#but my mothered decided shes coming along so i have to cart her all over the place to god knows where

[cetoddle-archive]

oh fuck. i have to go 2 bed. i have errands to run tmrw

[missnxthingg]

I CAN'T LIE TO YOU ✮ LN4

pairing: Lando Norris x bestie!Reader (childhood best friends to lovers) summary: Lando Norris decides to surprise his best friend after being a long time away from home. What she didn't expect was that he had a big secret that he couldn't share with her words: 4.5K - warnings: swearing, suggestive content & not proof read author's notes: I'm back once again! Now you just know I'm a sucker for childhood besties to lovers. Also, I may have already started writing a part two for this one... let me know if you want it!

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The days in England have become more boring with time. Y/N was losing her mind over the repetitive routine that follows the life of a college student. Work, study, beer with close friends and bed. So when her mother invited her for a family dinner, she worried about how excited she got with the event. It wasn’t supposed to be anything special, just her parents and a few of their close friends gathered to catch up over nice food. 

Coming home felt way too good. It’s a feeling most college students get when they go back to their hometown, leaving their crappy flat in university to be served with their parents pampering during their quick visit. Y/N was supposed to be back to her place in just a couple of days, but she felt satisfied to be in a different place than the four walls of her house. Not to mention that she was having a good laugh with everyone at the table.

Her mother always takes dinner parties to another level, serving the best food in her special crockery, saved for moments like this. So Y/N packed a nice new outfit; a cute long-sleeved dress that looked perfect with tights and heels. Not that the guests cared about how she was dressed, but it felt nice to look beautiful and all put together for once after months of hoodies and leggings.

As usual, her parents invited the Norris family, as they’ve been the best of friends for the longest time. Not only they lived next to each other for years back when she was younger, all of their kids were really close friends with Y/N. But the spotlight always goes to Lando, who is the same age as her, making them grow up attached to the hip.

They all grew up going to the same school, not to mention that she would always tag along in Lando and his brother’s karting sessions, having the best time watching them drive flawlessly on tracks. He always enjoyed the times when she’d steal her parents cameras so they could make some homemade videos of their time together. Or when they would sit back, watch their dads play golf every Saturday and share candies in the cart. 

  Y/N and Lando have been inseparable since the age of four, growing up side by side, going through everything together. She was so important to him that, when he joined Formula 1 and had to choose a number to race, he chose the age the two of them had become friends. 

“The number four is for my best friend, Y/N. She was the one to suggest it, and the meaning behind it is very cute. Actually, I don’t want to tell you to not spoil anything, but I can only say that it’s very dear to my heart”, Lando said once in an interview during his second season in F1, making every single one of his fans curious about the meaning.

But it’s been a while since the infamous duo had been together. They supported each other from afar; Y/N sometimes joining him for race weekends and Lando coming back to see her on birthdays and weekends in London, while he visited the McLaren factory. But the last time they had been together was four months ago, during summer break, when he dragged her to join him for his crazy trips around the world. When racing and university was back on, they lost a little bit of touch; almost no calls and only a few texting breaks so they wouldn’t fall apart.

A lot happened in those four months. Lando had a new gorgeous girlfriend; a model who everyone had become obsessed with her TikTok videos for beauty tips. They had been seen together a few times around the world, her joining him for the races and a lot of make-outs behind DJ booths at parties. Y/N, on the other hand, was lacking in the dating department. But the friends she made over the past year made everything worthy. After years of pretty much having Lando as her only very close friend, she finally found new people to go out and have fun as a normal 20-year-old.

With that, Y/N and Lando’s friendship got weird. He had been avoiding her for a while, with the excuse of being too busy with racing, but actually not wanting to talk about his personal life with someone who knew him like the palm of her hand. Meanwhile, she was having a good time with her friends to be bothered by anything. But lately, life had become more boring and Y/N felt like having Lando back would bring some more fun into her life again, with all the epic parties and the good times they always managed to happen.

“Only one month left”, she thought, as winter break was approaching, meaning that Lando would finally be free to come home for the holidays.

She was pushed out of her thoughts by Adam Norris, who now seemed interest in Y/N’s life after a long catching up with her dad. “Tell us more about college! Are you having fun? Learning anything special?”, he asked with a kind smile.

“Oh, I’m graduating this spring, so it’s been… rough”, she chuckled. “But everything has been amazing, you know? The internship is so cool and the people are nice as well”.

“I just can’t believe it will all be over soon”, his wife, Cisca, responded. “It feels like it was just yesterday when you joined uni and Lando started his first season in F1. Time really flies, uhm?”

Every mention of his name made Y/N smile like a fool. But lately, it has been accompanied by a ting of pain on her chest. God, she missed him so much.

“What is it that you miss?”, Cisca asked, pulling Y/N out of her thoughts. Shit, did she say that out loud?

“I said I missed your pie so much, Cis. You know I have always loved it growing up”, Y/N tried to cover it up by stuffing her mouth with the cheesy pie, trying to keep her thoughts of being spoken out loud. But something caught her by surprise.

“Yeah, mum’s pie is the best in the world, isn’t it?”, a male voice said from behind her, one that she hadn’t heard in person for a while. Her eyes widened when she realized who it was, only to turn around and see Lando standing right behind her tugged into his signature comfortable hoodie, with a giant smile plastered on his face, and a bouquet in his hands. “Surprise!”

Y/N brought her hands up to her mouth, trying not to cry at the sight. She couldn’t believe what was standing in front of her. So she jumped out of her seat and jumped into his arms, not caring about anyone else in the room or the flowers being crumpled up in his hands. Lando buried his nose in her hair, taking in her scent, making him feel at ease for once

“What are you doing here?”, she leaned back, holding his face between her hands. His soft eyes looked down at her, his smile never faltering.

“I thought I could surprise my best girl”, he admitted, digging one of his hands into her hips, making her securely close to him. “I had a break before the end of the season, and it had been so long…”

“Shut up, you idiot. I just want to hug you”, she cut him mid-sentence, burying her face in his neck, making his smile even wider, if that was possible. Everyone on the table laughed at her reaction, but let them have their moment after months without seeing each other. It felt too good to be true. 

“I missed you so much”, he whispered in her ear, pressing a small kiss to the top of her head.

“I missed you too. Welcome home, Lan”, she leaned back and kissed his cheek, making it tinted red. Lando was so cute when he blushed. “You brought me flowers! How cute is this?”

She took the giant bouquet filled with red and pink roses out of his hands, bringing it close to her body. “It’s an apology for not being here as much as I should”, he said, making her heart so warm with the thoughtful gift.

“You being here is enough”, she pressed another kiss to his cheek and quickly pulled him for another hug. They just couldn’t get enough of each other.

“Alright, we all know you both really miss each other, but you can catch up after dinner. Food is getting cold and poor Lando must be starving”, her mother cut them off, making Y/N look back at the table, her face burning in embarrassment. He laughed at her behavior and pulled the chair next to her so they could sit together.

Through the whole dinner, Lando told all of his amazing stories traveling the world, leaving all the ‘best friends only’ parts for later, when he would be alone with Y/N. She felt so happy to finally have him by her side, making fun of her table manners, resting his hand on her knee and cracking any bad jokes just to see her roll her eyes. And even though he lived those many adventures, Lando knew life couldn’t get better than having his favourite person in the world back on his side.

“So, Lando, what finally brings you back home?”, Y/N’s father asked, making him shrug.

“You know, the championship could’ve been better and I feel really tired, you know?”, Lando searched for his best friend’s hand under the table, entwining their fingers once they met. Then he looked at her with an adoring smile on his face. “I just need some recharging. Thought I could use some home time before the last few races of the year”.

“You’re always welcomed to recharge in our house if you want to, Lando”, her mother said before the conversation was taken somewhere else once again.

While everyone else chatted, Y/N and Lando updated their phone gallery with new pictures of them. A lot of cute selfies and pictures of their homemade dinner which soon found their place on their Instagrams.

y/username

liked by landonorris and 3,419 others

y/username: always feels good to have my best friend back in the house

tagged: landonorris

landonorris Besties reunited LFG!

↪ y/username you’re such a bore

fanacc1 FINALLY SOME Y/N AND LANDO CONTENT

fanacc2 Wasn’t him dating a model?

↪fanacc3 He is, but Y/N is his childhood best friend

fanacc4 ugh, if i was his gf, i would be so jealous of them together

↪fanacc5 I bet his girlfriend actually hates them

fanacc6 Does this mean more Y/N around the paddock?

The dinner was coming to an end with the delicious sweet treats they prepared for dessert. At that point, Lando and Y/N were just existing at the conversation. He slipped an arm around her shoulder and she found a comfortable spot to lean into him and keep sipping on her wine while they shared a slice of cake. But even though they were quiet, they surely weren’t tired. So as the rest of the adults continued with their chat, they took their glasses of wine to the backyard, just so they could have some alone time.

Lando chuckled when he saw what was still standing strong in her backyard. “You still have our old treehouse?”, he asked and she nodded excitedly. “Wow, it looks so much nicer than before”.

“It’s because I renovated it, you fool. Haven’t I told you?”, she asked, but Lando shook his head. “Oh my… you have to see this! Now it’s a grown up treehouse! Take a look”.

Y/N dragged him to the small construction and made him climb all the way up to the house. It changed a lot with the renovations. Their wall doodles from when they were little kids were preserved by a varnish coat on the wood. She also substituted the old toys for books and her collection of vinyls, making the place look extra cozy. There was even a table for afternoon tea and card games, a TV and a huge futon, with lots of cushions, so they could just lie down and spend the rest of the day hidden from the world.

“What a glow up!”, he joked. “I loved it. This is amazing”, Lando took a place next to the window, where the moonlight invaded the room. Y/N sat next to him and almost immediately pulled out her camera just to capture the moment. And just like old times, they had fun doing a tiny photoshoot together, only to be cut off by his mom, calling them from the ground.

“Are you coming, Lando?”, Cisca asked, making him look over to Y/N, who replied for him.

“I’m not letting him go anywhere, Cisca”, she joked, throwing her arms around Lando, making his mother laugh. “Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of your son”.

“Have fun you two”, they waved at her and sighed after finally being left alone for a proper catching up between best friends. Lando had a satisfied smile on his face and he felt so calm at that moment. He threw both of his arms around his best friend and hugged her tightly.

“Home, at last”, his cheek was pressed on the side of her face, making her giggle with the contact. “I want to know everything going on with you. Just blurt it all out. I owe you this”.

“Oh, nothing great happened”, she shrugged. “Nothing that you didn’t know already. The internship is nice, but it’s coming to an end soon and I’m not sure they’ll keep me with them. And college is almost finished, so that’s kind of bittersweet”.

“I thought you were excited to have a degree”, he said, making her sigh. “Are you not happy about graduating?”

“Of course I am. You more than anyone knows how important this is to me”, she answered. “And I made so many good friends and I’ve been having the best time with them. I know graduating will make us grow apart”.

“Endings aren’t always nice, uhm? But you have to look at the bright side of things”, he started. “You’re finally achieving something great and you managed to have a really good time along the way. Made friends and worked really hard to become the best professional out there. I’m so proud of you!”

Lando has always been her biggest supporter on pursuing her academic path. He remembers all the talks they had about her wanting to master in communications. While he didn’t get to finish school to up his game in racing, he was there for every step his best friend took until enrolling in university. So when they talk about it, he always has that beautiful proud smile on his face, to which Y/N loved seeing.

“Thank you”, she smiled shyly. “And what about you, Mr Worldwide? You’ve been everywhere these past months. How was it?”

“Oh, always amazing”, he beamed. “I got to see so many amazing places around the world. You would’ve loved all the clubs I went to. The DJ booths are amazing. Oh, and the golf courts… breathtaking”.

“Yeah, I saw all the pictures”, Y/N arched her brows and rolled her eyes. “You didn’t even bother on calling, telling me about your adventures”.

“Sorry, I lacked in that department”, he apologized. “Even though everything has been amazing, I’m so tired of this year. I could’ve done better on the track and the last few races have been exhausting. I knew that I needed to recharge before the last two races, so I came back to you”.

“It’s always a pleasure to have you home”, she ran her hand through his curls and smiled. Lando always saw Y/N as his home. She always brings him that sense of familiarity, and her absence in his travels around the world were taking a toll on him.

Not to mention that hiding a big secret from his best friend also wasn’t doing him any good.

“But I’m not here to talk about me. I want to know everything about you”, he poked her side with his index finger and smirked. “Anyone special appeared in your life in the past few months?”

“Please”, she rolled her eyes. “The last time I had a proper hook up was during our summer trip to Bali with that guy on the club”.

“Come on, it can’t be that bad”, he giggled, but Y/N’s face was burning in embarrassment.

“I had a few dates in the past months, but fuck me, they were annoying”, Lando laughed at her statement. “One of them found out you’re my best friend and spent the entire time asking questions about you. And the only guy who was actually decent came in his pants when we were making out in his car. Didn’t even get to touch me”. 

“Oh, poor you”, he giggled. “So no boy to be my new best friend? I mean, come on, we need more male energy in this friendship”.

“Sorry, Lan. No boyfriend this time”, she said. “You, on the other hand, started dating this gorgeous model and forgot to tell me about everything.”

And there she said it: the topic Lando had been avoiding the most throughout the whole night. He really didn’t want to talk about it with Y/N, because his big secret had been hiding right there. He knew he couldn’t, and didn’t want to, lie about anything to her. And he also knew that he really needed to vent about this secret with her as well.

Lando turned really quiet, and looked away, avoiding her eyes. “Don’t start now, Y/N. I mean, there’s not much to say, to be fair”, he mumbled.

“Come on, I want to know everything about the woman who stole my bestie’s heart”, she poked him, but Lando didn’t dare to look Y/N in the eyes. “I mean, everybody loves her and she seems sweet. Why don’t you want to tell me about her?”

“Because we’re not together”.

“What do you mean? I’ve seen the Instagram pictures and the gossip pages posting videos of you two kissing in the club. I thought you were becoming a thing”.

“Y/N, don’t push it”, he asked, his voice bargaining on his throat.

“Why don’t you want to tell me about her?”

“Because we’re not together, I told you”, he sighed. “She’s a PR stunt. She’s not my girlfriend, and it’s been consuming me from the inside ever since we started this little thing”.

Lando finally looked her in the eyes and Y/N saw them brimming with tears. As an immediate response, she rested a hand on his arm and waited until he was ready to talk more. He leaned into her touch and the tears started to stream down his face. He’s never one to cry for anything, so the tears meant that it was so much more than he was letting show. Her heart broke at the sight of her best friend.

“Is this why you look more tired than usual?”, Y/N asked and he nodded, making the tears fall harder. “Oh, Lan… Come here”.

She pulled his head to rest on her chest and Lando wrapped his arms around her, needing some sort of comfort. He didn’t say much for a couple of minutes after, feeling his heart aching on his chest. He wanted to talk about everything with Y/N, because he knew she would understand him. He always feels vulnerable and safe enough to talk about anything with his best friend. 

“Everything is so fucked up, Y/N”, Lando cried out. “God, I can’t take this fake relationship anymore. Do you know how disgusting it feels to pretend to be in love with someone you’re not? And to lie to everyone, hiding it from my parents. From you. I can’t stand it”

“I’m sure you have a good reason to be doing so”, she said, fingers running through his curls and making him sure that she was right there with him. Y/N felt his fingers clinging tighter onto her. “You’re just doing your job and that’s okay. This won’t last forever”.

“I feel so lonely, you know? I was doing so bad on the last few races and I missed home so much. I missed talking to my dad and hugging my mom. I missed making fun of my sisters and going for a drive with my brother. And I missed you so much. I wish I could just stay here for a long while”.

“Soon you’ll get to be here for as long as you want, baby”, Y/N pressed a kiss on top of his head and Lando sighed in comfort. It ached a little less with her there. “And we’ll get to spend so much time together. You can come over and we’ll have sleepovers. We can take the car, drive around and go clubbing until sunrise. Whatever you want”.

“God, it would be so easy if it was you”, he whispered, still holding onto her as if his life depended on it. What did he mean with that? Just those single words made Y/N’s heart skip a beat. Truth is, while her heart ached for her best friend, she was relieved he’s not in love with someone else. Did he have feelings for her? 

“You know, I looked over my so-called girlfriend one night while we were hanging out at the club and I wanted to shout to everyone that it was all an act. She’s like a solid reminder of how lonely I am all the damn time. It’s ridiculous”, he grunted. 

“Come on, look at me”, Y/N pulled his face to look up and held his head between her hands. “Lan, you are never alone, okay? Even if you feel like you are, and even if I’m not there physically, you know that I’m always with you. I’m right here”, she rested a hand over his heart, making him smile through his tears. “I've been in your heart since the moment we met”.

“I…”, he started, but couldn’t get to say the rest. After all this time, Lando was afraid that the next move would ruin their friendship forever. But looking her in the eyes, comforting him through this rough time, he knew she felt the same. “I love you, Y/N”.

She was expecting anything. ‘I know’, maybe. That was so much bigger than what she imagined. Lando had said he loved her countless times over the years they’ve known each other; after all, they grew up together, almost like brother and sister. But this time, it was different. Y/N knew it, and Lando knew it too.

Y/N was too stunned to speak, so he continued with his confession. “I always have, you know? And I only hid everything from you because I can’t lie to you. And because I thought you’d never look at me the same way if you found out”.

“Lando, I…” she stopped mid-sentence, trying to catch some air. “Fuck, this is a lot. Just wait a second”.

They giggled together and he leaned his forehead against hers. “It’s okay to not say anything right now. I just dropped a giant bomb on your lap. This wasn’t the way I wanted to confess to you, but I just couldn’t keep it to myself anymore”.

“Are you saying this because you’re emotional? Because I swear to God, if you are, I’m gonna kill you for misleading me”, her eyes were brimming with tears and Lando whipped them away.

“I’m telling you the truth”, he assured. “I think I’ve loved you my entire life. With all the crazy things I’ve experienced in my life, you were the only constant. You’re home, Y/N”.

“Why didn’t you tell me before?”, she asked and he took a deep breath.

“Because I was afraid of losing you. Scared this might ruin our friendship somehow”, he admitted. “You’re the most precious thing in my life. Do you know how scary it is to fall in love with your best friend when you’re just a kid? And then grow up, and those feelings never go away, just getting stronger every day. I just didn’t want to lose you”.

“You weren’t going to lose me, Lan”, her eyes softened at his confession and now he was the one wiping her tears. Y/N brought him back for a hug and even though he didn’t have an answer, deep down he knew she felt the same.

“I’ve loved you since we were four. There’s a reason why I always carry this number with me”, Lando confessed. “God, look what you do to me. I never cry”.

“You only cry for the important things”, she reminded. “That’s why I love you, Lando. I’ve been in love with you for my entire life too, idiot”.

