”

Yancy looks back to see Danielle in her underwear, lacey and dark blue. His breath stutters, and his thoughts suddenly short-circuit. Danielle has really nice legs.

“Thanks,” Danielle giggles.

“Ah, shoot, I said that out loud, huh?” Yancy asks, sheepish, as Danielle approaches him.

“You did,” she affirms. She looks him up and down. “Are you gonna maybe…” She gestures to his still-clothed body. “Do something about all that?”

“Hey, we don’t gotta rush, doll,” Yancy answers, leaning back. “’Sides, I’m cozy. Maybe if I got too hot, I might take somethin’ off.”

His accessories and hoodie are sitting back by the door on Danielle’s coatrack, and his sneakers are beside it. But his shirt and jeans are still on, just tight enough to bolster the imagination without revealing very much. Danielle grins at his words.

“Alright, we can play that game,” she says, leaning down and sitting on Yancy’s lap.

Even with the worries of deceiving Danielle still in Yancy’s mind, it’s not hard to push them to the backburner once Danielle’s lips meet his. She doesn’t taste like anything he can name, but she’s an excellent kisser, slow, deep. Her nails find the nape of Yancy’s neck, sending shivers down his spine as she plays with the tufts of hair he missed when he gelled it this morning.

“No, yesterday morning. You haven’t gelled it since then, remember? You haven’t been at Ego Inc. to do it.”

Yancy tries to chase the thought away by reciprocating Danielle’s touches, gripping her waist with one hand and letting the other wander over her thigh. Danielle hums appreciatively, the sound vibrating through Yancy as their lips stay connected. He eventually pulls away to mouth at her neck, sucking marks into the flesh. His grip on her hip changes to let his fingers dip below the band of her underwear, dangerously close.

“Slow down, tiger,” Danielle chuckles, breathy and light, “I wanna play, too.”

Yancy finally pulls away from her to take his shirt off, doing it maybe a little more slowly than he needs to, giving Danielle a nice view. The moment Yancy’s shirt hits the floor, Danielle’s hands are all over him. Yancy can’t get enough of her, either. She even smells good, something vaguely spicy on the edge of Yancy’s senses. Her skin is soft but tough, it takes effort to mark her up. On top of everything else, she’s a great kisser, undoing Yancy from his jaws to his chest. Did he notice her good kissing already? Probably. It’s hard to think like this. It’s been a while since he got to sleep with someone. At some point he gets her bra off, giving him even more skin to play with. Danielle arches into it, happy to let him.

Eventually, Danielle’s hands finally travel down to Yancy’s straining jeans, palming him, letting out an appreciative hum. Yancy grins against her skin.

“Do you want me yet?” she asks, low and sultry.

The words fling Yancy somewhere else completely, to a familiar memory.

“Are you in love with me yet?”

Yancy pushes Danielle off and stands, surprising her.

“What the–” she starts, “Did I do something? I thought–”

“Sorry,” Yancy mutters, hardly able to breathe, “I thought I could do this, but I can’t. I can’t. I’m sorry.”

He grabs his shirt off the floor and hurriedly tugs it over his head, but all he can see is Lio. Lio’s easy grin, Lio’s handsome eyes, Lio’s sharp jawline and rough stubble that Yancy wishes he could touch–

“Wait, come on, what’s this about?” Danielle asks, voice getting sharper, frustrated.

“It ain’t you, Dani, I swear, I just–” Yancy runs a hand down his face, upset. “I ain’t over it. I ain’t over him. I thought I wanted to be with you, I thought it’d take my mind off, but I just…I just want him so bad. I can’t do this.”

A tense silence settles over the room. Danielle sighs and savagely grabs her bra off the floor.

“I knew it,” she mutters as she puts her bra back on, “I knew you weren’t gonna go through with this, I knew you weren’t over that guy and trying to use me for comfort, but I brought you home anyway.” She shakes her head. “Look, you’re not a bad guy, Yancy, but you better leave until you can be honest with yourself, much less others.”

The words strike right through Yancy’s heart, and he gasps.

“Wait, hold on, are you–” His voice almost cracks. “Are youse kickin’ me out?”

“I invited you here for a reason, and it wasn’t for a friendly sleepover,” Danielle answers, deadpan. “Just go home and deal with your shit, don’t make me your cure-all.”

“Aw, come on, doll, I just – I gotta – C’mon, don’t put me out–”

“Go home, Yancy.”

“I can’t!”

“You can, and you will, because you’re not staying here.” She sighs again, less frustrated, more sad. “I know from experience that enabling helps no one. So I won’t enable you, not tonight.”

“I…” Yancy hangs his head. “Okay.”

“Let yourself out, I’ll relock the door after.” She turns away from him to pull her shirt back on. “Come back to that bar when you’ve sorted yourself out, maybe we can see each other again.”

“When the hell is THAT gonna be?”

“Who knows?”

Yancy leaves Danielle’s room in a daze, passing Bruce, who looks up at him from the bone he’s been chewing.

“You shoulda warned her, buddy,” Yancy grumbles as he puts his hoodie on, followed by his hat, scarf, and gloves. When he bends to get his shoes on, Bruce trots over and tries to lick him, but Yancy gently pushes him back until the bog goes back to his bone, oblivious to Yancy’s mood.

Yancy walks out of Danielle’s apartment, not looking back once he closes the door and ventures into the cold night. He turns her words over and over in his mind, thinking, wondering.

He finds and sleeps on a bus stop bench for the rest of the night.

[mosylufanfic]

Two Truths and a Lie

Killervibe Week Day Six: Soulmates

(I’m working on day 5. It’s haaaaaard.)

Also I never took a single science class in college so if I got this way off base, let me know.

Two Truths and a Lie

The lab was filled with deafening sound as people came in and got settled and said hi to each other. Caitlin parked herself at an empty table and started setting out her lab notebook and her pencil case.

"This seat taken?" said a boy with long hair and a Star Trek t-shirt, giving her a bright smile. 

She shook her head. 

"Thanks." He dropped his bag on the table and rooted around in it. "I was afraid I was going to be late."

Caitlin nodded at the front of the room. "You're okay. Professor Stein just walked in."

"Settle down," the prof called out. "Settle down! Let's get started, people. You all know me, if you were at the lecture yesterday." He narrowed his eyes at them. "If you weren't at the lecture yesterday, we're going to have a problem."

The boy laughed. Caitlin didn't. 

He leaned over. "Hey, don't be fooled. Stein puts on a mean face, but it's all crust. He's pretty chill, actually."

"I'm not worried," Caitlin whispered back. "Shhh."

"The first thing we're going to do," Professor Stein announced, "is go around the room and introduce ourselves. We'll all be working closely in this lab and you should know each other." He looked over his glasses. "And none of those silly fake names you kids do these days."

"But sir," said a boy in the front row, tall and lanky and bright-eyed. "What if our soulmate is in the room? The only way we'll know is if we can't lie to them."

"We're a group of less than twenty," Stein said. "Even if you assumed that your soulmate was on this campus and not any of the million other places in the world they could possibly be, the odds of them being in this room with us is -" He narrowed his eyes momentarily.

"Point four-five percent," Caitlin said.

Stein bestowed a smile on her. "Well calculated."

"But mathematically speaking, there's still a chance," said the boy at her table. He turned and grinned at her. “I mean, they’re our soulmate. We have to meet them somewhere, right?”

The rest of the lab group giggled. 

"You know, in my day, we didn't have soulmates," Professor Stein said. "We fell in love and dated and got our hearts broken."

"That sounds awful," the boy said. 

"Such a waste of time," Caitlin muttered. 

The boy glanced at her, looking surprised. "Not to mention getting your heart broken must've sucked."

"It did suck," Stein said. "But it made us better. Stronger." He looked around at the hopeful faces and rolled his eyes. "Fine," he said. "Fine. Do the silly names, it's not like you've got several experiments to run through this session. But I'm warning you, if you find your soulmate in the next five minutes, you'll refrain from true love's kiss until after class, understood?"

Everyone giggled again. 

Stein rolled his eyes again, but the corner of his mouth quirked up. Caitlin thought the boy next to her might have a point about it all being a put-on. "We'll start with you," the prof said, pointing at the lanky boy who'd argued for the fakes. 

He said brightly, "My name is Albert Einstein!" His face fell as he was able to tell the obvious lie with no problem at all. "I mean. Barry Allen."

No soulmate for you, Caitlin thought. Not today, anyway.

He wasn't the only one to start with a fake name, but he was the only one who looked so deeply disappointed by his ability to lie. Most of them picked a scientist - Galileo, Marie Curie, Stephen Hawking. It was a bunch of science majors, after all. 

A few people just said their own name, smiling the smug smile of a person who'd already found their soulmate when everyone else looked at them. 

When it came to her, Caitlin said, "Caitlin Snow," without any fuss, and looked down at her notebook. 

She hadn't found her soulmate yet, but she was only twenty. There was time. She was here to learn, not get tied down for the rest of her life to a stranger.

Everyone thought soulmates were so sweet and romantic. Try to tell a mild lie and discover the person you were meant to spend your life with.

But the thought filled her with dread. What if they wanted to get married right away? Have kids right away? She'd heard horror stories of people who gave up their dreams for a person they'd barely met. She had a lot of dreams, and no intention of giving up a single one of them.

To her surprise, the boy next to her said, "Cisco Ramon," without correcting himself, either. She stole a glance at him. He was looking at his notebook, too, brows drawn together. Maybe he was concerned about this class. Stein was supposed to be tough.

"Fine," Dr. Stein said. "Now that charade is done with, and we can move on to our experiments. For today, work with the person next to you."

"Sweet," Cisco Ramon said, his pensive look evaporating. "Lab buddies!" He put out his fist. "You bump it," he added when Caitlin didn't make a move.

"Oh," she said, and did. He grinned triumphantly and handed her a pair of safety goggles. 

She found she liked working with him. He made lots of pop-culture references and jokes, and chattered the entire time, but his science was solid. Not to mention, his smiles made her feel like she’d swallowed hot chocolate, and his high fives when something went right made her feel like Marie Curie.

