#but our car was small so we couldn't get most of his stuff here. so his fam agreed to keep it til we get a storage unit

[plushie-lovey]

My datemate's birthday is coming up, and he's hoping for it he can get all of his stuff from his parent's place (and in turn a visit from his mom, since she hasn't seen him in what will be a full year and four days on his bday). Out of everything he's excited to have his favorite stuffed animal to cuddle with again, a 3ft tall emperor penguin who's called Penguin (recently named Cuddles. But we still just refer to him as Penguin). I bought Penguin for him in a goodwill for like $4 about 2 years ago, and it's been my love's favorite thing ever since. He says Penguin is the perfect firmness for cuddling, as he likes a stiff stuffed animal. He really misses holding him. So I hope his mom comes thru and brings all his stuff. But at the very least, Penguin.

[missadangel]

Little Bird in a Cage (Javier Peña x Reader)

Part 14: The Past

Gifs by jcylenz - nicholetread

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

“And put your right foot over there, hips, hips, yeah.”

“So it’s very important to maintain a certain distance something like this.”

“For instance we can do a one two three four five six step-“

Chucho looked very tired but he was happy, laughing.

After Javi finished his phone call, came into the living room, he got surprised to see you and Chucho dancing.

He leaned against the door with his arms crossed as watching you with a wide smile on his face.

‘I think that's enough,’ Chucho said panting. ‘I'm too old for this stuff, and I take it all back, Colombian salsa is fucking hard.’

‘Cali-style salsa aka Salsa Caleña,’ you corrected him. Then you put your hands on your waist, ‘and yes, it's hard unlike your weird cumbia dance.’

‘Pops, the last time I saw you dancing, I was six,’ Javi said with a laugh.

Chucho didn't look at him, still breathing hard. ‘And it better stay that way, I’ll beat you up if you mention about this to your tia.’

‘By the way, what's wrong with our cumbia? Salsa can’t be that hard.’

You rolled your eyes as Javi coming towards you.

‘Chucho said the same thing before he was sweating buckets,’ you raised your eyebrows, challenging him.

‘You should learn from your dad’s mistakes, son.’ Chucho grinned.

‘I got this dad,’ he put his hand on your waist and pulled you closer to him but you quickly wriggled out of his grip and pulled yourself back, putting some distance between you, he frowned.

Chucho laughed hard. ‘Be my guest, I have to get ready for damn wedding anyway,’ he snickered, walking towards his room.

You both ignored him and seriously put everything you have into it, as if you were in a dance competition. Javi tried to grab your waist but you pulled yourself away again.

‘Not so fast,’ you said with a laugh, throwing one foot back and taking two quick steps towards Javi with the other, never letting go of his arm, but he was getting impatience, he pulled you by the arm again, lifting up and spinning you around, you got surprised.

‘You should do this last-,’

Suddenly he lifted your body up and you found yourself on the couch with him bending over you.

‘You cheated,’ you chuckled, jokingly punched him on the shoulder.

‘I couldn't resist,’ he smiled and kissed you.

Chucho cleared his throat, you startled, breaking the kiss with a gasp, trying to get up quickly but your head hit against Javi's muscular chest, he wouldn't let you.

‘You guys should get ready too, if we don't go to this wedding, God forbid, your aunt won't shut up until doomsday.’

Without looking at you, he wore his hat, stepped out to go to the car. Your cheeks flushed, you bit your lip, Javi giggled and kissed you again.

‘I'm really scared of her more than the doomsday, lets get up baby,’ he grabbed your arm and helped you to stand.

‘Me too,’ you giggled.

He put his arm around your neck and kissing your cheek as you walking towards the room together to get ready.

----

The wedding was crowded, whole town must be here, you thought.

‘Oh no, everyone is staring at me,’ you whined.

‘It's because, you're the most beautiful woman here,' Javi whispered in your ear, kissing your cheek and grinning at the look on your face, made you flushed.

‘You're not helping,' pursing your lips, you could have sworn you were as red as a tomato.

‘Relax baby, breathe,’ he held your hand tightly.

People were drinking, having fun, laughing, talking and smoking. As soon as you walked through the door, they all looked at you and started talking again, this time with more enthusiasm.

Javi popped a nicotine gum into his mouth and started chewing, he has been having a hard time fighting the urge to smoke lately.

He pulled a chair from the table where Chucho was sitting and waiting for you to sit down, then sat down next to you.

People were coming to your table, shaking hands with Chucho and Javi and making small talk. Of course they were looking at you curiously, you were smiling at them in return. Javi's eyes never leaving you meanwhile, holding your hand, brings food and drink for you.

After a while a man was passing by with a boy of about 7 or 8 years old as Chucho stopped him, the boy had bruises on his face, you frowned.

“Andre, what happened to your face?”

“They fight all the time with other boys, he's very naughty, you know the kids,” he said laughing, but the boy bowed his head, for some reason you felt something strange about them.

Chuho laughed, patted his head and they headed further down the hall. You followed them out of the corner of your eye until they sat down at their table, something inside you kept telling you that something wasn't right about him.

“Are you okay?” Javi pushed your hair off your shoulder, gently brushes with his long fingers.

“Nothing, just the kid,” you mumbled.

“He's just a kid cariño, come, I should congratulate Enrique,” he said grabbing your hand, got up from the table, you followed him.

They announced the bride and groom for the dance a while ago but didn't even hear them because you were busy think about that kid, you decided to put your thoughts aside.

Javi hugged the groom and patted him on the shoulder.

“Congratulations, man.”

“Javi, thanks for coming,” he said smiling and then looked at you shaking your hand, you hugged him and the bride.

"So, are you two getting married soon too?"

You looked at Javi, he blinked at you then turned to him.

"Not yet, I guess," he said smiling, you were a little offended, but you kept your smile.

Not yet? Really?

"You found such a beautiful woman man, what do you waiting for, just marry her," he chuckled. "Right, love?" he wrapped his hands around his bride.

"Absolutely, you look so good together, just like us," bride giggled.

You looked at Javi with raised eyebrows as they kissing each other.

“They’re damn right.”

He just smiled at you, pulling you away from them.

"Come on, let's dance," he put a hand on your waist and lifted your arm with the other.

"So 'not yet', huh?"

Javi rolled his eyes, "What else could I say?"

"Maybe something better than that."

"Why are you so upset about this all of a sudden?" he frowned.

"Do you have a problem with getting married?"

"Of course not, I just..."

Just then, a few women approached the two of you, drinks in their hands, all eyes on you and him.

"Javi, can we borrow your girlfriend for a moment?" one of them asked, looking you up and down, you smiled shyly.

"For a girl to girl chat, we mean," said another.

Javi stopped dancing and looked at you, obviously he wasn't sure, but one of the women already pulled his hand away from yours and grabbed you by arm.

"Don't worry, we won't bite your girlfriend, come on honey, we just want to get to know you better."

“Sure,” Javi murmured.

They laughed as they pulled you away from him to another table.

When you turned your head back saw him putting his hands on his waist, watching you walking away, frowned.

Then he got a beer and sat down next to his father.

Javi's aunt came running as soon as she saw you with them.

“Oh honey, you're here,” she kissed you on the cheek.

You wondered if she liked kissing everyone like that.

“Sophia, you were right, she is really beautiful,” one of them said.

“Yes, she really is, she doesn't look like any girl I've ever seen,” someone stroked your chin.

“Are all Colombian girls this beautiful?” asked another woman, giggling.

You forced a smile, feeling shy gives its place to being uncomfortable.

“Let her breathe, ladies,” Sophia said as she sat down next to you on the couch and put her arm around you.

Look who's saying it.

“I think Javi really found the love of his life, this time,” elderly woman said.

“But she’s so young, how old are you?”

“How rude, Carol,” Sophia scolded her.

“I'll be 23 in two months,” you suddenly said.

The woman  named Carol raised her eyebrows.

“How many years are there between you and him, 15?”

“My husband and I are ten years apart, so what?” Sophia scolded her again.

“Yes, but you're the older one,” someone said and they laughed loudly.

“Don't worry about them, honey, it's all about how you feel, love is love, and love is never wrong.” Sophia said, patting your shoulder.

You nodded, wondering when they would leave you alone, but unfortunately their endless questions continued.

‘How did you two meet?’

‘They met at the bar, fell in love instantly,’ Sophia answered before you and giggled at you.

Her behavior reminded you of your father, you smiled, you realised you missed him a lot, but now was not the time for that.

‘How long have you been together?’

‘Well almost a year,’ you even surprised yourself.

Has it really been that long?

‘Quite long, you should get married already,’ other woman snickered.

‘Javi better hurry up,’ the other one chuckled.

‘Hasn’t he proposed yet?’

They all fell silent and waited for your answer curiously.

Damn.

You swallowed. ‘Not yet, but I'm sure he's thinking about it, soon,’ you said, unfortunately your tone not as convincing as you wanted it to be.

They all looked at each other and mumbled something, which surprised you because you were expecting a laughter after that.

‘Of course he will, honey,’ Sophia patted your back like she was consoling you.

‘Marriage must be his weakness,’ Carol muttered.

‘It must be hard for him,” other women murmured.

You frowned.

What the hell was that mean?

‘I mean, yes, even after all this time,’ someone else said.

‘What do you mean?’ you suddenly asked got upset as hell.

‘I mean that he and Lorraine-’

‘Speaking of,’ someone pointed a blonde woman.

‘Lorraine, come here.’

A blonde blue-eyed woman – looks different from the other women here - came over.

‘Meet Javi's girlfriend,’ someone said, giggling strangely.

She looked at you with her blue eyes and smiled warmly.

‘So you are that beautiful girl the whole town has been talking about, welcome,’ she said, you shook hands. ‘They were right, you really are beautiful.’

‘Thank you, it's nice to meet you.’

Actually you weren't pleased, you were starting to feel sick, something had definitely happened between Javi and this beautiful woman. You had to ask.

‘I take it you know Javi?’

‘Yeah, well it was years ago-’

‘Mum, help me please,’ she apologized and left quickly when her son called out, but she was looking at you with concern as she getting away.

‘Didn't Javi tell you honey?’ Sophia asked.

‘Tell me what?’ your heart was starting to race.

‘Oh how stupid we are,’ the other woman said, ’Forgive us, sweetheart.’

‘We thought you knew.’

‘What? Please tell me,’ you insisted.

‘Javi and Lorraine, I mean it was years ago,’ Sophia said. ’They were going to get married but Javi... well he just disappeared on the day of the wedding.’

Suddenly you felt nauseous. Jealousy took over your whole body like a poison, blood rushing through your veins.

You stood up, couldn't hear a sound. The only words you heard were

Javi and Lorraine and the wedding

‘Excuse me,’ you said and walked away.

How could he not have told you something like that? Is that why he hasn't proposed yet? Could it be that he couldn't get over her?

After a long time you felt like crying again. You wanted to get out of here immediately, when you went to the door, you noticed a teenager serving drinks on a tray in his hand. You asked for permission and drank them all in one gulp, the teenager was surprised and blushed. But the drinks were only cocktails.

‘No hard liquor?’ you asked, hands were shaking.

‘Well, there are tequilas that we will serve tonight, but,’ he was ready to do anything to make you happy.

‘Please, I just want to drink some.’

‘Okay, come with me to the kitchen then señorita,’ he said happily, you nodded and followed him.

You were careful not to drink hard liquor since the last time, but that was all you wanted right now.

You didn't care about anything.

He took advantage of the bustle in the kitchen, grabbed a bottle of tequila and a glass, brought them to you, opened the door behind the stove and led you to the outside, the fire escape.

'You can drink in comfort here, señorita,' he was smiling.

‘Thank you, that's very kind of you,' you said, taking the bottle and glass from his hand. 'You go back to work.’

'No problem, I can keep you company...'

'Please, let me be alone for a while, will you?' you looked at him smiling and he nodded immediately.

'Of course, señorita, as you wish,' he said, closing the door and going inside.

-----

Chucho finished his beer and looked at Javi.

‘Son, poor girl must have a headache, go get her before she passes out,’ warned him.

Javi nodded, when he realised you were no longer with those women, he stood up, his eyes searching for you.

As he approached them, Lorraine came up to him.

‘Javi, you need to find your girlfriend, I guess you didn't tell her but she found out thanks to others, she seemed upset.’

“Fuck,” he got pissed, ‘Which way did she go?’

‘I, um, outside I think.’

Javi immediately ran in the direction she said to get out. But he couldn't see you there. Just people smoking cigarettes and service staff serving drinks.

He stopped one of them.

‘Have you seen the lady with me? The one in the red dress?’

Teenager boy smiled.

‘Oh, that beautiful lady? Long, chocolate hair, looking like a model,’ Javi frowned when he grinned sheepishly. ‘She was talking to Anton earlier,’ he swallowed, probably not liking the way Javi was looking at him.

‘Yeah that must be her, who the fuck is Anton?’

‘Look, there he is,’ he pointed to the teenager who has just helped you while ago.

Javi walked towards him.

‘Are you Anton?’

‘Yeah?’

‘Where's my girlfriend? You were just talking to her.’

He squinted at Javi.

‘So you're the reason she wanted to drink so badly?’

‘What? Look, why don't you just tell me where she is?’

‘She said she wanted to be alone,’ he said angrily.

Javi took a deep breath and grabbed his shoulders. 

‘Look Anton, my patience is running out, how about you tell me where she is right now before I get real angry and kick your ass?’

He got nervous, ‘On the fire escape outside the kitchen.’

‘Good boy,’ he patted on his shoulders then let him go, hurrying into the kitchen.

By the time he opened the door to the fire escape, you'd drunk almost all the tequila bottle.

You were leaning your arms on knees, having massive headache.

Javi picked up the bottle, “Shit, did you drink all of this?”

When you couldn’t answer, he crouched down next to you, took your head in his hands to look at your face, but eyes were closed, you were already high.

“Baby? Cariño? are you okay?” he asked with concern.

You were just moaning, mumbling.

Sighing, he picked you up and carried you out. You were unconscious but you heard him saying “I'm sorry” over and over.

----

When you opened your eyes, you felt like your head was about to explode from the pain. So you closed your eyes again and waited for the pain to subside. You couldn't move your body for a while, you felt like trapped under rubble.

Soon you started to regain consciousness, the last thing you remembered was the tequila bottle, and then it started to come in pieces.

You remembered Javi, how he came to you worried and tried to revive you, and then he took you in his arms and sat you in the car.

Also remembered how you were running to the bathroom and throwing up over and over again.

You closed your eyes tightly, embarrassed.

He must be disgusted  by me damn it, you thought.

You pulled the sheet over your face, you wanted to disappear.

“Are you awake?”

You were surprised to hear Javi's voice, oh right, after the vomiting session he has taken you to the shower, dried you off, helped you to get dressed and put you to bed.

You moaned in shame.

“Baby, are you okay?”

You clung to the sheet with all your strength when he tried to pull it off your face, but in the end he was stronger than you. When he pulled the sheet away, you immediately covered your eyes with your hands, feeling so ashamed.

Javi laughed, “So you remember last night?”

You shook your head slowly as yes.

“Everything?”

What did he mean?

You tried to remember quickly, has something else happened?

Then suddenly you remembered everything piece by piece.

Remembered everything you said to Javi when he put you in the bath tube.

“I hate you, why don't you want to marry me?”

“Because I don't have blond hair? Would you marry me if I dyed my hair?”

And the worst...

“Will you marry me if I propose you? Please don't leave me.”