His eyes widened as he looked up to her, who had a smirk plastered on her face. “Can I kiss you?”, Lando asked, but before she could properly shake her head in agreement, he crashed his lips into hers. He needed to be home, and Y/N has always been home for him. It was the most intense kiss they ever had, like years of lingering had finally paid off for both of them.

Lando pulled her closer with a hand on the back of her head. She wrapped her fingers around his neck, smiling into his lips. Then, as if it wasn't enough, he pulled her to sit on lap, making them closer somehow. She slowed down the pace, making the kiss needier and more delicious. Lando even let out a satisfied throaty moan, his heart speeding on his chest. Her touches made him feral, knowing that after years of pinning, he finally had his dream girl.

“Thank you for this”, he whispered against her lips, a wide and satisfied smile on his face. “Thank you for all the years, all the times you've been here for me, to tell me everything is going to be alright.”

“Always, Lan”, she played with the hairs on his nape. “I love you so much”.

“I love you too. So much”, he left one more peck on her lips before hugging her again. “I don't know what I'd do without you”.

“Yeah, me too”.

The story of how they fell in love with each other was long, but beautiful. Lando and Y/N sat in that tree house all night and shared all of those stories with each other. And for a second, he really believed everything was going to work out. After all, if he had Y/N, Lando would be just fine.

❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁

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[kitkatscabinet]

Fake boyfriend?

Pairing: Connor Rhodes x f!reader

Summary: Sick of your family butting into your personal life, you enlist a friend to help.

Genre: Fluff/fake dating

Word count: 1.8k

warnings: vomit, unedited, rushed ending.

"Hey Maggie" you greeted with a smile, rolling past your latest pickup.

"Hey, what do you have?"

"Geoffrey here has had a little too much to drink I'm afraid." Your words are accompanied by the sickening noises of the man upheaving whatever remained in his stomach into the quickly placed vomit bag. Luckily that was no longer your problem, as some of the nurses arrived just in time to cart Geoffrey away.

In a rare stroke of luck, the ER seemed to be relatively quiet that morning, allowing you and Maggie to chat in peace at the nurse's station.

"Got any weekend plans? I know you've got the shift off" Maggie asked whilst you filled out requisition forms, causing a groan of despair to leave you.

"Oh, don't remind me" you dropped your clipboard, rubbing the heels of your palms against your eyes in frustration, "family barbeque. Since I never make it to any events, they've all decided to come to Chicago. No excuses this time." You elaborated.

"I thought you got along with your family though?" April, having arrived at the start of your explanation, frowned.

"I do, but I'm the only cousin without a long-term partner and nobody will ever let me forget. If I have to hear grandma remind me all my younger cousins have big happy families while I waste my life on my job I might actually go insane." That seemed to garner the sympathy of your friends as you slumped against the front desk with a defeated whine.

Most of your cousins had been married with kids for years now, and while you were happily single, you weren't immune to the family gossip mill. Your mother just wanted you to be happy, but even her jokes were starting to get a little irritating. You were her only child but she'd always wanted more, and a large part of you suspected that was where her longing to be a grandmother came from.

Your pity party is interrupted by a concerningly familiar call of your name. Jolting in surprise and horror you turned, only for your worst fears to be confirmed as your eyes met those of your eldest cousin.

"Oh it is you" she crowed, strutting towards your person with a grin and outstretched arms. You barely had time to react before you were engulfed in a crushing embrace, one that you were happy enough to return, even as your heart pounded in panic at the implications of her arrival.

"Yep Josefine, it's me" you trailed off with a nervous laugh, pushing her back by her shoulders with a strained grin. "What are you doing here?" it took everything in you then to not turn and run.

"Well, I got into the city early and then I remembered you telling me that your boyfriend worked here and I just had to stop by! Figured I'd try and track him down, invite him to the family gathering, just in case you didn't." If you didn't know your cousin, then you would have easily thought her intentions malicious, but you knew she genuinely did want the best for you. 

Even if that best was nosy and unnecessary.

From your position you could see the widening of Maggie's eyes as she shot you a look that very clearly read, you didn't! Unfortunately, in your panic you had, and you were now dealing with the consequences.

"So, which one is he?" her voice cuts through your silent conversation with Maggie and forces your attention back to the issue at hand.

"Uh... Well you see, he's..." You trailed off, attempting to stall until your panicked mind thought of a solution. From the corner of your eye you spotted it, your salvation, in the form of one Connor Rhodes. "Ah, there he is. I'll just check if he's busy." You didn't give her a chance to respond before you were dashing over to intercept your potential salvation. "Hey Connor, are you busy?"

Having seen you approach, the surgeon had already set aside his iPad, mouth twisted in a grin as he turned to give you his full attention. "I've always got time to spare for you." 

Had you not been so flustered by Josefine's sudden arrival you would have noticed the lingering warmth in Connor's gaze as he stared at you.

"Great! From now on you’re my boyfriend. We've been dating for, let's say, five months. There's a family barbeque you're expected to be at on Saturday, I'll pick you up." With that rushed explanation you leant up to kiss his cheek, dangerously close to his mouth for show, and skipped back towards your cousin. 

You had turned too quickly to witness Connor's wide eyes and dopey grin as he continued to stare at your retreating form. April hadn't, however, and returned to her work with her own smile as she silently thought that maybe things weren't so hopeless after all.

There’s a stunned silence amongst your watching friends, a warning glare from you keeping their mouths shut. 

"Sorry" you apologised, not so sincerely, to Josefine. "Connor's really busy right now but he'll be there" you promised her, before quickly ushering her back out of the hospital, citing work to get her to leave.

"Not a word." You barked to your curious partner, shutting the ambulance door with far more force than necessary.

Saturday had arrived far sooner than you would have liked. You'd been too scared to speak to Connor outside of his confirmation that yes, you would be picking him up, and your slew of texts that had established the perfect backstory.

Met at the hospital, friends for years, dating and very much in love. 

All true, bar the fact that you weren't actually dating, no matter how much you wished you were. You could only hope that Connor could act well enough to fool your ridiculously nosy family.

You and Connor had shared a ride more times than you could count. That still didn't stop the restless motions of your fingers drumming against the steering wheel as you anxiously waited for his arrival. You had texted him not even two minutes ago that you had arrived, but with every passing second you began to feel more and more uneasy.

A sudden knock against your window had you letting out a startled gasp. Your fingers fumble with your phone, almost dropping it in shock before you manage to glare over at the laughing man entering your car.

"Connor, what the fuck" you swore, reaching over to punch him on the shoulder as he sat in the passenger seat with a laugh.

"Sorry, sorry" he apologised, "but you should have seen your face" he mimed an open-mouthed look of terror that had you moving to punch him lightly once more. 

It’s as your heart rate is settling down once more that you take in Connor’s appearance. You’ve seen him out of scrubs before, for drinks at Molly’s and other casual endeavours but there’s something different about seeing him all dressed up for you. 

Connor’s an attractive man, and ok maybe you possibly had a little bit of a crush on him, so you think you could be forgiven for looking at him a little less than platonically. 

“Wow, you look — ”

“Beautiful.” Connor interrupts you somewhat breathlessly, the two of you stare at each other a little awkwardly before simultaneously turning away in embarrassment. 

“Thanks,” you squeak, before quickly putting the car into drive, trying to ignore the heat spreading over the back of your neck and ears. 

The rest of the drive is silent, save for the soft music filtering from the radio. Though the start of the journey had been tainted with awkwardness, the silence quickly turned comforting, the two of you happy to just sit in each other's presence. 

This was a mistake. You never should have brought Connor around your family. Not because things were going bad, no, they were going well. Too well. 

Poor Connor practically needed a stick to fight off your cousins, aunts and the kids as they each vied for his attention. Not to mention the offhanded comments flying around. 

“Oh, he’s so handsome.” Grandma. 

“How could you keep him hidden from us for so long?” A myriad of your smitten aunts. 

“He’s so much cooler than you!” One of your little dickhead nephews. (Whom you almost smacked, the runt only saved by Connor turning up the charm and claiming you were definitely the cooler of the two. Which of course only further endeared him to the women of your family.) 

And worst of all, “When’s the wedding.” Your mother. 

“Mum!” You exclaim in horror, refusing to look at Connor’s expression, even if his arm suddenly feels heavier than ever from its place wrapped around your waist. 

“We’ve only been together —” 

“Whenever she’ll let me put a ring on it.” Connor interrupted you, his hand squeezing you a little closer into his side. By the time you turn to look at him in shock, he’s already staring at you as if you’re the most important thing in the world and —

You’re not sure who leaned in first but suddenly you’re kissing Connor, his free hand cups your cheek gently and you can focus on nothing else but him. 

Your family and their incessant background chatter fade away, Connor has all your attention, he’s the only thing that matters in that moment. With a half-lidded gaze you pull away, glancing dazedly at your faux boyfriend as if under a spell. 

It’s only the sudden jeering and whooping that pulls you from your trance, and you spring apart from Connor as if burned. Or, you would have, if it weren’t for his strong arms holding you in place. Heat builds in your face and spreads down your body, unable to hold his gaze any longer, you bury your face in Connor’s neck, inhaling his scent. 

Despite feeling like a zoo animal on display for your family, you’ve never been more comfortable than you are now, wrapped in Connor’s arms. Given the way he seemed to curl around you even closer, you think he feels the same. 

The rest of the gathering passes by in a haze, you and Connor completely caught up in your own little world. His hands are never far from you, always grasping at your hips, waist or shoulders, the pair of you giggling together like lovesick teenagers.

By the time you’re dropping Connor off, walking him to his doorstep in order to squeeze in every last second of time together. 

“Thanks for today.” You smile. 

“Anytime. I’m thinking we should do it again sometime. Next week?” Too stunned to reply, you’re left gaping like a fish as Connor plants a soft kiss on your forehead before throwing you one last cheeky grin and closing the door behind him. 

Next week couldn’t come soon enough. 

Goddammit. Will would never let you hear the end of it. 

[inawickedlittletown]

One Year - BuckTommy - 8x06 fix it

Summary: This is my fix-it because I for one can't take that break up being the end. So, it takes a while, but they belong together. Words: 6k Read on Ao3

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The first time he saw Evan again, it was from afar. It had been a couple of weeks. They were at the same call, Tommy somehow winding up on the ground. He spotted Evan walking next to Eddie with Howie and Hen just ahead of them, heard their voices despite how loud everything was. He kept his distance, and only once ran into someone from the 118. Ravi, who gave him a smile and nod. 

The next time, it was at one of the badge and ladder bars. Lucy had forced him to go. Had she not been holding his arm, he would have turned and fled. Instead he saw Evan throw back a shot and then walk over to some guy whose physique told Tommy he had to be a firefighter. He saw as Evan said something that made the other guy laugh and then they were getting drinks together and…and Lucy took him out the door while he tried to catch a breath. 

Tommy wasn’t new to a break up…it was just that this one was hitting harder than any before. 

Before Evan, there had been three boyfriends. Before and in between were hookups and one-night stands and even some friends with benefits that popped in and out of his life. He’d come out when he was in his early thirties, around the same age as Evan. Of course, for Tommy it had been different. He’d been hiding it from everyone and even from himself. 

In the army, he and some other guys had had a bit of fun. Masturbating together and pretending it was all fine and heterosexual because they weren’t touching each other. He’d exchanged one or two blowjobs here or there like an exchange of favors with guys that had girlfriends waiting for them back home. He lied and told them he had a girl too. Pretended he didn’t like giving as much as he liked receiving. 

Things were much the same when he was at the 118, except that pretending he had a girlfriend was harder. He even tried to date women. Abby…he’d met Abby when the 118 went to a call about her mother. She’d almost burnt down her whole house by forgetting to turn off a stove and looking back that had definitely been an early sign of her dementia. Abby was nice and Tommy couldn’t deny that he got along with her and it helped that she understood how busy his job kept him and what his hours were like. 

Dating Abby was the first time he felt like maybe he could do it. Marry the girl. Have some kids. Lie to himself and the world forever. As unfair as it was to Abby, it just…Tommy could tell that it might work. It was why they got engaged. It was why he was so sure about getting married but then there were guys he met on calls or that he checked out from time to time and he didn’t think he would ever be able to put that away. Instead, he would wind up cheating on Abby and making the hurt worse. So, he broke it off and felt horrible when he realized that Abby had gotten the blow of her mom’s dementia diagnosis.

After Abby, Tommy went a little wild. He slept around. Found out more about himself. Knew that he could never do what he did to Abby to any other woman. He heard at some point about Abby taking up with a younger guy. In what universe could Tommy have expected that years later he would date the same guy. 

One night, he ran into Karen at a Target of all places. Tommy was there to pick up detergent and he was just deciding between brand name or the store brand and also trying his hardest to not buy the brand he knew that Evan used, when a cart bumped into his. 

“I’m so sorry,” Karen said. 

He looked up slowly. 

“Tommy,” Karen said warmly. “Hi.” 

Behind her came Denny and Mara. Mara he’d only met a handful of times and he knew her to be a little shy. Denny smiled at him. 

“Hi, Tommy.”

“Oh. Hi,” Tommy said. “You got your cast off.” 

Denny nodded. “A little while ago.” 

He remembered sitting in that hospital waiting room and how he’d tagged along to Denny’s room and hadn’t expected that Denny would want him to sign his cast seeing as he was all but a stranger, but Denny did offer him the marker and Tommy did sign.

Despite wanting to, he didn’t ask about Evan. He hardly managed to ask about Hen. 

“She’s good,” Karen said and then, “hey, listen, you don’t have to be a stranger.” 

He offered her a tight smile. 

“I’m serious. Hey, how about dinner soon?”

He shrugged and Karen insisted, pulling out her phone and throwing dates at him until he agreed. 

Before she left, Karen grabbed his arm. “I don’t know what happened, no one really does, Hen says he doesn’t want to talk about it. You don’t have to talk about it, if you don’t want to, but that doesn’t mean you’re not our friend still, Alright? That doesn’t just go for Hen and I, either.” 

Eddie had reached out the day after. The day after that too. And the one after that one. Then it was weekly. Then it was bi-weekly. Then came a final message. A voicemail. Tommy almost didn’t listen to it. 

“Hey, man,” Eddie said. “I guess you decided to cut all ties. I get it. Kind of. And look, Buck is my friend, but you are too and I don’t drop my friends. I know you’re hurting too, so don’t be afraid to reach out. I’m here for whenever you’re ready.” 

Tommy never called him. He thought about it. Almost texted him several times. He missed Eddie. 

He missed their easy friendship and the way that Eddie had welcomed him so wholly. He just couldn’t face him because Eddie would give it all away about how Evan was doing and Tommy wouldn’t be able to keep his own feelings in. It would burst out and then Eddie would know just how horrible Tommy really felt and how regretful too. 

He did regret it. 

He hated himself. 

Tommy went to dinner with Hen and Karen. It was good. Fun, even. Neither of them asked and Tommy didn’t offer any information. Instead, he got to hear about Mara’s adoption going through finally and about how Maddie was pregnant and doing really well. He tried not to think about Evan becoming an uncle for the second time and how excited he had to be over it. They exchanged Lucy stories and then stories from way back when Tommy was in the 118. Tommy promised they would do dinner again. 

The next time he ran into Evan, it had been more time than they had even been together. Tommy shouldn’t still be mourning the end of the relationship and yet…of course he was. Of course he still missed Evan desperately. So much for waylaying a heartbreak, there hadn’t been stopping that apparently and seeing Evan was like having someone reach right into his chest and squeeze. 

The first guy that he ever called boyfriend was a guy named Ivan. Ivan was a little older…okay, much older, and Tommy thought he was in love. Figured that was it and that he and Ivan could be forever. When Ivan broke it off because he met someone else, Tommy was devastated. 

“Tommy, I’m your first boyfriend, of course this wasn’t going to last. I always thought we were on the same page and that this was a bit of fun.” 

A month or so later, Tommy realized that Ivan was right. He wasn’t torn up and he hadn’t been in love as much as wanting the security of the relationship because it meant he didn’t need to keep looking for love. He’d gotten comfortable with Ivan, but what they hadn’t wasn’t something that would last no matter how much Tommy had thought it was what he wanted. 

The second guy came a year or so later. Paul was younger and Tommy met him while they were on a call. When Paul came by with muffins a few days later they got talking and Paul admitted that he was nervous but he’d wanted to see Tommy again. They had a few dates and then Tommy was rushing in with Paul. They spent every moment together and then moved in together too. 

When they broke up right before their one year anniversary, it was because Paul admitted that he never thought his first real relationship with a guy could be his last and that he had more options to explore. 

“Tommy, you were amazing. You will always be so important to me, but I’m not in love with you.” 

Somehow, that still hurt less than Evan and Tommy only had himself to blame for that. 

He saw Evan at a farmer’s market. He was with Jee-Yun who skipped ahead of him laughing. Evan was smiling after her. Tommy didn’t mean to follow, but he did keep his distance. Saw Evan buy a few things and smile at the girl that sold them to him, saw him stop at a stand selling apple cider, the man behind the counter blond and tall and bulky. Hot. His eyes were hazel and he was smiling at Evan and ignoring anyone else that approached. Evan was smiling back and doing that thing where he ducked his head bashfully before looking up through his eyelashes. Tommy’s heart ached. 

Tommy walked away from that. He turned and he walked until he was back at his car and then he sat there in his truck and let his mind wander because what if Evan asked that guy out? Or the girl? What if one of them wasn’t dumb like Tommy and stuck around and refused to let Evan go. What if Tommy never got a chance to…but he’d already blown his chance with Evan and he doubted there would ever be another. 

When he got to his shift later, Lucy took one look at him.

“Hey, you okay?” 

“I don’t think I’ve been okay for months.” 

Lucy hugged him. “Are you ever going to tell me what happened?” she asked. 

He shook his head. 

It was hard to even admit to himself how much he’d screwed up and how much he’d allowed his fear to color how he faced Evan wanting more than what they already had. He’d been unprepared when Evan brought it up and then it had been the Abby of it all and the way that Tommy knew he couldn’t expect for Evan to settle for him. That just wasn’t how it worked. He was the first, but not the last. Tommy just wasn’t good enough to be Evan’s last and it was something that Evan would figure out sooner or later. So why wait for their whole lives to get even more entwined and for everything to be so much harder when it all fell apart. 

One night, when Lucy showed up at his house to hang out, she had tried to bad-talk Evan as if that would help. It was the night she dropped information that Tommy hadn’t known and wasn’t it wild how much he and Evan had inadvertently not shared. Six months and they hadn’t talked about anything at all, apparently. 

Lucy and Evan had kissed once while drunk at a bar. 

The jealousy that hit him was…Tommy wasn’t usually a jealous guy and yet the very idea made him cringe and maybe he downed two shots back to back. 

“I kissed him,” Lucy said. “He didn’t push me away and I had no idea that he had a girlfriend at the time.”

