#but like yeah weird feelings re: biking to the first park and seeing what had and hadnt changed. smth v cross hands bathroom scene abt that

[ayyponine]

weird to say but. my previous weekend was also kinda perfect

[majahu]

Scream: Safe Haven

Chapter 2: Reaching Out

Previous Chapter - Next Chapter

Chapter Warnings: none.

Chapter Summary: A first look at your new life. Will this be the new beginning you had hoped for or while your past continue to follow you?

Word Count: 1.2k

Suggested Listening: Roslyn (Bon Iver, St. Vincent)

Note: Sorry this took longer to upload than I expected.

A bus took you most of the way to the farmhouse, leaving only a couple miles bike ride to the property. You had scrawled out street names on your forearm in ballpoint pen, the ink smearing slightly as sweat dripped from your pores. Despite the oak trees lining the road, the sun beat down on you relentlessly throughout your ride, invisible waves of heat radiating up from the asphalt. 

Small remnants of pebbles crunched under your tires as the paved road turned to dirt and you checked your makeshift roadmap to make sure you were still on the right route. You biked for minutes with no houses in sight, only fields of ragweed and dandelions lined your path. The occasional oil pump spotted the landscape, unmoving; they reminded you of fossils, you wondered if they were ever put to use. 

You pressed town on the gear shift, hearing your bike clink in response as the pressure built in the pedals, propelling you faster down the dirt road; a small trail of dust snaking down the street in your wake.

You would’ve biked right past the farmhouse had you not seen the address: three large numbers printed across an old blue metal mailbox at the edge of the road. The mailbox was in rough shape, sporting a few nasty dents and leaning slightly to one side. 

You turned, heading down the long winding gravel drive, careful not to go too fast over any dents or divots. As you crested the hilltop, the farmhouse’s red metal roof came into view. You had expected the home to be dilapidated, given that the current owners could no longer take care of it, but it was surprisingly charming and well-kept. The grass in front of the stone building seemed to have been trimmed recently, clippings still dusting the lawn; and the house itself was decorated with red shutters and a white wraparound porch. 

You parked your bike in the grass beside the driveway, hearing your name just as you nudged the metal kickstand into place with your toe. 

“Are you y/n?” 

You turned to see an older woman, maybe in her early seventies, standing on the porch.

“Yeah, hi,” you said, walking over to the woman. 

“I’m Martha,” she said smiling warmly and gesturing for you to come inside.

Martha gave you a tour of the farmhouse while explaining that ever since the death of her husband, she wasn’t able to upkeep the place. She was planning to downsize, she had said, but she wasn’t ready to let go of the place quite yet and had instead opted to stay with her children for a couple of months while they decided what to do with the property.

The interior was charming, just what you’d expect a country home owned by a sweet old lady to look like. Upholstery in various floral print decorated the cushioned furniture throughout the home, along with a variety of embroidered throw pillows and quilts you’d bet money Martha had made herself. Scattered throughout the home were pictures of Martha and her husband, as well as her grandchildren—you assumed. It occurred to you that it might feel weird living in a home that so clearly belonged to someone else, but maybe that’s exactly what you needed. This place could be your safe haven. 

There was nothing here to remind you of the past, the friends you lost, of Billy or Stu. It was quite literally like you were living someone else's life.

Martha paused outside of a wooden door, a tapestry of the Betsy Ross American flag fixed to the front. 

“The basement’s down here,” she said, opening the door to reveal steep, splintered wooden steps. “I haven’t gone down there in years, bad knees,” she said with a laugh. “You’re welcome to have a look if you want, just canned food and old yard decorations.”

You hesitated, not really wanting to venture down into the dark basement by yourself, but you could tell Martha wanted you to see the place and you weren’t entirely sure how to say no to such a nice old lady. 

The faint smell of mildew prickled at your nose as you descended, resting your hand gingerly on the wooden railing beside you. You were hesitant to put your full weight on the thing, not sure it would support you if you actually fell. 

“The third step from the bottom is a little loose,” Martha warned from the top of the stairs, “I’d recommend going over it, old thing’s going to give way any day now.” 

As you stepped over the loose board, you spotted a light switch on the wall, flicking it on. It didn’t do much to illuminate the basement, but you could see a little more clearly now. Boxes of old yard statuettes were scattered around the cement floor, a frog holding an umbrella poking out of the top of one. A metal rack with various canned foods stood to the left of you, corn, wax beans, condensed milk. 

“There’s a gun cabinet under the stairs,” Martha called. “My husband used to hunt. I’ll give you the key with the house-keys just in case,” she said. 

You doubted you’d get the urge to go for a hunting trip, but you nodded at Martha before heading back up the steps.

“I’ll come by once a month to check on things,” Martha said. The two of you were outside now; she had showed you where the tool shed was as well as a small woodshed stocked with logs for the fireplace. You’d have to chop them yourself, she said, when the pile got low, but you shouldn’t be needing them until winter. Lots of time to learn, she’d assured you. 

Why did she just assume you didn’t know how to chop wood?

You didn’t, but still.

“Matthew will be up more frequently though,” she said gesturing towards a wooden barn just across from the main house. “We board horses up here to make a little extra money, Matthew’s the stable-hand. He comes up every day, but he keeps odd hours so don’t be surprised if you don’t see him.”

Martha gave you her phone number when she left, as well as Matthew’s, her daughter’s, and the neighbors; though you doubted you’d ever see them given how much land was between the houses out here.

You had decided to stay in the guest bedroom, it just felt too weird sleeping in someone else's bed. The walls were a dark blue-green, with an orange floral print scattered across them. A leafy plant sat in the window, shrouded partly by orange linen curtains that fell to the floor. You sat back against the metal headboard, pillows propped behind you.

Fiddling with a small notebook you had placed in your lap, you began to think of your friends. Randy and Sidney had both given you their college addresses before you left, but you never bothered to write or call. 

Maybe you didn’t have to cut them off completely. You didn’t have to call them, no pressure of a conversation. You could start with a letter, you didn't even have to send it.

You leaned further back against the pillows, clicking your pen, not sure what to say first. It had been so long since you had heard from either of them.

Did they miss you? Did they hate you for cutting them off? Did they wonder why your old phone number wasn’t working anymore?

You took a deep breath, trying to push your worries out of your head as you exhaled.

You began to write.

Tag list (comment to be added): @imagininghim @witxhy-lexx

[maliby]

Dare | Johnny Suh (+18)

↬ Pairing: Johnny x F. Reader

↬ Story Genre: smut, fluff

↬ Warnings: mature language, explicit sex scene

↬ Word count: 5.6K

↬ Summary:  You and your friend Johnny have this ongoing string of wild dares. There’s just one thing: you’re never allowed to say no.

“Good morning class, today we’re going to start learning all about the matrix!” Your Algebra professor happily announced, completely unaware of the horror that swept over his students.

“Wait, is he talking about the movies?” Your friend Taeyong leaned in as soon as Professor Weaver turned his back to write on the board. The rest of the class groaned, having heard tales of horror from their seniors about the subject.

“No, you dufus! Remember last year when Taeil was having a mental breakdown?”

“Oh,” realization dawned over his beautiful face, his big eyes widening even more.

You had had a crush on Taeyong from the first moment you had seen him (just like everybody in your year), but that soon went away as you got to know him and found that you connected better as friends.

“Yup. Matrices…” You sighed in terror while you rested your chin on the palm of your hand. “Maybe Taeil has some notes he can give us-” At that moment, the phone in the back pocket of your jeans buzzed, breaking you out of your conversation. You fished the device from your pocket and looked at the shiny notification bar - it was a message from your roommate, Johnny Suh. 

You looked to your left where said roommate was, sat just a few tables from you, and felt a feeling of dread creep up on you at the sight of his stupid grin. You didn’t have to read the message, you already knew what he wanted.

“Is it Johnny?” Taeyong asked as his eyes followed yours straight to the roommate you both had in common.

“Yes…” you mumbled through gritted teeth, quickly placing your finger on your phone’s Touch ID to unlock it and read the message.

Heeere’s Johnny 🔪 (10:35 AM): dare u to scream “fuck” as loud as you can

“Motherfucker…” you muttered with your eyes closed.

“What did he dare you to do this time?” You turned your phone to him as you noticed him trying to take a peek at it. “Oh no…”

It all started this one night at a frat house party. Back then, you were still crushing over Taeyong and, in a game of truth or dare, Johnny dared you to pick your nose and eat your own booger. Of course, any sane person would have said ‘no’ but, the tequila shots you had downed half an hour earlier made you anything but that. After that, not only did you not look at Taeyong for 2 weeks straight, but also dared Johnny to pick his crush’s nose. You thought he would never agree to it, but as soon as you saw the deed being performed right in the middle of the cafeteria, you knew you had just entered a game with no end.

“Y/N, you can’t do this! You’ll be in trouble!” Taeyong tried to reason with you, already knowing his words would fall on deaf ears.

“More trouble than I was in when I had to write a love poem to Professor Stevens on one of the questions of the Calculus exam?” You flinched as you remembered the talk down you got when Professor Stevens thought you were trying to have sex with him to get a better grade.

“Yeah...that was bad. But still-”

The buzzing of your phone interrupted Taeyong. You looked down at it and read Johnny’s second message out loud to your friend.

Heeere’s Johnny 🔪 (10:38 AM): are u scared? 🐔

You looked back at the sender of the message and felt annoyance grow as you saw him flap his arms around like a chicken and laugh straight in your face.

5 seconds. That was how long it took for you to completely lose your cool, flip Johnny off and yell from the back of the class: “Fuck!” 

You were expecting a couple of things to happen, but nothing could prepare you for the general reaction you got: laughter. Everyone was laughing, from your classmates to your professor. Everyone except Johnny, that is.

“Don’t worry Miss Y/L/N,” Mr Weaver said from the front of the class, breaking your stare down with Johnny. “Matrices aren’t as scary as they seem,” Mr Weaver fondly smiled at you before turning back to the board to write something down, leaving you completely perplexed.

You looked back at Johnny who had his face in a frown and stuck your tongue out to him - it felt good to see his evil plans backfire.

“That was lucky,” Taeyong commented with a little chuckle.

“Tell me about it, feels like the Universe has finally compensated me for all the stupid shit Johnny has made me do.”

“You’ve made Johnny do some pretty stupid shit too.”

“Shhh,” you turned to your friend with your finger in front of your lips, making the universal gesture for silence. “Let’s not talk about that,” you patted him in the back and picked up your pen to start taking notes.

“I’m back!” You announced as put your keys on the glass bowl right by the entrance of your shared apartment. 

“Taeyong, they were all out of your favourite yoghurt.” You heard noise coming from the kitchen so you moved your way there, but as you went inside you crossed paths with Johnny who was just leaving the kitchen. He was on the phone, and by the expression on his face, you figured that something bad must have happened. 

“What happened?” You asked Taeyong who was leaning on the balcony eating the last of his yoghurt.

“I don’t know, it’s his mother.” 

“Oh no, are his parents fighting again?” 

Taeyong nodded as he licked his spoon and threw the yoghurt cup in the trash.

It was then that you both jumped up at the noise of the door slamming shut - Johnny had stormed out of the house.

Both you and Taeyong had called him loads of times but Johnny never answered, worry consuming you and your best friend. Eventually, you both decided to split up and go looking for him - Taeyong on his scooter and you on your bicycle. 

After half an hour of looking for Johnny in the most obvious places, you started to get desperate. You were starting to run low on ideas of where he could be, but as you passed by a bus stop and saw an ad for a sunscreen with a girl on the beach you suddenly remembered something: Johnny once had told you that when he was feeling down he liked to go to the beach and listen to the waves because it really calmed him down. 

“Why didn’t I think of that earlier?” You questioned yourself (earning a few weird looks from the people at the bus stop) before you changed directions and started to peddle your way to the beach.

The beach was mostly deserted (being that it was December and it was cold), but a brown-haired guy could be seen sitting alone in the sand. 

You parked your bike in the empty bicycle spot, locked it and walked straight to the lonely boy. As you got closer to him and confirmed his identity you couldn’t help but sigh in relief - he sure as hell didn’t look good mentally, but at least he was physically okay. You fished your phone from the pocket of your jacket and sent a quick text to Taeyong before sitting right down beside one of your best friends.

“It’s a little cold for a swim, don’t you think?”

He smiled at you, but his smile didn’t reach his eyes. 

“My parents are getting a divorce,” he deadpanned before looking back at the sea, your instant reaction being to hug him.

“I’m so sorry Johnny.”

“I begged them to just talk it over. I begged them to try but...they won’t.”

“Johnny…” you started in a warning tone. You wanted to tell him that his parents have the right to be happy, but you completely understood where he was coming from - nobody wants their parents to split up. You just wish you could take away this bad feeling from him.

“I know, I know…” he answered, picking up what you were about to tell him. “It’s just...hard.”

You studied his face for a while and noticed his eyes were puffy from crying and your heart completely broke. You and Johnny liked to tease each other a lot, but the truth was that you really cared about each other, more than you’d probably like to admit.

You placed your hand on his back and started rubbing soothing circles. He probably could barely feel them over his bulky black leather jacket, but you couldn’t help but do it. “We’re here for you. Me and Taeyong. You know that, don’t you?”

Johnny turned to look at you and for a brief moment, his eyes held an emotion you had never seen on him. Something you were sure you had misunderstood. Something that, weirdly, made your heart pound.

“I know.” 

Johnny kissed the top of your head and wrapped his long arm around you, snuggling you closer to him and his body heat. You placed your head on his shoulder and just sat there, hearing a mix of his breathing and the waves.

Suddenly your heart started pounding again - something about this felt way too intimate. Replaying the last few minutes in your head made you realize that all of this, somehow, felt like more than a friendship, and that, scared the crap out of you. 

Your own body acted on its own, and when you came to it, you were already backing away from him and saying something to deflect the situation.

“You know there’s a frat party tonight don’t you?”

“Y/N... I’m not in the mood.”

“Johnny Suh, you are going to that damn party, and you are going to have a good time!” You knew he was stubborn and that you probably had no chance of convincing him but then, something crossed your mind; something that would dead sure make him go. “...I dare you!”

He chuckled. “That’s a low blow, using the dares against me.”

“Isn’t that the purpose of a dare though?” You smiled mischievously, making him smile in return.

“Touché.”

“Woo-hoo! Look at you!” Taeyong whistled as soon as you left your room, all dolled up and ready to go party. “Who are you trying to bang?”

You sneakily took a peek at Johnny who was sitting on the couch and felt a shiver run up your spine as you saw his eyes completely locked on your form. “Mmm, no one,” you lied in a playful tone. 

The truth was you hadn’t been able to stop thinking about that little moment with Johnny on the beach and, as you looked through all your clothes when deciding on what to wear, you couldn’t help but pick your most revealing dress with his reaction in mind.

“Yeah, I don’t believe you,” Taeyong said.

“Well tough luck! Now come on guys, the cab is waiting downstairs.”

When you were grabbing your bag to make your way out the door you felt a tall presence right behind you. He placed his big hand on the small of your back and whispered to your hair: “damn Y/N, didn’t know you cleaned up like that.”

You smiled to yourself and then turned to look at him. “Well, obviously you haven’t been paying attention.” You winked at him and turned back around, leaving to follow Taeyong to the cab while being fully aware of Johnny’s eyes on your back.

When both you and Johnny arrived downstairs, Taeyong had already sat in the front, making you both sit in the back.

The ride was a short one - only 10 to 15 minutes - but, nonetheless, it was full of tension. Taeyong was on his phone the whole time, and the driver kept quiet so, if it wasn’t for the radio the silence would be a deafening one. 

Both you and Johnny didn’t take out your phones, as it would be usual. He just leaned his head on the window and watched the city lights pass by, probably still thinking about his parents. You felt bad. You didn’t want him to feel this way. You wanted him to be his usual funny self and dare you to do stupid shit, but seeing him like this just broke your heart. 

You couldn’t help but stare at his side profile - he was handsome. Of course, you knew he was handsome, you were not blind, but this was the first time his handsomeness was affecting you. You couldn’t help but stare: stare at the way his styled hair brushed upon his eyes, stare at his straight nose and stare at his perky lips. 

Suddenly, an undeniable urge to lean in and kiss him emerged within you. An urge so immense that you caught yourself actually moving towards him, only to be stopped by him turning to look back at you with a charged expression. 

You shared a look for a few seconds. A look that made your insides tingle and your legs press harder against each other. What was happening to you?

Johnny’s hand was reaching over to yours, which was pressed on the seat between the both of you, and you could feel your heart start to beat faster. Suddenly, it felt like time had slowed down and all your focus was on that one hand. That hand that looked strong and delicate at the same time. That hand that looked like it had the power to not only be rough but also gentle. That hand that could grope you, touch you and fuck you so good until you cried for more. That hand that was so close that made you gasp in anticipation.

“We’re here,” the cab driver announced, breaking you from whatever spell Johnny had you on.

“Thanks. Keep the change.” Taeyong paid the driver and left the cab, immediately moving to open up your door.

“Milady,” he bowed, acting as your personal chauffeur.

“Why thank you,” you awkwardly bowed back, still feeling shaken up by the events of the car.

“Okay, let’s move!” Your group started walking towards the house as soon as Johnny joined both of you from the other side of the cab, Taeyong still completely unaware of what had just happened. “I promised Yuta we’d play beer pong with him.” 

“But Taeyong, you know I suck at beer pong!” You protested.

“I do. And that’s why you’re not on my team.”

“What?! That means I’m stuck with her!” Johnny whined from right next to you, making you turn and hit him in his chest, his hard pecks not going unnoticed by you.

“Hey!”

“Shut up Suh, you know as well as I do that you could use a drink,” Taeyong said before he spotted his friend near the entrance. “Yuta ma’ man! What’s up?”

“TY! I was beginning to wonder if you’ve gotten lost!”

“Sorry, Miss Y/N here took 3 hours to get ready,” he pointed back at you, making you hit him in his shoulder.

“Shut up Taeyong!”

“Come on man, did you get a good look at her? I’d wait an eternity if it meant I could look at an angel like her,” he winked at you before getting a sip out of his red plastic cup.

It was public knowledge that you and Yuta had fucked a couple of times. He was pretty hot, and the things he could make you feel with that tongue piercing of his were out of this fucking world. But tonight, you weren’t feeling him all that much - the tiny voice in your head telling you that that’s because you wanted to be railed by Johnny instead.

“Do you really think those cheesy lines are going to work?” Johnny asked out of nowhere with a hint of annoyance to his voice.

Johnny and Yuta were friends and him, more than anyone, knew that Yuta was a nice guy. Sure, he really liked to flirt, but he was also very respectful. So, his reaction made you wonder if he perhaps was feeling jealous. Secretly, you hoped he was. 

“It already did man,” Yuta winked at you once again, catching you a little off-guard. 

“Now, TY told me we’re not going to be on the same team for the beer pong. I’m usually a perfect gentleman, but I’m sorry angel, I can’t let you win.” Yuta came one step closer and picked up your hand and you swore you felt Johnny tense up beside you. “Maybe afterwards you could save me a dance?” He kissed the back of your hand and gave you a look that left little to no imagination of his true intentions - he wanted sex.

“Dream on, Nakamoto,” Johnny interrupted, coming right between you two and breaking your contact. “Stop stalling and let’s go.”

Johnny grabbed your arm and pulled you inside and away from Yuta and his advances. The look of bewilderment on your other roommate’s face didn’t go by unnoticed by you, but you forcibly chose to act like you hadn’t seen it. You didn’t know what it was, but you were liking this jealous side of Johnny and you were certainly curious for more.

“Alright, game on,” you heard Yuta comment before the loud music from inside overwhelmed you and your ears.

The game went on for a while. You lost, just as Taeyong had predicted. You didn’t mind, really. You just wanted to have a good time and the alcohol from the game was helping you do just that: you were currently in the middle of the dance floor dancing by yourself without a care in the world. You had lost your friends when you went to the bathroom and decided to go to the dancefloor when WAP started playing.

You were enjoying yourself. You were at that fine line where you were feeling the effects of the alcohol but you could still make your own decisions and you loved it.

Suddenly, as you were shaking your ass, you felt a pair of hands on your hips and a crotch on your ass. You wished it was Johnny, but as you opened your eyes and saw him sitting on a couch not far from you, you felt your fantasy crumbling. You turned around to see who you had just ground on and weren’t surprised when your eyes landed on Yuta.

“Hello angel, I’ve been looking for you.”

“Really?” You tried to put a little distance between you, but Yuta just pulled you right back in, your bodies now in full contact with each other.

“The way you look tonight...you’re driving me fucking crazy. I can’t stop thinking about you,” he confessed in your ear, his thumb rubbing soothing circles on the small of your back. “All I wanted to do, was ditch Taeyong and the game and do that thing with my tongue that you like so much.”

Usually, that would be enough to make you lose your shit and pull him to the closest available bedroom, but tonight your mind was elsewhere. “Yuta...I’m sorry but tonight I’m not feeling it.”

His face fell in disappointment and he looked like a lost puppy, which partially made you feel bad for rejecting him, but you had to be honest. 

“You sure?” He asked you.

“Yes.”

“Alright, I’m sorry then...”

He was about to let you go; you could feel his grip loosening when someone yanked him back and away from you, leaving you confused.

“Leave her alone Nakamoto,” Johnny’s voice sounded right from beside you, making your heart jump.

“What the-? What is wrong with you Johnny? Why are you acting so- Oh…” Yuta looked back at you and you could literally see him putting all the puzzle pieces together in his mind. “I get it now.”

“Get what?” Johnny asked.

“Nothing,” you intercepted Yuta before he could say anything. “Yuta, don’t you have to go meet up with that girl?” 

You made some weird faces at Yuta so he could understand what you were doing and, thankfully, he did. 

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Have fun!” He winked at you and turned to leave, making you sigh in relief that that whole situation was over.

“That was weird,” your roommate commented. “Was he bothering you? I know he sometimes can be a little...persistent.”

You felt a warmth spread throughout your chest. You knew Yuta could never harm you, but the fact that Johnny was so worried about you made you swoon. Then a thought popped in your head that made the warm fuzzy feeling turn sour: was he worried because he liked you or just as a friend?

“No, it’s okay. He did nothing wrong. Thank you…”

“You’re welcome…”

The mood got awkward for a minute, with none of you saying a word until Johnny broke your shared silence. “I’m gonna go.”

“What?”

“Yeah...I’m sorry, I’m just not really feeling it.”

He looked mentally down and you felt bad for him. Johnny was always the one cracking up a joke - wherever there was laughter, he was always present. He loved to dance and to have a good time, and it broke you to see him like this.

“Hey, come on, dance with me.”

“I’m sorry Y/N, I’m really not feeling it…”

“Come oooon…” You didn’t know how you could convince him, but then an idea popped in your head. “I dare you.”

He chuckled and you couldn’t help but smile at the thought of at least making him laugh. “Playing dirty again Y/N?”

“Well, you aren’t giving me much of a choice now are you Johnny?”

“I don’t know…”

Before he could continue you started imitating a chicken, just like he had done to you in the Algebra class and you couldn’t help but smile at his laughter once again.

“Alright, alright!”

“Yes!” You chanted in victory, promptly grabbing his hands and making him dance with you.