By the end of the lab session, she'd learned that he was bilingual, had grown up in Central City, was living at home while he went to school - "only cuz it's cheaper, believe me" - planned to be a mechanical engineer, and had a firm opinion on the proper order of the Star Wars movies and which captain of the Enterprise was the best. 

She'd also decided that she would ask him to be her permanent lab partner.

"Sorry if I talked your ear off," he said as they were cleaning up. They'd had to re-start one of their experiments, and they were among the last ones in the room. "If you want the truth, I was a little weirded out and that's sort of the way I cope."

"I didn't mind," she said, packing her lab notebook in her bag. "Weirded out by what?" She held her breath. What if he'd been weirded out by her?

"Can you keep a secret?"

"What?"

"So you know how I just said my real name when we were all introducing ourselves?"

"Yes, I noticed." He hadn't mentioned his soulmate at all, she realized. Not once. 

"I did have a fake name ready to go," he said. "Guacardo."

"Isn't that the avocado?"

"Might as well have fun with it, right? But when I started to say it, I couldn't. It was like there was something in my throat, or my tongue froze up. It was the weirdest sensation."

She looked up, eyes wide. "But that means - "

"My soulmate was in this room." His smile beamed out, big and excited, and then he sobered. "But nobody else looked like they couldn't lie. What does that mean?” He looked tragic. “Oh, shit, what if I'm one of those poor saps where like, they're my soulmate, but I'm not their soulmate? Oh, shit."

She focused on putting all her pens and pencils and highlighters back in her pencil case. “Maybe, um, maybe they didn’t try to lie.”

“Who would do that, unless they already had their soulmate?”

“Maybe it’s someone who wants to focus on school and not think about a soulmate, and just decided to tell the truth all the time until they were ready.”

“Ready for what? Like I’m going to drag them to a courthouse and make them marry me just because we found each other?”

“M-maybe?”

“Come on. I’ve got dreams and stuff. I don’t want to be married and settled down yet either.” He scowled. “Who would take that risk? Who would want to wait? What if you never run across your soulmate ever again?”

“Maybe it sounded like a good idea before.”

Before. Before she was faced with a smiling boy with his shiny hair and his nerdy jokes, who looked so disappointed that his soulmate might want to put off meeting him. 

He shook his head and hoisted his bag onto his shoulder. “I’m gonna say something at the start of next class. I don’t care if Stein gets mad. I just want to know.”

She grabbed his arm. “Cisco? Ask me my name.”

“What? You’re Caitlin - “ He stared at her. 

“Please,” she said. “Just ask.”

“O - okay? What’s your name?”

Rachel, she thought. Madison. Danielle. 

But all the names that weren't hers bottled up in her throat, refusing to be spoken aloud. 

His eyes went wide with wonder and happiness.

“Caitlin,” she gasped. “My name is Caitlin Snow.”

He took her hand and wrapped it in his. “It is so good to meet you, Caitlin Snow.”

FINIS

[wolfpawn]

Life Is a Game of Risks

Chapter Summary - Alexianna and Tom take Sophie and Lily to the beach, causing Alexianna to feel guilty before they go to Diana's home for the evening and Tom makes Alexianna deal with her scars, even if she is unsure.

TRIGGERS - Past domestic abuse, Past emotional abuse, Past sexual abuse.

Previous Chapter

Tags: @damalseer @hiddlesbitch1 @winterisakiller @theoneanna

Request if you wish to be tagged

Alexianna smiled as Lily giggled uncontrollably, having been brought to the seaside for the first time in her life. She seemed to almost become a different child as she used a stick to draw in the sand and watched the water crash on the shoreline. Sophie was beside her, helping her draw her name in the sand.

‘Are you okay?’ Tom looked at her, noting the sadness on her face.

‘I am failing her.’ Alexianna’s voice was tight.

Tom immediately pulled her to him. ‘What makes you say that?’

‘She...this is the first time she has had something as normal as a visit to the seaside.’

‘Lexi, you had no car or the way to bring her, you are getting over this issue of yours now and she is only four, not fourteen, relax, you are not failing her.’ He kissed the top of her head. ‘Look at her, look how happy she is, don’t feel sad when she is so happy.’ Alexianna gave a small smile. ‘Take a picture, send it to Daniel, he would want to see this.’

‘I didn’t bring my phone.’ She admitted.

‘We’ll use mine.’ Tom reached into his pocket and took out his phone, taking two pictures without Lily noticing before calling her. ‘Lily Princess, we need a picture for Uncle Daniel.’ Upon hearing her uncle’s name, Lily squeaked with joy and rushed over, smiled wide, her hair every direction, the cool windy weather causing her to have a runny nose. ‘What do we say for pictures?’ He laughed.

‘Pikachu!’

Tom looked to Alexianna who was laughing at her daughter, not knowing where she got that from. ‘I was thinking cheese.’

‘But I don’t like cheese.’

‘Then say please.’ Alexianna suggested laughing.

‘How about pineapple?’ Lily suggested.

‘Just say Lily, please or even say nothing and smile.’ Her mum smiled.

‘Fine.’ Lily frowned for a moment, but seeing Tom pointing the phone at her, she smiled widely. ‘Now you and me, Mummy.’

‘No.’ Alexianna refused, stepping back.

‘Yes.’ Tom stated, ‘He’d love that.’

‘Tom, please.’ The way Alexianna looked at him pleadingly, with tears in her eyes told Tom everything.

‘Okay, it’s okay.’ He pulled her to him and kissed her temple. ‘We’ll get a picture of Mum in a minute, okay Princess, how about a big smile?’ Lily was about to complain about her mother not taking a photo with her, but as soon as Tom mentioned another photograph, she beamed widely. When he was done, she demanded to see them all, scolding him if one was blurry. Lily watched as Tom sent the pictures and a video of her saying hello to her uncle by PM on Facebook and they continued with their day, Tom making sure to reassure Alexianna with small gestures as they did so.

By evening, Lily was bleary-eyed on the couch watching Moana with Sophie, the fresh air and the hours spent outside having worn both girls out. Tom and Alexianna were the two cleaning up after the dinner since it was cooked while they took the girls out.

‘Did you enjoy the beach?’ Tom asked, looking at Alexianna drying a plate.

‘Yeah, it was nice.’ She gave a small smile.

‘Lexi…’ She looked at him in a way that told him she knew what he was going to ask. ‘Why don’t you want a picture of you and Lily?’

‘I don’t like photos.’

‘They use not bother you when you were younger.’ It was true, she never rushed into pictures, but when she and Emma used to laugh and have fun if there was a camera around, she used to pull funny faces with his sister and smile.

‘I just don’t.’ She stated, refusing to say any more on the subject.

He pulled her against him. ‘You are beautiful, inside and out.’ He stated, kissing her forehead. ‘We have had people take photos of us together.’ He reminded her. Admittedly neither had consented to it and the photographers did not seem too respectful of the clear dislike that she had for their actions.

‘In all fairness, they don’t get too close, if they did get a close-up, it is blurry, they can’t see them.’

Tom frowned for a moment and realised she was referencing her scars. He often forgot about them, knowing that they were there, he never actually paid any attention to them, but clearly, she was bothered by it. She never wore her hair up and did nothing to bring attention to her face. Even now, as she cleaned dishes in a warm house, her sleeves were down. ‘You are more than those scars, you know that, right?’ He pulled up her sleeve on her right arm, the one that took the brunt of the car crash. ‘These mean you survived. You showed me the photos of the crash, he ploughed into you at forty miles per hour in a large metal machine and you are still here.’ He kissed the healed wounds.

‘But when people find out about them…’

‘They will realise how incredibly strong you are.’

‘Or say he should have gone fifty and done the job right.’ She stated.

Tom swallowed, there were “fans” out there that wished ill on their celebrity crushes partners. He was sure, somewhere in the far corners of the internet, someone somewhere, under the anonymity of pixels on a screen would say something like that. He pulled her against him and kissed her head. ‘Don’t say that, please don’t say things like that. You are incredible and if something more happened you I would never have gotten to see you again, I would not have had the chance to tell you I love you. Jesus, without you, there would be no Lily, that beautiful, sweet, wonderful little girl is only here because you are here. If you never see anything else worth it all, look at her, think of her when she is asleep or looking up at you with that sweet twinkle in her eye of excitement as she tells you about her day in school, don’t ever think that it would have been better if he had.’

‘You can be a big sweetheart sometimes, do you know that?’

‘As long as it makes you realise how great you are, I’m okay with it. Just don’t tell anyone, I am the most mischievous God in the universes, okay?’ She laughed against him. ‘Come on, we’ll get this sorted.’ he urged her back to the dishes.

‘Hey, how are things going in here, has Tom broken any dishes yet?’ Sarah joked as she came in to get some tea not long after.

‘I never broke a dish, that was you and you blamed me.’

‘I broke two other ones that day, if dad found out I broke a third, he’d have kicked my ass.’

‘So poor Tom took the blame, why not blame Emma, she is six years younger? She’d have gotten away with it.’ Alexianna asked.

‘I said that too, but no, it had to be me. I was punished for it too, an evening without TV, and something good was on too, I can’t remember what, but it was good and I had been wanting to watch it.’

‘I’m sorry.’ Sarah stated honestly. ‘I promise never to blame you again.’

‘We are adults now; if you cannot take the blame at this stage, when can you?’ Tom scoffed.

Sarah rolled her eyes for a moment before her gaze came to Alexianna’s rolled up sleeve, which caused her eyes to widen before she could help herself. Swallowing to try and get rid of the lump in her throat, she cleared her voice before speaking again. ‘Do...do you need help in here?’

Both Tom and Alexianna had realised what had happened, Alexianna immediately pulling her sleeve down. ‘No, we have it covered.’ Tom insisted. He looked at Alexianna, who could not take her gaze from the floor. ‘Alexianna, as you know, was in a car crash and her right arm took a lot of the damage, she had glass shards and even part of a Bentley embedded in it and two surgeries to fix it, so she can get a little bothered with its appearance.’ Alexianna looked at him shocked. ‘You are so hung up on thinking you look terrible you are not enjoying being around people who love and care about you.’ She looked at him guiltily.