It didn’t make him think badly of Evan, not the way that Lucy maybe intended. It just…it made Tommy wonder about how it would have gone if he was right. Would Evan have cheated on him once he realized he wanted more than what Tommy was willing to offer. But no…no, that wasn’t Evan was it? No, Evan would have stuck it out even when he got miserable and didn’t want to anymore and then Tommy would have had to say something and end it. 

“What happened after that?” Tommy had asked. 

“Between me and Buck? Nothing. I’m just saying, he isn’t this perfect guy either.”

As if Tommy didn’t know that, as if Tommy hadn’t seen exactly who Evan was from the get go. He was a mess, he was jealous, impulsive, he believed in curses, got pouty when he didn’t get his way. Evan was far from perfect, but Tommy had loved him because of it. He saw how much of the bad was still good or maybe not even bad at all. 

Lucy did leave him thinking about how they had never discussed exes until Abby and how maybe they should have. He wondered if Evan would have even brought up the Lucy of it all. He wondered how he would have taken Tommy’s own exes…Ivan and Paul and…and Henry. 

Henry was the last boyfriend before Evan. Gorgeous Henry who began as a friend and then started to get a bit flirty and who kissed Tommy for the first time at a New Years Eve party and then freaked out because Tommy was a guy. 

Weeks of not talking and Tommy not being able to stop thinking about him to an obsessive degree. How on Valentine’s day, he was surprised when red roses and chocolate was delivered to Harbor from Henry to Tommy and a simple note asking him out. He’d gotten so much shit for that, but Tommy had secretly loved it. The romance of it all, the sweetness. Henry had been so sweet. 

Henry who told Tommy that he was sorry but he had no idea guys were an option for him and how he couldn’t deny how much he wanted Tommy. They had long conversations about it and Tommy took it so slow that they didn’t even have sex for the first two months. 

Tommy didn’t realize that their feelings were different. Tommy had been crushing on Henry even before the kiss and then he had him. Henry had been mystified by Tommy and his attraction to him, but it wasn’t long before his eyes started to wander. Tommy had bought his house right before they started dating and when Henry’s roommate situation got a bit difficult he welcomed him right in. It had felt like the start of the rest of their lives. That had been a mistake. 

Tommy had been so blind. Looking back, the red flags had been evident. He’d been blinded by love and friendship and daydreams about a future he thought was within his grasp. Then, one night, when he managed to sprain an ankle, Tommy was first taken to the hospital and then sent home a whole thirteen hours earlier than expected. Henry hadn’t answered his calls, so Tommy got back home on his own. He found Henry in bed with a woman. 

The last time he saw Henry, it was when Henry picked up the last of his things and when Henry made his apologies and excuses it felt like Ivan and Paul before him. 

Tommy was never enough. Not enough. Always the placeholder for something or someone better. 

“Why not just break up with me?” Tommy remembered asking. 

“I didn’t know how. You were so…I’m sorry, Tommy. I guess I’m not done trying to figure out what I want.” 

The one thing Henry had figured out was that Tommy was not what he wanted. 

He did cry after Henry and then he threw himself into work and downloaded an app or two and didn’t try to date seriously. He had friends to call on lonely nights and then he could hit up a bar and find someone that way. Tommy had all but convinced him that it was all he’d ever have, until he met a firefighter with a cute birthmark who Tommy kissed without having planned to and who he almost wrote off after the first date and was so glad he didn’t. Breaking up with Evan was hitting harder than anyone that came before. 

Evan was different. He had burrowed deep in his heart and there was no getting him out. Tommy didn’t think he wanted him out. 

A few weeks later, he saw Eddie at the mall and with him was Christopher. He looked taller than the last time Tommy had seen him, and he was in LA. Eddie looked happy. Of course, he was happy. Tommy hated that he didn’t know when Chris had returned or how Eddie had won him over again. 

“Tommy,” Eddie said. 

“Tommy,” Christopher said. 

Had it been just Eddie, Tommy might have ignored them. Instead, he turned around. 

“Hi,” he said. 

“Hey,” Eddie said with a smile. 

“Hi, Tommy,” Christopher said. 

“Hey, kid, nice to see you back in LA.” 

Chris gave him a rundown of his time in Texas. He talked about the friends he made and his cousins and grandparents, but how Eddie had gone to see him and then Chris decided to come back with him. 

It was nice to talk to Chris and then to follow Eddie and Chris into one of the stores. Chris got distracted then, and Eddie turned to Tommy. 

“How are you really?” 

“It’s been months,” Tommy said. 

“I know. You never called me back. You should have,” Eddie said. 

“I couldn’t,” Tommy said. “You’re…how is he, Eddie?” 

Eddie took in a breath. “Look, I don’t think I should answer that. Buck is coping. He’s doing…what did he call it, he’s exploring. Apparently, it’s what you told him he needed to do.” Eddie’s look was pointed. Full of judgment. 

Tommy had to look away, he had to hope that his eyes wouldn’t fill up with tears. That night, right after he left Evan’s place, Tommy didn’t even remember how he got home. He did remember that he’d gone for his usual comforts. A shot of whiskey, a case of beer, and he’d tried to watch a movie and failed miserably. Hadn’t been able to watch romantic comedies since. Documentaries were out too. 

“Dad,” Christopher called. 

“I — I’ll leave you to it,” Tommy said. 

Eddie grabbed his shoulder. “Wait. No. Just…let’s hang out. You can come over or I can come over. We could sparr or get a drink. We’re still friends, Tommy. I’m serious.” 

“Okay.” 

Eddie called him that night and Tommy couldn’t say no to having Eddie come over to his place. They didn’t talk about Evan the whole time, not until Eddie was getting ready to leave. 

“I want to say something because I’m your friend and Buck’s friend. What you did was really stupid and I never thought you were stupid. If this was the way you always saw it going, why did you waste his time? Why did you let him fall for you? And I know you hurt yourself too, Tommy, I can see it all over you. So why? Just…answer that.” 

Eddie didn’t even let him reply before he left. 

Why did Tommy do that? Because even a minute of knowing Evan was worth it. Ending it early was just…he’d expected it to help because he had control and he was making the call and then he wouldn’t be devastated. It was a little late for it, apparently, at least on his end. 

“He’s exploring,” he said out loud. Eddie’s words. 

What had Tommy expected. God, he really was an idiot. 

A week later he was at a call that the 118 was present for as well. He tried to stay well clear of them, but he couldn’t help but look for Evan. It was like being a moth drawn to light and of course Evan was his light. 

He’d overheard Lucy and Melton talking on his first shift after his talk with Eddie and Melton had said everyone had a regret in love, that everyone had someone they let go of or who let them go that always left what ifs. Evan wasn’t a regret, Tommy would never regret him. What he regretted was that Tommy had allowed fear and his own baggage to cloud things and destroy what he and Evan had. 

Of course, a part of him did still wonder if he had been right. Every relationship came with risk, and Evan having just realized he was into men as much as women, it wasn’t farfetched to think that one day he might think that he’d settled into something with Tommy far too quickly without really knowing for sure it was what he wanted. Evan hadn’t denied that either, he hadn’t tried to stop Tommy leaving. He hadn’t reached out. He hadn’t even asked for any of his things back — granted neither had Tommy. 

Tommy had everything that Evan had ever left as his house in the drawer that had been Evan’s. Or hanging on his coat rack. In his bathroom. In his kitchen. He hadn’t had the heart to remove any of it and sometimes when he was really tired or when he’d hit the booze a little hard with Lucy, he could even convince himself that it was there waiting for Evan. 

The call rang long, the fire blazing for a while and worse people stuck inside on the higher floors. Tommy was helping on the ground on a hose, he knew the 118 was helping with evacuation along with the 133 and somehow they did manage to get everyone out and they did manage to get the flames put out. Tommy wouldn’t admit it, but he spent most of the call with his heart in his throat hoping that Evan stayed safe and that nothing went wrong. 

They were just getting back to the truck when he saw Evan a little soot covered, but smiling. He was talking to a reporter. Red hair, pale skin, skinny and pretty. He kept talking to her even after the camera man brought the camera down. 

“That’s Taylor Kelly,” Lucy said and she pushed him to keep moving. 

Taylor Kelly the reporter. Taylor Kelly who was Evan’s ex. Taylor who Evan had cheated on with Lucy. When he turned back to look once more they were no longer talking. 

“I don’t get why you haven’t reached out to him,” Lucy said. 

“He’s a coward,” Melton said. 

“It’s been how many months now and you’re not over him. Do you want me to find out if he’s seeing anyone? Maybe you still have a shot. We’ve never seen you like this before and at first it was I guess normal. Now it’s a bit depressing. What happened, Tommy?” 

“What happened is Melton is right and I am a coward,” Tommy said and then he climbed into the truck and looked away from them, glad when they didn’t talk to him the whole way back to Harbor. 

He heard about Maddie giving birth from Hen. It was a passing comment one night when he went over for dinner and Tommy found himself mourning that he hadn’t been there for Evan through all of it, especially because as Karen told it, Maddie had had a hard labor. 

He was shown pictures from Hen’s phone. The baby was tiny and already had a tuft of dark hair. He scrolled through pictures and then there he was. Evan holding the baby in his arms, the baby looking even smaller tucked right into the crook of Evan’s elbow and Evan smiling down with so much awe and love. It hurt to look at him, but Tommy couldn’t stop. 

So maybe there had been times when Tommy allowed himself to think about a future where he and Evan stayed together, one where they were married and decided they should be parents too. He’d seen Evan around kids too often, knew Evan would want to be a dad. Tommy had never longed for that or anything, but with Evan he would have wanted it. That was all gone now. 

“Oh,” Karen said. “Sorry. I forgot…”

Tommy forced himself to flip to the next picture. Another shot of Evan, this time he was looking up with the bluest glassiest eyes. He missed him. He missed him so damn much and it wasn’t fair how much. 

“Tommy,” Karen said. “Hey, are you alright?” 

“I miss him,” Tommy said. 

“I’m pretty sure he misses you too,” Hen said. “Do you want to talk about it?” 

“Do you have anything stronger?” 

Hen didn’t mince words. She told him point blank about how after the break up, Evan had tried to act like he was alright. Then, he’d just started to do anything he could in order to keep busy. 

“He started baking,” Hen said. “Then he started doing yoga. He started rock climbing. I think he even took an art class. Anyway, it was hard to watch but I guess it was better than if he sat at home wallowing.” 

“Like I did,” Tommy said. 

Karen grasped his wrist. “You were both hurting. What happened, Tommy?” 

“He asked me to move in and I said no.” 

“And you broke up over that?” Hen asked, surprised. 

Tommy shook his head. “No. Yes. In what world was this going to last? He only just discovered he likes men and yeah it was going well but it wasn’t forever. If we moved in together, it was going to be so much harder when we broke up.” 

“That’s…that’s bullshit, Tommy,” Hen said. “So, you broke his heart and yours so it wouldn’t happen later on.” 

“I didn’t break his—”

“You did,” Karen said. 

“Well shouldn’t he get a chance to explore what his sexuality means? Shouldn’t he get to figure that out instead of settling for the first guy he dates?” 

“And what if he wasn’t settling?” 

That kept him up all of that night. He still remembered how the conversation had gone. Evan had brought up the Abby thing and Tommy had felt put on the spot because it was the last thing he expected and then Evan had started to explain about Abby being an important relationship to him and how Tommy was just as important, the most important since, and all at once Tommy’s fears and insecurities had rushed forward because Evan and Abby hadn’t made it and now that Tommy was this gay mentor or whatever of course it wouldn’t last either. He tried to explain that to Hen and Karen and they both looked at him like he was the one that didn’t get it. 

“You need to talk to him,” Hen said. “For both your sakes.” 

“I don’t know if I can,” Tommy admitted. 

Exactly a year after it happened, he saw Evan again. 

Tommy had gone out to a gay bar because he couldn’t stay home and wallow. Lucy had also told him that he needed to put himself out there again. That if he wasn’t going to talk to Evan, then he needed to talk to someone that might give him a reason to move on. He really didn’t want to, but at the same time his right hand was getting tired and maybe some release of a carnal nature was what Tommy needed. No one had said it, but they had all kind of implied that Evan had at least gotten out there. 

He and Evan had gone to that bar once, gotten a drink and then danced a little before calling it a night and heading back to Evan’s, both of them eager to get up to Evan’s bedroom. He remembered seeing more than a few eyes looking at Evan with interest and how it had made something inside him churn because Tommy had known that if Evan was on the market again he wouldn’t have a hard time finding someone that was interested in him. 

Finding himself a free spot at the bar, Tommy ordered a beer and he tried not to think about the first few times that Tommy had gone into a gay bar and how nervous he’d been to actually put himself out there like that. 

“Hi, handsome,” a male voice said before Tommy had even gotten his beer. 

Tommy turned. “Hello.” 

The guy had floppy hair. He was lanky and thin, could probably be called a twink. He was also way too young for Tommy, probably not even in his mid-twenties. 

“So,” the twink said, hand reaching to touch Tommy’s chest right where the V of his shirt ended. “Want to have some fun?” He wiggled his eyebrows and licked his lips and his hand climbed to Tommy’s neck. 

“Sorry,” Tommy said. “That’s not why I’m here.” 

“Boo,” the guy said, hand dropping away, “So why are you here?” 

“A drink,” Tommy said decisively because he knew that even if someone age appropriate were to approach him, he wouldn’t have been interested. They weren’t Evan. 

“Oh, well. It was worth trying. Though, I don’t usually get turned down twice in one night.” 

“What’s your name?” Tommy asked. 

“Owen.” 

“Well, Owen, it looks to me like there are plenty of fishes in the sea. Third time might be the charm. To be honest, you’re way too young for me and I’m still…I’m hung up on my ex.” 

Owen took a look around, but he turned back to Tommy. “Bad break up? Did he break your heart?” 

“More like I broke his and mine. Such an idiot.” 

“But, hey, you’re still hot. I could help you forget for a few hours.” 

Tommy laughed. 

Owen grinned. “Not ready for that. Must have been quite the guy.” 

“Yeah.” 

Owen wandered off and Tommy watched him strike up a conversation with another guy, someone a little closer to his age. They seemed to hit it off and next time he saw them they were out getting lost in the crowd of bodies on the dance floor. 

Tommy finished his beer and was about to order another when he heard a familiar voice. Down the bar he found Evan. He was turned away from Tommy looking to one of the tables where a man was waving. Tommy couldn’t watch this. He couldn’t see Evan flirt with someone else. He couldn’t see Evan go home with that guy. He couldn’t look away. 

Evan said something to the girl behind the bar and…wait, did he not accept the drink? Then, he saw Evan put some money down right before finishing his beer and moving to leave. 

Tommy did the same and he followed. 

Evan made it out the door just ahead of him and Tommy had to get around several people, but eventually he made it to the door and then out. Evan was just outside, arms crossed over his chest, waiting. 

“Tommy,” he said. 

His voice, the sound of his name, Tommy felt it all down to his bones. 

“Hi, Evan,” he said and he knew his voice broke on Evan’s name. 

“It’s been a year,” Evan said. 

The door opened behind Tommy and Tommy had to step out of the way, his eyes never leaving Evan because maybe Evan would disappear. 

“I know,” Tommy said. 

“It’s felt like longer,” Evan said. 

“I know.” 

“I miss you,” Evan said. 

“I miss you too.” 

Evan was quiet for a beat and then, “then, why?” 

It was high time he stopped being a coward, high time that he stopped getting in his own way or letting the past intrude on his present. 

“Because I’m the biggest idiot,” Tommy said.

Evan snorted. “You’re not wrong.” 

The door opened again bringing with it a wave of music. It was Owen, arms linked with the guy he’d been dancing with. He looked between them and laughed, shaking his head as he walked past them. 

“Maybe we should take this conversation elsewhere,” Tommy suggested. 

Tommy’s house was closer. It felt better than going to Evan’s loft, not that it stopped Tommy from remembering how it had all gone. How he’d let the door close behind him and he’d just thought that it was the right call. 

Evan followed him inside. 

“You know, it was so dumb of me to ask you to move in when you’re the one that owns his own place,” Evan said. “I was just…overcorrecting. Rushing. Trying to show you how much I wanted us to have a future.”

“And I got scared,” Tommy said and led Evan to the living room. “I was dumb too. I should never have broken up with you but, Evan, the way you were talking about Abby and me, it was like of course I was just here to be your next transformative relationship. The next thing that prepared you for…for whoever came next.”

Transformative. That word had stuck around for him, he realized. The comparison Evan had made about his relationship with Abby to their relationship. He and Evan sat down.

“Tommy, I’m—”

Tommy stood. “I’ll go get us some water.” 

He didn’t wait for Evan to respond. As soon as he was out of the room he took a few breaths. What were they doing here? What were either of them hoping to accomplish? Did Evan want to get back together? Was that…was that the right move? 

Twelve months. It had been double the amount of time that their relationship had lasted and Tommy ached for Evan. He longed for him. He still hadn’t gotten rid of any of the things that reminded him of Evan or the things that belonged to Evan either. Hell, he hadn’t even let anyone take over or make their own mark. 

“Tommy?” Evan called you. “Do you want me to come to the kitchen?” 

“I’ll be right back.” 

He grabbed and filled glasses. 

Evan had started pacing the floor. He looked distraught. Tommy wanted to grab his hands and hug him, instead he set down the water. 

“We never talked about our exes,” Tommy said. 

Evan’s gaze snapped towards him. “No, I guess we didn’t.”

“Come, sit,” Tommy said and motioned to the couch. “Evan, I think I let my past decide my future and clearly I was wrong and this last year has been miserable. I’ve missed you every day and I thought walking away was the right thing for you, but it was definitely the wrong thing for me and I just—”

He didn’t expect Evan to kiss him, but that’s what Evan did. It didn’t last long and Tommy wanted to pull him right into another kiss because it had been a year since the last time he kissed him — the last time he’d kissed anybody. 

“Evan,” he said. 

“I learned a year and a half ago that was one way of getting someone’s attention,” Evan said. “I’ve been miserable too. I hated this last year and I missed you and as much as I wanted to hate you I just love you too much.” 

Then, they were kissing again and Tommy was pressed back against his couch, Evan practically crawling into his lap. His arms were around Evan again and he really hadn’t thought that he would ever have this again, but Evan was there and he smelled amazing and he felt amazing and their lips slotted together perfectly. 

Tommy didn’t even realize he was crying until Evan pulled back and his hands were brushing away his tears and then kissing his cheeks. His nose. 

“I love you,” Evan said. “I’m in love with you.” 

His heart was soaring and he reached to cup Evan’s cheeks. “Good, because I love you too.” 

Evan smiled wide at him, pecked his lips and then just hugged him. Held him. Tommy held him back. 

“We’ll have to talk about it,” Tommy said. “I want to explain. I want—”

“Later,” Evan said. “Right now, I just want…I want to bask in this. In us.” 