Actually, the worst thing was that you kept punching his shoulders, crying and begging like a toddler.

Fuck me.

“You remember, don't you?” he was waiting for an answer, he took your hands off your face but you refused to look at his face.

“No, I just drank too much and then I passed out.”

As if it wasn't enough that he was leaning over you on the bed, he grabbed your chin with one hand and turned your face to his.

“You don't remember anything you said to me last night?”

You shook your head, looking away, knowing that if you looked into his brown eyes he would see through your lie.

“What about the hot rough angry sex we had last night?” he whispered into your mouth. His sweet breath made you dizzy.

You looked at him confused. Surely you would remember that if you had sex like that.

“What? But after the bath you put me to bed so then we did it?”

He snickered. “So apparently you remember everything.”

Oh, shit.

“Did you set me up?”

“Why are you lying?”

“Because I'm so ashamed, last night that, wasn’t me. Please forget it.”

“How can I forget that you asked me to marry you three times?” He was still laughing. “And you were so cute, I loved drunk you.��

You frowned. “So you liked it a lot huh, did you forget why I wanted to be drunk?”

You wanted to get up but he grabbed you by the arms, pressing them back down to the mattress.

“You're right, about that, forgive me for not telling you before, I was wrong.”

He kissed your forehead then let your arms go.

He sat up in bed and then lifted you to sit up too. He was looking into your eyes with his brown eyes.

‘I made a mistake years ago, I regretted it very much, I even wanted to turn back time and go back to her, but I loved my job more. I didn't care, I saw her last year, married you know, she has children and all, I let her slip away and she was belonged to someone else. At that moment I thought that it was impossible for me to find true love, I didn't deserve it anyway, so I didn't pursue love, I let it go. But then you came along and you became my everything all of sudden, you were born like the sun in my life,’ he caressed your cheek with the back of his hand.

You didn't even realise how tears were running down your cheeks.

‘Do you really think so?’ your voice trembled.

‘Yes baby, that's the real reason I couldn't think to prevent you from getting married earlier.’

‘You thought that you were being punished?’ you were surprised, how could he think that?

‘It was nonsense, never mind that, actually I feel I got rewarded, now,’ he said and kissed you on the lips.

‘Thank you for saying that,’ you felt so relieved, breaking the kiss. ‘I apologize for last night.’

‘No need to, cariño.’

‘But there's something else you didn't tell me, isn't there?’ you leaned your head on his shoulder.

‘Hm?’ he was playing with your hair.

‘You miss your job,’ you said, you’ve noticed that days ago.

‘No matter how happy we are here together, you miss your job, you want to be there.’

He looked at you with raised eyebrows. ‘You're right, I'm not going to lie to you, I want to go back to work, I've been meaning to tell you,’ he smiled. ‘you know me well now don't you?’

‘I guess I do,’ looking at him and grinning.

‘I’m gonna visit Steve tomorrow since he’s in headquarters. I don't know where they'll assign me though, but San Antonio most probably. So are you ready to come there with me? I thought you liked it here?’

‘Yeah, but Javi, I'm happy as long as I'm with you, no matter where we are.’

‘I love you so fucking much.’ he kissed you and wrapped his arms around your waist and slid you into his lap.

‘So hot rough angry sex, huh?'

He chuckled. ‘Since we're not angry, how about a hot rough morning sex?’ his lips running through your neck.

You giggled, ‘I thought you'd never ask-“

He interrupted you by kissing and pushed you backward onto bed.

So were too close to end guys :) hope you all enjoyed so far :)

for any requests hit the comments xoxo

[girls-alias]

Dean's Dream P4

Title: Dean's Dream P4

Part 3

Words: 1333

Relations: Dean Winchester X Reader

TW: Foul language.

Prompt:

Dean is captured by a Djinn and dreams of Y/N.

She turned, smiling at me. From the smirk on her lips I knew she had caught me checking her out. She giggled approaching me. "Keep looking at me like that and we wont make it to Sam's," She explained seductively before leaning up. I smirked, leaning in to connect our lips. A kiss, intended to be short and sweet but developed into roaming hands and dancing tongues. I smirked against her lips, thankful I was here though I knew I didn't want to be anywhere else.

"Excuse me!" An old woman's voice called from behind me. I moved to pull away but my lips wouldn't allow me to leave hers. The woman in my arms, the love of my life only pulling me closer.

*What Dean couldn't see was his woman flipping the old lady the finger over Dean's shoulder. *

"How rude! There are kids in this neighbourhood," The woman continued to complain. I watched as she pulled away from the kiss, eyes rolling. She looked pissed.

"Wind your neck in lady or we'll show them the birds and the bee's right on this porch," Her voice was raised, her eyes serious and dark but a smile never leaving her lips. It wasn't a sincere smile but a smile non the less. I chuckled, admiring her as she stared the lady down. Damn!

The old hag scoffed dramatically, looking around for other neighbours to take her side but no one was looking in our direction. She grumbled as she walked away.

"What a cuck," My woman scoffed before turning to me, as soon as her eyes were on me she had loving and happy eyes. Her smile reflecting the love she has for me. I wanted to chuckle but didn't want to miss a second of looking at her. "Come on, hot stuff. You're driving," She explained holding car keys out to me. I chuckled as I accepted the keys, she moved to keep walking but I pulled her back by her waist. Instantly connecting our lips again. She giggled as she kissed me back but pulled away smiling brightly. My lips curled into a smile as I admired her up close.

"I love you," I confessed but she chuckled, placing a hand on my cheek.

"I love you too," She expressed, connecting our lips softly and pulling away slowly. "We do have to go though," She explained reluctantly. I nodded, finally releasing her hips from my grasp. She smiled interlocking our fingers to hold my hand as she guided me down the porch steps and towards the car.

1967 Chevy Impala. I admired it's beauty, wondering how I could possibly recognise the car more than the amazing woman who loves me. I still don't know her name. Maybe I should look for letters in the mail, that will surely have her name on it. Her fingers began slipping from mine as she made her way to the passenger's side. I took the opportunity to slap her ass as she walked away. She looked back, smirking at me devilishly. The grin on my face growing as I got another excuse to admire her.

We got in the car, AC/DC instantly playing through the car as I started the engine. She gasped leaning forward to turn it up. She likes rock music, how is she getting more and more perfect? I put the car in reverse ready to drive away before realising I have no idea where I'm going.

"I'll give you directions don't worry," She explained as if it was no big deal. I looked at her, taking a second to just watch her as her smile grew wider the more I was looking at her. She giggled after a little while. "What?" She asked.

"I love you," I confessed because she knows me so well. I have no idea what's going on and she's guiding me through it so easily. She knows me better than I know myself.

"I love you too," She chuckled as she shook her head softly.

She guided me all the way to Sam's house. We pulled up outside to see a small house on a quiet street, 7 houses at most. I smiled knowing he must be happy here. I turned off the car, she gave me a final smile and kiss before climbing out. I can't stop smiling, she's too perfect! I climbed out and watched as she opened the back door and started grabbing a large bag full of wrapped presents and a card on top. I grinned knowing she must have put a lot of effort into this. I hurried to her side as she started leading the way to his house, I placed my hand over hers, accepting the bag from her grasp. She smiled brightly but chuckled.

"It's a little heavy," She explained but I shrugged, it can't be that heavy. She chuckled before dropping the bag into my hand. My eyes almost popped out of my head. It wasn't too heavy that I couldn't carry it but it was heavy enough to make me almost drop it. She laughed, a beautiful, harmonic laugh. Stopping in her tracks to bend, she was laughing so hard. I chuckled, simply wishing to always remember this moment no matter what happens.

"Oh, you think that's funny?" I asked playfully, she struggled for breath as she stood up straight about to come back with a snarky remark but couldn't hold her laugh in any longer and burst out again. I laughed alongside her.

"Having fun without me," Sam's voice called from his front door. I looked up as he started walking out to greet us. She stopped laughing and her smile was beaming. "Y/N," He exclaimed hurrying down his porch steps. That's her name! Y/N. Y/N. Y/N. I need to remember it! Y/N. Y/N. Y/N.

"Sammy!" She exclaimed rushing to hug him. They met in the middle hugging tightly as he lifted her from the ground. He put her down and turned to me not noticing that she playfully rolled her eyes at him. I grinned widely, they're best friends. I love it! Sam hurried to me a little, I wasn't completely sure how we would greet each other but his arms opened and I accepted his tight hug. I grinned widely, patting his back with my free hand. He stepped back smiling at me widely.

"Happy birthday, Sammy," I explained holding my arm up a little to offer him the bag. He looked surprised before accepting it and smiled at me with tear filled eyes.

"Thank you, you didn't have to do all this," He explained, grabbing the card from the top.

"Y/N did it all," I cheered, happy to be saying her name. It rolled of my tongue with ease. She gasped audibly. I looked to see her approaching. She stood by my side, lifting my left arm to drape over her shoulders, I smiled as I pulled her in closer.

"I'll have you know, it's baby to you," She explained correcting me. I chuckled seeing the irony. I've felt terrible all morning for not knowing her name and now she only wants me to call her baby. I didn't even need to know it really. "But Dean's being modest, he has been working on your gifts for months, isn't that right babe?" She asked, turning to wink at me to play along. She wants me to take the credit. She's fucking perfect!

"Well, I wouldn't say that," I played it off but Sam chuckled.

"I really appreciate it, man. Thank you," Sam explained, coming back to hug me again.

"Don't say that, you haven't opened them yet," Y/N joked, making us laugh as we pulled away from the hug. She clapped her hands together. "Alright, where's my nephew? Russ!" She called out facing the house. My eyes widened as I watched his front door. Sammy has a son?!

A dog burst through the screen door, it banged against the wood panelling of his house. I almost sighed with relief. Thank God I didn't forget a child. Y/N's face lit up as the dog rushed to her and she quickly stroked him talking to him with a baby voice. She keeps getting cuter and cuter.

"Come on, I'll get us a beer," Sam explained, gesturing with his head to the house. I watched Y/N as she smiled brightly and joined me at my side for the small walk. I draped my arm over her shoulders, watching as she smiled even brighter.

"God, I love you," I whispered as I kissed the top of her head as we walked.

"I love you too," She explained slowing down and turning to me to quickly connected our lips. She really is perfect.

Masterlist Part 5

[idontplaytrack]

Coming Home

Capri Donahue x gn! reader

Warnings: fluff, mentions & descriptions of anxiety, some coarse language

In which, reader wakes up feeling like they’ve gotten out from the wrong side of bed and nothing feels right

(Pictures used above are from Pinterest)

Requested? Yes / No

You stood before the vanity, looking at yourself in the mirror. Taking a few deep breaths to relieve the tense feeling in your body, not much happens— you still felt…weird. But since you only had thirty minutes to leave the house and get to your shift at the bookstore on time, you couldn’t focus on that. Not now, you couldn’t be late. Glancing over your shoulder at Capri’s sleeping figure, you left the room. Grabbing your lunchboxes and placing them into a bag, you then put your shoes on. You made sure that you've already grabbed your keys, wallet and phone before leaving the house. Your heart was racing and you didn't like it— you didn't know why that was happening but you couldn't do anything about it. You got into your car and drove off, hands clutching onto the steering wheel so tightly that your knuckles turned white.

"You're okay, y/n." You reminded yourself, "Breathe...in and out. Breathe. Watch the road, focus on driving. Nothing else. Everything is—" Nope, not okay. You couldn't even trick yourself into it. Shit, and now your stomach hurt. "Why must it start hurting at the worst time possible?" A soft sigh escaped your lips as you stopped at a light, "God, stop it."

Eventually, you got to work. Putting your stuff into your locker, you put your name tag on and retrieved your water bottle. Chugging some of the liquid, you put it back, walking out to the floor.

"Everything alright, y/n?"

You blinked blankly a few times, "Uh, yeah. Fine. Everything's fine."

You felt like the air was getting sucked out of you— you felt like you were ‘over-feeling’ every single normal bodily sensation.

Your manager then tasked you to stock the shelves with a few boxes of the new books and other items that had just arrived. Thankfully, during which, you felt fine. You felt relaxed, for the first time since you woke up that morning. You worked in a pretty small bookstore that doesn’t get too crowded so it was peaceful most of the time.

“y/n.” Your manager taps you on the shoulder, unintentionally startling you.

“Oh, hey Alex.” You stopped what you were doing for a moment.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle ya. What time do you wanna go for your break?” He asks.

“Uh, maybe 12:30?”

“Sure thing.” He nods, “Okay, I’m gonna let you get back to restocking. Is it okay if you cover for Elliot at 11:30? He’s gonna go for his break then. I gotta make some calls to suppliers and ask Dana why she isn’t here yet.”

“On the checkout?”

“Yeah.” He confirms.

You knew you had to do it somehow. You guys were the only ones working today and were short a staff member. “Just for the duration of our break. Sometimes he takes a way longer break.”

“That has become a problem, hasn’t it?” Alex sighs.

“A little, yeah.” You shrug, maybe coming off a little more annoyed than intended.

“I don’t wanna pry because we all have bad days, but do you wanna take a minute for yourself and calm down? ‘Cause I know sometimes you deal with thought spirals.” He asked you straightforwardly.

“I am feeling a little weird today. Don’t know why, and those breathing exercises did not work.”

“I’m sorry, but if you need a minute just let me know and you can dip out, okay?”

“Okay.” You nodded lightly, “Thanks, I just— I think I need something to do where I’m not thinking about anything, like—”

“I got you, just finish this up and work on the displays. Change them up a little. I’m gonna go give Dana a call, I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

————

As midday approached, you started feeling more…okay. “y/n, Alex says you’re covering for me, right?”

“Yeah, but can you come back on time? Because I’m not feeling too great today and I don’t be on the front for too long.”

He seethed, “Sorry. Yeah, I’ll come back on time, I promise.”

“Alright, thanks.” You answered with a shrug, sure that he would most definitely not keep to his word. But, it had to be said. He couldn’t just keep taking longer breaks because he feels like it.

You took his place behind the cashier while you watched him take off his apron and leave. The bell above the door tinkling, signalling his departure from the store. You zoned out briefly, staring at the keyboard when the door opening again snapped you back into reality. You were expecting a customer but it was Dana who rushed into the store apologising profusely for oversleeping.

“Good! There you are. So good to see you. Will you be okay to—” Alex walks out from the break room. Dana interrupts him. “Work overtime? Yeah, I’ll make up for the hours I missed this morning.”

“That. And, could you cover the checkout? I want y/n working on the displays instead. Elliot takes forever and Derek our store’s artsy guy won’t be working for the next two weeks.”

“Sure, no prob!” Dana stood beside you.

“So you wanted me to change them all?”

“That’s right. It’s getting a little boring having everything looking like this for the past two months. Shake it up a little, friend.”

“On it.” You nodded firmly.

“Also, Elliot should be back by 12:15. So he isn’t back by then, call him, text him…whatever you do. Get him back here.” You heard Alex telling Dana as you walked into the storage room at the back to get out a couple boxes of decorations.

You worked on redoing the displays until you had to go for your break. Sitting down in break room, you opened up your lunchboxes and dug into the food: a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in one container and the other had some trail mix in one half and veggies in the other half. You completely zoned out while you ate, until Capri sends you a text.

Lunch went by pretty quickly. You put away your empty lunchboxes in your locker, went to wash your hands, then got back to work. “All good?” Alex asks when he saw you exit the break room.

“Yeah, I finished my food so I’m going back to wo—”

“You, not the displays.” He bit back a laugh.