‘We see enough people being fake or not who they really are around us, trying to get to Tom or with Sarah with her work.’ They turned to see Diana walking into the room. ‘No one in this family is allowed to feel as though they cannot be themselves in here. Wrinkles, grey hairs, scars and even high hairlines,’ Tom rubbed his forehead at that, fully aware of his ever-receding hairline. ‘It’s all normal in here.’

‘And stretchmarks.’ Sarah reminded her mother.

‘Are those a thing now, back in my day, no one gave a monkey’s about them.’

‘They are, and cellulite.’ Sarah informed her mother.

‘No wonder so many girls are starving themselves these days or caking themselves in make-up, you cannot be yourself.’ Diana shook her head. ‘So what is so bad you are risking your sleeves being dirty to hide it?’ She asked.

Alexianna looked at her scared before looking to Tom, who immediately came to her side to show her he was there for her. Shaking slightly, she lifted up her sleeve to which Diana walked over and inspected it. ‘Well, you were always a tough cookie, I bet that was not pleasant.’

Alexianna found herself laughing, ‘No, I spent a month on heavy-duty painkillers for it because of the operations too.’ She admitted. ‘My ulnar is more metal than bone now.’

Diana immediately pulled her to her and hugged her tightly, ‘You don’t have to worry about that here. You are you and we love you for who you are. Am I clear?’ She nodded. ‘Scars are proof we lived, no one gets through this life unscathed. Even this silly boy has some.’ Diana pointed to Tom, who rubbed his forehead from his accident in the Donmar. ‘Now, no more silliness, do you hear me?’

*

‘Are you mad at me?’ Alexianna looked at Tom, who was sheepishly standing behind her in his old bedroom as they got ready for bed.

‘No.’

‘You have been quite quiet with me this evening.’

‘Tom, I’m tired.’ She stated, not looking at him.

Tom, however, did not yield, having realised in their time together, she had a tendency to go into a quiet state, not saying anything. ‘I had no right to tell my family about your arm, I’m sorry.’

‘You had no right.’ She snapped, looking back at him, her face a mixture of angry and hurt. ‘I don’t want people knowing about it.’

‘I know, I thought if they knew, you would not worry and you could just get on with life without having to think to keep your sleeve down around them. I’m sorry.’ He stated sadly.

‘I decide who I tell what about in my life, you do not get to do that.’ She had tears in her eyes as she spoke. ‘I am not something to be pointed at.’

‘No, you’re not, hence why telling those around you your issues is important, we need to be able to show you that there is nothing wrong with you, that you are perfect.’ Alexianna scoffed. ‘Yes, you are perfect as you are, scars and all, or do you not realise that when I tell you that I love you, and when we are intimate. Do you think what I say and how I react when I am with you, when we are in bed together, is just bullshit?’ Tom asked, his features displaying his hurt. ‘I want you to be part of my life like you say you want me in yours and Lily’s, but you do not trust me when I say I love you and your arm does not impact on that and seeing it cause you to clam up, seeing you ashamed or repulsed by it makes me so upset, because I want you to see it and think that that car crash is not going to define you, that even though it led to a difficult time, you got through it, that you have Lily and that you are glad to be where you are today, you’re doing well in work, your daughter is doing well in school and we are doing well, is that so hard for you?’ His voice filled with heartache for her, Alexianna looked at him guiltily. Tom wanted her to get past the bad that had happened. ‘The longer you hold onto the meaning of those scars, the longer you are allowing all of that in your life. Don’t let them or him take any more of your life, you have me and Lily, we want you to be happy, we want you to get past all that. You said the therapist was adamant to talk about him and that is why you did not want to continue going, but holding onto your opinion of your arm,’ he pointed to her arm. ‘Is doing exactly that.’ Alexianna stared at him shocked. ‘Don’t stay thinking about that, please.’ he beseeched. ‘You are not those scars, he and those thoughts you have do not deserve your time. You deserve better.’

Alexianna said nothing, instead, she stewed on his words before she bit her lips together and her eyes began to water. ‘Oh, God.’

‘Lexi?’

‘I...You’re right. I...I have been letting this...him stay in my head.’

Tom immediately walked over to her and pulled her to him, holding her tight as the realisation rocked her. ‘I’m here, don’t worry. You’ll be fine, you just need to work through it, it won’t be quick or easy, but you have me, Daniel, my family, we love you as you, okay?’ He kissed her head. ‘Even when I am busy, when I am working, you can text me and I will text or call you as soon as I have a chance, okay?’

‘Thank you for being honest.’ She hiccuped into his chest.

‘What do you mean?’

‘For not saying that you’ll be there no matter what, that you are being realistic.’

‘I have to be, I cannot say I will be there at the drop of a hat if it is not possible to be, that would be setting us up to fail, I don’t want to do that. It is the same for you, when I need something from this, from us, I have to wait for you to finish work or study or when you are not dealing with Lily.’

‘I know.’

‘I love you, Lexi, with your scars, stretch marks and when the time comes, even grey hairs.’ He promised, kissing her. ‘As much as I hope you don’t mind my scars, my receding hairline and the greys I know are edging in.’

‘Yes.’

‘Those scars are not you, they are just marks on your skin.’ He insisted, bringing her to the bed.

[ottofinch]

      so so thrilled to be here with the figurehead, n i know it was a really tough decision for the admins so i just hope i can do him justice ! please find below everything i have thus far on otto ballantyne, the younger brother of nate, and a theatre and classics student who was arranged to be married to daisey. i’ve honestly been itching to play a character like otto for months, so i can’t wait to get my teeth stuck into him. please bombard me with discord messages for plots.

part one: ooc information 

nora, 23, she/her, gmt.

part two: the muse !

skeleton: the figurehead.

faceclaim: froy gutierrez  

otto horatio ballantyne. 

cisgender male.

twenty-one

theatre arts major, minoring in classics.

clubs: student government, mock trial, theatre.

apartment 004. 

part three: the skeleton !

      heavy is the head that wears the crown, though yours is the size of a tennis ball when you are born three weeks premature, barely formed enough to open your eyes. for those first few weeks all your parents knew were fear and love --- fear that you would leave them, love that you had made it through so much, hooked up to wires like a fish in a cryogenic tank. to them your heart that learned one day to beat of its own accord was a miracle. perhaps that’s why you became their golden boy.

      being born as a boy on the brink of death makes you invulnerable. you were achilles and the world couldn’t touch you for you were shielded from harm by a mother’s protective spell. should nathaniel lay so much as a finger on your skin, a voice would raise like the sound of a god from the veranda where she sat sipping her wine, play nice, boys! the sound of it thick with merlot. in every fight they took your side ; angel-headed creatures never lied. you soon learned that adults would believe anything if they liked you, that flattery will get you anywhere and to the well-trained mind, conversation was little more than a parlour game.

      you harboured your mother’s beauty, the softness of her voice, the firmness of her skin and light in the corners of her smile. of your father, they’d say you inherited his wit, though that was your own --- as was the golden hair that tousled your head, taken not from ambrose ballantyne but rather the bout of his three-week business trip to germany when your mother had bedded the gardener. if he knew, he never mentioned it. to believe such a fate would imply that he was not enough for her. though you noticed one day when you were nearing five and the sun was ripe on your freckle-flecked skin that the gardener had stopped coming at all. the grass, once shaven to its scalp, now grew to your knees.

      at school, you learned with porridge still clinging to your mouth that the way to win over your teachers was through your smile. yours was the kind of school where the christmas play was not the nativity but rather the story of the gods, and stardom came to you in the role of apollo, sun shining from your beaming face, a bright halo of hair around your head. this was the first time you noticed a coldness in nathaniel’s eyes as your father threw you over his shoulder and your mother drenched you in praise. a bout of food-poisoning on your brother’s part rendered the italian restaurant, visited in your honour, abandoned. you never did find out if he was faking.

      the room to his door remained shut after that and you learned to wile away your hours in the company of nannies and children from neighbouring castles, played at knights and rescued princesses from nearby dungeons, a tin-foil crown lopsided on your head. you learned to seek influence in the faces of those around you, how their eyes would widen as they hung like stalactites to your words. storyteller. prophet. riddler. prince. you cut your tongue into a well-kept sword and sparred with it thrice a day.

      by nine you had read all of dickens novels. by eleven, all of shakespeare’s comedies --- though you understood them as much as a cricket knows the meaning of the cosmos. still, it sounded rich and impressive when asked by aunties at dinner parties, what are you reading in school, otto? he finds the curriculum tiring, your mother would say, stroking a hand through your thick head of hair. otto’s just finished the merchant of venice. soon you grew to ignore your brother’s glowers at your back. your mother’s was the only smile you needed.

      in cap and blazer your mother would drop you off at school, gated and turreted, the kind that was the envy of poorer neighborhood wives. when you were young, you were sure the gifts that came your way were yours alone, though as you grew older, you learned to expect them in the same way the school expected cheques from your parents. they named them benefactors, you noticed one day, on the wooden plaques fixed to the common room walls. the same plaques you would one day notice their names engraved upon in the arching hallways of st. ettienne’s. acclaim was bought, not earned, and your success was littered with blood money.

      what’s a king without a kingdom? your father surely wanted you to inherit his, though it was not in law and corporal finance that you found yourself a castle, but rather upon the stage. when red curtains split, you found you could become anything with the power of your will --- boy, man, lion, snake, each of them wrung out by wordsmiths dead in their graves, a certain romance in the dusky smell of stage lights. when every eye in the room was focused on you --- that was when you felt most powerful. like a piece of art, you were something to be looked at and admired --- and perhaps in the absence of self-earned merit your vanity blossomed, for even if the trophies that lined your cabinets and the a-grades in columns on a sheet came from heavy pockets, your parents could never buy the sound of applause.