[triscribe]

The Magic Trousers

(So I'm trying to come up with something to submit for a magazine's flash fiction competition, and while I don't think this is going to be it, I don't want to just lose it in my folders either. Hope you guys enjoy)

The third time her little brother turned up with blood on his face, Alene decided she needed to do something about it.

Not that Elber ever came out and said, but she knew good and well who bloodied his nose, who split his lip. Less than twenty kids lived in their village, but even out of a hundred, two hundred, a thousand, she’d have no trouble knowing who did it.

“I'm fine,” Elber tried to protest, when she sat him down and cleaned him up. “You don’t have to-”

“I do have to,” huffed Alene. “Just you and me now, and old Nana, but she’s too blind to do this anyhow. So hush up and sit still.”

She tended to her brother, warm water and a soft cloth and a dab of salve to speed along his healing. Then Alene sat him down next to her, and made the boy hold a ball of rough yarn as she pulled from it. Back and forth, across their mother’s old loom. Back and forth, click-clack, back and forth.

And she told Elber, “You know there used to be witches in our family?” Her brother’s eyes went wide. “Good witches, who cast their spells on tyrants and bullies, taught them harsh lessons so they’d leave the smallfolk who lived under them alone. Once, there was a witch who went to a king’s castle, pulling an empty cart like it was full and heavy. And she told everyone along the way, whether they asked or not, that she’d brought a gift: magic cloth made on a magic loom, enchanted so only wise and worldly people could see it.”

“...what’s ‘worldly’ mean?”

“Means you know what’s what,” Alene explained. “And nobody she told wanted to admit they didn’t, so instead they all went ‘oh, of course, what lovely cloth’. All the way through the castle, and to the king, who didn’t want anyone thinking he was stupid either, so he agreed to pay the witch to turn the magic cloth into robes for him to wear.”

Elber’s eyes got even wider. “But- there wasn’t any cloth?”

“Not a single thread. Speaking of, I’m almost done with this, go get me Momma’s old sewing kit.”

She finished telling her brother the story while putting her lengths of fabric together, skipping more stitches than not. About how the witch put on a great show, going through the motions and chanting in a strange tongue, until she announced the robes were ready, lighter than air and softer than a cloud. The king immediately put on his new outfit to show off, going up and down his whole castle, then out of it entirely to parade through the nearest village. But only the castle folk knew what the witch said about her magic cloth - the villagers didn’t. They saw the king prancing about in his small clothes, and one by one everybody started laughing, more and more until you could hear sound for miles around. The king tried to wave it off, tried to insist not a one of them was wise enough to see his wonderful magic robes.

But he still went back to his castle awfully embarrassed.

By the end of her story, Alene held up a pair of simple, homespun trousers, nothing odd to be seen. That night, after the whole village went to sleep, she stole out of her family’s home and over to another house, switching the trousers with another pair, not a soul aware of what she’d done.

Well. None besides Elber. And the next morning, when the blacksmith’s son promised to punch him in the face again, Alene’s little brother did exactly as she’d told him: he pointed at the bigger boy and yelled that the Old Magic punished bullies for their crimes, along with a few made-up words for good measure.

All the other kids jeered. And the blacksmith’s son did what he always did: he picked up one foot to brace against the nearest wall, posing like a hero out of a storybook.

And his trousers promptly came apart at the seams.

Alene, walking by with her market basket as laughter erupted, hid a smirk all the way home.

[justheretop0st]

Hi! I was reading your work and i thought you were a excellent writter.

💓💓

So im gonna shoot my shot and ask you for a Cicero x Fem!reader drabble/headcannon who is also a jester? Nsfw and sfw would be appreciated alot!

XOXO -anon💓💓💓

Wow Anon, I am so sorry about this late response. I was never notified of this ask. I hope this will make up for how long you had to wait. Much love and blessings to you.

She skipped merrily along a path. she knew not where she was going, but she knew that it was beautiful. In her hands she held flowers of lavender and tundra cotton. On her face she smiled with such glee. The sun was out. The wind was blowing and-

"I told you to quit asking you freakish Jester! Get out of here before I do something you'll regret!" Such anger in this voice. Rushing a little forward to come over a small hill, she noticed a man walking back to a cart that was loose of its wheel. He looked quite annoyed, but his outfit really explained it all. She decided then she would help him as best she could. Anger, annoyance, or sadness she would turn this strangers frown upside down.

Upon speaking with him, she found out that this man was transporting his dear mother to a new home. How sweet of him to honor his deceased mother. "Thank you so much Cicero for telling me about this!" She smiled up at him and grabbed his hand, placing in it a small bouquet of lilac and white. "I'll go speak with Loreius and we can get that wheel fixed!"

Despite offering her coin, she denied it. She waited until Loreius came down with some tools and even helped as best she could. Once the wagon was finished, she offered Cicero her name. He did smile and danced as she repeated her name. "Ah! (Y/N), (Y/N), (Y/N)! Such a pretty name for a shining lady! Thank you! Offering lucky Cicero flowers to make Cicero smile again! Oh Mother would be so lucky to have you in her family!"

The oddity of this statement made her confused but still she smiled and gripped his hands and began to spine him around. "I love to make people feel better! I'm so glad I could help you. May our paths meet again!"

---

Indeed their paths met again. She joined the dark brotherhood by accident and by the leader no less. Coming back to the lair, she heard Astrid and a familiar voice.

"Ugh, we have one Jester, but Cicero WILL be afforded the respect deserving his position as Keeper."

When she rounded the corner, she saw a familiar face and a familiar set of lilac and white. "Cicero? Oh Cicero! I knew I might see you again!"

---

The two spent so long catching up. She watched him as he tended to the Mothers body. He watched as she was easily able to speak with the other members. He learned from her and she learned from him.

She was preparing to leave out for a mission. She was going to kill some person, oh well she would have to go back for this persons name. But behind her she could hear footsteps. "Hmm?"

Upon turning around, she met the gaze of her dear friend. "Oh! Hello Cicero! Come by to say good luck?" She had a smile on her face, but his face held not happiness or any type of joy. She couldn't place it, but her smile faded. "What's wrong Cicero?"

He met her eyes and weakly chuckled. "Oh (Y/N) poor Cicero came to say goodbye." She couldn't place it, but she could feel its double meaning.

"You mean, Cicero will see you later, right?" A solemn smile came across his lips as he reached out to cup her face.

"Oh my sweet sweet Listener. My sweet sweet (Y/N)." His voice dropped its normal facade that made her eyes widen in shock. "Only for you will I say, I will see you later." He leaned forward to place a kiss on her forehead.

She didn't know what to do with herself. It appeared to be a declaration, but he did not stay to listen. He merrily skipped away chattering about the night mother. Despite her being able to bounce back from anything, this left her curious during her days of travel. She had a mission to complete and she would complete it.

---

She came back to find out about the attack. Perhaps Cicero knew he might stand a chance of dying. She was sent to finish Cicero's life and find Astrids husband. He was always so serious. It left a bad taste in her mouth, but she knew the real reason she was going. If ever there was a chance to see Cicero again, surely she would. Perhaps she was being foolish in her cheery demeanor of that stupid wolf slain. But she still pressed forward to find Cicero. That wolf could wait. That would would surely die another day.

Perhaps Cicero truly feared for his life. The ghosts who were protecting him put up a good fight. Despite being the Listener, they still fought to protect him. She pushed forward regretting that she wasn’t there to protect Cicero. After all, Cicero was right about the family. He didn’t deserve to die and she wasn’t going to give Cicero what he didn’t deserve.

In a pool of his own blood is how she found him. Though he rambled on, she still pursued him.

———-

After the fall of Astrid and the reconstruction of the new base, she brought back Cicero. Despite what Nazeem may have felt or thought, he didn’t say much about the two of them.

Cicero serenaded her with twisted love songs.

She encouraged and praised him with his work and love.

Cicero strived to be pleasing to her and mother.

She understood his commitment to mother.

In the same stride, she would repeat what mother told her. Cicero had waited so long to hear mothers words. As mundane and job heavy as mother words were, he would dance excitedly every time she repeated mothers words.

Despite what others might think, Cicero has another side to him that only she was allowed to see.

Cicero has spent years serving mother and the dark brotherhood. Cicero would surely serve for years more. But Cicero has needs that he never got to explore. Until he met her.

——

I hope this was something you liked. I tried to add a hint of what nsfw head cannons I have for him. I am still trying to figure out if I want to post nsfw on this page. But if I do, I will make one specifically for Cicero.

Thank you for your patience.

[readingwiththereids]

yanda! speaks: hi angels! i just wanted to come on here and say thank you for the overwhelming support i’ve gotten from everyone following cam&carm’s story. you’ve all made writing and posting on here a lot more enjoyable and i really appreciate it. this is the longest chapter i have written so far so i hope that it’s not too much. about 7 chapters left before we move on to season 2! lots of love and light! 🤎

masterlist

night rain ; chapter 5

2022

The dreadful sound of Camila’s alarm sounded through her bedroom as the clock read 3:30. Pushing off of her mattress, she silenced it and slugged towards the bathroom. Today was the day of La Fame’s annual gala, where the food magazine company would invite all of their employees and their respective partners to dress up, drink and have a good time. Considering that Camila had never dated anyone since getting pregnant with Emelia, she always went to the event alone, rather deciding to spend her time catering at least one small dessert for it as it kept her busy but didn’t take too much of a toll on her. This year was no different as she was making about 500 tiny lemon cheesecakes that her coworkers had previously commended her for when she brought them to a strategy session once.

“Te quiero, mamá. And don’t forget to take Emmy to daycare before work, okay?” She whispered into her sleeping mother’s ear before kissing both her and Emilia goodbye.

The sky was still dark and the air was brisk as she walked the short commute to the bakery where she worked part-time, dragging along all of her ingredients in a large garden cart. She had asked the owner, Penelope if she could use the kitchen that day to prepare for the gala as they were always closed on Fridays. However, when Cam walked into the shop, she was shocked to see that the lights were on. 

Walking further into the room, she saw a plump, older woman with black hair tied back to reveal the permanent scowl on her face. Pamela.

Pam wasn’t necessarily a worker at the place but she was always hanging around as Penelope’s sister-in-law that only ever got in the way. She’d watch Camila over her shoulder and even attempt to change recipes despite being reprimanded for it by every employee there. She’d try make her own recipes and give them to customers which always just resulted in bad reviews and mandatory refunds, she had no idea what she was doing. And yet she was here. Aggressively whisking something in a bowl and pacing around the kitchen that was covered in dozens of different ingredients that definitely would not taste good together. The kitchen’s workbenches were blanketed by multiple cookbooks, utensils and empty boxes, with nowhere for Cam to put her things.

“Uh, hey Pam. What are you doing here?”

“Baking, what do you think?” she replied with a certain irritation in her voice that told Camila that her recipe was already not going her way.

“Right, of course. It’s just, I already asked Penelope about a week ago if I could use the kitchen today to make something for an event I’m going to.”

“And that’s my problem, how?”

Camila was growing irritated. “It’s your problem because I booked this space and you’re hogging it with whatever disgusting potion you’re trying to concoct.”

“Excuse you? My brother pays for this building, so I will do as I please. Now you can grab your things and get out of my kitchen, young lady.”

The younger girl stood in shock for a second before turning around and walking out the backdoor, whispering curses under her breath.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck. You old piece of shit, fuck!” she huffed, kicking a dumpster in the alleyway which spread a sharp sting through her toe. “Ow, fuck!”

Camila didn’t know what to do. She had to make half a thousand stupid little cakes by six that evening and she had nowhere to do it. A thought crossed her mind and as much as she tried to push it away, it seemed like the best option and so she pulled out her phone from her back pocket. He probably didn’t even have the same number anymore and she doubted that he was awake but it didn’t hurt to try, right?

“Hello?”

Shockingly, she was greeted by an especially chipper and conscious voice.

“Hey! Carm, uh, I’m so sorry to call you so early.”

“It’s cool, are you…okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. I just, I know it’s short notice but is there any chance that I can use The Beef’s kitchen for a couple of hours today?”

“Yeah, actually, we’re not open today to cut down on labour hours, or at least I think that’s what Syd said. So, yeah you can come by. What do you need to do?”

“Make 500 mini cheesecakes by 6 PM.”

A beat.

“Do you need help?”

^^^^^^^^^

“So then she was like ‘My brother pays for this building, so I will do as I please.’ and actually kicked me out!”

“Are you kidding? Jesus, she sounds like a bitch.”

“She is, trust.” Camila laughed along with Carmy as they poured the cheesecake mixture into each of the tiny crusts. 

After their phone call, Carmen rushed to shower and meet Cam at the sandwich shop in thirty minutes. They had been baking together for hours, catching up and listening to each other’s playlists. Camila had felt a little weird though about not being able to tell him about the biggest aspect that had taken over her life since she last saw him in New York, motherhood. They had been cracking jokes and engaging in banter for the past couple of hours but the conversation always conveniently avoided the topic of why she left. Carmy knew that he should probably be madder at her, more hurt. After she left, he was broken for a long time and because of that, refused the possibility of ever being with someone again. But she was Camila, he knew she would have never done that without a good reason and that was enough for him.

A phone pinged from the counter.

“Sydney forgot her knives so she’s coming here to get them in a few, by the way.”

“Oh, great!” she smiled. “She seems like a nice girl, driven.”

“Yeah, she doesn’t exactly let up. Once she’s set her mind to something, it’s difficult to slow her down.”

“Yeah, she reminds me of you.” Cam chuckled, making eye contact with Carmy from across the workbench.

“Oh yeah?” he laughed.

“Yeah.” She finished her batch of cheesecakes and both of them moved to stack them in the oven before going back to clean up.

“Carmen?” Sydney’s voice travelled from the front of house to the kitchen. 

“Chef, come in. We’re in here.”

“We?” she questioned before seeing Camila grab a bunch of dirty bowls with the intent of going to wash them, but not before hugging the confused girl first.

“Hi, Syd. How have you been?”

“Hey, Cam. Good, how are you?” Her eyes bounced between Camila’s retreating figure and Carmy’s slightly red face as Sydney’s knowing smirk made him feel like he was a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

“On edge, constantly. But surviving nonetheless.” Cam laughed before settling into her station at the sink. 

“So, what are you two doing? Alone?” She laughed in a hushed tone as Carmy’s face grew more red.

“What are you-what do you mean? I’m just helping her bake for a gala she’s going to later.” 

“Right.”

“Aren’t you here to get your knives, Chef?”

“You’re no fun, Chef.” 

“What up, lizards?” Richie’s voice boomed as we waltzed in through the backdoor. “Yo, where is everyone?” 

“Cousin, what the fuck are you doing here?”

“I’m here to work, cuz. What else?”

“Richie, we’re closed today,” Syd interjected.

“What?”

“It was in the email that I sent everyone.”

“I don’t check my email, Sydney. I’m not a fucking loser.”

“You sure?” Camila quipped, prompting Richie to turn around and finally notice her.

“Mini? What are you doing here?” he smiled while ruffling her curls, which made her turn to splash soapy water at him.

“Why do you call her ‘Mini’?” Sydney asked.

“‘Cause she’s like a carbon copy of Tina, but smaller. Mini Tina.” he shrugged as if it was the most obvious thing in the world before turning to the girl in question. “But like actually, what’re you doin’ here?

“Carm was helping me make some cheesecakes for my work gala tonight.” she replied, turning back to the sink to get a particularly tough stain off of a spoon.

“Oh really?” Richie turned in the direction of Sydney and Carmen, mirroring the former’s smirk and wiggling his eyebrows.

“Alright, both of you, get the fuck out.” The latter finally spoke as he ushered the two out of the kitchen.

Carmy shoved the bag of knives from the counter into Sydney’s hands before shouting a bye and slamming the door in their faces and walking back into the kitchen, not before hearing a “They’re definitely gonna bone.” from behind it.

When he reentered, Camila had finished washing the dishes and moved to mopping the floors with a slight smirk on her face. Ignoring this, however, he cleared his throat and started to wipe down the counters. Just then, a song from Carmy’s playlist sounded from the speaker sitting on the shelf, ‘My Song’ by Labi Siffre.

Both of them froze up at this, pausing their actions immediately. At first glance, one could easily see the effect that this song had on them but what they wouldn’t know was the extent of how special to them it was. 

And I wonder

If you know what it means

To find your dreams come true

The melody had seen countless moments of Camila trying to teach Carmy to slow dance, half-naked in the living room.

And sometimes you don’t hear me

But you don’t have to be near me

To know that I’m singing

Trying each other’s new recipe ideas and laughing together when they failed.

This is my song

And nothing can make it die

And innocent showers filled with washing each other’s hair while mouthing the lyrics against one another’s lips.

That as long

As I live

I will sing my song for you

As the song ended, the two realised that their bodies had subconsciously forced them to face one another, and there they stood. Eyes locked from across the room and sad smiles pasted onto their faces. They stood there as such for a long time before finally being snapped out of it by the timer of the oven. As they both realised what just happened, they rushed to get the small desserts out of the oven without words before transferring each of them to cooling racks.

“So, uh,” Camila broke the silence first. “I was thinking. Since you were so helpful today, if you wanted to reap the benefits of that and maybe come with me to the gala? As my plus one.”

“I mean, I normally go to these things alone so I was just thinking I’d switch it up a bit.” she laughed nervously before looking up at Carmen, who had a completely dumbfounded look on his face but said nothing.

“God, never mind, I’m sorry. That was stupid-”

[Wait, Cam. No, that’s not what I-]

[-and weird, I’m sorry. Of course, you don’t want to, I-]

[-just didn’t want you to feel like you had to just because-]

[-don’t know what I was thinking. I just-]

“Camila!”

The curly-haired woman swiftly stopped rambling.

“I would love to go with you.”

“Really?” she asked as a smile spread across her face.

“Yeah,” he laughed. “I’ll pick you up at 8?”

“Actually, it starts at seven but I have to be there a little earlier so I’ll pick you up at 6:15?”

“Yeah.” he smiled shyly.

“Cool.”

^^^^^^^^^

Camila smoothed out her dress as she stared at herself in the mirror. She donned a strapless, pastel green dress with floral embroidery that seeped from the top of the dress, topped with gold jewellery. Her hair was clipped up into an elegant bun on top of her head and a few curls were left out to frame her face. She felt beautiful, desirable even. There was nothing necessarily promiscuous about her appearance, other than the high slit of the skirt, but for the first time in a while, Camila actually felt attractive. After having Emilia, her body expectedly went through many changes and it took her a while to recover a healthy relationship with her figure and now here she was. Not just glancing at her form to avoid scrutinising it too much but actually looking at it. She felt proud.

Her phone pinged from her bed as she moved to read it.

[Camila]

Do you even have a suit, Berzatto?

Read

[Carmy]

I can’t believe you would even ask me that.