“Better, actually. Thanks for asking.”

“That’s good.” He replies, “Hey, you’re working tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah, what’s up?” You ask, shoving your hands into your pockets while you leaned against the wall.

“Nothing, I’m just thinking if you wanted to just take the day off tomorrow? You’ve worked six days last week and already two days this week.”

“Would you have enough people on shift?” You asked again, concerned.

“We’ll be fine, employee-of-the-month.” He jokes, “Don’t worry about it. Take tomorrow off, relax, sleep in, sleep all day, go see the stars with your girlfriend. Anything.”

“If you insist.” You agreed, “I’m gonna— hey, do you think we should shift the horror and thriller books more to the front for this table? Since Halloween’s next month.”

“y/n. You know what you’re doing at this job, just go for it. I’ve never doubted you.” Alex says.

“Very well then.” You nodded slowly, scurrying away to the back of the store to move the set of books to a table nearer to the front of the store.

————

After saying bye to Alex, Dana and Elliot, you left and started your drive home. As you got into the car, your nose was hit with an oddly familiar scent which made you feel anxious. You hated that certain scents could do this to you. You were doing pretty well until now.

Deciding to put on your favourite playlist, you drive off. Once again, you relied on your breathing exercises the whole way through. However, when you got home, you still felt strange. That feeling from earlier on in the day was bubbling back up.

Unlocking the front door, you stepped inside and shut the door. Before the front door even fully shut, Capri came up to you. “Hi, baby.” She presses a kiss to your lips while brushing the hair out of your eyes. She studied your face, “Do you want to talk about it?”

You pursed your lips together, shaking your head, “I…don’t know what’s making me feel so…on the edge today? I just feel shitty, every little thing triggers a stomachache or makes my heart feel like it’s going to beat out of my chest. Everything just feels so off.” You looked away from her but she just tilted your chin with her finger to make you look at her. Capri cups your cheeks in her hands, caressing your cheek, “You’re okay, you’re home now. I’ve got you.”

Looking at Capri right in the eye made you feel like crying, made you feel like releasing those tears that you were holding back for some reason. Finally, with her, in her presence…her company. Your body just…relaxed. Completely relaxed and let go off whatever repressed feelings from the day. “I’m gonna give you a hug, alright, baby? Is that okay with you?” She asks softly and you answered by wrapping your arms around her first.

You soon stopped crying and broke away from the embrace. Capri slowly does the same, “Go take a shower, okay, babe? I’ll join you in a minute. Just have to turn the oven off.”

“Okay.” You agreed with a sniffle, trudging upstairs.

You grab your towel and walked into the bathroom, stripping your clothes off then stepped into the shower. You hear footsteps over the sounds of the falling water, then saw Capri walking in. She helps you shampoo your hair and lather the soap on your body— you just let her, enjoying her company. While you washed everything off, she was shampooing her own hair and soaping up her body. Even when you were done, you just hung around until she was too.

She leads you back into your shared bedroom by the hand then picked out a change of clothes for you— her clothes. Your favourite comfy hoodie of hers and your own pair of shorts. Once you were both dressed, she cuddled with you without you having to ask while watching Friends with you. She knew exactly what you needed.

Eyes flicking upward to look at hers, your heart melts as do you, into her embrace. She presses a kiss to your head, pulling you closer to her. Her eyes. They felt like…coming home. So beautiful, so warm, so loving.

“Capri?” Your eyes met hers again. She presses the space bar to pause the show, “Yes, baby?”

You cup her cheek and pulled her a little lower, pressing your lips onto hers. Capri smiles, returning the kiss. “I love you.” The corner of your lips tug into a smile.

————

🏷️ Tag list:

@ashecampos @auliisflower @cheesysoup-arlo @frogs00 @reneeswif3 @ludoesartnstuffs @pda128

[queenquinzel715]

1. Alfie Solomons 18+

Word count 3,175

1. Alfie Solomons 18+

(Y/n) p.o.v

I've had enough of Small Heath, Birmingham, so I told Poll I'm going to London to visit Ada. Granted I was staying with my younger sister, but I spent most of my time with old friends that moved out of Birmingham. They told me about this club, it's supposedly the rage of London, and I'm dying to see just how big this place is.

"Hurry (y/n)! The car is here." My friend, Mildred yells for me.

"I'm coming!" I rush past Ada with a kiss on the cheek. "Be back in the morning Ada!" I yell over my shoulder.

"All because your name is Shelby doesn't mean you have to act like one!" I hear Ada as I climb into the car.

As Mildred, Joan, and I rode in the car we told stories of our lives, and we'd laugh. We finally got to the club, and I'm so thankful no one knows who I am, or my family. We walk in, check our coats, and immediately I get an idea of what kind of club this was. There were people doing drugs before you even got to the main club part, along with people having sex against the wall. I might as well have stayed in Small Heath for this. The only difference was this was high class instead of the dirty Garrison.

As the night went on I lost each friend to guys, one with snow, and the other to dancing. I stayed at our table, relaxing against my seat, just enjoying the music, and my drink. That was until some high-end guy sat in the seat next to me, and moved it closer. I slightly move to the side to take a sip of my drink, trying my best to ignore him, but he takes my drink out of my hand.

"You shouldn't be alone." He states. "It's not safe for a woman to be here alone."

"I'm fine." I say in a monotone.

"Why don't we get a drink? I can get you the top stuff." He boosts.

"I have the top shelf. Thank you" I state trying to reach for my glass.

He grabs my arm while he stands, lifting me up with him. I try to pull my arm away, but his grip hardens.

"Dance with me." He commands.

Before I can curse at him a big fist collides with his jaw, making him fall to the ground. I turn to my savior to see a man with a beard, top hat, and a cane. He moves to stand in front of me.

"Right, you say you're sorry to the lady." His cockney accent throws me.

"I'm not…" the man stops when he looks up. "Sorry ma'am." He then runs away.

"Names Alfie Solomons, love. " He tips his hat to me.

"(Y/n)." I purposely leave my last name out.

"You need a new drink, love. What you havin'?" He points to my spilt glass.

"Gin and water." I told him. I could tell it surprised him.

"That's fucking awful. Let me get you a proper drink." He sirs as he holds two fingers to the bartender.

"So, what has a gentleman, like yourself, in a club like this?" I smirk at him.

"I could ask the same, love." He chuckles.

We are a couple drinks down. Apparently the rum in London is a lot smoother than in Birmingham. We laugh at each other's stories. I say goodbye to my friends when they leave with their own men.

"I couldn't possibly drink another one." I giggle as I move the half empty glass away.

"Let me help you." He helps me stand straight as we walk out.

Alfie walks me to a cab that's sitting waiting outside. I laugh at myself as I slip into the seat. I lay my head against Alfie's shoulder as he tells the driver to go he moves to rest on my crossed knee, and the other over his cane. I run my hand along his arm until it wraps around his bicep, and the other rests on the top of his rough hand. He flips his hand to actually hold my hand. We rode in comfortable silence until I eventually leaned my head on his shoulder.

When we pull up to his hotel he pays the driver, and helps me out. I keep hold of his hand as he guides me up the stairs. Once we get to his door his hands go to my waist to pull me close to him. I run my fingers in his beard as I smile up at him as we lean into each other. We kiss like we haven't seen each other in years, like we needed each other. He starts to kiss along my jaw.

"Al…Alfie please open the door." I softly moan into his ear.

He gives me a smirk as he takes a small step back, but doesn't let go of me as he turns to the door. I squeal from being picked up from the waist, and I hear the door slam behind me. I giggle as I'm set on my feet again. I turn to Alfie, playfully hitting his arm.

"You awful man." I laugh.

He chuckles as he throws his jacket off letting it fall over a chair while his cane falls to the floor. He grabs me by my waist to pull me to his chest. I smile up at him as I move his suspenders down his arms. He backs us to the bed making us fall onto the bed, with my knees on his hips. I gasp when he starts kissing my shoulder to my neck. I grab the back of his neck as he starts moving his hand up my leg, bringing my skirt up with his hand. I rest my hands in his hair while I open my legs for him to kneel between them. He locks his eyes with me as he pulls my underwear down. With a tight grip on my thighs he begins to kiss along the inside of my thigh then doing the same to the other side. I tried to lean on my elbows to watch him, but the closer he gets the more intense I feel. I fall on my back with soft moans. He finally is close enough, but all he does is kiss my lower lips with a quick kiss. I almost whine, but it stops in my throat when he licks up my opening.

"Alfie." I reach for his hand on my hip.

He entwined our fingers, giving me a slight squeeze before completely devouring me like a starved man. My back arches into the air as I grasp the top of his head. I've never had a man do this, this good before. My thighs already start to shake from him playing with my clit.

"Alfie, please! I…" my head falls back as I beg.

I feel his free hand run up my stomach to my chest as he sucks my clit while pulling away. He uses his hand to hold me down while I shake under him, a moaning mess. While I catch my breath he stands to look over me, and slides his pants off. I quickly slide my dress over my head as he crawls between my legs. I rub my hands over his shoulders as he gets in between my legs. My body is just melted, a puddle under him. I actually need him. I've never needed anyone this way before, and it's throwing my mind off. I can't keep any sense to me while he slowly slides into me. He doesn't stop until his hips are against mine, and he leans down, his groans vibrating my shoulder.

"Fuck, love." He starts to move.

I move my hips along with his as he moves faster. He knows every spot like I've known him for years. The faster he moves the louder the bed squeaks, the harder I grip his arm, and he tightly squeezes me to his chest. I bite my lip to hold my moans in, but he rams hard enough to reach deeper than I could ever imagine. I have to hide my mouth in his neck as I moan out.

"Alfie. Please." I beg into his neck.

His movements become sloppy, and I can feel myself tighten around him, feeling every grove of him. With a deep groan and another deep ram we release at the same time. I tried to catch my breath, but Alfie pulling me to his chest didn't help. I usually leave after I relax for a moment, however his arms are so warm I fall asleep.

I wake up at some point in the morning, and begin to slowly leave. I have to get out of here before he gets up or it's going to be awkward. I don't have many one nights, but I know the rules. I get back to Adas while she is at work, so I just go back to bed for a couple hours. I'm woken by the phone ringing.

"Ada Thorne residents." I answer.

"(Y/n), I need you back soon. Come straight to the Arrow House." Tommy orders before hanging up.

"Oh yes Tommy. No problem Tommy." I grumble to myself hanging up the phone.

He's such a pain in the ass. I tell Ada Tommy's orders, and she just rolls her eyes as she helps me pack. I give her and Karl a final hug as I board the train. I can't stand how I have to follow Tommy's rules, and orders. I swear I'm gonna smack him one day.

Coming into the station I see Tommy's driver waiting for me, and helps with my bags. Of course Thomas Shelby couldn't meet his sister at the station. The drive to Arrow was peaceful, and all I thought about was Alfie. I start feeling guilty for leaving, for some reason. Pulling into the long driveway of the house I roll my eyes at Tommy's new living.

"(Y/n) welcome back. How's Ada?" Polly asks as she helps me step out of the car.

"Ada is fine, Karl is driving her mad with his shenanigans, but overall fine." I laugh with her while we walk inside.

"Well Tommy of course was ahead of himself, because his meeting isn't until tomorrow." She walks me toward the living room. "I told him you would already be here, but of course he didn't listen." She lights her cigarette as she talks.

"It's okay I wasn't really doing anything." I shrug.

She hums in reply, but Tommy stops her from actually saying anything. He doesn't even acknowledge us here, he just pours him a drink.

"(Y/n) my business partner will be here tomorrow afternoon. I need you there to have the papers in order." He simply tells me.

"Why can't Lizzie help you?"

"Because I have you doing something else." He walks away with no response from me.

The rest of the night I talked with Polly. I went to bed dreaming of ocean water. I woke to Polly shaking me awake for breakfast. I took my time getting ready, and setting the papers in front of Tommy making sure he saw I put them there. John, Arthur, and Tommy start talking business, so I just leave.

Around two in the afternoon I was called into Tommy's office by Polly. She has hard eyes when I see her, but I should've been listening to the voice in the office. As I walk in everything goes quiet.

"(Y/n)." When I hear that deep voice again I almost fall to my needs, but instead my head snaps up to the man standing next to my brother's desk.

"Al…what?" I try to gather myself, but of of course a girl can't do that when she has brothers.

"How the fuck do you know our sister?" Arthur stands from his seat.

Alfie just looks at me in shock as I do him, maybe in deeper shock. I look at Tommy as he stares at me. He knew. He knew, and that's why he called me to come here. My head begins to spin as John and Arthur start yelling, so I just run out of the room.

"(Y/n)!" I hear multiple voices call behind me.

I run to the side of the house, squatting down, and just take deep breaths. I slept with their business partner, and I might actually feel something for him. I already know it's not going to end well for me or Alfie. I stay leaning against the house until I hear my name being called.

"Love where are you?" I hear Alfie's voice call with the others.

I take a deep breath before walking out. Polly, John, and Alfie are watching me walk toward them. Alfie looks my body over with sad eyes before turning to his car. Polly puts her arms around me as Alfie drives away. I know we weren't together, but it still hurt he left.

"It'll turn out right (y/n)." John rubs my arm.

We walk back into the office we're a fuming Arthur is sitting with a calm looking Tommy. Polly sits me in a chair in front of the desk, and sits next to me as John stands behind my chair. The look Tommy is giving me is like he's looking at every depth of my soul. He clears his throat before light a cigarette, and turning his eyes to Arthur.

"His name is Alfie Solomons, and he runs the Jews in Camden Town. We started working with him when we went against Sabini, but Alfie decided he wanted the Italians." Tommy clears his throat. "You know everything after that, but he hasn't done anything lately." He looks at Arthur when he scoffs. "I need to know if you knew him."

"No, I swear we met at the club in London." I tell the truth.

"Do you care for him?" Tommy asks.

"I… well.."

"Who cares?! You go near him again, I'll cut him." Arthur storms out.

"Answer me." Tommy pushes.

"Thomas enough." Polly steps in, but Tommy just stares me down.

"I don't know." I shrug.

"You don't know, but yet you slept with him." He scoffs.

"Oh please like you are the Virgin Mary." I roll my eyes. "I did know he was a gang leader or something like that. He stood up for me and bought me a drink. He was different." I say the last to myself but of course Polly heard, and snapped her head to me.

"Alright that's enough. She hasn't done anything wrong,Thomas. What she chooses is her choice." Polly tells Tommy, and gives him the eyes that meant that the conversation is over.

She walks us up to my room, and shuts the door when I sit on my bed.

"Now it's my job to tell you what he said." She smirks at my reaction, and hands me a folded paper. "If you want to call him he will answer, and business is business not this." With that she left.

Over the next couple days I keep thinking of Alfie, so when the guys are gone I use the library phone to call Alfie, and when his deep force answers I freeze.

"Hello!" He calls again with frustration.

"Alfie?" I quietly answered.

"(Y/n)? Wha…are you okay?" He sounds so flustered.

"I'm okay. I just decided to call you." I hear something move in the background.

"I'm glad you called. I knew you couldn't resist me, love.'' He chuckles along with my giggles.

We talk until I hear a while blowing in the background. He grumbles under his breath.

"It's quitting time, love. I have to go."

"Oh okay." I pause for a moment. "Where do you work?"

"A bread factory in Camden Town." He tells me, but a loud bang is heard before I could respond. "Love I gotta go, I work with idiots."

"Okay bye Alfie." I giggle.

"Bye love." He hangs up.