      actors are by nature volatile. though your facade was swifter than an arrow, backstage they would call you tempestuous, bigoted, vain. still, it never left the wings of the theatre. there was a kind of reverence surrounding you that words could not taper, godliness following you from school to college, a peer admired in the practice rooms of st. etienne where you poured over chekhov and ibsen but yearned to read sophocles and euripides. 

      you learned to pride yourself on your looks --- a sharpened jawline and a sharper tongue --- and found that people would do almost anything for a beautiful face. in the beginning, daisey was one so much. first colleagues, then friends, then a frequentor to the table in your families house. with arrogance carried in the curve of your brow, you only ever saw her as an accessory. that changed when let yourself stumble, brogues in a size that differed from your own kicked beneath your bed, a shirt with a larger neck size, pulled sheets, the smell of a foreign cologne.

       talk travelled. it wouldn’t do to have word of your deviance spread further than the ballantyne house. while your parents would claim they were forward-thinking, more lenient than their parents had been, there was a conservative priggishness to the way they’d brush such matters under the rug, your father scarcely able to meet your eye over the dinner table. soon after, the arrangement was set with you all but exalted from the plans until daisey had been informed. too late to back out, neither of you all that eager to be wed, though your families would coo when you fixed your hair or she, in keeping with the role, adjusted your tie. at first it amused you to play house with one such as daisey, but soon you grew listless. like a caged beast you felt suffocated by the falseness of it all. you’d leave the dinners held by your joint households and return bedraggled, smelling of whiskey and sex. you’re not sure daisey ever knew the reason why you couldn’t love her, though perhaps she suspected. at night, the names that would fall from your lips would never be hers. oliver. daniel. mason. rupert. charles.

 part four: the secret !

REDACTED. 

part five: the investigation !

         otto’s an extremely materialistic character who obtains pleasure through the things you can buy in life rather than that which comes to you by way of humble experience. he likes rolex watches, armani suits, louis vuitton travel bags, silk scarves imported from india. he likes to drink wine from decades gone by, where he can almost taste the funk of a victorian farmer hand pressing the grapes into a pulp, or to read a manuscript from the special collections section of the library that he knows has passed through hands which have gone on to achieve greatness. to otto, daisey was always an extension of this hedonistic, pleasure-seeking attitude --- she was something to be paraded like the equestrian trophies on his bookshelf, or his name on the honour roll. it’s not that he didn’t see her as a person --- he’s hardly a chauvinist, although it could easily be inferred from the disdain with which he talks to some women --- but rather that he saw her as someone ethereal and admirable and of high social standing who would elevate his social standing, by extension, were he to spend time with her. (this was such a convoluted sentence omg sorry)

         obviously, the engagement was not his choice. even the idea of it had never crossed his mind. he had never thought to marry -- marriage to otto was a tool used for financial gain --- and being already wealthy, he was content to live out his days as a bachelor. he would take lovers, of course, but it would be on his own terms without the involvement of the law. daisey was chosen as a match for otto because she was from a wealthy, well-liked family and the two had been friends since childhood. it seemed to their parents inevitable that they would marry, and so all that was left was the agreed arrangement between the families and the exchanging of rings. strictly speaking, if the marriage between otto and daisey had gone ahead, then daisey would have been nothing more than a trophy wife to otto. it would have been a miserable marriage for her, and he would have grown to resent her for it --- not resent her for the fact that he could never truly be free to love someone he wanted (for he still would) but resent her, and by extension his family, for taking the option to do that openly and publicly away from him. she would always be seen as the beard, the scorned lover, the cuckold, and it would dampen any future relationships he held with the stain of that upset. 

part six: optional !

pinterest

wanted plots !

a secret society that exists vaguely timelessly where everyone communicates with pretentious quotes 

people who grew up in ashmont and have known otto since childhood, and know of his family. he’s always been fairly popular and well-liked, because he’s got this way of winning people over that he worked out quite quickly.

people who he was friends with as a child but grew apart from when he was sent to private school / they view him as entitled now and the two no longer have much in common

someone who he regularly meets up with to practise his french, maybe they go for coffee or for lunch and they just spend the whole hour speaking french.

fellow thespians ! they could really admire n respect him or ??? actually think he’s overrated as an actor and type cast ??

someone who auditioned for the same role as him, but otto got it, and they’ve resented him for it ever since

sOmEoNe WhO hELpEd hIM BuRy ThE bODy hAha no but seriously anyone who could incriminate him or has something against him, for example, knowing he’s low-key closeted gay and wasn’t into daisey, and therefore has a motive

on the topic of that, [blink 182 vc] all the. gay things. otto’s pretty hedonistic, when he goes out he goes all out, it isn’t rare for him to wake up with a stranger in his bed, he’s thought by most of the student population to be charming and beautiful. i feel like while he’s not out, and almost keeps it a secret, he’s pretty secure in his sexuality??? like he’s always known he was gay, but he’s never felt the need to Come Out bcos its no one’s business what he’s into. 

hasn’t really dated anyone? at college, he tends to hook up with people in a vapid sort of way? so he wouldn’t rEALly have past relationships with boys unless it was..... incredibly quiet and on the DL, literally meeting up in the woods after school to read plato and play with each others hair. suddenly realised i want this. 

alternatively someone who he had a vapid, senseless hook up with and grew attached to :/ rude

literally anyone to go on expensive shopping sprees with him where he spends his monthly allowance on ridiculously priced cufflinks and pocket squares

unlikely friendships ?? with people he wouldn’t usually be drawn to ?? like, he very much sticks to his people, birds of a feather flock together, but ?? maybe he is friend with someone from a vastly different lifestyle??

people he knows on a very superficial and base level in the fact that their only interactions together involve doing coke off someone’s sink 

ples plot w me

[thepinkwriterr]

Loner // IT 2017 Chapter Twenty - Four

Billy Joel - Vienna

--

 Slow down, you crazy child And take the phone off the hook and disappear for awhile It's all right, you can afford to lose a day or two When will you realize, Vienna waits for you? And you know that when the truth is told That you can get what you want or you can just get old You're gonna kick off before you even get half through

Why don't you realize, Vienna waits for you?

//

Kali's POV

Saturday mornings mean breakfast with James.

I got out last weekend saying I had to study with Beverly. I can't fuck him on it this weekend, so I guess I have to tough it out.

I threw on a sweater along with some jeans. It was a brisk morning, but still a little cold. I made my way to my car, sighing as I opened the door. I would rather die than sit across from James and pretend again.

The drive there was filled with nothing but music. I didn't sing along, I didn't think, I didn't even sing the lyrics in my head. I just looked out at the road and followed the signs.

"Hey babe." I heard behind me. I slapped on a smile,"Hey." I mirrored his actions. "What can I getcha kids?" The waitress asked.

I ended up getting a waffle and some juice. James got the same, but with some toast. "So," He swallowed a sip of his juice,"How's school?"

I shrugged,"It's okay," The waitress set out food in front of us as I spoke,"I guess." He cut into waffle while I stared at mine. "Howa-how's school for you?" Had I forgotten how to converse like a normal person?

"It's pretty good. Passed my exam." He grinned. "That's great!" I genuinely cared for James and wanted to see him prosper, but this pretending was putting a damper on everything.

"Any progress with Richie?" He asked, snapping me from my thoughts. I realized that I had been staring off into space for a few minutes. "Uh-no..." I answered, looking away, scratching the back of my neck.

The rest of the breakfast was bleak. We had resorted to small talk again, like when he was just Dani's older brother. I hated that it had panned out like this, but it was a result of drifting apart, I guess.

He looked at his watch, sighing. "Well, I gotta go. I have a seminar in twenty minutes." I stood, meeting him in a hug. "I'll see you later." He kissed my forehead. "See ya."

I bolted to my car door, slamming it behind me. I took a lot of time to think on the way home. The end result of my cathartic epiphany was that I was a terrible person, and I should probably get my shit together.

All that time wasted on thinking. For that? That conclusion? God, I'm falling apart.

Danielle's POV

Monday came looming around after a boring, dreary Sunday. I got ready, throwing on shorts and a striped shirt. I was ungrounded this afternoon, so I was given my cassette rights back.

Boyz-N-The-Hood played through the speakers of my headphones. I nodded along to the music as I walked down the street. My car rights were still revoked, so I had to walk to and from school.

School was boring, as usual. Eddie and I worked together in History, and that was the highlight of my day. And now, I get to sit in detention with Richie! Yay!

I sighed as I opened the door. I saw the infamous head of thick, black curls. The sight made my heart melt every time I saw them. I sat in my usual seat, pulling out my homework. I started filling out English sheets.

I slipped on my headphones, hearing the piano fill through my head. Slow down, you crazy child. You're so ambitious for a juvenile

But then if you're so smart, then tell me, why are you still so afraid?

Where's the fire, what's the hurry about? You'd better cool it off before you burn it out

You've got so much to do and only so many hours in a day

But you know that when the truth is told; That you can get what you want or you get old

You're gonna kick off before you even get halfway through

When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?

Humming along to the tune I did my best to compete my math problems. I was a little distracted, as the words to the song were infectious. Slow down, you crazy child. Take the phone off the hook and disappear for awhile?

I sang that part aloud.

"Why don't you realize, Vienna waits for you?" I heard from behind me. I turned as the song changed. The gentle strum of an acoustic guitar began.

"Ground Control to Major Tom...Ground Control to Major Tom..." I sang. "Take your protein pills and put your helmet on." Richie sang back. I sat the headphones on a desk, music pouring through the speakers and into the air.

"Ground Control to Major Tom

Commencing countdown, engines on...

Check ignition and may God's love be with you ..." Richie finished the line. "This is Ground Control to Major Tom! You've really made the grade and the papers want to know whose shirts you wear!" I sang back to him.

"Now, it's time to leave the capsule if you dare

This is Major Tom to Ground Control, I'm stepping through the door

And I'm floating in a most peculiar way, and the stars look very different today..." He looked at my knowingly as he sang in his deep voice.