(I just borrowed one from Chi-Chi)

The brown-skinned girl laughed at this before hearing a small voice from below her.

“Wow! Mama, you look so pretty!” Emelia giggled as she looked up at her mother in awe. 

“Awh,” Camila fawned, picking the toddler up. “Thank you, princess. You’re so sweet.” 

“Oh, cariño. You look beautiful.” Tina said from the doorway. Quickly, the younger woman noticed the tears in her mother’s eyes. 

“Mom, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing, Mija. It’s just that your father would be so proud of you. He was always dreaming big for your future, he would have loved to see you now. Practically running one of the biggest magazines in the world, still finding time to stay with your passions, and raising the most extraordinary, gentle child that I have ever met. This is what he wanted for you, Camila. All he wanted was for you to be happy like this.”

Malik Dominic Ivy was thirty-two when he died in a drunk driving accident. He died just a month before Camila was born which meant that she never got to meet her father. This fact also meant that Tina had to take on the responsibility of raising a newborn while simultaneously grieving the love of her life. Expectedly, this caused some strain between Cam and her mother during her childhood rooted in the latter’s trauma, before she finally grew to understand how difficult and painful it must have been for the older woman to have to take care of a baby that reminded her so deeply of the man she had recently lost.

Camila’s main knowledge of her father stemmed from the stories that her mother would tell her, of romantic dates, funny incidents and more. It was through them that she felt as if she understood her dad and how much she meant to him. Even before she had developed a heartbeat, she was all he thought about. What she would achieve, how she would grow, how she would love, he thought of it all. When Camila thought about her own daughter, her mind would often shift to Malik. She would frequently doubt the decisions she made regarding Emilia’s relationship with Carmen. Was it really fair for her to keep the child from him when she knew what it was like to be robbed of time with her own dad? The first time she had that thought, she concluded that it wasn’t and picked up the phone to search him up and call. However, when she saw that Carmy had recently received an award for his work, it stopped her in her tracks. She remembered why she couldn’t do that to him and put down the phone. Even so, the entire thought broke her heart.

Cam brought her free hand up to wipe the tears from her eyes as she cried softly in her mother’s arms. 

“I’m so sorry that you never got to meet him, mi corazón. Sé que no es justo, lo siento.” 

[I know that it isn’t fair, I’m sorry]

The young girl pulled back after collecting herself to see that the small child in her arms had also begun to tear up.

“Bear, what’s wrong?”

“You guys were crying and it made me sad.” Emmy said, beginning to cry more while attempting to dry her mother’s tears. 

“Aw, hun.” Camila mumbled into her hair after kissing it.

Tina took the toddler from Cam’s arms before speaking. “I’ll make sure that she’s okay. Finish getting ready and fix your makeup.”

“Have a great time, Camila,” she continued. “And tell Jeff to have you back by 11.” 

As the two walked out of Camila’s room, she heard Emmy’s voice ask her grandmother a question.

“Who’s Jeff?”

yanda! speaks (again): gang, now i know i said we'd be back to regular programming but i'll probably only be able to post 3 more chapters this week and then i'll be offline for a couple of days on a team building retreat. i'll try do a little double update for y'all when i'm back, though. i'll also be taking a small break before i start writing season two but i already have some pretty big ideas for that one so don't give up on me! alright, love you!

🏷️ list: @rexorangecouny @louderfortheback @janoskiansecondsofdirection @thatonedogwithablog @kravitzwhore @iiheartbowie @doodlebob-mp3

[lya-dustin]

All is Bliss

Chapter 46

Cw:casual misogyny, slutshaming, doubke standards and poison

Gif by @alicentloyalist

Taglist:@mercedesdecorazon @darylandbethfanforever9 @sweethoneyblossom1 @alexandria-millie @ewanmitchellcrumbs @watercolorskyy

Aemma was seven moons along when word of Harrenhal being retaken and sightings of Caraxes near the Saltpans had been reported to Aemond.

Replenished with men and supplies the westerners and riverlords decided that instead of going home with their dead and infirm, they would fight on.

Apparently Aemond and Criston are butting heads over this, Criston wants to march and regain what the greens lost while Aemond would rather fortify what they still have in case Daemon includes Nettles and Addam in his next attack.

That was a month ago, Aemma had not heard from him and neither had anyone else. No raven has come since Harrenhal had gone back to green hands. Although Seasmoke had been spotted heading south, towards Tumbleton where the greens won the day thanks to the two betrayers.

A suicide mission, one worse than Aemond’s.

Why in seventh hell would sensible and loyal Addam do such a thing is beyond her. Addam had far too much sense to abscond with his half-sister with their dragons across the Narrow Sea and yet he is going into Tumbleton where it has literally descended into anarchy because apparently loving murder, raping and pillaging is something the greens have in common with Hugh Hammer and Ulf White.

“The way men think with their cocks never ceases to amaze me.” Jena said as they played a card game in her rooms.

Aemma’s confinement had begun a moon ago, most women only left public life in the last two moons, but given her mother died in her seventh moon it was better to be safe than sorry.

As much as she hated it, she understood the necessity of it and tried her best to be a model patient.

Even if the sight of the birthing stool unnerved her and the young queen demanded it be covered with linen so she could pretend it wasn’t there.

“They act as if they didn’t hide from my father until someone with a bigger dragon came.” Baela snorted. “By the way is my betrothed in that losing fight or the other one?”

“Robert Rowan was captured, and his father turned to Aegon’s side, he won’t be in any more losing fights except maybe the one with Prince Jacaerys’ ghost.” Jena answered with a chuckle.

She was their window to the outside world, thank the gods Ironrod trusted her with his life.

Robert was a good and strong looking man; his great aunt had been Harwin’s mama and gave him a resemblance to Jace. If Jace had been allowed to grow broader and had thick curly hair and could lift an ox cart with ease, that is.

A good replacement, Aegon had said when he shot down the suggestion Baela be wed to his widowed father instead.

“I wish I could know if he is worth marrying, Aegon seemed nice enough and look what you’re stuck with.” Baela said tossing her cards after getting a bad hand.

Speaking of Aegon and their marriage, it had improved now that his cock doesn’t work.

He is actually trying to know her as a person and not a bedmate he must breed out of duty.

And because it is the least Aemma could do, she has found he is not as terrible as initially thought.

He has committed his fair share of atrocities, but it seems to have stemmed from never having faced any real consequence in his life.

Until now that the gods cursed him with impotence and an indifferent wife that is.

Aemma never thought she might face the issue of actually liking her husband. Made her secret marriage to his younger brother all the more dangerous. Really, the world had fucking mad.

“Agreed, if only there was a way you could try it all first. Like getting to ride a horse before you purchase it.” the young queen said, taking a card from the deck. Her hand is quite modest, but even with a winning hand Jena would mop the floor with them.

“Only if you ride this horse, you get branded a whore and, in some lands, fucking stoned to death for it.” Jena points out reminding Baela not to get any ideas. “If you wish to know what sort of man he is, we weasel it out of his household and former paramours, lucky for you, I know just the slut.”

“Please tell me that slut is you.” Baela looks far too intrigued by Jena’s stories.

It is not.

Aemma should not be surprised she means Alys Rivers.

“You summoned me, your grace.” The witch comes just as Aegon goes to have lunch with his mother to go after her taking over court duties while she is in confinement.

Once Alicent would have been overjoyed at the prospect of Aegon and Aemma getting along. Back when everything hinged on them being happy and in love so they could take Rhaenyra’s claim through her only trueborn child.

“Did you know she gets a rash from dandelions like I do?” Aegon mentions as he eats enough macaroni for two. Just as Laenor did, he shares the cravings with his wife even if the child is clearly not his, a small consolation.

“Yes, I remember from the instructions sent by the maester for the wedding feast.” Alicent answered, hoping her tone was enough to get him to stop talking about his wife.

He is besotted with her, the traitorous whore who took two sons from her and killed the third.

To think she had once felt sorry for her, that she had seen herself reflected in her and wished her success only to have her kindness thrown back at her with her defiance.

Gods, she should have just given her dandelion tea the moment Criston brought her here. Aemond was Aegon’s heir anyways, there was no true need for Aemma to live when Criston’s strategy failed.

“Have there been any ravens from your brother?” she asks knowing the answer to it.

Her sullen little boy was dead already, she could feel it in her bones.

Dead because of Rhaenyra. Rhaenyra was not content with all that she had taken from her and lived to torment her through her daughter.

“No, none. We have sent some riders, but there has been no ravens nor news since they arrived at the Crossroads.” Aegon’s face turned serious, defeat was tasted in the air and would come soon. He had cut back on his drinking and yet this news had him return to his old habits. “The Blacks are closing in on the God’s Eye, the North is marching south with Lord Stark, who’s uncle tried to usurp him as you had me usurp my sister, by the way. Oh, and the Arryns hired a fucking fleet from Braavos because Jeyne Arryn had her cousins and uncles try to usurp her as well, and even if she hates Daemon, she hates us more for killing her fucking cousins.”

Alicent never thought he would have the audacity to blame her for this.

“I have done everything for you, do not dare be ungrateful to your mother.” Alicent warned her son and yet he did not stop.

Didn’t stop drinking nor speaking these things that told her he would send her away the moment the whore gave birth to the blasted son she made happen.

“For me?!” he laughed incredulously, tossing his fork on the plate and getting his cane to leave, “For me?! Oh, mama, you wanted this crown, not me.”

“I only wanted to protect you, to keep you safe from your sister and her beast of a husband. I could only save you if I gave you the crown that was yours by rights.” The queen argued with him.

Why were they so blind? Why did they think her the monster when she killed those monsters for them?

She made deals with the Stranger and sold her soul for him; how could he be so blind to all she sacrificed for him?

“I was fucking fine with Rhaenyra being queen and Aemma after her. I know damn well I was not meant to be king; father knew that. We were safe from her because she’d never hurt her own child nor her grandchildren nor her own brothers and sister even after Driftmark, that is why father wed me to Aemma, to protect us after his death.” He idolizes Viserys now, pretends his father loved him and cared for him when the man stopped paying attention to him the moment Rhaenyra became with child. “The ones who put us in danger were you and grandfather. Now Daeron and Aemond are probably fucking dead, your father rots in hell as he deserved, and I am a fucking eunuch who needs his brother to fornicate with my wife so you could keep the power you envied Rhaenyra for having.

The least you can do now, is stop pretending you did all this for us.”

She lost him, she’s lost her son to someone worse than Rhaenyra’s whore daughter.

Alicent lost Aegon to the ghost of the man who took her innocence and her youth and her joy of living.

And it breaks her heart.

“Get out.” The queen turns away and bit back her tears as her golden son hobbles away. “You think me the monster in this story, and I suppose I am no longer your mother.”

And yet when her son vomits the wine in the hall, Alicent, in her mother’s worry, is the first to come to his aid.

“Mother’s here, sweetling. Mama’s here.” She says as he continues to spew the wine until he loses consciousness.

Poison.

Someone poisoned her son.

[fandom-madness69]

Chapter Two

MHA Aizawa FanFic

Shota Aizawa x Akane Saito (my oc)

7,989 words

I could literally never post this on any other social media (Wattpad and AO3 don't count IMO)

TW/CW again for mention of abuse and attempt at victim bl*ming by the victim herself (as always my tags will include TW and CW at the beginning so I don't have to add those words and risk bringing my posts down)

Tuesday morning Akane found herself on light duty tasks for work. She tried to insist to her supervisor, Miss Etsuko Yamaguchi, that she really didn’t need this kind of treatment, but the older woman had just smiled and shooed her away. Though Akane really didn’t mind. She didn’t even need her cart today. All she was responsible for today was puke patrol and lost student duty. Even though it had been a couple months since the new school year had brought in new students, but they still tended to get lost for another month or two. Especially with the dorm buildings having been added.

So, with low music playing in her headphones Akane wandered around the campus. All she had to do was radio someone else on the janitorial staff if a kid got sick and help any lost kids as much as they needed her to. Normally she would also have to have a cart to clean up the puke herself, but Miss Yamaguchi had told her to radio for someone else instead and gave her a walkie talkie which Akane had tucked in her hoodie pocket. Mother Nature had finally decided it was Winter and the Mid November temperatures had finally come crashing down on them this morning. Thankfully Akane could stay indoors for most of today, but she made sure to keep an eye on the nearest window every time she saw one in case a student was lost out there. The thick grey clouds blocking most of the sunlight today definitely meant snow. Even though the cold wasn’t the best weather she preferred the snow over everything else. So, the thought had Akane even more excited than she already was after the weekend with Shōta.

        Akane looked around the hallway she was in and realized she was less than thirty feet from the door to Class 1-A. Her heart fluttered again, and she felt her hair start to shrink inside the thick toke she had it tucked under. She wanted to go peak inside the little window, but she knew better because every kid in that classroom had an uncanny sense for when they were being watched even if only briefly. With a huffed sigh she continued her path forward which would lead her past the door anyway. It wasn’t unusual for janitorial and support staff to wander the hallways during the day so no one would bother her over walking by. She decided to risk at least glancing in when she walked by.

To her surprise Shōta was standing at the front of the classroom, free of the sleeping bag she had so often seen him in and teaching actively. She stopped to look at him for a second longer and as soon as she did his head turned to look at her. He held her gaze for a few seconds before flashing her a brief smile and turning back to his students. She figured it was best she hurried along before anyone in that room realized what had just happened. When she rounded the end of the hall and had made it to the next platform on the staircase Akane stopped and leaned against the stairwell wall. He had risked that smile knowing damn good and well all his students saw it. She was going to have to avoid his room the rest of the day, so she didn’t draw any more attention to herself.

It’s not that the two days he had spent taking care of her and helping her adjust to her quirk had been bad. In fact, they were wonderful. She just didn’t need the students doing what kids do and starting rumors. There was one point he had sent a student to check on her yesterday, but it had been Uraraka who was incredibly sweet and amazing with secrets as it turned out. She hadn’t even asked why her superhero teacher had asked her to check on this random janitor lady. She had just brought a few homemade cookies that she promised she already planned on giving away, she just didn’t know who because it was an extra few from the batch she made for her classmates, made sure Akane was okay and then left. She knew the only reason Shōta didn’t send a teacher the other two times during the hours he had been busy was, so he didn’t make her uncomfortable. Instead, a couple other members of the support staff had come to check on her and bring her food. When someone had knocked on her door the fourth time Akane was pleased to see Shōta himself with a big bag of take out in one hand and the sequel to the movie they had watched on Sunday in the other.

        After a few minutes of concentration Akane felt her hair return to the waist length she had set it to Sunday and then she pushed herself off the wall. When she made it to the next floor, she finally bumped into someone else. A lost kid by the looks of it. Halfway down the hallway stood a short and petite kid with sapphire blue hair. The kid turned around and Akane saw the worried expression on her face.

        “Hey there kiddo, you look a little lost. My name is Akane Saito, and I work here as a Janitor. Luckily for you I’m on lost kid duty today so how can I help,” she called out cheerfully to the girl whose eyes were starting to water. The girl’s head snapped up from the paper in her hands, her schedule presumably, and relief washed across her face.

“Oh, my goodness finally an adult who works here! I’m so lost and it’s so dumb because I’ve been here for two months, and I’ve gone to class 2-B many many times and yet here I am lost!” She sounded bewildered and a bit on edge. Akane let out a soft chuckle and smiled warmly at the girl.

        “Don’t worry it happens to everyone, well everyone without a good memory. Did you know having a photographic or eidetic memory used to be considered a superpower?” She was trying to keep things light so the girl wouldn’t have a full-blown freak out. She might be new here herself, newer than this student in fact, but she did have a photographic memory.

        “No, I had no idea. Would you mind leading me to my classroom please? I’m not sure my teacher is going to be too pleased,” the girl muttered and rubbed her neck as she looked at her shoes. Akane nodded and told the young girl she’d be happy to help before she turned around to head back in the direction she had just come from. The girl followed along beside her silently. Akane didn’t mind making casual conversations, but she also knew she was going to have to walk past Shōta’s classroom again and she didn’t wanna have to think about talking while walking past the man she loved.

The door to the girl’s classroom was left open by a crack. She thanked Akane and scurried inside. When Akane saw the teacher wasn’t scolding the girl she turned around to head back to where she was on her route. She would have to pass his room a third time. So much for staying away as not to draw attention to herself.

        As she hurried past his room a third time the door slid open. No fuck not now, Akane thought. She kept her eyes fixed out the many windows on her right and kept walking while silently praying whoever it was it was simply a coincidence. The door to his room closed and footsteps started behind her in the hallway. Akane picked up her pace and when she made it to the stairs, she felt a familiar sensation slide over her shoulder.

        “Listen I swear I’m not being creepy,” she started as she turned around, but the owner of this capture scarf wasn’t who she thought it was. Behind her stood a student. Hitoshi Shinso to be exact.

“I saw you pass by with the student the second time though I don’t think he did and then when you walked past the third time, I could see him messing with his scarf. He only does that when he’s worried. So, I excused myself to ‘go to the bathroom’ but really, I came to see if you were okay. He and I have a secret code that we use with our scarves, so I don’t have to talk since I have a brain washing quirk. Don’t worry it only activates if I ask you a question, so I won’t,” his voice was barely audible, but Akane knew why. She had seen him on TV during the Sports Festival last year, so she was familiar with how his Quirk worked though he didn’t know that.

        “You can signal to him that I’m okay I just needed to help that student. I’m on puke patrol and lost student duty so he doesn’t need to worry about me overdoing it today,” she explained. He nodded and tugged his scarf off her shoulder where it had still been resting.

        “I’ll let him know,” he mumbled before turning around and heading back to Class 1-A’s room. Once again Akane found herself leaning against the wall of the first platform going down from this floor in this stairwell. She really had to get out of the main building. She decided she could get some fresh air and hurried all the way back to the ground floor.

The rest of the day passed without incident. When Akane decided she wasn’t in the mood for dinner she headed straight for her room after telling Miss Yamaguchi that she was still feeling well. With the door closed to her room Akane pulled off all the layers she had been wearing save for one. She flopped face first onto her bed in nothing more than a pair of shorts and a sports bra. Her gloves of course had still been on since she replaced them Sunday after her shower. A light knock sounded at her door, and she groaned. She really was tired of people asking if she was okay. It was a simple shapeshifting quirk, it’s not like using her quirk shattered half her bones with one go. A light chuckle escaped over that roast. Whatever Midoryia’s Quirk was he clearly wasn’t built for it. She opened the door to see Shōta standing there and quickly closed it again remembering her outfit. She took a deep breath and cracked it open again.

        “Hi sorry didn’t mean to slam it in your face, I wasn’t expecting anyone to show up, so I’m not properly dressed,” she explained while her cheeks grew bright red.