I turn around to leave with a giddy smile on my face, but Tommy leaning against the door with his arms crossed.

"I'll deal with Arthur, just don't lie to us." He walked away before I could hug him.

I rush to my room, and throw things into a small bag. I have to get back to London. I tell my family where I was going, and the only thing Polly tells me is to be careful. The train pulls into the London station, and I see Ada waiting for me. When she sees me she gives me a smirk with her hands on her hips.

"I told you just because you are named Shelby doesn't mean you act like them." We laugh as we get to her car.

The next morning I got ready. I make sure everything is perfect before I get into the taxi. As the drive gets closer to where I'm going I begin to get nervous. What will happen? We stop close enough to the door. I knock on the big door almost getting hit with it when a scrawny man with an apron answers.

"I'm here for Mr. Solomons, the name's Shelby." I simply tell him.

He opens the door further for me, and I follow him through the bakery, up the stairs to Alfie's office. He points toward the door before going back down the stairs. I softly knock on the door before opening it slowly.

"What now, Ollie?" He doesn't look up from his papers until the click of my heels hit the floor as I walk to him. "What are you doing here, love?" I sit on the corner of his desk.

"Well I decided that I wanted to come see you, and that maybe we could talk somethings out." I nervously twist the bead on my dress.

"What is there to talk out? I assumed with your call the other day you were mine." He simply tells me as he stands.

"Well I guess so. I just…" He cages me with his arms.

"You wanted to see me." He finished for me. "I'm glad you're here." He kisses me deeply.

I stayed with Alfie for a whole week, and he almost had my brother banging down his door when he wouldn't let me leave. He ended up coming to Small Health for a few days until the smog got to him. After a couple of months of back and forth Alfie asked me to marry him. Arthur beat him up when we told everyone, but everything is overall okay. The day before my wedding Polly told me I was pregnant, and the baby was going to be famous. My sweet Sylvia was born. She was our angel. However our son Jack became a gang leader like his father. I love him to pieces, but he gives me heart failure.

[final-girl96]

Broken World: Chapter Thirty-Seven

Later That Night

Everyone was back inside to give a final vote on what to do with Randall. Dale was able to change the mind of Andrea and partially Glenn but everyone else was on the side to kill him. Dale is a good man with a good heart, but that just isn't good enough for this world anymore. It was too great of a chance to keep Randall alive. He knows where the farm is so he could go back to his group and bring them here. And from what Daryl told me about what Randall told him about those men I did not want that happening.

Dale had stormed out of the house and walked off. Shane, Rick, and Daryl went out to get Randall to take him to the barn. Rick had decided the most humane way to do it was to shoot Randall. One bullet in the head. It was clean, painless, and quick. The rest of us minus Dale stood and sat around the fire waiting for it to be over. I paced back and forth waiting to hear a gunshot that never came. It was only maybe five or ten minutes when Shane and Rick came walking towards us with Carl in tow. Daryl came a few minutes later.

Randall was still alive and in the shed. They didn't get to do anything because Carl had come in telling his dad to do it. Shane was the one to drag him back out. It's not surprising that Lori didn't have her eye on him. When Rick told us that he and Daryl would be taking Randall eighteen miles out like the original plan, maybe even go a little further than that. When Andrea heard that, she took off to find Dale. A few minutes later, we heard a gunshot. We all took off towards the field with Rick in the lead. When I finally made it, pushing my way past everyone to get to the front, the sight in front of me had me turning back around.

Dale was laying on the ground with his stomach ripped apart. The walker who had done it was lying not far away. He was suffering, we could all see it in his eyes. There was nothing Hershel could do for him. Dale pleaded with Rick with his eyes. He was begging for him to give him mercy and put him out of the pain he was in. When Rick hesitated Daryl stepped forward. He took a few seconds until Dale gave him a slight nod and then he pulled the trigger.

The next day after we buried Dale with Sophia and Hershel's wife and stepson, it was decided that we would all move into the house. It would be cramped but it was the best choice. Not only would it be safer but the weather was getting colder. Shane didn't agree to letting Randall go. He wanted to stick to killing him but Rick's mind was made up after what happened to Dale. I was helping pack supplies into the car when Daryl came up to me. “Can I talk to ya?”

I set the stuff I had in my hands into a box and turned to him. “Yeah, sure, what's up?” I asked. Daryl shuffled from one foot to the other while he bit the side of his thumb nail. He couldn't even make eye contact with me, which told me he was nervous. “I see you still have the bad habit of chewing on your thumb nail.” His head snapped up, blue Eyes meeting mine, and he dropped his hand down to his side. “I need ya to stay outta trouble while I'm gone. Don't do anything stupid.” I raised my right eyebrow at him and then narrowed my eyes. “Excuse me?”

“Don't go get yourself killed while I'm gone.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “I know damn well you are not trying to tell me what to do. How about instead of being an asshole towards me, you maybe, I don't know, treat me like a human being and kindly ask me to be safe while you're gone. I am so sick of these mood swings of yours, Dixon. If you hate me so much, maybe try not talking to me at all. I am sick of your mood swings!”

“Everything okay here?”

Daryl and I turned our heads towards the voice. Rick stood there, hands on his hips. “Fucking peachy,” I replied. Rick looked over at Daryl, who wouldn't make eye contact or say anything. “Okay, well, if you say so. You ready to head out then, Daryl?” Daryl gave a nod and a small grunt as an answer. “Hwy, T-dog, mind going and getting Randall?” Rick yelled over to T. “You got it!” He said and walked off towards the shed.

“He's gone! Randall is gone!” T-dog said, running back towards us. The whole group followed him to the shed. I pushed past everyone walking into the shed to see the handcuffs hanging from the pipe. I walked over to them, kneeling down to look closer to them. “How did he get out of these?” I asked no one in particular. It's possible but it's not easy to get out of cuffs. The cuffs were covered in blood so he had been trying for a while.

“He's been trying for a while to get out of these cuffs,” I told Rick. He nodded his head. He was about to say something until we heard his name being called. “Rick!” Shane walked out of the woods, a cut on top of his nose, and blood running down his nose to his chin. “Son of a bitch snuck up behind me and clocked me. He has my piece, man.” I narrowed my eyes and looked over at Daryl, who was already looking at me. It was clear neither of us believed that Randall could take Shane. “You're telling me that Randall, a guy who weighs maybe a buck twenty-five, was able to sneak up on you?” Daryl asked, full of suspension.

Shane just gave him a look before talking to Rick. “We need to go after Him,” he said. Rick nodded and turned to the rest of the group. “Glenn, Daryl, and yn, you three head one way and Shane and I will go the other. The rest of you go back to the house.” Daryl shook his head, “Nah, she's staying here,” he said. I turned my head and glared at him. “You don't get to decide what I can and can't fucking do.” Daryl threw his hands in the air. “Ya just got shot a few days ago! Not even healed all the way!”

“I'm going and that is final!”

I walked past Rick and Shane and headed into the woods. I pulled my flashlight from the pocket on the side of my pant leg and turned it on, then pulled my knife from my belt. I pointed the light to the ground and looked for footprints and any other signs of which way Randall might have gone. “Hey, yn, wait up!” I stopped and looked behind me. Glenn was walking towards me with Daryl behind him. I sighed and turned back to looking at the ground. “Watch your step. There are tracks on the ground; two sets of them.” Daryl moved past Glenn and came up beside me. “I don't believe Shane. There is no way Randall was able to get a jump on him.”

We kept walking through the dark woods following the tracks that eventually turned into one set; one set of tracks that changed from normal to all over the place, like someone was dragging their feet. I saw movement up ahead and bumped my elbow into Daryl's arm, nodding my in the direction of movement. We walked closer, getting a better look, seeing it was a walker. But when that walker turned around we noticed it was Randall. Daryl brought his crossbow up and put a bolt through his head. When we went to check where he was bitten we couldn't find anything. “His neck was broken; someone purposely broke his neck. And how did he turn when he doesn't have any bites or scratches on him?”

[str8sub4domdudez]

Superboys Part Two Excerpt : Sunwing

Warning!

[Do not take anything from this excerpt as an example of a smart idea. I would not ever advise for someone to depend on their martial arts lessons take down someone threatening them with a gun. It's not smart, and it's very potentially deadly.]

«ж»ж«ж»ж«ж»ж«ж»ж«ж»

Chris and Dick fly through the city on their grapples. Chris has a tendency to float a bit, but quickly learns that he needs to keep tension in his line. It's just like the waterslides – more fun without flying. Chris half wonders if he should have some Blue Kryptonite on, but dashes those thoughts when he tries to imagine seeing the city through dulled senses.

He hears a gunshot and a woman calling for help, so he tells Dick and they head off in the direction of the gunshot and find a woman in an alley standing over a bleeding, unconscious man.

"Are you hurt?" asks Dick. "Can you call an ambulance? We can call for you if you need."

"Yes, please call for help," says the woman. "It's Nightwing, isn't it?"

"Well, that seems to be up for debate," says Dick, and he calls 911 for an ambulance.

"What happened?" asks Chris.

"The motherfucker pulled a gun on me," says the woman, "and I ain't no victim, you know. I used everything I learned from my Krav Maga classes to disarm him and slam his head into the curb."

"We were worried someone got shot," says Chris. "Good job defending yourself. Most people don't put the effort into learning how."

"Yeah well, this is Gotham. You gotta know that stuff. So who are you? You're like a better Nightwing. At least your costume is better."

"You really think so? I like it. Nightwing had it made for me, but we're still arguing over who gets to keep the name. We're both Nightwing."

"Small world, huh. Well you could be Sunwing in this costume. I don't know what you… wait a minute… are you Champion's bodyguard? That Nightwing?"

"Yeah, but don't tell anyone. Batman doesn't like metas in Gotham."

"Well if you're going for fooling the bat, something cheesy you wouldn't choose as your own name might work. At least if he knows you well enough."

"I'll keep it in mind," says Chris. "Sunwing isn't horrible. But I wouldn't want go by anything other than my name, so maybe Batman won't realize it's me. Thanks, uh…"

"Clarice. Clarice Henderson. Nice to meet you, Mister Zod."

"It's Lor-Zod," says Chris. "Mister Zod was my father."

"I thought it was 'General'," says the woman smartly.

"You pay attention to interplanetary politics?" asks Chris, suddenly finding the woman more interesting.

"You kidding? Our moon just got turned into an alien planet! Who wouldn't pay attention? Bunch of meatheads, I guess. I hope you like Earth, Mister Zod.

"I love it here."

Around that time the ambulances and a police car approach and Dick gets off the phone. He pulls on Chris' arm. "Time to skedaddle! Have a great night, Ma'am."

"Okay, you too, Nightwings!"

The duo go on to stop four muggings and a car theft before being stopped by the Dark Knight.

"Who's the copycat?" asks Batman.

"You know your own protége," says Chris.

"I meant you," growls the Bat. "Lor-Zod, I take it?"

"How'd you figure it out so quick?" asks Chris.

"I recognize your voice. What are you doing parading around in that?"

"I had it made for him," says Dick. "You don't like it?"

"Why did you put him in that?" asks Bruce. "Are you hazing him?"

"No! He just– well I couldn't take him around as a Bat if he's going all super and you hate metas, so I thought—"

"—I don't hate metas, I just prefer to be in charge of the vigilantes in my city and metas can be somewhat destructive. No offense, Lor-Zod but Kon-El, in his first six months, caused more collateral damage than all my Robins put together. Not counting the Red Hood's actions of course."

"Of course," says Chris, "Because it's always easy to contrast the two when you ignore their common ground. Tell me, how much collateral damage has Jon-El racked up? Or Kol-El? I'm pretty sure Kon-El's first six months were a difficult time, what with going through untreated PTSD and having no family, mentors or peers facing the same issues. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that his destructiveness was a product of specific factors and not because he's a meta."

"But he was capable of accidentally causing so much destruction because of his super strength and invulnerability."

"I guess most six-month-olds can't bench press small buildings. Either way, I'm kind of insulted you think I'm going to wreak havoc just because I'm Kryptonian."

"It's a general rule, not an absolutism. Wonder Woman has similar abilities and I'm not saying she's destructive. I am saying I prefer to keep things my way in my city. I don't go to Smallville and break Ma Kent's rules and I don't go to New Krypton and break their rules either. If you wanted to patrol with Nightwing, Lor-Zod, all you had to do was tell me."

"Really?" says Dick.

"Really," says Batman.

"I want to patrol with Nightwing," says Chris.

"Good," says Batman. "Of course we'll have to make sure you're really you, you'll have to be vetted for brainwashing, mind-control and pods and you'll have to be washed for lice."

"B!! You're embarrassing me in front of my friend!" whines Dick.

Batman continues, "And of course, once that's done, we'll have to take samples so we have your real DNA and hair on file—"

"—We already have that on file!" says Dick.

"And before you can patrol in Gotham, you have to be trained in various safety methods and your signature modes of transport. I noticed your grappling was a little rocky. You'll have to have a permit while a licensed grappler teaches you."

"That has literally never been a thing!" says Dick.

"And if you're going to be galavanting around with my son at night in skin tight suits, there's a slideshow I think you both need to see."

"I've heard the horror stories," says Chris. "We aren't doing that. Even if we were, I'm not watching the goddamn slideshow, but Nightwing and I are just friends."

"All the same, you must complete all of the safety orientations," says Batman.

"B!! Why are you trolling us?" asks Dick. "Just let me have some fun patrolling with Lor tonight."

"Very well, why don't you two take Lor-Zod to get changed before you finish your patrol?" says Batman, "People say I'm terrifying, but they haven't seen the horrors of gaudy yellow fingerstripes. I can't unsee it."

"You're only saying that because you know I designed it, aren't you?" says Dick.

"Absolutely," says Batman, "Enjoy your night," and Batman disappears into the shadows of the alley.

"Well, I can't enjoy my night wearing this now," says Chris. "He totally ruined this awesome costume for me."

"Does that mean we're saying bye to Sunwing?" asks Dick.

"Bye-bye, Sunwing," says Chris.

________________________

Superboys – Part Two

https://archiveofourown.org/works/19334917/chapters/45993946

[mcalhenwrites]

Some personal stuff below.

This trip... I knew it wouldn't be great. I wasn't looking forward to seeing my parents, I just missed my dog so much. I thought it would be nice to go to a couple of familiar places as well, like a wildlife exhibit and a couple of parks, before I left. Unfortunately, my dad had no problems jumping in and telling me to "shut up" or shushing me for no reason. Degrading me in front of people whenever he had the chance to boast about it. Misgendering and deadnaming me constantly. He even uses my dead name to EXCESS just to use it. He made me cry once. He has lied countless times. He gaslit my mom (only to slip up and admit that he was given the information she was making up by the same person by saying, "Oh well he didn't go with that bc [reason].") So tomorrow morning is likely the last time I ever see my dog in person. I came back and he had gained weight - which in his case is extremely bad for his back legs - due to barely ever getting walks. He had long nails, and I couldn't get an appointment until Saturday so I gave my mom the money and made the appointment. She keeps saying she doesn't need money for him. It doesn't help that my parents are extremely weird and uneducated so my only way to give them money is sending cash or checks via snail mail. And he needed badly groomed, my mom has mostly kept up with this but his back legs were in dire need of attention. I did what I could. Trimmed the parts that are rough from having to be shaved from hot spots - yes I know you don't shave a doublecoated dog but the VETS did it for a medical reason - and around his butt. Got his mats cut or combed out. He's a big fluffy guy now. But what happens down the road? I can't take him. I have worked myself to full capacity so much, and I can't get myself out of this trap. I'm not good enough to sell many books or earn patrons. So I'm stuck. I let myself have a little bit of money to buy some of my own things so my roommate doesn't cover them and give myself a few small treats here and there so I don't go mad. But most of my pay goes to saving for a car so I can keep my job, since I'm getting rides from three different people, and my roommate (one of my rides) owns an electric car that barely makes it to both our workplaces. Its battery drains faster in cold weather. I have a time limit before I might have to quit my job. (Again, I work two towns over and live in the country.) I'm so sad I don't have a house. I'm so sad I don't have a yard for my dog. I'm so sad I don't have income above $700/month. I don't know what to do. Sell books? I thought I'd work on writing during the time I visited, but this house is in poor condition, and it smells badly of mold, and I think that's flaring my fibro. I'm in so much pain, I started having pain in my heels again when that went away about four weeks after I moved out of state and never came back again. Until now. :/ I'm not sure what to do. I'm a failure. That's clearer every fucking day. I understand we are often powerless to change our situations, but... mine feels like it's my fault. I shouldn't have gotten a dog 10 years ago. It's not like I'm dealing with something beyond my control... I cause more bad than good in this world, that's how it feels. Edit: I will be very glad to return home, that's for sure.