"For here, am I sitting in a tin can

Far above the world

Planet Earth is blue, and there's nothing I can do..." As we sang I had gotten closer. When I sang the final words of my line I was centimeters from his face.

The solo crooned from the headphones behind us. My eyes darted from his eyes to lips, then back again. He pressed his lips together, shaking his head lightly. We stared into each others eyes until the song ended. Next up was America.

"Kathy, I'm lost," I said, though I knew she was sleeping

I'm empty and aching and I don't know why

Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike

They've all come to look for America

All come to look for America." I sang softly my favorite section of the song.

His stupid watch beeped as She's Always a Woman started.

But he didn't move, he just sat and looked to me.

Kali's POV

I spent the whole thinking of our sleepover. And, most importantly, avoiding Beverly.

"Prefect." She smiled, sitting Indian style in the middle of my rug. I joined her, sitting across from the redhead. "So... you wanna play a game?" She asked. "Of course." I smirked. "Truth or dare?" "Sure."

"Truth or dare?" She asked. "Hmm...Truth. Imma start easy." She laughed. "Alright...uh...Do you have a crush?" I thought for a minute. "Yes." "Really? While dating James? Scandalous!"

I shrugged,"Who's to say it isn't James?" Her face fell serious. "Who is it?" "Ah, ah, ah!" I wagged my finger in her face,"One question only!"

"Truth or dare?" I asked. "Dare!" She smirked. "Hmm...I dare you to...crank call Jake." We both giggled, rushing down to the phone. "Hello?" I heard his groggy voice through the receiver.

"Hello? Yes-is this Jake Marsh?" "Yeah..." "This is Dr. Teagues, from the STD clinic," She faked a deep voice,"I'm afraid to inform you that the test results came back positive."

"I don't know what you're talking about..." He responded, baffled. "Your girlfriend has chlyamidia, sir." She then hung up the phone, sending both of us into a fit of giggles.

"Okay, truth or dare?" She asked. "Uh...Dare...." She smirked, rubbing her hands together. "Finally! Muhahaha!" She faked a manical laugh. "I dare...you...to... bum a cigarette." Her smirk stood strong. I sighed,"Fine..."

I coughed as I inhaled. I hated the feeling of the thick smoke filling my lungs. "Not like that," She plucked the cig from me,"Like this." She stuck it in between her lips and inhaled.

She stuck it back in between my wide lips. "See..." She looked into my eyes, trailing off as I inhaled again. I pulled the cigarette from my lips and exhaled.

Grabbing the back of my head, she pressed her lips into mine. Her lips were soft and inviting, like I could grow flowers between the two rosey pods.

Thought the entire day I dreaded seeing her. I didn't even want to say her name. But god, did I miss her laugh.

Danielle's POV

"She is frequently kind,

And she's suddenly cruel

She can do as she pleases,

She's nobody's fool

But she can't be convicted,

She's earned her degree

And the most she will do

Is throw shadows at you,

But she's always a woman to me..." We sang whilst looking deeply into each other's eyes.

His singing made me fall in love with him... I just knew it...

Kali's POV

I saw her walk past me. I ignored her, pretending to retrieve something from my bag.

When I sat across from her during lab groups I felt nothing. Upon looking at her lovely cheek bones I felt everything.

What was happening to me? I looked up at her again, counting the freckles dotting across her face.

[mommafloradevereaux]

GMA || Sugarland/Robin Robins

who: Flora Devereaux, Paul Hodges, Robin Roberts

when: 1/13/2020, 8am.

where: New York City

what: Flora and Paul celebrate their album release on Good Morning America. Flora shares some of her stories and gives some dating advice.

warnings: Abuse, Anxiety, Depression, and death.

Flora sat backstage with Paul as they waited to go on, she was nervous and fidgeting. The makeup crew put the finishing touches on their makeup and got them ready for the interview. “..five minutes, Sugarland.” and that is when Flora thought she was going to throw up.

“Hey,” Paul walked over and gave her a hug, giving her a second to gather herself. “everything will be just fine, deep breaths.”

“I know, I know, but this is Good Morning America. Do you know how many people see this morning show? Instagram is my small corner of the world, now I’ll be sharing not only Sugarland but my story. They want to know me and It’s terrifying, Paul.”

“I know but you’re not going to be alone. I’m right here,” He took her hand and put it in his, “you always got this, give it a squeeze if you need too.” Flora leaned in and kissed his cheek- makeup swooped in and cleaned it off before getting them into position.

“Good Morning America, today we have an exciting show. Sugarland is here in the studio this morning,” The room erupted with cheers and applause, the camera switched and panned outside to reveal a large crowd with signs. “Their new album,” Robin picked up the album and showed the camera. “released today in stores and online streaming services everywhere. It has been almost twenty-six years since the band released their first album. They were just starting to rise when they were hit with tragedy. They lost fellow bandmate Avery Hodges from an overdose and the band ended before they began. We are very lucky to have them here with new music and their amazing story. Please help me welcome, Flora Devereaux and Paul Hodges; Sugarland!” Paul and Flora walked out onto the set, smiling and waving as they made their way over to Robin. They did the usual hug and greeting before Flora took a look around. “Flora, Paul, welcome to Good Morning America.”

“Happy to be here, Robin.” Paul smiled and took his seat, Flora sat next to him with a smile. She was still smiling ear to ear.

“I am so overwhelmed right now, I could bust.” Flora hid her face in her hands before sitting straight up and composing herself.

“Big day, new album, you must be so proud?” Robin held up the album again.

“It’s been a long time coming, we started working on it last year.” Paul started them off, Flora knew her time would come. “just glad to get this lady back in the studio. She sings and knocks my boots off every time. I almost forget to play my guitar,” The room laughs and Flora whacks him in the arm.

“The GMA family took a listen this morning, I have to say Paul is right on the money. I sure I can speak for everyone when I say, Avery would be so proud of you.”

“We’d like to think so, she loved Sugarland.” Paul smiled.

“Thank you,” Flora took Robin’s hand in a kind gesture.

“So take us back, Sugarland ends and you two go your separate ways?” Robin prompted.

“We decided to step back, figurin’ we just couldn’t see ourselves going on without Avery. I was just married, pregnant, I decided to settle and raise my twins. Paul and I lost touch over the years, I became a stay at home mom.”

“Avery wasn’t only a bandmate but a sister, your sister. How did you deal with such a loss like that, Paul?”

“Not very well, Robin. I started drinking, taking drugs, I was a mess. I got myself sober when I met my wife, started to heal and found this lady again.” Flora took hold of Paul’s hand and squeezed.

“Wow, God is good.” Robin praised.

“He truly is,” Flora smiled and hugged Paul, “I’m so proud of him.”

“He wasn’t the only one with struggles?”

“No,” Flora took a pause and exhaled a huge breath.

“You’ve been very open about your abusive relationship on social media. Would you mind sharing some of that story with us here on GMA?” Robin wouldn’t push but she gave Flora the opportunity to go on.

“Not sure I can share it all on a morning show but I will give the cliff notes version. I was in a physically and mentally abusive relationship for most of my life.” Flora held onto Paul’s hand, getting the strength to go on with her story. “Fake marriage, manipulated into thinking his abuse was gods will. I was told by many people to stay, that God would make things right. So, I stayed and things only got worse. The only good thing that man gave me was three beautiful children. I wouldn’t trade them for anything, I’d go through it all again just for my precious babies. Though, If I could have them and take away all the ugly involved, I’d flip that switch now.”

“Are your kids proud?”

“I think they are.”

“They are,” Paul corrected, “they love their momma.”

“I do want to jump back a little bit, I want to talk about the other woman. The wife,” Flora shook her head and chuckled. “according to your social media, you happen to be best friends?” The room started to mutter.

“I can hear all you gossiping back there, hush now.” Flora teased, “and yes as strange as that sounds we are the best of friends. The man we shared brought us together, but we’re happy to be rid of him. We both suffered in different ways but it wasn’t only us. I did my best to keep the abuse from the kids, I didn’t want them to see it. Sadly, you can’t always protect your kids from the truth. I lied to them for a long time but it all came out a few years ago. I finally told them about the abuse and how bad it got. The twins did see some of it as kids but my youngest saw none of it. She was close to her daddy.”

“It must have been hard for them, to learn about this other family?”

“Yes, it’s still not easy but they do have each other. I think the one that was the most excited was my Julie, she’s the baby. She was excited to learn she had more siblings.”

“Do they all get along?”

“The four oldest have spent time together, a couple of them see each other. I can’t really speak for all of them but they are civil.”

“I imagine it’s tough for them, learning of each other. Can’t be easy?”

“No, but Judy and I agree it was necessary to introduce them.”

“Can I just add something here,” Paul scooted forward in his seat a little and smiled. “This woman right here isn’t only a momma to her kids but to everyone around her. And her cookin’, wooo.” The room laughed as Paul flopped back in his chair. “If you’re sick, she’ll make you soup. She sends care packages, cookies, treats- she once sent a whole casserole.”

“Now I’m hankering for something to eat.”

“I firmly believe food heals the soul,” Flora smiled, “I would have brought food but it would have taken me three days to prepare enough.” She shared a laugh with Robin.

“Speaking of comfort, I see you have someone special in your life?” And Flora blushed on national television, yep, redness. “And this person posted a very lovely post on Instagram yesterday after you mentioned your album release. They said; “I haven’t known her as long as I feel like I have, but I know that she has been through far more than anyone person should and still she gets up and keeps going. and not only that, she helps others through it, even if she herself isn’t in the best place.”. Would you say that is true?”

“First, thank you for using the proper pronouns. Not only do I appreciate it but they will certainly. Second, I do have a tendency to focus on other’s needs before my own. They are right about that but it’s just the way I am, I can not help myself. I just love to help and give and be there to listen. Ash is an amazing person and I’m so lucky to have them in my life. After I read that post I cried, just full tears running down my face. To be fair I did make them cry with a song I wrote; not on the album.” Flora straightened up more but leaned in, “I might get a bit mushy for a second but they’ve taught me so much. I had never been in a proper relationship before, all I knew was my past experience. I was with one man all my life, he never took me out, never shared me with anyone. I was his dirty secret and I thought that was normal, I thought it was right. Ash took me out on a real date and treated me like a person. Guys,” She looked at the camera and pointed, “girls, non-particular gender type folks, take your person on a date, simple things, little things. I don’t care if you take a walk in the park, just show them they matter.” She turned back to Robin, “In short-”

“Or long-” Paul added.