        “That’s okay I just wanted to check on you. I know it’s probably getting a bit annoying, and I can leave you be if you’d like me to, but I wanted to check one more time before I let you decide if I should leave you alone or not,” he explained. He was wearing a few layers himself which made him look a little like a sleep deprived blob. Akane giggled at this thought.

        “It’s never annoying coming from you. And you can stop checking up on me but I’m totally fine if you keep popping by to hang out or whatever,” she said. He smiled that soft smile again and nodded.

“Well then may I come in and hang out for a bit? Once you’re properly dressed that is,” he asked. She nodded and left the door cracked to go pull on a shirt at random. Once she had on the loose grey shirt that covered her shorts most of the way, she opened the door the rest of the way. He walked inside and she shut it quickly but not before getting a devious look from a woman a couple of rooms down. Akane responded by sticking her tongue out at the woman before closing the door. She turned around to find him shedding layers and pulling out snacks along with it. When he finished a small pile of snacks sat on her only nightstand, a larger pile of his clothes lay on her floor, and he was in a white shirt and sweats. He really didn’t wear shorts, did he? He turned around to Akane and smiled when he saw her staring again. He chuckled and walked over to her leaving a couple feet of space between them.

        “You really do like to look at me don’t you Akane,” his voice was a bit thicker than normal, and his black eyes seemed to blaze even without his quirk activated. Akane’s face got redder as she nodded. “Well then it’s a good thing I really like to look at you too.” He lifted a hand as if to reach for her and then dropped it.

“Okay new rule. As long as it’s not kissing, touching my gloves or scars, or initiating anything lewd you don’t have to ask for my permission. It’ll help us both because as much as I find it sweet it tends to get in the way ya know,” Akane explained as she stayed standing there between Shōta and the door. He reached up and cupped her cheek in one hand. Akane’s heart thundered in her chest as he stepped a bit closer.

        “You’d want me to kiss you?” He sounded more happy than he did surprised.

        “Shō I’ve been dreaming of kissing you for years. I’d be able to die happy if you did,” she said before she could stop herself. Her face was hot with blush, and he stepped close enough that Akane could feel the warmth radiating from his body.

“Then may I kiss you,” he asked. Akane had to be dreaming. She pinched her cheek that he wasn’t holding, and he laughed. “You’re not dreaming I really asked.”

        “Then yes please,” she breathed. His face got closer and Akane’s eyes fluttered shut. His breath hit her face with warmth and the smell of mint. After a few seconds that seemed to drag out forever his lips were on hers. Soft, smooth, and warm. His hand slid into her long orange hair, and she wrapped an arm around his shoulders. His lips pressed into hers more and then a few seconds later they were gone from hers. She opened her eyes to find him still close to her. Close enough she could still feel and smell his breath on her face. She wanted more, so much more but she knew she couldn’t handle it right now. Not mentally anyway. He kissed her nose and then stepped back two steps.

        “That was everything I’d dreamed it would be and more,” she said breathlessly. His hand slid from her hair and found her hand.

       “And even though last night was the first time I’ve dreamt of kissing you it was just as wonderful for me,” he smiled as he tugged her over to her bed, “now let’s see what there is to watch while we have snack yeah?” She sat in her usual spot and this time he sat next to her instead of adjacent from her as he had been last night. Her lips still tasted like his and she couldn’t think enough to find the remote.

“You, okay?” His voice was sincere. She turned to him and smiled.

        “I am I just can’t think because my lips still taste like you and as much as I know neither of us want to rush anything, but I really want to kiss you again,” she explained. He reached up and cupped her cheek in his hand again.

        “Then by all means kiss me again if you’d like to,” he breathed out. She leaned up and closed the space between them as she shut her eyes. Her lips met his and his other arm looped around her middle back. He pulled her closer which deepened the kiss. She wrapped both arms around him and slowly parted her lips. His lips followed her lead, and she hesitantly slid her tongue into his mouth. A soft moan escaped her mouth and as if he was anticipating her retreat from embarrassment he let go. She pulled back enough that their noses were still touching. Akane went to say something, but Shōta held up a finger to her lips.

"Don't apologize like I know you're about to try to do, I'm never going to be upset by you stopping anything between us at any time," he whispered. Akane pulled back another few inches and spotted the remote buried under his pile of snacks on her nightstand.

"Then I'd like to just watch a movie and ask you to forget that noise you heard," she said as she leaned around him and pulled the remote from under the snacks before straightening back up. "I mean it'll be hard, but I'll try my best," he said honestly before he leaned back against the pillow, he had put between himself and the wall her bed was against. She turned the TV on and found that one of the movies that had been made about All Might was playing on TV.

"Okay this one's literally my favorite and I'm not apologizing so it stays on," she declared as she tossed the remote across the room in case he tried to object or change it. This made him laugh loudly. She turned to fixate him with a playful glare which caused him to stop laughing and return the look. After a few seconds of this stare down he reached behind him and sent one of the snack cakes flying at her. It hit Akane square in the chest and she gasped. He doubled over with laughter, and she threw the cake back at him. Even bent over his scarf snapped up and caught the sweet snack easily. She shuddered a bit and he looked up at her seriously.

"I can leave this on the floor with my other layers if you need me to, it's just like a second skin so I almost never remember to take it off," he offered. Akane shook her head.

"No, I'm okay that wasn't a bad shudder," she said shyly before turning to pretend to watch the movie. She saw Shōta straighten up in her peripheral vision with a smirk on his face.

"For someone who agrees we shouldn't rush this you seem to be having lots of dirty thoughts this evening," he teased. She snatched the snack cake from his scarf and tossed it at him again. This time he let it bounce off his chest.

"You're on my bed, in my room flirting with me after doting on me half the weekend. What more did you expect," she teased back. His smirk turned into a smile as he leaned back against the pillow again and opened the poor smooshed snack cake.

"Nothing actually," he said before stuffing half the thing into his mouth. Akane giggled and turned to watch the movie this time. She scooted a little further away but only so she could lay down with her head in his lap again, she had done this last night and could swear he didn’t stop smiling the whole time. He ran his fingers through her hair as they watched the movie together. She reached over once to grab a snack because she still really wasn't feeling too hungry. After a while Shōta's fingers in her hair started to soothe her to sleep.

"If you keep doing that, I'm going to fall asleep," she warned.

"And much like with the rules of a cat I wouldn't be allowed to move until you wake up or move off of me, whichever comes first," he teased but kept running his fingers through her hair.

"What if you're late for class tomorrow?" He just kept running his fingers through her hair. Her eyes started to flutter shut before he finally answered.

"Then I'd be late and if anything happened, I'd trust Shinso, Midoryia, and Ida to handle it. Now shush and sleep if you'd like to." She nodded and allowed his fingers in her hair to fully lull her to sleep. Akane's alarm went off at 5 am like it always did and she reached over to turn it off. The noise stopped before her hand reached it and she realized Shōta must have stayed here. She opened her eyes to see she was lying halfway on him.

"Five more minutes," grumbled and pulled her closer. Her heart fluttered and she giggled.

"Okay but then we have to get up," she whispered. He nodded once and then went back to breathing evenly. Her alarm went off again ten minutes later and he smacked the snooze button again.

"Okay okay fine I'll get up," he grumbled again. He opened his eyes which were blazing red and Akane felt her hair shrinking in length. A soft growl came up from his chest and he blinked, turning his eyes back to their usual black. Her hair tickled her back through her shirt as it grew back out to her waist. "Though with a view like this I'm not sure why I'm complaining." Akane giggled and blushed as he cupped her cheek.

"Mmmmmm I'd say you could get used to it but I think we'd be breaking our 'taking it slow rule' by waking up in each other's arms every morning after only three days," she said as she sat up and looked down at him.

"True that we would be, but also it's much easier to wake up in the morning when the view is so nice," he smiled at her as he sat up. At some point during the night, he had lost his shirt and Akane quickly looked away. Though not before she got an eye full of toned muscles. Her face was bright red, and she knew it.

"You should probably put your shirt on," she whispered.

"Do you want me to?" His voice was still thick with sleep and Akane could feel her spine tingling.

"No but that might also be breaking our rule," she said a bit louder.

"It's up to you Akane, as is everything we do," he said. She turned back to look at him and bit her lip. He really was incredibly sexy no matter what. His abs were perfectly cut into an eight pack. His pecs were toned just right for his lean frame. His arms, though seemingly small, nearly doubled in size when he flexed them for her appreciation. Her ears were red now and when she looked up at his face so we're his cheeks.

"Please don't dangle me over a bridge when I say this, but you really are beautiful," she breathed. His face got dark, and she yelped. She went to scramble out of the bed, but his arms were around her waist and pulling her into him before she ever made it to the edge.

"Take it back. Right. Now." He growled in her ear. His chest was pressed to her back and was radiating warmth.

"Are you going to let me go if I do?" She was teasing but she wasn't sure he heard her tone. He really didn't like being complimented, did he?

"Yes, I will," he breathed in her ear. "Then nope. You're beautiful, sexy, and all around incredibly fucking hot Zawa," she tossed in the nickname for extra effect.

"Oh, you're in for it now," he growled in her ear again which made her giggle more. His lips were on her neck in a matter of seconds and Akane melted. Her whole body went almost limp in his arms as she moaned softly with each touch of his lips on her skin. After five or six kisses he suddenly tensed up and pulled back, letting her go in the process.

"I'm so fucking sorry Akane, I didn't ask and I basically-" Akane put her hand over his mouth.

"Nope you didn't hurt me. I was teasing and pushing buttons. You were just waking up and you were only returning my energy. Kissing my neck wasn't too far. In fact, I would have done the same thing if I were you," she quickly explained. He kissed her hand, and she moved it away.

"I'll tolerate being called anything but beautiful," he said, his face still a bit dark.

"Why? You are incredibly beautiful," she whispered. He growled softly again.

"Because Hizashi uses it to tease me all too often," he ground out through clenched teeth. "Okay I take it back. You're still incredibly sexy but I won't ever call you beautiful again," she said louder.

"Thank you, Akane. Now as much as I'd love to stick around for you to give me another reason to entice those melodic moans from your lips, I need to get on different clothes before I go teach these kids." He slid off the bed and pulled on his shirt and started on all his other layers. Once he was dressed, he cleaned up his snack messes and turned to her. Akane was digging through her closet looking for some thicker clothes since snow was falling outside the decent sized balcony doors she had in her room. She would shower tonight so the warmth of the water would keep her warmer overnight since Shōta turning up last night had made her forget to shower. So, she hadn’t showered since Monday night after he left. She turned around to face him and found him standing a couple of feet away.

“May I have another kiss before I have to go keep these kids alive for another day?” His voice was soft in tone again. Akane nodded and he closed the gap between them. His fingers of one slid into her hair and the other hand found her lower back and pulled her body flush to his. She dropped the sweater she had been holding to put on as one layer and wrapped both arms around his shoulders as his head dipped down to hers. Her eyes closed and his lips met hers. Deep but not rough. He lingered as long as he dared to, not trying to push her past this simple kiss. After what seemed like forever in a day and not nearly long enough at the same time he pulled back.

“If you’d like we can use one of the empty training facilities to work on your quirk tonight,” he whispered with his nose still touching hers.

“I’d like that so that way if anyone tries to start anything we can play it off much easier,” she said. He nodded and briefly kissed her nose before fully pulling out of her arms.

“I have to go now but I’ll see you this evening outside of the teacher’s dorm at 7, don’t be late or I’ll actually make you run laps. I’m not joking.” Something about his tone told her he was serious. She nodded and went back to her closet to finish finding clothes for the weather. She heard him open the door and when she looked over, she saw he was checking to make sure no one else was around before he slipped out the door and closed it quietly behind him.

Later that evening as the snow fell at a steady pace Akane found herself outside the teachers’ dorm building at 6:55. The door opened spilling out soft warm light into the darkness of the early evening and out walked Shōta.

“Ahhhh good you’re early, that makes me happy,” he said as he pulled the door closed behind him. He walked down the few steps that led from the door to the sidewalk where Akane stood and offered his arm to her. She looped her arm around his and he started walking her towards the training facilities presumably. They walked in a comfortable silence as the snow picked up around them a bit. She hoped the training facilities had working heat. A few minutes later they were opening the big door to one of the empty training facilities. It was pitch black but much to Akane’s relief the heat seemed to have been left on.

“Made sure it got left on myself. I knew it would end up snowing harder, so I made sure to find the one of your fellow janitors to ask that they make sure it didn’t get turned back off,” he explained as he started to shed his thicker layers. Akane started stripping off her own layers leaving her standing in just her pink tights and a loose-fitting black shirt over her underwear. She looked over to see Shōta was in a pair of jeans and a tight fitting dark blue shirt. The color really looked good on him, and she wished he’d wear color more often, even if he stuck to the darker shades of the colors, it would still suit him. He was walking over to the wall and after a few seconds dim light filled the space from only a fifth of the lights being turned on. He looked back with that soft smile on his face she was starting to grow accustomed to and that made her smile.

“Alright so we are going to start small and work as long as you’d like to,” he said his voice slightly echoing off the walls of the empty gymnasium looking room. So, he had chosen a room that didn’t have giant pieces of a mountain side or raging rivers in it. Good because she definitely wasn’t ready for any hero training or anything. There were some obstacle course stuffs pushed to one side and a bunch of thick foam mats pushed off to another side. She followed him as he led the way to the middle of the room and stopped. “I’m going to turn your Quirk off and when I do I want you to concentrate on how that feels in your body. Not the sensations from your physical appearance changing but internally. You’ll understand what I’m saying when I do it.”

“Okay, I’m ready whenever you are Shōta,” she nodded to him. He blinked and when he opened his eyes again, they were blazing red. She focused on how she felt during the brief seconds where his quirk affected her body. Warmth bloomed in her stomach as a wave of something flowed through her. When she looked back to Shōta to confirm if she had felt the right thing he was smiling at her even more.

“That was great Akane, now I’m going to turn my Quirk off and again I want you to feel the sensations that causes in your body as your Quirk comes back.” He blinked again and Akane focused with her eyes closed this time. The warmth bloomed in her stomach again followed by the wave of something washing over her. Only this time she was able to identify that the sensation started at the very top of her head. When she opened her eyes Shōta was still standing in the same spot and his eyes were their usual black. He nodded again.

“Good Akane now you know where your Quirk is centralized in your body. Now let’s move on to small feature changes. Focus on your hair and think of how you want it to look while feeling that sensation. Make the sensation move where you want and affect your body how you wish it to,” he explained.

Akane focused on making her hair pink and just long enough to brush the tops of her shoulders. The sensation bloomed at the top of her head again and she focused on it more. She thought about it moving out to the ends of her hair and it did. Focusing on the thought of it pulling up from her waist to the tops of her shoulders, she felt it do just that. Finally, she thought about turning her hair bubble gum pink and watched Shōta’s face light up which told her she had succeeded.

“You really are a natural,” he gasped as Akane made her hair change to his. She wondered just how much she could push it but didn’t want to leap right into something that might have her on bed rest for two days again. Though this time around she suspected they’d just send her to Recovery Girl.

“Maybe I can do more than we thought,” she contemplated aloud.

“Maybe you can Akane but let’s take it slowly please. I’d for sure take you Recovery Girl this time but I’d rather not have to do that to begin with,” he said softly in tone as he got a little closer.

“Okay so what should we try next?” He stopped a good ten feet away and shrugged.

“Without pushing yourself too hard too fast it’s up to you now,” he explained. She sighed and thought about what she wanted to do. She knew she could change her hair, eyes, eyebrows and lips painlessly, but did that mean it would stay the same throughout?

“Shōta what if it hurts me to use it to do more than just superficial features,” her voice was laced with enough worry that he closed the gap between them and grabbed her hand gently in his.

“The only way to find out is to try. So, let’s start simply. Try focusing on your pinky finger in my hand. Make it longer and see if it hurts.” His voice was soothing and so she focused again. She thought about the sensation moving from her head to her right pinky finger cradled in his hand. When she felt it there, she focused on the thought of the sensation elongating her finger an inch. She watched as it grew that inch but didn’t hurt. It barely even tingled.

“Oh, okay well that was almost pleasant,” she whispered.

“We were right though. You’re capable of more than we thought,” he said and squeezed her fingers gently. She made her finger return to the normal size with a little more concentration and then stepped back a couple of steps.

“I want to try something, and I ask that you don’t stop me because I promise I won’t push myself too far,” she said. He nodded and watched her. She closed her eyes and focused intently on her memories. She was searching for the one vague memory she had of her father from when she was four and he left. When she had focused on what features of his she could remember she focused on her quirk. She felt her eye shape change, her lips change, her cheeks got bigger and her hair got incredibly short. It was in soft curls on top of her head. Akane opened her eyes to see astonishment written all over Shōta’s face.

“Do you recognize this face? Even vaguely,” she whispered. He studied her face and then his own face fell. Sadness filled all his features and panic filled Akane.

“I’m sorry Akane but he got arrested in the first raid on the Yazuka hideout that resulted in us rescuing Eri,” his voice was barely above a whisper, “in fact I captured him myself.”

“Oh well, that’s what he gets for abandoning his wife and daughter to join up with a bunch of delinquents,” she scoffed. Her eyes closed again as she focused on her quirk and made it return her features to the ones she preferred.

“Akane are you sure,” his voice sounded a bit uncertain.

“I’m positive. He chose to abandon us, didn’t even send us any kind of money from his bullshit, never called me on a single birthday or holiday. He got what he deserved. No chance he’s in Tartarus so I don’t have to worry about him getting out,” her voice rose with hope at the end. He nodded confirming he was locked in the highest security prison Japan had to offer and Akane smiled. “Good that’s really good.”

“Is there anything else you’d like to explore about your quirk? Anything else you’d like to try?”

“Well, I was thinking about one other thing I’d like to try.” She closed her eyes and focused on her quirk again. When she opened her eyes, she knew her face was an exact replica of his because his mouth was hanging open.

“Small shapeshifting quirk my ass,” he breathed out in amazement.

“Okay now please stop wearing my face it’s incredibly uncanny.”

Akane nodded and this time kept her eyes open as she focused on her quirk. She felt the process take a couple seconds less than the last time and she smiled.

“Wow I’m already getting a bit better at this.”

“Yes, you are and that’s honestly amazing dear. If you’d like to, we can work on your handicordination once you get your glasses in,” he suggested.

“We could definitely do that and then maybe after a bit of practice we could bring in more of your fellow teachers and I could shift into one of them and you could try to tell us apart,” she suggested in return.

“It would only work if I wasn’t in the room when it happened, otherwise it wouldn’t work,” he teased.

“Well obviously,” she stuck her tongue out at him, and he playfully lunged at her in response. She yelped and stumbled back a couple of steps.

“If you’re going to tease me expect me to respond in a similar way to that every time,” he warned. She made a mental note of that and smiled.

“Well then, I think we are done for tonight. I’d appreciate if you’d walk me back to my building, but I think it’s best you sleep in your own room for the next several nights, so no one gets any ideas.”