[lemonbxrry]

Doctor's Orders

ZERO / ONE / TWO / THREE / FOUR / FIVE / SIX / SEVEN

Season Two, Episode One: What Lies Ahead

"[NAME], LET'S GO," Dale called out, slapping the side of his RV a bit. I look up from where I was crouched, having been looking through the cars that we were siphoning gas at. I nodded, standing up and dusting off my pants, walking back to where Shane was so we could get into the RV. I tried to keep my distance from him as best as possible, but somehow we always wound up working together.

"You doin' good?" he asked, knowing that once we made the first stop the first thing I did was throw up after getting out of the car.

"Yep, with all the bodies and events of today, I think that was the way of my body pushing everything out," I told him. We head down the freeway, having only two cars fully working now, aside from Daryl driving his motorcycle. I hummed to myself quietly, looking out at the view that we were passing, sitting in one of the seats. I heard Andrea make some small talk with Shane, not paying much attention as we continued down the road.

"Oh jeez," Dale said aloud, slowing down before coming to a stop. I looked over from my notebook, having written down most of what happened the past couple of days, seeing as I couldn't really write as much as I used to at the quarry.

"Aw, no," I muttered, putting it away. Daryl pulled up, talking to Dale before circling around and heading ahead of us again.

"Maybe we should just head back, there's a bypass," Glenn began, looking at the map.

"Can't waste the fuel like that," Dale and Shane said, I give a small sympathetic smile at Glenn before leaning over his seat and looking out through the windshield, watching as we made our way around all of the cars, seeing more and more pileups and abandoned cars. I held my breath, seeing how many still had dead bodies. Then a white smoke popped out where the engine was, causing a sputtering noise to be made.

"Jeez," I muttered, the RV coming to a stop. We exited the RV, Dale shaking his head.

"I said it a thousand times. Dead in the water," he said as we checked up where the engine was.

"Problem, Dale?" Rick asked, popping up.

"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of," he glanced back, seeing Daryl pick something out of the back of a car. "Okay, that was dumb," he said, sighing a bit.

"If you can't find a radiator hose here, there's a whole bunch of stuff we can find," Shane said as Daryl continued looting the back.

"I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start," T-Dog said, passing by us to check out other cars.

"Maybe some water," Andrea suggested.

"Or food," Glenn added to the list.

"Medicine, there has to be more medicine here," I mumbled to myself, glancing around at the cars, pulling out a bandana I found, and dabbing at my head, wiping off the sweat that collected. I stuff it into my back pocket, hoping to find a hat or something to keep off the heat.

"This is a graveyard," Lori said, we stayed quiet, not knowing how to argue that we were morally right. "I don't know how to feel about this,"

"Come on, y'all, let's look around," T-Dog said after a moment, soon everyone heading into different areas of the board we were on.

I carefully make my way around a couple of cars, peeping in and seeing if there was anything. I looked inside a blue car, grateful that it was unlocked, I opened the door and spot a couple of bags of trail mix on the floor, unopened. I put them into my backpack, looking around for more stuff we could use. When I turn to tell Lori and Carol what I found I see Rick racing towards us, the man obviously running to warn us.

"Get down, get down low and stay quiet," Rick orders us quietly as he could. I do as told, taking out my knife and crawling underneath the car, pushing my bag into the backseat of the car, far enough that I could reach it without the worry of the walkers getting to it. I held the knife tightly, watching as they made their way along the road. I held my breath as they passed by, the car rocking by how many were pressing up against it. I glanced to the side, seeing Sophia, Carl, and Rick in the car line with me. No longer hearing the shuffling I stayed low, not daring to move. After a moment Sophia crawled out, right as a walker stumbled right in front of her. The girl immediately took off to the side where the woods were, and a couple more walkers stumbled after her. I crawled out from under the car, about to run after her and go with Rick until I heard someone shout.

"[Name], you gotta help him," Daryl called out, carrying T-Dog who had fresh blood all over him.

I jogged over to them, "Where is it, where's the blood coming from," I asked T-Dog, grabbing my bandana out of my pocket and putting some of the clean water I had over the bandana, wiping away at the blood that collected on his arm, causing T-Dog to hiss in pain, "Hey, hey, it's gonna be okay, what happened?" I ask, looking back at Daryl, knowing that T-Dog wouldn't be able to really answer from the pain.

"I don't know, doesn't look like it was a walker," he said, I relaxed at his words, before grabbing T-Dog's arm, pushing T-Dog to sit down.

"We gotta keep this elevated," I told him, raising his arm up a bit, at least above where his heart is. Blood trickled down his arm, showing a shallow and long cut going down his arm. "It didn't hit any major veins, so we look good here, however, we might have a chance of infection since we don't know what was on what cut you," I told him, "Shane, grab me some water or something to clean him up," I ordered, applying pressure onto his arm. The blood quickly soaked up the rag, he jogged over with a jug of water, placing it and kneeling next to me to help. "Lucky for you I got some ointment to help clean it out too, it's gonna sting like a bitch though," I told him, grabbing a shirt that I packed from the CDC building, tearing off a part of it, and pouring some of the water onto it, cleaning around his wound and at the edges of it, he winced in discomfort, closing his eyes. "C'mon, keep it together T-Dog, this is the worse of it for right now," I told him, finding the antibiotic ointment and applying it to the wound as best as I could, soon wrapping it with another part of the shirt as tight as I could without hurting him. "Let's get him back into the RV, he needs a change of clothes, don't remove the bandaging without me, we can risk infecting it if it's removed too much," I explained as we helped T-Dog up, seeing Rick come back up without Sophie. I gave a frown, knowing that the news he was to bring us wouldn't be good news at all.

THE WALKING DEAD

I looked through the cars before Shane started pushing them out of the way of the road, finding anything useful we could use, thankful for getting some canned goods and even a small first aid kit someone packed, but it wasn't going to be enough to last two months depending on how severe people's wounds could get. I soon began to head back to where everyone was grouped, helping Lori and Carl stack items that are able to be moved to another area.

"Going back's going to be easier than trying to get through this mess," Shane commented, looking at the cars that lay on the road.

"We're not going anywhere till my daughter gets back," Carol stated, looking like we were trying to abandon her.

"That goes without saying," Lori chimed in, trying to reassure the other mother.

"Rick and Daryl, they're on it, okay? If Sophia is hurt [Name] is here to help too, she knows what to do," Shane said, gesturing at me. "It's just a matter of time,"

"Can't be soon enough for me," Carol told him.

"I'm still freaked out from that herd that passed us by, or whatever you'd call it,"

"Yeah, what was that? All of them marching along like that,"

"A herd sounds about right," Shane mused.

"I feel like it was almost like a migration, like the night the camp got attacked, and how there was a herd of them," I comment, giving a small sympathetic look towards Andrea. "Like when animals have to migrate because of how cold it's getting, they might be migrating because there's no, well, food," I continue, looking down the road that the herd came from.

Shane cleared his throat, looking at me then looking around, "Come on, people. We still got a lot to do," he said, "Let's stay on it. Let's go, come on," he said, pushing us to get right back to work clearing the road and scavenging for what we can. "[Name], let's go look for stuff," Shane said, looking at how many cars we haven't checked out yet.

"Oh, I thought you wanted to move the cars out of the way," I tell him, opening my bag and checking to see how much room I had in it, there was still quite a bit of space left seeing that there wasn't too much of anything in the cars.

"It's fine, let's go," he said, gently grabbing my arm and pulling me along after him, glancing back at where the others were, Lori and I had locked eyes before she was hidden by the cars.

"Why'd you want to go collect with me?" I ask him after checking a couple of cars.

"Just didn't want to be around everyone while we talk," he said, shrugging.

"Oh, what did you want to talk about?" I ask, feeling my hands get clammy and a cold feeling washes over me despite the hot sun beating down on us.

"What happened back there? You looked so out of it when you got back to the jeep," Shane said, grabbing my wrist, stopping me from trying to look further into the car, I look up at him, seeing him glance back at the group, only seeing their silhouettes, then glance back at me.

"Nothing, I just, it took a little longer to convince Andrea," I told him, trying to pull my wrist from his grasp.

"Seems a little more than that, don't think you noticed this but I have seen the glances you throw at me," he replied, turning me around fully to face him. At this, I furrow my brows, and I feel my body grow cold and clammy despite the heat that beat down on us. He knows that Lori told me. "I can protect you, y'know, you can depend on me, you can, need me" he comments. I take in a deep breath, realizing he doesn't know. He thinks I'm into him. I glance back towards the silhouettes of the group, I could do this for Lori, but I couldn't do this to Glenn, it's unfair to him.

"What about Glenn, he doesn't deserve this," I told him, grabbing his forearm, my heart beating heavily against my chest, feeling like I am doing the worst thing morally possible. Shane gave a hum, thinking this over, he rolled his shoulders back, letting go of my wrist.

"Just tell him you guys should stop, easy," he replies, smiling a sickeningly sweet smile, "He'll understand, plus, it looks to me you guys haven't done anything in a while anyway," he shrugged, "You can't depend on a guy like Glenn, you can depend on me, after all, you need me, you need me to protect you, haven't I been doing that from the start?" he asks rhetorically, then glances back at our group. "Just, give it some thought, I already know your answer, but think about it [Name]," Shane said, leaving and heading back. After he made some distance between us, I fell onto my knees, covering my mouth and squeezing my eyes shut. Tears spilling out, I muffled my cries to make sure he wouldn't come back, planning to blame it on me dropping something if he turns back and questioned why I suddenly disappeared from view. I opened my eyes, tears still flowing as I looked back at the whole group, minus Sophia. I can talk with Lori about this, but there's no good way to tell the whole group about Shane and his antics, I scratch at my cheek, wincing as a small stinging sensation appears. I take a deep breath in, wiping furiously at my eyes and cheeks to get the tears away, I stand up, brushing off the dirt that's collected onto my pants, and head back to the others, not daring to look at anyone in the eyes.

"I found some food and some medicine, not too much," I muttered quietly, heading into the RV and setting my findings down on the table, coming back out and looking around, not seeing Carl anywhere in the immediate area. I glanced at Lori, furrowing my brows. "Where's Carl at?" She turns to her side, about to answer before she falls quiet, stopping.

"He was right here with me," she muttered, looking up and around, panic set in between the two of us before we hear footsteps running towards our area.

"Shane!" Carl called out, running with a black object to where Shane was working on a car.

"Carl, what happened?" Lori asked, running up to Carl, I follow after, my anxiety calming down after seeing he was okay.

"I found something cool, [Name], look," he said, putting what he had carried in his arms down on the ground, unraveling it to show some axes and similar, "It's an arsenal," he said excitedly, looking up at me and then back at Shane.

"That's cool bud, go give them to Dale," Shane said, giving just a glance and then back to what he was doing, not sounding at all interested in what Carl was trying to show. I bit the inside of my cheek, he didn't need to be taking out his anger on a child.

"Check this one out," Carl said, not noticing Shane's tone, pulling out a hatchet, "Whoa, it's a hatchet,"

"Whoa, careful there Carl, they're pretty sharp," I tell him, standing beside him while giving him my attention and showing him interest. He still played around with the hatchet though, his mother giving a sigh and holding her hand out to him.

"What did [Name] just say?" she asked him.

"Can I keep one?" Carl asked instead, not paying any attention to his mom.

"Are you crazy?" Lori said in reply, grabbing the hatchet.

"No way. Shane. Shane tell her to let me keep one," Carl begged, looking at the man. I glanced at Shane, looking back at Carl.

"Maybe when you're a little older or something kid," I told him, ruffling up his hair.

"Hey, man, go give them all to Dale now. Go," Shane said, putting his tools down, his voice filled with annoyance. Lori picked up the arsenal, putting the pack back into Carl's arms, Carl looked down, hurt on his features. I gave a look at Shane, an annoyed look on my face as I walked with Carl to where Dale was, rubbing his back in reassurance.

"I'll talk with him, [Name]," Lori said, squeezing my shoulder softly, watching as we walked off.

"Shane might have a lot on his plate right now, still not fair he told you that," I told Carl, trying to lift his mood a bit. Carl only shrugged in response.

"He's been like that for a while I think," Carl told me, we waved at the other members of our small group, them waving back at us. We make it to Dale's RV, put the arsenal into it, and head back out, seeing everyone huddle around the car Shane was working on.

"Is that a local signal?" we heard Glenn ask once we got closer to the group.

"It's got to be fifty miles of here," Dale said, glancing around at everyone.

"Avoid anyone infected at all costs. Remain calm," the radio said, I rolled my eyes, it seemed to be a very late broadcast, "Help is on the way. The emergency alert system has been activated," it continued before Shane leaned down and turned it off.

"Asshole," Shane muttered, shaking his head and looking at all of us, I held Carl to my side, his arms wrapped around my leg a bit, "Okay, let's get back to work," he patted the car door, everyone dispersing. "[Name], do you have all your stuff together?" Shane asked, right as I was about to head off after Carl left with his mom.

"Uhm, yeah, I always keep my stuff together," I furrowed my brows, popping my knuckles anxiously.

"Good, good," Shane said, looking back at the car, seeming to have dismissed me. I blink a couple of times before heading back to the group, wrapping my arms around Glenn's waist, who turns and gives me a soft kiss on my forehead.

"Haven't really seen you too much," he said, smiling down at me. I give a soft hum, nodding, cuddling closer into him.

"Yeah, things have been getting a little too hectic despite how life is right now," I tell him, shrugging. I choose to not tell Glenn about what Shane did earlier in the day, feeling like Lori was the only person I can actually talk to. He gives a small hum back, gently kissing my lips as we set off together to look for more supplies.

THE WALKING DEAD

Dale was showing Glenn and me more about how to fix the engine of the RV, Andrea walking over to where our small trio was.

"Where's my gun?" she demanded to Dale, Glenn, and I standing awkwardly, watching the interaction, "You have no right to take it," she told him, slight anger in her tone. Glenn gently tugged me away, I flashed a small sympathetic smile at Andrea, following after him.

"Do you think Sophia is okay?" Glenn asked as we looked at the edge of the forest, the two of us holding one another's hand. I gave a small frown, shrugging in reply.