The dance started out friendly, with a few spins here and there, but it wasn’t long before tension started rising up and his hands were on your hips, just where Yuta’s had been. In your head, you couldn’t help but compare the feeling of the 2. Yuta had nice hands, that had certainly made you feel good before, but Johnny’s somehow felt better. His hands felt like he cared for you on a much deeper level. Like they could hold you and never let go. Like they could protect you from anything and completely destroy you at the same time.

As your inner voice went on an entire monologue about the wonder of Johnny’s hands, you found yourself looking him dead in the eyes. The way he was looking at you was making you think wild things, and with the buzz from the alcohol, you couldn’t help but want to act on those thoughts.

Without an ounce of self-control, you let your head move forward and your mouth whisper in his ear: “I dare you to grab my ass.”

Without a second of hesitation, his hands were on your ass and you were exhaling on his ear. The way his big hands were fully grabbing you and massaging you was turning you on so much that you could feel yourself get wet. You wanted nothing more than to have him lift up your dress and finger you in the middle of everyone.

Johnny moved his head near your neck and you thought for a second he was about to kiss you there, but you were surprised when he spoke in your ear. “I dare you to grind that sexy ass of yours on my cock.”

“Fuck.”

Just as he had done with your dare, you promptly complied, turning around and rubbing yourself on his semi. You both were walking on some dangerous paths, but you didn’t think any one of you could go back now.

As you moved your ass to the music and felt him grow harder and harder you couldn’t help but think about what it would be like to fuck him. You wanted him to end you. You wanted him to fill you up so good that he’d ruin any other man for you. You wanted his hands all over your body. You wanted him to grab your tits and play with your nipples. Fuck.

You reached your head back and whispered your next dare to him: “I dare you to play with my boobs.”

“Gladly.”

And then those big hands that were previously on your ass were now caressing your breasts and you felt like you were completely done. 

“Mmmh…” you moaned, not sure if he could hear you over the loud music.

The way he was pinching your nipples over your dress made you feel glad you decided on  not wearing a bra tonight. He was making you feel so good just with his fingers on your nipples and his clothed cock on your ass that your mind once again thought about what it would feel like to have the real deal.

“I dare you to kiss me.”

The dare had caught you off guard. You had been so in a trance by the grinding that your mind went straight to the fucking and skipped the kissing, but now that he had requested it you couldn’t stop thinking about it. So, consumed by desire, you turned around and glued your lips to his. 

You wrapped your right leg around his hip (his hand once again coming to the rescue and grabbing your thigh) and felt his cock rubbing you straight on your clit. The feeling was so pleasurable that you felt like you couldn’t take it anymore, you had to have him now. So you pulled back from the kiss and plead for the last dare: “I dare you to fuck me.”

Johnny didn’t waste any more seconds, he grabbed you by your hand and lead you up the stairs to the first spare bedroom he could find. He then pushed you to the bed, making you fall right on the mattress.

“When I saw you with Yuta I went fucking crazy.”

The way he was towering over you and looking down on you as he confessed his feelings to you was slowly driving you mad. You never imagined you would be where you were right now, but now that you were you could confidently say that you wanted nothing more than this.

“I turned him down because of you,” you also confessed, now suddenly feeling shy and not being able to look him in the eye.

He chuckled.

Suddenly the mattress dipped between your legs as he joined you on the bed, right on top of you. 

“How the fuck did we end up here Y/N?” His fingers gently placed a misplaced lock of your hair behind your ear, catching your breath at his tenderness.

“I don’t know...but I think I don’t want to go back.”

“Good. ‘Cause me neither.”

His lips were back on yours and although the kiss felt different this time, it quickly evolved to something more. His hands ran down your body and went between your legs, his fingers rubbing you over your drenched panties.

“You’re so wet baby. Is this all from grinding against my cock?” His fingers slid under your underwear and easily entered you, making you moan.

“Fuck, yes. I can’t stop thinking about your cock, it’s driving me crazy. I want to fuck you so badly.”

“I want that too.” Something dark took over his eyes. Something that, in combination with his low and breathy voice was making your desire for him grow to even bigger levels. 

“Lately I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.” His free hand pulled down the upper part of your dress, exposing your breaths to his hungry mouth, as his other hand picked up its pace. “I lay awake at night just thinking about you: your smell, your hair, your smile, your eyes, your lips, your body…”

“Johnny…” you moaned his name as you felt that sweet pleasure building up from within you.

“Fuck, that sounded better than I imagined. Do that again, baby.”

Johnny’s other hand joined the one between your legs and began its assault on your little bundle of nerves, intensifying the amount of pleasure you were feeling. “Fuck Johnny, I can’t take it much longer…”

“Cum for me baby,” he instructed as he tried to alleviate himself by rubbing his cock against your leg.

“Ohshit-” you incoherently mumbled at the arrival of your orgasm, your walls spasming around his long fingers.

“You’re so beautiful,” Johnny mumbled against the skin of your belly as he pressed soothing kisses on it.

You smiled and took in a few more breaths so you could talk. 

“Since when are you this romantic Suh?” You asked as you finger-combed his now messy hair.

“Since always. I just only show it to special girls.”

You looked away, suddenly feeling the blood rushing to your cheeks. Damn Johnny Suh and his smooth ass talking.

He chuckled before moving closer to your face and kissing you across your jaw. “Since when are you this shy Y/L/N?”

“Since-” You opened your mouth to answer him but came up short, ending up getting frustrated instead. “Shut up and take your clothes off!”

Your roommate laughed at your annoyance and immediately complied, removing his shirt and working on his pants. You couldn’t help but stare at his buff body: his bulging biceps, his washboard abs and his juicy pecks. You were so lost in desire that you didn’t even notice that Johnny was eyeing you up.

“Enjoying the view?” He teased, the stupid grin on his face driving you mad.

“Shut up,” you said once more, not enjoying the power he had over you.

“Take off your dress baby, I wanna see you too,” he requested as his hand caressed your naked thigh, sending shivers up your spine.

You obliged, quickly removing all your clothes and exposing your naked body to his hungry eyes.

Johnny didn’t say anything, but you could tell by the way his cock twitched that he was affected. So affected, in fact, that within seconds he was on top of you devouring your lips.

Both your hands wandered on each other’s body as he dry humped you between your legs.

“Do you have a condom?” You asked between ragged breaths.

“Fuck, no. But wait a minute,” Johnny reached for the bedside table and opened the first drawer, finding exactly what he was looking for. “Jackpot.”

“Did you know that was there?” 

“No, but I figured. After all, this is a frat house,” he explained as he opened up the package and rolled down the latex condom on his cock.

“Are you ready, baby?”

“Fuck, yes. Just put it in.”

Johnny didn’t wait a second longer. He grabbed his cock, ran it up and down your slit a couple of times and slowly entered you, the feeling of fullness being completely indescribable.

“Oh Johnny, you feel so good.”

“Fuck, tell me when I can move.” Johnny was nuzzled up in your neck, leaving tiny love bites as you adjusted to his cock.

“You can go.”

He started moving slowly at first, a string of moans spilling out from both your mouths, but, soon after, his hips started thrusting faster and harder and you found yourself clawing at his back. 

“Shit,” he hissed before glueing his lips back on yours.

For a moment you both lay there on your own little pleasure bubble, just fucking and swirling your tongues together, with moans and cusses being spilt left and right as you enjoyed each others’ bodies. For a moment, nothing else mattered - just you and Johnny.

“Baby, you’re taking me so well. You are so perfect,” he confessed as he kissed you all over, his words almost making your heart jump out of your chest.

“Johnny, baby, I’m so close.”

“Me too, fuck.”

Johnny was drilling into you so hard that the sound of skin slapping on skin was drowning out the music coming from outside. You were almost there, and as you felt that sweet feeling building up in your core you took a chance to really look at Johnny: the way he bit his lip, the way his brows frowned in pleasure, his dishevelled locks and the way his veins popped on his arms as he held himself up so as not to crush you. He was so fucking hot you couldn’t believe you hadn’t noticed it sooner.

“Johnny, I’m gonna cum.”

“Cum for me, beautiful. I’m right there.”

That was all you needed. Just like that, you were crashing and burning around the man you had considered as ‘just a friend’ for years, your walls milking him dry and making him spill everything inside the borrowed condom.

You didn’t move for several minutes. Johnny fell right to your side and just lay there right beside you, your chests rising and falling in tandem.

What do you say in these situations? What were you supposed to say right after one of your best friends, and roommate, fucked the shit out of you? You had no idea, but thankfully, he took the lead.

“I dare you to fuck me again.”

The dare caught you completely off-guard, just like yours had caught him and you couldn’t help but laugh. For a good minute, that’s all you both did: laugh.

“Alright,” you reached for the drawer and grabbed another condom from the owner of the room. “But this time, I’m on top.”

© maliby, 2020. Do not copy or repost without permission.

[milenadaniels]

Before the Night Fades, 8.6k - POV Outsider on Buck/Eddie double date shenanigans (AO3)

“I have a bottle of champagne, four champagne flutes, one engagement ring to go into one of those champagne flutes, and a note to deliver it all to table 34 with dessert,” Tomas explains, wide-eyed, throwing his hand back to the prep station where said champagne is waiting on ice next to four flutes and a small ring box.

“Okay?”

“Okay so there’s two men and two women and I have no idea who’s getting proposed to. I’m not even 100% on who came with who."

---

Or, EddieAna and BuckTaylor double date and it ruins everyone's night.

The nearly-post-COVID return to normal rush is going exactly as well as management at the Tilted Cactus expected it would, which is to say it’s going as miserably as the waitstaff at the Tilted Cactus expected it would.

The owners lost a lot of money to lockdowns, diminished capacity and the general (extremely warranted) paranoia of co-mingling in public during an international plague for the sake of overpriced appetizers. And despite accurately predicting the business would boom once the doors re-opened, management didn’t feel the need to account for more staff to serve said business.

So despite owing $34k on her student loans (that’s after a generous gift from both her parents and her maternal grandmother), barely being able to afford rent in LA, and the utter lack of career prospects, Mere is taking a break in the backroom, next to the dirty mop bucket, mentally running through her finances before she officially gives her notice.

She can’t quit, she knows that.

Turns out leaving New Zealand for LA with nothing but a dream and the idea that if Taika could do it so could she was not the most future-proof plan she could have come up with. The starving artist thing was so 2010.

But Mere’s made up her mind. She’s not made for this abuse. This is bullshit. She’s going to pack up, go home, and you know, do...something else. She’ll figure it out.

Mere pulls herself up from her indelicate crouch on some empty crates and goes in search of a piece of paper — or a fucking napkin, who cares — on which to write up her official resignation.

“No, in section 3A,” she hears Tomas fake-whisper. He’s one of the few new hires to grace these hallowed halls and still thinks it’s disrespectful to talk shit about customers even in the backroom. Umida, a five year veteran of this distinguished profession, has been trying to disabuse him of this particular nonsense.

“Where the fuck is section 3A, Tommy? We have sections 1 to 9, we don’t have any letters.”

“The new sidewalk sections have letters, to distinguish them from inside.”

“You mean sections 10 and 11?”

“...Mr. Peters said they’re using letters.”

“Mr. Peters can swallow my entire ass. The sidewalk sections are literally right outside the door from 9, why would they not be called 10 and 11?”

“Or ‘Hell On Earth’ and ‘Kill Me Please’, as we call them colloquially,” Mere offers, startling Tomas as she pushes through the swinging door she’d been hiding behind. Patio dining is highly encouraged and an excellent way to dine if one has patios. The Tilted Cactus does not have patios. It has a temporary license to put tables on the dirty sidewalk outside their restaurant, where waitstaff get to weave around pedestrians, dogs, and carts like they’re completing an obstacle course.

“Yeah, those work,” Umida agrees, emphasizing her point with a dispirited index finger in Mere’s direction.

“Okay, whatever,” Tomas says with a pained eye roll. “Can you please just check it out and let me know?”

“What’s happening?” Mere asks. She’s leaving this popsicle stand (ideally, on fire as she walks away slowly into the night) but she’s also starved of both human attention and the inherent drama of the culinary world so she’ll be damned if she misses out on one final showdown.

Tomas takes a breath to steel himself. “I have a bottle of champagne, four champagne flutes, one engagement ring to go into one of those champagne flutes, and a note to deliver it all to table 34 with dessert,” Tomas explains, wide-eyed, throwing his hand back to the prep station where said champagne is waiting on ice next to four flutes and a small ring box.

“Okay?”

“Okay so there’s two men and two women and I have no idea who’s getting proposed to. I’m not even 100% on who came with who.”

“You don’t have gaydar where you come from?” Umida asks in perfect deadpan.

Tomas glares harder, crosses his arms and juts one hip out. “I come from San Francisco. We invented gaydar. I’m saying I’m pretty sure the guys are together, but I’m also pretty sure they’re each with the women they’re sitting next to. So figure that out.”

“Like a double thruple?” Mere asks, now actually becoming curious.

“Like a ‘I don’t know what y’all are smoking this far north but I don’t understand your weird relationship dynamics and I’m still on probation and I can’t lose this job because I can’t move back in with my brother because I will murder him and I can’t be an only child with aging parents in this economy so can you please just go out there and tell me what the fuck is happening so I can throw this ring at the right person and punch out sometime before I ‘accidentally’ fall on the meat clever downstairs?’ kind of situation.”

Umida and Mere share a glance.

“Okay, well, don’t despair, new guy,” Mere says with a pat on his arm. “Save the meat cleaving for the capitalist elite. We got you. Let the pros handle this.”

“What did the note say?” Umida asks. “One ‘e’ or two? We can at least eliminate half of our options.”

Tomas does not check the note to spot whether the note-taker had written ‘fiancé’ or ‘fiancée’. He stares them down and fips the note in his fingers so the text faces them.

“It says ‘finance’.”

“Ah.”

“We’re going to need a more hands-on investigation, then,” Mere announces.

—————————-

Mere goes first, only because Umida was on her way to swap a side dressing for her table when Tomas intercepted her.

Mere carries a jug of water and makes the rounds of the outdoor tables, trying to hold in her visible distaste for the pseudo-patio vibe the owners tried to make happen out here. There’s a bike stand and a taxi stand two feet from where people are trying to have a romantic dinner. Every now and again, the LA traffic gets rowdy and noisy, completely butchering the atmosphere. There’s a shitty speaker funneling in some Frank Sinatra but it really does nothing to help.

But after this mystery is solved, none of this will be her problem anymore.

Like Tomas said, there are two men and two women sitting like cardinal points around a round table. The women are on the north and east ends, the men on the south and west ones. Two of them are brunets, one a redhead, and one a blond. They’re all disgustingly gorgeous.

And that’s all she’s got.

“The ravioli sounds so good,” the brunette woman says, casting a look at the brunet man to her side.

“Yeah, it does,” he says.

“Mm,” the blond man disagrees. “It’s got feta.”

“What’s wrong with feta?” Asks the redheaded woman.

“Absolutely nothing is wrong with feta,” he responds with a superior smile directed at the man next to him who’s preemptively adopting the look of someone ready to hear some bullshit. “Unless you have an underdeveloped palate and are simply overwhelmed by such strong delicacies as a moderately salty cheese.”

“Okay, don’t talk to me about an underdeveloped palate, Pennsylvania,” the other man responds, posturing despite the softness of his eyes.

“Hey, I said nothing to besmirch the great state of Texas. Texas is a wonder of culinary delight. I’m saying you’re...a simple man.”

“Feta’s disgusting and that’s a hill I’m willing to die on,” the brunet says with smug finality, holding the other man’s eyes until they’re both smirking and looking back at their menus.

Well then.

Mere’s a little bummed as she fills the water at table 36. She’d been hoping the mystery would run longer than 2 whole minutes, but these guys are definitely together. So the mystery will only come down to who’s getting eng—

“Thankfully Chris inherited a more refined palate,” the blond man — Pennsylvania — chirps as the last word.

“He did,” the brunette woman chimes in with a playful smile. “He loves my cooking. You both loved that greek salad I made last week, didn’t you? That had feta in it.”

“It did!” the brunet man replies, slipping his hand overtop hers. “And I loved it. So clearly context is a factor.”

Mere almost spills the rest of the water all over the lady at table 38 as she takes in the man and woman mooning at each other. Though if it’s any consolation, the redheaded woman looks as unimpressed as Mere feels.

“Yeah, I have no idea,” Mere reports back to Tomas.

“The redheads are playing footsie under the table now. That’s one couple at least right?” Tomas asks. The two of them are parked behind the bar where they can see through the window outside but the exterior tint prevents anyone outside from seeing them. The bar is still used for pouring drinks but the stools are gone — can’t maintain 6 feet between them — so the staff pretty much have the run of this corner of the restaurant.

“He’s not a redhead,” Mere mutters, looking out the window to catch the action. “It’s like a dark blond. And I don’t know, I’m pretty sure the two brunets are together, but then blond guy’s foot is way into the other guy’s space.” For a moment she’s distracted by just how damn long his legs are. “That’s certainly...familiar.”

“They’re lesbians,” Umida declares when she returns from dropping off plates at table 32.

“They’re lesbians?” Tomas parrots skeptically. “I did not get that vibe.”

“I could see lesbian for the redhead, I think,” Mere says. “Don’t know about the brunette.”

“Lesbians come in all flavours,” Umida informs them haughtily. It’s the start of Pride month and her hijab is held together by an “Ally” pin. “You can’t tell someone’s orientation just by looking at them.”

“But you’ve declared them lesbians,” Mere points out.

“Because lesbians are approaching their table and only lesbians know other lesbians.”

“That’s definitely not true,” Tomas reproaches.

“No, she’s right, lesbians coming up!” Mere watches as two more unfairly gorgeous women approach with two young boys in tow. Honestly, screw LA and their beauty standards. The parties look surprised to see each other, but they clearly know each other well. One of the boys stays with the women, but the other one breaks off to join the table.

“No, I mean you can know lesbians without being a lesbian.”

Umida and Mere ignore him.

“Okay, that’s one of their kids, right?” Umida asks. “Lesbians babysitting for date night?”

“He’s got Pennsylvania’s curls,” Mere agrees. "That's the blond guy, by the way, I think he’s from there. Brunet guy is Texas for the time being."

The boy reaches the table and is pulled into a strong hug by Texas, who then directs him to a hug with the brunette.

“Oh, unexpected.” Mere would have sworn he was a dead ringer for Pennsylvania. “But okay, that confirms the hand-holding I saw. We have a set of parents. And unless this is a super modern table, I don’t see the parents being here on dates with other people.”

“Mm, I don’t know.” Umida dithers. “That’s like an auntie hug, not a parent hug. Like if she is the mom, the kid is not happy with her.”

“Wait,” Tomas says.

The boy is wiggling out of Brunette’s grasp and rounding the table to Pennsylvania who’s waiting with a wide smile and open arms, and instead of letting go after, the boy finagles his way onto Pennsylvania’s lap to steal a breadstick. Pennsylvania reaches into the basket for another breadstick to pass to the little boy still waiting with his moms and Mere’s heart tugs a little.

Texas watches on from across the table with unrestrained fondness. His leg shifts to press against Pennsylvania’s who looks up with a smile.

“Boom, gay dads!” Tomas crows.

“And lesbians,” Umida adds.

“Redhead definitely has no part of this,” Mere notes. The woman is smiling but it’s polite and practised, not warm or welcoming. “I guess the brunets could be siblings maybe? Really close siblings?”

Finally, the babysitters make to leave so Pennsylvania kisses the boy’s temple and guides him back to his feet. Texas presses his own kiss to the boy’s curls as he passes, saying something they can’t make out from behind the glass. Brunette gets only a wave as he leaves.

“Gays and lesbians,” Umida concludes smugly.

“Okay, good,” Tomas sighs with relief. “So we know who the couples are, now who’s gettin—”

“Um,” Mere interrupts, pointing at the table.

Redhead’s foot is making its way up Pennsylvania’s leg and he shoots her a grin.

“For fuck’s sake,” Tomas spits as he walks away.

“Did you even take their order yet?” Mere calls after him. He doesn’t answer.

———-

Mere gets pulled away because now that she’s not quitting in outrage until this table 34 drama is over, she figures she should actually get back to work. Happily, having not seen her for the last 20 minutes, Mikael figured she had left or died and had taken over her section. She agrees to split half the tips with him and lets herself be pulled back into the tide of madness.

“Got it figured yet, Tim-Tam?” she asks when she passes him near the bathrooms.

“The guys are sharing their orders,” he says despondently.

“That’s not that incriminating. I split my orders with people. I’m not about to pay full price to discover if I like something.”

“No,” Tomas glares before gesturing to the window with disgust. “They’re sharing their orders.”

Tomas stalks away to hopefully take an herbal break to calm down and Mere goes back to the window just in time to catch the insanity. Mere feels Umida come up behind her and tries to suppress her shiver when her “what in all that is holy” skates across her bare shoulder.

Pennsylvania has just finished piling some of his spaghetti on Texas’ plate, which is exceedingly normal. But now Pennsylvania is reaching for Texas' burger.

“He didn’t cut that,” Umida notes.

“No, he did not.”

They have pretty messy burgers at Tilted Cactus, ones that are hard to share because if you cut them down the middle they tend to lose structural integrity. Of course, this isn’t a big concern if you’re sharing already-bitten-into burgers. Which these absolute freaks are doing.

“Gays and lesbians,” Umida declares again, the earlier smugness replaced with an air of disgust.

But when Umida walks away, Mere watches Brunette wipe something off Texas’ cheek and frowns. One throuple and redheaded side piece? Maybe?

————

“I’m struggling with lesbians as a theory,” Mere tells Umida the next chance she gets at the pickup counter. “I want to believe, but…”

“Yeah, I’m doubting now too. They’re almost exclusively talking to each other. But then I realized it was more getting-to-know-you conversation and this would be a hell of a weird first date.”

“Huh, so heteros all around?”

“Well, I also caught on that they’re spending all this time talking to each other because the guys are like in their own world. Finishing each others’ —”

“Sandwiches?”

“Exactly,” Umida grins, unexpectedly delighted by the reference. “So I don’t know. I really don’t envy Tommy.”

“Me either.”

“Hey Manish,” Umida yells out to the other side of the pickup window, “I’m picking up for Lenore but she’s got a two-seater, why do I have four dishes here?”

“Because Lenore can’t write for shit,” Mere says, picking up the order slip and squinting at the scrawl. “These are for table 24, not 29. It’s a four-seater.”

“Alright, well I guess you’re helping me, then,” Umida says with a wink.

Umida is fully capable of carrying four dishes on her own but she’s asking Mere to come with her so Mere’s already reaching for the plates, hoping the blush on her cheek can be written off as heat from the kitchen.

————-

During a slow stretch, Mere takes it upon herself to refill water and wine glasses in section 10.

From table 32 she can hear them talking about elementary school workloads.

“Oh, ah, I meant to let you know,” Pennsylvania says to Redhead, sitting up in his seat. “I can’t make it to the movies next Friday, can we move it to the next week? I should know my schedule by Wednesday.”

“Sure,” Redhead says with a hint of bite to her pleasant smile. “But I thought you had Friday off.”