“I think that would be best as well,” he agreed. They walked over to where they had left their piles of layers and started to tug them back on. Once they were dressed Shōta made his way over to the thermostat and switched the unit off. She waited by the door as he turned off the lights. Once he was next to her he offered her his arm and smiled. She wrapped her arm around his and they walked towards her building. This time they walked a bit slower as the snow had stopped at some point while they were inside training. Once they reached her building Akane felt a twang of sadness hit her heart. She knew as the teacher of the leading class of upcoming superheroes at the leading school for training upcoming superheroes his days wouldn’t always be this leisurely. She wasn’t sure when she’d get to see him again.

“Let me have your phone number so that way when things pick up here in a few days and I can’t see you for a while I can at least keep in touch with you, so you know why,” he said almost as if he had read her mind. She dug out her phone and put it in his hand. He pulled off one of his gloves and typed his contact information into her phone. He handed it back to her and she immediately texted him her name, so he had her number.

“There now whenever you get caught up training the next generation of Toshi’s I’ll at least know you’re not dead,” she said seriously.

“Would it be okay if I stole one more kiss before we don’t have the ability to be alone together again?” She nodded and he closed the small gap between them. He kissed her deeply but briefly so as to avoid attracting any attention. When she closed the door to the building behind her Akane’s heart sank a little more.

It was two weeks before Shōta and her found themselves alone together again. During those two weeks four days he and his class had been off campus on some kind of training exercise or another. Akane spent most of the time doing her work with the same pace and tenacity as before. She couldn’t allow this to affect her work. Her routine of making sure his classroom smelled like lavender instead of harsh chemicals never faltered. She made all the other classrooms smell like vanilla, but she had learned from the one magazine interview he had given when he was still an up-and-coming superhero that he loved the smell of lavender.

During the days he was on campus they would occasionally see each other. They’d pass in the hallways, and he’d shoot her a smile followed by a text that ranged from “Hope this isn’t too much but I do miss you” to “you should be practicing your quirk even if I’m not there to guide you.” The first one always made her respond with “it’s not too much, I miss you too.” The second one always got a response of multiple eye rolling emojis. He usually ignored those. Everything else always got a different response. Two days before he returned from the training trip, he told her he would have time the day after he got back and wanted to know if she wanted to hang out. She had agreed only if he promised that if she proved she’d been training that they would do literally anything else. So, he agreed and invited her back to his dorm building.

“Alright show me what you’ve got,” he said once they were settled in his room. Akane was tucked underneath his Kotatsu table, and he was sitting on the couch with a beer in his hand. Akane focused on her quirk and changed her face. In twenty seconds, her face looked like Shōta’s. In another twenty seconds it looked like Hizashi’s face. Then twenty seconds later she looked like Kaya. She had taken this seriously and now it no longer took her several full minutes to change her features.

“Okay you have been practicing,” he exclaimed as she made her face look like her own again. She proudly took a drink from her wine cooler and then smiled at him.

“I told you I was practicing Mr. Teacher Man,” she teased. He set down his beer on the table and slid onto the floor next to her on his knees.

“Say that again if you want to end up pinned to this floor with my tongue down your throat,” he growled out softly. Akane squealed as her face turned bright red and scooted back a little bit from him.

“Okay I promise I’ll stop teasing you,” she giggled as she held up her hands in surrender. He smirked as he tucked himself under the table too and took another swig of his beer. “Though since it is my nature it’s going to be hard. Though maybe that’s why….”

“Akane don’t. I know what you’re thinking. Don’t. No one deserves to be assaulted the way you were, do not blame yourself. I’m sorry if my response triggered you and I can promise to never respond that way again if you tell me to,” his voice had taken on that soft tone again that had a way of soothing Akane to her core.

“Okay Zawa I won’t and don’t worry you didn’t do anything wrong. If it wasn’t for us taking this slowly, I would have teased you again, but I don’t want to rush you or myself,” she explained. His face grew a little darker but not in an angry way, it was more playful than it was this morning.

“It’s up to you Akane. All of it. If you want to tease me until I pounce on you and kiss you until you’re dizzy, do it. If you want to grab my remote and put something on the tv and pretend this never happened, then do it. Everything that does or does not happen between us is entirely up to you,” he explained in that soothing voice again.

“Well then Mr. Teacher Man why don’t you put your money where your mouth is,” she taunted. In an instant he had her pinned to the floor with his hands on her hips and his body mostly pressed into hers. He didn’t pounce on her hard enough to make her hit her head hard, but she still gasped a little bit. His mouth claimed hers and she wrapped her arms around his back. As his lips coaxed hers open, she tangled one hand into his hair and let his tongue slide into her mouth. The taste of him flooded Akane’s senses as he licked at her tongue slowly. She felt a moan well up in her chest and cut it off before it could escape her lips. He licked her tongue again almost as if he wanted her to moan and she couldn’t stop it this time. The moan floated from her lips and his hands on her hips tightened. He licked her tongue again more eagerly this time and she licked his back. Their tongues and breath intermingled as his hands stayed right on her hips. She kept one hand in his hair and the other on his lower back. His taste filled her head and made her start to slip into a space she hadn’t been able to be in in a while. His lips trailed along her cheek and stopped at her ear.

“Would you like me to stop,” he breathed against her ear. She shook her head.

“Please not yet.” His lips were soft on her ear as he whispered in it again.

“Then may I kiss down your neck and move my hands elsewhere?” She nodded again, not even bothering to ask where his hands were going to end up at, she trusted him. The feeling of his lips on her neck only heightened the feeling of his hands sliding up and they came to rest a couple of inches below her breasts but still mostly on her sides. Her breath hitched in her throat, and he stopped.

“Please don’t stop. I’ll tell you when you need to stop.” He kept kissing her neck and left his hands right where they were. She tugged at his hair a little bit and he moaned against her skin.

“Oh, Akane that’s a bit of a dangerous button to be pushing.” The warning in his voice was clear. Akane might have been bolder in the past, but she simply let up on the pressure on his hair. His lips continued to make their way down her neck and once he reached her collar bone, he started to kiss his way back up. He hesitantly slid one of his hands up to rest right under her breast and when she didn’t object, he didn’t move it. Akane’s head was spinning in the best way possible as he grabbed her hands and pinned them to the floor as he bit her neck right below her ear.

"Too much.” He immediately stopped and pulled away from her. He helped her sit up and blushed.

“Sorry I should have asked first,” he muttered as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“It’s alright Zawa I promise. You got caught up in the moment,” she said and grabbed his hand softly. He looked at her and when he saw there was only sincerity on her face he relaxed. “Well then let’s watch a movie and then I can walk you back to your building,” he said. She nodded and leaned into him. They settled on a random action movie and cuddled the whole time they watched it. When he left her at her building, he stole another kiss with the promise to see her tomorrow before he wouldn’t be able to for a bit. She would spend every moment until then replaying every second of that passionate make out scene.

Please do not reupload this anywhere. If anyone ever sees my original work uploaded anywhere please let me know. I only post here for now. One day I might actually move things over to my Ko-fi

Here is chapter one in case you come across this post first

[acommonloon]

Omg it's only Wednesday!

Today for the second day in a row I had a bit of an altercation at a checkout line. I'm generally good at pretending to be patient even if I'm not. Yesterday at Sam's Club I lost my patience.

When I observed lines at all the self-service kiosks, I really wanted to bail but with many refrigerated foods items I wouldn't just abandon them, so I decided to grin and bear it.

I found a line with only two people. The woman at the register was already being assisted by the employee assigned to help. The employee and this woman appeared to be getting on famously. The employee at one point took over scanning the items for the clueless woman who must have been visiting SC for the first time. Maybe her first time at any self-serve register. At times I would have observed this interaction with humor.

I saw the employee failed to scan a couple of items in the cart with her hand-held scanner as she randomly pointed at things all the while talking like it was her very last conversation on earth. My dad would say her mouth was running like a freight train. I refrained from helpfully pointing out the missed items as experience has taught me such help is seldom appreciated.

Likely the man in front of me also noticed this exercise in ineptitude because I saw him shaking his head as this went on. When he spotted a register open in front, he raced forward. Just then another register opened and I also raced to escape the line of limbo.

All the while I heard the employee, a woman in her sixties, continue to endlessly mother hen a woman also probably in her sixties.

At some point the man who first escaped her line got the employee's attention because he was buying alcohol. She left clueless and went over and helped him then raced back to clueless who was randomly waving her card around to no effect.

Observing this in the background my own heart sank. Just as the employee had gone to help the man who needed alcohol, I noticed an item I was purchasing rang up at it's original price rather than the sale price that convinced me to buy it. The difference was significant. I decided to remove the item. Once I did this, the screen froze and said an associate would have to intervene before I could continue. Omg.

I looked over at the employee. She now had clueless woman's card in her hand. She handed it back and her voice was pure honey as she wished clueless a good day.

"I need your help" I may have gasped a little too loudly as the associate moved past. "I removed this item and just need to finish." She glanced at the screen and said, "Did you already pay?"

I froze. "Uh no, I removed the item and the screen says you need to do something."

She hurumped! Well you should have been able to complete the order.

Are fucking stupid?! I didn't say but GD I was thinking it hard. She paused. Did you already scan the item to remove?

Yes I did.

Oh, that's why. She shrugged and entered her employee number or some arcane code that allowed the world to carry on.

The screen showed I had a credit if I wanted to use it. She said, You have a credit if you want to use it. As she walked away

I said, "Yes I know how to use this machine." I said to her back.

I wasn't seething but was on the border of that state as I started to walk out. Then then then I tried to recall if I'd scanned the one item I'd come into the store to get. I'd placed the item where a kid sits if you have a kid and Omg when the item that was supposed to be on sale rang up at full price, I didn't carry on and scan that last item. The one I entered the store intending to buy! Fuck me

With self-disgust I removed the item, non- refridgerated and placed it on...some product stacked up along the exit. As I approached the employee's scanning items at the exit, I noticed clueless being shunted to the side. Likely something in her cart, not scanned, was noticed.

I'm not sure what I felt at that point. I'd no ill will towards clueless customer but I'd like to think the associate who played hero to her may have been recognized for a real nincompoop.

Today just as I got in line to pay at Target, two people riding motorized carts pulled up side by side blocking the whole isle. The two registers in front opened but there wasn't enough room for a cart to fit between them. Both customers had foot mobile people scanning their merchandise so they didn't need to be there. I pushed forward and said excuse me but you're blocking the whole isle.

She said, "What do you expect me to do? I said, both of you do not need to be next to each other at the register. Just then a young associate came up and asked her to move forward so others could use the isle. I very much was inclined to castigate this woman as she showed not the slightest concern for how her actions impact others. As I finished paying the woman driving the other cart nearly ran into me. Wtf!

So now I'm drinking Christmas beer.

I've plugged in the tree, maybe I'll put on some Christmas music.

When D gets home maybe I'll forget people suck.

[sekhithefops]

The Son's Garden

So, I'm autistic. One of the issues I have because of it is called "social overload." I get stressed out very easily when I have to deal with a lot of people, sometimes to the point that it actually causes me physical pain if it gets bad enough.

I live with my mother as well, and most days after work I'm totally burnt out and want to be left alone when it comes to face to face interactions. She... also doesn't quite get how this stuff works and can't quite wrap her head around the idea that I'm not ignoring her because of her, but because of everyone else I had to deal with that day. She keeps hovering around me and going on about how I can't even say something to her when all I'm doing is waiting for her to give me some peace after working all day.

So I decided to vent my frustrations about this via writing. Its a rough thing, mostly written out of emotion, but yeah. Here it is.

The Son’s Garden

In a land far away, there were gardens. Some were big, some were small, some were full of vibrant flowers, some were plain and simple but a joy nonetheless, but everyone had a garden of their own.

It was tradition to share your garden with those close to you, but for one young man this was difficult. His garden was wide but the soil there was unusual, and plants grew only with difficulty. He did his best to grow what he could, but it took a long time and hard work and the plants that grew did not grow well.

To make matters worse the garden was along a well-traveled road and every day travelers would trample the young man’s garden to pieces. They did not mean to; some were just in a hurry to get where they were going, some did not realize what they were walking across, some were upset and their emotions blinded them to what they were doing, some were drunk and too taken by their revels to see the delicate blooms trampled underfoot.

Thus, the young man’s garden at the end of each day was left in ruins. What few buds he could grow were stomped into the dirt or torn up by the hooves of horses, some were chewed up by wild animals, few were left unmolested… and all he could do is try to rebuild with what little time he had to himself.

The young man’s mother would often ask him why he did not share his garden with her. He tried explaining to her how he was sore all over from the work of keeping it maintained at all, how hard it was to even grow in the soil of said garden, and how every day the multitudes he dealt with would wreak havoc on it. He tried to put up fences and signs, but they ignored them completely. He tried his hardest to plant and grow and fertilize and weed, but it was of no use.

His mother lived her own life, sequestered in a tiny cottage, and did not see the people stomping through her son’s garden. Only the aftermath when her son would be tired and weary, bereft of all energy, and unable to even offer a single flower… for he often had none left to give after each day.

She only saw her son as a dour and angry young man who would ignore her or snap at her. She did not see him try in vain to guide travelers around his garden, weep in frustration at the buds torn to pieces by dozens of boots, the carefully tilled soil wrecked by cart wheels, and the like.

She did not understand his frustrations, stating only that she had to deal with such too when she was younger, or that he should feel fortunate to have grown what he had. Her own garden had been home to a rather horrible beast in her younger days, a large dog that she had invited in one day when it was young and sleek, but who became more ferocious and feral as the years went past until she was finally forced to chase it away.

Her problem was gone, the dog had fled for parts unknown and was a distant memory now, and her garden grew small but lovely flowers in all colors and patterns without the beast.

But her son’s garden was not her garden. The soil was different, the seeds were different, everything was different about it, and while she no longer had to deal with a beast trampling her garden her son had to contend with not one but dozens of people a day doing so.

His mother felt that if she could spare a bloom, so should her son. After all, everyone has a garden.

But not all gardens are the same, infact precious few of them are. How her son wished that one day she might understand this.

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

As I said, this was mostly something I wrote as a venting piece. I don't dislike my mother, but she can't quite get how this stuff works even after an entire childhood of going to therapy and counseling for stuff (to be fair I was born in 1986 so for a good chunk of my childhood the autism spectrum wasn't even a concept yet,) but yeah. Just needed to get that out.

[artisticbunny]

o.O look I know it’s only been like a week but I’m like, deeply infatuated with a whole new concept that has nothing to do with anything I had previously indulged in. It has nothing to do with fnaf, or utdr, or anime, or even any of my favorite book series

(BUT A COMPLETELY ORIGINAL CONCEPT BY YOU BUN THIS IS CRAZY LIKE HOW WELL OILED IS YOUR BRAIN? WHAT AM I MISSING?)

And today— I come bearing questions for the creator of this ‘new concept’— a true genius from none other than the nefarious hellsite;

Tumblr.

Yep. That’s right. And now, I ask this:

(Hey Bun, don’t mind me I’m just roleplaying myself in your inbox over a silly question. I just wrote an opinionated report for my ELA teacher, so maybe I’m not out of writer mode lol. Anyways, can we know more about Brook? Like y’know, ‘Brook Child’. If that’s treading too close to spoiler territory, then alternatively, can we know about Sam the wizard? He was mentioned earlier and I like wizards and warlocks because magic is such a popular concept based off of something which nobody really knows. Plus it’s something I’m sure everyone ever has fantasized about, even if many believe it doesn’t exist… not nerd ver: magic is cool can we hear about Sam?)

:3 Yep. That’s it. Hope this wasn’t too long or crazy lol. I really do enjoy the course of this and how it’s going. Sounds really cool. Also, I LOVE the artwork that goes along with it. (Plus I saw your Cryptid design and it IS quite friend shaped if I do say so myself lol) You draw very nicely, I like that it’s awesome.

HHHHHH GRABS YOU AND STARTS SHAKING YOU AROUND YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THAT MEANS TO ME AAAAA

PLEASE ALL THESE COMPLIMENTS ARE GONNA GO TO MY HEAD (///////) IVE BEEN READING YOUR TAGS IN THE REBLOGS TOO DONT THINK I HAVENT!!!! YOU GOT ME SMILING LIKE AN IDIOT!!!!

And so,,, Ask and ye shall receive my beloved moot!!!

Brook’s backstory is one that is completely lost to her. Her “mother” never really told her much other than “I found you and took you in, so now you owe me.” At the moment I don’t really think it’s important to the story, and I don’t think it will ever come up so I’ll spill the tea for you ;3

Brook actually was born into a very loving family. She had parents who adored her and each other, and they lived in a fairly peaceful town. This… didn’t really last. Brook’s family went out one day, planning to go a few towns over to see relatives, and instead of settling down for the night, decided to travel through till the morning. Under the shade of night, they were jumped by bandits. During the scuffle, their horse got spooked, and whisked away the cart, with Brook still inside. The horse ran off-trail into the woods, the cart catching on fallen trees and rocks. The horse’s restraints attaching it to the cart were damaged so much by all the debris that when the cart got caught in the bank of a rocky stream, the horse broke free, and the cart remained. Brook’s “Mother” found her and took her in with the thought that she could help with chores when she was older.

Brook stayed 16 long years with her “Mother” (making her ~17 now), and got the idea to escape about a year and a half prior to the events of the story :)

Under her “mother”’s “care”, it wasn’t uncommon for Brook to have food taken away from her if she acted up or made mistakes, it also wasn’t uncommon for her to be locked in the basement with only thin slits of windows to let in light. The basement is also where she slept, not having a room of her own.

Because of these conditions, she is pretty sickly. She is VERY thin and malnourished, and is also pretty short as a result (she’s almost EXACTLY 5 feet tall, maybe a little shorter if you flatten her hair). Her hair is matted and tangled, and her clothes are old, thin, and covered in various stains and grime. She has lots of scars all over her body but by far the most noticeable is the one straight down over half of her face.

She has anxiety and is baby and I love her :)

She’s tired, and needs a break, but she’s not really gonna get one for a while, sorry hon!

Now, you get Sam too because he is VERY cool and silly and I love him.

Sam is a half elf!!! Idk that I mentioned this before!!! He’s kinda just a silly goofy dude who gets stage fright unless it’s his silly werewolf boyfriend. They LOVE each other your honor!!!

Unfortunately god gives his hardest tests to his silliest clowns.