"I would like to think that she stumbled upon some people who were kind enough to let her stay with them," I told him honestly, walking off to carry some food in a crate with him, making small talk as we walked back to the RV.

"Oh god, they're back," Glenn said, setting down his crate, I set mine down, putting my hands on my hips, furrowing my brows again, they didn't show up with Sophia.

"We'll pick it up again at first light," I heard Rick tell Carol, getting close enough to hear their conversation.

"You can't leave my daughter out there on her own to spend the night alone in the woods," Carol's voice started to break towards the end, crying. I hold Glenn's hand tightly when he stands next to me, placing my head against his shoulder. Is this what my mom is feeling right now? I can't imagine the grief that she must be in.

"Out in the dark's no good," Daryl said, shaking his head, his voice laced with pity, "We'd just be tripping over ourselves. More people get lost,"

"But she's twelve. She can't be out there on her own, you didn't find anything?" Carol begged, close to full-on sobbing as Lori reassuringly rubbed her back.

"I know this is hard, but I am asking you not to panic," Rick told Carol, "We know she was out there. We tracked her for a while. We have to make this an organized effort, Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee this,"

"Is that blood?" Carol gasped out, looking at Daryl. Everyone's attention diverted to where he stood, he looked down at himself looking back up.

"We took down a walker," Rick explained, trying to calm her down.

"Walker? Oh my god," Carol said, fidgeting around in place, swaying almost.

"There was no sign it was ever anywhere near Sophia,"

"How can you know that?" Andrea asked, antagonizing Rick.

"We cut the son of a bitch open, made sure," Daryl answered, Carol sat down against the railing, muttering a small 'oh god'.

"How could you just leave her out there, to begin with?" she asked Rick, anger, and sadness in her voice, "How could you just leave her?"

"Carol, he might have had reason to, like walkers were around them, he had to steer them away," I tried explaining, wanting to find a reason that he had no choice.

"There were two walkers on us. I had to draw them off, it was her best chance," Rick explained, glancing at me and giving a small nod, giving his attention back to Carol.

"Sounds like he had no choice, Carol," Shane came up beside Rick, looking down at her.

"How was she supposed to find her way back on her own?" Carol asked, tearing up again, "She's just a child," she repeated, now sobbing, Lori having to pull her back away from Rick.

"It was my only option. The only choice I could make," Rick told her, kneeling down and staring up at Carol.

"I'm sure nobody doubts that," Shane said, leaning against the rail, I bit my cheek, he sure sounded like he doubted Rick.

"My little girl got left in the woods," she cried, everyone quiet and hurting too. Rick walked off towards the area Shane and I were looking at earlier, his mind seeming to be filled with trouble.

"Let's go back to the RV," Glenn said, steering me away from where Andrea and Lori were comforting Carol, I gave a small nod, following after him, exhaustion hitting like a brick.

THE WALKING DEAD

"Everybody takes a weapon," Rick said, spreading out the arsenal.

"These aren't the kind of weapons we need, what about the guns?" Andrea said, scoffing at Rick.

"I mean, these are the best to have right now. It doesn't draw any noise if used correctly, and they're sharp enough to go through the walker's head," I tell her, looking over it, I decided I didn't need any, seeing as I have my bat and knife that I could use if I couldn't use my gun.

"We've also been over that, Daryl, Rick, [Name], and I are carrying. We can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles," Shane said leaning against the RV.

"It's not the trees I'm worried about," Andrea said, giving Shane a look, before nodding in confirmation at my reasoning.

"Say somebody fires at the wrong moment, a herd happening to be passing by. See, then it's game over for all of us. So you need to get over it," Shane slung his bag over his shoulder, making it known he was ready to go.

"The idea is to take the creek up about five miles, turn around and come back down the other side," Daryl explained, I watched as Glenn picked up a hatchet, a smile on his face as he held the weapon in his hand. I give a small laugh, patting his shoulder before walking over to where Shane, Daryl, and Rick stood, "Chances are she'll be by the creek. It's her only landmark,"

"Stay quiet and stay sharp. Keep space between you but always stay within sight of each other," Rick said, turning away.

"Everybody assemble your packs," Shane ordered, tossing up his water bottle and catching it.

"Dale, keep on those repairs, we've got to get this RV ready to move," Rick told Dale, the man standing up.

"Won't need to stay here a minute longer than we have to. Good luck out there, bring Sophia back," Dale said in response.

"Keep an eye on Carl while we're gone?" Rick asked him, glancing at his son, I stood near them, having not been told if I was on his pack or Daryl's.

"I'm going with you, you need people, right? To cover as much ground as possible," Carl said, not understanding that he couldn't.

"Your call, I can't always be the bad guy," Lori said, shaking her head.

"Well, he has all of you to look after him. Even got a doctor with ya," Dale said, propping his arm up on the door frame of the RV, "I'd say he's in good hands,"

"Okay, stay close with [Name] then, she's the best chance for helping you if you get hurt," Rick said, smiling at the two of us. I give a smile and thumbs up, following after Carl, helping him collect his own bag.

"Always within my sight, you mom's, or your dad's, got it?" I tell him, ruffling his hair as he nodded, I spot Glenn walking over to us, giving him a small peck on the cheek, "Be safe, got it?" I tell him, and he nods, kissing my cheek back.

"When am I not?" he asks jokingly, walking off to his own crew, all of us soon making our leave to the woods.

THE WALKING DEAD

We follow after Daryl, a trail being made for us from when Daryl and Rick looked last night. I hum quietly to myself, looking around, the scenery was beautiful despite the reason we were here. Carl left my side, going behind me to talk to Shane.

"Shane, look, dad said I could carry it and mom said as long as I was-" Carl was telling him excitedly before Shane cut him off.

"Keep it down. We're looking for Sophia, you need to focus on the task," he told the young boy. I walk back to walk alongside Carl, giving Shane a look, he only shrugged his shoulders at me, as Carl slowed his steps, walking dejectedly.

"Got to keep up," Lori said, ushering her son to walk with her.

"Shane, whatever is going on, don't take it out on Carl, he's a good kid and he respects the hell out of you," I tell him, shaking my head.

"Well, more important things are happening [Name], can't coddle him and listen to him all the time," he huffed out.

"Still, he's a kid, doesn't matter if it's the end of the world or not, he's a child who still thinks there's good," I catch up after Lori and Carl, not staying to listen to what Shane has to say next.

Daryl stops us, everyone crouching at the sight of the tent, quiet settling among us.

"She could be in there," Shane muttered quietly amongst the group, the only one standing close enough to the tent.

"Could be a whole bunch of things in there," Daryl muttered, making his way towards it. Daryl, Rick, Shane, and I walk towards the tent quietly, I have my knife out, ready to stab into the walker if needed. Daryl motions for me to follow, seeing that I had my knife out already, we walked to the tent, peeking inside the tent, not seeing anything.

"Sophia, sweetie, are you in there?" Carol called out softly, her voice having hope as Daryl and I stood, ready to attack if it wasn't her, "Sophia it's mommy. Sophia we're all here baby, it's mommy," her voice started to break a little. No movement came, as Daryl unzipped the tent an awful stench came through, showing the corpse of a man inside, having shot his head through his mouth, Daryl grabbed the gun, glancing at me before pocketing it. I shrugged, not caring he took it.

"It's not her," I say, coming out of the tent.

"What's in there?"

"Some guy did what Jenner said. Opted out, ain't that what he called it?" Daryl said, reloading his crossbow. As we looked around to see if Sophia was around here the sound of church bells ringing sounded. We looked around at each other, soon racing to find the source of the bells.

"What direction?"

"I think that way. I'm pretty sure," Rick pointed, we raced forward a bit, losing the sound a bit.

"Damn, it's too hard to tell out here," I mutter, popping my knuckles again.

"If we heard them, maybe Sophia did too," Carol said hopefully.

"Someone's ringing those bells, maybe calling others," Glenn suggested.

"Or signaling they found her," Andrea added.

"She could be ringing them herself," Rick suggested, leading us to follow him.

THE WALKING DEAD

We cross the tree line, coming upon a church, standing on the outskirts of a graveyard.

"That's can't be it. Got no steeple, no bells. Rick," Shane called out, as Rick decided to move forward anyway despite the obvious. Soon he broke into a run, forcing the rest of us to race after him, our bags almost slipping off as we chased after the sheriff. We make it up to the front door, finally catching up to Rick. He motioned for us to be quiet, slowly opening the door to let us see inside, there sat a few people spread out on the pews, looking right where the priest would be. Instead of living bodies, it was the undead, still, in their Sunday clothes, they snarled at our arrival, turning towards us. They slowly got up, not making too quick of moves to attack as a few of us went around to kill the walkers. We looked around, seeing that Sophia was still nowhere in sight.

"Sophia!" Rick screamed, opening doors as we spread around, trying to find out if there was another way she could possibly be arriving at.

"Yo, J.C., you taking requests?" Daryl asked the crucified Jesus statue, I let out a small snort, shaking my head at the dumb joke, or desperation Daryl was coming to at the moment, turning my attention back to looking around.

"I'm telling you, it's the wrong church. It's got no steeple, Rick," I heard Shane say once I got close enough to hear them talking. I gave a small frown.

"Maybe it's a-" I was cut off by the bell ringing again, we all rushed outside again to only see a speaker, and I give a sigh of defeat, "A timer," I mutter, kicking the grass as Glenn tore the wires out to stop it from ringing.

"I'm gonna go back in for a bit," Carol said, her voice sounding far away. Everyone started to follow after, I stayed back for a bit, clenching and unclenching my hands. We felt so close yet so far away from where she could be. It sucked. I glanced to the side, spotting Andrea standing for a moment, I reached my hand and squeezed hers gently, giving her a sympathetic look, and she gave a sad smile before going to the side of the church, and sitting down. I go back inside quietly, seeing Lori and Shane exit, the two of them looking a bit heated.

"Hey, [Name], come sit with me," Glenn called out, patting the spot next to him, smiling as I sat next to him. I give a thin smile back, thinking back to what Shane said. Telling Glenn what Shane did could put the three of us at risk of the ex-cop's wrath, and I would rather not put Lori's or Glenn's life in danger.

"Are you okay?" he asked, seeming to catch onto the low mood I was feeling.

"With everything going on, especially with Sophia going missing, I don't think I can handle being with you like this right now. It sounds so shitty, but I just, I can't right now," I tell him, biting the inside of my cheek as I watch his once-happy smile going into a frown, seeming to have not expected that.

"Oh, oh..." he trailed off, not seeming to find anything to say, "Did I do something?" he asked, furrowing his brows, trying to find an answer to why I suddenly wanted to end things.

"It's not you at all, just with the stress of everything I don't think I can be the right type of support in a relationship," I quickly tell him, not wanting him to think of it as anything else, "I'll always be here to support you but I don't think I can do that as your partner," I explain, trying my best to try and make this situation better. It felt wrong though. This whole situation felt wrong. Right as Glenn was about to talk again Lori walked up, a worried look on her face as her eyes darted between us.

"Um, [Name], I just gotta talk with you," She said, glancing at Glenn.

"Oh, I'll take that as my queue then, I'll talk with you more [Name], don't think you can't talk to me after this," Glenn said, standing up and going to talk with T-Dog.

"Is it Shane?" I asked, my voice soft and quiet so that she can only hear. She nods her head, glancing around.

"He wants to leave, but he seems to want to take you with," she messes with the flannel she's wearing. I blink, absolutely surprised that he would even think about wanting to take me with him.

"What? Why would he be thinking that?" I ask, anxiety already eating, feeling a deep dread within my stomach.

"I don't know, he just seems to think that you are for sure on his side and going with, even after I mention how it'll break Carl's heart if both of you go," Lori explained better.

"That's worrying, I'll definitely see why he is thinking that, I know I don't want to go, at all," I tell her, she only nods in return, squeezing my shoulder in assurance and leaving to go sit behind Carol. I take a deep breath in, clenching and unclenching my hands again, feeling my fingernails press hard into my palms, soon unclenching my hands when the pain got too much. I lost my vision for a minute before I blinked a couple of times, taking in a deep breath, 'Things are getting bad again,' I thought to myself, walking to where Glenn and T-Dogg were at.

THE WALKING DEAD

"Y'all gonna follow the creek bed back, okay? Daryl, you're in charge," Shane said after a moment of talking with Rick outside, "Me and Rick, we're just gonna hang back, search this area for another hour or so just to be thorough, [Name] is staying with just in case Sophia is hurt,"

"You're splitting us up, you sure?" Daryl asks, making sure that they're certain of their choice.

"Yeah, we'll catch up to you," Shane said, trying to convince us all.

"I want to stay too, I'm her friend," Carl says, taking a step forward toward Rick and Shane. Lori and Rick share a look before looking back at me.

"[Name], can you make sure Carl stays careful, don't want him to get hurt or anything," Lori said, giving a small smile at me.

"You can trust me, no worries here," I tell her, giving her a thumbs up.

"Carl, stay by [Name] as best as you can," she told her son, hugging him.

"I will," Carl said in reply, hugging back.

"Oh when did you start growing up," she said, most likely reminiscing about what Carl was like when he was much younger. Rick then walked over, giving her a kiss and a tight hug, the two saying their goodbyes for the moment. I glance to my other side, seeing Andrea and Shane share a look before she glances at me, and he starts walking off. Andrea lets out a huff before following the rest of the crew. I put my hand on Carl's shoulder, gently leading him after Rick, waving goodbye to Glenn and the others as we make our way to continue searching. Rick walked up to where Shane, Carl, and I were standing, stopping for a moment to talk with us.

"Give me a minute?" Rick asked, heading back towards the church, we nodded in agreement, following after him. We stay out at the front of the church, waiting for Rick to come back, I hold Carl close to my side, trying to make sure Shane doesn't try and snap at the poor boy. I stare at the graveyard, thinking about how I used to go to church when I was younger with my family almost every Sunday, despite my parents having been very religious they still allowed us to go out and figure out ourselves and what we believe in.

"[Name], do you think we can talk when we get back?" Shane asked, pulling me out of my thoughts. I shrug my shoulders, about to reply until Rick came back, seeming to be finished with what it was that he needed to do, "Get what you needed?" he asked Rick, watching him come out of the church.

"Guess I'll find out," Rick answered, walking off in a direction.

We quickly follow after him, keeping quiet, I kept Carl in front of me, glancing back periodically to see how Shane watched the two of us, I kept my mouth shut, not wanting to call out his creepy behavior and cause problems in front of Carl. A branch snaps, stopping us, I put a protective arm out in front of Carl, pulling out my knife and going into a defensive stance. Shane stepped in front of me, we watched as a figure stumble, the trees obscuring our vision. We get to the side, and seeing that it was a deer, we watch in awe, surprised that we were so close to it. I give a small smile, it was a gorgeous sight.

Carl took some careful steps toward it, as we watched him step closer and closer to it. The deer turned his head towards the boy, still standing proud. I held my breath, surprised it was allowing the boy to stay so close. Then a gunshot rang through the air, tearing through the deer and Carl fell flat onto his back. I felt my body grow cold as I ran forward, screaming his name. Shane and Rick yell after and try to help stop the bleeding and see who shot Carl.

[legit9thlunaticwarrior]

Okay last one! May I request “You look better in my clothes than I do.” & “I feel safe with you.” from the 200 random dialogue prompts with our Kentucky Gentleman Chuckie T?