“I do,” Pennsylvania says, his lips curving into a small, excited smile, “but Christopher won his class’ public speaking competition and they’re doing a kind of show of all the winners for the parents, and it’s on Friday.”

Mere moves around table 34 and heads for table 36 next, but catches the looks of discomfort on every face aside from Pennsylvania’s. He doesn’t realize he’s said something wrong, but the rest of them have.

“Isn’t that just during school hours?” Brunette woman asks.

Texas hesitates before saying, “yeah, but we’re taking him to Universal after to celebrate.”

Out of pity, Mere doubles back to table 34 and reaches for his water glass to fill. People tend to keep their drama buckled while the waitstaff is there. And sure enough, Redhead glances up and paints a tense smile on her face.

“Yeah, not a problem. That sounds exciting.”

There’s a bite to her words, and by the way his shoulders tense and his fingers curl more tightly around his fork, Texas seems to have picked up on it.

————-

By the end of the entrees, most of the staff have caught onto Tomas’ predicament and one by one everyone from the table-bussers to the cooks have gone out for a smokeless smoke break to try to be the one to divine what the hell is happening at table 34.

None are successful.

“This isn’t even like a romantic date,” Mani laments. “Like none of them are that dressed up and they’re talking about like natural disasters and shit. I don’t get a proposal vibe from like any of them.”

“Who even goes on a double date to propose? Who does that? It’s so tacky!” Gabby says from behind the bar where she’s helping herself to a quick nip before she heads home.

“Who still thinks the ring in the champagne bit is a good idea, is my question. It’s a choking hazard!” Mere says. “How romantic to start off your engagement with a trip to the ER.”

Tomas ignores them all. He looks about 10 minutes away from saying to hell with his probationary status and drinking the next hour away straight out of the vodka bottle at his elbow. “I know it’s Pride and I should be representing but I could really do with a little heteronormativity right now.”

—————-

Tomas is stalling.

Table 34 asked for dessert, of course, and when he vaguely floated the idea of champagne, Texas had readily agreed, so this is happening. The champagne flutes are lined up on a tray, the champagne in them is warming with every minute that passes, and he is no closer to figuring out what to do.

“What if I put all the glasses in the middle and they have to pick which one they want?”

“Okay but the person getting proposed to tonight likely doesn’t know?” Mikael says.

“What if you pretend you didn’t see the instructions?” Shania pitches. “As if we can ever write stuff down correctly anyway. Just say it said to bring out the champagne but nothing about the ring being in a flute! Just hand it back to the proposer and let them get it done.”

“You think we don’t know who the proposee is but we know who the proposer is?” Tomas bites. “If I knew that, Shania, I could have just called them away with a phone call or something and asked them who to give the flute to.”

“Geez,” Shania exclaims, hopping off the bar counter to walk away. “You try to help…”

“And then there were three,” Mario announces as he comes back from another completely unnecessary round of filling water glasses outside.

Tomas’ head snaps up from where he’d been staring into the countertops. “What?”

They all rush to the window and sure enough: Redhead is gone.

“I didn’t see her come in,” Mere says, almost breathlessly. If she’d come in to use the restroom, they would have seen her.

“No, she’s gone-gone,” Mario supplies. “Said she had to get back to work but I’m pretty sure she just wanted out. That’s the chick from the news, you know?”

“People still watch the news?” Mere wondered aloud.

Tomas tsks. “Redhead was the least probable suspect!”

“Well we can rule out Brunette and Pennsylvania as a couple, right?” Umida asks, waiting briefly for the gathered crowd to nod. “Okay, so we’re down to the brunets together, or Pennsylvania and Texas.”

“Or polyamorous,” Mikael sniffs. Mikael is trying polyamory. He doesn’t know there’s a bet going on how long he’ll last. It’s a fine relationship style to get into but one he and his jealousy and insecurity issues are deeply unsuited for.

“Apologies, Mikael, or polyamorous. So you have...yeah, 3 of 3 options left for that ring,” Umida grimaces.

“Wait!” So-Hee cries. She’s supposed to be hosting at the entrance but COVID-19 protocols mean people don’t show up earlier than 5 minutes before their reservation so the podium isn’t very backed up. “What does the ring look like? That could be a clue, right?”

They look to Tomas, whose face is blank.

“You didn’t look?” Mere accuses him, though to be fair it never occurred to her either.

So-Hee pounces on the deep purple velvet box without waiting for Tomas to answer.

“Please god,” Tomas mumbles, grabbing the box out of her hands and prying it open with almost reckless enthusiasm.

All six members of staff currently on duty at the window crowd around, many heads bumping together to catch a glimpse. The ring nestled in the box has a slim, dainty band with a solitaire diamond jutting out proudly, with filigree details on either side.

“Oh thank sweet baby Jesus, that is a woman’s ring!” Tomas nearly yells.

“It could be a man’s ring,” Umida protests weakly, almost sad to see the drama come to an end.

Mere’s a little put out too if she’s being honest. But even if they couldn’t tell from the design, the sizing is way too small to fit on either of table 34’s men’s fingers, as So-Hee demonstrates by plucking the ring up and sliding it onto her own tiny finger.

“Yeah, get it stuck on your sweaty fingers, So-Hee,” Tomas protests almost hysterically, feeling his win come into danger. He wrestles it back off her finger and shoves it back in the box before taking a deep cleansing breath.

“Okay, I’ve got a dessert course to deliver,” he says, the picture of calm professionalism as if he hasn’t spent the last hour losing his entire shit.

———-

They should disperse then, but like brothers in arms after battle, all of them feel the need to stand guard as Tomas prepares to deliver the goods.

Some of them, like So-Hee, stand because they’ve foolishly become emotionally invested in the upcoming nuptial bliss.

Some of them, like Umida, stand because they fell in love with their version of events and they feel the need to properly mourn for what might have been.

“They’re co-parenting that boy,” Umida grumbles. “We all saw that! They can’t deny that!”

And some of them, like Mere, stand because they really can’t be bothered to get back to work.

But stand together they do as Tomas plops the ring in one flute and carries the tray out.

“Excuse me,” comes a voice off to the side of their group.

So-Hee, ever the consummate people-pleaser, actually turns to take care of the customer. The rest of them stay fixed at the window. “Yes, sir, can I help you?”

“Maybe? I couldn’t help but notice that young man taking some champagne out.”

“Yes, would you like to order a bottle as well?” So-Hee pokes Mikael. “We’d be happy to bring some out to you.”

“Ah, no,” the man says. “Well, yes. But I’ve already ordered some. I called earlier, when I reserved my table.”

Mere stiffens, her sixth sense borne of years of customer service piquing. Beside her, Umida takes note as well.

“I asked that champagne be brought to the table with dessert, and I left a box...one that looks a lot like the one on your counter there. And I’m sure it’s just a coincidence but I couldn’t help but want to make sure it’s not my ring that just went out to that other table.”

Mere’s wide eyes spring to Umida’s.

“Oh my fuck,” Umida whispers.

Then they’re both racing for the door.

“Wrong table, wrong table, wrong table,” Mere mutters under her breath as she dodges a stroller and a dog walker trying to reach Tomas —

“Oh, Edmundo!” Brunette exclaims brightly.

Umida’s hand braces Mere like a soccer mom in a car.

It’s too late now.

There’s nothing they can do but watch this trainwreck happen.

Happily, Redhead vacated the seat nearest to them so they have an unobstructed view of Brunette’s eyes filling with tears, of Texas’ wide eyes, and of Pennsylvania’s face losing all colour.

From context, Texas is the Edmundo Brunette is so pleased with.

But Edmundo is shaking his head, his brow furrowed. “I...wha— ”

Pennsylvania comes back to himself first, though the smile he paints on his face is strained and frail. “Ah, con — congratulations.”

“Wha— Buck, no.”

Pennsylvania — Buck — stands up from the table like a colt learning to walk, his eyes darting across the table without landing anywhere. “I — ah — I should let you guys celebrate.”

“Buck, no, I—” Edmundo’s voice is firmer now, his hand darting out to reach for Buck, and Brunette starts to catch on that nobody’s getting down on one knee with a flowery speech.

“Edmundo?” she calls, her bright smile dimming.

Edmundo looks torn and trapped in equal measure, and Mere wonders for a heartbreaking moment if maybe he’s as confused about his relationships as the Tilted Cactus employees have been tonight.

With a sigh, and a reminder that she’s out of this place like Cinderella at midnight, Mere falls on the proverbial meat cleaver. Stepping around Umida’s still outstretched arm, Mere weaves herself in front of Tomas just in case there’s any physical fallout, and pitches her voice low so the neighbouring tables will have to strain to listen in.

“Excuse me, my name is Mere, I’m the assistant manager. I am so sorry to inform you there’s been a terrible mistake. We’ve delivered a ring to your table that was destined to another this evening. We apologize deeply for any confusion this has caused and we will of course be comping your meals.”

“It—Oh.” Brunette’s eyes land on the ring on her finger, and her remaining excitement implodes into embarrassment so quickly and resoundly that Mere’s surprised it doesn’t produce an audible sound. The fingers of her opposite hand grip the ring and pause for a moment before slipping it off. There’s no box to slip it into so Mere holds out her hand, the other tucked neatly behind her back.

“Thank you,” Mere says quietly. “Please forgive us for the mistake. We will be investigating what happened so it never happens again.”

“Of course,” Brunette says lightly, forcing some life back into her voice. “I’m sure you didn’t mean any harm by it.”

Her eyes lift then and take in the scene across from her. Edmundo and Buck still standing, Edmundo’s hand wrapped round Buck’s wrist to keep him from leaving, and her eyes shutter once more.

“If you’ll excuse me, I need to freshen up,” she says politely, rising from her seat and escaping into the restaurant.

Edmundo watches her go but says nothing, frozen still, holding onto the man beside him.

With all eyes more or less off them now, Mere gathers Tomas and Umida and hauls ass back into the restaurant.

————-

The ring is cleaned and inspected by Gareth, its actual owner, who is amiable enough to not escalate the situation further. His fiancée-to-be is none the wiser on any of these happenings — luckily their table, 29, is indoors — so his proposal is still on for the next course. But, just in case it doesn’t go the way Gareth hopes and he turns on them, Mere preemptively comps their meal too and congratulates him before he’s reseated.

On her way back to the kitchen, she grabs Lenore and uses the last hour of her completely fake authority to formally bar her from ever answering the phone again, or taking notes from the phone, or writing anything anywhere ever again. Lenore, having heard about the drama at table 34 and having seen the crying woman rush to the bathroom just now, accepts with little resistance.

And Mere, heart heavy with the weight of what they’ve done to this poor woman, mentally shakes her fist at her own curiosity and need for schadenfreude. If she’d bailed on this place an hour ago, she wouldn’t be leaving with this heartache by proxy.

As if beckoned by her thoughts, Brunette emerges from the bathroom just as Mere is crossing in front of it. She looks better, her tears packed away, and her cheeks only slightly reddened. Mere is about to offer her something — a glass of water? wine? a whole bottle? — when Edmundo steps into view. Mere doesn’t break stride until she’s behind the protection of the pay terminal privacy partition where she can see them but not be seen.

“Hey,” he says softly, his frame pretty loose and relaxed for a man who looked so troubled moments ago.

“Hey,” she returns with a forced smile.

“I’m so sorry, I don’t know—”

Brunette cuts him off with a hand. “It’s not your fault. They made a mistake. It happens.”

Edmundo nods.

“But…” Brunette continues, fidgeting with the strap of her purse. “For a moment, it didn’t seem far-fetched that it...might be real, you know? I know we’ve been taking things slow, but we have been seeing each other for nearly a year now. And I thought… I don’t know what I thought, but it...it didn’t seem so far-fetched.”

Edmundo’s shoulders have grown tense, and it doesn’t escape Brunette’s notice. She smiles sadly.

“But then I looked up and you weren’t even looking at me. You were looking at Buck. You were so scared he would leave and that — that just doesn’t make sense, does it? I mean, even if the...the ring was a big misunderstanding, wouldn’t it have been better that he leave so we could talk about it privately? But you were scared, because he was upset… And if he was...I don’t know...upset that you hadn’t told him about this, you could have caught up later and discussed it, cleared it up.”

Edmundo says nothing, but he hangs his head and gnaws on his lower lip.

“But you were scared. Scared of him leaving in that moment. Scared...that he’d leave with the wrong idea? That he’d leave thinking you were — we were... ” Brunette sighs sharply. “I think I’ve been a fool.”

“You haven’t—” Edmundo tries to say.

“No, I have. It’s felt so many times like there’s been a third wheel in this relationship, and I genuinely didn’t realize until now that it was me. And maybe I’m naive but I’d like to think you didn’t realize it until today either. That you’re just as big a fool as I am. And maybe Buck is too.”

Edmundo opens his mouth twice to say something but nothing comes out. In the end, he settles on, “Ana, I’m sorry. I...didn’t realize. I don’t even know if I understand what I realize. But I...I know you’re one of the best people I’ve ever met and you didn’t deserve this.”

Brunette — Ana — smiles again sadly, and if a touch bitterly, she’s entitled to it.

“Thank you,” she says softly, before fidgeting with her purse strap again. “I’m going to go. You’ll...say goodbye to Buck for me?” Edmundo nods.

“Goodbye, Edmundo.”

“Take care, Ana,” he responds.

Ana takes a few steps before stopping and turning. “Good luck. I think…” she shakes her head before repeating, “good luck,” and leaving out the side doors.

Mere unglues herself from the privacy wall and slinks sadly back to the bar where she finds Tomas and Umida already halfway through a glass of red each. There’s a third, untouched glass waiting for her.

“We’re horrible people,” Mere decides. “Brunette and Texas just broke up.”

“We didn’t do this,” Umida protests half-heartedly. “Technically, Tomas did.”

“Ugh, you ass,” Tomas sputters. “The note said table 34, you all saw it. It’s Lenore’s fault.”

“It is Lenore’s fault,” Mere agrees before downing half her glass like a shot. Out the window, she can see Pennsyl — Buck — slumped in his chair, staring at the tablecloth. There’s a fresh bottle of wine on the table, two empty glasses at his and Edmundo’s places. Mere raises a glass at Tomas for the gesture.

“If they don’t end up drinking it, I’m taking it home,” Tomas says, “I already wrote it off.”

That’s fair.

Unfortunately for him, when Edmundo gets back to the table, he immediately pours them both a very full glass.

Buck straightens out in his chair, looking concerned and looking around for Ana, who doesn’t materialize. Edmundo says something that has Buck relaxing but looking guilty. Then Edmundo shuffles closer and puts a hand back on Buck’s wrist.

“Okay, back to work,” Mere orders. “We’ve intruded on this drama way too much already.”

When she finds her way back to the bar some twenty minutes later for a totally appropriate reason, table 34 is empty.

————————

A year later, Mere finds herself sitting on the Tilted Cactus bar counter on a Friday night, legs swinging and popping olives like they’re mints. She ended up not quitting her job the night she intended to. Between the excitement, the drama, and the on-duty alcohol, she was feeling pretty chill about sticking it out at the Tilted Cactus a while longer.

But she ended up quitting two days later when the owner found out about how she impersonated an assistant manager and gave her hell for it. She could have stayed, he wasn’t really going to reprimand her. But listening to him talk down at her while her stomach filled with dread at the idea of having to apologize and walk back into that hell hole…nah. Fuck the Tilted Cactus, fuck the owner, and fuck two weeks’ notice. They weren’t getting a minute out of her ever again.

She took the gamble of taking out more student loans and was wrapping up her EMT certification. She’d be in an ambulance soon enough, actually helping people. Not the dream that got her to America, but one that would suffice for now. Make up enough karma to get her feet back under her.

“The lesbians are back,” Umida announces excitedly in a whisper as she fits herself between Mere’s legs against the bar.

“Which lesbians?”

“THEE lesbians,” Umida returns, pointing out the window.

“Those are two guys, babe. Three if you count the kid.”

“They’re lesbians,” Umida insists, waving her hand to dismiss the kid from her labels. “They have strong lesbian energy.”

“You’re claiming them for your people?” Mere grins fondly. It’s the start of Pride again and Umida’s Ally pin has been traded in for a lesbian-flag coloured hijab secured with the updated BIPOC Pride flag pin. She’s very pretty in pink, right down to the lipstick Mere isn’t allowed to kiss off of her until her shift is up.

“I am, they’re mine. I claim them.”

“Wait,” Mere squints, trying to pin down the familiar feeling she’s getting, “are those…”

“The guys! Eddie and Buck. I told you they were semi-regulars now. And we were right, that’s totally their kid. I don’t know how, especially since we know they weren’t together before that night, but he’s their kid. My money’s on one of them being trans because he’s literally their spitting image combined.”

Mere sighs happily and hugs Umida to her. “Well, I’m glad some good came out of that night.”

“Umida?” a young voice asks from across the bar. In the year since the reopening, a slew of new hires have joined the ranks to replace all the veterans leaving and Mere barely recognizes anyone anymore. She saw Mikael (unsurprisingly single again) a couple of weeks ago but he’s clearly on his way out too. Tomas lasted until his probation was over before quitting. Umida, in no small part because she was the longest lasting employee, was rightfully promoted to the role of assistant manager. Mere still hopes she’ll leave this hell hole soon but in the meantime, at least she’s getting paid. And authority looks really good on her.

“What up, Jerome?”

Jerome pushes his dark blue fringe back and holds up a sheet of paper. “I have a note here to deliver a ring to a table with dessert but it doesn’t say who’s supposed to get it.”

“Oh my god, no, no way,” Mere laughs and tries to push Umida away. “Let me out of here.”

Umida’s arms close around her hips, preventing her escape.

“Calm down. I created a form so that night doesn’t happen again. Jerome, did you use the form?”

“Um, yeah.” He shakes the sheet of paper in his hands. “I mean whoever took the call did. They checked off the table number, and it’s a ‘fiancé’ not a ‘fiancée’, but it’s a table with two guys so…”

“Okay, but there’s a field for the name, did they fill it out?”

“How am I supposed to know who they are from a name though?”

“Oh my god, kid, you schmooze,” Umida says. “You roll up to their table, you lay on the customer service thick and introduce yourself and ask their names. People are idiots, they’ll tell you, just like that.”

Jerome cocks his head in contemplation. “Yeah okay, but no, there’s no name. It’s blank.”

“But you made a form,” Mere mock whispers.

Umida turns on her, her eyeshadow catching the bar lights as she narrows her eyes. “This is not the form’s fault, don’t you blame this on the form! The form has a field for a name! The form provides!”

“The form is flawless,” Mere agrees quickly, running her hand down Umida’s arm soothingly. “You can’t account for user error.”

Umida glares harder before looking up to the ceiling in supplication.

Mere, who has never in her life been able to resist picking at a scab, asks, “what table is it?”

Jerome checks the paper. “34.”

“The cursed table. The cursed lesbians!” Mere gasps, squirming out of the way when Umida tries to pinch her side.

“Well it’s not like the kid is a contender, so it’s 50/50,” Umida points out. “Much better odds than last time.”

“And to be fair, if the wrong guy gets the flute, he can just improvise and propose with the ring in hand,” Mere continues. “Overall, much less exciting drama than last time. 3/10 for me.”

“Thank god. Yeah, let’s do that.” Jerome walks away with his marching orders and Umida turns to Mere. “I have to actually go work. You gonna hang out here?” She’s off in a half hour and they have tickets to the back row of the latest Marvel nonsense.

“I got booze, olives, and an unobstructed view of my favourite drama. I’m all set.” In lieu of a proper kiss, Mere lifts Umida’s hand and kisses her wrist, delighting in watching her girlfriend’s eyes soften. She blows Mere a kiss and flits away to put out fires.

Mere is usually on her phone while she waits for Umida but tonight she watches table 34. The guys — Eddie and Buck, Umida reminded her — are across the table from each other, Eddie is relaxed in his chair but Buck is leaning forward, elbows on the table as he tells their son a story that has him cackling in his seat. They’re not holding hands, but anyone looking can see they’re together. They have ridiculous heart eyes for each other, and from her vantage point she can see those long legs intermingling again, one knee occasionally jostling into the other. Little tangible reminders that they’re there and together.

She saw hints of this that night, and to see it have taken hold and blossomed...suddenly she’s really invested in them having a great night. One of them planned this night out, wanted to surprise the other, and she doesn’t want that going to waste because of a blank field on a form.

Mere’s wearing a dark long-sleeve blouse, not too far off the dress code, so slips off the counter, snags the backup apron they always leave behind the bar and ties it around her waist. One of the newbies whose name she doesn’t know watches her from the host pedestal and Mere raises a fierce eyebrow at them until they go back to minding their own business.

She rinses out a jug and fills it with water and ice and slips back into her customer service posture to make the rounds of the tables in section 10.

“Well now, I recognize you handsome folk, don’t I?” she schmoozes when she gets to table 34, picking up Eddie’s glass first to fill.

Eddie doesn’t place her and she doesn’t blame him, he was under a lot of stress that night. It takes Buck a second but he gets it.

“Oh hey, yeah! Weren’t you — “ Buck cuts himself off awkwardly and casts an eye to Eddie and the kid. “You, ah, gave us our meals for free! Because of the, um, mix-up.”

That’s enough for Eddie to place her, and where Buck relaxes back into his chair as she fills his glass, Eddie goes stock still.

Bingo.

“What mix-up?” the kid asks.

“Ah, they put something in our drink by accident,” Buck lies without lying. “Real choking hazard! So they gave us our meals for free.”

“That’s dangerous,” the kid says.

“It was dangerous,” Mere agrees, filling his glass. “Choking hazard was right. Could have turned a really great night all wrong with a trip to the hospital.”

Eddie’s brow furrows slightly and Mere struggles to keep a neutral face.

“It’s never a good idea to hide things in food. I don’t know why people keep trying instead of just calling us for advice. We have tons of ways to help people with surprises.”

“I completely agree,” Buck says. “We’re actually firefighters and you wouldn’t believe how many accidental choking calls we get.”

Eddie swallows, his eyes looking mildly panicked.

“Firefighters!” Mere schmoozes harder, smiling at the kid as he gets excited again. “Well I certainly feel safer then.”

“Ah, you probably shouldn’t. I was actually one of those calls once,” Buck says halfway through a smile and grimace, pointing to his throat where there’s a faint scar. “Emergency tracheotomy on the floor of a restaurant. But that wasn’t a surprise, just, ah, too enthusiastic about the breadsticks.”

Eddie’s looking decidedly gray now, eyes laser focused on the scar.

“Okay, well I’ll just go ahead and clear these,” Mere says, jokingly reaching for the bread basket until Buck laughs back.

“I’m better now, promise! Small bites, chewed thoroughly!”

“Hmm, I don’t know,” she dithers dramatically, nodding to the kid. “If I leave those here, can I trust you to keep an eye on your dad?”

“Yeah!” the kid agrees with a toothy grin.

Buck’s cheeks redden quickly but he’s still smiling, his head ducked shyly in a way Mere doubts is due to her teasing. Eddie, meanwhile, is still looking poleaxed though fondness is fighting its way back in.

“Well, I was just subbing into this section so this will be goodbye for us but it was great to see you guys! Enjoy your evening!”