“Oh you,” Flora stuck her tongue out at him.

“Are you happy?” Robin asked.

“I can say without hesitation I am truly happy. I still have my bad days but because of my friends and my partner, those days are far less. I do want to say a quick thing, I very good friend of mine will be coming out with her single very soon, four days. Keep an eye on my social media because I will be gushing about it.”

“Oh, what’s her name?”

“Danielle Harper, she’s like a daughter to me. Super talented, amazing voice, a big star in the making. Keep an eye out for her, trust me when I say she’s going places.”

“Flora, Paul, thank you again for being here. Would you mind singing us a song before you go?”

“We’d love too,” Paul and Flora got up and headed over to the little stage area.

“You can get Sugarland’s new Album today, out on every music platform you can find. Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time in twenty-six years- Sugarland!”

Hey sleepless, my eyes are red Why don't you get out of my bed I don't want to watch the fan no more And hey crazy, that's enough I'm sick of tripping on all your stuff Scattered across my bedroom floor

Hey heartbreak, give me your key It's you, it's not me Oh, you only bring me down, down, down, down Hey heartbreak, don't come back I swept up your shattered glass What goes around is coming back around, round, round, round

heartbreak, I'm breakin', I'm breakin' up with you Heartbreak, I'm breakin', I'm breakin' up with you Heartbreak, I'm breakin', I'm breakin' up with you

Hey laughter, where's your smile? Haven't seen it in awhile And I miss the drunken nights Hey lonely, won't you leave me alone If you call me ain't nobody home Go find somebody else 'cause I'm going out tonight

Hey heartbreak, give me your key It's you, it's not me Oh, you only bring me down, down, down, down Hey heartbreak, don't come back I swept up your shattered glass What goes around is coming back around, round, round, round

heartbreak, I'm breakin', I'm breakin' up with you Heartbreak, I'm breakin', I'm breakin' up with you Heartbreak, I'm breakin', I'm breakin' up with you, you, you, you, yeah Heartbreak, I'm breakin', I'm breakin' up with you Heartbreak, I'm breakin', I'm breakin' up with you Heartbreak, I'm breakin', I'm breakin' up with you

Everything I thought that I needed, turns out I had Everything I thought that I wanted, I'm giving back Starting a mend, that's beating again Everything I thought that I needed, turns out I had Everything I thought that I wanted, I'm giving back Starting a mend, that's beating again

Hey heartbreak, give me your key It's you, it's not me Oh, you only bring me down, down, down, down Hey heartbreak, don't come back I swept up your shattered glass What goes around is coming back around, round, round, round

heartbreak, I'm breakin', I'm breakin' up with you Heartbreak, I'm breakin', I'm breakin' up with you Heartbreak, I'm breakin', I'm breakin' up with you, you, you, you, yeah Heartbreak, I'm breakin', I'm breakin' up with you Heartbreak, I'm breakin', I'm breakin' up with you Heartbreak, I'm breakin', I'm breakin' up with you, you, you, you, yeah Heartbreak, I'm breakin' (breakin' up with you) Heartbreak, I'm breakin' Heartbreak, I'm breakin', I'm breakin' up with you

[larryssunflower]

The Line - Part Two!

part one 

tagging (let me know if you would like to be removed from the tag list! : @simplyaiden-blog @confessionsofabrokegirl @mfackenthal @nikkis1983 @butindeed @american-duchess @drakelover78 @monosodiumglutamateme @crookedslimecreatorpasta @mrsdrakewalkerblog @traeumerinwitzhelden @gardeningourmet @speedyoperarascalparty @agent-zephyrkah @snyggflicka @sleepwalkingelite @choicesmacmakes @simsvetements @jovialyouthmusic @wannabemc2 @iplaydrake @rainbowsinthestorm @annekebbphotography

I blink in surprise at the man in front of me, my heart racing. He smiles, a look of amazement on his face. “Elle?” He asks, and my heart flutters at his voice, which is much deeper and than before. His hair has grown more and he’s sporting a beard now. His eyes wander down to Dani and I’m about to say something, try to respond to the man who changed my life forever when a hand suddenly appears on his shoulder. A beautiful woman slides up from behind him, a large smile on her face. “Well hi there!” She says in a sweet voice, breaking out in a huge grin, holding out her hand to me. She has her brilliant red hair tied up in a ponytail, her smile wide. I smile and shake her hand, my heart sinking when I notice the large ring on her right hand. “I’m Olivia and this is my fiancé Liam,” she smiles friendly, and Dani jumps forward. “I’m Danielle Garden! But my middle name is Rhy-“ Dani starts and I quickly cut her off, laughing awkwardly. Might be a bit awkward if she reveals her middle name is Liam's last name. “That’s Dani, my daughter. I’m Elle,” I say, shaking Olivia’s hand.

“Oh, what a coincidence! Liam once had this ex named Elle! She totally broke his heart, it’s honestly so sad-“ she starts and I turn to look at Liam with raised eyebrows. “Oh really?” I say with fake interest, making Liam shuffle awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck. “Uh Olivia, that’s this Elle,” he says, making Olivia widen her eyes, her face flushing red. “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry! Sometimes I just vomit my words you know? Like one second I’m like just talking then blugh! I start rambling on and on...” she says eventually trailing off. “And I just did it again!” She says in embarrassment, putting her hand to her forehead.

“I’ll go.. unpack the kitchen,” She says distractedly, walking quickly into the house. “Well, uh it was great to see you... I think.” I say, starting to turn around. “Elle! Wait.” Liam says, starting after me, his hand on my arm. Dani watches us from the side, an interested look on her face. “Do you live alone? Or do you have a husband..?” He trails off, and I shake my head. “Uh no. It’s just me and Dani,” I say, smiling briefly at my daughter. “Oh! wow! good job then.” he says, and I muster the most polite smile I can. “thank you,” I say, pulling my arm from his grasp, and grabbing Dani’s.

-the next morning -

I stumble into the back of the diner, knocking a couple boxes down with me. I cringe, frozen in place. Drake opens the door, looking at me with an unimpressed expression. “Oh look, you’re late again,” he says in a flat tone. “Hey! only by fifteen minutes!” I explain, and he nods. “That may be one of your best times I’ll give you that,” he starts and I smile, but then he says, “but that doesn’t mean you’re not still late. you’re lucky you’re my friend otherwise you would have been fired a long time ago,” He says, trying to sound as menacing as he can. The thing is, with Drake, he can seem very mean or rugged, but deep down he really is just a sweetheart. “You’re right. I’m Sorry. And i owe you, You know, without you, I don’t know if Dani and I would have survived. so thank you, Drake,” I say meaningfully, taking him by surprise, and he clears his throat, looking flustered. “o-oh I- um yeah. no problem. Just- get dressed please,” he says, before turning and going back into the diner. Making me smile to myself. If Drake ever gets mad the only thing I need to do is be genuinely nice and compliment him and he gets all flustered.

I think back to when we first met while I  start to change into my uniform. I remember like it was yesterday.

5 years ago~

I walk off the empty bus alone, hurrying under a stray diner’s awning, trying to get away from the heavy rain. I readjust my duffle bag over my shoulder, letting out a shaky breath. Five months pregnant and alone in a new town at night. probably shouldn’t have gotten a bus that arrives so late. I just got on the one leaving the earliest. A sudden bell from behind me makes me jump, as I turn to see good looking guy opening the door to the diner, looking at me curiously. “oh! I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean- I just needed a break from the rain,” I explain quickly, not being able to help the quiver in my voice. His eyes wander to my stomach, and he glances inside. “Hey, why don’t you come in for a moment? have time to Wait out the rain?” he asks, and I bite my lip, thinking for a moment. “Or are you waiting for someone?” He asks, but I shake my head, tears springing to my eyes. “I- I don’t have anyone,” I say quietly, and he raises his eyebrows slightly, before grabbing my bag for me, and holding the door open for me. “Come on, you need to get out of the rain,” He says kindly, and I smile gratefully, sniffling as I walk inside the small diner, enjoying its comforting smell and warmth.

“Are you hungry?” He asks me, and my stomach answers for me, rumbling. He smiles and so do I. “I’ll take that as a yes,” He grins, placing my bag down gently, and going into the back.

He stayed with me for a while, waiting while I ate, and talking to me. I told him everything, my whole story, and how ended up in this town. After my story, he immediately offered me a job, telling me that they were looking for help anyway, as his dad was sick. I accepted, a grin plastered on my face. I started the night off feeling cold, sad, and alone, but Drake was the first person to show me kindness and warmth without hesitation. I laughed genuinely for the first time in months.

We worked together in the diner and he let me stay in his apartment for a while above the diner until I finally got my small house. Drake was always there. I actually went into labor on one of my shifts, and he was the one freaking out and panicking, taking me to the hospital and the first one to hold Dani after me.

And I was the one who stayed by his side when he lowered his father into the ground.

We have both seen each other in on our worst days but also on our best. He is probably the person who knows me the best.

“Elle I swear to god! It shouldn’t take you more than five minutes to get dressed!” Drake shouts, taking me out of my trance, and I roll my eyes, putting my hair up as I walk back up front, giving him a look as I go to serve the one customer, Larry. “Hey, Elle? How are you?” Larry asks, and I smile. “A little tired, you know how it is, how’s Pam?” I ask, and Larry’s face lights up. “Oh she’s great, finally recovering from her hip surgery,” Larry says, love in his eyes. “That’s great Larry. What can I get you? The usual?” I ask with a knowing grin, and Larry nods. “Oh of course darling,” he says, and I laugh, taking his menu and walking behind the bar, looking into the gap that shows the kitchen, and Drake in it, getting eggs ready. “Larry’s usual,” I say, even though it doesn’t really matter, Drake already knows.