I thought I should be nice and give you your other true love ❤️

yes harry styles. ive been wanting to use this song but couldnt come up with a good concept. also, 10/10 recommend 'the prince' on hbo max

|remember to leave feedback and i love all you heathens|

'Sweet Creature' MILD TW Chuck Taylor (Dustin) x fem!reader

^not the surprise he was expecting on a stormy night^

- gif by @graculuss - TW: mentions of domestic abuse (resources for domestic abuse helplines) - feels a lil short but i like it so, deal with it

3rd Person POV

"Alright Walter, what are we watching?" Dustin said as the small dog hopped up on the couch. The rain had kept most of the neighborhood indoors since the late afternoon, so the man decided to catch up on what all his coworkers were talking about. He was ready to start 'The Last of Us' when he heard a knock at the door. What the fuck? he thought. Who could possibly be out in this weather?

He truly couldn't believe his eyes when he opened the door. "Bug?! Oh my God, get in here! You're soaking wet." He pulled the woman inside. "I know, I walked here." Her voice was low, soft, and frightened; a tone from his best friend he never liked. Dustin took the duffel bag she had in her hand and brought her to the bathroom, "C'mon before you get sick." He sat her down on the closed toilet seat so he could get the shower warmed up. He knew something was wrong because she didn't even notice Walter licking her legs so he could get his head scratches; she just stared off into space. "I'm gonna go to the kitchen, you shower and warm up, and then we'll talk if you want, okay?" She looked up at him and nodded with big eyes that shattered his heart. "Just leave the clothes in here; I'll take care of it. Your bag is right there." He decided against kissing her head before he left because he had no clue what happened to her before she showed up on his doorstep.

While he was in the kitchen, Y/N stood up and started to remove the wet clothes and winced as she saw the forming bruises on her arms. It's over now. I'm done. was all she said to herself as she washed off the past few hours under the hot water. She put anything in that apartment that was important to her and stuff she needed in the duffel and left as soon as her now ex walked out the door and took the car. She didn't care where he went; she was free now. Once she got out of the shower, Y/N couldn't bring herself to open the bag yet. Dustin had cleared a drawer in his room for her stuff because she was known to spend the night on whims. Wrapped in the towel, she went to his room to get some clothes. She slipped one of his shirts on over her and put on sleep shorts.

She tip-toed to the kitchen to find him with two cups of tea, "Feel better? I made you tea, just how you like it." Y/N smiled and looked down, "Thanks. And sorry I stole your shirt, I guess I never left any of my own in that drawer." "Don't be sorry. You look better in my clothes than I do.” He noticed the mark on her arm and gritted his teeth, "Bug, I can't believe he did this to you. I swear to God if-" "It's fine. Really. I'm done with him, it's over." She put her hand on his. He felt terrible that he couldn't stop it. He knew from the start that this guy was trouble. Had he listened to his friends and grown a pair, it would have never happened in the first place. But that's the past now; he can only focus on making the future better.

They had made their way to the living room to find something to watch. Walter jumped back up on the couch, "Oh, I'm sorry baby. Was I withholding your head scratchies? How dare I?" Dustin had put 'The Prince' on before she had curled up into his side.

Y/N had looked up at Dustin, "You have no idea how much I appreciate this. I feel safe with you." The soft way she said it had his heart doing moonsaults. "You'll always be safe with me, Y/N. I'll protect you." She yawned a little and a few seconds passed before she spoke up again "I l-love you, Dusty. I always have." "I love you too, Lovebug. You can go to sleep if you're tired, I'll be right here with you." As he kissed the top of her head.