“Thanks, you too!” Buck says with an easy smile. Eddie manages a “thank you” and Mere has to restrain herself from patting his shoulder as she walks away.

She’s only just returned the apron to the bar when she sees Eddie walk in and head straight for the host before being led to the back.

“Ready to go?” Umida asks, back in her unsensible heels and cross-chest messenger bag.

Mere takes the hand she extends but tugs her closer instead of following her out, before saying the worst thing she’s ever said in her life, “Actually, do you mind if we stick around a little longer?”

“Something good about to happen?” she asks, peeking out the window.

Mere tugs her in closer and leans her chin on her shoulder. “I think so.”

Twenty minutes later, when Jerome passes by with a tray of assorted chocolate treats and two overturned coffee cups, Mere and Umida find themselves bracketed by half the front and back staff. Gossip still spreads like wildfire it seems.

Buck’s overturned coffee cup and plate is the last thing Jerome puts on the table, and as soon as it’s down, he excuses himself. He keeps a professional pace until he’s past the exterior doors and then he’s racing to take a front seat at the bar.

Eddie turns over his cup but doesn’t reach for the carafe, he wipes his hands on his jeans instead.

“Oh my god, he’s so nervous,” Jerome whispers.

“The kid is so in on it,” the host whose name Mere never caught says, and they’re right. Where Eddie’s tensed up, the kid is bouncing in his seat like he knows something’s coming.

“Come on, guy,” a bus boy mutters, checking his watch. His break is almost over.

Mere’s heart is beating hard in sympathy with Eddie’s as they all watch Buck ignore his coffee cup in favor of serving their kid from the tray. Then he signals to Eddie’s plate, who can’t not lift it for the offered chocolate tortes. Finally, there’s chocolate on everyone’s plates and Buck sits back to try a piece of brownie and Eddie can’t take it anymore.

He motions to the carafe and Buck perks up, finally reaching for his cup. But just as his fingers close around it, some idiot’s dog barks on the sideway, calling his attention away. His fingers flip the cup without ever looking at it, or the plate underneath it.

“Oh come on,” Umida moans.

The dog passes with its dumbass owner and Buck puts his cup back down, or tries to, but finds something in the way. He tries again, pushing the intrusion away with the bottom of the cup.

“Oh my god,” is whined in Mere’s left ear and when she turns her head she’s surprised to find not another Tilted Cactus employee but a customer dressed to the nines, pearls and all.

“Ma’am, did you —”

“Shh,” the woman returns, her eyes never moving from the window. Mere turns back too.

Finally, Buck has managed to push the offending items off the plate and settle his cup down and it’s a nail-biting few seconds where it actually looks like he’s going to reach for the carafe and go about his business.

But like a true wingman, the little kid points directly at it, prompting Buck to push the napkin aside and pick up — the ring.

Buck freezes, holding the ring between his thumb and index. His cheeks flush and a smile begins to break over his face before he looks startled and the smile falls abruptly away.

It’s about this time Eddie realizes that proposing by recreating the night they got together was never going to be the best idea when the impetus to their relationship was an engagement ring accidentally sent to the wrong person.

Eddie vaults out of his seat and into the empty one next to Buck, wrapping his hand around the one holding the ring, and bringing his other hand to his cheek to gently turn his head until Buck is looking at him. They can’t tell what he says, but they can watch Buck’s eyes fill with tears, watch as Eddie gestures to their son who’s smiling wide and reaching out for a hand, which Buck instantly provides. His attention comes back to Eddie then, who’s saying something that gets them both looking a little fragile and it’s hard to say if he actually popped the question yet but Buck is surging forward to kiss him hard and fast. Eddie gives as good as he’s getting for a moment before he slows them with small, gentle kisses. And when they finally break apart, Eddie plucks the ring from Buck’s fingers and slides it onto his ring finger as Buck watches, his eyes wide and half incredulous.

Outside, the nearby tables break out into applause, startling the trio and reminding the two men that they are indeed out in public. Eddie acknowledges the applause with an embarrassed hand and waits until they have a modicum of privacy again before taking Buck’s hand and kissing right near the where the ring now sits. He then reluctantly shuffles back into his seat.

Inside, Mere is hugging Umida to her with a strength buoyed by love. Around them, the staff are starting to disperse, some wiping their eyes, some with goofy grins on their faces.

“Young man,” the lady in the pearls says to Jerome, holding out her credit card, “I want you to charge that family’s meal to my card.”

“Yes, ma’am. That’s very generous of you.”

The woman sniffs delicately and leaves without another word. Hopefully Jerome knows where she was sitting…

“I’m glad she did that,” Mere says into Umida’s shoulder, “I was going to, otherwise, and I’m a broke-ass student.”

“I would have pitched in,” Umida says, her voice soft and pensive. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah,” Mere agrees, sliding off the bar counter for the last time. “Oh, hold on.”

She gets closer to the window and turns the flash off of her camera before taking a pic.

“I think that’s bordering on creepy now,” Umida says without judgement.

“It’s not for me.” Mere sends the pic off with a note and three ring emojis.

They don’t make it out of the restaurant before her phone dings.

“What does Tomas have to say?” Umida asks with a smirk.

Mere pulls up the text and reads, “Gays and lesbians. Both, at the same time. Never doubting Umida’s gaydar again.”

Umida laughs victoriously, which shouldn’t be as sexy as it is, and Mere lets her drag her by the hand down the street, letting the nostalgia from tonight settle in her chest.

If there’s anything she misses from working the restaurant scene, it’s getting this glimpse into people’s lives.

Yeah, most of the work was gross, obnoxious, or mind-numbing. But every now and again, she got to be a part of strangers’ stories. Got to be there for the happiest days like graduations, or bridal showers. And even the sadder stories could be beautiful sometimes, like when she got to be extra kind to the elderly woman coming into the restaurant alone for the first time in ten years, or watch a family have their last supper together before their kid moves away for school. It’s just all so human and some kind of wonderful.

She hopes her career as a paramedic will have just a little bit of that kind of magic.

[kaimelia]

tourist (ch 1)

the song that's some sort of inspiration for this story:

tourist: a love song from paris

and there's a kinda long note at the bottom if you wanna read that 😅

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

"So, where are we going?" Link opened the hospital door, holding it for Amelia to come through. He'd finally convinced her to go out with him on an official date, with the mutual understanding of a relationship between them. So, after an hour of rushed planning, he was leading her out of the hospital with the promise of something formal.

"Where do you think we're going?" A playful grin spread across his lips as her eyebrows furrowed in momentary concentration, her eyes glancing upwards in thought.

"Angelini's?" Link nodded. "We'll finally have an actual date," she laughed and took his hand, allowing Link to lead her towards his car in the lot.

"Are you forgetting about our sushi burrito trip?" He unlocked the car, opening her door for her and climbing into the driver's side afterward. Link turned the keys and pulled out of the lot. His mind drifted back to what he considered their first date, eating a 'culinary abomination' in what felt like the middle of nowhere.

It was calm, and he liked it. He felt like he had finally gotten to see the real Amelia on that date, eating messily and laughing with food in her mouth.

"That doesn't count. We ate and then had sex in your car. That's not a date." He laughed as her voice brought him out of his thoughts.

"Fair enough." Amelia reached over to switch on the radio, humming along to a song he faintly recognized. Silence settled between them, but he didn't feel awkward. It was the same calm from their previous 'date.' He parked the car in the lot and stepped out, holding his hand out to her. "You know, I'm not used to this."

"Used to what?" He grinned at the dimple on her face as she smiled, taking his hand as she stepped out from his car.

"Dating. Like, real dating. Especially with you."

"Well, on the first date, you get to know each other. And I actually don't know that much about you." They stepped into the lobby, Link giving the hostess his name. She led them to a table and handed them menus. "So, what's something I don't know about you?"

"I was a theatre kid in high school," he set his menu down, resting his head on his hands.

"You, Atticus Lincoln, were a theatre kid? I thought you'd have been a jock or something."

"Football in the fall, theatre in the winter, and baseball in the spring. But, I did community theatre in the summer and whenever I had time. I almost applied to college as a musical theatre major, but I didn't have the time to focus on auditions."

"You're gonna have to show me some videos of you some time. I'm having a hard time imagining it." He grinned as the waiter walked over, and they gave their orders to her.

"What about you? What were you like in high school?" Amelia rested her head on her other hand, Link's eyes not leaving hers.

"I struggled with my addiction a lot. I was in some random clubs, but nothing big. I honestly didn't know who I was," Amelia sighed, looking down from his gaze. "I let my family define me for most of my childhood. So, I didn't become anyone until I got my medical license and became my own person." He watched her shake her head slightly before looking back up at him. "What? You're being weird."

"Sorry. It's just, you're pretty amazing." Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "No, it's just that you've come so far, and you've been through so much, and I somehow got lucky enough to have you let me in." Her eyes sparkled as he spoke. "Sorry, I'll stop."

"No, it's sweet," she whispered, dropping her hands into her lap. "Did you ever think we would end up here? I mean, remember when Maggie made you ask me out?" He closed his eyes and shook his head, letting out a sigh. "That wasn't your fault; Maggie's very persuasive."

"It was mortifying. I went out for a drink with Richard and Deluca after, and when I told them, they laughed at me."

"I guess I should credit Maggie, though. She clearly was onto something," she raised her eyebrows. The waiter brought over their food, and Link watched in amusement as Amelia immediately dug into her salad. "Okay, new game. Name 3 things that you have never done but really wanna do," she muttered, her mouth half full as she chewed. Link cocked his head to the side in thought for a moment.

"Surf a 20-foot wave. Ride a camel through the Sahara and," he paused. "Cure Parkinson's." Link let out a breath, glancing away from her briefly before resuming his previous grin. "Okay, your turn." She set down her fork.

"Go to a psychic medium and talk to my dead father, get licensed in scuba diving, and," she grinned at him widely, "have sex with more than one person." He raised his eyebrows at her.

"You've never done that?" Her mouth dropped in confusion, causing Link's amusement to heighten. He'd always seen her as a very adventurous person, and this?

"You have?"

"Yeah, I lived in Venice Beach for a year," his voice dropped to a whisper, suddenly conscious of the tables of people around them.

"So did I."

"And you never had a threeway? They're offered up like mints in Venice Beach!"

"I had a medical practice there."

"Oh, I worked in a bike shop." He took a sip of his drink, meeting her eyes once again. "Okay, are we talking about a stranger, or did you have someone in mind?" She smirked.

"Carina. Deluca." He laughed. "What! I had a thing for her last year, and you have to admit it, she's really hot."

"Okay, if you ask her and she says yes." Amelia's face lit up like a kid in a candy store, her eyes wide and filled with joy.

"Really?" Link nodded at her, amused by the excitement on her face. "Oh, I could kiss you right now!" He took another bite of his food while grinning.

"That sounds like a good plan for later," he raised his eyebrows at her, receiving a grin that mirrored his.

"Okay, so you mentioned wanting to cure Parkinson's, is there a story behind that?" Link sighed, a hand brushing through his hair.

"My uncle. He was my role model growing up, and he died because of complications with the disease about 10 years ago." She had never seen him like this, so vulnerable. He was always the one with a positive mantra stuck in his back pocket, never letting her sit in her sadness. Amelia reached for his hand from across the table.

"Oh, Link. I'm sorry, I didn't know." He shook his head, shaking off the expression on his face.

"It's okay. But, it's one of the things that pushed me to become a doctor, so I wouldn't be here without him." Link chuckled, a hand covering his mouth. "See, I'm not all bright and shiny."

"That's good. I don't think we'd last much longer if you kept spewing constant rainbows out of your mouth. Maggie is enough of that." Link called over the waiter, asking for the check. "What's the plan now?"

"Well," he pulled out his credit card, placing it in the checkbook, "I could either drive you home or we could head back to my place." She raised her eyebrows at him, pulling her coat off the back of the chair.

"You think you're getting laid on the first date?" He tilted his head to the side.

"I do remember a comment about wanting to kiss me. And, this technically isn't our first date." They stood up, Amelia's hand falling into Link's as they left the restaurant.

"To your place, it is."

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

quick note: hi! so...if you've been around for a while, you may remember a story I have on ao3 called "dating" which was originally intended to be some one-shots of amelink exploring their relationship without the pregnancy storyline...but I kinda abandoned it. and now i'm taking 3 of the 4 one-shots and re-writing them (and combining them) to make a multi-part fic! i'm not sure how many parts this will have.....but I hope you enjoyed it!

[notnctu]

jaemin + 18 (angst to fluff bc i think i will crY again) 🤭

ahhh thank you for requesting lovie hehehe and i didnt make this one too sad so hopefully no crying HAHAHA you can read it under the cut!

-author doie ❀

p.s. soft reminder to everyone that requests are now closed. we apologize for the wait and are doing our best to finish them all! thank you for your patience :) 

neighbor!jaemin x reader (i know it sounds weird but trust me lol) prompt #18 - “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love you.” genre - slight angst, fluff

jaemin, the sweetest boy next door --- literally. jaemin has been your neighbor your entire life and shared fond childhood play dates together out in your front lawns, like for example, learning how to ride a bike for the first time. and you two watched each other grow up into two very beautiful individuals.

while jaemin’s family has always been kind to yours, you never really knew how to repay their generosity. in fact, they practically raised you with your parents’ busy work schedule. despite never attending the same schools, jaemin and you remained close.

when jaemin finally got his license and a car, he’d swing by your high school to drive you two home. and when you stirred awake at night, he’d come over wrapped in a blanket to keep you company. oftentimes, your families spent the holidays together because you were all simply happier with one another.

jaemin is your home, your safe haven to run back to after a long school day, your comfort to seek when times feel weary. and even though he’s oblivious to how much he means to you, you’ve pondered the thought of whether or not he feels the same.

and you wished things stayed the way they are, that change didn’t have to affect this one part of your life, that jaemin was going to be right next door whenever you wanted to see him. that your story was always going to stay open on this chapter.

for the past two months, you had been keeping a secret that eats away at you whenever you see his shining smile. your parents got amazing new job offers that required them to relocate. and so, you are moving away to someplace far, too far from jaemin.

your heart hurts at what you two could have been and the memories that could have happened. for nights, you recalled past traditions that you’ll miss continuing. but most importantly, you’ll just miss jaemin.

it’s a friendship like no other. you have best friends from school, family friends that visit here and there, but all of which go back to their respective homes several miles away. jaemin is and always has been right next to you, within reach.

while you appreciate your friends picking up your calls after the first ring, jaemin answers the door within seconds of the door bell. he’s the first to hear your bad days, your good days, horrible breakups, and experience several growing pains, some that you’ve even experienced together.

on this very saddening day, you finally have to face the truth that you’re leaving him permanently. it’s the day before the move and your house has no ounce of familiarity left. boxes line the hallway and if it isn’t telling enough, a moving van parked outside at the curb.

“judging by your expression, you bring me bad news?” jaemin leans against the door frame with his arms crossed and dressed in comfortable attire. a messy bed head that also implies that he’s been in bed the whole day.

“how can you tell just by reading my face?” you want so badly to keep a lighthearted front.

“the dip in the corners of your lips and the tiny creasing between your eyebrows.” as he pokes at the space between your brows. you sigh while diving into him and he welcomes you with a heartfelt embrace.

“we’re moving, tomorrow. my parents got a job offer someplace far.” you speak into his chest and you can feel him tense underneath your hold. there’s a long pause before he does or says anything. then, he sees the van parked on the curb and the lack of lawn decor on your side.

however, he holds you a little tighter which has you suffocating in his natural scent. “you finished packing?” and if it isn’t for the crack in his voice, you probably would have thought jaemin is unaffected by the news.

“yeah..” you trail off and when you try to pull away from the hug, he doesn’t allow for it and actually squeezes you into him more. the air is quite stiff when you hear the small sniffs and the hiccups that jump at his chest.

“i can’t tell if i’m heartbroken that you’re leaving me or...” jaemin is clearly choked up as his words fade in and out. “... that you didn’t let me help you pack.” he inhales deeply, finally pulling you away from the embrace and gripping you by the shoulders. his thumbs rub nurturing circles.

“maybe both.” jaemin’s lip quivers. but a sincere smile grows through his tears and it tugs at your heartstrings. his tear stained cheeks and wet eyelashes, the face of a sadden angel.

“i’m sorry that i didn’t tell you sooner. i couldn’t get myself too.” you are regretting the decision of telling him so late, but this is the exact thing you had wished to avoid. jaemin crying is the last thing you’ve ever wanted.

“so you lied to me about getting matching christmas lights?” jaemin scoffs jokingly, still being the playful boy that he is.

“don’t put it like that! but.. in a way, i guess.” your voice drops later in your sentence, with an apologetic gaze that dip to the side momentarily. “we can still match. i’m going to get them for the new house, i promise.”

“i don’t blame you for it.” he wipes away any remaining droplets and you blink up at him with a longing heart. “i guess i’m a liar too and now that you’re going away tomorrow, it’s now or never to tell you the truth.”

“you didn’t actually want to get the lights?” jaemin laughs warmly at your clueless, puzzled question. his hands drop down to intertwine with yours, and your heart pounds at your rib cage.

he shakes his head, “i’d be lying if i said i didn’t love you.” you’re speechless, stunned at his confession. na jaemin, the boy next door, just told you he loves you. all this time when you looked at him with an aching heart, he looked back at you with fondness.

you can barely process this news, but jaemin is moving all too fast. he’s pulling you in for another hug, he’s saying his final words. it’s like your book caught the wind, and it’s flipping rapidly through the pages.

“wait, jaemin!” you stop him as he’s midway through saying goodbye. “i don’t know if what i feel for you is love, but ... i know it’s very close to that. i like you so much and all this time, i was prepping myself to let you go. mainly because i was moving away, but also because i wouldn’t have guess you liked me back.”

“i told you when we were twelve that i had a crush on you...” he looks slightly offended, but of course, it’s him being over dramatic and maintaining the humorous friendship you two shared.

“we were twelve!” you throw your hands in frustration at his ridiculous statement.

“and it never went away.” he smiles, pinching your cheek gently. “instead, my feelings for you only grew stronger.”

“but you’ve had relationships throughout the years...”

he rolls his eyes, “..and what am i now? single and still hung up on my neighbor, who is now moving away and taking my heart along too.”

“you’re no better. you didn’t re-confess your feelings until now!” you stomp, but jaemin thinks you’re absolutely adorable.

he pats your head and says softly, “i thought i had more time.” the single line drills a crack in your heart. “but... i just had an epiphany.”

and jaemin’s smile heals once again, gluing the breakage back together to make you whole. “i’m going to love you no matter where you are.” and you fall into him like a sacred place that will always catch you. jaemin feels like home. jaemin is your home.

[peterthepark]

crush culture - [prologue]

the double accident

pairing: steve harrington x reader (university au & modern au)

summary: He delivered newspapers, while you were one of smartest kids in school. It’s a weird combination, but the fact that he’s crushing on you is even weirder. And the weirdest? You’re falling in love with him - just a little bit.

warnings: strong language

series masterlist

You never knew who he was until his paper delivery route had changed almost a year ago, where he first stumbled upon your campus apartment during the peak of the morning. He would pedal quickly on a blue bike and would never wear a helmet in fear of ruining his hair. Sometimes, you’d see him from your balcony, or when you’d get into your car, he’d speed by and give you a polite nod before tossing the community newspaper onto the driveway.

Later in your life, you did find out that his name was Steve Harrington: the boy who delivered newspapers at five in the morning during weekdays and ten during weekends.

He was the guy who dated Ashley Cutler during his freshman year then broke up with her because he thought he was in love with Olivia Kim, but really, he wasn’t - rumor had it that he was actually in love with some sorority girl called Melissa.

He was the guy who would pass by you between seminars, accidentally making eye contact with you when you’d stride past him.

He was the guy who rode his blue bike to campus on Monday through Friday, and his red one on Saturday and Sunday.

But yeah, you didn’t know him at all.

You were backing out of the driveway, busy adjusting the rear-view mirror before you heard a loud thud and a string of questionable curses. Speak of the fucking devil. You open your door, poking your head out. Steve sat on the pavement, hissing as he examined the bloody mess of his scraped knee.

You are literally a dumbass. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

“Holy shit. Oh, my god, I am so sorry. I wasn’t paying attention-“ You ramble as you approach him, crouching down to his level with worry.

Steve glances at you, then gives you a second look when he recognizes your face. “No, no. You’re - you’re fine.” He gulps, cheeks tinted with a rosy hue. “I wasn’t looking, um, either. Yeah, sorry, I wasn’t looking either.” His tongue darts out to wet his lips. You help him to his feet, simultaneously blushing with him as he dusts off his dirty hands on his clothing. “Y/N, right?”

You nod with a smile. “I have a first aid kit in my car. Would you mind if I...?” You start, pointing to the trunk of your van. He shakes his head, urging you to go ahead. Standing patiently with his arms crossed against his chest, his eyes follow your panicked movements.

You sigh shakily as Steve takes the red box from you, thanking you before he picks up his fallen bike. You swipe your thumb over your bottom lip, hesitantly speaking, “Look, I’m really sorry. Uh, surely it’s appropriate for me to give you a ride? To school? If that’s where you’re headed.”

Steve flexes his hands against the handles of his bike, glancing around as if he didn’t want to be seen with you. He shrugs with a shy and hesitant grin, “Sure. Yeah, thanks.” He drives his bike over and helps you load it into the trunk of your van, his hair tickling your cheek as he reaches over your shoulder. He apologizes, before he makes a beeline towards the passenger seat.

Bouncing his leg, Steve gazes out the window. The car ride has been awkwardly silent for the past ten minutes - well, you wouldn’t be able to hide the awkwardness in the first place considering the fact you almost ran him over.

“So, what’s your major?” You pipe up with a squeaky voice, keeping a straight face towards the road in fear of eye contact. You clear your throat, shocked at how many octaves your voice had jumped.

What’s your major? Really? Such a stupid, boring question.

Steve chuckles, glad that you‘ve broken the tension in the car. “Criminal justice. Woo! So fun.” He pumps his fist in the air enthusiastically, smiling shyly when he looks over to you.

“Oh, that’s so cool!” You chuckle genuinely, “So are you trying to be like a police officer or something?”

“Yeah, something like that. Maybe a crime scene investigator, too.”

You nod understandably, and Steve continues to discuss his major as well as his plans after university. Then, he realizes that he’s been talking about himself the whole time, and instantly shifts the topic of the conversation to you. “What about you? What are you doing?”

You tell him about your major and all about your experiences on campus, and he listens, occasionally adding a witty remark to your delight.

“I haven’t had a break since the semester started, but you know, it’s almost Christmas so that means vacation, which then means no exams and no assignments. Thankfully.” You laugh, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear. You take a turn into the parking lot, and part of you feels disappointed that the car ride has ended so quickly.

You open the trunk, moving to get his bike but Steve insists politely that he can do it. And before you know it, the bike slips out of his grasp and he accidentally elbows you in the face.

Steve cries out as your body plummets to the parking lot floor. You clutch your eyebrow, pulling your hand away from your face to be met with a small drop of blood.

“I am such an idiot. Y/N. God, I’m sorry. I should have been more careful and - and I didn’t want you to get the bike because I was trying to be a gentleman and I mean,” He chuckles, catching his breath, “Look where that got me.”