Yeah he goes through the wringer throughout the story. I can’t say much of that because yay plotpoint!!! But yeah djxndhdh

So basically Sam was born in a nice town, pretty average sized, with parents that wanted the best for him. When they saw that he had innate magical abilities (ie: a higher magic storage ability and they saw him just messing around with it and having fun as a kid), they thought that setting him up for apprenticeships would set him up for a good life. What they DIDNT consider is that Sam didn’t really want that. Yeah, when he first started he thought magic was REALLY cool!!! And fun!!! But… all the studying and reading and practicing form and BLAH BLAH BLAH- it made it almost unbearable. Honestly now that I’m thinking about it I probably infused some of my adhd into him without realizing- whoops! Sitting for hours and hours on end just studying instead of actually doing the cool stuff? No thanks that sounds like actual torture! Lol

But yeah, he would end up going through like 5 apprenticeships before he and Joe end up running off into the woods together to find Joe’s tether or some other alternative that hasn’t been discovered yet. They spent a while just kinda camping in the woods with not really much luck before Brook comes along. They’ve been out on their own for about 3 or 4 years at that point, but they haven’t really been counting.

Sorry Sam probably isn’t as interesting as the others, not too bad of a tragic backstory competitively lol. Gotta have SOME less messed up characters! Trust me tho, he gets some good character time in the story I promise!

Here’s what he looks like:

He has a lot of scruff lol, and I love that for him <3

[yautja-lover]

The oomani-di Next Door 🚪 😍

Chapter 1 The Ad 📄

Characters:Charlotte Baker and Wolf Predator. (Nracha-dte)

Charlotte is at a grocery store getting a few things when a worker said over the intercom "there's a spill on Aisle 47 that needs a clean up, please.." while the employee repeated the message a second time, Charlotte came to a hault wearing a look of confusion on her face as she spoke,"Aisle 47?.. just, how big is this place?!"

"I take it that your new here, dear?" one of the shoppers asked, as her two kids walks off, "yeah, just recently moved here.." she was going to say that she just buried her grandmother a few weeks ago but decided to leave that part out. The older woman hummed in response while keeping an eye on her kids, as they looked at the snacks on the shelves "You could say, were a little more advanced here in Gunnison after the peace treaty was set with the Yautja." she said casually, "There actually not a bad specimen once you get use to the faces, it kinda grows on you. Plus, the males treats the females with respect.. which is something that some human males can learn from, if you know what I mean?" the mother added.

The two kids try sneaking some unnecessary snacks in the shopping cart, everytime they dropped an item in the cart, she would take it out and put it right back on the shelf as the mother spoke again. "I have a friend of mine that was in a bad relationship with another man, a human one and the next thing you know this masked humanoid male came in, like her knight n' shinning armor type deal.. the two have been inseparable ever since."

The mother talked and talked to Charlotte for what felt like hours about, how great these Yautja species are.. she had just finished checking out and payed for her items, when she found an ad on the bulletin board that had caught her eye as she walked by.

In need of a caretaker, no experience necessary apply anytime.

Room available for caregiver, no appliances needed.

Charlotte stares at the ad for a moment, thinking it over... 'Why the hell, not?' she thought to herself while taking the ad with her, along with her bag of groceries.

Charlotte drove what felt like hours, driving to the known address that's on the ad from the grocery store. Once she reached the destination her mouth nearly dropped at the sight, "Holy shit.." the young woman whispered, as she got out of her car infront of... what looks to be a tree house-like cabins with multiple tree house-like huts near by, each tree were connected with a bridge.

"I'm way in over my head here.." Charlotte said to herself, she slowly spun around and walked backwards towards the cabins "... there's no way, I'll be able to take care of this.." getting interrupted by clicking sounds coming from the trees in the forest.

The young woman sighed while running her fingers through her hair before taking one last glance at the piece of paper then, spoke to herself 'get it together Charlotte, you got this' marching towards the cabins.

Right when Charlotte reached the front door of the cabins it opened up revealing a very tall male, that was wearing a grey, stone-like mask with thorns all around the crest of it's head and the forehead of the mask had some sort of symbols or markings of some kind. He looked down at the female while Charlotte had to crane her neck a bit cause she was standing so close to him, 'This guy is so tall.. and this costume... makes him look badass,' she thought to herself, as he stepped to the side, allowing her to come in. After she walked in, the male was getting ready to walk out the front door when he heard the woman call out to him, "Nice costume, by the way. Have fun at comic con!" Charlotte had her back turned and kept moving forward. She missed the confused head tilt coming from the male. The silver and gold beads clicked together as he turned to leave out the door 'strange ooman,' he thought to himself.

Yautja Language - English Translation:

ooman - human

nracha-dte - relentless

[thearchivistsjournal]

Day 216,

The mists are out this morning.  Hopefully tonight won’t be as bad as last time.  With any luck, that will just have been because of the funeral.  It makes me wonder though, would I have a similar nightmare if someone living were to be taken by the shades?

At least Cass won’t be there to see whatever my state is tomorrow morning.  Maiko will be, but somehow I’m less worried about traumatizing her.

*******

Once Maiko and I had our fill of watching the mists for giants we started going over what she recalls of boat construction.  I have to say, there’s more fire involved than I expected.  Which is to say, I wasn’t expecting fire to be involved at all, but it made sense once she explained it as a way to hollow out the tree trunk.

All along I took more detailed notes of the process in my other notebook, so I’m not going to bother writing it all down here a second time.  As we talked through it though, Maiko started expressing doubts about the practicality of the project.  For starters, finding a suitable tree would require heading to the northern half of the island and I wasn’t really the woodsy type.  Stings a bit but I can’t argue there.  Then there’s the matter of both cutting it down if we can’t find one already fallen and transporting the log.  Maiko claims that her mother was even stronger than she is now and had better tools, proper metal ones that were lost with her when she disappeared.  We could try doing the shaping and burning there and then moving the finished boat to the north coast, but given that I’m arguably a sort of magnet for sprites and the Wandering God that might not be a great idea either.

Things to mull over and figure out at a later date I suppose.  It’s clear though that this isn’t going to be something I can do on my own.  I hate to admit it after my earlier “asking her to show me how and not build it for me,” but even if we were to pull in Lin, Vernon, and Cass, I suspect we’ll be relying on Maiko for much of the heavy lifting, figurative and literal.  If her stunt with the cart back when we were trying to get on the floating island was anything to go by, she's stronger than the rest of us put together.  Makes me wonder how she didn’t just break the door down back when we first met.  Maybe she was holding back?

I did ask more about Maiko’s mother and her tools.  She said that she never was sure where her mother got them, stolen from the Village or somewhere else.  But they had been living on a different island at the time they made her current boat.  They’d had another boat before then but it had been damaged badly enough in a storm that her mother decided to make a new one.  Or, that’s how she remembers it anyway.  This boat’s nearly as old as she is.

After that explanation and tangent we slipped into another one of those lulls that we’re prone to where it’s ambiguous if the conversation is over or not.

Several minutes later she added that she never had been able to figure out why they always kept coming back to this island though, given how much her mother warned her to stay away from the Village and its inhabitants.  They were staying here when her mother disappeared a few years back though, so that’s why Maiko had kept coming back.  She’d go to other islands every now and then to look for signs of others, but never too far, just in case her mother showed back up here again.

I didn’t know what to say to that.  I wanted to say something along the lines of being glad that she stuck around so I - and the others - got to meet her and be friends, but that just didn’t feel right.  Like I was taking her sorrow and making it about what was good for me.  So, sitting there in indecision I wound up saying nothing at all.

It was hours later as we were cleaning up dinner that she resumed the conversational thread without apparent prompting.  As she does.  Said that she felt foolish for waiting around so long for her mother to show back up when she obviously wasn’t going to.

This time I did speak up, if only to get out that I didn’t think she was being foolish and shouldn’t beat herself up over it.  Finding the words to elaborate on that took me somewhat longer.  First thing that I managed to come up with was that, lacking other information or clues to what happened to her or where she might have gone, regularly returning to the place she was last seen and other places she frequented were reasonable courses of action.  Just because a reunion was improbable, that didn’t make her a fool for holding onto hope of being reunited with a loved one.  And besides, if Maiko had never come back, then she wouldn’t have gotten to meet Lin.  Not part of the plan, but hard to say that’s a bad outcome.

Silence, followed by a simple “Thank you.”

I let her know she was welcome.  That I can’t do much, but if I can help friends when they’re hurting or being too hard on themselves, I try.

We didn’t say much else before mutually heading to bed for the night, but that’s normal for us.

And if I’ve stayed up overlong after that writing this entry, then it’s probably because I’m procrastinating on going to sleep and facing the Catacomb Depths.

Still, I need to do that sooner or later.  Better all in one night that I can repress and put out of mind for the next couple of weeks than dealing with the random flashes.

It probably won’t be as bad as last time.

<==Previous          Next==>

[faithhearted]

More often than not, Anna wouldn’t permit herself a moment to think of much outside of the obligatory things such as the children – were they being fed well enough and properly looked after while she manned the Sutler cart? What was the latest news from Abe in Setauket or Townsend in New York? Could she be doing more to help this conflict end sooner rather than later? 

As of late, she’d even added Benjamin to that list in place of Selah’s absence. Was he eating and resting adequately? Could he manage his duties while at the same time tending to his well-being? 

It wasn’t as though this was abnormal. During her Summer stays with her Aunt and Uncle in their sleepy seaside town, Anna had always spent time doting on the boys, being the eldest of them, even before she and Selah had become romantically involved many years later. Mothering had always been in her nature, whether it was wanted or not.  As of late, it seemed it was quite frequently the latter. 

On their way to the cabin, the liquor began to dull her senses, lower her inhibition, and numb her grief. Tonight, there would be no room for thinking. In truth, Anna feared if there had been, she’d have broken down in hysterical tears. That was the last thing they needed. 

Instead, there was a relief to be found once they were behind closed doors. Appraising Benjamin as he helped himself to the bottle, Anna once again noted how much older he seemed these last several months. He was no longer the young man who had left Setauket in search of his own life, nor the idealist who had enlisted to serve his country. 

The hardship and turmoil had thickened his hide, adapting him into someone who learned to endure, just as she had, and it broke her heart to think the sweet boy whose hand she’d held while he cried from a bee sting was as dead and gone as her beloved husband. 

"Dare I ask what brought this on?" he asked, handing the bottle back to her before taking a seat,  "Typically, you are the voice of reason in this group, so I'm wondering why you decided to turn into Caleb Brewster...granted, you're much easier on the eyes -- the nose, too."

Anna sighed as she slumped into the seat across from him, deigning to stretch out her legs until they settled upon his lap and too tired to be concerned with any potential protesting. 

“I resent that comparison,” she mumbled as she suddenly determined her hair was tied back too tightly and tugged the pins free before carelessly discarding them on the ground. Since it’d been ages since she’d been able to trim her hair, dark locks cascaded down past her shoulders, draping over the curve of her breasts and along her stomach as she slid back into the comfort of her chair. 

“Am I not allowed to have secrets of my own? You certainly have no qualms about keeping yours.” 

In her saturating inebriation, Anna studied him to the best of her current ability and gestured toward him with the near-empty bottle, offering him the rest of its contents. 

“You know something, Ben,” she slurred with a shrug, “You care so terribly much…so much so that I don’t believe a single soul cares more than you do about anything.” 

The odds that she was making much sense were slim, but that wasn’t going to stop her from continuing. 

“That’s why we’ve come as far as we have with all this.”

Though she gestured around the room, she meant to allude to the success of the Ring. 

"Without you, I fear this Cause would be failing miserably."

Here, she blew a raspberry to indicate failure.

"Someday, when this whole wretched war is done, you'll make a fine husband to one lucky woman and have sooo many adorable babies with big blue eyes."

“Oh, don’t fuss. I’m not a child,” Anna slurred, wavering a bit as he held fast to her arm.

"You're right. Children usually know right from wrong," Benjamin grumbled.

“Didn’t you used to be fun? What happened to that?” 

He didn't answer her query, a distant melancholia tinging his eyes as he gazed out over the horizon. The boy within had traded in his books, marbles, and overall wonder for a saber and musket; the boy within was dead, and he'd barely even had the chance to mourn him.

Anna nudged his flank. “Truly, Ben, when was the last time you attempted to skinny dip, or get drunk, let alone do anything exciting?” 

"Seeing how General Washington disallows that sort of thing, I would say not very often," Benjamin replied just as sardonically. "Honestly, Anna, what good would oblivion do? We're not here to have fun. People's lives are at stake, so we can celebrate and carouse once the war is through."

Ever defiant, Anna swiped back the bottle and brought it to her lips, her eyes sparkling within the moonlight before she lowered the wine with a pleased hum. Her mouth shone wetly as she spoke, and promptly lowering his gaze, Benjamin frowned as she said, “We’ve got what we needed, now we can celebrate, or you can spend the rest of the night in tedium.” 

He sighed. Would it truly hurt him, were he to allow one night of a respite? Whether or not he wished to acknowledge it, Anna was right: they had gotten the necessary information required to move forward, and to award themselves could benefit their overall morale.

"Fine," Benjamin agreed, snatching the bottle, "but we're taking this so-called party indoors. I meant it when I said I'm not diving in after you."

Placing a hand against the small of Anna's back, he attempted to steer her toward their cabin. Despite her wobbling, they made it there relatively unscathed (she'd stepped on his foot once or twice), and as he shut the door behind them, Benjamin finally succumbed and took a hearty swallow of wine. A pleasant warmth spread throughout his chest, and despite knowing Anna's lips had been pressed to the glass mere moments prior -- an indirect kiss -- he indulged in another swallow before handing it back to her.

"Dare I ask what brought this on?" he queried, frowning while he took a seat across from her. "Typically, you are the voice of reason in this group, so I'm wondering why you decided to turn into Caleb Brewster...granted, you're much easier on the eyes -- the nose, too."

[crazypaperwasteland]

My Cold Dead Heart

Word Count: 1.1k

Summary: Klaus spent nearly six centuries searching for one thing. His wife. But he never expected that someone would come along and hand her over to him. Him being Klaus, his next actions are driven only by instinct to wake his wife up from her deep slumber. 

Warnings: Swearing, violence, Klaus being desperate and a simp

Masterlist

I knew my most fatal flaw. I could never fully trust anyone. Not even my siblings. I was careful not to let my enemies catch wind of my only weakness, the only thing that I would bow down for. My wife. 

The Original Heretic, as it happened. In 1496, my wife, (Y/N) Mikaelson, was taken by a coven of witches when she was at her most vulnerable. She’d wasted all of her magic trying to break my curse without the Petrova doppelganger, and was left with nothing, not even her vampiric strength. 

All I knew was that she was placed in a tomb, sealed by the magic of the entire coven. That was how much it took to keep my dear (Y/N) inside, an entire coven of witches. I never knew the location, and try as I did, I couldn’t get her back, I couldn’t find her. If any of my enemies caught wind of her existence and found her before I did, well, it would be bad. 

Even in six centuries of looking, (Y/N) was nowhere to be found. It felt like I’d searched the entire world, dragged every ocean, she was just gone. Until I returned to Mystic Falls, broke my curse and decided to stay, making more hybrids with Stefan Salvatore as my accomplice. 

When Stefan returned to Elena’s side, I soon realized what it would take to make more hybrids. I was draining Elena’s blood in my living room when I heard a squishing sound, liquid dripping and then saw hearts fly across my hardwood floors. 

“Let her go, Klaus,” I heard Damon Salvatore growl in his usual arrogant tone, it was like he didn’t understand that I could squash him like a bug. I turned around, Elena tried to groan out something like a warning to the eldest Salvatore brother, but it just came out as an inaudible mumble. I expected to find him alone, but no, there was Stefan standing there, holding a fine casket in his grip, there were wheels on the bottom of the cart it laid on top of. I could have sworn I’d undaggered all of my siblings, even my mother, so whose casket was it?

“Do I want to know whose rotting corpse is sitting in there? Or perhaps,” I laughed, “that’s the casket you plan to use for me when you ‘kill me.’”

“No, Klaus,” Stefan interjected before Damon could open his big mouth. “We’ve come to offer you a deal. An exchange, if you will.” I raised a brow, urging him on. “You give us Elena back in exchange for the lovely lady in here.”

I chuckled, “I’m afraid that dead women aren’t my style, fellows. Elena is just my speed, at least when she’s like this.”

“I think you’ll find that you enjoy dead women a lot more than you think when you see her,” Stefan shoved the cart toward me, I managed to grab it before it slammed into me. I glanced hesitantly up at him before I grabbed the door, lifting it open. I could have sworn that my heart stopped for a moment. 

I released a shuddering breath as I took in her face, the curve of her jaw, the color of her skin, her lashes that twitched in the throes in whatever sleep she was in. I raised my hand to softly touch her cheek, not quite believing she was real. I vaguely heard Damon sneaking past me to get Elena, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. 

My wife was right there. I was touching her, I could feel the warmth of her skin. I looked up at Stefan when Damon left with Elena, Stefan was watching with a look of longing, sadness. “Where?”

“She was in the same tomb that I thought Katherine died in,” Stefan told me, “she was right here this whole time, Klaus.” Stefan turned around and followed after his brother. 

I felt a tear roll down my cheek as I took in her features. It had been nearly six hundred years since I last saw her. And it was all my fault. I remembered what she’d once asked of me after Katherine escaped my clutches. 

“Please, Niklaus,” she pleaded. Gripping at my arm when I tried to turn away from her, “please, just let me try.”

“No, (Y/N),” I cut in before she could try to convince me some more. “This feeling of wanting to break my curse will turn into an obsession,” I turned and placed my hands on her face. “And that obsession will drive you mad.”

But she’d managed to convince me. Despite every instinct in my body and soul telling me that I shouldn’t have allowed her to. She delved into dark magic, delved into sacrificial magic in the hopes that it would be enough to break my curse. She’d been close when she was snatched. She was weak enough that a coven was able to overpower her, and that made it my fault. Because she was only trying to help me. 

I rushed out of my house and grabbed a random woman off the street, dragging her back to the coffin, kicking and screaming. “Please, please don’t hurt me,” she shouted desperately, looking into the coffin, “I haven’t done anything, please!”

I flashed my eyes at her as my fangs extended, I lifted her wrist to my mouth, not bothering to compel her to be quiet or to not be afraid, I wasn’t in the mood to toy around. I ripped her hand away from my mouth and placed it over (Y/N)’s, praying that she’d drink.

Blood spread over her supple lips, I saw her eyes move behind their lids. Just before her hand flew up and grasped at the screaming woman’s wrist. The strong grip made the woman scream all the louder, I snapped her neck and held her body up so that her wrist wouldn’t be dragged away from (Y/N). 

It took a solid minute before all the blood was drained from the woman, (Y/N) dropped her wrist and I let her body go. I witnessed more color flush (Y/N)’s cheeks, and then her (e/c) eyes flew open and met mine after a brief moment of looking around. 

She swallowed audibly, licking the blood off her lips. I surged forward and gathered her up in my arms, lifting her out of the coffin and holding her against me. She tried to pry my arms off of her, but I just held on tighter. Then and there, I swore that I would never let her go again. I swore that no one and nothing would take my love away from me again, absolutely nothing.