"Just two hearts in one home"

~~~~~~~

lovely taglist babes (form in pin to be added) @josiewrites @wwenhlimagines @plentyoffandoms @sunshinevirus @sultryfandoms @alexisquinnlee-bc @im-just-a-mississippi-girl @1rsolideranna @eddiefrickenmunson @daddyhausen @bellicosebunny

[americas1suiteheart]

Chapter III

[Riddler x Cop! Reader] [From the Obsessed With you Series]

< Previous Chapter

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BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!'

I groan, lazily trying to hit the snooze button on the alarm clock but when I fail to do so, I get up and unplug it.

"Shit, I fell asleep doing my reports again." I look at my computer and notepad laying on my bed. I'd just have to hope that my report is automatically saved so I won't have to rewrite it again.

I walk out of my room, into the small kitchen, and put on a pot of coffee. The apartment I was staying in was small and dirty, only a few lights and outlets worked and the tap water was occasionally rusty. The porcelain bathtub in the restroom was broken most likely by previous tenants, leaving you with having to shower at the gym right across from the station. You had talked to the front about it yet they refuse to fix it.

I snap out of my complaining in my head once the coffee machine beeps. I take a mug from my dish rack and grab an energy drink from my fridge, closing the door with a squeak. I pour the coffee into the mug, the energy drink afterward, and take a big gulp of the piping-hot liquid.

'I don't have time to eat breakfast or shower today, it's fine they always have some sort of food over there, I can grab it before patrol.' I think to myself, grabbing my keys and locking the door before I realize I forgot to put on my uniform, proceeding to unlock the door and walk in once again, dreading the amount of time I'll spend putting on the vest and belt.

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

After forgetting to grab my radio on the way out of my apartment, I park my unit in one of the parking spaces, grab my envelopes filled with finished case reports, shut my car door, and enter the depressing building.

"Officer L/n, you're late." A poison-laced voice coming from across the room speaks.

"I'm terribly sorry commander, I have no excuse other than waking late and forgetting my radio," I admit truthfully.

"Just don't be late next time officer L/n. Do you at least have those case reports I gave you done?" Gordon says, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I do lieutenant, Gordon," I say, handing the envelopes to Gordon nervously.

"Y'know kid, you remind me of someone we had here. He worked in forensics, real genius, was quite skittish, and kept to himself, we unfortunately had to let him go due to... Uh, certain problems with him though. A real shame, you two would've gotten along really well." Gordon says as he takes a look at the manila envelopes.

I couldn't tell if what he had just told me was good or bad. 'Real genius..' I think to myself as I recall his words, 'Quite skittish and kept to himself..' Maybe it's both considering what he said.

"...Hey L/n, were you out looking for that Riddler guy again. One of the guys told me that he saw you in an area that wasn't yours during your shift."

'Shit... What if they've been following me and what if they've found him? '

"U-uh, well yes... B-but I promise you, lieutenant I won't go looking for him again, It's just that.. I mean, well our guys working on his case aren't doing much and haven't made any progress at all, If I were still working on his case he would have already been found and locked up. I'm one of the best officers you have, you know that lieutenant! Gee, if I were to be a detective rather than working graveyard shifts as a cop do you know how many other cases I could solve?" I get flustered and frustrated as I say this, all the other officers looking at me, whispering and snickering.

"Officer L/n, how about we talk about this in my office," Gordon says, walking me to his cluttered office and sitting down at his desk.

It always smelt of ink, coffee, and paper in there. Not the smell that printer ink has when it has made a copy or document of something but the smell of ink that you use for those fountain pens, he was an old-fashioned kind of guy that didn't like using the modern stuff. You could hear the humming of the fluorescent lights and the muffled sound of clacking keys from outside his closed office, but it had an odd sort of comfort with it.

"L/n, I took you off of the case because it was making you mad and it was affecting you overall. You would spend even your days off looking for the bastard, for fucks sake y/n you didn't sleep for days or even eat because of the guy! And I wasn't going to risk losing my best officer because they got caught up looking for him. What if he found out how close you were getting to finding him and killed you?" Gordon shouted, a pained look in his eyes.

He was right though. I mean, if Edward had figured out that I knew who he really was and that I even knew his residence, he could find me and kill me. But also quite frankly, I could just tell Gordon who he really is right now if I had felt like it. 

"L/n, I'll give you back the case but you have to really promise that you'll try to take better care of yourself while working on this case okay? Don't try and sacrifice your own well-being to catch this lunatic, he's making a bad and very large impact on Gotham right now but he's really not worth it."

Oh... Oh yes, he is...

"Of course Gordon, I promise I'll try to find this bastard, but I will also promise to not lose too much sleep on this case too. I won't let you down." You say, grabbing the case file from his hand.

"I know you've got this L/N, you're one of the best officers we've got here at the GCPD, it'd be a shame to lose you."

Jeez, I hate that I'm lying to Gordon like this... He's a great lieutenant and he's genuinely concerned for me, and I'm here lying right to his face. He wouldn't have lost the commissioner if I would've just told him who Edward was. Who's side am I even on? Am I just as corrupted as Mitchell and Pete were? I'm supposed to do my duty, I even swore to it, so why am I breaking the code?

God, I'm insufferable...

I thank Gordon once more for giving me back the case and walk outside to go back to my unit, opening the case file and reading over it for the millionth time since getting it.

'He kills corrupt cops you know.. What you're doing, covering up for him like this, thats you not doing your job and being just as bad as Savage.' You think to yourself. 'But I mean, if he kills me then he knows about me. Oh man, think about that. The Riddler himself knowing that much about me to know about that, that would mean he has to spy on me, see every move I make to really know. Wow...'

I shake myself away from my thoughts and turn on my car, deciding to go to the little corner diner that Edward is always at.

I can just already imagine him. Working in his notebook slumped over as usual, slice of pumpkin pie and cup of coffee in front of him as he sits in the same chair he's always at, stopping to think for a minute and then continuing.

God..

[pbandjesse]

I just told James I was going to come and lay in the empty bathtub to write my post like I did the other night because I can't get distracted as much in here. And they were like oh. I just thought you were going to the bathroom for a half hour!! I have never in my life! Slander!

Today wasn't a bad day but man am I annoyed with some of the in training counselors. Like I get that it's the end. But they are just slacking and making my life difficult but also just making me annoyed. Thankfully most of the day went fine. I was just having an annoyed time.

I slept alright last night. When I woke up I was annoyed because my phone didn't get plugged in right and was at 20% and that made me snippy with James. And then they were making me uneasy staring at me while I was laying there. But I would get over it and get dressed and things would be okay.

James left for work and I took a few more minutes to get ready. But was pretty quickly out the door.

The new cord worked great in the car. And I enjoyed my podcast on the drive in. I've saved a ton of episodes of "behind the bastards" so I'm thrillrd to get caught up. Love learning history stuff. And I got to camp at 8.

It was chilly this morning which was really nice. I threw on a sweatshirt and got everything set up.

I would have Anton come to help today. And we would have the donors for the program he's a part of come by. I tried to make sure he was busy but he also kept wearing both his airpods which made me really annoyed. Like wear one, fine, but both? Really? I was literally calling for him and he wasn't answering. Thankfully he is good at helping the kids and he helped do some moving and organizing. And I think he made a good impression on the donor.

The kids were fun this morning though. I enjoyed seeing their work and there were fun chats. I got some knitting done and it was a beautiful day.

During my second hour Anton and me would go down to homestead to collect the materials Ty had packed up. Anton was a huge help there because everything was heavy. And I got tired pulling the cart back so I appreciated when he took over.

He would take the wagon to make a second trip while I sorted everything to go away into storage. I was given three Rubbermaid totes but because they just need to be better organized everything fit in two milk crates and two small plastic boxes. So there is souch space in the cabinets still. I'm really pleased.

The boxes had cinnamon oil in it and made things smell like Christmas. Which will hopefully improve the smell in the cabinets which just smell like mouse pee right now.

All of a sudden there were air horns. It was a drill. And we all had to go to the field. I would throw that in the group chat in case the other specialties didn't hear the horns. And grabbed my sunglasses before I went to the feild.

It was very hot and bright but it was nice seeing everyone. And after we did the camp check in Alexi asked us all to come to the front to talk to us. She told us to keep doing our best and to not let everything fall apart on the last couple days. To interact with the kids. She was very encouraging. But also you could tell she was saying it because it needed to be said. People have been mentally checking out. It was a good reminder about the impact we have. I wish we had more little check ins like that but I know that would be hard to coordinate.

When it was finally lunch I would go to the office to use the microwave. Which gets way to hot but at least it's fast.

I ate on the porch. Sofie said it smelled to good (it was leftover Mac and cheese and tomato soup) and so she couldn't sit with me anymore which I thought was very funny.

And then I was chatting with Alexi and she made a big fuss about how the chat wasn't about me and how I'm great and it was nice to hear. I volunteered to help her collect going home info for all of staff. Which I have had mixed results on but I'm working on it. It was nice to be able to be helpful.

My afternoon groups were late, not surprised, my morning groups was also late. They made fun work but complained they didn't have time to finish. You would have if you were on time. And the one counselor was very annoyed with me for not just remaking a piece that was an example. Because her camper didn't do the work but wanted it. I don't know how many times I can say I don't make people's art. I won't draw your art. I will help. I will give instructions. I'll help clean up lines or cut things out. But I will not make your art. That is also the problem with having good examples. The kids will want to copy them and then get frustrated when it doesn't look as good. And all I can tell them is I want to see your art, not my art or whoever made that examples art. Yours. So having a councilor making a kids art and then getting upset when I wouldnt take over or just give her the example was very disheartening. Made me very annoyed.

Thankfully I had some good interactions with councilors too. I really enjoyed stockade's company today. They were very funny. I met two Russian boys and learned a third spoke Russian and they all talked so fast!! It was a pleasure to listen to. And they were very sweet to me. Even when I yelled at them all at first for not going to wash their hands and just getting in the hammocks. I have to act a little crazy at first but then I am calm and nice and they can just know I can be insane and mean so they are good. That's how you do it right?

They were fun though and I got to vent to their counselor about stuff I was frustrated about. And they echoed it so at least I didn't feel like I was in the wrong. I also spent a lot of the hour sorting rainbow loom rubber bands that all got mixed up. The box is almost perfect again. I am very pleased.

And then I finished the day with a very good day camp group. Who did lose one of my tools but it's fine. Their councilor Jamie was fun to talk to and it was a nice way to end the day.

I finished cleaning up. And got my stuff together. And then I headed home.

I felt bad when half way home Alexi texted me about a camper coming up to arts but I wasn't there but also I didn't have a group so she couldn't anyway. I hope they aren't upset with me. The child that is.

But I was glad to be home. I wanted to tell James all the things that annoyed me today. They were making me a feta salad. Which I liked at first but then I started to feel weird about it. I'll have the leftovers tomorrow probably. They made me a pb and j instead.

And then I worked on my lesson plans for the next couple hours. And this was the most frustrating one.

Not because it was hard to write but because almost all of the original lesson plan was wrong. Like flat out wrong. Bordering on a lie. And then I discovered that the chickee, the Native American building we have and utilize on camp, is not traditional. It's from the 1830s. And was built because the Seminole people were being hunted by us soldiers. And they needed to make houses quickly and on the go. And then I learned that they have only existed as a people since there 1700s. And that Seminole means outcast. And they are actually a bunch of small groups who intermarried and became a new people because of us. And I was just so sad. I'm not going to leave this out. We're going to make this known in my program. The kids should know this. Everyone should know this.

So is pent two hours making my program work with what I have. And I hope that the parents really get it in the end. I have to hope.

After I finished that I went to lay in the AC. And that's where I was for a long time. James joined me. But I had to leave the ac to come do my post. Which went quicker then it has lately so that's nice.

Now though I want to sleep. I plan on staying at camp tomorrow since it's the last night. I hope you all sleep well and have a fun day tomorrow. Goodnight everyone. Until next time!

[shirolucifer]

Another trans man here - I haven't transitioned yet and my father doesn't know yet - yelling men TERRIFY me.

One time my mothers boyfriend got frustrated because the charger for the car battery didn't work, he started to yell really loudly - not at me - and then proceeded to slam the charger into the ground multiple times, so hard, the plastic flew through the whole yard. I was terrified. I froze. I couldn't move, I couldn't speak, I could barely breathe.

He is usually a very calm person and I know that shit goes down when these peoe get really angry, but he also becomes so incredibly violent every single time. He slams doors, he throws stuff around, he screams and I just want to become small and invisible.

Despite the fact that he and I usually get along really well, he is the person I am most afraid off.

The other person is my father. Despite the fact that he hasn't used violence against me since I was nine (I am 25 now) it is still so ingrained in me.

He used to scream and shout so loudly, he used to hit me and my sister if we misbehaved. Once he literally hit mine and my sister heads together. Another time he grabbed my sister and literally threw her onto the toilet because she said she needed to pee while he was shouting at us for sth I don't even remember.

Later the violence got replaced by him either throwing small things in our direction or him becoming incredibly calm all of a sudden with eyes so cold that I could basically feel my blood freeze.

I am terrified of telling my father of my identity for a multitude of reasons (him being homophobic being one of them) but I am also just scared of what he is going to do to me. The possibility is basically zero but I still fear that he is going to do sth.

My fear of angry men literally runs so deep, that I even started to fear for my safety when my former friend lost his cool while playing League. Whenever he got frustrated he would slam against his table. That noise alone is enough to terrify me.

And of course all of this includes absolute strangers on the street. If I hear a man scream, I freeze. Once there were two drunk men fighting infront of a bar or restaurant and while I was incredibly curious what the this was about, their loud voices scared the shit out of me and I was glad that my friend and I had already distanced ourselves quite a bit before it turned violent.

The feeling that I have inside me whenever sth like this happens is incredibly difficult to describe. I can literally feel every single heartbeat. I become very selfconcious about my body and my movement and every fiber of my being screams at me that I have to hide, have to make myself small so that no one notices me.

I literally have no idea how I am ever supposed to find a partner considering how I am not only scared of relationships (I have no idea where that comes from) but also of men in general.

i swear to god, men raising their voice is the most terrifying thing in the whole world. they dont understand, like its an immediate panic response, game over

[mymindwonthush]

Different sh*t different day

Do you know the expression "same sh*t, different day"? We wake up every day stuck in a routine, but are we really stuck? Or do we just get comfortable and not realize yet we complain every day how its the same thing over and over, and if we could just have some change, we'd be happy. Every day I wake up, go to work, drop off the kids, and have small talk with my fiancé, yet I still felt as though I wanted more, as though I wanted out of this routine so bad. Well, I couldn't have been more wrong. Two months ago this day it wasn't the same; two months ago was the day my life was changed. I woke up at 5:45am and started my morning routine with my son, my fiancé, and his kids. Just like any morning, I woke up first, made breakfast, and woke up everyone else in the house to get our day started. But only this time, my fiancé was already up and in the bathroom getting ready. Not thinking anything of it, I woke up the kids and had them eat breakfast, and as I'm cleaning up, he dashes out the house, murmuring he is late. No hug, no kiss, just left. I brushed it off as he did state he was running behind even though he works the same time as usual. I drop off all the kids at school and head to work. I don't text him, as he usually texts me once he gets to his jobsite. It was starting to get past 12:00 p.m. and I was worried. I tried to call but got no answer. I finally get a text back at 2pm, and what I thought was just another day turned out to be our last day. The text read, "I am sorry, but I cannot do this anymore." My heart sunk, and my body began to shake. Why would he state that? Its just another day, right? But it wasn't. When I got home, most of my stuff was already packed. He asked me if I could move out and how long it would take. No remorse, no sympathy. I gathered what belongings I could fit into my car and drove for hours trying to piece out everything, if there were any signs. Within 5 hours of that text, my life changed; I no longer had my person or a routine. Now here I am two months later, new home, new routine, something I could've sworn I yearned for. I'd do anything if I could just go back to my routine, my person, my life, my "same sh*t different day" routine.

[lastoneout]

To put it into perspective $65K a year before taxes is about $5k a month and if you know anything about how bad the cost of living is at the moment you can do the math and figure out that that's comfortable but still not really enough in some places or barely scraping by in others.

Like if you just want to have a semi-decent apartment with a bedroom or two that isn't infested with cockroaches, offering AC so garbage it's deadly and will force you to drop even more money on your own portable/window unites which cost hundreds of dollars and skyrocket your electric bill(you cannot forgo AC in a place where it hits 110F in the summer), and run by a landlord that couldn't care less about helping you with anything at all, you are going to be forking over $2.5-3K AT LEAST and that's BEFORE utilities, most places do not include water/trash/electricity/gas. If you want internet here that sucks slightly less but still genuinely sucks you're dropping over $100 at least every month(we drop more than that and have been having so many grey/black outs I can't even stream half the time which is literally my job, and we cannot upgrade to fiber without moving). A family plan for two people with phones that are falling apart is $250 a month and that will go up when our phones finally break since we can't repair them on our own. A small grocery trip will still run you into the $100s and my food stamps covering my stuff specifically only goes so far to cushion the impact. We put off fixing his car as long as we can unless it's something actually serious(hello giant crack in the windshield and cracked tail-light casing and squeaky break pads please don't cause any sudden problems T_T). And if the vet bill is over $1k well...guess we go into debt or pray the cat will be okay without the really expensive tests!

My fiance makes $64K and he and I are VERY lucky to live in a relatively cheap city in an apartment we found through a friend where we don't have to pay rent, just utilities and some minor maintenance, and we STILL cannot even afford to get married because I would lose my state insurance if we did(our combined income would put us *just* far enough over the poverty line to disqualify me) and have to switch to the one he gets through his work, and I had 15 ER and doctor's visits this month on top of two surgical procedures and I take like 20 medications, so like, we would go fucking bankrupt on the co-pays alone. Hell I had to give up on a medication that was life-changing because it's over $400 a month and since I'm on Medicaid I don't qualify for the coupon program and we just cannot fucking afford meds that expensive. I also don't qualify for disability because he can cover my needs more or less, which is insulting and degrading and fucking ridiculous. And that's not even taking into account HIS medical needs. He hasn't seen a primary care doctor in years, only just got diagnosed with ADHD after years of me pushing him to see a doctor, and every time he has an emergency he has to go to urgent care which charges him like $200 even when it turns out nothing was wrong. I really pray he never needs to go to the ER. We mask everywhere not just because we believe it's the right thing to do, but because we literally cannot afford for him to get sick.

Unless he starts making more money or I miraculously recover from the things keeping me from getting a traditional job we will never be able to afford a house. Idk if we'll ever even be able to move. His income being that high does mean I don't have to work and we can still live relatively comfortably as long as nothing serious happens, but most of that money is going towards bills and keeping me alive, and the month he lost his old job was the scariest month of our lives. We had ONE MONTH to get him a new one and we did, one that initially paid a little less but still enough, but if we hadn't? We'd be fucked.

As an additional tid-bit, he was making a little under that when we met living in Flagstaff, a MUCH more expensive area(if you want anything better than a studio you're forking over $5k+ on JUST rent at least) and I was still getting a smidge under $2k a month at my job or or less(hourly wages at a movie theater as a team lead), and we moved to Tucson specifically because that combined amount was nowhere NEAR enough to exist in Flagstaff. In Tucson it's a comfortable but not really enough income if you're lucky like we are. In Flagstaff it's fucking poverty wages.

$65K a year sounds like a lot and I won't pretend it doesn't give me some privileges other people don't have access to, I"m more financially stable than I've ever been in my entire life, and while I try to keep my purchases to things I want that also serve a purpose, I can afford nice things sometimes like a playstation or concert tickets, I can buy gifts for my friends and family for special occasions, but it is FAR from being rich, and depending on your area you're way closer to the people scraping by making $17 an hour than being even within the same fucking zipcode as a truly rich person.

I've met rich people(though usually not the family members actually making the money), and tbh the hallmark they share is def making huge purchases and wild life choices without a second thought because they don't have to give a single shit and acting really weird if you suggest that it isn't normal to do stuff like that. If you have a comfortable income but can't switch to a more expensive apartment for funsies or quit your job bcs you just don't feel like working there anymore money be dammed or idk take a month long vacation overseas without considering the cost at all you're probably rich. Rich people don't give a fuck about spending money, they don't think about it at all. If you have to think about what you buy even if you do have the money to buy it just to make sure you still have enough for your needs and a small savings on the chance things go south you are not rich. If you cannot survive more than three months without a job you are not rich. $65k a year is barely enough to survive ONE MONTH without a job, it is NOT rich.

People on tumblr please get some real class consciousness challenge, you're not attacking your enemy, you're attacking someone else in the muddy trenches with you who just happens to own a nicer rain jacket while the actual rich people eat snacks from their covered, heated patio wondering why you're all making such a big deal about money.

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[the-firebird69]

Chevrolet Bolt - Wikipedia

The range is good the charge time is good the horsepower is great and torque but it just doesn't pan out like this report says and it's lies and they've been paying attention to what the good stuff is I mean these people want to run a plan and they're not making it possible and it's terrorism and they don't make it work so screw them I'm so sick of talking these dumb f**** you want a car out there that doesn't work nobody's going to do it you want to drive to a station and do what it doesn't work so try and sell them stupid butt f*** you have no cover at all and nobody's stopping to put you you're insane you don't have the AI you dumb s*** even if you did who cares you would have lost it f****** 15 years ago you dumb f****** retard if Dave couldn't hold on to it you can hold on to it for a second you're a moron I don't want you near me you're so stupid you stink..... I was telling him to get out and he means it in this idiot too boy you people are dumb what are you talking about it was explained to you a second ago you want to run a plan and you're not running a plan and you're blaming us cuz you're not running a plan we're going to kill you for your insulant you're an idiots you're swine. She just making batteries okay but that exposes you and everybody knows it they're going after your dumb computers to shut you the f****** Jesus Christ you're annoying you're going away and you're not coming back you and your people are all dying thank God it could only it might only be a few days I'm going to put orders out there we're frustrating the living s*** out of our leaders here are these two people have told us get rid of this idiot get him off me and I want to watch me I'm sending orders getting rid of these pieces of s***.....

And we need him out he's threatening him all the time it's in human treatment and we're going to punish a lot of people tonight

This is one of the pieces of crap and a distracting us they say and we know who you are coming after you too you end up like John Reema Lord you don't get a second round like this more on the spinning all his people somehow he gets he hasn't convinced that he's valuable when his dog s***

The wheelbase is 103 in or so and that's about right for the GT1 I think that the Volkswagen is 97 in and our son and daughter agree it would be a little bit better and most of them are probably about the same length and they are and then all this EV the range is 110 MI and the power level is about 40 horsepower and 60 ft pounds of torque and it won't move you and a freaking small snapping turtle they're horrible when you get the thing you have to disassemble it fully and take the batteries out and these morons might like it what's the matter John you don't get it do you get it trying to read the Lord you understand John remillard should we explain it to you what your role is and how you're supposed to try stuff should we tell you what you're f****** game should be we don't understand it okay gosh you're a f****** idiot. The Mac is an idiot too just sits there saying I can't stand it I can't stand it and we can't stand it and we start slaughtering you you dumb f****** cow and we're going to get rid of you too you and your group are a bunch of assholes Michael too and his electric cord I mean s*** as saying it to him out loud don't try and do anything you're going to hang you off the balcony by your neck you f****** scrawny b**** and he said that cuz he's tired and the guy said this I probably wouldn't doubt it and they had to sleep I mean Jesus Christ what a f****** joke you are this idiot follow you up with a ship because nobody can see you doing it shut up I just sit on the controller with it up your ass you loser. So we're going to town on these people so sick of hearing for them Jesus Christ you're stupid Tommy f. It's disgusting it's like nobody playing basketball just idiots is terrible so King and romper room the whole time and he's moron backs are getting creamed I mean it's really getting gross so I guess we should do some stuff about it and move those buyers out faster they want to run down there to give him a good time.

The several cars like this each manufacturer has this dog this year they said they discontinued it they did not it's just a different name now it's the same lame piece of crap that the Chinese are making better for real there's just like 150 miles it can't carry two of them it's horrible was supposed to buy them and turn them in but they buy them and they drive them till they're completely spent and really the batteries and the motor goes and they're useless by the time you get them and they're useless to us cuz they're not bait it's like our son's battery you all just sit here licking your chops and it's probably enough to blow your stupid car up a little bit or catch it on fire you can't wait for you to catch your stupid car on fire it's probably ruined from The Storm is this stupid f****** Max down there and they're they're knocked out are your stories I have nitrogen necrosis they're high as a f****** kite and stupid so they started talking over and they're talking out loud this is why you guys are sick we have to carry your weight and unable to carry our own and start getting a little mad and that's our son and said it's kind of our fault but not really.

I know see what their plan is

Find out they did on purpose and start to hate them so I guess I'm going to calm down we have work to do this is a junkiest car I've ever seen there's like five of them and they make tons of them and people keep buying them cuz they're cheap and they don't go far enough huge numbers of people buy these damn things the motors are on the wheel and they're dangerous there's not really kind of accidents Tesla volcan and tons of people getting the car accidents because of and he still can't change it over people won't let him is their plan and it's Max plan and what a bunch of assholes so we'd be helping them out by making kids to turn it into a motorized car so he says there's a problem already you need a motor so he says that the Bradley GT was supposed to be motorized but he doesn't know how it's configured and he can get your motors we can get motors easy enough and the battery will be there and it's lithium and you can just buy a new batteries and you will for this car and the motor has gears so it goes fast and your b****** motors don't do anything. So the max don't want this out so they're giving people a hard time this Johnny remillard guys giving us a hard time it's his plan we want him dead right now if you have a plan with him you should kill this piece of s*** he doesn't do anything ever right I guess that's what your kind is all about you don't do anything right you lean on everybody and lean on yourself and everybody else you break your own people and that's what you get by with kind of makes sense and you want him to succeed cuz he does nothing. The big fat f and zero can win.

We're going to put up some other ones but really this is a perfect car and there's certain things you have to do and he's right it would be useless if we didn't have the electric idea and he's getting help not sure from where it looks like Sherry and sometimes they have ideas and you guys should shut up it's not a bad idea or is it now we're going to try to go to the pizza place go to the beer place bring a quarter with you heads it's gasoline engine tails it's the electric . You can think about the laundromat and all sorts of stuff to convolute your mind cuz you're so complex and if you remember what the hell you was going out for will be surprised but he says is you're probably going to leave in bolt California.. but you won't make it because the thing has to be charged I think it's 13 times. And your son Hera and now he's my husband she says says you should make it pedal assist. It's actually pretty funny making it pedal assist so it's so damn weak what you're doing here he's just torturing and bothering him and he says it he says he's going to have you burn and you are burning and you're so f****** weak so you get it at all it's like we don't have games so we need game but regardless of that isn't this what you're supposed to be doing for a your plan. Yes it is but we don't want you doing it doing what sending you kits when you're not doing it or planning to because of your greatness and going into areas where everything dies and most of you get killed and your brain is half fried every time is that why. You want us to prove it we're going to put it in the public eye as Trump with covid-19 to show your brain is still up to we give it 5 seconds to think about it go ahead and do that I don't think we can do it there's too much opposition will have to do it for you bg Gerard will have to do it for you then you're going to go mess with him and he won't be able to do anything cuz he'll be all tied up. So these two are out and we want you people to understand they're sitting here aggravating us like their Max and they're just very stupid people who think they have some kind of AI that others don't and they're just nuts

Thor Freya

Olympus