You manage to let out a breathy giggle. “Well, now we’re even.” Your eyes take a glimpse at his patched-up knee. “Happen to spare me a band-aid?”

He nods rapidly, before he takes your small hands into his own, lifting you up effortlessly from the ground. You nearly collide with his chest, but you’re able to grab onto his shoulders, steadying your weight.

If you had known this would be the start of your day, you probably would’ve stayed home.

Steve leans patiently against the side of your van as you clean up the wound on your face, catching his eye in the sun-visor mirror from time to time.

The two of you can’t help but snicker at each other when you finally get out of your car, looking absolutely ridiculous with a rainbow band-aid that matched the pony design on Steve’s knee.

Suddenly, the moment is stolen when a cloud of nervousness re-appears over your heads. Steve shifts from one foot to the other, scratching the back of his neck as he glances away from you. You don’t know what to do with your hands, resorting to tucking them away in your sweatshirt.

“I should go.” Steve says, shutting one eye as he throws his thumb over his shoulder.

Shit, that was cute. That was kinda, really cute. Okay, now say something.

“Oh, yeah, yeah, of course. Uh, thanks!”

“Um, for what?”

You truly are a mess. Why the hell are you thanking him? Get it together.

“Just - just for the company.” Smooth, real smooth. “Sorry about your knee... again.” You gesture to his leg, biting down on your lip. He chuckles with a scoff, nodding likewise towards your face.

“Oh! Wow, completely rude of me.” He shifts his bike to his left hand, holding out his right. “I’m Steve Harrington, by the way. I never introduced myself.”

“I know who you are.” You grin, shaking hands. Your eyes widen at how suddenly creepy that had sounded, and you stumble over your words in an effort to save yourself from embarrassment. “Jesus, that sounded really weird. Yeah, I-I know your name. In like a total, not stalker-ish way.” This is so bad. “I share an apartment with Robin and Kate, which you do bike by a lot, so...”

He must be really, really disturbed.

Steve flashes you a sweet, boyish smile, slowly retracting his hand from you after realizing that he had been holding onto it for the longest time. His palms are clammy, and he’s praying that you hadn’t felt it.

“Yeah. It was cool meeting you, finally. I pass by your apartment like you said so - so yeah, definitely, I...” He breathes out deeply, shaking his head with a scrunched up nose. “I’m gonna go now.”

Blushing visibly, Steve adjusts the drawstrings of his jacket before he takes a seat on his bike.

“I’ll see you around, Harrington.” You nibble on the inside of your cheek, taking a couple steps backwards. He waves awkwardly, then he’s off in the opposite direction, careful not to crash into any other cars.

You let out a strangled groan when he’s out of sight, bringing your hands up to your face in sheer frustration. Could you be any more awkward?

-

“I’m telling you, K. I’ll show you the data later. I don’t have my laptop, but trust me, it’ll make sense then.” You sigh at your friend, who seemed terribly confused with today’s lecture. You’re sitting in one of the cafés on campus, sipping away at your latte while Robin and Kate munched on a couple cookies.

“Okay, fine, later. Also what happened to your face?” She snorts, tilting her head at the not-so-subtle bandaid with teasing eyes. “Did you have that much fun with Henry last night?”

“Oh, my god. I did not screw Henry. He left right after we finished the project.” You huff, swirling your drink around. “I just... hit my head. On the trunk. Again.”

“Must’ve been painful.” Robin raises a brow at you, obviously suspicious of your reason.

“Anyways, you guys, there’s this thing next Friday. Levi is inviting us to this party at his friend’s, friends’s place. I was wondering...” She draws out the word, shimmying her shoulders. “Can you both come with? Please? It’s gonna be fun. Also, I wanna hook Y/N up with this guy I know.”

“Y/N might finally get some good dick.” Robin laughs, punching your shoulder lightly. You roll your eyes at her, flipping her off before you retreat to your phone.

Pulling up your instagram, your fingers hover over the search bar, and before you know it you’re searching for a special someone.

steveharrington98

Bingo.

But to your dismay, his account seemed to be private. You blow air from your puffed out cheeks, successfully moving the stray strand of hair from your face.

“Who is that?”

Levi comes up behind you, and he smashes his thumb onto the terrifying white button without care.

Requested.

No. No. No.

“You absolute dickhead!” You gasp at him, slapping his arm before you look back at your phone. “Fuck!” You throw your phone down onto the table, tugging on your hair as you swear under your breath.

“Is that Steve? That’s Steve, right?” Robin takes your phone, but honestly you don’t even care anymore.

Damage has been done, and all you could do at this point was wait.

“Y/N?” Kate calls out to you, snapping you out of your crazed state. “So, party? Friday? Yes?”

You whine, slipping your phone into your backpack. “Yeah, I guess.”

“Great!” She squeals, “I’ll send the address to you later. After you help me with that dumb data shit.”

Your phone buzzes loudly. With buttery fingers, you take it out again with trembling thumbs.

steveharrington98 accepted your follow request.

steveharrington98 has requested to follow you.

Cool.

So much for accidents.

[scribblesandimaginings]

Green-Eyed Idiot

Merle gets jealous when the reader interacts with other men so he finds ways to distract her

(Given it’s been so long since this blog has been active i’m really impressed by how many notes that it’s still getting so thank you very much everyone)

-----

None of this would have been allowed to happen if Merle hadn’t been allowed to go on a run by himself. You told Rick this several times. Merle managed to piss off almost everyone in the group by the time that you caught on to what he was doing.

Merle went a run by himself. He took the motorbike and a gun and headed for a supermarket that had been spotted on another run a few days before. He went without the metal prosthetic replacement for his hand, whining about it making it harder to ride the bike. He should only have been gone for three or four hours at the most.

You were worried sick. There had been something between you and Merle for a while now - something that nobody could put a name to, but it was certainly there. For the most part, people were just confused - they thought that you were just nice, and Merle just wanted to get you into bed. But it really wasn’t like that.

By the time that you heard Michonne calling that she could see Merle returning, nearly nine hours had passed since he left. You raced down to the gate, growling to yourself that you were going to kill him for taking so long - then you saw him.

“Shit, fuck” you breathed. Thank God there were no walkers about. You could just see him in the distance, walking along the road, pushing the bike. “I’m going to get him” you called to Michonne, pushing the gate open just wide enough for you to get out, grabbing the gun that was resting against the wall as you went.

You could hear her shouting not to go, but you weren’t listening. Keeping an eye out for walkers, you jogged along the road to Merle. He saw you coming and started to slow down, nearly coming to a stop. You cursed at him in your head - you wouldn’t take as long to get to him if he just kept moving. As you eventually got closer you could see he was limping, there was blood on his trousers and top, and you reckoned it was probably his. He was hunched over, pushing the bike with his one hand and his forearm, his teeth clenched in pain.

“What the Hell happened?”

“Good t’ see ya too” he grunted.

You took the handlebars from him, holding up the bike. It didn’t look too damaged, just a little more scratched up than usual, “What happened?”

“Came off the bike, ‘s all - still managed t’ pick up some stuff” he gestured to the rucksack swung over his shoulder.

“How badly are you hurt?”

He shook his head, “Leg’s fucked, so’s my back - couldn’t turn the damn thing” he glared at the bike.

You nodded, looking him up and down, “Does the bike still run?” he nodded, “Good” You swung your leg over and sat forward, “Come on”

He made one Hell of a face, “I ain’t riding bitch”

“Yes you are, get on”

He grunted, but accepted his fate, climbing onto the bike behind you and wrapping his arms around your middle, “Ya better not fuck up ma bike”

“No more than you already have today” you quipped.

He didn’t have a reply for once. He tried to sit up, all proud and strong, but it only took moments for him to slump forward against your back. He head was bowed against your shoulder, his arms only holding on just tight enough to stop him from falling off. He was exhausted. You could feel every harsh breath he took, the way his chest rose and fell against your back. Merle was a proud man, but he knew when he was beat.

As you got closer to home, he straightened up again - making sure no-one saw him wrapped around you like that. Because he wasn’t ‘soft or nothin’. Michonne opened the gate for you and you parked up, kicking down the stand only to wait and watch Merle as he slowly got off. Once he was up and leaning against a wall, you stepped off.

“I’ll take the bike to the workshop, see if anyone can give it a look over - you go get the doctor” you said. He huffed but went on his way.

-----

Merle had a fair amount of bruising and he’d pulled a few muscles, but he was going to be fine. He’d been prescribed rest and told he’d heal soon enough if he avoided straining himself.

You agreed to help him out with stuff, he couldn’t bend over properly, so he was going to need a little assistance from time to time. He didn’t like that, or, at least, he acted as if he didn’t. In truth he quite enjoyed the thought of having you hanging around.

Merle was determined that he was fine. He insisted he wasn’t in pain, he could manage by himself - but he only persisted with that so much. As soon as you offered your help, he would relent. But, with time, you could actually see him healing, and bit by bit you stepped back.

Which was fine. Until Merle decided it wasn’t.

Having had your company and assistance everyday for the last couple of weeks, seeing you laughing with the others, particularly the other men, sent pangs of jealousy through his heart. Merle was the kind of guy who would never admit to being jealous, he hated to even admit it to himself. To be honest, he didn’t like admitting any of his feelings to himself, his pain, his sadness, his anxiety... his jealousy... his incredibly strong feelings for you...

Merle didn’t intend to let you know he had ‘feelings’ for you. That wasn’t what he wanted. He just wanted you to be spending more time with him again. And he was pretty sure he’d figured out how to do that.

It was a few days later when you noticed Merle limping again. You’d been talking with Rick, “Hey, sorry Rick, excuse me - I’ll catch you later” 

You made your way over to Merle, waving as you went to catch his eye, “Hey, are you okay?” 

“Who me?” Merle smirked as you as you stopped in front of him, “What you so worried about little old me for?” 

“You’re limping again, I thought your leg was nearly better?” 

“Yeah,” he sighed, “I thought it was, but it doesn’t seem like it’s gonna stop giving me grief. Ah it’s not so bad, I’ll manage” 

“No, maybe you should sit down? I wouldn’t want it to get worse again”

He gave a sigh but shrugged, “Well if you insist”

“Have you had lunch?’

“Not yet”

“Come on, I’ll make us something”

You didn’t see the grin on Merle’s face as you turned to give Rick a wave, letting him know you were off.

The same sort of thing happened again and again over the next week - whenever you were talking to another guy, Merle would somehow show up, either his leg or his back causing him bother. And you were always ready to help. At first nobody thought much of it, except that you were still being too nice, but then, they started to get suspicious - Merle would be fine when you weren’t around, then suddenly as soon as he saw you, he seemed to be in pain again, in fact, even if you were around the other women, he’d seem fine.

Rick and the others asked you how Merle was doing, commenting that it was odd that he seemed to get better then worse again. But you thought nothing of it, muscles were weird, stuff like that happened. But you were the only one who thought so.

After a week, you still thought nothing of it. But after two weeks you were getting concerned, wondering why this didn’t seem to be healing. After three weeks, with the scepticism from everyone else, you were beginning to wonder yourself. It had been nearly four weeks, and you were starting to see cracks in the facade. 

You were sleepy, you’d been up late the night before and the little sleep you’d gotten hadn’t rested you very well. You were sitting under a tree, reading a book and trying to relax for once - then Merle walked past. For the first time in four weeks, that you’d seen, he wasn’t limping.

“Hey Merle” you called. You saw him jump, obviously not expecting you to be there, “hey”

“Well hey there, Princess, what you doing hiding about here?”

“Taking some time off” You got to your feet, watching him walk to you.

“Can’t say much to that”

You waited a moment, waiting to see if he was going to say anything else, “See you’re leg is better”

He blushed, “Uh yeah, seems to be doing alright today”

“That’s good - hopefully that’ll be it all better now”

“Uh, y-yeah” he scratched the back of his neck.

You folded your arms, waited a moment, “Merle?”

“...yeah?”

“Are you still hurt?”

Merle said nothing for a second, “uhh...”

You slapped his arm, “You asshole! I can’t believe you!”

“I’m sorry, I-”

“I have been so worried!”

“I didn’t m-”

“I’ve been exhausting myself worrying about you every day! I swear to God! I’m so angry”

“I’m sorry”

You took a moment, and a deep breath, “... you better be, seriously.”

“I am - I swear” Merle said quietly. He’d never expected you to react like this, he’d never wanted you to get hurt in any way.

You hated being angry at Merle, but, at the end of the day, Merle was Merle - and Merle occasionally made people angry. You gave a harsh sigh, “I don’t know if you’ve actually realised this but I do in fact care about you, Merle!” You turned your head away, trying to hide the tears that were forming in the corners of your eyes.

Merle stepped closer, gently putting a hand on your arm, “Didn’t mean to make you cry”

“I’m not crying” you mumbled.

“Yeah, yeah. Didn’t think you’d worry so much about me”

You glanced up at him, “Why would you think that? I worry about you literally every day”

“Didn’t think you cared so much” he tried to joke, but he couldn’t even convince himself.

You shook your head, “What was the point? Pretending to be hurt? You’ve still been doing just as much as you would have done anyway - nobody is giving you any sympathy; nobody but me...”

“Wasn’t about sympathy” he mumbled, scratching the back of his neck and stepping round in a little circle, “didn’t want any sympathy”

You rubbed your eyes, “So why bother?”

You could almost see the words on the tip of his tongue as he took long seconds to say, “I just wanted you around”

“What?”

He gave you an awkward smile, “Ya know, just, it was really... nice, having you around all the time, and I... missed that... and... I was kinda... jealous”

“... really?”

“Really”

You laughed, shook your head, and laughed again, “I love you Merle but you’re so fucking stupid” 

He laughed, nodding, “Okay, but go back to that first bit?” 

You wrapped your arms around him, relaxing and taking a long deep breath, “I love you Merle” 

“I love you too” 

“But you are so so very stupid”

[ecofinisher]

Cars Au (They’re humans, I swear)

So I watched Cars on TV abd guess what came into my stupid brain? Yeah an AU.

As Usual. The AU’s are differently from the canon.

Lighting McQueen = Adrien Agreste

Chick Hicks = Felix Graham de Vanily

The King = Wang Fu

Sheriff = Roger Raincomprix

Mater = Wayhem

Sally = Kagami Tsurugi

Ramon = Nathaniel Kurtzberg

Flo = Lila Rossi

Doc Hudson =Armand D’Argencourt

Fillmore = Kim Chien Le

Sarge = Max Kanté

Guido = Luka Couffaine 

Luigi = Ivan Bruel

Mack = Gorilla

Red = Marc Anciel

Harv = Gabriel Agreste

Adrien, a young and egocetric Nascar-racer has been throught the last racers of his young career winner of the first price and on his current race his goal was to to beat the record as the rookie with the most wins and to have a chance to get sponsored by the Chinese legacy, where Wang Fu, a veteran racer has been the past 40 years.

Due to disagreements between himself and the Agreste crew, he keeps refusing to let the crew change wheels during the race and near the finish line his tires crack and he arrives at the finish line at the same time as his main rivals Wang Fu and Felix Graham de Vanily.

After the ceremony the three are invited to race against each other to solve their issue on another racing track and Felix bets with Adrien, that if Felix wins the race Adrien has to owes him half of his earnings and vice versa Felix does the same to Adrien if he loses.

Adrien’s driver tried to convince him, that he should do the necessary things for his car or next time he could have had an accident and eventually die. Adrien doesn’t believe it would ever happen, but assures the driver it will be fine, it was just this time. Days passed and Adrien sat in his vehicle in the trailer of the truck talking with his agent, which also was his father and got convinced him and the driver to stay awake and drive the whole night long, so Adrien could practice earlier for the race. During the night Adrien’s truck is attacked and the driver released the trailer leaving Adrien’s vehicle behind and Adrien is waken by cars honks and Adrien notices he’s not on the trailer and races the highway along trying to find his driver and enters the wrong exit ending up being pursuied by a policeman named Roger, which arrests him after he accidentally detroyed the city’s belongings.

Meanwhile the driver had set a missing notification for people to look for Adrien Agreste or his last whereabouts and the driver explains, what happened.

Adrien wakes up finding himself in a jail and yells out his innocence and is encountered by Wayhem, which introduces himself to him and tells him about the town he was in. Roger appears and lists down everything Adrien caused last night with his car and showed his vehicle on the outside full of scratches and bumps, making Adrien whine about his “baby”. Escorted by Roger to the court he meets the judge Armand D’Argencourt, who after Adrien sigh bans him immediately without anymore words earning convtroversial reactions from the present townies. Before he gets freed by Roger one of the townies raises the hand and that person was a young woman around Adrien’s age, which stated the choice wasn’t a good one and suggested the best justice for Adrien would be community work and he would have to fix all the mess he caused to pay for his “misbehavior”

Attracted and annoyed by the Japanese-descendant lawyer of the town he is escorted to his first job by Wayhem, which was to put cement around the town’s statue of their founder. Unmotivated Adrien was trying to cement the ground and Wayhem suggested him if he would be more motivated, he could be faster and be able to leave the place without any more problems and Adrien follows Wayhem’s ideas and fixes everything in a few hours.

The judge Armand D’Argencourt came back and was horrified by his deeds and ordered Adrien to start all-over again and Adrien denies it and argues with the judge until Armand came to the conclusion to bet for the two to race together and the loser would have to fix the road. During the race Adrien suffers an accident and is patched up by the lawyer Kagami, which Armand had sent as she was one of the fewer people, that wouldn’t mind to deal with him. Kagami tells Adrien he has to re-do the things he did and do them all over again, but notices he’s pissed with everyone and says he should have done it right since the first time, so his car wouldn’t be ruined and half of his tasks were done.

The next day the citizens encounter the statue’s ground fixed with new planted plants around it and two light poles were fixed and everyone was impressed by it. Ivan and Luka had out of fun said, the town needed a new make-over and in the next hour the two had decided to fix their garage from both sides to make it look better and on the other side the owner of the gas station Lila had the same idea and had help from her artsy neighbor Nathaniel. Armand was fascinated, by what was going on and went to look around for Adrien and encountered him on the racetrack he had have an accident the other day trying to manage to pass by the two last curves, which he never made it without slowing or braking down.

Armand compliments him about his deed and gives him a tip for his driving, which Adrien didn’t quite get it and he tried it out, causing to wreck the second vehicle he borrowed from the confiscated vehicles of agent Roger’s parking spots.

With the time Adrien is working on his tasks, the townies managed to befriend him a little, including Kagami, which owned a small pension and offered him a room for him to overnight. Before the night Wayhem accompanies Adrien out of the town for the two to race together on a e-bike through fields at the farm of a farmer, which Wayhem claimed to be dead. Adrien find Wayhem was being ridiculous, cause it was strange for the goats there to be alive after all those years. While the two together annoyed the goats on the E-bikes out of the farm appeared a old man, which yelled at them scaring the two, then released his shepherd at the man to scare them away and the two escaped.

The next morning Adrien is looking for Armand as he needed his word and he enteres into his garage, where he encounters an old racing car and takes a closer look of it and finds out, Armand D’Argencourt was a famous racer and is caught by Armand, which scolds him for his behavior and after many questions of Adrien he answered, what had happened and why he was here. Adrien felt insulted about Armand’s hypocrisy about both of their differences and left him going to the gas station to get some coffee, where he mets half of the townies and Kagami asks Adrien, if he would drive with her around. Roger tells her to be careful on who she trusts and she assured him she trusts Adrien with all of her heart making Adrien feel weird at her action.

Adrien is surprised at noticing Kagami owned a sports vehicle and enjoyed with her their ride in it and soon Kagami ordered him to stop on the parking stop with a street heading up the rocky mountain and she asked the blonde to accompany him and show him the view to their town and the rest of the places far away from them. Adrien finds out, that Kagami used to live in a large metropolis, but got with the time sick of that live and left the place without having a clue, where to go until she broke down and landed in this town and stood due to the hospitality of the townies and their loyalty. Adrien got to know Kagami better and their town and felt bad to know, that their town’s popularity had sunken after several constructions out of their range.

While Adrien worked on the last task he observed Kagami talking with the other citizens, then pondered on any ideas to help out the town and the next day as everyone saw the messed up things were fixed, they were sad about Adrien’s exit, but Adrien showed up along with Marc and told them, he just went to help the firefighter man to do some stuff they would see at night. Roger reveals to Adrien, that half of Adrien’s vehicle was fixed and he could ask Wayhem to tow his car and accompany him at his escort to the next city to inform about the disappearance. Adrien asked, if it was okay if he first asked Luka’s crew to continue to fix his car and for Nathaniel to color it afterward. The three men were excited and observed the racing car being fixed and the rest of the day Adrien fulfilled everyone’s wish as a customer, including getting his arm tattoed with “I love my mama”

At the night Kagami was called to meet the townies at Marc’s garage, where they introduced a nicely dressed Adrien and his racing car in new colors and wheels exciting Kagami for Adrien’s success and his deeds for the townies. Adrien revealed, that he spend the whole night with Marc to exchange all the lights around the city, making Kagami happy as the town looked like it was a few years ago, when the town was more popular. Luka brought out with Ivan a stereo system to play loud music for all to dance together. Adrien began to see Kagami in a different light and during the dance he leans in for a kiss, but is interrupted by Wayhem, which mentioned to have seen a large crowd of vehicles heading to their town and as they approached Adrien shrieked realizing that those were journalists and paparazzis, which surrounded Adrien with questions and he tried to get out of there to his new-made friends.

Adrien’s driver appears too and apologizes him for what happened and mentioned, that he needs to bring him back or he will get fired. Adrien tries to get out of the crowd stopping by Kagami, where he tries to talk with her but couldn’t come out with something and as Adrien’s driver announced him he would get fired because of not convincing Adrien to get back into the car, Kagami tells Adrien to go and thanks him for his amazing job with the town, then both are separated by the journalists and Adrien is guided into the vehicle along with the driver and the crowd departed leaving the townies back and Kagami caught on the leave one of the journalists talking to Armand, which confesses in the end, that he told the people about Adrien’s whereabouts making the townies sad, mostly Kagami and Wayhem, which left the man back, followed by the others leaving Armand back, which felt disappointed about his decision.

The next day Adrien was on the racing track with his fixed racing car and he couldn’t concentrate on his race and entered into the pit stop box, because he wanted to quit, but to his surprise he encoutered there all the townies, including Armand D’Argencourt, which admitted he had done a mistake and wanted to help Adrien out on his race. Adrien continued his race following D’Argencourt’s instructions and tips, getting the lead of the race for the rest of the rounds. On the last round Adrien continues to lead in the race with Wang Fu and Felix behind him trying to surpass Adrien. While Wang Fu tried to keep Felix back on the third place Felix tried to pass beside the veteran and hit him on his back, causing him to loose his control and fly out of the track crashing on the outside of the road shrieking all the viewers, including Adrien, which witnessed it by seeing it on the screens over the arena. Adrien stopped his car before he could pass the finish line and turned around to help Wang Fu out of the car and sat him back inside his car and is questioned about his deed and Adrien confessed to him, that winning didn’t matter to him anymore and after Felix won, Adrien offered to help Wang Fu finish his last ride today, which he accepted.