I start wiping down the counters and turn on the radio to the talk station that Larry likes and I sometimes enjoy. “And Halloween is approaching fast folks! Time to figure out the way to have the best costume on the block! first...” As the talk show voices fill the diner, I stop for a second, leaning against the counter and taking a deep breath. Halloween. Every year it’s tough, but especially this one. Having Liam suddenly being here doesn’t help either. It’s like my past has caught up to me in the worst way. I ran away for a reason. I guess I can’t ever catch a break.

A ring takes me out of my trance, and I turn to Drake, taking Larry’s usual, giving Drake a not very convincing smile. I give the plate to Larry, before heading back to the bar, a sick feeling in my stomach. I start wiping down the menus, trying to ignore my anxiety biting away at me.

“Hey Elle, are you okay?” Drake asks me, and I turn to him, gulping. “Yeah.. I’m fine,” I say with a nod. he just blinks at me. “You’re not fine.” He tells me, and I sigh. “Okay, I’m not. Liam just moved in next door,” I say quietly, and Drakes' eyes widen. “You mean the father of your child Liam??” he whispers furiously. I nod, looking down. Drake instantly pulls me into a hug, and I hug him back gratefully, forcing myself to not cry. He pulls away, still holding my arms. “Are you okay? Did he talk to you?” Drake asks, searching my eyes. “Yeah, I’m fine, Drake, seriously,” I say, and he just nods, letting go of my arms. The bell of the diner door rings, and we look over to see Liam and Olivia. I gasp involuntarily, looking at Drake. Drake reads my face and looks over at Liam. “that’s him?” Drake whispers, and I nod. “Oh hi, I heard this is a great place for food?” Liam asks with a smile. I walk out from being shielded from Drake and smile. “oh hey Liam,” I say with a small smile. “Oh wow I had no idea you worked here!” Olivia says with a huge smile, coming right up to me, across the counter. “Hey, girl! so sorry about the other day!” Olivia days, leaving over the counter to hug me. I hug back in surprise. “Table for two,” Olivia says with a smile at Drake, who just clenches his jaw, and with a look at Liam, goes to grab them a couple menus.

Liam sits next to Olivia, who is sitting at the bar, her chin resting on her hand. Drake hands them the menus, before grabbing my arm and leading me into the back. “Hey, I can’t be out there with him, I will smash his smug face in,” Drake says, fuming. “Drake! calm down,” I say, breathing heavily. “It’s okay. He doesn’t even know that he got me pregnant or that Dani is his. all he knows is that I left him out of nowhere,” I say, and Drake clenches his jaw. “Are you ever going to tell me why you did that, by the way?” Drake asks me but I shake my head. “Now is not the time,” I say, my heart hammering in my chest.

Drake looks at me for a minute, noticing my nervousness. “Fine. But I’m going to stay in the kitchen, and I’m going to walk you and Dani home,” He says, but before I can object, he storms into the kitchen. I take a deep breath and lean against the wall, closing my eyes. I can do this. I walk back out to the front, ready to face the father to my child for the second time.

Sorry, it took so long! I had some technical issues (like Tumblr deleting my drafts) but I tried to get it out as soon as possible, but I’ve been busy for a while, but here it is! I hope you guys like it! Sorry if it's short! 

[roselukes]

2800 Miles - Chapter 1 - l.h.

Summary: Luke knows what he wants, but he also knows he can’t have it

Tag List: @sassy-asht0n @happycrimiscalum @rosesarered516 @hoe4hemmo

@heartbreakashton94 @climatehood @calumspeachy @dukehoods @holidayhood @wrappedaroundcal @mistletoemichael @plainwhiteluke @irwinkitten @irrevocablylukes @astroashtonio @catchinqcalum @irwinvalentines @hollyjollyhood @biggestslutforcalum @calumhampton @angelmikeyy @hotmessmichael @curlyhairedpopstars @meloncal @lukeschestnuts @thecashtonexpress @calsjackets

Words: a whopping 3K lmao

It was nearing 8:30pm and Gwen couldn’t wait to get out of work. Her shift would end at midnight, but she probably wouldn’t get out until 12:30, since she’d have to make sure everything was cleaned and put away. The bar hadn’t been very busy that day, but those who came in were enough to make Gwen more than ready to cozy up in bed. “Gwen, I need you to go around and collect trashes. Daniel, can you gather the trashes from the kitchen?”

“You got it, Tony.” Gwen sighed and walked around the bar, grabbing the full trash bags. She walked through the back to the loading dock. She threw the bags into the dumpster and leaned against the wall of the building. “I can’t stand this. I’ve been here since, like, 8 this morning.”

“Get over it, Tony won’t let you leave until close anyways.” Daniel rolled his eyes and threw his bags in the trash.

“Maybe I’ll fake another family emergency.” Gwen laughed and walked back inside.

“One of you needs to take that table. We’ve got a bachelor party.” Tony said as he washed out a glass.

“I’m off the clock, sir. Gwen’s gonna have to take it.” Daniel said, walking to the back.

“That is so unfair. I’ve been here for more than 12 hours. This is probably illegal.” Gwen groaned and leaned against the bar.

“Quit complaining, Gwen. You’re on your own from now on. I’ve got dinner with my missus.” Tony grinned and walked to the back.

“I’m gonna kill myself.” Gwen whined and walked over to the table of boys. “Hello, I’m Gwen. I’ll be taking care of you this evening.” She set down a few sets of silverware. “Can I start you off with some drinks?”

“We need, like, 6 bottles of whiskey.” The man with curly, dirty blond locks grinned at her.

“Sounds like a party.” Gwen giggled softly.

“A bachelor party, to be exact.” He winked.

“Do you boys know what you’d like to order?” She smiled and placed her hand on her hip.

“We’d like your finest filet mignon, or the closest thing you have.” The darker skinned boy smiled.

“Closest thing we have to filet mignon is our deluxe burger.” Gwen laughed.

“Great, we’ll take 4 deluxe burgers and 6 bottles of whiskey.” The curly haired boy handed Gwen the menus.

“Four?” She questioned, noticing only three boys at the table. The curly haired boy nodded behind her and she spun around to see the most handsome man she’d ever seen at the bar.

“Sorry, I’m late. I had some trouble finding the place.” He smiled and sat down at the table. “What did we order?”

“Four deluxe burgers and six bottles of whiskey.” Curly chuckled.

“Are you actually serious about the whiskey?” Gwen asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

“No, we’re not serious. Ashton’s just an aspiring alcoholic.” The new member smiled.

“Wow, me too. Isn’t just wonderful?” Gwen joked. Ashton laughed and nodded.

“Yeah, it’s fantastic. We’ll just take four beers with those burgers.” Ashton chuckled.

“Alright, I’ll need to see all of your ID’s, please.” Gwen smiled.

“Don’t we look old enough to drink?” The dark skinned boy pouted.

“You look 12, Calum.” Ashton laughed and pulled out his ID. The other three pulled theirs out as well and Gwen took a look.

“Wow, Australia. I’ve always dreamt of going there.” Gwen commented as she checked their birthdays. She snuck a peek at their names and heights too. She handed back their ID’s, frowning a little as she noticed Michael staring at her with a look in his eyes she didn’t recognize.

“It’s really beautiful there. You should definitely make the trip out there sometime.” Ashton smiled. “Can we also get some waters with the beers?”

“Absolutely, I’ll get those right out to you.” She smiled and walked back to the kitchen. She was happy the boys had ordered the one thing on the menu she actually knew how to make. At this time of night, the bar usually didn’t serve any food, so Gwen never had to learn how to cook. Plus, she usually wasn’t all alone. She brought the beers and waters out while the burgers cooked and watched the boys talk and drink as she stood behind the grill. She brought the burgers out and set them down in front of each boy. “Is there anything else I can do for you boys?”

“No, I think we’re good for now. Thank you, Gwen.” Luke smiled at her. She blushed softly and nodded, walking back to the bar. She started working on her cleaning to try and get out faster, but she didn’t get much done. As the boys drank more, they got louder and more bold with their requests. She walked over to their table as they had quieted down.

“How is everything here?” She asked, looking at the boys.

“Everything’s great. I think we’ll take the bill now.” Luke chuckled and pulled out his wallet. Gwen nodded and set the bill down on the table.

“Woah, how much shit did we order?” Calum widened his eyes as he read the receipt.

“Too much.” Luke laughed and handed Gwen his credit card. She took it over to the counter and processed it before coming back.

“Thank you so much for coming in tonight.” Gwen smiled at them.

“Hey, what time do you get off?” Luke asked as he signed the receipt.

“Well, we technically closed an hour ago.” Gwen said, a slight blush covering her cheeks. Normally, she wouldn’t hesitate to tell people to leave, but she didn’t mind having the boys there.

“Oh, God, I’m so sorry. We should’ve left, I had no idea.” Luke blubbered on.

“It’s okay, don’t worry.” Gwen giggled. “If all of my customers were like you guys, I’d be open 24 hours.”

“Thank you, you’ve been amazing.” Luke smiled and followed the boys out. Gwen started walking back to the counter when the door opened again. “Hey, Gwen, I was wondering.. We’re not from around here, so we really don’t know where to go. It would be nice to have a tour guide.” He bit his lip and looked at her hopefully.

“Let me change.” Gwen giggled and walked to the back. She came out after a bit in her shorts and band tee. She followed Luke out to the boys after locking up.

“The waitress is coming with us?” Ashton asked.

“Actually, we’re going with her. She’s our tour guide.” Luke grinned. “So, where to first?”

“I know just the place.” Gwen smiled and started walking down the street. Luke sped up so he was next to her again.

“So, have you lived here long?” He asked.

“Yeah, I was born in Manhattan but I moved to Brooklyn when my parents..” She trailed off, not knowing how to explain the death of her parents.

“When your parents..?” Luke looked down at her, searching for an explanation.