After the race Adrien thanks Armand and the townies about their appeareance and is interviewed by journalists and Adrien apologizes on live for his past behavior and promised to be a better person from now on.

Days later he appears with the rest of the townies back on the city and encounters Kagami on the rocky mountain, where she was observing the town and informed Adrien, that she had seen him arriving. Adrien announced her he would want to move there to be close to his friends and mainly to be with her, earning a smile from the lawyer, which pulled him into a kiss and confessed, she had been eagerly waiting to do that after knowing he would return.

[hobotalesaus]

Episode 3: A Hesitating Pulse Is Good Company

I still remember the first time I came to Melbourne; I was about 18. Everything was foreign and weird and busy and sunny. ‘People are strange, when you're a stranger. Faces look ugly, when you're alone.’ I ended up in Collingwood, another planet to me back then. I found solace in a corner pub. The porch light was on and it was the closest thing to home as I could find. 

Living in the big smoke isn't for everyone, but certain people just fucking thrive. Jay is one of those people. Totally sober in the spot he lives, figuratively speaking. When I first met the bloke, he showed me through his place in his moccasins (yeah I remember mate) and pointed out different pieces of art, memorabilia, just stuff. The stuff that we fill our spaces with because we love looking at it and it's a puzzle of what makes us, ‘us’. This was the shit that he loves and you could see it straight away. Outside, there was this faint buzz of the city, with a heartbeat and tyre noise and the smell of god knows what. Maybe a police siren or some shit. It reminded me of a song, with the line "A hesitating pulse is good company". If I was to sum up Collingwood, especially in that house on that day, it would be with that line. "A hesitating pulse is good company". 

Firstly, Jay is a bloody good bloke. My old man would always tell me the best way to approach somebody is like this: If you think you're a good fella, I do too, until you prove me wrong. Something tells me that Jay hasn't proven anyone wrong. 

Knowing this about him, we approached Jay recently about doing a story and he was more than happy to go with it, which actually sort of posed a problem; he's got so many fucking things on the go, and is equally good at all of them, that we were hard pressed to make room for it all. But we'll give it a red hot crack anyway. 

Born in the early 90s, Jay spent most of his time as a young fella riding BMX like most of us did. Outside til dark, jumping kerbs, ruining your shoes by putting them in between the forks and the front tyre. Yeah we all did it. "How do you keep ruining your shoes so quickly??" the words rang out across the house and you knew you were about to get whooped. Street Sharks on the telly, poster of Matt Hoffman on the bedroom wall. How good was that? Then the natural transition (as if that isn't the best fucking pun I've ever heard) to skateboarding. "The first skate video I ever saw was a FLIP SORRY part. That got me so pumped up to go skate, the whole soundtrack and attitude was surreal! Skateboarding basically consumed my life from then all the way up til now," he says, and yeah, it fucking shows. "I tell you what, I had a few Margera decks growing up. But Geoff Rowley stood out for me, and still influences me for sure, even to this day."

There's always been this weird connection between skating and motorcycles; we're not talking your $40,000 BMW touring bike or your Hyabusa. We're talking about Triumphs, Harleys, chopped up Honda's. Making noise and pissing people off. Literally giving the finger to anyone who gives you that greasy look. "I got into motorcycles when I was about 21 or 22, after a trip to the US. All I'd ever wanted to do was go to the U.S and skate all the spots I'd seen in the videos. I had organized with a friend from Geroa (check a map) to head over; his old lady owned a condo in Oceanside, Cali. They were kind enough to invite me over to stay." 

“We're talking about Triumphs, Harleys, chopped up Honda's. Making noise and pissing people off. Literally giving the finger to anyone who gives you that greasy look”

"I took some photos of that chopper on this 35mm Minolta 201 I got for $30 on eBay.”

"So there we are at a skate park in California, and a mate of Ray's rolled up on this bad-ass cone Shovel chopper that he built himself. I didn't grow up around parents or a cool uncle who rode motorcycles, so when I was confronted with this dirty, leaky machine, I was fascinated. No foot pegs, looked like it hadn't been cleaned since the 80s. We were in the car on highway, watching him haul ass, weaving in and out of lanes, skateboard strapped to the sissy bar. That was it for me" he says, and you know that you had the same moment at some point in your life where you went "Yep, that's what I'm all about". He continues, "I took some photos of that chopper on this 35mm Minolta 201 I got for $30 on eBay. Turned out the mechanism to eject the film was broken so I lost it all. Still have the memories though. I came home to Australia and maybe a month later I went and bought a 2016 Sporty 48; because what the fuck do I know about building old motorcycles?" But who the fuck cares what it is right, as long as it's not a street bike. 

This leads us into another jack of all trades moment with Jay; photography. "Sometimes when I'm feeling frisky, I whip out the old Nikon D700. I take 6 photos or maybe 30, and sometimes 1 will come out good. I'm not a photographer, I just take photos sometimes.", which is pretty much enough to sum it up. "I'm stoked with a whole bunch of photos I've taken, and that's all that fuckin' matters." Too right bloke. 

"Sometimes when I'm feeling frisky, I whip out the old Nikon D700. I take 6 photos or maybe 30, and sometimes 1 will come out good. I'm not a photographer, I just take photos sometimes."

"Sometimes I paint, sometimes I get angsty sitting there for long periods of time trying to figure out colour blending and all the rest. I did the Knucklehead painting and that's pretty much where that ends." I was actually lucky enough to grab said Knucklehead painting, which takes pride of place in my lounge room. It's a wicked, dusty, rusty painting that tells you that the motor is as old as sin. Just how we like it. "I can't draw to save my life, but I spent what felt like 3 months working on it here and there." That led us to a pretty significant point in the story, with what I guess I'm trying to capture with these interviews. "Expressing yourself is a great way to be heard; you can tell a story through an action, a photo, a drawing..whatever. And without self expression, the world is a pretty boring place."  

“I was actually lucky enough to grab said Knucklehead painting, which takes pride of place in my lounge room”

So, as far as the nitty gritty, I think a lot of us have seen Jay's scoot by now. That 48 Sporty we mentioned earlier was written off "trying to pull a wheelie leaving work", which is a pretty standard outcome I reckon. So the white beast is a 72 Sporty, which was stripped down and and built back up by David at Primal Garage, with some work being done by Sean at Bar-None Moto. He cut the rear fender struts, and had some solid bar machined up to look like suspension, but it is actually hard-tailed. He also lifted the tank a little, modified the seat pan that Sean made, fit a new rear fender so it tucked nicely around the tire. He also freshened up the bike by re-painting the tins pearl white, with champagne stripes fading to silver. He also chucked the Leviathan cross on the tank at my request. He finished it all off with a set of bad ass up sweeps! Sean smashed out new bars, sissybar, license plate/ brake light bracket, and gave Dave a good start on the king/queen seat pan. Now I have a sweet ass looking bike that I’ve barely ridden this year. Covid has been a struggle", he says, and those of you in Victoria can attest to the fact that this year has been a total write off. Not being able to get out, hit some pubs, roll the swag out beside the bike and sleep in the dirt; that's our lockdown. "I’ve gone damn near everywhere on that bike, I love it to bits!" 

“He cut the rear fender struts, and had some solid bar machined up to look like suspension, but it is actually hard-tailed.”

There aren’t too many ways to describe riding a motorcycle to somebody who hasn't done it. And there's a difference again between riding in total comfort, heated grips, perfect riding position, had vitamins this morning, has a go-pro strapped to his head, has every supply under the sun in his bags, middle aged dentist on a touring bike. I'm talking about being stripped down of all fancy equipment, burning your legs, can't hear anything, welts on your face, hot, cold, numb fingers, sore arse, no fuel left, phone is dead, you're still 50kms from where you think the camp spot is but you know what? You could keep riding for another 1000kms because fuck me, this is what it's about. 

“..total comfort, heated grips, perfect riding position, had vitamins this morning, has a go-pro strapped to his head, has every supply under the sun in his bags, middle aged dentist on a touring bike.”

The smell of a campfire, the taste of a bug on your teeth, the spine shattering crack from a pothole on your hardtail, losing your house keys somewhere in the last 2 days riding, unpeeling yourself from the bike and finally being able to stretch your hips as the locals stare. "Passing out in the dirt, waking up in the rain. Skateboarding was my first love, but riding motorcycles is one big adventure, and the best one I've been on in years." says Jay, as I think we all for a moment realize that from now on, whenever anyone asks "Hey, lets skip town for a night on the bikes", you're going to say yes regardless, for fear of never being able to do it again. 

"Passing out in the dirt, waking up in the rain. Skateboarding was my first love, but riding motorcycles is one big adventure, and the best one I've been on in years."

If our readers are anything like us, and I think they are, living in the city is doable if there's an escape in between the chaos. "Pre-Covid, my girlfriend (Asti) and our dog (Luna) and I would head up into the mountains every other weekend. Find a cool spot to park and just walk around for awhile, explore. We could let Luna off lead and she loved it. I like shooting photos in the forest. Nature is the best". 

"Camping holds a special place in my heart. I love the smell of a campfire, endless banter between mates, NO RECEPTION. Not showering for awhile is also a guilty pleasure. We've all had our fair share of wet-wipe showers". I'll be honest, as long as there's water near by, that's good enough for me. Winter or not. Which reminds me, little tip for painting the town brown in the bush; dig two little holes for your heels, stick a log or the shovel in the ground, hang onto it and lean back. Opens up the bowels. (You'll thank me I reckon). 

’’We've all had our fair share of wet-wipe showers"

Everyone has a favorite camping story. I think as time has gone on, they don’t stand out as much as they used to, they're all great. Even when you ended up broken down in the rain, lost, hungry, hungover. Still better than a night in the city if you ask me. 

"My favorite camp spot was something not easily forgotten.  My girlfriend and I tripped out to Wilson’s Promontory one weekend. We paid to spend the night in the camp site which was basically a grass car park with no fires allowed and we decided that it just wouldn’t fly with us. We packed a couple of backpacks with the tent, sleeping mat, sleeping bags etc. We hiked a trail for an hour or so, scouting a suitable place to set up shop along the way. We eventually decided to veer off the trail, and head down through the shrub toward the ocean. We ended up finding the most insane spot! On top of a cliff, a nice flat piece of land on some moss covered rocks. Looking over the ocean. We were even graced with a sunset, right over the water, directly in front of us. Romantic as fuck, it was amazing. Golden hour blew us away. Not a single person in sight, but us. We got a little fire going and just marveled at what we found and where we were. That was the best camp spot for sure. If it were possible to accompany that with motorcycles, shit. I could have died right there and then."

‘’Even when you ended up broken down in the rain, lost, hungry, hungover. Still better than a night in the city if you ask me’’

“We packed a couple of backpacks with the tent, sleeping mat, sleeping bags etc. We hiked a trail for an hour or so, scouting a suitable place to set up shop along the way.”

I reckon that's a pretty good image to leave this story on. I think there's something special about people who can find solace in nothing, in no-one, just being content with what's happening at that moment in time. A sunset, setting off a car alarm with your pipes, burning away from a servo with a full tank of fuel. The big picture is made up of a million little pictures.

We always ask people what their life motto is; what they stand by. Jay gave us this. "Do more of what makes you happy. Whatever it is.”

Thanks bloke, it's been a time and a half. First beer is on me once the wall comes down.

"Do more of what makes you happy. Whatever it is."

All photos by Jay except for top photo by Sean (Bar-None Moto). 

[mieczyhale]

a messy explanation of things and unnecessary information about life lately

soooo... right. i’m sorry i haven’t really been around aside from popping in here and there, and that i’ve been taking longer than usual to reply to things / not replying to things at all. it’s NOT that i’m upset with anyone or trying to ignore / avoid anyone, and it’s not that i don’t care / don’t love talking to you (whomstever you may be) i love chatting with y’all and wish i could get myself to reply to things quicker but i do not control the me lmfao honestly my sleep has never had a schedule but in recent weeks it’s kinda been operating like there’s a lil gremlin in my head who spins a wheel and picks my sleeping times at random - and it’s either like.. two hours or most of a day. there hasn’t been a lot of in between so that’s a thing!!

also in a fun added mix of maybe sleep?, missing meds, being stuck in the house more often than not, and the FUCKING EVERYTHING happening in the world right now my mental health is... probably run by the same goblin that runs my sleep schedule lmao consistency whomst?? since the lockdown started the depression has of course been around more but actually, worse than that, is how my anxiety - and by extension: my ocd - have really amped up and i need y’all to know that the struggle is painfully real (and another thing that affects shit like my replies and writing. reading as well. fics have been kinda stressful and that should be illegal. who authorized this?) i don’t hate talking about it but i don’t really like it either?? especially like.. in depth. but i will say there has been crying, screaming, pain!, and i’ve acquired a few physical injuries.

so

yeah

on a personal level - a ‘just me’ level - shit is an even bigger mess than usual lmao but all these things will get better eventually - they always do. 

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

NOW

ON A PERSONAL LEVEL - THE FULL LEVEL - THINGS.... are pretty great actually! i mean aside from the state of my fucking house e__e but Josh has been working from home for two (2) months now and it’s been really nice - people complaining about their partners being home?? can’t relate. yknow what?? i just might love that tall bastard even more from all this.fuck all y’all miserable fucks

we’ve been going out for drives and we’ve gone fishing and the only place i’ve gone too that’s re-opened is goodwill. because i require.. the shop. they do have a masks required rule! (at least at the one here) and, alongside that, the places we’ve gone that never closed (like grocery stores and the gas station and the hardware store) have social distancing rules and stuff in place which i love. can we keep social distancing after this is all over?? more things here in wisconsin are opening up and we might go to some. idk though. we also might not. either way its still a weird kind of exciting to see things opening back up?? even though i do think we’re not totally in the clear because most of our gov. sucks (our mayor tried to extend our stay-at-home order - keyword there is TRIED. we are the land of cheese, cows, and no fucking braincells for anyone) 

having pets is obviously not a new thing for me but it’s still a thing. so it takes time and effort and energy and patience and love and a certain disregard for your own safety (claws. they really be as sharp as you think) so... it can be stressful, especially cuz we’ve had to keep them inside more as it gets hot out and something keeps breaking our porch screens (our cats are allowed onto our screened in porch or they can go out in a harness but we will never let them run free outside. fuck that noise)  my bbies are all so cute and their personalities and idiosyncrasies are just... *chefs kiss* i love em and they’re definitely a part of what has made quarantine better

i’ve seen my mom a few times, like for my birthday and when she needed help moving Isaiah from one dorm to another and such, but that’s primarily been an option because she has become anti-mask and anti-stay-at-home-order. initially she wasn’t - she gave Isaiah and i fun lil masks since at that time trying to buy them would be impossible and she thought nothing of staying home - but i guess either as its dragged on or as she’s consumed her middle-right wing news that changed s o. she does take social distancing in public very seriously though, so at least there’s that. our favorite coffee shop, where we - pre-lockdown - always went one (1) or two (2) times a week to do art for hours re-opens on monday and that’s one of the few things i’ve truly missed.

josh’s camping trip for this weekend with his friends had to be cancelled because the parks weren’t going to open in time. so today they’re going somewhere to do at least some of the things they would have done if they had gone camping. bikes, bonfires, and cigars. i’m kinda jealous negl but he was really excited about it so mostly i’m happy

trying to figure out how human services was running things during lockdown was rough but thankfully it didn’t take much to get it sorted. mostly because my mom made the phone call i was supposed to lol (the phone anxiety is on its own level) so wednesday afternoon my mom sat with me while i had the appointment with my psychiatrist over speakerphone (which was.. an experience)

ummm.....

OH YEAH! Probably absolutely my favorite thing that’s happened is: WE’RE STARTING THE SEARCH FOR A NEW HOUSE!!!! it doesn’t mean we’re gonna be moving soon or anything, we don’t want to make the same mistake twice (buying the first house you tour that you love) because while it is a great house ultimately it is way too small for us. i mean there’s me and josh, all six cats, and ALL OUR SHIT. listen: i have an entire room dedicated to my various hobbies. and a walk in closet that isn’t big enough. and we both have collections we love and want to display (right now upstairs its hello kitty and downstairs its astronomy and the titanic. and then there’s pop figures, mtg, collectibles, our bottle collection and various knickknacks, etc.) plus all our books! then furniture and cat furniture (i.e towers) and all their shit because they are spoiled babies. and god forbid we ever have a human kid?? yeah. it’s just not big enough. 

so we’re gonna take more time with this choice but what we do know is:: we wanna live out in the country (i’m paranoid and don’t like to be looked at and he loves the outdoors, lived on a farm for awhile. i also enjoy the outdoors but mostly since we moved into this house i’ve struggled with doing anything outside... while we only have one neighbor on our road. but there’s one across the road and one at the other side of our backyard and that’s just too much lol) 

lets see.. um.... my birthday was may 2nd and that was pretty nice, for a pandemic birthday. there’s been a lot of stuff happening involving josh’s family but that’s not something i really wanna get into on here, tho i will say things have been better in recent weeks and it’s been... really nice. josh and i went to his mom’s house the other night and got drunk with her for fun and i actually had a really good time?? and didn’t complain about going?? that’s kinda unheard of.

i don’t have a job anymore - haven’t since early march-ish - and it kinda sucks but also the universe really did me a solid because my choices were either allow myself to work until i have a mental break again or quit. and i was leaning towards quitting (things had been going down hill with the owner and other employees and just the business as a whole for awhile and there’s a limit to the amount of bullshit i can take thanks) but now it doesn’t seem i have to. why do i think i’m jobless? i was barely working anyway, bc of the snow business was slow, and in march i got really sick and stayed home for a week. the day i was supposed to go back i was still sick, and covid19 was starting to become more of a serious situation everywhere, so josh called in for me and explained that between still being sick and my anxiety over covid (asthma + a not so great immune system) i wasn’t going in that day. i never heard from them again. so. 

but it’s all good - there are some options but i’m not looking into them seriously until it’s safe to.

SO

THAT’S ALL OF FUCKING THAT ON THAT

i felt it wouldn’t be a bad idea to come on here and explain A. what’s been going on and B. where i’ve been and C. that if i haven’t responded to you or acknowledged something you sent me / tagged me in it’s literally just because i either forgot to (for all reasons and none) or i don’t have the mental space / energy to. but that doesn’t mean you have to stop talking to me! even if i don’t respond or respond immediately i do read everything and i would die for any one of you fuckers (especially my clowns and the tom hardy movie) 

oh! and just btw - sometimes i don’t get notifications (quelle surprise) tumblr and skype should really pair up and talk about their truly great systems that function so well /s 8| ANYWAY: the best and most reliable ways to get my attention are twitter ( @/mieczyhale) and discord (same name) because i have yet to see their notifications fail. ahem.

i feel like i’m missing things / forgetting things but honestly this post is long enough and also enough of a rambley mess that i’m just gonna try and ignore that feeling and carry on with my goddamn day so i might actually accomplish something. sorry if there’s spelling off or missing words. i’m not taking the time to re-read this and might even delete it bc it’s already giving me anxiety bUT WE’LL SEE ALRIGHT HI AND BYE I LOVE YOU GUYS <3

[dexthedragon]

pokémon let’s go eevee - some unfocused rambling thoughts (long)

so, pokémon let's go, from the perspective of someone that's played at least two games of every mainline pokémon generation so far. 

long post after the jump

first thing's first: i cannot play the game how i would like to play it. while in docked mode, you are limited to one single joy con only, or the poké ball plus. none of these options feel quite right to me, either due to weird feeling menu navigation plus throwing with my non-dominant hand (joy-con l), weird feeling overworld movement (joy-con r), or an incredibly tiny analogue stick, having to re-orientate the controller a lot, and not being able to do various things because of a lack of buttons (poké ball plus). the throw direction is sometimes related to how i threw the ball and sometimes it isn't. in handheld mode, it basically feels like BOTW; movement is where it should be, menu navigation is where it should be, catch by making big adjustments with the stick and smaller adjustments with the gyro controls. it's easier, it's more precise my preference would be to play docked using the handheld control scheme with the pro controller, but that's not an option

so, it's a streamlined remake of yellow with a few minor twists along the way - e.g. your rival explicitly isn't Blue, the Bike Shop no longer sells bikes, there's a much greater focus on Cubone during the Pokémon Tower segment.

first the good: it is nice finally seeing the series be freed from the restrictions of 3DS graphics - while still staying faithful with things like trainers making their original weird start of battle poses. kanto feels much bigger and more alive than it did before. the change to be able to see pokemon on the overworld map and catch just the ones you want is really nice, and is something that i do hope makes it into gen 8. the catch mechanics also mean less running back to the pokemon centre because you've run out of PP. one of Oak's aides just casually gives you the IV checker function around Diglett's Cave. some of the twists are kind of interesting. you can dress up your eevee in cute outfits and give it some fun overpowered special moves. the music is some of the absolute best renditions of these melodies, surpassing even the anime's versions. HMs are still gone.

and now the bad: for all the streamlining, it feels a lot slower than it should. i turn off battle animations in every pokémon game where that's possible (and i would recommend doing so here as they're incredibly underwhelming - even if they're another retro throwback, battle revolution still leads the series in this respect), but battles still feel sluggish. the overworld takes longer to run round in (as above, there's no bike), everything takes longer to level up. i'm pretty sure that in yellow itself, i would be further than silph co. at the 8hr mark. it's easier in ways that discourage exploration and experimentation. when you come out of pokémon tower, you see a cutscene of jessie and james saying that they're going to the rocket game corner in celadon city - and sure, where you go after lavender town wasn't clear in the original games, but they could say the "rocket hideout in celadon city" so that you'd still need to look around the city for it. you can't get into brock's gym unless you have a grass or water type pokemon, even though eevee, nidoran, and presumably pikachu would all learn double kick by that point. i've heard that one of the later gyms needs 50 pokémon caught so you can't do a low catch run. at the same time, your partner eevee can basically solo pretty much anything other than some gym leaders and snorlax, which you have to fight as a regular wild Pokémon battle with a 5min time limit (Snorlax would be easy if it didn't have rest). being fair, this is true of a lot of starters, but at least they normally change and evolve as time goes on. held items and abilities have been removed - and combined with gen 1's limited pokemon selection, this means a lot of rby's balance problems are back - though at least more moves are available for enemy trainers to use. (i also would imagine this makes some mega evolutions significantly worse once you get to that point in the game - mega kangaskhan without the ability that makes mega kangaskhan good, for example) you're not completing the pokédex without either a friend that owns the other version (and makes the other choices re: fossils* and hitmon-), or being an avid go player. there's no breeding (despite eggs being in go), there's no GTS, there's no Pokémon Stadium 1 Gym Leader Castle that gives you some of the unique gift Pokémon, so in the case of the fossils* specifically you need to trade yours for your friend's before you evolve it and then trade back so you can both complete things. the lack of GTS in particular feels like a big regression in this respect - i also suspect the battle spot might be gone. even if you are an avid go player, you need to re-catch everything that you transfer from Go - and it's not like Pal Park where you're given special 100% chance Poké Balls only for that area, you need to use your regular supply. transfer 50 high level pokémon and you could be there for hours - and go transfer captures seem to give less XP than regular wild captures if you're like me, you've seen kanto at least four times (rby, gsc, frlg, hgss), plus possibly an additional two for the virtual console releases. some of the details have changed, but you're going to hit fundamentally the same locations and the same plot beats, and the VC releases weren't that long ago. in comparison to spyro, it's been a much longer time since i last re-visited those games, and reignited gave me a much greater sense of "oh, it's this bit! i loved/hated/had repressed memories of this!" - while with kanto, i always know exactly where i need to go and roughly what spawns where, even if let's go makes a few alterations to give some things earlier.

----

so yeah, so far, at least, i'd struggle to recommend it if you're a longterm player, look up a differences video on youtube or something.

* note: i haven't been past fuschia yet, so maybe the fossils are catchable in the wild but i doubt it

[kateanddevinreview]

London Has Fallen

In which Kate and Devin write a porno

Devin: Okay, so this movie is just Gerard Butler being a badass right? Is this the one with Denzel Washington? Or are neither of those things right.

Kate: It’s something like that.

Devin: Well, Butler showed up in the credits, but so did morgan freeman?

Kate: It’s a trifecta!!

Devin: Or maybe I'm just racist and mixed them up.

Kate: Or maybe it’s the two of them being badass together.

Devin: I made some comment the other day about minorities being underrepresented at the oscars or something and they asked what actors I think should win instead and I blanked on literally every minority actor I knew.

Kate: Hahahah. It’s still true though. And to be fair, could you name any white actors?

Devin: My brain got stuck on Tom Hardy and forgot literally every other actor on earth

Kate:I think he’s on tv now anyway. So far this movie is starting a bit slow. Do you think someone is going to be shot soon?

Devin: I find it weird that we are in....India?

Kate:  I think we’re at an Indian wedding. Terrorist’s daughter is getting married

Devin: This is set up for motive?

Kate: Probs

Devin: The Phantom of the Opera and Harvey Dent go for a jog

Kate: Why are politicians always running? I don’t think they do that much

Devin: I think cause DC? it's an easy excuse to pan around the lawn

Kate: Ok well fine, coming at me with movie reasons. Wait, is this a sequel?

Devin: Is it? Was the last one just called "London"?

Kate: I was thinking Gerald saved a president in the last one?

Devin: She has crazy eyes

Kate: She does but she’s pregnant

Devin:  I'll forgive it if we get through this movie without her vomiting.

Kate:  She’s in like her third tri already so she really shouldn’t

Devin:  Google says this is a sequel, to Olympus Has Fallen. Lots of stuff falling apparently

Kate: Knew it!!! I’ve seen that one too

Devin: Really? I'm guessing last time he saved President Harvey Dent from terrorists, wooed or impregnated his wife, and got hired for secret service or unfired from secret service

Kate: Unfired, if it’s what I’m thinking of

Devin: This time he'll save the Prime Minister from terrorists, see his kid born, and...uh. Be knighted? That's my guess

Kate: Seems like a totally logical guess to me. I’m betting he discovers the Prime Minister was murdered. I don’t think people are expected to attend state funerals?

Devin: I think it's cause his vice isn't available? I think normally this is the kind of thing they send him for. But I am basing that on episodes of Madam Secretary so who knows

Kate: New guess!! President is killed and Butler has to protect Freeman

Devin: Hmmm. Maybe. Is Freeman the Vice?

Kate: Yes. He said “Hello, Mr VP”

Devin: I'm missing like half of this dialogue, idk how

Kate: Cause it’s boring

Devin: I want splosions!

Kate: This baby melodrama music is not my favorite. Once again I feel like writing is letting us down?

Devin: Yeah. Be better hollywood!

Kate: Also important people shouldn’t just sign shit without looking at it

Devin: is this the fringe guy? No. Who is he? He's someone

Kate: I think? No?

Devin: Fringe guy is similar but different. Oh! The Magicians? Magicians teacher guy?

Kate: No, definitely not him

Devin: IMDBing....

Kate: “Most protected event on earth”= everyone will die

Devin: Yup. This cast listing order is stupid. Do we know British Gerard Butler's name?

Kate: You mean the head of the British security? Also no. Also I think they’re going to use kids?

Devin: Yes, British guy. Mr. Sands! From Limitless. Thanks wikipedia, for your superior cast list

Kate: Limitless. That’s right, I never watched much of that

Devin: I really liked the main guy and all the arts and crafts in that show. I'm sad it was cancelled. Also we should add the movie to our review list

Kate: Yes!

Devin: Splosion! I didn't think those guards were supposed to have real guns? Then again EMTs should definitely not have rocket launchers

Kate: Hahaha, yeah, those cops are definitely plants. It’s clearly a very well orchestrated attack

Devin: Pretty sure only america gives their cops guns. Also, rocket launcher

Kate: Wow I don’t care how this movie ends the world would not recover from this

Devin: Yeah Kate, it's fallen. Show. Us. The. Egg. It's not London unless I see the big glass egg and the ferris wheel

Kate: How did they know that one president wouldn’t leave on time?

Devin: Trackers? Or they caused the traffic?

Kate: No, he decided?

Devin: Motorcycles, a car's only weakness

Kate: Nice driving!

Devin: Don't injure civilians!

Kate: Ummmm, Devin. I think that ship has sailed.

Devin: He rammed the bad guy into a non bad guy car!

Kate: Oh fuck. Ok so who is the black lady? Is she the First Lady?

Devin: Voight buddy, you could have moved. He's the driver, she's the head of secret service

Kate: He was driving! It was a bullet! Give him some credit. Is she?

Devin: Yes. According to wikipedia

Kate: She’s not doing much. And she hunkered with the president?

Devin: Right? Stop flailing. Where is your gun, woman?

Kate: Oh god. That was brutal

Devin: That was very brutal

Kate: Why didn’t they park closer to the chopper?

Devin: Crashing in 3...2...oh ok nvm

Kate: Hahaha

Devin: He's got a cane so you know he's evil

Kate: So true

Devin: Moral of this movie: don't trust the handicapped

Kate: And yet, they didn’t detect a plan of this magnitude

Devin: Uh, did those people just have labels?

Kate: Yes. NSA and something else

Devin:  Like, movie? Movie. We do not care

Kate: I’m assuming it will be important later?

Devin: Why is the lady not doing anything?

Kate: Nice, flares! I like flares. Why are they flying so low anyway?

Devin: I got distracted googling the secret service

Kate: Anything pertinent to share?

Devin: Apparently the director just does the boring shit, so idk why she's even here

Kate: Ummmm, I think the movie should end here?

Devin: Yes they all died. The End

Kate: No way anyone survived that. I call bullshit

Devin: Also, I assumed presidents would have like one guy their whole time in office? But apparently they hire someone new a lot. Oh she dead.

Kate: For the secret service?

Devin: As director. Like Obama had 2

Kate: I mean, that’s four years for each

Devin: Trump has already had 2. The first guy for like 2 months? 1 month?

Kate: Well, Trump does that a lot. He’s had like 8 communication directors

Devin: I just wonder if they choose to leave or if the president purposefully swaps them out

Kate: Also working for the president is really intense, so maybe you just burn out and have to leave

Devin: Makes sense. The local biker gang is here

Kate: I don’t think bikes make that noise. That is dumb

Devin: Yes. Also no one checked the wreck

Kate: At least we know from earlier scenes they are fast runners!

Devin: This looks like he put his manifesto on youtube

Kate: What point is there in entertaining this phone call? Also why does he care about one president?

Devin: Imagine if he called before they watched the video! Like 5 minutes earlier

Kate: Right? He should take the uniform too

Devin: 

"Who is this?"

"It's...seriously? You didn't see my video?"

"h/o googling it"

"It's on youtube"

"yeah one sec, gotta sit through this 50 shade of grey trailer"

Kate: Ahhhhhhh Being hunted by motorbikes!! Oh no

Devin: Sure, that's subtle. Also this is a regular subway

Kate: I like that he was able to loot the body for weapons. Very practical

Devin: Jesus Gerard Butler. WTF? You went from zero to torture in no time

Kate: I know, little intense. Definitely running on adrenaline

Devin: This is the most 'murrican fucking movie. You cannot convince me that huge squads of racists didn't come out of this movie going "rah rah ‘murrica"

Kate: Oh god. Unfortunately yes

Devin: Although these talky bits suck. I'd rather have more fighting. Oh, thanks label, I really cared what time it was

Kate: Everyone is dead, that’s what this discussion is. I mean surrender and then ambush. How many people do they think there are? You’re not going to be professional right now? Weird

Devin: Blah blah blah. Bitch it was a wedding. Of course his family was there

Kate: How did you not know his family was there? It was a wedding. So dumb

Devin: What even is the point of that dialogue? There better be drugs in his water or something

Kate: What kind of shoddy intel are you all operating on? This is dumb. Do criticize if necessary. You have to teach them. Also off color jokes?

Devin: "You know what's most important Mike? Children. That's why we are never going to spend time with ours in any subsequent movie."

Kate: Of course it’s not your delta team.

Devin: Yeah why was that message not in code?

Kate: Zoom in!

Devin: Enhance! Your safe house has a fucking skylight!?

Kate: Seems like a pretty lame safe house. Oh this is gross

Devin: This movie is very gratuitous with its gore

Kate: It really is. And president you should not have done that. You are not almost out of this by any long shot

Devin:  There must be a porno of this where they fuck right then

Kate:  Did all of MI6 just die?

Devin: I'm not going to lie, that weird pirate porno you made us watch that one time is better than this movie

Kate: Haha! Oh pirates. Also my taste is terrible because I still enjoy this

Devin: I don't believe the hackers would make this basic of a mistake

Kate: No, me neither

Devin: Also driving seems like the quickest way to be spotted?

Kate: They kept everything under the radar but you didn’t notice this earlier?

Devin: Ok I guess at least the car is bulletproofed

Kate: How many of these terrorists are there supposed to be?

Devin: It's just the same 4 guys, they're really fast. They keep healing when they're off screen

Kate: Seems like an infinite supply. Mutants!! Also Mike is still somehow always faster

Devin: Now I want an action movie where 3/4 of the way through you realize he's been re-killing the same 5 guys over and over and surprise! it's really a fantasy/horror movie!

Kate: That would be so good. Change the whole game. I do oddly think this would make a good porno with very very little change

Devin: It's cause there's so much standing really close while breathing heavily and the plot is basically just as thin

Kate: Yeah pretty much. It’s a male romance novel

Devin: Also there have been.....5 women? in this entire movie. 6, I guess. Wife, mother, secret service director, beehive, assistant cop, MI6

Kate: Assistant cop?

Devin: Black lady?

Kate: I don’t remember her

Devin: She was in the bullpen with not!Fringe guy

Kate: Ok sure

Devin: Oh, ok, and random lady who had a text label I didn't read

Kate: There was the turning 30 woman and one lady head of state.

Devin: Still, none of these people shooting right now? There's like 20 guys in this scene!

Kate: Nope. Can’t have women in harm’s way unless they don’t have a choice. Also no lady terrorists

Devin: Only lady terrorists allowed are dead motivation ones

Kate: Also I’m subbing lady because it’s faster to type than woman

Devin: Agreed

Kate: Omg. Whispered “Mike.” Straight out of a romance novel

Devin: What? Are you ahead of me or did I miss it?

Kate: Maybe? The president whispered it

Devin: No! I must have missed the Mike whisper

Kate: He should be really tired by now. He didn’t have dinner!

Devin: "Hear that? My boyfriend is coming"

Kate: He really should just kill the president. It doesn’t make sense not to

Devin: There is so much manly eye contact and face holding

Kate: So much

Devin: Like I'm pretty sure almost this exact sequence happened in Outlander

Kate: In the porn there would be a scene where the president seduced him, Mike walked in on it, and then they have a threesome

Devin: With the bad guy?

Kate: Yup

Devin: That seems like it would be out of place plot wise. Would the bad guy turn himself in or something?

Kate: No. Just random sex that doesn’t make sense

Devin: Weird. The sex should make sense!

Kate: It’s for real a thing that happens in porn, you get whiplash. Oh god. This is lame. Really?

Devin: One punch where he runs all the way across the screen. So stupid

Kate: Did we learn who the brit mole was?

Devin: Nope. They hacked the police station I think? Damn! Wheelchair guy didn't even get to make a speech about how bad America is. This movie is not even pretending to care about America's mistakes

Kate: Why didn’t he just shoot everyone?

Devin: Out of bullets?

Kate: He hasn’t run out of guns until now

Devin: What even is this dialogue right now?

Kate: Really dumb

Devin: "You fuck with America? OH HELL NO. WE BAT SHIT. WE WILL FUCKING MURDER ALL Y'ALL."

Kate: America’s not even 500. Witty banter!

Devin: "EVEN OUR PRESIDENT WILL PICK UP A GUN FOR MURDER TIME"

Kate: Also he’s not dead because you haven’t killed him?

Devin: Yeah you just punched him a bit and talked nonsense

Kate: Once again, another thing they wouldn’t have survived.

Devin: I feel like the porno version of this has them go back to their wives at the end with lots of meaningful looks and sly smiles between the two main dudes. Like "yeah, we'll do this again next mission"

Kate:  Oh no! But yes probably. Why was there a lock in an elevator?

Devin: Is the president the only one alive from this whole thing? They would definitely make out in this elevator

Kate: I think one other world leader survived? There was a missing link to the terrorist?

Devin: I guess?

Kate: Who sent a fucking video?

Devin: Honestly this plot is stupid Yeah he's def the mole. Also he's running away? Like he obviously did it

Kate: Are we supposed to care about him or her? Because I do not

Devin: They would have had sex earlier in the porno

Kate: Yeah. It would have made more sense. Just kill him already

Devin: Also she would have just arrested him. I feel like the porno would have less murder

Kate: It’s weird that normally I complain about too much sex? But this would just be better as a porn

Devin: Yeah our review is basically "this would have made a better porno"

Kate: How would you have found him?

Devin: Who hears "look out your window" and looks up at the ceiling? Oh maybe that's what the missing link was?

Kate: Also the VP does not have the authority to call that type of strike

Devin: What is this 10 angled shot explosion? Ok, we've got a baby

Kate: So it’s been at least a few weeks

Devin: No prime minister but I didn't realize it was his funeral so I feel like the president is close enough. Now knighthood

Kate: Sure. They don’t know how emails work? Re: is for replies

Devin: "Many people would say this is our fault, but we're america so fuck those people. we'll kill those people."

Kate: “Commence spending no time with my kid”

Devin: In the porno version we end instead with a mirror of the earlier DC lawn scene, with them sitting on a bench watching their wives/kids, and the pres saying something like "still want to quit?" and Butler saying "and leave you, sir? Never." And then meaningful eye contact. Roll credits.

Kate: Hahahah

Devin: Okay, so scores

Kate: Yes. Scores.

Devin: 3/10 for the movie, 6/10 for the porno

Kate: I go a little higher movie? Like 4.5 for the movie.  6 for porno though. I think we can agree that no porn should ever rank higher than 7

Devin: Yeah. Like, even amazing porn is still porn

Kate: Ummmm tropes? So many, “family as our motivation”

Devin: “America is terrible and we never learn anything”?

Kate: Which is so hypocritical

Devin: “One man assumes command of literally every other character without argument”

Kate: Hahahaha. So like 7 on the tropes? They all fit the plot really well

Devin: Yeah, I mean it had a very particular niche and it played to it

Kate: Exactly

Devin: I'm going to give the title an 8/10. Catchy and accurate

Kate: I can agree. Thematic

Devin: London did pretty much fall. Like an old lady in a Life Alert commercial

Kate: Better than Olympus has fallen

Devin: Yeah, plus how fucking pretentious is it to call the white house "olympus"?

Kate: Exactly

Devin: What would the porn title be? I feel like they're usually puns?

Kate: Pun for sure. London may fall but our guys stay up

Devin: kind of long

Kate: It could be the tagline?

Devin: Oh yeah, good tagline. My brain gave me "Banging Private Ryan" which does not fit but is almost certainly a movie that exists

Kate: Hahahahaha. Banging president something? Whatever his name was

Devin: No idea, I called him Harvey Dent the whole movie. London Goes Down?

Kate: London laid down? Cause laid. Get it?

Devin: H/o I have to see if there is a real porn title for this. NSA people monitoring my internet searches, I'm really sorry

Kate: Gives them some spice! A story to take home

Devin: Top result for "London Has Fallen Porn Title" is:

"London Has Fallen movie condemned as racist 'terrorsploitation' "

"London Has Fallen is gun-barrel porn"

Kate: Whelp. Yep. I feel bad for enjoying it?

Devin: "London Has Fallen Is The Worst Film About Our City Ever"

Kate: Oh no it was a piece of shit for sure. Super fucking racist

Devin: “Blowing London.” That's my official submission

Kate: Nice! “Blowing London” is great. I thought you’d actually found it.

Devin: Ok, any parting words?

Kate:  It was a dumb racist movie that I feel guilty for enjoying anyway? Which means we should have more action movies made with better plots and motivation. And female representation!

Devin:  Or more action movies that are just porn

Kate:  Or that. What about you? Parting words?

Devin: If you want to see a movie where Gerard Butler brutally murders everyone, this is it. Or, you know, go watch 300, it is less awful.

Kate: So true.

[necrotext]

Post-post AC update

“Geewiz Necro on twitter you said you’d talk about stuff like two weeks ago or more! All you’ve done in the mean time is post that weird dragon picture...” “Damn right I did, and I’ve been busy with things like that dragon picture; and I think it’s great, not weird thank you! I also did theeeeeseee... and I had a lot of.... things... to do...“

  The short of it was I had an amazing time, thank you. But if you’re really in it for the news buckle up and click the break and enjoy. Because I’m gonna ramble which is probably my most fostered skill outside of art and I’m happy about it damn’it. (Hey it’s me from half way through this write up, get popcorn, this shits a little.... uh... l o n g. But you should still read it because past-past me worked really hard and you’ll hurt her feelings if you don’t read it.)

  So here I am like LEGIT a month post AC. My vacation actually started back on the 25th of June. But that’s not entirely relevant other than that’s when my pre- and post- furry fandom friend Serpentsaurus flew into Ohio from halfway across the country to visit for two weeks. Specifically to attend AnthroCon with me but also just to vacation, because why not. Which, for the two of us, would be our first furry convention specifically. Having attended GenCon twice myself I wasn’t really rattled too much by the idea; already having gotten used to the head spinning number of people and the floating feeling the sheer number tended to cause me (I’m bad in large groups :B).   We spend a few days chilling out, learn Arms can’t make it this year (sad face duuude) and setup to hit-up that grinding drive. Leaving the morning of the 29th at 8-ish A.M to drive on the highway for about 4 to 5 hours. All things considered pretty spectacular for a road trip to a con. Not many get that kind of ease of arrival so I definitely cherish it lol. Also makes me partly wonder why I never went before? But it’s probably for the best because I needed some time. Regardless we arrive without incident, pay up the rest of our hotel fee for the furthest possible major hotel we could’ve POSSIBLY BEEN BECAUSE WE DIDN’T REGISTER SOON ENOUGH AND YOU ALL SHOULD PRE-REG FURTHER THAN A MONTH OUT BECAUSE THAT WAS A MISTAKE. And put our stuff in the room, which was certainly okay. And then... it was time...   So stumbling and fumbling we use our maps we had gotten to look up where the heck to go and wind up using our stupid phones to GPS walk our stupid butts to the convention center. Because neither of us had ever been in Pittsburgh and of course we’re lost. We got lost finding the parking for the hotel. As if I’d/We’d make it blind to the damn event. We get there and I come to an astounding realization. Its HOT, like... really really hot outside. Like so hot that walking that 15 minute distance drenched my shirt hot. Which would become a major problem AND IS WHY YOU STAY NEXT TO THE CENTER, PAST ME, HOLY, SHIT. Let’s not even get started on the fact that my right foot had a blister from a walk along the bike trail back at home the day prior. Was awful. So we sit. I catch my breath because I’m totally out of shape physically and then explore the whole center. Which frankly was a great place. I liked the layout there far and away better than that of the GenCon center (take that GenCon, I’ll probably never go to you again, jerk).  We get a nice photo on the top of the center with my phone and experience the pretty night lights and humid air of Pittsburgh, catching food just after. I could talk about the food a lot longer than I should so were just gonna say “It was all very very good”. K? K.   Eventually Serpent walks back to the hotel and I suffer my way there behind him in short enough order even if it didn’t feel like it at all. I shower off the sweat of the day (a common theme of the event, mind) and we bullshit before bed for Friday. It was around this point in time a slight feeling of worry looms in the room. See, my biggest hang up with Furry Cons™ is I always think to myself “What would I even do there?” I had never been to a con without a purpose before. This year I went purely because ‘it was time I did’ and part of me wanted to cure my social life issues. But Serpent was firmly in the same boat I had rowed in for a long while before diving into the FurOcean™ head first. And I guess it became my job to flip the boat... violently. (Its a fucking metaphor, okay? Thankyou).   We get to bed and plot our wake up time and course for the opening ceremony. Which we need to get up an hour before hand for. Wasn’t too terribly hard to do outside of my badge I had made breaking and needing repairs and us being frugal losers and making sandwiches for later during lunch hours. So I swallow my hopes and dreams and take the walk of shame to the con center. The worry following like a stink all the while. But as we get closer we see more and more tails; which is about all you need to really see to know you’re going the right way. By the time we were through the doors the number of people ahead of us was staggering, honestly. I knew the con average population due to prior research, but Thursday was such a poor marker from what we were in for. Especially since Serpent had never been. We follow the flow of traffic and wind our way into opening ceremonies and sit down, which is the best part about it for me honestly. It frankly was a bit hype, really getting me motivated to re-explore the (now repopulated and changed) con space. It was a large smattering of looking around the Dealer’s Den and Artist Alley. In which I got to very briefly say hi to and shake hands with SonicFox5000. Who I admire quite a fair bit for his skills at like... everything. Boy’s got a genius or something, I dunno. But after sending EVO related well wishes we parted and gave him back his space to enjoy the con too. Then going further to pick up a commission from art_eric. Which was a great treat to see the next morning and I love and cherish the piece and will forever.   And at his point I can essentially sum up my experience of the con. Not totally, but mostly. We just kinda hung out -- “Okay Necro, I’ve been listening[reading] but that seriously sounds like no fun...” Hush, you see, you’d think that. Anyone would. But Serpent and I didn’t have any friends attending. So we had few people to visit. In return though we got to just kinda... take everything in. And seriously and honestly and truly?.. it was amazing. It was an immensely relaxing and enjoyable atmosphere. Even for someone who doesn’t take being swamped in 7000 people well. Attending the con is easily one of the best things I’ve done for myself in a long time, especially this year.   Re-walk, re-suffer, eat, re-shower, sleep. Aside from the notable hanging around with some absolute furry strangers at dinner; which was not only a loud experience (although not because of them), but also a quite enjoyable one. The next day had arrived. This was around when it really sunk in that flipping the boat like an Orca playing with it’s food was worth it. We did so much, yet... as I lay there dying falling asleep we both could just prattle on about what to do tomorrow. Even going so far as exclaiming “I can’t believe its still Friday”. Call it fate or whatever. But I mean here we are, away from home, and I don’t want to leave it. But swallowing a little dread of it ending (yeah it took a day and a half to get pre-PCD) I get to bed.   Tomorrow rolls in with it’s painful heat and humidity to batter the con and I for one reason or another get up way to damn early. Well before Serpent and cut my way to the con letting him sleep more. I pick up my commission, choke up a little, and relax. I needed it. A bit different than previous since I was alone this time but at this point I just kind of settled into a nice sitting space and enjoyed the con goers. Talking with some people and then catching up with Serpent for the parade. Which, like everything else so far had been wonderful. Beyond just taking in everything and attending the Sketchbook Swap as well as playing some games we cap the night off with the Saturday night rave (its rave right? like it counts? it counts) and turn in.   Really it’s just kinda of an assumed statement that the whole while this is going on I’m at the bottom of the FurOcean™ and loving it. See I can make my bad jokes relevant and still bad~ Sunday is a lot harder than Saturday though. I somehow managed to replace the worry of ‘not having anything to do’ with ‘I don’t want it to end’. But Serpent and I just soak up the last bits of AnthroCon while we can and finally attend the closing ceremony. We didn’t exactly do much Sunday but in a way I, at the very least, was whipped. So it was totally okay just kind of decompressing from the mess that was the past two and half days. Then comes closing ceremony and the two of us migrating all our purchases to the car before grinding our way home.   What can I say other than “Would go again” really? It’s hard to think of the past month because of it. It’s just kind of this whirl of emotions, and frankly I’m okay with that. Its really a huge motivator to put myself in the community rather than the fringes on the net. Also somewhat eye opening what the true shades of it all is really like. You get a hugely different perspective when you’re there. Sure it had its hangups here and there, you see it mostly from social media like twitter where its easier to find. And sure that those hangups suck. But as an attendee it was awesome and I’m sure the staff will smooth out the remaining rough edges they got snagged on. To which I look forward to next year and hope I can attend for sure. Beyond AnthroCon, this month has just been idly working on some art here and there and getting my social media more up to date. And I’ll have more art rolling down the tubes as we move into next month. Things have taken a huge upswing and I’m more capable of keeping up with things as it is. As well as far more motivated to make art. To anyone who made it this far, thank your for reading! I don’t really blog like this often. But I hope you enjoyed and I luv u <3.