“My parents died when I was only a few months old. I moved to Brooklyn to live in the orphanage.” Gwen looked down as she walked.

“I’m so sorry.” Luke sighed. If he had known, he wouldn’t have pressured it so much. “I know what it’s like. My mother died when I was young.”

“It’s a tough life for a child to grow up without parents.” Gwen sighed. “It took me a long time to forgive myself for never getting adopted.”

“If I had been an adult when you were put in there, I would’ve adopted you.” Luke laughed softly, trying to lighten the mood.

“Thanks, Luke.” Gwen laughed.

“So, where are we headed?” Luke asked.

“Here.” Gwen smiled as she stopped in front of a small area of beach. “There’s a little cove on the side of the hill over there, and I used to hang out here when I didn’t want to be at the orphanage.”

“It’s beautiful here.” Luke smiled and walked onto the sand. The boys ran past them and into the water.

“Come on, I want to show you something.” Gwen smiled and grabbed Luke’s hand, pulling him with her to the side of the cove. “I hope you’re up for some climbing.” She giggled and started climbing up the side. Luke chuckled and followed after her. She grabbed his hand and helped him up to the top.

“Wow..” Luke looked out at the view. “This is amazing.”

“You can see everything from here.” Gwen smiled and looked out at the city lights. She shivered slightly and rubbed her arms.

“Are you cold?” Luke asked, looking down at her.

“A bit.” She shrugged and crossed her arms.

“Looks like the boys are making a fire. Let’s go get you warm.” Luke smiled and climbed down the cove, helping Gwen down. The two of them made their way over to the boys and sat on the logs placed around the firepit.

“Well, I think this has been a successful bachelor party.” Calum smiled.

“Yeah, which one of you is engaged?” Gwen smiled, looking at them.

“That’d be me.” Luke forced a smile.

“You’re awfully flirty for a guy who’s getting married.” Gwen looked up at him. The boys took this as an opportunity to get back in the water.

“Well, technically, I’m not engaged yet. Er, I am engaged, I just don’t know to whom.” Gwen looked at him a little confused, hoping he’d clarify. “She hasn’t been picked out yet.”

“This is a bit confusing. So, you’re engaged but you don’t know who she is?”

“Well, you see, I’m not just some regular Australian. I’m the Prince of Sydney.” Luke looked down, not wanting to see her reaction.

“Nah, you’re just Luke.” Gwen giggled softly. “So, when do you get to meet her?” She asked, looking up at him. She was a bit disappointed that she didn’t have a chance anymore, but she did get to meet a prince.

“My parents have suitors lined up for the social season. They have to go through a few months of different events so we can monitor how well they’d be as queens.” Luke sighed. “It’s basically like The Bachelor, except the bachelor is a prince.” Gwen giggled softly.

“It kind of sounds like a fun time. I always wanted to go on The Bachelor for the free food.” Gwen laughed and dug her toes into the sand.

“The social season in Sydney is much more intense than anything on The Bachelor. The winner gets to run a kingdom.” Luke shook his head.

“Do you ever wish you could choose her yourself? Like, without having to go through all the events?”

“Of course. I’ve always dreamt of marrying for love rather than strategy, but that’s just not the way things work there.” Luke sighed and rested his chin in his hands.

“So, this trip is probably your last glance at freedom then, eh?” Gwen looked at him.

“Yeah, I suppose it is. Even though we didn’t go to the one thing I wanted to see.”

“And, what’s that?” Gwen asked, moving closer to him.

“I really wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, but we stayed too late at the bar, so I can’t now.” Luke sighed, sitting up.

“You wanted to see the Statue of Liberty?” Luke nodded and looked at her. “Well, I just might be able to get you there.”

“But they’re closed, and we leave in the morning.” Luke furrowed his eyebrows.

“Come with me.” Gwen stood up and grabbed her shoes. Luke stood up.

“Where are we going?” Luke asked, following her out to the sidewalk.

“Just trust me.” Gwen giggled and hailed a cab, getting in. She gave the driver an address and the cab sped off. Luke looked out the window at the city lights passing by. “Here we are.” Gwen smiled and walked out onto a wooden dock.

“What are we doing here?” Luke asked, looking down at her.

“This is where we’ll catch our ride.”

“Ride where?”

“To the statue, of course.” Gwen giggled and leaned against the railing.

“Gwen, how did you find us a ride?” Luke asked, trying not to get too excited. He had always wanted to see the Statue of Liberty. Ever since he was a little boy.

“I have my ways. Now, tell me, why do you want to see the Statue of Liberty so badly?” She asked, looking up at him.

“Take a guess.” Luke chuckled and leaned against the railing next to her.

“Because, she symbolizes freedom?” Gwen looked into his eyes.

“Bingo.” Luke whispered, his eyes locked on hers. He began leaning in slowly before he heard the foghorn of the ferry.

“Our ride is here.” Gwen grinned and opened the gate of the dock and hopped onto the ferry. Luke cautiously climbed aboard and looked down at the water.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this.” Luke grinned and turned to her.

“I can’t either. I’ve never had a reason to cash in this favor.” Gwen giggled and walked up to the stern of the boat.

“How long does it take to get there?” Luke asked, sitting next to her at a small table.

“About 20 minutes.” Gwen smiled, looking out at the water. “Usually there’s not fog blocking it so you can actually see it, but it’s too foggy tonight.”

“It’ll still be beautiful.” Luke grinned and looked at the water. 20 minutes later, the ferry pulled up in front of the statue. “I was right, it’s beautiful.” Luke looked up at the large statue.

“Well, come on, let’s go inside.” Gwen smiled and got off the boat.

“We can go in it?” Luke looked at her with wide eyes.

“It’s no fun to just look.” Gwen laughed and held Luke’s hand, helping him off the boat.

“Then let’s go!” Luke grinned like a small child. Gwen laughed and led him up to the stairs.

“Ready, your highness?” She smiled and stood on the first step.

“Absolutely.” Luke grinned and held her hand as they started walking up the stairs. “How many stairs are there?”

“There are 354 steps to get to the top.” Gwen laughed softly. “It’s 20 stories high.”

“Well, this is my exercise for the next 6 months.” Luke laughed and continued walking. It took them a while, but they made it to the top of the statue.

“Well, what do think?” Gwen asked, breathing heavily.

“The view is fantastic.” Luke breathed, looking out the window. “Gwen, this is absolutely amazing. I can’t thank you enough for this.”

“You don’t have to thank me.” Gwen smiled, looking up at him. He took a step closer to her and began to lean in slowly. Gwen shook her head and took a step back. “We shouldn’t..”

“You’re right..” Luke sighed and looked out at the water again. Gwen sighed quietly and began making her way down the stairs. Luke followed a few steps behind, wanting to maintain a decent distance between them. The two of them got back on the boat and Gwen told the driver to take them back. She sat down on one of the couches and sighed. Luke sat next to her and carefully held her hand in his. “Thank you for doing this for me. No one has ever done something like this for me.”

“I had a really great time with you.” Gwen smiled softly, looking up at him. Luke slowly leaned in once more, but this time, Gwen gave in. She pressed her lips to his and cupped his cheeks, pulling his face closer. Luke wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her body closer to his. “Luke..” Gwen mumbled against his lips. “We shouldn’t.”

“I know, I just can’t stop.” Luke whispered, pressing his lips to hers again. The boat arrived back at the dock. “I wish I could see you again.”

“Maybe someday you will.” Gwen forced a smile and got off the boat. Luke followed after her and walked back to the beach with her. “Have a safe trip home, guys.” Gwen smiled at all of them. “I had a great time with all of you.”

“It was great meeting you, Gwen.” Michael grinned. Gwen smiled softly before making her way back to her apartment.

That next morning, Gwen woke up early to get ready for work. She walked to work, like she did every other morning, but something about this one felt different. She walked up to the bar and unlocked the door. “Gwen! I’m so glad I caught you.” Michael breathed heavily.

“What are you doing here?” Gwen asked, turning to look at him.

“You’re coming to Sydney with me. We don’t have much time, I need you to go pack a bag.”

“What? Michael, I can’t go to Sydney. I have a job here.”

“Gwen, go pack a bag. I’ll explain everything on the way there.” Michael grabbed her hand, pulling her with him. Gwen squealed and followed him back to her apartment. She went in and packed a bag as quickly as she could. “Alright, let’s go. The jet is waiting.”

“We’re going on a jet?” Gwen asked, following Michael down to the towncar waiting.

“How else do think nobility travels?” Michael chuckled and got into the car with her. They drove out to the landing strip and boarded the jet.

“Wow, you actually convinced her to come with us.” Calum laughed as Gwen sat down.

“You’re all here?” She buckled her seatbelt and looked at the other boys.

“Yeah, we stayed an extra night but Luke left shortly after you did last night.” Ashton smiled. “Did Michael tell you why you’re coming yet?”

“No, he just made me rush to pack a bag.” Gwen glared at Michael playfully.

“Well, Gwen, you’ll be entered in the social season of Sydney in the race to win the Prince’s heart.” Michael grinned.

“I can’t. I’m not a princess.” Gwen widened her eyes.

“You don’t have to be. My family will be sponsoring you in order for you to be entered. Look, Luke wouldn’t shut up about you last night. He was so happy to have met you, and we can’t let you two be apart forever like this.”

“I can’t do this. I am the complete opposite of everything Luke needs.”

“No, you’re exactly what Luke needs. You just need a little bit of training.” Calum added.

“And, that’s what we’re here for.” Ashton smiled. “We’ve got a 14 hour flight, which means we have lots of time to get you prepared.”

“But, why me?” Gwen asked, looking at them

“Well, my family doesn’t have any daughters to marry off. They only have me. So, we sponsor a girl that we think can win, so we can continue our family line.” Michael explained. “Luke likes you enough that he might actually choose you.”

“But, you have to be careful. Even if Luke wants to choose you, he will choose someone else if he thinks she’ll be a better queen for his kingdom.” Ashton said, making eye contact with Gwen.