[kieiron]

Affirmation (18+)

Chapters: 1/1 (Completed)

Word count: 2.2k

Rating: Mature

Fandom: The Brodiac

Pairings, Characters: Archibald Kieron/Srinu Tinia

Tags: Established relationship, Urban fantasy, Werewolf Sag, Vampire Aqua, Couple banter

Warnings: Alcohol, Blood, Death mention

    Still an hour until midnight. And yet there it is; another howl, unnecessarily followed by a whole bunch of others booming through the dampness of the bar illuminated in distractingly painful strobe lights, and even more distracting mixture of scents in the air. But even between all the elves gossiping, angels pushing their oh-so-mighty wings in everyone’s faces and werewolves all hooting excitedly at every little drinking game round passing, Srinu can point him out in the crowd.

    Of course he can. It’s not like he Didn’t remember his scent better than the vampire’s own death. It’s not like he Didn’t just start the latest round of howling within his wolf pack. It’s not like he Didn’t see his face every time he wakes up and plus just made love to him this morning.

    And it’s not like Srinu Didn’t spend his entire time being here tonight lazily sipping on the cocktail that provides him little satisfaction while closely watching him having the time of his life, dancing wildly like a fool with his pack, trying to impress him.

    If it weren’t for him wanting to spend the New Years Eve here, Srinu would have been out the door faster than he can see another human giving him the stink eye for being the only vampire out tonight (he’s happily taken, thank you very much). They could’ve gone to that siren-owned restaurant he’s been suggesting all month for them to try, for fuck’s sake.

    Ah, speak of the devil. Here comes the wolfman, with that signature smug smile and ear twitches. Srinu liked the subtle punk rock look he’s got going on tonight, not in spite of the fact that the choice of style is in complementary to the high collar leather jacket to hide the Vampire Biting Post he’s got underneath.

    “Hey”, Archibald slurred. Srinu observed him before he give a reply. Not drunk just yet, but the warmth of the alcohol and the bonding session with his friends must’ve left him too cozy.

    “You”, was the reply Srinu settled with.

    “Me!” His boyfriend took another swig of his cheap beer. He finished with a loud satisfied exhale, wiped his mouth, and gave the vampire some good ol’ eyelash batting. “So, like… What’s a hottie like you doing out here alone?”

    Srinu snorted, but the creeping endeared grin was futile. He leaned back to the wall behind him. “I’m waiting for my boyfriend to finish up wrestling out his friends on the dance floor.”

    “Oh”, Archibald took a moment to think of an in-character reply. “Maybe your boyfriend had, you know, an event planned out in mind in like, uhhh… an hour?”

    “Like a New Year’s Eve kiss?”

    “Yes… Wink, wink.”

    “In this dingy old bar and not at home?”

    “It’s not dingy! Just old. Probably as old as you, so shut it, old man.”

    “Just because you took me out here on our first date doesn’t mean we have to do everything here.” The place was so much nicer in that memory, or maybe it was the early-relationship-lovesickness talking in his place.

    “You’re right, we haven’t had sex in the small ass bathroom stall yet.”

    Srinu laughed. “Maybe next time. But babe, come on.”

    Archibald pouted. “Can’t I show you off in front of my friends for once?”

    “Is that what this is about?”

    “Sorry. No good?”

    “No, it’s okay, it’s just—“ The vampire glanced back between him and his wolf pack in the background, still busy with a drinking game. “I’m surprised. You aren’t usually that big for PDA in front of people you know.”

    The man in front of him rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s because you seem like you just want to keep it to ourselves until, you know, last fullmoon. The one where you kissed me in my stinky wolf form.”

    Ah. Right, that night. That night spent in Leander’s family’s ranch out of the city, where packs of wolves more than he can imagine celebrated the act of just fucking shit up; chasing each other through the fields and forests and hills, wrestling in the dirt and howling impossibly ten times more frequently than they already do in public.

Srinu had been hesitant to come, but did anyway to look out for his man (and witness at least once what he’s like exactly at his wolf fullest). Archibald happily gave him what was certainly the world’s most enthusiastic blowjob the day Srinu told him he’d come, and it’s not like he’d be the only non-werewolf present — but the event was still a mess. He couldn’t keep up with his overexcited boyfriend even when he reluctantly used his vampire speed, and ended up kissing him in front of everyone in both exasperation and relief.

    Archibald is grinning at the memory. “So you’re weird. But that really made me happy and that— that was so sweet. And you were so opposed to coming at first too! Honestly I’ve... Always wanted to be mushy with you and show you off, because you’re like so great and amazing and”, he took a deep breath. “I’m like, so into you, dude.”

    “Dude”, Srinu echoed.

    “Is that all you got from that?!” he bellowed with a laugh. Srinu laughed along, resting a hand on his lover’s arm.

    “For the record, I didn’t hate it”, he assured. “Both the event and the kiss. And I get you. You’re a softie. You were just waiting for my approval. And now we’ll perform the sexiest kiss your friends will ever get the pleasure to see.”

    “Right! A very hot kiss, produced by two very hot people.”

    “Ooh, self confidence. I like that.”

    “Thanks, I grew it myself!” Archibald paused. “No wolf form, though. Be weird at home. Well— that goes without saying, is it...”

    “Mhmm”, Srinu’s eyes settle on a bruise peeking out from under his collar. “Can I bite your neck?”

    “Y—… You’re gonna feed on me in front of this whole crowd?”

    Srinu glanced at the crowd again. Still no other vampires in the bar, no need to tell anyone to back off his man. Okay, not like it was necessary to begin with, since Archibald can intimidate off anyone himself if he really wants to. And the thought of showing off how committed his boyfriend is from how much he’s been marked up to everyone else is kind of a turn on.

    The blue-haired man glanced back to him with a smirk after the self-reassurance. “You were begging for it last night, so I assume it’s pretty sex.”

    “I—“ A flustered laugh followed. “Yeah, it is pretty sex but”, The werewolf chewed on his lips, his voice suddenly softening. “I see it as a… Special us thing, you know?…”

    “Oh”, even though he’s dead, Srinu felt warm. He set their glasses aside quietly and closed the distance between them. “That’s… Really sweet, actually.”

    “I hope the invitation still stands when we get home, though?” Archibald’s smile was just as warm, but his eyes were clearly suggestive as he wraps his arms around the vampire’s waist. Srinu returned the gaze.

    “I’ll make you bleed hard, wolfboy.”

    “Ominous, but thank God, I thought you were about to use the usual cheesy ‘suck you dry’ line.”

    Srinu laughed, giving his boyfriend a light peck on the lips which was returned with peppers of kisses on his face, the wolf’s tail wagging rapidly. He received them gladly, but playfully turned away with a grin on his face when Archibald clearly got too excited as his kisses evolved into the usual slobbery ones.

    “Alright, alright! Let’s save the dog kisses for your friends.”

    With a smile, he was pulled to the pack of wolves Archibald associate with. Srinu could name two at best — Finlay, the guy who usually win all the wrestling despite his height (or lackthereof) and Leander, the one that knows everyone and know of their relationship first. The group raised their glasses at them, barking welcomes and scooted to give them a spot to sit on the sharing booth. The seats were cramped enough to force the couple’s thighs to fully press against each other, but you know what? It works in Srinu’s favor. As his boyfriend re-introduced him to the gang, the vampire shamelessly ran his fingers through his inner thigh as little promises of tonight.

    He can feel Archibald shudder beneath his touch, and snuggled against the side of Srinu’s face in response.

    The time leading up to the final countdown was a blur, as his attention were only on his boyfriend — Srinu faintly hears the group talking about plans for the next fullmoon, and then everyone at the bar were screaming out numbers, and the next thing he knew the man he loves pulled him even closer and pressed their lips together as the visitors around them cheers, screams and howls.

    The wolf crowd in particular was hooting at them as Srinu’s hands wandered over his lover under the jacket and the man in question tugged gently on his hair, earning welcomed moans. Maybe Srinu couldn’t taste the cheap beer in Archibald’s mouth, but the warmth and gasping he offered him was enough. When they pulled away for a second, he tugged on his lower lip with his usually well-hidden fangs, drawing blood before proceeding to suck on it as Archibald moaned. It wasn’t enough for Srinu, but it’d help him cope for now.

    “Sorry”, he had to say when they pulled back for real, glad to see how spent the werewolf looks. “I couldn’t help myself.”

    Srinu would’ve been happy to do another round of one of this, but it didn’t even take Archibald hearing his pack cheering for the two to get a room for him to drag them out of there.

    Thankfully, it wasn’t hard to find where Archibald parked his motorbike with his night vision. He was quiet (albeit a little panting), waiting for Srinu to climb on and strap his helmet to reach for his wrists and wrap his arms around Archibald’s own waist to hold on.

    The very faint scent of the violet-haired man’s blood seems to hit right at Srinu’s nose through the breeze of the bike running through the night, and he inhaled all of it, contentedly pressing his cheek against his lover’s back. Around them, the city sprung to life with life with blurring bright lights they passed, muffled cheering from every direction and a heightened waft of faerie dust that seems to engulf them.

    Maybe Srinu would’ve liked that magical, coming-of-age-movie kind of scene to last longer, but as they reached into the confines of their shared dark apartment, he couldn’t complain.

    “You’re eager to bleed”, was breathed out as he was pressed against the door. He notes that his partner is already hard, and yep, feeding may not be the last thing on their to-do list on this first day of the year.

    The reply he received was another deep kiss. This, too, works in Srinu’s favor. Archibald grinds against him like a dog in heat, messing up even more of the vampire’s longer locks.

    “Baby, please”, the werewolf pleaded, frantically slipping off his jacket and unbuttoning his first few buttons before pulling at his collars, widely exposing his neck and chest area, where a number of marks were visibly still healing. “Take it all.”

    If there’s one thing Archibald should know the most about their relationship, is that he could trust that Srinu would never hurt him. No matter how intense the tension is. No matter how much he begs to be sucked off completely in the heat of the moment. No matter whether or not they are climbing up to their orgasm. He knows Srinu would still hold back, as careful as he always is, and make it as pleasurable as possible for him as well.

    Including now.

    Thankfully, their bedroom isn’t too far from the entrance. Alternating between kissing around the area and licking at the bite spot within his inner thighs, Srinu slowly jerked off his lover, just enough to tease him. Archibald, laid on the bed all for him, kept himself busy stroking at his hair, sighing softly here and there, offering a couple encouraging words in between. Srinu had no idea how feeding must’ve felt good to a werewolf, but hey, he’s happy.

    Srinu himself, especially, is currently at his happiest as the taste of the familiar blood is lapped and sucked. What was a flavorless alcohol to him can now be tasted through Archibald’s system, and oh,... That’s pretty satisfying, actually.

    Some vampires may argue that the blood of non-humans including werewolves doesn’t taste as good in terms of flavor due to lifestyle and diet and whatnot, but Srinu would like to call bullshit on that. As sappy as it sounds, their love makes Archibald’s blood the best he’s ever tasted.

    And thank whatever higher power made them exist in such a way — lovemaking even multiplied that.

    So even as he prepped himself with his own fingers and sank down on his loved one’s lubed length, his lips stayed on the new biting spot on Archibald’s neck. And as he heard the two of them groan simultaneously, he knows he’d go through the trouble of hanging out in that dingy bar all over again if it means the moment will lead up to this.

    Even if it means postponing the restaurant reservations he’d made earlier that month for the proposal plans.

[kristannafever]

In The City of Angels - Chapter 12

KRISTANNA MODERN AU Rated: M (swearing, little bit of sexy times...) Why did this come out this way?  I have no idea, but it did... and I’m going to post it before I try and ‘fix’ it to death

Chapter Index

Kristoff and Anna woke to the sound of someone knocking loudly on the front door.  Kristoff blinked his eyes and looked down at Anna’s face.  Sometime in the night she had curled up to his side and he had wrapped his arm around her.  She looked back up at him, slightly worried.

“Don’t worry it’s probably just Sven.” Kristoff told her as he got out of bed and pulled on a shirt.  He paused at the door and winked at her as she stood stretching.  He took a lingering look at her body silhouetted by the light coming in through the bedroom window before he headed downstairs to answer the door. 

”Well Good morning!” Sven sang happily as he walked inside when Kristoff greeted him.

“Morning Buddy.” Kristoff said shutting the door and following Sven into the kitchen. 

“So the re-shoots are going well.  They don’t even miss that you've been... you know, gone for the week.” Sven said going to the coffee maker and filling it with coffee and water and setting it to brew.  Sven had done this every time he had woken Kristoff from bed, and he had to laugh at how there was never a word between them about it.

“Thanks so much for doing that Sven.  I don’t think you know how much I apprechiate it.  You are a life saver.”

“Tut tut, no need to thank.  I just hope that-”

Anna cleared her throat softly as she entered the kitchen, letting Kristoff and Sven know she was there.  She had changed into jeans and a t-shirt. “Good morning.”  She said quietly.

He had to give Sven a lot of credit; the man easily avoided staring at the bruise on Anna’s face and there was no hesitation or change in his happy disposition as he said, “Good Morning to you too,” making sure not to make her feel uncomfortable.  He supposed it wasn’t the first time that Sven had come knocking on Kristoff’s door in the morning to find a woman in his place, but he was reminded how grateful he was for his friend.  Sven was the most non-judgemental person that he knew.

“Uh Sven, this is Anna.” Kristoff said as Anna shook his hand.

“Enchante mademoiselle.” Sven said, bending with a flourish to kiss her hand just as Oak had done when he had first met Anna.  Kristoff had to marvel at how similar Oak and Sven were for all their differences, which was probably why they all got along so well.

"Merci.  Parlez-vous français?" Anna said curiously, surprising Kristoff.  He felt is mouth slack open.

“Oui.  Ma mère était Canadain français.” Sven said.  “Comment as tu appris?”

“Je suis autodidacte.” Anna replied.

“Ah, très bon, très bon.” Sven said.

They both looked at Kristoff, his eyes flicking back and forth between them.  He shrugged his shoulders.  “The only French I know is vous les vous coucher avec moi ce soir... you know, from that song.”

“Oh Kristoff, my dear friend,” Sven said as him and Anna laughed.  He pulled a box from his bag and held it out to Kristoff.  “Here is the phone you wanted.”

“Its for Anna.” He said gesturing towards her with his chin.  Sven handed her the box.

Anna blinked at him.  “For me?  You got me a new phone?”

Kristoff shrugged.  “I just asked Sven to pick one up for you.  I maybe thought you might want to just lay low so, one less thing to worry about, you know?”

“Thank you,” she said smiling at him in a way that was all the thanks he ever needed.  “That is the most thoughtful thing...” she trailed off. 

Sven joined them for coffee as he went over next week’s shooting schedule.  Kristoff could tell Anna was daydreaming whenever he stole a glance her way.  Her eyes lay unfocussed on the table with a slight smile on her lips and he wondered what she was thinking about. 

Kristoff was glad to hear it was two more solid weeks of shooting and then they would be wrapped up and all that was left was little things here and there and recording the ADR, which Kristoff generally enjoyed. 

Sven eventually bid them a good day, leaving them alone standing in the kitchen, regarding each other with affection.  Anna’s eyes were still dreamy as she smiled at him, and Kristoff wondered again what was on her mind, but she did not offer, so he didn’t want to ask.

“So, do you speak any other languages?” Kristoff asked, thinking how sexy it was to watch French roll from Anna’s tongue. 

“Uh, not really.  I mean, I can speak enough Spanish to get by but that’s about it.” 

“You’ll have to teach me French sometime.”

She smiled sensuously as she walked towards him.  “Oui.” She said and wrapped her arms around his waist, looking up at him. 

He bent down to kiss her, relishing in the softness of her lips against his own.  He felt her fingers run through his hair and it sent a wave of pleasure all the way down to his toes.  He was vaguely aware that his phone was ringing, but he ignored it.  He moved his mouth slowly down the length of her neck, kissing her gently as she gave a soft moan in his ear.  He heard his phone again, but continued to kiss Anna, moving his mouth back up to hers.  Her hands were all over his back now, pulling him further into her.  The third time his phone rang he broke the kiss and answered it, annoyed.  “Yeah?” 

“So this is your new girlfriend?” Sunny said on the other end. 

Kristoff was immediately on guard, his eyes went to the balcony windows and he knew that Sunny was out there somewhere, watching them, but all he could see was the rolling hills of the park and the endless lines of trees.  He grabbed Anna lightly by the wrist and dragged her down the hallway leading to the garage where there were no windows.  “I’m going to block this number too you know.”  He told Sunny.

“I’ll just keeping getting new ones then,” she said strenly.  “You and I were meant to be Kris.  We-”

“I swear to God you better leave me alone or there will be hell to pay.”  He inturuppted her, feeling bitter anger rise within him. 

“Oh, I can't leave you alone Kris.  Just like I can’t let that red headed slut keep kissing you.” Her voice was full of menace.

Kristoff was about to unleash his rage at Sunny for threatening Anna, but she was gone.  He looked down at his phone in disbelief for a moment.  He could feel Anna’s eyes on him, but he was afraid to meet them.  Just when things were finally going right for them both, they had to deal with another force trying to keep them apart. 

“Kristoff?” Anna said softly, placing a hand on his shoulder. 

He looked at her then, expecting to see fear or maybe anger, but he found compassion in her eyes instead.  

“We’ll get through this.”  She said.

Kristoff leaned his back heavily against the wall and slid down, sitting on the floor and dropping his phone beside him.  Anna sat next to him without a word.  “I feel like we just can’t catch a break,” he sighed and buried his head in his hands.  He felt Anna lean her head on his arm.

“What are we going to do?” She asked.

“Well I’m going to call my security detail and get them out here patrolling my property... and yours, and definitely the park because I'm sure that's where she was spying on us.  I’m sure she’s hightailing it out of there by now, but you never know.  Then I’m going to run around and pull down all the shades and then.... well, and then I don’t know to be honest.”

Anna nodded and remained quiet while he dialed the number of his private security team.  He told them what had happened and then hung up the phone and threw it down in front of him in frustration.  “They’ll be here soon.”  He told Anna. 

Kristoff hung his head in silent in contemplation.  He was suddenly very worried over what Sunny was capable of.  The thought of her stalking him and Anna made him extremely nervous and he could not ignore the feeling in the pit of his stomach that things were going to get a whole lot worse.

“Forgive me for maybe being a little judgemental here,” Anna said pulling him from his thoughts, “but was she like this when you first went out with her?  You know.... crazy?” 

Kristoff heaved a short breath.  “Actually she was very charming when I first met her.  One of those people that says and does the right things on a first impression, you know?”  Anna nodded and he knew that she understood completely.  She herself had admitted that the only reason she had agreed to go out with Hans in the first place was because he was charming.

“Well when we first started talking I was intrigued by all the things we had in common, but when we got a little comfortable with each other she slowly started acting funny about everything.... like on our first date, when I told her I love to ride, she was so excited to ride bit... um, on the back with me.”

Anna chuckled.

“Anyway, when the time came and I asked her if she wanted to go for a ride, she got all weird and said she felt uncomfortable.  Then she ragged on me when I went out by myself, and I kind of never rode it again the whole time we were together because she made me feel guilty for it in a way.”

“Like how Hans made me feel to say it was un-ladylike and that I should sell mine.”

Kristoff nodded.  “Exactly.  She started to lay into me how unsafe bikes are and how I was going to kill myself, then she began to criticize other things I liked too.” He shrugged.  “I knew it was over between us long before I actually told her.  I know I kind of strung her along a bit, and I really, really regret that now, obviously.  But I... uh... guess I just put up with her for a while because I liked having a woman in my life.” Kristoff was a little surprised at how sad his words sounded in his own ears.

“You were lonely,” Anna said and she reached her hand up to touch the side of his face.  She brushed her thumb lightly across his cheekbone which sent shivers down his spine.  She was looking deep into his eyes, as if she was looking into his soul.  He suddenly felt vulnerable to what she saw within him.

She spoke softly.  “This might be way out of left field, and please tell me if I’m scaring the living shit out of you, but.... what if... we moved in together?" She inched her body closer to him. “That way you don’t ever have to feel lonely again... and neither do I.”

Kristoff felt in awe as he looked back into her eyes a moment before he pushed his lips to hers, knowing that there was no other way to tell her just how much he wanted that, how much he wanted her in every single aspect of his life.  He pulled her up onto his lap and wrapped his arms tightly around her body as they kissed.  She tangled her legs around his waist and lightly dug her nails into his back.  The passion became a flurry and their kisses became more desperate as they gripped each other. But a sharp knock on the door startled them apart.  They stared at each other a moment, breathing hard.

“That's Duke.” Kristoff said with a thick voice.  He gently pushed Anna off his lap and took to his feet. 

Anna stood with him.  “Duke?”

He nodded. “Head of my security detail.”  Kristoff noticed Anna’s eyes watching him as he adjusted his arousal up into the waistband of his pajama pants and pulled his t-shirt down overtop.  He did not miss the way she bit her lower lip quickly before raising her eyes to look into his.

He smirked at her.  “All this and it’s only 10:15 in the morning.”